Tournaments

Sparring Training

To be a successful sparring competitor, you must develop your competition skills. Your must develop your:

• Physical skills.
• Knowledge of competition rules.
• Knowledge of sparring principles and tactics.
• Psychological skills that enhance performance.

You must train to fight in tournaments. Tournament fighting is different from routine sparring in class. The rules are different, there is more mental and physical stress, and there is an intense desire to win. And win you must if you wait to fight again since only winners progress up the sparring ladder.

As a tournament nears, most instructors will shift their emphasis during class to tournament fighting techniques and strategies. If you want to be a good fighter, watch good fighters spar, listen to good fighters when they teach, and as much as possible seek to spar with the good fighters. Tournament training also helps to motivate training during periods of boredom that may occur from doing the same thing week after week.