By Maverick Day

There is No Winning In Sparring

Sparring is an important part of every Martial Art’s training, whether it’s for
competition or self-defence. This is the time when you may put your skills to
the test against someone who shares your vision and goals; the essential word
here is PRACTICE. I’ve seen people claim things like “I’m just untouchable on
the mat,”. This, in my opinion, is not a good attitude to have, hence we do not
allow it at MAQ.
Sparring is a chance for you to learn and improve your skills. One of the most
common misconceptions people make when sparring is believing they must hit
their opponent full force. This only serves to reinforce the impression that you
are a terrible sparring partner.
One of the most significant disadvantages of sparring hard is that you may
develop a false sense of security. If you keep going hard, chances are your
partner isn’t attempting to do much more than survive the round, and you’ll
start believing you’re Superman when you’re not. You’ll be used to people
fleeing from you, but this will not happen in a genuine combat.
You’re better off going at approximately 50/60 percent so that if either your
partner or you are caught with a solid shot, you can figure out how and why
you were caught and fix it rather than being afraid of getting hurt for the
smallest error.