Tag Archives: sparring

Posted on 12/23/2018

By Bryanna Fissori 

Sparring is awesome. The benefits are countless and include confidence building, response development, coordination, and critical thinking. But those first rounds can be intimidating if you are not prepared for what’s about to happen. Unlike when hitting the heavy bag or focus mitts, someone is going to hit you back. Here are some tips for sparring for beginners. 

Sparring Should Not Be a Death Match

That being said, there are also a few things that sparring is not. These include:

• An outlet for anger
• A free pass to beat someone up
• A deathmatch

If you are at a gym that encourages sparring to serve any of the above purposes, you are at the wrong school. Sparring should not have an end result with one of the partners seriously injured. Yes, this can happen, but it is not the goal. The purpose of sparring is to make you and your partner better by providing the opportunity for each of you to attempt to apply the techniques you have learned. 

Sparring for Beginners

There are a number of foundational elements of boxing that you be able to competently execute prior to sparring. These include:

• Blocking and evading punches while moving
• General head movement while moving
• Throwing basic punches at a moving target
• Moving and punching

Drills to Get You Ready for Sparring

Practicing offensive and defensive drills with a partner extremely helpful in laying the foundation prior to sparring. There are some things that you just cannot master on the heavy bag or through shadowboxing. Drills will make sparring for beginners a much easier transaction. 

Partner Footwork

Stand in front of your partner as if you were preparing to spar. There is no actual touching for this drill so no gloves are needed. Choose which partner will lead and which will follow. The leading partner will shuffle forward, backward and side-to-side, taking one to three steps in each direction. The follower will attempt to stay in front of the leader, within punching distance. The leader should not be trying to “trick” the follower by going too fast. That will not be helpful. Maintaining the same distance between follower and leader will help to develop depth perception. Switch leader and follower after one to two minutes. 

Tap Sparring

There are no gloves needed for this drill and tap sparring is a great way to introduce sparring for beginners. The goal is for you and your partner to be able to touch each other on the shoulder. Both partners are doing the same thing. Keep your hands up as if you were actually sparring. Instead of thrown punches, attempt to touch your partner’s shoulder. They can react by retracting their shoulder and using evasive footwork, They will be trying to do the same to you. This means both of you will have to stay within punching range. Perform the drill for a designated period of time rather than the number of punches. 

Blocking Drills

Both partners should be wearing gloves. Practice the three basic techniques of pairing the jab, blocking the cross and blocking the hook to the head. The punches should be thrown in the same pattern repeatedly by one partner until the flow becomes smooth. Switch punchers and blockers and continue the combination (1,2,3).  

Instead of throwing the punches in a combination, throw one punch at a time. Change both the rhythm and the order of punches so that they are random. Once this is going well, start moving around while punching an blocking. 

Start Slow

Once you have a good foundation of footwork, distance, offensive striking and defense, you should feel confident about your ability to move into light sparring. Make sure you are partnered with someone who understands your skill levels and wants to help you improve. Don’t feel like you are being babied. A good start will help to ensure a healthy experience as your sparring continues to improve. 

Keep your hands up and go have fun in there! 

Posted on 08/15/2017

By G.E. Simons

As we move into the final countdown cycle of McMayweather Inc., the
sub-narrative raised and incubated by a facially grazed Paulie Malignaggi this past week, is a timely reminder that surreal as this event is, there is actually a very real final outcome.

The debate has exclusively swirled around the validity of the encounter between the world’s greatest living boxer and the world’s most significant mixed martial artist, whilst the cartoon verbal violence has dazzle-shipped the real violence out of the conversation.

Whatever the validity of their ultimate sharing of a boxing ring, in gloves of as yet confirmed ounce weight, this will be a real and physical encounter between two real athletes who will be trading real punches that cause real damage.

Combat sports, whatever their rule set, are no joke.

Just because Conor McGregor looks like a glistening avatar who has just stepped out of Xbox gameplay. And just because Floyd Mayweather is a walking talking brand experience doesn’t mean that the night of August 26th is a live video game streaming for the amusement of the Black Mirror generation.

There is a fight coming and there are ongoing preparations to be made. It is a testament to his confidence and loyalty that McGregor has largely surrounded himself with his usual training team, helmed by Head Coach John Kavanagh and Striking Coach Owen Roddy.

The broader Team has included sparring partners in Irish amateur phenom Tiernan Bradley, journeyman professional yet noted spar-hand Dashon Johnson and unbeaten London welterweight Louis Adolphe.

But it was the simmering addition of former world champion and seasoned campaigner Paulie Malignaggi that has caused real intrigue, insight and inquisition this past week.

The recently retired Malignaggi could have actually been an ideal addition to the Las Vegan leg of final preparations bringing experience, craft and a forensic analytical approach to the sport, but from the off the whole thing felt, off.

Back in December 2016, McGregor was granted a boxing license in California with that news met with a mixture of negativity, amusement and bristling anger by the boxing community.

This included Paulie Malignaggi who posted a video via Twitter which culminated in his saying “I know you apologised about absolutely nothing last fight, but after I am done with you, I am going to knock the beard off you homie, you are going to be apologising for everything you have been trying to do to get into boxing.”

“Who the f*ck is that guy?” was Conor’s reply at an Irish Q&A event days later.

Fast-forward to the early summer of 2017 and Mayweather boxing McGregor at a catchweight of 154lbs is confirmed for 26th August 2017 at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

Los Angeles. Toronto. New York. London.

As the violent vaudeville of the MayMac promotional tour came to an end, McGregor confirmed that Malignaggi would indeed be drafted in for some work, “Yeah. Look Paulie talked a lot of sh*t. he’s been brought in to spar and then he’ll answer to what he’s been saying and then we’ll go from there after that. But we’re gonna have a knock in the gym.”

Forget tapping into Paulie’s experience, craft and analytical skills then – this was McGregor looking to reprimand Malignaggi on his turf and in tough terms.

So, it was surely only Malignaggi’s ego and of course his obvious desire to continue nudging for a pension boosting PPV of his own with McGregor, that got him on the plane, then into that headguard before stepping into a UFC Performance Institute ring…

Since his London defeat to Sam Eggington on the undercard of Tony Bellew’s feature attraction with David Haye back in March, Paulie Malignaggi has gone from being the part time Magic Man to the full time Media Man and good at it he is too – but magic is one thing pure illusion is another.

They sparred twice.

First time Malignaggi emerged suggesting that McGregor “Was not very likeable.” That “It got a little rough, it got a little tense.” And “He brings his game face to sparring.”

Yet still he returned for more.

“There was a lot of violence.” Malignaggi told ESPN of the second session. “I thought I was a little bit set up.”

Of course he was. In fact, not so much set up as he served himself up.

Team McGregor’s next move was the Instagram posting of images which showed the American on the canvas in what appeared to be a knockdown.

“It’s all about his status, he’s a scumbag.” Malignaggi told the MMA Hour Podcast.

“He pushed me down during one of his worst rounds.” He continued by way of addressing the images of him downed.

This interview being the most comprehensive of what had been a Malignaggi Media Tour to rival the global MayMac endeavour, where he appeared on pretty much any platform that would have him to reiterate amongst other things that he was pushed down.

Now at least edited once it is, but Dana White’s subsequent release of around 10 seconds of sparring footage clearly shows McGregor connecting and Paulie falling.

There was no push, a punch put Malignaggi down and he is one Uomo Duro or he certainly once was.

Now we know this is all part of the broader promotional galaxy. There are lots of things orbiting. There are lots of layers. The narrative has to be driven and driven hard right up to the final moment of PPV click commit.

But there is ultimately a fight in August at the heart of all this thoroughly modern Sportstainment.

As Tiernan Bradley told The Irish News “Conor told us all when Paulie came into camp, this is not a spar. I want to fight him. I’m ready for war.”

Malignaggi had his own agenda too. No problem. But savvy as he is and as keen as he is to align himself to the McGregor freight train, it was obvious what was coming and the level of his surprise gives credence to Conor’s suggestion that he left the camp with head trauma as well as a bruised ego and grazed face.

So, for all of the Polar Bear Minks and Drake filling the links. For all the Eejit Bitch jibes and the F@ck You pinstripes. For all the Handmade Suits and TMT branded Tracksuits…

…Don’t forget that as American playwright David Belasco once said, “Boxing is show business with blood.” – We’ve had the show business and soon there will be blood.

For that, there has to be respect.

Follow G.E. Simons on Twitter @BrawlingWithInk

Posted on 08/04/2017

By: Sean Crose

In what should come as a surprise to no one, former two time boxing titlist Paulie Malignaggi is at odds with the Conor McGregor camp. McGregor, who is in training for an extremely lucrative novelty boxing match with retired pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather, had brought on Malignaggi as a sparing partner – at least ostensibly. Now, however, it appears to Malignaggi at least that McGregor wanted to “exploit” the popular fighter/television announcer for his own aggrandizement. Pictures have emerged online of McGregor seemingly getting the better of Malignaggi in the ring, pictures which Malignaggi claims tell a false tale.

“I pretty much talked s–t that whole sparring session while I beat the breaks off him,” Malignaggi tweeted Friday morning. “The push down was his frustration from it.” The “push down” Malignaggi refers to can be interpreted in one of the online photos as a knockdown on the part of McGregor. For in the picture, it’s Malignaggi on the canvas while McGregor is on his feet. Sure enough, Malignaggi has challenged the UFC, the mixed martial arts league which McGregor is a part of, to publish video of an entire twelve round sparing session the two men had (presumably the session where the pictures emerged from). “The video exists UNEDITED of rounds 1 through 12 Tuesday night,” Malignaggi tweeted, “let the fans see.”

That, frankly, is not likely to happen, at least not until after the fight between McGregor and Mayweather goes down on August 26th. In the meantime, Malignaggi has left the McGregor camp – and clearly not on good terms. “Hate to say it,” Malignaggi tweeted, “but it’s clear when I look back at my time there that there was an agenda from the start, too many clues.” If Malignaggi was, in fact, set up in all of this, it comes to some as no surprise. The popularity of McGregor rests largely on his ability to appear as a less than respectful loud mouth. His abrasive – some would say antisocial – antics are as much a part of the man’s reputation as are his skills in the octagon, the aptly named fenced in area where most MMA bouts are held.

Oddly enough, abrasiveness is a major selling point in what many believe is more a pop culture event than a legitimate sporting contest. Mayweather has mellowed in recent years, but he was – and remains – a household name in part by engaging in obnoxious, over the top rhetoric. It’s a tactic McGregor has taken hold of in his own combat sport and run with – to enormous success. Now both men may well earn nine figures a piece for their showdown, which many feel will not be competitive, as McGregor has never once engaged in a professional boxing match. Both the Mayweather and McGregor camps, however, have been trying to sell the public on McGregor’s chances in the ring later this month.

Not that the public needs to be sold. McGregor has an enormous, nearly cult-like following in awe of his abilities, whether those abilities are merely perceived or are, in fact, real. It’s arguable that most everyone else interested in the bout, however, views it more as a spectacle than as a sporting contest or are simply unaware of the differences between a boxing match and a mixed martial arts contest. In short, Malignaggi’s public airing of his grievances may only add to hype.