Category: Sparring

I am a massive advocate of tactics and thinking when sparring. I hate watching dumb fighters who slug it out. I have been there myself many times and am always frustrated with myself for eating punches in a contest of who is tougher or who hits harder. That way of fighting is just plain stupid;

Jack Slack’s Ringcraft was meant to be an ongoing video series but sadly only has 4 episodes, fingers crossed Jack will do more. As soon as you watch one of these videos you will immediately see that Jack is not just an academic or authority in the fight world but someone who has uncommon insight

Stay calm! Think ‘who am I fighting- what is their style, their strength, and weaknesses. What is the best strategy for fighting this person?’ Think ‘Is what I am doing working?’ if not what’s the new plan. When fighting someone much taller. Understand they will be hard to counter-attack as their reach means they can

1. Dynamic attacking footwork The simplest and easiest way for an opponent to defend is to outrange you by shuffling back and making your techniques fall short. In order to beat this, you have to develop explosive footwork that allows you to take big lunges or big steps to catch retreating opponents. 2. Counter attacking

There can be broadly categorised four styles of karate kumite styles. In the tradition of eastern philosophy, they are named after the four elements Wind, Fire, Water and Stone. Whilst these are stereotypes and not every karate-ka will fit the mould of just one, they do help us understand how we can play to our

Sparring in martial arts is limited by two major factors – safety and sporting rules. Having rules for safety makes perfect sense, most martial artists need to go to work or school the next day without having to carry injuries and be black and blue. However, the more rules there are for sporting reasons, the

Get Tactical, Get Sneaky In Sun Tsu’s iconic work on tactics “The art of war” he says, “all warfare is deception”. Sparring is no different. Most sneakiness in kumite is based around making your opponent think one thing but then doing another. Make them think you are weak when you are strong Make them think