What do you think about while sparing?????

[Rob-S]

After a pretty hard sparing session in class on wednesday we were discussing what you should or shouldnt be thinking about when sparing.
Theres the school of thought that you should be watching and seeing theie reactions and playing a tactical game and theres the other side that says clear your mind and let it flow. React and act as the fight continues. What are your thoughts?

[G.V.]

I try ('try' being the technical term) to think of nothing but finding openings to penetrate, as well as what openings my opponent may be trying to find.

[taikei]

Distance, especially when you are facing relatively experienced student.
Undersized students especially women gives a false view of distance, finding yourself too close to the subject and you'll be taking their jabs and kicks fairly easy. Probably you could say that with larger person where you may be a bit out of kicking range and you kick.

Not much thinking otherwise, more of reactions.

[prekarious1]

work on weaknesses. When I spar I usually have 1 to 3 techniques that I want to get used to as far as set up and execution. Other than that I find that a lot of the time it depends on the opponent whether I try to consciously think while sparring or if I just let it happen.

[noonian]

I can only tell you what you should NOT be thinking about: NO. NEGATIVE. THOUGHTS.

So if you're getting punched/kicked/whatever, don't think how bad your defense was/how stupid your move was/how much better the other guy seems to be/how you would have rather stayed at home and watched TV and now you're getting beaten up. The moment you start thinking in this direction, it'll have an effect on you: You're turning more into the person you just thought you were and are eating even more punches, because when you think you can't come through with your jab, you probably won't.

If you can't help thinking stuff like \"Again!!! I ran again right into his f**ing jab!How stupid can you be?!?!\" - - turn it into motivation. Now, he may have gotten you twice, allrght, but now you're prepared and trying to counter/to no give him the same opportunity again/to change your tactics.

That's something guys are usually good at because they see it more like a competition, whether women, especially when still kind of a \"newbie\", tend to feel inferior and might rather next time not come back to sparring because they feel everyone was better than they were. Which is probably not true. It's a \"head-thingy\" - control your thoughts or they control you (wow, that was almost philosophical!!). :wink:

[CLFMak]

It depends what I'm working on at the time. Right now, its usually \"how can I use footwork to get the best angle for attack and defense?\" I think about things like moving away from the rear hand, moving to the outside after defending, setting up power strikes, etc. With some people I focus on not getting beaten, manhandled, kneed, etc.

[CLFMak]

the conjugation of \"to knee\" has always been awkward.