There’s a huge difference between training and live sparring…I mean huge. I’ve been boxing for about four and a half years, but I’ve only been sparring for two weeks really.

Now that’s not to say I haven’t sparred before now, because I have, but this is different.

The last two weeks has been the real deal. We’re in there trying to knock each other’s heads off. And the only thing keeping us upright when we catch each other clean is the fact that we’re wearing headgear and 16 oz gloves.

I thought maybe after all this training and all this practice over the years I was ring ready. So I was kind of shocked to find out that I wasn’t.

I think I can be soon. I’ll go over some of things that have to happen first though, before I or anyone of you fighters out there can consider stepping into the ring for the first time.

From Checkers to Chess

I have aspirations to compete at a professional level in boxing, MMA, and submission grappling. But oddly enough I think the only competition I’m really ready for is grappling.

Why?

It’s not that I’m that good at it. It’s just the only one that I’ve spent a lot of time sparring in (or rolling as they call it).

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for the past year and half I’ve rolled.

As I’ve progressed over that time period, here are the things (other than skill level) that I’ve noticed improvement on that I think very much relate to MMA and Boxing in a competitive setting:

1. Improved comfort
2. Improved timing
3. Went from playing checkers to playing chess

Improved Comfort

Anytime you’re in close proximity to another person who’s technically trying to harm you there are going to be some complications.

You are under duress and if you don’t have any experience with it your body will react negatively.

The things that I’ve noticed physiologically when I first started rolling and now that I’ve begun sparring are that I hold my breath, and I tense up.

One of the most difficult things to do when you’re in a fight is to relax. If you don’t relax it doesn’t matter how well conditioned you are you’re going to gas in a hurry.

The pressure is more or less constant (depending on who you’re fighting) and it takes a while to gain comfort with that.

You’re going to be put in all sorts of bad positions and it’s imperative that you learn not to panic.

I remember I used to tap like a little girl anytime my instructor put me in a choke. But now I just relax and apply my escape. Of course the escapes don’t always work, but I never panic anymore.

I imagine over time I’ll gain the same level of comfort with punches whizzing by my face.

Once you can breathe semi-normally, are able to relax those muscles, and the punches flying by your head don’t make you flinch or close your eyes you’ll know you’re that much closer to being ready.

Improved Timing

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve hit the heavy bag—that target isn’t really moving and it’s not trying to hit you back.

You can simulate a more realistic situation by using the focus mitts, but it’s still no where near the same thing.

There’s a rhythm and timing to fighting. You have to find your’s and your opponent’s.

It’s kind of hard when you’re attempting to combine your offense with your defense, trying to flow back and forth seemlessly between the two, staying relaxed and focused at the same time, all while trying not to get punched in the face.

Pure grappling is slightly different considering you can’t strike, giving you slightly more reaction time, but the same principles still apply.

You have to constantly move, advance, and defend—doing each within the short window of time you have to capitalize before it’s too late.

That’s the timing. Doing something right when it needs to be done. Everytime I rolled my timing improved.

Boxing gives you a little more instantaneous feedback to let you know your timing’s off…missing your target over and over again, takin’ shots to the dome—you know that sort of thing.

You have a split second to react accordingly. Applying those types of fast twitch movements requires superb timing.

I’m only in my second week of hard sparring. The guys I went against have been sparring hard every week for probably the last two years. That’s the difference right there. It doesn’t matter how technically skilled I am or how long I’ve been training. They’ve been in the mix and I haven’t. They’re comfortable in there, and they’re doing shit the split second it needs to be done…and I’m not. Considering that, I thought I did alright.

There’s an ebb and flow to punching-defending-countering that I need to familiarize myself with…the more sparring the more accustomed I’ll get—just like with my grappling.

The comfort comes first and that in turn will provide you and I the capacity to improve our timing.

Then there’s…

Going From Checkers to Chess

My only goal in sparring this past Tuesday was to establish my jab and not get knocked the fuck out.

That’s it.

I suppose that’s a decent strategy and it could win you some fights, but the game is much more complex than that. The only problem is I’m not ready for it’s complexities. So I used the K.I.S.S. Principle.

Similar to that, when I first started grappling my only goal was to survive. Over the course of time I was able to process more information in a shorter period of time allowing me to see several steps ahead. In other words, knowing what I’m going to do before I do it.

Where as my goal in sparring the other night was to jab and move, my grappling goals in class the other night went something like this: aggressively pursue the takedown, stay on top, break guard, work the pass, secure side control, threaten americana, transition knee to belly, slide knee all the way across to obtain mount…etc etc. And I can do that without really thinking.

Now you don’t have to understand what all that means to get that it’s a more developed strategy.

That’s the the final step. You’ll know and I’ll know that we’re ring ready when we can string a series of tactics together for a defined goal without much thought.

Comfort breeds timing and both of those breed the capacity to fight with a plan.

When you’re able to turn what used to be thought into instinct and have the ability to apply it to a more developed strategy it’s pretty effing cool. You can see things before they happen and the fight gets easy. That is, of course, until you run into somebody who’s better at it than you. Someone who can implement their strategy better than you implement yours.

Eddie Bravo (a famous Jiu Jitsu practitioner) has said before that plenty of his students know his system of BJJ as well as he does. He goes on to explain that the only reason he still beats them is because he processes the information or you could say he processes the strategy quicker than they do.

And that’s the game my friend.

At that point we ain’t playin’ checkers, we’re playin’ chess.