What’s the best way to optimize your training?

When it comes to training for combat sports there are many different schools of thought. The old school mentality is to train hard AKA big the crap out of your training partners during camp. There’s the middling thought process of training extremely hard some days and taking it easy other days. But even more recently fighters and coaches are adopting a new kind of training where gym wars are no longer on the menu. These days having a full contact war against your training partners isn’t an ideal method for preparing for a match. The fact that you’re going to do battle with another fighter inside an amateur or professional arena means that you need to keep your body as healthy as possible. You don’t want to have head trauma walking into a contest where your opponent is looking to rip your head off. So does that mean you shouldn’t be sparring to prepare for combat? Definitely not. Sparring is an essential part of training for combat sports. If you don’t do much sparring then good luck being comfortable striking with your opponent or defending against a takedown. But just like anything else there’s a hard way of doing things and a smart way of doing things. What’s the miraculous method for getting quality sparring without destroying your brain in the process? Well, what I like to have my fighters do is train light sparring twice a week with one day of harder sparring. Despite the “hard” title, we try to avoid going hard to the head and instead focus on landing heavier shots to the body and legs. Movement and defense is emphasized in this kind of sparring and though every punch isn’t thrown with ill intentions, there are still cases where there will be a bloody nose or a black eye or two. It’s combat sports, certain things can’t be avoided. But there’s a way to avoid serious head trauma and that’s by focusing defense, movement, and placement of strikes. It’s all about making good choices and staying healthy enough to ensure your older age isn’t plagued by damage accumulated by hard sparring. Do you spar hard in the gym? Let us know in the comments and forums. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron MMA on Facebook and Twitter. Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor and geek culture enthusiast. Follow him on Twitter and keep up with his latest exploits.