Training for fights

[TZ22]

Not sure if this question has already been asked elsewhere on here before, but I am curious to know from the people who have trained for fights - how hard do you go in sparring when preparing for fights? My problem has been translating what I do in training and on pads into the ring and I can't quiet put the finger on what the problem is because I am strong on pads and got better in sparring, but it just does not seem to be translating into the ring and I am starting to wondering if it has to do with the fact that all of my sparring is only technical so maybe I am not giving myself enough opportunities to get used to the pace of the fight before the fight so when I get into the ring it's still too new to me, but I am curious to hear other opinions as to what the cause might be. For one thing though is that I also do not have the sparring partners of my size at the gym so everyone is much bigger and I don't know if that is a detriment to me as well.

[Fighting Frog]

I have never had a fight, but I do spar a lot; I would have thought you're probaby right in that that only doing 'technical' sparring might be part of the problem. I find that I have a somewhat different mindset if the sparring is being technical; when we're going more balls-out (so to speak!) my attitude changes and with it my performance - I go from the main aim being to be technically correct to the main aim being to score, score well, and not get scored against. You need to develop and foster your 'killer instinct' for a fight, and I can't see how only keeping to technical sparring will help that. Also, if you're only doing technical sparring, you won't have faced your opponent really going for it, and aiming to hurt you (and perhaps losing it a bit too). I should think encountering that for the first time in the ring would be quite difficult to cope with.

I don't think only sparring against people bigger than you is necessarily a problem; it does mean that your kicks have to be higher so when you're against someone more your own size you should find head kicks easy!!!

I may be talking complete **** here, but hey, it's my twopennyworth. Hope it helps.

[TZ22]

@Fighting Frog - thank you :) Yes, I think you are right, the technical sparring is most certainly not helping me to develop the killer instinct and the pace is off too because as you pointed out, I need to score and not get scored against, so I think that might be the key element that had been missing. Yesterday I got to spar with a girl just 10lbs heavier than me, which was quiet the "treat" in itself as I rarely get to spar with someone close to my size, but she was quiet aggressive so I also got to experience some of that outside the ring and I have to say I did notice that my timing and speed was off and it took some time to adjust to that, so I definitely need more of this kind of practice.

[Fighting Frog]

Although I don't have anyone except my trainer to spar with he regularly adopts a different persona when we spar - more aggressive, less aggressive, pretending to be tired, being frightened, losing it, standing on tip toe so as to be even taller than he is anyway, crouching to be smaller, more hands, more kicks, standing off, closing in etc etc etc so I get to learn how to adapt quickly to a 'different' opponent. Personally I think this is all part of the fun of sparring! And it helps to teach me how to change my approach as well - for instance, if he's constantly pushing to keep the sparring to his best range then I have to work out quickly how to either change it to my best range instead, or to deal with it.

Practice, my child, practice!

[OfficeDepot]

Here is a big thing I learned from my last fight, that I wish I would have done:

• Focus on your strengths
• Do what you love
• Know your combos that really make you feel like a rockstar

This is essentially a "gameplan." This is why for me personally the pads haven't been translating into the ring or in sparring: I haven't focused on what it is that I love to do. 

Write down what combos you like to do and what you feel you're strong at. Then when you go to spar, create little goals for yourself. "I will throw these combos. I will really work my jab. I will use this counter when they do X." Just little things like that to help you focus.