12 Kickboxing Training Tips for Beginners to Help Them Spar Better
If you’re like any other beginner out there, you most likely found your first few rounds of sparring to be extremely challenging, to say the least.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help.
Here are 12 tips for beginners, such as yourself, to help you basically get hit less while you do more of the hitting while you’re sparring inside the ring.
- Never ever put as much power as you can behind your strikes. Instead, focus on throwing fast and precise punches, working on your technique and improving your breathing or relaxation.
- Try to throw out combos and forget about looking for openings. Oftentimes, the opening will come in the middle of your combos anyway.
- Either stand your ground or move to either side, just don’t back the straight up so you don’t get hit often.
- Jab. Jab.
- If you find yourself in trouble and getting pummeled, relax and breathe. Also, cover your face and jaw with your forearms and put both of your gloves on your temples as you move away (preferably to the sides) from your opponents.
- Raise your arms up to protect yourself, don’t braise for impact. While this is easier said than done, tensing your arms is just going to gas you out and won’t really dull the impact much in any away.
- Never ever put your chin up, unless you want to get knocked down to the floor.
- You may want to take this time to practice your combinations, even the ones that you’ve never tried throwing out before. This will keep your sparring partner on his or her toes and allow you to stay aggressive for most of the match.
- Try to balance between offense and defense. Remember, the goal of sparring is not to knock the other guy out (though, you could if you want), but rather, to improve both your techniques and work on your flaws.
- This may be a bit too much for you right now, but try to hold a balanced stance before you attack, while you attack and after you attack. It’ll take some time for you to get used to it, but once you do, you should be able to throw better-time and more powerful strikes easily.
- Stick with the process and don’t mind the beating. Almost everyone went through being hit a lot during their first few times sparring. Sooner or later, you’ll be doing much of the beating.
- Last, but definitely not the least, don’t forget to breathe. Also, close your mouth and breathe through your nose. With each strike, breathe and once you time it right, your punches and kicks will have more power to them. The better you get at this, the longer it’ll take for you to get gassed out and the better your condition will be.
These 12 tips should be a good start for you start improving on your sparring and be less of a punching bag once you’re out there sparring.
