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Because of the great number of contact that opposing athletes get in training and sparring, It is important that we exercise great concern to guarantee that we don't hurt our fellow team members. Your partner is your coach and you are your partner's coach while training Competitiveness is in our nature, but we cannot allow it to come before our teammates' safety and well-being. In order to put up the most excellent of training and sparring, we have to meet every safety measures needed in a contact sport.



Before you get involve in a martial art or contact sport, Ensure yourself first that you are physically fit enough to join. Protective gear together with a protective training surroundings is a requirement. The type of protective equipment will vary from sport to sport or art to art. Bottom line is this- if you do not have the proper equipment, you should not participate. If you have been training long enough to be able to spar, you should have the proper equipment. Be certain all the mats (or flooring) are dry, and the chosen sparring place is free from any clutter.







Obey the three C's rule Manong Inosanto, while training:

1. Cooperative



2. Contested



3. Competition



Protecting your partner in training is crucial. You won't have anybody to train with if you harm or injure your partner. In addition, chances are that observation by other team members will cause them to avoid from training with you out of fear of getting injured.



There are 3 things you must employ while you are training:



1. Proactive communication with your partner; Ask your partner if they want to slow it down or if they can pick up the pace.

2. EGO-LESS training: everyone has an ego, but it needs to be left at the door at the time when you are sparring or training.

3. Use only your skeleton: try to avoid muscling everything and use only your skeleton.



Sparring is necessary to evaluate ourselves and our training. Sparring is designed to super charge our:

A. Technical ability



B. Conditioning



C. Timing



Sparring is not aimed to tell who's the strongest one in the academy! This doesn't mean spar lightly the whole time or not at all. There is a time and place when you need to go 60% and a time when you need 80%.Controlled sparring or light sparring can be an excellent way to spike your learning curve. Light sparring allows you to work on the moves that you have not yet perfected. If every time you tried something new and it got shut down immediately, you would always go back to the things you are good at. It would severely stunt your training progression.



If you find yourself training or sparring with someone who is not as skilled as you, one method to enhance your skills is to get the spot or area that you want the most improvement on and you have your partner strike you from that spot. Therefore, you can both benefit from the sparring, since you have centered solely on an area of improvement. This will as well avoid the self-esteem of your less-skilled or less-experienced partner from being reduced due to domination on the mat.



There are two things that you have complete command over and those two things are your attitude and your effort; when you put your best attitude and effort forward you and those around you will be rewarded with a fun filled, learning atmosphere.