MMA stand-up sparring

johnathan woss

How do the mma fighters here train for stand-up fighting with the small 4-oz gloves ?
Do you wear full face guards (like they wear in kyoshukin (sp?) karate competitions), or boxing headguards with a nose guard, or what ?

SBG Ireland

the smart ones wear boxing gloves, not so smart ones get cut

Barry.Commins

SBG Ireland wrote:

the smart ones wear boxing gloves, not so smart ones get cut

Have to agree with that.

An alternative is fairtex mma sparring gloves, much more padding than regular mma gloves:



Don't know anyone who's tried them, but they look the business.

johnathan woss

Does wearing boxing gloves not change the defense you can use ?

That's why I was wondering how you stop facial injuries while wearing the 4-oz gloves ?

I suppose you could just wear boxing gloves and make a concious effort not to catch punches or cover up (like winky wright).

King.Penguin

I don't think they wear helmets in Kyukushin, I'm sure it's a similar, but different form of karate.

Roper

When we first started out dickin around with MMA, we'd spar with the MMA gloves on remembering not to hit so hard, and after a while forget we didn't have 14oz gloves on and someone would get clocked! Idiots...

In answer to the defensive skills question, its a question of tactics really. I'm told I would have fairly good head movement when I box, and it is something I work a lot at. When I kickbox my tactics change and I bob less, then when I spar MMA my tactics change again, but the head movement I use on boxing is still good training and benefits my MMA. Does that make any sense?

Ger Healy

We train a lot of stand-up for mma and we train very little using the 4oz gloves as
SBG Ireland said

the smart ones wear boxing gloves

We have head guards but it is pointless wearing them for mma training as they get ripped of in the clinch and grappling,
As to protecting your head, I've been training the Crazy Monkey Defence Program developed by Rodney King for about 2 years now and I have noticed a big improvement in my stand-up game. This is not me boasting this is what the guys in the gym are telling me. They find it harder to hit me with a telling strike. If your interested in finding out more just google Crazy Monkey Defence Program or you will find a link to Rodney’s site on my web page.

Colm_OReilly

You can do defensive drills wearing the 4oz gloves while your partner has 16oz gloves.

Sprawl N Brawl is one of them: One guy is the striker, his job is to hit you and not get taken done. You were the 4oz gloves, your job is to not get hit and take him down.

Have a couple of guys wearing boxing gloves and one in the centre with mma gloves, and swap after 30 secs/takedown (whichever comes first).

Great drill.

hiromatsu22

For heavy sparring I agree with using boxing gloves to avoid the cutting issue, but I do think that some regular work should be done with the MMA gloves. As mentioned, you have to go a bit lighter but you shouldn't be experiencing your first hit of an MMA glove in a fight/competition!

The smaller gloves do make a difference to defensive technique. We spar with MMA gloves regularly and have found that people getting cut is not as frequent as you might think - obviously some restraint is required but when we're training we're not trying to knock each other out anyway...that's just silly. For the heavier stuff the boxing gloves are the safer option but I think they do change your options, especially on the ground.

Lucas10101

Agree with you here Hiromatsu?? :0

cowzerp

if you are going for takedowns i think mma gloves should be worn, but if its just stand up sparring without takedowns i'd go with the boxing gloves-all depends on your training partners i think..

johnathan woss

Colm_OReilly wrote:

You can do defensive drills wearing the 4oz gloves while your partner has 16oz gloves.

Sprawl N Brawl is one of them: One guy is the striker, his job is to hit you and not get taken done. You were the 4oz gloves, your job is to not get hit and take him down.

Have a couple of guys wearing boxing gloves and one in the centre with mma gloves, and swap after 30 secs/takedown (whichever comes first).

Great drill.

That sounds good.
Do you ever do drills where one guy wears the 4-0z gloves and simply works on defense (not neccessarily going for a takedown) ?

Roper

johnathan woss wrote:

That sounds good.
Do you ever do drills where one guy wears the 4-0z gloves and simply works on defense (not neccessarily going for a takedown) ?

Sprawl n' Brawl does that. You're defending yourself from a striker while closing the distance so its very applicable to the defensive skills required.