Sparring... Getting the most from your Dojo

Sparring demonstrates the level of skill you have acquired from martial arts training. In ‘Sparring... Getting the most from your dojo’. We are going to look at 5 ways your dojo can help improve your sparring.

Because the key to becoming great at sparring is putting together and mastering all the skills required, your dojo plays a huge role here.

Here goes:

Control and safety

Among other things, you’ll get instruction and guidance from your senior grade belts. The environment is a controlled one... this helps to keep the risk of injury to a minimum. This is helped by having the right training equipment and supervision with safety in mind, especially when it comes to younger members of the dojo.

Encouragement

Sometimes, you just need to hear it.

In all its forms, it is there. Whether it is a one to one level from your Sensei or from your fellow coloured belts. Or a round of applause.

Camaraderie among your fellow students of the arts can also be very encouraging. Sometimes it is all about getting that extra bit of inspiration you didn’t realise you had. But they can see it...

An army of sparring partners

Sparring with your peers and seniors, who come in different shapes and sizes, with different strength’s and abilities every week, will polish your skills to no end.

As you get better, there are those with better skills than you to keep you moving forward.

An army of coaches

 

If you only had one teacher – you’ll only learn what he teaches. If you have a multitude, you’ll learn some more things and different takes on the same things... The dojo is the best place to find multiple teachers.

The other very useful trick when at the dojo is to take video’s of your performances, play it back yourself to get some really useful insights into what you are doing. Then getting your Sensei or higher grade participant to critique, this will give you some tips to enhance your skills.

Endless sparring opportunity

Doing additional sparring at the dojo after the session or coming in early also gives a huge impact to your sparring ability.

This last of the 5 ways is, without doubt, the most significant in gaining the edge on your sparring... As you’ll agree, in whatever it is you do, the more you practice the better you get.

The key here is to try and vary your sparring partners and testing out new and varied techniques as well as polishing and honing your basics. Remember to keep the tried and tested techniques current... Experiment, experiment, experiment.

You can look forward

And that is the end of our look at sparring – getting the most from your dojo... Below are just some of the benefits you’ll get from focusing on what you have learned in this post.

• Extra practice
  
• Instruction on hand
  
• Encouragement
  
• Better understanding
  
• Increased sparring ability
  
• Improved sparring endurance

If you found this post useful, please comment below, maybe a few words on what you got from the post, what resonates with you or indeed what aspect you are going to try on your next visit to the dojo.

Thank you for your time.