So you want to win more often when sparring in Muay Thai. This is a great aspiration and goal to set in my opinion because it’ll have so many positive benefits, such as increasing your confidence both as a fighter and as a person.
If that’s something that interests you, what you are is not alone. Here’s what you’ll be able to achieve after you finish reading this article:
- Understand how sparring works
- You’ll know how the pros get so good at sparring
- You’ll know how to improve your sparring
- Win more spars in Muay Thai
If at least one of the results here intrigues you, definitely stay tuned to the end of this article. I love sparring in Muay Thai. I think it’s one of the best ways to improve as a fighter and as a person.
At the end of the day, I don’t believe Muay Thai has an end line or a finishing goal. It’s all about constantly improving yourself as a person and as a fighter. Both are closely linked, just so you know. Anyways, sparring is one of the best platforms to improve your skills; here’s to win more often when sparring in Muay Thai.
#1 – Hone Your Defense
The first tip isn’t typical, but it’s a mindset shift many Muay Thai fighters go through when transitioning from a novice to an intermediate fighter. This shift in mindset is what allows us to fight more effectively while getting hit less often and creating angles and openings.
This shift in mindset is becoming a fighter who uses defense more often. Now, what it’s not is becoming a fighter who doesn’t attack. The opposite is true! By evading and slipping punches and using techniques, such as the Slip, Block, and Check, you’ll be able to create openings to attack.
As the saying goes; offense is the best defense. Well, in our case, defense is a great offensive tool.
Winning in sparring isn’t just about landing strikes but also avoiding getting hit. Practice defensive maneuvers like blocking, parrying, and slipping punches and kicks to minimize damage and tire out your opponent.
You can read about the 9 best Muay Thai defensive moves you must know by following this link.
#2 – Develop Strong Basics
The second tip is to develop strong basics. You’ll be surprised at how fierce you can be and how much damage you can cause with just the basics of Muay Thai. If you know to punch and kick powerfully, use defensive moves like the slip to defend yourself, and create openings and angles with footwork, you’ll be a fierce, aggressive fighter.
Truly, people underestimate the basics of everything in life. And of course, this applies to fighting and martial arts.
Work on mastering the fundamental techniques of Muay Thai, such as punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. Solid basics serve as a strong foundation for more advanced techniques and combinations during sparring.
If you think you could use a refreshment of the basics or haven’t learned everything yet, I wrote a complete guide of Muay Thai’s basics that everyone can benefit from regardless of their skill level; I cover everything from start to finish, so you’ll definitely benefit from reading it.
I wrote an entire article on how frequently you should train Muay Thai to ensure optimized progression. If you want to master the basics quickly and move on, this is going to be a critical factor for you. So make sure to check it out for the simple answer.
#3 – Visualize Winning
The third tip will help you come more prepared for the fight, it’ll reduce the fear factor you have, and it’ll boost your confidence. The tip is to visualize winning the spar. Before you begin fighting, really imagine yourself after having come victorious in the spar. This will fire you up and get you ready for the spar.
Visualization is one of the best tools for solid mental preparation. We all know how scary it can be to fight someone else in the ring, let it be a light or hard spar. Here’s one of the most informative articles on visualization and some of its benefits in regard to goal achievement.
Visualizing outcomes that you want can increase your confidence. “Seeing” yourself succeed helps you believe that it can – and will – happen. Visualization helps you “practice” success. When you imagine every step of an event or activity going well, you get your mind and body ready to take those steps in real life.
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Stay composed and focused during sparring. Keep a positive mindset, remain adaptable, and learn from both your successes and mistakes. Visualize successful sparring sessions beforehand to build confidence.
#4 – Use Footwork to Attack and Defend Better
One of the most important skills in Muay Thai is your footwork. The way you move will dictate how many openings, offensive opportunities, and hits you’ll be getting. It’s one of the most important skills, regardless if you want to win more spars or simply become a better fighter overall.
Footwork is crucial in Muay Thai as it allows you to control distance, evade attacks, and set up your own strikes. Practice moving in and out, circling, and pivoting to maintain your balance and avoid being an easy target.
In a situation where the opponent throws a Jab at you, you can use your footwork to go to your left and evade the punch. Then, the entire left side of the opponent will be open for a Hook or even an Uppercut. Regardless, you’ll be able to cause tons of damage, which is what you want to achieve.
Footwork also will help you control the distance between you and your opponent. Controlling the distance will make you more likely to succeed with various offensive means. Likewise, it’ll ensure you fully chamber and extend your strikes, increasing the amount of power you can deal instantly.
The last footwork drill we’ll review is the step-in. You can, by controlling the fight’s distance, step while throwing a punch. That will improve your punching power if you use it properly.
Anyways, you can see just how beneficial footwork can be. Begin learning more ways to utilize footwork in your Muay Thai game and you’ll eventually win more spars.
#5 – Condition Your Body
Muay Thai sparring can be physically demanding, so ensure you are in good overall shape. Focus on cardiovascular endurance, strength training, and flexibility exercises to enhance your stamina and power during sparring sessions.
Cross-training is key to both becoming a more capable fighter and avoiding overtraining. Overtraining isn’t as rare as you think. In fact, beginners are much more likely to overtrain because they’re fresh and full of motivation. As a result, they think about Muay Thai all the time, which will lead to frequent visits to the fighting gym.
Conditioning your body is going to be incorporating aerobic, anaerobic, flexibility, and strength workouts into your weekly training routine. These will make you a much better fighter by conditioning and strengthening your body much more than Muay Thai could do.
Flexibility sessions are critical to avoid injuries and to be a better, more dynamic fighter. For instance, you’ll be able to kick higher with good flexibility. Being more flexible is also known to help with injury avoidance, although this topic is rather controversial among the different studies.
Better flexibility may: Improve your performance in physical activities. Decrease your risk of injuries. Help your joints move through their full range of motion.
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#6 – Develop Clinching Techniques
The next tip we’ll review is going to cover one of the most effective but underused techniques in the world of Muay Thai. If you can learn to use this tool properly, you’ll be able to control all your fights much, much more effectively. The tool we’ll review now is the Clinch.
The Clinch is a crucial aspect of Muay Thai. Practice your Clinch work to gain better control over your opponent, deliver powerful knees, and nullify their attacks effectively. Clinch work can significantly impact the outcome of a sparring session.
I have written two separate articles on Clinching in Muay Thai. If it’s something that interests you (and it should) go ahead and follow the links below.
Let’s move on.
What Clinching will allow you to do is astonishing. Not only will you be able to control your opponent, but you’ll also be able to throw powerful knees and elbows while maximizing control over the opponent.
In Boxing, when one of the fighters clinches the other, the fight resets. However, the case is different with Muay Thai because the fight won’t stop when you Clinch. It’s an entirely legal technique and you have to master it to win more spars.
#7 – Diversify Your Attacks
Keep your sparring partners guessing by mixing up your combinations and techniques. Don’t be predictable with your strikes, and vary the timing and angles of your attacks to keep your opponents off balance.
This point is going to be about diversifying your attacks. By now, you should know that you want to attack from different angles, use various strikes, and be as unexpected as possible. These are all great to win more spars, as your opponent will not expect you to constantly shift things around.
This is the problem with many Muay Thai fighters. They’re too static; they never shift things around, which eventually will equal them not being able to land their shots anymore. If you use the same 3 combinations, your sparring partners will all know what you’re all about, enabling them to defend much more effectively.
So diversify your attacks, and defense, and be an overall less expected fighter.
#8 – Don’t Expect to Win All the Time
Rome wasn’t built in a day and so how can you expect to become the best sparring fighter without putting in the effort and dedication into mastering the craft? You can’t expect to win all the time and remain sane because it’s not a rational expectation. It’s like expecting to get 100 on all your tests. Although a good goal to aim for, there’s a very small chance of that happening.
Also, it’s not all about winning but about how much you’ve managed to learn and progress in your Muay Thai journey as a result of that specific sparring session. Because you can learn a lot from every single spar you do, whether you win or perform.
Understand that losing is something that will naturally happen and it’s all a question of whether you’re accountable and self-reflective enough to learn from your losses.
#9 – Adapt to Your Opponent
And now, for the last point of this article. The last tip is going to be to adapt to your opponent. This is going to be the difference between a good and an excellent Muay Thai fighter.
The way you fight should be slightly different if you’re fighting two different people. So in fight number one, you might use Jabs more often, as you notice the opponent’s right guard to be down most of the time.
In fight number two, however, you may use the back slip-counterpunch combination, as your opponent falls for the bait. And then you might try and use it again. It’s all a matter of how your current opponent reacts and how you can use your skills and brain to beat him.
Should You Go 100% in Spars
As a general rule, going more than 80% in spars isn’t something you should do. The best practice for sparring is to set the rules beforehand and follow up on them. If you’re doing light sparring, then 20-30% will suffice. With hard, intense sparring, however, setting the rules to go for 50-80% will be ideal.
Final Words
It’s time we wrap up the article. Sparring is one of the most effective training methods to hone your fighting skills and even become a more confident person. You’ll be in the ring, facing another person who might be more experienced and bigger than you, and you have to remain calm and fight to the best of your abilities.
The tips I presented in this article are going to help you win more spars. Although they’ll take time to implement, you’ll be able to start using them as soon as you feel ready. So make sure to step inside the beautiful world of sparring and put in the effort, even when you don’t feel like it!
If you want to improve your punching power and speed, follow this link. Also if you want to learn ways to improve your kicking power, follow the 2nd link.
And here are other articles you’d benefit from reading: