1 hour straight sparring

[Gocougars3]

In my experience, it hasn't been a great thing to go with a plan for doing so many rounds. Usually in long sparring sessions emotions run over, technique suffers and injuries occur. There are pros in our gym that go 15 or 16 rounds with 30 second breaks (particularly when the outclass their partners). I have seen guys getting ready for ten rounders go 6 rounds with 2 different high level guys (that was one minute rests). With your experience I would say 8 rounds is enough to get great conditioning and salvage some technique but even that is a lot. If you feel good during a given session you could always decide to go another round or two but I think you get diminishing returns after a point. This is a boxing opinion, I only did MMA for a short time and didn't love it but I got more gassed in that than I did boxing. Sparring at an outside gym is almost always rougher than sparring at home. I suggest more frequent, shorter sessions.

[Hulk]

In my experience, it hasn't been a great thing to go with a plan for doing so many rounds. Usually in long sparring sessions emotions run over, technique suffers and injuries occur. There are pros in our gym that go 15 or 16 rounds with 30 second breaks (particularly when the outclass their partners). I have seen guys getting ready for ten rounders go 6 rounds with 2 different high level guys (that was one minute rests). With your experience I would say 8 rounds is enough to get great conditioning and salvage some technique but even that is a lot. If you feel good during a given session you could always decide to go another round or two but I think you get diminishing returns after a point. This is a boxing opinion, I only did MMA for a short time and didn't love it but I got more gassed in that than I did boxing. Sparring at an outside gym is almost always rougher than sparring at home. I suggest more frequent, shorter sessions.

Thank You very much.

I would be sparring boxing rounds with mma sparring partners essentially. Some are pros and some are amateur fighters. I completely agree a bout the point of diminishing returns. And I can't believe that amatuers and such are able to go 16 rounds, something isn't adding up. I wish I could spar less rounds there, but that is their program. I would have to do what their routine, and that is supposedly 1 hour of sparring, constantly changing sparring partners varying from 150 lbers to over 200 lbers, never sparring more than 1 round at a time with the same guy. Its going to be crazy.

[greynotsoold]

About twenty years ago, I saw something like that in a gym. They had a kid, maybe 14 years old, 112-115 pounds, that was pretty good. He'd won some 50 amateur fights and they were preparing him for a tournament. Every Thursday he'd be in the ring for two hours and he'd spar everybody, all the kids in the gym, up to a 25 year old 220 pound southpaw. Personally, I thought they were trying to kill him.
A dozen years later I saw, in another gym, the same sort of thing. This time, the guy that would spar everybody had been the national #1 amateur in his weight class and was preparing to turn pro. He'd spar with everybody, every night, and fight 'for real' 4 round sparring sessions on Saturdays. With him, it was just work because he knew how to fight (currently 13-2 as a pro) and rarely if ever took a clean shot.

[Hulk]

About twenty years ago, I saw something like that in a gym. They had a kid, maybe 14 years old, 112-115 pounds, that was pretty good. He'd won some 50 amateur fights and they were preparing him for a tournament. Every Thursday he'd be in the ring for two hours and he'd spar everybody, all the kids in the gym, up to a 25 year old 220 pound southpaw. Personally, I thought they were trying to kill him.
A dozen years later I saw, in another gym, the same sort of thing. This time, the guy that would spar everybody had been the national #1 amateur in his weight class and was preparing to turn pro. He'd spar with everybody, every night, and fight 'for real' 4 round sparring sessions on Saturdays. With him, it was just work because he knew how to fight (currently 13-2 as a pro) and rarely if ever took a clean shot.

WOW

Those are some exceptional fighters. Seem to have a death wish on the surface.

I believe remarkable fighters can endure such a grueling routine, but I cannot believe that amatuer mma guys with 0 fights or 1 fight can keep up a pace. And EVERYONE apparently goes through this 1 hour straight sparring session on fridays and they go hard.

If it turns out to be true I know I'm screwed

[erics44]

I have sparred 10 two minute rounds with a minute in between and been relatively fresh at the end, i think i could have added another 6

but then added a minute to each round and half my interval would have been pushing it

[Hulk]

I have sparred 10 two minute rounds with a minute in between and been relatively fresh at the end, i think i could have added another 6

but then added a minute to each round and half my interval would have been pushing it

That is admirable. You were/are in good shape.

You know as well as I do though that there is a world of difference between 3 min rounds with 30 second rest and 2 min rounds with 1 min rests.

[Slim the BoxingManiac]

See, when you hear stories about what some of these fighters have done, what I've done really isn't all that unbelievable.

Out of roughly 125 fights, only ten or so of them are memorable to me for something special happening.

[erics44]

I have sparred 10 two minute rounds with a minute in between and been relatively fresh at the end, i think i could have added another 6

but then added a minute to each round and half my interval would have been pushing it

That is admirable. You were/are in good shape.

You know as well as I do though that there is a world of difference between 3 min rounds with 30 second rest and 2 min rounds with 1 min rests.

to be honest ive never tried 3 minutes and 30 seconds rest

i reckon adding another 6 to the 10 i did would have been a lot of hard work, id have had to have been at a peak to increase it in any way