How to Spar #2

In the second article of this series, we will look at some sparring drills from Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do.  These are progressive sparring drills. In the ring we start both participants off with only the jabs.  This means that they are only restricted to jabbing to the face or the body. For the next round we allow both of them to add the left hook (if we are dealing with orthodox stance). For the 3rd round we change the rules a bit.  Student A can only use the jab, Student B can only use the cross.  Speed versus power.  For the 4th round they switch roles. For the 5th round we allow the students to use all 3 tools.  The jab, cross and the hook. We can go on with many different variations, but I think you get the idea. This is a very good way to learn how to spar because of the following reasons: 1) The student does not get stressed out and learns how to feel comfortable with one tool at a time. 2) The student learns to gain confidence in the technique and tactics.  If they start to get stressed out too much, maybe it is time to halt the training and go back to the former rounds, with less tools to deal with. 3) If there are any corrections that have to be made, it will not be overwhelming.  It is not like the student is doing full sparring so there will only be a few things to correct.  Small manageable corrective measures. Later on you can obviously add kicks, clinch and even takedowns-Joey de Los Reyes