Your opinions please......

[Dave78]

Now i know that generally you lot are a shy retiring bunch lol :D ... but what do you think of this....?

Mate of mine who i train with went training elsewhere as well as at our gym for the past few weeks as he found a local night to him that fitted in with his work for once. He's a quiet unassuming guy, generally nice bloke! This is a third hand account as i didnt see this for myself but he tells me two things that i was surprised about and wanted to know what you guys and gals thought.

One week he was training there and they did kicking drills where one person stands with their hands clasped on their head (as in the 'im tired pose) and the other throws 75% power kicks to the body to 'condition it', couldnt train for three days due to bruising!

Another week, they sparred with 4oz mma gloves and he paired up with one of the trainers (mate is 185lb'er the trainer goes about 17-18st so a full on heavy) and they went about 85-90% it was described as 'full power without the full on agression'! Came out of it bleeding, perhaps unsurprisingly!

I found both of these things pretty shocking when he first told me, we would never do this sort of thing at our club...

We condition the body with circuits, plyo and medicine balls!

We spar at 80% with MMA Sparring gloves or full on with 16oz boxing gloves (headguards optiional)!

But after my initial thoughts....i'm now thinking....is our club too 'soft'??

Do some of the more effective MMA fighters come out of these gyms because they are 'tougher'.

I've trained BJJ in loads of places, as well as boxing, but this is my only ever MMA gym so i have nothing to compare it to! :confused:

Over to the experts please.......

[dramacydal2002]

hmm iv heard people sparring with 4oz gloves before, tend not to use them due to the fact that they cut, sounds like the coach is a bit of a bully. tell him towork on his bjj a bit more then rip his arm off next time they are sparring.

[LukeH]

Sounds dodgy.

Don't know about your mate, but I have a full time job which pays the bills and needs me able to walk and not be black and blue to much so have no need to have people power kick me in the ribs or spa heavyweights wearing 4oz MMA gloves.

For a pro fighter there is the 'heavier in the gym the easier in the cage' philosophy, but for a layman seems a bit OTT.

What's the name of the place - seems they are popping up right, left and centre at the moment.

[Iconoclast]

Sounds like utter bollox mate. I'd have no time for the place.

[Black Mamba]

Sounds like a night at viper mma in Scotland tbh

[thaison]

Guys buying or using 4oz MMA gloves for anything other than fighting in makes me laugh.

[Allan Shrek]

Agreed with Doolan,

Using 4oz gloves for sparring? That's stupid.

Your club trains smart. Even professional fighters don't train heavy with 4oz gloves on. They need to train day in day out to keep the condtioning, sharpness and skillset at a level that will allow them to compete in pro MMA and by going hard without the correct protection to allow them to do that will result in injuries that will keep them from training.

That and repeated gym wars will reduce the length of your career in this game. Those blows to the head add up pretty quickly.

[sol_dave]

Similar thing happened to me in a gym called shoot boxer when I was away in Brazil. Dickheads were trying to take my head orf

[Defekt]

Every club will train differently and it will have a different type of result.
I personally wouldnt want to go and do what you have described as, what others have said... i got bill to pay and i cant be turning up black and blue.

Would like to know the name of this gym he went to as i had a similar occurrence near me.

[Dave78]

I dont' want to name and shame publicly tbh as its not something i've seen for myself, like i said its third hand!

I just had one of those 'maybe its me' moments, having initially thought what the fuck?! i then thought maybe im wrong,but clearly many of you agree with me on this

@ Allan Love and James Doolan, totally agree with you....i bought MMA Sparring gloves for exactly this reason and my 4oz gloves will sit and gather dust until i compete.

cheers for your opinions fellas

[ReD_mIst]

MMA is MMA though, it's down to each club to teach/train how they want. It's against the ethics to police this.... cause it's the ring/cage that will deciede if the training techniques work or not. It's not for you or anyone else to 'name and shame'... that will come when their fighters compete and lose... if they compete and win, the the training techniques could be considered justified.

Sounds like they may have a Muay Thai background? The kicking drill I've seen in MT a few times.

I agree with everyone else... 4 ounce gloves for sparring is stupid... that's what sparring gloves are for!

[Augustus Gloop]

one question...

if 4oz gloves are only for competing, how do you get used to getting punched by someone wearing them?

surely its necessary to spar with them on at times?

technically that's two questions isn't it? (and that makes three but that last one is rhetorical)

[ReD_mIst]

one question...

if 4oz gloves are only for competing, how do you get used to getting punched by someone wearing them?

surely its necessary to spar with them on at times?

technically that's two questions isn't it? (and that makes three but that last one is rhetorical)

Boxers fight in 8 and 10's.... but spar in 14, 16 and 18.....

What is the point in getting injured whilst training for a fight, whilst trying to get used to being hit in 4's?

[CraigSt.Clair]

We spar in sparring gloves at around 70-80% worst I've had was a bust nose, I will stick me chin in the air lol

[ReD_mIst]

We spar in sparring gloves at around 70-80% worst I've had was a bust nose, I will stick me chin in the air lol

Sounds fair enough to me.

I think that sparring should vary in tempo and power. You can learn a lot from sparring at 40-50%. Provides you with the chance to try the techniques you have been learning.

Problem with sparring in fight gloves at 'full power', is that you don't get any chance to try out some of the new stuff you are learning. You have no choice but rely on the techniques you can use well.... yes you would get used to being hit in 4's.... but your style would have the space to grow and develop.

[Plastikman]

Not sparring in 4oz is the equivilent of runners training for a marathon never actually doing the full distance in training. It is always left until the actual day/

[ReD_mIst]

Not sparring in 4oz is the equivilent of runners training for a marathon never actually doing the full distance in training. It is always left until the actual day/

Very good point....

[Augustus Gloop]

Boxers fight in 8 and 10's.... but spar in 14, 16 and 18.....

What is the point in getting injured whilst training for a fight, whilst trying to get used to being hit in 4's?
but 8oz boxing gloves are the same shape as 14, 16 or 18. techniques dont have to be altered.

i find this really interesting and not something i had thought of before

how about training g&p or defence against g&p. isn't it too easy to trap and hold onto the gloves & hands if training with sparring gloves?

[ReD_mIst]

but 8oz boxing gloves are the same shape as 14, 16 or 18. techniques dont have to be altered.

i find this really interesting and not something i had thought of before

how about training g&p or defence against g&p. isn't it too easy to trap and hold onto the gloves & hands if training with sparring gloves?

Actually boxing gloves are the same shape, although they may have slightl different dimensions. Good quality boxing gloves don't vary that much in size through the weights (poor quality gloves tend to though... must be something to do with the cost of construction or something)

Of course there are some differences with sparring gloves and fight gloves in MMA. But those tiny differences are offset with the points already raised.

finished on the topic now. Train in what you want... as stated, the cage/ring is the proving ground for the way you train.:)

[Augustus Gloop]

finished on the topic now. Train in what you want... as stated, the cage/ring is the proving ground for the way you train.:)
it wasnt meant to be an arguement about the best way to train or how to prove it. i was genuinely interested in how people spar & how they vary their training depending on the gloves used.

for instance, do you never use 4oz at 50-60%?

what methods of sparring do people use to avoid glove grabbing?

do you train grappling with 4oz?

[Plastikman]

what methods of sparring do people use to avoid glove grabbing?

do you train grappling with 4oz?

Generally the coach says - "No grabbing gloves to control wrists" and that does the job.

[CraigSt.Clair]

Sounds fair enough to me.

I think that sparring should vary in tempo and power. You can learn a lot from sparring at 40-50%. Provides you with the chance to try the techniques you have been learning.

Problem with sparring in fight gloves at 'full power', is that you don't get any chance to try out some of the new stuff you are learning. You have no choice but rely on the techniques you can use well.... yes you would get used to being hit in 4's.... but your style would have the space to grow and develop.

Yeah I agree we do 50% a bit too (happily I don't get hurt as much lol) As for G n P we train it with sparring gloves and everyone knows not to grab the gloves and therefore doesn't, not really a problem tbh

[ReD_mIst]

it wasnt meant to be an arguement about the best way to train or how to prove it. i was genuinely interested in how people spar & how they vary their training depending on the gloves used.

for instance, do you never use 4oz at 50-60%?

what methods of sparring do people use to avoid glove grabbing?

do you train grappling with 4oz?

Sorry, but you have considerable previous...

Anyway. Do I ever use 4's... nope.
Grabbing gloves is against the Unified MMA rules, you can't do it in a fight, why would it be allowed in training?
I rarely train grappling with gloves at all, unless we are doing GnP as well.