5 Ways To Deal With Aggressive Sparring Partners

Boxers spar to get better, not to win. Sadly this statement doesn’t hold true to all fighters, as there are some who literally want to take your head off during every session – the question is, how do you deal with those people?

Talk with them

As soon as you notice that your sparring partner is going too hard, just tell him to bump it down a notch. It all really depends on which form of sparring you do, that is, lighter or harder, but if he goes nuts when just sparring light, you should definitely point that out.

Try talking with them after the session. Even the most unpredictable, aggressive fighters are people just like you, and they can learn from obvious m istakes, so you telling them how to do it right can lead them the right way.

Normally the most common type of people to be way over aggressive when sparring is beginners, and it makes sense why – they hardly understand the impact punches carry and don’t know how to throw them respectfully. As a matter of fact, your job as a more experienced boxer is to tell them how to do it properly.

But just talking with them like normal human beings doesn’t always seem to work, especially if they’re not newbies, so next tips should do the trick.

Let him respect your power

In case that no type of talking seems to change the ways your partner approaches the sparring session, throw a couple of harder shots to let him know that if he spars hard, you’ll answer the same. Don’t try to knock him out or brutally beat him, just a harder punch here and there should work.

Be careful when doing so as it can escalate into a brawl, and might not work at all, but giving a little taste of his own medicine can teach him to not spar too hard when not needed.

Tell your coach

If the problem seems to persist, especially when other boxers in the gym also start to notice it happening, tell your instructor. As a matter of fact, it’s your coach’s job to always see such things happening in the first place.

Don’t spar with them

You tried everything above and the person still goes all out when sparring? Well, it might be the time to not do that with him ever again.

Not every person understands even the most basic fundamentals of a combat sport, and no matter how hard you try to hammer that in their head, they still go their own way, so in that case it’s best to leave them alone. Doing that could potentially let them understand that they’re sparring incorrectly and hurting people, but again, that doesn’t always work.

Switch gyms

Not every boxing gym is good, and if it looks like nothing is being done with bad sparring partners, that probably means your coaches don’t even care that such things persists, so in that case your best bet might be to just switch the gyms.

More about proper sparring

The difference between a bad sparring partner and a good one is communication. If both of you are on the same page when it comes down to getting better, i assure you you’re going to improve much better than just trying to deal with hotheads.