Banged up:The sparring partner

Hello all! I hope this finds you well. I wanted to just touch base on sparring partners and what you must endure in order for the person fighting to have success. Generally speaking, helping a fighter prepare for a fight as a sparring partner is a give and take. On one hand you get to work on some skills and also help in some cases a friend and in other cases your wallet. While that might seem look a pretty good set of reasons to throw on the headgear, sacrifice accompanies the work. The fighter getting ready for the fight gradually gets faster and stronger and more accurate as the weeks go on. Now if you yourself are preparing for a fight the differences may not be noticeable. However if you're in between fights chances are you're not doing the same kind of training as the guy you're sparring. As he gets faster it becomes more difficult to keep up. The punches, kicks,and submissions become harder to defend. By the the last three weeks the fighter is sharper than ever. You've done your job, usually at the expense of your own body. However, you always come away a better fighter than you were going in.

I recently had the opportunity to spar with a good friend and fighter Asim Zaidi. Asim was preparing to fight in Italy and was trying to get in as much sparring as possible. By the end of a few weeks I was completely banged up. Between sparring with Asim as well as some of my clients I was a mess. From toes to shoulders. I picked up a bunch of new tricks and enjoyed every minute of it, but ouch!!. 2 weeks later I finally feel back to normal. I checked good old Facebook yesterday and there he was with his hand raised. It made it all worth it! A great win for a good guy that I know for sure put in the work necessary to win...trust me..lol The video above is from one of the sparring sessions. Enjoy my pain.