Seriously? I tend to cruise through training but when I spar after maybe 2 rounds its like someone opens a plughole and every ounce of energy drains from my body and I can barely hold my hands up.
Its fucking me off as I can comfortably handle people for two rounds and then the fucking energy goes and I am fucked.
Any suggestions to build 'sparring cardio' outside more sparring?
Are you too tense in the ring? Or not working hard outside?
For me a round of sparring is usually equal to about 3 rounds of anything else, in terms of how much it drains me. I think it's because I tend to be both physically and mentally tense when I spar, without even realizing it.
tension/breathing are probably the factors. relax & use your feet. :-D
yep, breathing - a classic even with some pros few years back as they moved up from 4,6 rounders.
The tension leads to the not breathing right, so the two are definitely linked. You don't even know it's happening, so you really have to make a conscious effort to correct it. I'm going to try to work on it.
Happened to me and everyone else I've seen that's just starting out. After their first time sparring most people say they can't believe how tired they were/how fast they got tired etc. You can do rounds on the heavy bag throwing more and harder punches, but the bag doesn't hit you back so you're relaxed. The more time you spend in the ring sparring, the more relaxed you get and the easier it becomes.
Cheers guys - I think its a combo of not getting enough time to train outside boxing and being too tense when sparring. Im goign to concentrate on breathing and relaxing next time and see how I go.
Don't always think of your sparring as contesting with an equal. Think of it as 'playing' with a student. Relax and just let your moves come. Don't even 'try'. The relaxation and ease will be noticeable. Doesn't always work, but try that as a type of 'game development' and see if your breathing and lack of tension improves. It's kind of difficult to 'try' to breath - often you just tense up more and get overloaded thinking too much about it.
$0.02
Something everyone seems to have missed. ( if not sorry for missing it) when you hit the heavybag ( or other bag ) how much ground are you covering with your feet? Chances are not much. When you spar you are going in and out over long distances at a fast pace. You don't use your legs like that when you train except when you spar.
I recommend finding your local highscool track, and running multiple 440s at maximal effort with 30 sec to a minutes rest between them.
also, force yourself to:
A. keep the same distance on the bag as you would in the ring ( people tend to get too close)
B. force your self to step in and out on the bag as you would sparring ( with every combo)
Running sprints, relaxing and learning to breath regularly with a mouthpiece in helped me.
fearOfABlackPlanet - You don't use your legs like that when you train except when you spar. Decent padwork and shadow boxing should. but yep should be carried over to the bags too. I'm guessing as LS said he cruises through 'training' stepping in/out should be covered already.Training with mouthpiece is a gooden like OneSoup says. Normally used to get used to breathing more thru the nose keeping the jaw closed. Open jaw leads to broken jaw as they say, but will def'ly help.