Question for Viewers: What other sparring scenarios are you having trouble with?

Mike : "Look how dumb he looks !" Cliff : 😞

I'm surprised Louis CK is so knowledgeable on fighting

this lesson made me realize how much unnecessary space I make and how many times I get myself cornered. Thanks, Icy Mike!

Its the classic trap virtually all amateurs fall into at some point. Moving straight back and trying to wait for counter opportunities rather then pressuring. They think countering will be safer and moving back will be safer but it isnt. You gotta move in and initiate pressure to deflate your opponents offense. People who dont get it, havent broken out of that cycle yet.

This is something even some UFC fighters need to hear! Great stuff.

Can't wait to try this.... In about two years at the rate things are going over here 😭

2:03 - Clif is in shock

3:23 Wow, your camera man had one hell of a sudden growth spurt.

This one made a whole lot of sense. Nice one.

It freaks me out how rare it is to see striking arts use this Even going back to look at early(ish) UFC guys, a lot of them were just not doing this unless they were kickboxers

1:53 -If He Runs, Let Him Run 3:26 -Cutting Side to Side

This channel is so underated

THANK YOU! Blows my mind how much you see people chasing, even in professional bouts

My latest highlight is literally me making people walk onto sweet sweet side kicks

Hey man thanks for all the videos, and everything you do ! The way you think about and explain things makes so much sense and I really appreciate everything you do

Great video, ring control means so much in fighting and looks really favorable to the judges. Even with a basic grasp of it you can start learning that ring control is like controlling the battlefield or the center of the chessboard, and you can dictate where your opponent goes and where the exchanges happen.

Great Info! Keep Killin It!🤘🏽

Great video Mike, this was a thing I used to do a lot.

Nice explanation. Alot of coaches don't show how important footwork and positioning in the ring is until they already form bad habits. Thanks for the share brother..

thanks mike and cliff, stay hard out there folks.

Great breakdown icy, this is the stuff that many people don’t go into.

Crazy it’s like this video was made for me, as I’ve started focusing on footwork and pressure I realized a lot of people just run from me and I kept chasing them and eating punches with zero return. Thanks for the awesome tips. Lol guess I’ll have to eat punches in one place now

I’ll definitely add this strategy next time for sparring, thank you

I really liked that bag drill at the end, its both simple and brilliant.

This is a question i would ask my instructor alotttttt im not even joking this video is the one i have needed and wanted the most

This is so dope. Thanks.

first time here and love this right away. thumbs up and subscribed. oh, thank you for this vid upload.

Like your energy.. Good stuff..

Ring craft 101. Great video!

"I would just shoot the double leg" ;)

Nice work. Keep it up.

Awesome thanks

This is gold. You are saving a beginner months of frustration if they have the courage to apply this on their next spar!!!

Well explained 🙌🙌

Great vid, explains the concept of cage/ring cutting and positioning really digestible. So much harder than it looks though, ask Edson Barboza.

Fire video

Thank you

could you do one of offensive and defensive footwork patterns ? keep being awesome mike

Great video

I work security and this is what I was shown and trained on we call it "guarding the door" cause well we guard doors. Its is an effective way to keep yourself safe by having a solid object behind you preventing from coming up from behind if there is even the slightest potential for multiple attackers.

Just got to apply some of this today in class I felt a lot better, although I didn’t go with any of the heavy hitters at my gym I still managed to go at it a couple times and use foot work to back them into corners and stuff, also used head movement for once which was a crazy feeling cause I usually just block and try to take everything, kicks included

The basics will save your ass every time. Shuffle and pressure alone can collapse the false confidence of every coward that may be technically more trained...but lacks balance and grounding provided by choosing one's steps. Psychology at play here too. Excellent video. Subscribed!

Great video, i became an effective pressure fighter naturally, out of necessity years ago (slow as balls lol ) this had a bunch of great details and was very helpful, essentially for just a five minute watch , great work mike your awesome

2:20 literally happens all of the time, I just stand still and wait like a substitute teacher trying to quiet down a class.

that was probably one of the coolest and simplest explanations of using foot work to cut your opponent off!

i figured this out last week and holy shit, it was the best feeling in the world when you see their face realize that they are just running away for 3 minutes at a time

Yes. You described Dutch sparring 100% accurate😂

I live on 3 acres of clear land back yard boxing is obnoxious this helped

Blew my mind lol, thanks

awesome!!!!

Awesome advise. It feels like it's an easy solution to just let them look dumb, but I honestly never thought of doing that. When one of the more inexperienced fighters back up like that, I get annoyed that I feel like I have to put extra effort in to chase them down.

At first i tought that you are going to do shit things, because i dont saw real men with true advices on KZfaq until i watched you carefully. I appreciate good videos with some serious good content. Very rare in the digitial world. keep going on, great work. regards from Germany

Great timing, Khabib's performance the pressure was insane.

Learning to shift ramps this up exponentially once youve got it down.

This video felt good, I had a sparring session yesterday and I felt kinda like shit because one of the guys was running all the time, threw a few punches and back to running again

I'm trying this tonight! I'm tired of chasing people all over the mat. I've tried structuring classes around distance management so that they would stay somewhat in measure but it doesn't seem to work. I never thought about just not chasing them during free play

Best example of this Rodtang "Iron man" a muay thai legend that always pressure his rivals

I just sparred with another beginner for the first couple of times. This is exactly what I noticed. We were just chasing each other around. I knew already we looked like a couple of clowns, but you gotta start somewhere. :)

I definitely chase lol the lesson was learned

(Prior to COVID), I had one sparring buddy who runs every round. Literally, he'd rather run than throw a punch. My teacher went over these scenarios with me because I had never sparred anyone who runs the whole time. Cutting someone off doesn't come naturally to me. I was working on this ring generalship concept prior to COVID.

My boxing coach taught us how to cut off their movements like that. I used to just circle, but I didn't always like it cuz I would circle too much and actually get dizzy. Lol. But now, I can cut them off better. Still needs work. But better than before.

Haha, this happened to me this Summer in longsword sparring. I'm not especially tall but am somewhat experienced at what I do, and when I spar I usually expect people to, you know, spar. So this one time, we were training outside due to corona, and a guy who doesn't really train much with us was there. He's gone through the beginner course and we see him every now and then, and he has all the gear so of course he spars with us whenever he comes around. He's something like 2 meters tall and a super active PE teacher who is fit as hell, and his whole thing when sparring is to run backwards and snipe shots... And the dude takes steps backward faster than I do forward. There were exchanges where he ran up a hill next to the field we were training on with me chasing him... I knew he moves backward from training with him inside before, but I never realized he wouldn't stop if there weren't walls in the way. I was really close to losing my shit that day and threw some nasty shots at him that I quite honestly still regret, mostly from going into some weird "hunter-mode," before realizing that he can't do that shit if I don't follow. Once I did, our sparring rounds became much more productive.

Question for Coach Icy Mike. I'm curious what do you think of some martial art techniques that turn a defense into an offence? Such as doing and inward block and then going for a back elbow? I ask because I've rarely seen them used in MMA style matches or sparing and was wondering if they can be adapted to be practical.

At my gym we have both tiny rings and big rings for sparring so we kind of learn to spar without running around a lot.

Make a video about when someone is attacking you trying to keep your distance

You stalking me Mike? I was literally just talking about this after watching my kids sparring at their class last night, and my son who has to have daily growth hormone injections So is small for his age, chasing his partner all over the mat. That's insane how relevant this video is. The power of the Church of tactical Illumination is REAL!!

I hate to admit it, but 2:03 is literally me😂.

Oh yeah, this was always my problem. Everyone I’d practice with early on would run away. It got to the point where I would just sit down and wait for them to come back.

Instructions unclear, opponent fled when I pulled out the saw

I remember someone watching me fight my teacher...boring they said...we both laughed. He is finally fighting smart he said...I had stopped moving around so much.

Zero dislikes, perfect.

On the streets, not circling with them as you describe helps keep you out of traps/ambushes; am I wrong in thinking this?

Could you put a link for your leg gear too?

The problem with this I think is with taller guys we get to reset when we back off and you're standing right there it gives me a chance to land momentum

You should do a self defense video against large dogs

Izzy needs to see this

You have to master the basic rules before you can break them. That's something I REALLY appreciated about the kung fu curriculum I learned. It started with the most aggravating basics and slowly broke those rules one at a time. A well trained wushu guy can learn just about any style of movement. Too bad they never practice fighting 🤣

Okay but what about if theyre backing off and shouting "timeout timeout"... and theyre Charlie Z...?

Hi Mike, I love your content ! I have a question for you which is not related with the topic here but I didn't know where to ask. I'm 40 since a few weeks and wanted to start boxing and kick-boxing for self defense (if those lockdowns we are experiencing now in France ends one day... ) and I'm relatively athletic but I have a kind of fear of being the clumsy beginner every time I walked into a martial arts gym... Do you have an advice to overcome this ? Thanks !

Another thing beginners do is standing there are throw arm punches at each other until one guy can muscle his way through.

I'm going to be honest and say that I've been in a few too many street fights, note that I've never started one, never the less, I don't have words to put on the basics and without that it's difficult to know what to do in the moment even though I have some kind of natural know how, but it gets easily scrambled by being in a violent moment like a fight or even sports in general. With the words on it, it's much easier to follow "instructions", to follow what I know or have learned.

My coach teaches us muay thai and he doesn't let me do head movement or footwork. Neither going back. Just covering myself or countering. So as a beginer I have to stay there and be sometimes obliterated because my guard is bad or I make mistakes. It's hard man but I love the sport. Ps: for real he gets so pissed off if I slide or put my head out of the center line 😔

This still has street fight applications. Environmental attacks xD

In the words of the great Willie "Pep" Papaleo, "My fighting style is 'he who hits and runs away, lives to fight another day'."

what shin guards are you using?

if you genuinely cant chase them or even do anything because they’re so good running away, counter or even take a punch to land a bigger blow like take a jab and strike back with a gigantic lead hook or stepping overhook, beware ur enemy can just go left or right

Yeah, i definitely move wayyy too much, i land three, take a few steps back and to the side

I feel attacked.

I didn't like you. Now I like you.

Nice one and let them waste their energy

My muay thai coach pretty much had to beat it into me not to chase. Now I just move side to side and cut my opponents off with angles. I'm shorter pressure fighter always fighting guys taller than me so I have to fight to get in. But once I'm there I stay there and just beat the crap out of the person.

I only quoted Israel in that last video, because he is regarded as "the greatest striker in MMA" by many, but he only ran in what was suppose to be a fight against Yoel; not because I think that look good or that would work.

Oh yeah it happens. I never understood the deal with runners, we're there to spar aren't we?

"If they're running, let them run.". Facts. 😊

About the izzy adesanya look how Manny Packio knocked keith Thurman

Dark Souls-like games should do this. (mid-game) Do not chase the player. Just wait, and unleash combos when they get close lol.

3min 26 maddix held the camera at head level lol jk

Realistically Adesanya could probably benefit from circling before he runs out of cage

Man. I do this way too much when I play-fight with my dad.