da_mill

Hey,

I know many of you do your own private lessons or have your own students that post here, hence why you are all so knowledgeable. Would you mind giving me a short rundown of what you 'do' in those lessons? (not the conditioning side, just the technique side).. Do you spar with your students?

I may be wrong, but I feel like I'd improve the most in the fastest time possible if I was sparring, as in rather than doing classes, or even private lessons, if I could just go somewhere and spar with people for an hour that would be most beneficial.

Thanks

oh I posted this because in Thailand everything appears to be done with thai pads and body belt, whereas I haven't seen it used much here in the Uk. Perhaps I'm training in the wrong places lol.

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fire cobra

How and What I teach in a private lesson depends on the level of the student bro,a Beginner would get training in Stance/Guard/Footwork/pushkick/round kick/long knee/straight punches,those are the basics I like to teach and in that order.

A competing Athlete on the other hand would get work on what I/we felt were his weak and strong points,this is usually done with a belly pad and leather pads /shins on with me hitting back into his/her weak defensive points,or perhaps we would drill spar where i would take the place of a particular opponents style,ie a kicking expert etc.

As I like clinching I spend a fair bit of time working in that area.

Sometimes students come in with their own ideas on what they want to do,I will work with them on this if I think they need work in that area,if not I point out that perhaps the time would be better spent in other areas.

So as you can see for me teaching a Private Lesson could take many Guises,ive even had people come in and ask to do situpps for an hour!.

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Clubber Lang

V good post from Fire Cobra, sorry if some of this is duplication.

I’m a big believer in private training. Most of my learning over the years has been through private lessons, its just invaluable to have the full attention of really great coaches.

In terms of what to expect, there shouldn’t be a standard format. Every private lesson should be based on the person in front of you and their wants and needs. If someone came to me for private lessons (I don’t really teach any more but I spent many years doing so) then I would ask them what they wanted to do, they are the customer. I would then watch them and establish what I think they really need. My instruction to them would be a mix of the two, what they want in order to fulfil the service they are paying for, but also what they need to keep them honest as a martial artist.

In terms of sparring all the time, I am the biggest fan of sparring you could find, I still think its second to none as a learning process. However, doing good sparring all the time is good, doing bad sparring all the time is bad. In order to focus a lot of your time on sparring, you have to make sure that you are at a level that makes it a process of continuous improvement, and not a learning ground for bad habits.

In terms of sparring all the time in a private lesson, it can be tricky. If I have been doing it for 20 years, and you have been doing it for two months, if all we do is spar then there is going to be a huge gap in experience that will probably make the sparring contrived and awkward. I think you would need to accept the fact that there will be portions of technique work and drilling in able to get you to a more comfortable starting point. In terms of “what technique” will be involved, its impossible to say, that’s down to the man or woman in front of me. If you have great hands I’m not going to spend an hour Boxing just to make you feel good, we’ll probably work your kicks in the main. You get the idea.

Classes have their benefits, because you get to experience lots of different kinds of opponents, and it’s a good gauge for where your ability is. One of the things to be careful with in classes where you round robin spar everyone, is the weight difference. For years I sparred in a class where everyone was much heavier than me, and I became really discouraged because I just couldn’t give back what I was taking. Then someone pointed out to me that I was giving away 40 to 50 pounds, and like it or not that makes a huge difference, hence weight categories. So I always used to make sure my guys sparred roughly with people in their weight category, for the majority of the time. Everyone once in a while its good to experience the heavier or lighter guy, but doing it all the time will distort your approach.

That’s a long, disjointed post, but it was an open ended question.

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fire cobra

Good post Clubber.

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Scott Bolinger

well, you deffinatly have to work specific drills to get your hand the feet speed up. But, if you want to do alot of sparring, then i'd just keep on asking your instructor to try and get in more sparring time. Your instructor could probably split up the time were half the training session you work specific drills on the pads , then work in 5 or 6 rounds of sparring. I usually change up like that when i'm getting close to a competition. I always have one day specifically for sparring, but when it's getting close to competition, then I have to beef up the sparring sessions

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Author of "WarriorRage KickBoxing by Scott Bolinger"
www.WarriorRage.com
President of The WarriorRage KickBoxing Federation
www.wrkf.us

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legshot420

Private lessons are great and you will improve a lot but you'll be missing out on the camaraderie that comes with training in a class. Just my 2 cents.

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