Jay ''The Blast'' Furness

If you think you're too good to spar or roll with a less experienced training partner, you're the problem.

A good athlete can take something out of every round in front of them.

Each one is a chance to learn. The question is what you're trying to learn.

The less experienced partner can actually offer you lots of great opportunities if you have a plan and don't just try to smash them.

You can:

-Deliberately enter positions you've been avoiding and actually spend time there
-Try techniques before they're sharp enough to work under higher degrees of pressure
-Break out of your defaults and explore new ones
-Slow the problem down and actually feel what you're doing wrong

Trying things out in a lower-threat environment will help you to bring them to fruition.

Against more experienced guys, there's less wiggle room. You can still try new things but they'll get shut down more often so you're more likely to default to your attractor states.

The competitors who develop the fastest treat every round as a tool.

Roger Gracie was famously the best BJJ guy on the planet using mostly much less experienced training partners.

Not that I'm saying it's what you need exclusively, far from it, just don't roll your eyes or try to avoid them thinking there's nothing in it for you.

I've been talking about smart sparring in shorter form for a while. This is the first time I've written about it properly.

The Sparring Problem covers the culture that's quietly limiting fighters at every level, the difference between development sparring and fight prep sparring, why errors in training are necessary not just acceptable, and what it actually looks like in the gym when you get the intention right.

If you coach or train in combat sports, this one is for you.

Sparring to win is the habit nobody talks about and everybody has.

Link below.

THE SPARRING PROBLEM Sparring to win is the habit nobody talks about and everybody has.

The Sparring Problem.

I've written about this in a bit more depth than usual. The culture, the science, the cost, and what it actually looks like when you get it right.

It's on Substack now. Link in bio.

NO BIG MOMENTS IN SMALL WAVES

There's a concept in surfing that maps onto combat sports perfectly.

The guys charging the big waves are the ones willing to pay the price of failure.

They're not naive to the risk - they know that the biggest rewards come with the biggest potential of getting wiped out.

That's the deal they make.

Fighting is the same.

Saying yes to that guy that makes you s**t it a bit. Getting out of your comfort zone. Going where the odds aren't stacked in your favour.

You might lose. And it might be on the biggest platform of your career.

But that's not a reason to stay on the beach. That's the price of the moment.

You can take the safe fight and build a career like that. But there's a ceiling too.

The moments that define careers don't come to people that avoid the scary waves.

Paddling out and getting buried is still braver than watching from the beach.



Final run on this