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October 26th, 2006

Sparring Partner: The Toughest And Worst Job In Sport

Have you experienced being beaten up with you unable to fight back? Did you get punched in the nose by your friend at party last night? Or, did one of your friends crack your rib and cut your tongue with a right hand? Perhaps he did all these damages and didn’t even bother to pay the medical bills. Well, in the world of a professional boxer’s sparring partner, this is entirely legal.

What if they had to be Manny “PACMAN the Destroyer” Pacquiao’s sparring partner? You might think that anybody would rather mop the floors all day at a peepshow than have their beak knock around backwards everyday. Well, the truth of the matter is, many of those who just mop the peepshows’ floors all day still prefer to trade their jobs to sparring partner. Wondering why? The reason is very simple - they see it as a learning tool.

The sparring partners, as commonly defined, are anonymous fighters hired by the not-so-anonymous fighters to help them prepare for an upcoming match. To put it simply, the sparring partners are the ones who get beat up regularly, with the ability to not fight back too hard, during the course of a training camp.

Now what makes this job an excellent learning tool?

Many of those who prefer working as sparring partners are basically those who got interest in the art of boxing and sparring. They do the job first for experience and with the notion that it will help them develop their defense. It’s worth noting that hundreds of the professional boxers today have tried and experienced the life of sparring partners. To some point in their lives, they have passed through this stage and from it turned pro, earning title shots.

Some of the professional boxers, who once became sparring partners, even owe much of their success to the fighters they sparred with in the early days. Well, I have read an article about a man who got beat up so much for being a sparring partner, but in the end learned and mastered defense and remain big, strong and so young. It is for that reason that he continually takes pride of his job and even wears it like a badge of honor. The man is none other than Willie Chapman, the Las Vegas-based heavyweight who has sparred with former heavyweight champ Hasim Rahman, Wladimir Klitschko, and other professional boxers.

The life of sparring partners, as what I’ve mentioned earlier, is hard. In the first place, the work is highly irregular for the fact that it only depends on the fighting schedule set by the guys who hire them. Aside from that, the sparring partners get paid inconsistently. It was reported that the top sparring partners of today’s fast-paced world could only make a few thousand a week. Plus, there is no medical coverage. And, perhaps what’s worst about being a sparring partner is that there is no one to take care of yourself, other than you. No one is there to give you water in the corner and you are not in charge in anything. You are just told when to get in the ring, when to get out, get up, to run or even when to eat.

Posted by admin in Fitness


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... device for all types of kicking and punching martial arts. Perhaps this ever growing preference was caused by the popular belief that training with a sparring partner punching bag increases strength, power, speed and endurance. It also helps to develop or improve the person's sparring skills especially when a sparring partner is unavailable. One particular benefit of training with a sparring partner punching bag is that the movements used when kicking and striking a heavy punching bag helps develop the gross motor skills of the sparrer. For those who are not familiar with gross motor skills, it actually refers to the simple, large muscle actions that form the base for any technique employed. In addition, training on a sparring partner punching bag helps you...

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... easy. You can even find the right Tae Kwon Do sparring gear for you online, with lots of suppliers out there on the web offering their products. One particular store online where you can find the right Tae Kwon Do sparring gear is AllCombat.com. This site carries the best fighting Tae Kwon Do sparring gear available on the net. All you need to do is to choose the right gear from its many types and colors. Also, you are given a guarantee for every Tae Kwon Do sparring gear you purchase. So anytime during the life of the product you purchase, the company will replace any damaged or torn sparring gear at half of the regular retail price. But, to avail the said guarantee,...

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... is a short list of active sites online where you can find the best deals on discount martial arts supplies and sparring gear. Check out the following: Karate.com A well-known supplier of discount martial arts supplies and sparring gear, Karate.com offers a huge selection of martial arts supplies and sparring gears at highly discounted prices. At this site, you can find good deals on discounted martial arts uniforms, footwear, belts, patches, weapons, sparring gears, shields and targets, stretch equipments, bags, mats, and even martial arts books and DVDs. Perhaps what's nice about this one-stop shop is that they offer free shipping on all of their discount martial arts supplies and sparring gear, anywhere in the Continental USA. And, since they have a huge selection of discount martial arts supplies and sparring gear, Karate.com has made it easy for you to search your perfect gear by categorizing Sparring Partner: The Toughest And Worst Job In Sport their products based on popularity. Thus, here you can find the best...

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Scoring In Tkd Sparring
... it is commonly called, is considered as the most commonly practiced martial arts, with millions of people around the world training and mastering the art. The TKD sparring, on the most basic, is consists of three rounds. Each round takes about 3 minutes, with a one minute rest period between the rounds. It is performed with parties in TKD uniform and wearing Sparring Partner: The Toughest And Worst Job In Sport proper TKD sparring gear to avoid any onset of possible injury. In competition, TKD sparring is performed in accordance with the rules of the competition. What happens usually is that the game is controlled by a centre referee who also awards the scores and penalties for violations of the rules. Speaking of scores, the TKD sparring is scored according to the strikes made by the competitors. According to the TKD rules, the strike must be successfully delivered with enough strength to abruptly displace the body or head of the opponent. This strike is what makes a good point. In TKD sparring, there are valid...

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Kwon Chest Sparring Gear
... KWON chest sparring gear is the so-called KWON Self Defense Duo, which is an outer material madder of robust imitation leather with foam padding providing maximum shock absorption. Many who have tried using this KWON chest sparring gear have said that this product is pleasant to wear and with great freedom of movement because of its Sparring Partner: The Toughest And Worst Job In Sport anatomically shaped underarm and groin sections. Generally, this product looks like the reversible body protector, KWON Korean Style Dou Hogu. KWON Black Line Body Protector Here is another robust KWON chest sparring gear, the KWON Black Line Body Protector. This product actually has a vinyl front and heavy-duty canvas lining. It also has a rigid foam insert that provides excellent damping action, and it is anatomically...

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... said, Tae Kwon Do sparring clips. Tae Kwon Do sparring clips are now highly accessible online. Several sites out there on the web feature a number of Tae Kwon Do sparring clips that are usually available for downloads. There are also others that only need a Sparring Partner: The Toughest And Worst Job In Sport real player for the clip to work. To mention, one of the most well-known site where you can find Tae Kwon Do sparring clips is TurtlePress.com. TurtlePress.com actually maintains a library of Tae Kwon Do sparring clips. As far as I know, the Tae Kwon Do sparring clips stored in their library are streaming real video clips that are generally compiled from different DVD sources. One thing to note, however, before you download the clips is that if you have 56K or slower modem, the possibility...

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... area of the body is the main focus of interest. However, the competitors engaging in this form of martial arts sparring is required to wear the right martial arts sparring gear, particularly foam padding. There are also certain parts of the body that are prohibited for contacts and must be protected by the proper martial arts sparring gear. These body parts include the face and groin. Certain techniques may also prohibited in this martial arts sparring variant, and the points of the match are generally awarded to the competitors on the solid landing of one technique employed. On the other hand, the full-contact version of martial arts sparring is often pursued by the martial Sparring Partner: The Toughest And Worst Job In Sport arts practitioners who share the same interest in a realistic unarmed combat. Here, you will notice a lack of the martial arts...

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