Coronavirus has had such a gigantic impact on every part of our lives. What is amazing is how active and positive you are all keeping. So many of you have joined our new online training site and are improving your kickboxing every day. Although it is not ideal working out from home, there is so much we can do to help improve our technique. Today we will be going over our top tips for improving Shadow Sparring.

Shadow sparring and shadow boxing are essential to becoming a complete martial artist. All those who delve into kickboxing, boxing and MMA start out with this technique; from a Yellow Belt student to Muhammed Ali. At whatever stage in your martial arts journey, shadow sparring is an essential practice, and what is great about it is you can do it easily from the safety of your own home whilst in isolation!

• Visualize an opponent. Picture your range in relation to the opponent and work around it. Imagine their movement and their strikes. Dodge, block, parry and counter.
• Focus on movement. Keep your mind on working with your feet. Focus on how you step and more importantly why you are stepping. Is it to set up a punch? To move around your opponent? To create distance or to cover distance?
• Improve strength and speed. A great way to improve shadow sparring whilst in isolation is to hold small weights in your hands. These could be dumbbells, bottles of water, bags of flour or rice. Holding 1kg to 5kg weights as you punch, and move will dramatically increase the speed and strength of your punches.
• Observe other martial artists. A fantastic way to improve your technique is to watch how other fighters are doing it. Watch their movement, their combinations and how they place their feet. You can find countless clips of fighters like Muhammed Ali or Bruce Lee shadow sparring on the internet, or you can head over to our new online training site and shadow spar alongside your favourite senseis!

We hope you’re keeping fighting fit at home, send us pics and clips of your healthy meals and killer workouts.

Keep safe