Drilling without sparring is unrealistic

Drilling without sparring is unrealistic: sparring without drilling limits growth: Students often ask me about the structure of their training. The most obvious element of structure is the relationship between sparring and drilling – there are many other training methods between these two that have their place, but they form the most fundamental and important means of training. Nothing will ever beat live sparring for giving the student the opportunity to practice his or her skills in a realistic fashion under the same kind of pressure they can expect in match conditions. Sparring in all its variations and intensity levels is the king of contest preparation. Sparring alone however, is not enough. The great problem of sparring, especially when it is intense, is that it often forces us to use our most trusted moves to achieve victory. If I really want to win against a very tough opponent, I will inevitably fall back on my favorite moves (tokui waza) to get the win. This is fine for the further development of that tokui waza, but in the long term it can limit the influx of new moves into your arsenal and create a lack of growth within your game that makes you predictable and leaves you in a plateau that you find disappointing. This is where drilling comes in. Drilling allows you to practice a move without resistance or against very low resistance and thus gain confidence as you learn about the mechanics and principles of the move. As your expertise increases, the move can be brought into sparring until in time it becomes a natural part of your full sparring repertoire. This ensures constant growth in your game over time. Thus the essential role of both sparring and drilling in performance improvements sparring improves your ability to apply moves in realistic situations, drilling expands the repertoire of techniques that you are willing to use in sparring, which in time will lead to performance improvements. Thus our training mantra: DRILLING WITHOUT SPARRING IS UNREALISTIC: SPARRING WITHOUT DRILLING LIMITS GROWTH. Here, Garry Tonon and Gordon Ryan go through leg locking drills in England prior to Polaris 4, where those same skills won Mr Tonon victory via leg lock