The word "Sparring" has a tendency to trigger some serious anxiety for those who have had bad experiences or those who have never sparred before and only understand it based on the wild and irresponsible videos seen on social media and YouTube!

HAVE NO FEAR

We understand those anxieties and we want to settle your nerves by laying out how we run sparring and full contact Krav Maga at Invictus Defense Academy!

1) TEA CUPS Sparring must be done responsibly! We understand you have lives outside the mats and you can't risk getting injured or having a brain injury! So we are VERY cautious in our approach to sparring. We use what Instructor Chris says is "Tea Cup Sparring". Imagine holding a tea cup, thumb and forefinger touching and the middle, ring and pinky fingers fanned out. Hold a tea cup inside your boxing glove when you are sparring. It prevents you from hitting hard. When you close your fist, you naturally add power to your strikes, but if you hold the tea cup, you can touch the other person but you won't cause injuries.

2)** Sparring must have an objective**- Many of our Krav Maga classes are full contact sparring based. We don't run sport sparring often because that defeats the mission of Invictus Defense Academy. So we run full contact Krav Maga where you will have the opportunity to make contact with your attacker so that you can learn proper range and understand how to adjust your striking based on the reaction of the threat. By using tea cup sparring method, both people can train the entire class without sustaining injuries.

3) COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR PARTNER It does no good to anyone to get hit hard so you hit back harder, then they return the favor and then all of a sudden you're both pissed and trying to knock each other's head off. If your partner is going to hard, TELL THEM!! Communicate with your partner and tell them to bring it down a notch. OR if you want more heat, tell them they can go harder. But you MUST communicate so that you can have a productive session

4) DON'T BE A DICK! Look, ego is not your amigo! So check it at the door because if we see you are ego sparring, we'll stop you and you'll be done for the night if not kicked out of the class. If we have to repeatedly deal with you because you are hurting your partners, not respecting your partners or not listneing to the coaches and instructors, your membership could be revoked. The safety and welfare of ALL our students is our number 1 priority!