This type of fighter can be really frustrating at times to spar against. You want to hit them, maybe even show them your punching and kicking power, but it seems that every time you put a nice combination together the opponent retreats really fast to avoid getting hit. It kind of reminds me of one of boxing’s classic fights: the rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran in November of 1980. During this fight, Duran wanted to go “toe-to-toe” with Leonard, confident that if he did so, he could take Leonard out. Then something that will be long remembered happened. In round 8, after having received considerable taunting by Leonard, and a lot of footwork to avoid a slugfest, Duran quit by walking back to his corner because he was apparently so frustrated.
Let’s get back to sparring strategy. You want to hit your opponent but he keeps moving away. Instead of wasting so much of your energy by hitting nothing but the air because your opponent keeps retreating, you need to do something to trick your opponent so that he doesn’t run away. I recommend slowly inching your way in to the opponent until you are close to “within range control” (the second of four zones in Kenpo sparring). Recall that “within range control” is where we are close enough to at least be able to touch the opponent. If we can inch our way in without the opponent quickly running away, which can be done with consistent practice, we can then deceptively explode with our offense and hit the opponent before he is able to take off retreating. Try it out, and let me know how it works.
