Tape Study: Internally Focused Sparring (Patreon)

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This is a sparring session between Olympian and MMA fighter Kayla Harrison and professional Thai-boxing fighter Duangdawnoi. This is not hard sparring for professional fighters; however, Duangdawnoi is wearing extra big gloves compared to her size for partner safety, while Harrison is wearing dangerously small MMA gloves despite her size advantage. They're hitting with different intensity, but they have to based on the equipment and size difference. Duangdawnoi has to push Harrison away hard because she can't afford to even get clipped with those small gloves. I'm certain they only allowed Harrison to spar with those gloves on because they trusted her to go light, which, for her part, she did.

For Liberation Martial Arts, sparring is partner-focused (which includes equipment). You attune to your partner and react to them. Both Duangdawnoi and Harrison are looking at each other, but only Duangdawnoi is perceiving and responding to her partner. Harrison's eyes are open, but she's not attuned to Duangdawnoi. Instead, her actions are decoupled from any reads or what Duangdawnoi is presenting.

Rather than having actions coupled with her partner, Harrison's actions are mostly internally focused (beginning with her equipment). She perceives Duangdawnoi insofar as she follows her around, but her actions are mismatched with Duangdawnoi's actions.

Sparring is a dance because your movements are supposed to be coupled to your partner. Otherwise, it's you dancing alone while your partner matches you. In a spar, that means all your shots miss and all your partner's land because they're in sync with you, and you're not in sync with them.

Rather than responding to what's in front of her, Harrison seems to be recalling actions she's memorized or scripted actions, whether they are appropriate or not. The attitude of "I don't care what you do; I only care about what I do" in sports psychology is called the internal focus of attention and is highly damaging to performance (and even to the team).

Performance is about quick decisions. Harrisons is making decisions, but rather than informed decisions based on her partner, she uses internal information about herself and her own motivations. Imagine studying for a test by reading your diary rather than reading the material for the test. That wouldn't make sense for a test, but that's what many performers do and what many people do when it comes to their personal relationships or political beliefs. They'll take personality tests about themselves to decide how they should perceive their world rather than trying to accurately perceive their world.

Duangdawnoi is ultimately sparring, while Harrison seems to be shadowboxing with Duangdawnoi in front of her or treating her like a moving heavy bag or pad holder where Duangdawnoi is supposed to conform to her. Harrison is doing this completely unconsciously, despite being an elite athlete, just as many in martial arts gyms do this unconsciously. This is why this spar makes a perfect case study for internally focused sparring that's decoupled from the partner and how to be aware of it.

– Sam