The Turning Point – Sparring Session with Coach Justin and Jameson Collis 8-17-21

These sparring rounds demonstrate the culmination of approximately a year of work in hard competition training on top of several years of foundational hard training for Jameson.
Two sparring cycles ago I felt like I was still holding back on Jameson with my handspeed and power levels, and how much feinting, baiting, and countering I used. When you invest in people as an instructor, it’s hard to really put the hurt on them in sparring.
In this sparring session, I could see that Jameson was sharp with his reflexes and making it very competitive. I felt like I was pelting him with the best I had and he wouldn’t back down or stop coming for me.
That is the product of months and months body toughening along with developing overall conditioning gradually over time. Particularly taking the kicks in the Muay Thai portion of sparring is what toughens your body the most, shins, forearms, everything. People talk a lot about shin conditioning etc., the only real way to have it is to spar or fight consistently over time. You need the real deal to get tough, and th egoal is to get tough enough to go without shin guards, and eventually with 4oz gloves.
Another really big factor that turned this sparring session around was that he didn’t let himself be stuck against the wall for long, and made an effort to hold the wall position himself when he found my back to the wall. That made a huge difference in how competitive the rounds felt for me, that kind of cage/ring awareness can make all the difference in a match.
He said that he was focusing mostly on not flinching, countering right away, and attacking in multiple punch combos.
Since I was, as a veteran professional, deploying my legit level and Jameson took it and kept coming, hanging with the rounds, that is why I call it “the turning point.” From here on out it will be mutual development in sparring – both pushing each other to get better every session.
Thus – “IPFS Pro-Team” is born!
All in all, we did 5 x 3min rounds of hard boxing sparring, then 3 x 5min rounds of Muay Thai hard sparring. Notice how both of us utilize vision and distance management as our first line of defense to avoid taking too much damage in this extensive sparring session.

Just great work on both ends, I’m more experienced and conditioned, but my student Jameson is younger, bigger, and taller so it’s a great balance. You’ll notice that we are using open stances and hand positions at outside ranges, but using shell covers, frames, and parries as the distance closes. This is the hallmark of being on a comfortable sparring level – controlling the fight from the outside range to the inside range, and knowing when to use different stances and hand positons to your benefit.
Using a loose, open stance allows you to relax and conserve energy while keeping your vision totally clear to read your opponent’s movement. The principle is that the more relaxed you are, the more quick your reaction speed is and the more clearly you can read your opponent. You’ll also notice a lot of philly shell type guard with the jab hand low, that is used to cover the body (we are both targeting the body extensively,) the advantage of the low lead hand in MMA is that it becomes and automatic underhook if the opponent shoots a takedown on you, and is ready to block a knee in the low-frame position (which is the proper defense against a knee,) while also allowing you, as in Boxing, to throw the jab from different angles and create extra hand speed with the back-hand motion of throwing the jab from the low position.
Throwing the jab to the body and head from a low-hand position creates a great multi-threat staging point to mix in other attacks such as an overhand-right, while I’ve found that defensively the upward jab can be used to deflect either hand of the opponent attacking with straight punches. Fades and Rolls can be used to defend round punches in that position if you can’t get your framing blocks up quick enough. You can see me demonstrating this effectively in both the boxing and Muay Thai rounds.
By the end of the Muay Thai my endurance was at it’s limit from having to spring forward and punch in combination to get at Jameson, being 6 foot 4 inches to my 5 foot 11 inches, and you can see how my stance and balance is allowing me to spend the absolute minimum energy possible to stay in the game and keep from losing the round. The last minute or so I’m mostly defending and feinting and Jameson seizes the moment and starts to take over, even though I put in solid combos with body shots, great knees, hard kicks to the body and legs, he’s still coming forward at the very end. That’s the IPFS program coming to fruition at it’s apex.
Fundamentals purists will get on Jameson’s case for holding his hands low, but notice I do the same thing at range to preemptively protect myself from the body-jab and the teep kick. The taller man is always able to evade more readily by leaning back and moving away, and the taller man always has to be more concerned with protecting the body. So this is not technically incorrect at all, especially considering that Jameson goes to his shell defense instantaneously at close range and to get off the wall in these rounds. So this is, in my opinion, just growth of technique and situational comprehension ie “ring IQ”. For newer striking athletes it’s advisable to stick to the shell completely and avoid using the philly shell, shoulder roll, long guard, and other advanced hand position variations at first. It takes experience to get the hang of switching stances and hand positions much like switching leads (orthodox/southpaw.)
There is a lot to study and absorb in this round footage, and I hope newer fighters in IPFS gain a lot from watching this.
-Coach Justin