While teaching at the Donnerschlag 2015 event in Karlsruhe in Germany, I had plenty of opportunities to do some sparring with Axel Pettersson.

This sparring match was a simple warm-up exercise on the first or second morning of the event. We wanted to generally loosen off for the day, before the meat of the event happened, so we worked with minimal gear at a fairly friendly intensity.

Not all sparring needs to be done with a high intensity, as if it is a tournament; quite often, a lower intensity bout can be just as instructive, if not more so.