issparringzone not working

[prozac424242]

This is in the clientside portion of the code
for custom stats
and also inside the start of a timeout loop:

NPC Code:

---

 if (issparringzone)

 {

  showtext 957,screenwidth-100,170,#s(client.myfont),,SPARRINGZONE;

  setplayerprop #c,SPARRINGZONE;

  changeimgvis 957,4;

 }

---

The SPARRINGZONE text does not show up in a room
that is on the server, neither on the screen or on the player's chat, in a level that is definitely a sparring room.
Other commands in this same timeout loop work just fine.
Why this no work? >.<