Oh boy, a long post, I must be feeling it right now. Well the truth is that watching my team prepare for their upcoming fights has got me amped up. Coaching them up for their competitions is an amazing feeling. Showing them what their bodies are capable of is even better. Before you can understand that, you must first know what you're equipped with. What the casual fight fan, beginning fighter, and unfortunately some trainers don't understand is their actual understanding of the weapons that are available. The human body is magnificent. It is secretly embedded with an arsenal of weapons. If you're not sold on that then let's examine them.
Starting with the hands when balled up tight forcing the knuckles to extrude are no longer hands but spiked maces like the ones used by the gladiators. If used properly the fist can deliver devastating knockouts to both the head and body. Ask anyone that has had to stand in front of a person that has had any boxing training and knows where and how to place them. The great thing about them is they don't require a lot of effort to use, but the bad thing is that they can be broken if you landed on the wrong part of the opponents body. Which leads us to the pair of almost unbreakable axes attached to the middle of both arms. Elbows are some of the most devastating weapons in your possession. They can be used to both smash and cut your opponent. These are fight enders. When levied with the right velocity elbows can break jaws, collarbones, ribs, and skulls. As terrible as that might sound (or great), these weapons are as I said before, dual purposed. If your opponent is game enough to withstand the force of the elbow strike, their skin will almost certainly not be able to handle the slicing effect. Some of the bloodiest fights in all combat sports come from proper application of the elbow. Go back and watch Daniel "The Crow" Loiseau when he fought in the UFC, or how Bj Penn finished Joe "Daddy" Stevenson, and last but not least Yodsanklai Fairtex when he fought a much
larger Chike Lindsey. Chike was much larger and more powerful but Yod began to slice him to bits with elbows securing his victory. The elbow is your friend at close range and can be used in a direct striking method as well as spinning and jumping. If you are not proficient in elbow striking I strongly suggest you become so before you reach an opponent that is. The results can be brutal.
As we move into the lower part of the body let's first make sure we understand that these weapons are all tied together by one thing, the core. If the core is weak, these weapons are useless. I'm not saying of course that you couldn't strike with force but the effectiveness of any of these weapons with a strong core increases exponentially. Work on your core!
So let's first start with the legs. The foundation for all of your abilities, the base of your pyramid. They seem innocuous enough from the outside. However for every martial artist knows that those legs are actually spring loaded baseball bats attached to your hips and core. The beauty of the legs is that they can be used in so many ways that when trained at a high level an opponent can literally be lost as to what is coming next. Round kicks, axe kicks, side kicks, turning side kicks, low kicks, high kicks, and on and on and on. Something as simple as leg kicks can end a fight in incredible fashion. Edson Barbosa, Ramon Dekkers, Jose Aldo, Ernesto Hoost, all devastating leg kickers that have finished fights with those kicks. You can go on Youtube and literally watch fight after fight of leg kick knockouts. The the toes, core and hips helps fire the legs with power and gives a fighter a way to finish fights as well as destroy defenses. Blocking kicks with a single arm has a risk involved. Cung le broke Frank Shamrocks ulna in a competitive fight in Strikeforce up until that point and Alistair Overeem broke the arm of Gohkan Saki during the K-1 grand prix. Nothing worse than being on the wrong end of two baseball bats being swung at you from every angle and ultimately done from a distance which doesn't allow you to retaliate without taking punishment. If your core is right, you can throw kicks with the power of a major league homerun hitter. So what happens when someone is able to close the distance o those legs either by superior footwork, defense, or just willingness to take the punishment in order to apply some strikes of their own? Well then that leads us to the Battering rams.
Knees... Two battering rams that are destruction heavy. So maybe your opponent can withstand the punches, and elbows, and checks kicks like nobodies business. The question is can their body continue on while sustaining blunt force trauma to the thighs, ribcage, sternum, and if you involve a solid clinch game, the head.
The knees have no mercy, if the arms are put in front of them to block, then the arms are broken or severely bruised and rendered useless. The amazing thing about knees is that they don't need to be thrown at full force to cause damage, a simple raise of the leg and the knee can be felt. As I mentioned if you have a solid clinch game and can manipulate your opponents movement, the knee can be your best friend. So what is the clinch game?
Clinching allows you to control the movement, posture, and ability of your opponent to get off their own offense. When stuck in the clinch of someone that knows how to clinch it feels claustrophobic or like quicksand. The only options when in the clinch are to be defensive or try to escape, or break the clinch and get into your own clinch. All of these things are easier said than done, especially when knees are being hurled into your torso and your head is being bent into your chest and you're being whipped in circles around the ring.
After writing this I can only say that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Striking methods and weapons are many and they are evolving everyday. Learn your craft and put as many tools in your toolbox as you can or else you might be on the wrong end of a technique that you might have overlooked or just didn't respect.
Lastly, don't forget the most important weapon of all, your brain. Train smart, understand your flaws and places that need improvement. Don't take unnecessary punishment in training just for the sake of banging it out. Save something for the fight. Fight smart, learn to recognize the movements of your opponents and be tactical. Hit and don't get hit. Don't be in the fight, be the fight. Tune in to the very frequency of the energy and be one with the ebb and flow. Be the fighter you always say you can be. If you take the time to learn your craft, how can you be stopped from succeeding.
Love you guys.
Lucky
Starting with the hands when balled up tight forcing the knuckles to extrude are no longer hands but spiked maces like the ones used by the gladiators. If used properly the fist can deliver devastating knockouts to both the head and body. Ask anyone that has had to stand in front of a person that has had any boxing training and knows where and how to place them. The great thing about them is they don't require a lot of effort to use, but the bad thing is that they can be broken if you landed on the wrong part of the opponents body. Which leads us to the pair of almost unbreakable axes attached to the middle of both arms. Elbows are some of the most devastating weapons in your possession. They can be used to both smash and cut your opponent. These are fight enders. When levied with the right velocity elbows can break jaws, collarbones, ribs, and skulls. As terrible as that might sound (or great), these weapons are as I said before, dual purposed. If your opponent is game enough to withstand the force of the elbow strike, their skin will almost certainly not be able to handle the slicing effect. Some of the bloodiest fights in all combat sports come from proper application of the elbow. Go back and watch Daniel "The Crow" Loiseau when he fought in the UFC, or how Bj Penn finished Joe "Daddy" Stevenson, and last but not least Yodsanklai Fairtex when he fought a much
 |
| Buakaw's delivers a flying elbow |
As we move into the lower part of the body let's first make sure we understand that these weapons are all tied together by one thing, the core. If the core is weak, these weapons are useless. I'm not saying of course that you couldn't strike with force but the effectiveness of any of these weapons with a strong core increases exponentially. Work on your core!
So let's first start with the legs. The foundation for all of your abilities, the base of your pyramid. They seem innocuous enough from the outside. However for every martial artist knows that those legs are actually spring loaded baseball bats attached to your hips and core. The beauty of the legs is that they can be used in so many ways that when trained at a high level an opponent can literally be lost as to what is coming next. Round kicks, axe kicks, side kicks, turning side kicks, low kicks, high kicks, and on and on and on. Something as simple as leg kicks can end a fight in incredible fashion. Edson Barbosa, Ramon Dekkers, Jose Aldo, Ernesto Hoost, all devastating leg kickers that have finished fights with those kicks. You can go on Youtube and literally watch fight after fight of leg kick knockouts. The the toes, core and hips helps fire the legs with power and gives a fighter a way to finish fights as well as destroy defenses. Blocking kicks with a single arm has a risk involved. Cung le broke Frank Shamrocks ulna in a competitive fight in Strikeforce up until that point and Alistair Overeem broke the arm of Gohkan Saki during the K-1 grand prix. Nothing worse than being on the wrong end of two baseball bats being swung at you from every angle and ultimately done from a distance which doesn't allow you to retaliate without taking punishment. If your core is right, you can throw kicks with the power of a major league homerun hitter. So what happens when someone is able to close the distance o those legs either by superior footwork, defense, or just willingness to take the punishment in order to apply some strikes of their own? Well then that leads us to the Battering rams.
The knees have no mercy, if the arms are put in front of them to block, then the arms are broken or severely bruised and rendered useless. The amazing thing about knees is that they don't need to be thrown at full force to cause damage, a simple raise of the leg and the knee can be felt. As I mentioned if you have a solid clinch game and can manipulate your opponents movement, the knee can be your best friend. So what is the clinch game?
Clinching allows you to control the movement, posture, and ability of your opponent to get off their own offense. When stuck in the clinch of someone that knows how to clinch it feels claustrophobic or like quicksand. The only options when in the clinch are to be defensive or try to escape, or break the clinch and get into your own clinch. All of these things are easier said than done, especially when knees are being hurled into your torso and your head is being bent into your chest and you're being whipped in circles around the ring.
After writing this I can only say that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Striking methods and weapons are many and they are evolving everyday. Learn your craft and put as many tools in your toolbox as you can or else you might be on the wrong end of a technique that you might have overlooked or just didn't respect.
Lastly, don't forget the most important weapon of all, your brain. Train smart, understand your flaws and places that need improvement. Don't take unnecessary punishment in training just for the sake of banging it out. Save something for the fight. Fight smart, learn to recognize the movements of your opponents and be tactical. Hit and don't get hit. Don't be in the fight, be the fight. Tune in to the very frequency of the energy and be one with the ebb and flow. Be the fighter you always say you can be. If you take the time to learn your craft, how can you be stopped from succeeding.
Love you guys.
Lucky
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