Monday 30 July 2012

internal striking for boxing and MMA


Internal techniques are techniques you have to feel to understand,you might look like you punch the same,but its got a lot more power/effect from training the snap or bounce in the tendons and connective tissue this way of training can give a significant power,precision,and explosiveness and will improve any strike,much more than any amount of strength training

I teach 3 different types of snap or impact for any striking art boxing,mma and self defence depending on the type of strike,a light snap,a deep snap,and a hooking or ripping snap heres Dennis jones disscussing them

punching with light weights is one way to train them,but its not about lifting the weight its about training the bounce on the end,trained properly it feels almost like your hitting a bag,and once you understand it you can practice it without the weight
heres an older clip of me which is a follow on from the above clip talking about it and punching with weights

and heres the follow on part 2





Saturday 7 July 2012



What’s the best art for the physical side of self defense/combatives

So let’s think about this you need good hands that’s boxing or Muay Thai, ju jitsu for the ground game, wrestling/judo for control, oh yes let’s not forget all the wrist locks the list could be endless and it can take a life time to perfect a single art, I need to be good at all these arts right to be able to physically defend myself,
This is basically what I was seeing when I first started martial arts for self defense, that’s what martial arts are for right?
It was only when I started adding a bit of scepticism myself that I noticed a gap between real reality and what I saw being taught, 
For a start totally untrained people win or survive confrontations every day without any training whatsoever, in my eyes the one determining factor for that is the correct mindset and I think that without the correct mindset any physical ability you have is useless
 You have to learn from real experiences whether it’s your own or someone else’s, If you have little experience take a look at the thousands of real fighting clips out there and ask yourself if you could pull of what your being taught or just see what works for them the one real eye opener is simply to test what you’re doing at full force full speed, any questions of what you think you can pull of will be answered very quickly, disregard any notion that what your being taught is too dangerous to test at full force, in fact I disregarded anything I couldn’t test because it was “to lethal”
I wanted to figure out the absolute basics of what worked in real life and start build up what I do from there these are the basics of what in my eyes is actually really needed for effective self defence from a physical point of view 
1, correct mindset, aggressive determined and violent but controlled
 2 hit the head
3, hands are king
4 hit first or by surprise
5, positioning, whether you’re on the ground or stood up

These are the basics I’m still working on in detail, they don’t make up a system and there’s certainly no fillers. and in my honest option   that’s what makes up the absolute basics of what you need, and whatever martial art or combative style you train in for street defence, It should never become the real focus of your training, until you've got them 5 basics down and your confident with your stopping power, positioning and response under threat or pressure of an individual intent on damaging you 
I stopped looking for the “style” and decided to look for the techniques that made up what I wanted there’s was one thing I needed regardless of how many variations I was going to learn and that was a weapon that I could carry with me at all times regardless of law or country one thing that I could relied on, what’s the quickest most effective way I can stop someone? Hit them hard with your hands
When I started looking for an art that was pure without dilution or set parameters and stuck to these basics I came up short,What I needed was some basic strikes just a few that I had to learn and to try and get them to the point where they react instinctively with natural body movement any big thoughts under adrenal pressure and people can freeze, I’ve seen this a lot in training with the suit and even just training heads or dummies, trying to respond when you’re in fight or flight mode to an aggressive individual isn’t easy if you’ve never done it or experience any real aggressive behaviour. I’ve seen people struggle to even talk at first let alone do anything else

 I simply couldn't find any and started working on the basics myself,while I learnt from many teachers,there was only one who stood out and he was also the one with the most "street fighting" experienced, He had all my bio-mechanic anwsers without restriction and left me with everything i need to take what i do to the next point. I also realized that it was a very personal thing and to get to any real level of ability was going to take a hell of a lot of more practice.I also think one of the biggest mistakes any guy looking for physical self defence techniques can make is learning to fight with set parameters  then expecting the  person attacking you to fit into your class parameters because all that changes when there isn’t any,this for me brings home the importance of some sort of padded assailant drill,to allow the sort of full on aggression training for adrenalin and to test if what your learning/teaching is accually coming out under pressure.
in a physical self defense situation your the Innocent one and its very important not to forget your goal is to escape safely,I dont see it mentally as getting into a fight, that implies give and take a two sided situation.train to attack and escape as quickly as possible,learn skills without restriction like your attacker.
 and remember you also have to deal with the law and your own morality way before any response is needed.and then again afterwards


Peace