In a streetfight you have about a three to eight second window of opportunity to finish your opponent and get away before it becomes more dangerous for you.
After the window of opportunity is closed anything can happen and it’s usually not very good.
You can both end up on the ground, more than one adversary can appear, weapons can be drawn against you, and your energy will be severely drained.
So why would you be throwing love taps at your attacker when he is totally
committed to ripping your head from your shoulders and kicking it down the street.
There is no reason why anybody should be sparring with their adversary when in a streetfight.
That’s why I tell people to have intent when they train in the gym or dojo, spar like you’re in a streetfight, and not like you’re in a cardio boxing class.
Hit the heavy bag, and focus mitts like you mean it, don’t just go through the motions, fight!
Don’t stand there in front of the heavy bag or whatever you’re striking and throw punches at it, move!!! Put some reality into your training.
You think your attacker is just going to stand there and take your best shot and not do anything about it until you’re done throwing your ultimate knock out punching combination.
GET REAL AND START TRAINING LIKE YOU MEAN IT!!!
One thing you need to start doing is increase the power of your strikes when you hit.
You need to start putting your weight behind your punches to deliver true power punches.
Don’t get caught up throwing jab after jab thinking that will keep your attacker at bay while you set him up with your cross to knock him out, cause it ain’t gonna happen.
Hard stiff power punches will win you the day and keep you safe in a fight.
You won’t have time to throw those light fluffy set up punches you’re use to throwing in the gym.
You’ve got to come in hard with both fists and moving thru your opponent with your strikes.
You must be unrelenting as you fight your adversary.
With power you can dictate how the fight is going to go. With power your punches can literally knock the fight right out of your adversary.
You will be able to anchor your opponent in place with your power shots long enough to hit him with another punch with your other fist.
Another thing you’ll be able to do with your power punch is keep him off balanced and unable to retaliate as you continue to deliver your strikes.
Also with power you can demoralize a multiple opponent attack by taking out one or two attackers quickly.
After that the rest just might not want to be the next one to go down hard and fast on the pavement.
If you fight someone who has a weapon, he may not be able to deploy it quick enough before you catch him with a power strike.
And if he does deploy it, your strikes may be more than enough to knock it out of his hands or knock him out or both.
So now you have plenty of reasons to fight with power both in the street and in the gym.
Train to unleash your power with either hand and from whatever position or angle you find yourself in and don’t settle for anything less.
Striking powerfully with every punch you throw in a streetfight starts in the gym or dojo, the way you train is the way you will fight so you better have power in abundance.
I hope I have opened your eyes as to why you need to work on developing your power for a serious streetfight.
So train hard with intensity, power and reality, and never forget a streetfight is not a sparring match.
And remember if you find yourself in a serious street confrontation, power can solve that problem quickly.
Very true and a very good explanation on why sparring is different than actual fighting. As master Yoda put it: 'do or do not, there is no try'. He that holds back in a fight will usually lose and you should either refrain from fighting (the preferred option for the law-abiding) or go through him, destroying him in mere seconds. If you knock someone out with your first punch, all the better and while good combinations should be developped (he could block, be exceptionally good at taking a beating, he's drunk or high and doesn't feel pain...) it's equally important to hit hard, fast and accurate from the first blow on. The more moves it takes to win the higher the chance of something going wrong or a third party intervening. Ring sports are nice to watch but they're not reality and the chances of getting attacked by someone who actually knows what he's doing (throwing jabs, feints, footwork to get to your side) are slim and you want to do your job and finish the fight as quickly as possible. There are two ways to achieve this: either you knock him out or you put him on the ground (I'm not talking about sportsgrappling where you go with him and put him in a hold as preparation for a submission: throw him in such a way he stays down or put him in a position he can't fight back from) and either finish him there (easiest and safest option) or you control him with a lock (more difficult but do-able, just make sure you keep your eyes open and break & scoot or hit & scoot at the first sign of trouble). Throwing someone to the ground can be quite debilitating and most people don't expect it, just make sure you throw hard and fast, just like punching or kicking.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite approach to training and fighting is to get up close where I can control him and use elbows & knees and/or throw or lock.
I also agree that sparring is really different from actual fighting. But training plays a very big role in someone's success in martial arts. This post is a very informative one and I am happy to have read it. Till next post!
ReplyDeleteYou can never be too strong or have too much power IMO.
ReplyDeleteAgreed about street fighting different to sparring. Throwing weak combo's isn't going to do much when your time is limited before his friends arrive!