What's worse, a glass jaw or a weak body?

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spacetime

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The late Kickboxing champ Joe Lewis claimed that some people have glass jaws but strong bodies for blows, and some have strong jaws, rarely get's knocked out to the face, but have weak bodies.

I have a weak central body. Blows to the shoulders and my face don't phase me. Based on my experience that is. My face feels like stone. It annoys me but I rarely get phased by blows to the head. Never neen unconscious. But even holding mitts, full force, continous body shots can take my breath away.


So which is preferable in a fight, if you had to choose?
 
I don't see how this is an S&C topic.
 
That's not what the conditioning, in strength and conditioning means.
 
The stronger your core,and the more muscle tone around your torso, abs, spine, obliques, the better you should be able to take body blows.
 
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ripskater said:
The stronger your core,and the more muscle tone around your torso, abs, spine, obliques, the better you should be able to take body blows.
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So the answer is that it's worse to have a glass jaw, because you can't do anything about that. I am curious though who you would rather fight, all else equal.
 
There is no psychological component for me to be struck in the face either. You have to put me out cold or I will simply get mad. The stomatch is a totally different sory.
 
spacetime said:
So the answer is that it's worse to have a glass jaw, because you can't do anything about that. I am curious though who you would rather fight, all else equal.
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Well a good custom mouthguard can help a glass jaw some.

Especially if it's made so that you have to bite forward a little bit.
 
ripskater said:
Well a good custom mouthguard can help a glass jaw some.

Especially if it's made so that you have to bite forward a little bit.
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Doesn't help a lot. Some strikers still have glass jaws. The worst example is Ernesto Hoost - he went face down if they hit the right spot. Totally incapacitated. And it happened to him more than once.
 
spacetime said:
Doesn't help a lot. Some strikers still have glass jaws. The worst example is Ernesto Hoost - he went face down if they hit the right spot. Totally incapacitated. And it happened to him more than once.
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I agree it will help some more than others.
 
Joe Louis also added that you can never know which type of guy it is until he takes a full force shot.
 
spacetime said:
Doesn't help a lot. Some strikers still have glass jaws. The worst example is Ernesto Hoost - he went face down if they hit the right spot. Totally incapacitated. And it happened to him more than once.
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There also seems to be some sort of event that occurs when you get knocked out once that makes it more likely to happen again in the future. Sort of like when you have a heat stroke it makes you more susceptible to having more.

That said, I don't really think there's much you can do to train the body to resist punches other than taking lots of lower powered punches in the area to build up a tolerance. When I started kickboxing, my coaches did that drill where you take punches to the stomach for a certain period of time. It really helped my core out a lot to do those drills. I'm not sure if I got used to it or if my body changed physiologically. I'm pretty sure it's all mental. I definitely wouldn't try that same drill with my face.
 
jgarner said:
I'm pretty sure it's all mental. I definitely wouldn't try that same drill with my face.
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It's not mental. It's like all air inside of me is sucked out. Maybe I should tense my stomach better.
 
I was knocked down on the ground by smashing my head into concrete upper part of a balcony , went into the supermarket asking for paper for my bleeding , and the security guards were so chocked that they took a picture of me with their phone, to show me how I looked. I was not even aware that I would have to visit the hospital.
 
Spacetime, I don't know where you get the energy to shitpost so much, have you been kicked out of the stand-up forum finally?

There are 3 components to both head and body susceptibility. Genetic predisposition, the relevant muscle development and training to deflect or redirect force. It ain't anymore complicated.
 
spacetime said:
It's not mental. It's like all air inside of me is sucked out. Maybe I should tense my stomach better.
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Yeah I've found that those drills do help with keeping my core tight. I don't think you need to do it hard to reap the benefits. Just hard enough to get proper stimulation. I've found that my abs get tighter when I tap against them.
 
Moving as youre not likely to get any responses in a strength forum.
 
You can "condition the jaw" by strengthening the neck and making sure it's not tight af. This way some of the force of head shots can be absored by the muscles, and less rattles the brain around.
 
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