Jack Slack article on Anderson Silva leg break

[Jblizzle]

For people too lazy to click on the link or read the whole article

Freak Injury?

Some are claiming that Silva's injury was a freak injury. In truth, the snapping of the shin bone in that manner was a rare injury, but when a fighter runs full power into a kick which connects on the opponent's knee, it's not uncommon.

Within that scenario, it is a very common outcome that the shin will be injured to some degree. Whether the fighter can fight on it or not, he will not want to kick again too soon, and that is the purpose of checking with the top of the shin and knee.

How come we don't see so many of them? The event of a hard low kick into a knee is not that common. Good fighters set up their low kicks; most MMA fighters don't even check low kicks. In kickboxing, most fighters are smart enough to set up their attacks because they are used to having to work around an opponent who is willing to check.

Similar circumstance to this only really arises when you have one man who is comfortable checking kicks and another who is far too confident in his own power kicks. A brilliant example is Ray Sefo versus Ernesto Hoost. Hoost was an old man in the fight world by then, and Ray Sefo was on the rise. Yet Sefo threw a low kick without set up at Hoost and quickly discovered that age doesn't matter when it's shin on knee.

To draw a parallel, running into a power low kick without set up is like coming out against an older boxer and only throwing power punches because you reckon you can put him away.

Some will say this injury was a fluke because they want to believe that Silva's 38-year-old shin couldn't hold up to a good check any more. But in the post-fight presser, Weidman talked extensively about training to put his knee on Silva's shin. We're not talking about a good kick that rode up, we're talking about a poorly planned kick which was checked well.

To see the difference a check on the knee makes just look at Weidman's first check on his lower shin and then his second, the one which broke Silva's leg.

The neatest thing about both is that Weidman kicked first to draw a kick out of Silva. Weidman is not a particularly good kicker, but both times he kicked, Silva kicked back immediately, and Weidman was able to check.

No, freak injury implies it was simply misfortune. There was nothing accidental about Silva getting hurt. When a hard kicker kicks a knee, he hurts himself. Sometimes it's enough to finish a fight, sometimes it's just enough to stop him from kicking for a while, but kick a knee Silva did.

 

[jdm17]

Was waiting for an analysis of this. Thanks.

 

[MMouse]

A key point of the article was that in high-level striking you have to set up your low kicks. You can't just fire them off willy-nilly. In MMA, people just carelessly throw low kicks like a jab, using them to set up the rest of their game, only being worried about the straight right/left counter.

In both those legkick gifs from Silva, there is zero setup. He just throws a low kick in response to Weidman's own kick, the exact time when Weidman is best prepared to defend a low kick and is able to easily check.

This, thats why I nodded my head @ silva. I thought hed be smarter then that.

Zero setups and timing were displayed.

But I do agree with the article stating checks are rarely used in MMA which is why low kicks are thrown carelessly

 

[Deleted member 347815]

This guy sure like to write alot.

Tell me about it.

I can honestly say that I have never been more bothered and disgusted by posting on Sherdog. I like Weidman, I think he is a great guy and champion so it's not like I want him to lose or hate him.. but all this discussion about a shin break being on purpose has gone to show me how truly uneducated this forum is and proves that literally maybe 5% of this forum has even stepped foot into a striking gym. Checking with a knee hurts your opponent sometimes ya, it happens by accident in training all the time. You go to check a kick but don't get your leg up fast enough, guess what? It hits your knee sometimes that is just reality. "Checking kicks" is not a game plan, it is HOW YOU BLOCK A KICK. A professional fighter shouldn't have to gameplan blocking a strike, that is like saying "My game plan is to block getting punched in the face", no it is not a game plan it is an expectation of any fighter.

I like Chris and am happy to see him be the champion, but claiming he broke his shin on purpose is literally the dumbest thing I have ever read here, let alone from someone who writes articles like Jack Slack who I usually respect. There is such a thing as hard blocking where you purposely try to hit their shin when you check my leaning hard into it to make them pay for their kick, I have done that in fights to guys who like to Low kick a lot, but you aren't do it with the intention of breaking their shin in half, that is just a crock of shit, you can't plan for that.

Jesus Christ people.

 

[ib313]

Jack slack... An oasis of reason

 

[J0N0]

Every time I read one of his articles it makes me realise how ignorant I am. Good stuff.

 

[AznTrojan]

great informative article

 

[Manus]

Well written piece by jack slack. You don't have to agree with everything he wrote, but at the very least you should take some time to read and think about it before giving your thoughts on it.

 

[THECYNDlCATE]

If anything it proves the opposite. That it was a strategy that Weidman was consistently and consciously using.

Anderson's corner said the first check damaged his leg and the second check broke it through.

Proves the opposite?

Man,.. I am pretty sure it's everyone's strategy to block a kick that is coming at you.

The gifs show that is all he was doing. He was just checking them the best he could in order to block the damn kicks and set up a counter.

The breaking of the leg was a FREAK OCCURRENCE.

 

[mraa1]

I can honestly say that I have never been more bothered and disgusted by posting on Sherdog. I like Weidman, I think he is a great guy and champion so it's not like I want him to lose or hate him.. but all this discussion about a shin break being on purpose has gone to show me how truly uneducated this forum is

Not one person has ever said that.

 

[MMouse]

Tell me about it.

I can honestly say that I have never been more bothered and disgusted by posting on Sherdog. I like Weidman, I think he is a great guy and champion so it's not like I want him to lose or hate him.. but all this discussion about a shin break being on purpose has gone to show me how truly uneducated this forum is and proves that literally maybe 5% of this forum has even stepped foot into a striking gym. Checking with a knee hurts your opponent sometimes ya, it happens by accident in training all the time. You go to check a kick but don't get your leg up fast enough, guess what? It hits your knee sometimes that is just reality. "Checking kicks" is not a game plan, it is HOW YOU BLOCK A KICK. A professional fighter shouldn't have to gameplan blocking a strike, that is like saying "My game plan is to block getting punched in the face", no it is not a game plan it is an expectation of any fighter.

I like Chris and am happy to see him be the champion, but claiming he broke his shin on purpose is literally the dumbest thing I have ever read here, let alone from someone who writes articles like Jack Slack who I usually respect. There is such a thing as hard blocking where you purposely try to hit their shin when you check my leaning hard into it to make them pay for their kick, I have done that in fights to guys who like to Low kick a lot, but you aren't do it with the intention of breaking their shin in half, that is just a crock of shit, you can't plan for that.

Jesus Christ people.

The intention of a check is to stop the kick that can either result forcing the kicker to kick else where or stop kicking due damage on himself. Whether its intent is to break it or not that is up to the fighter and his cornerman but is a pretty douchebag move if its intent were to cause a break.

Though there have been ammy fights were a cornerman would tell his fighter to check with his knee.

 

[THECYNDlCATE]

A car accident has no intention behind it. It happened accidental.

Silva intended to kick and Weidman intended to block with a technique he knew could damage Silva

 

[Po]

Yes the intent was there to hurt the kicker and yes Anderson didn't setup the low kick.

Weidman deserves credit. It was a pretty rare result, however.

What people consider a fluke doesn't matter.

I can have intent to make a blindfolded half court shot with intent of the ball going into the bucket during the halftime show of the next nba game I go to.

My intent doesn't mean my shot going in wasn't flukey.

Weidman deserves a lot of credit for skillfully checking leg kicks and hurting Silva that way.

To stop the fight via leg break however is a bit far-fetched.

 

[Claude]

Good article. Some parts i liked:

Some will say this injury was a fluke because they want to believe that Silva's 38-year-old shin couldn't hold up to a good check any more. But in the post-fight presser, Weidman talked extensively about training to put his knee on Silva's shin. We're not talking about a good kick that rode up, we're talking about a poorly planned kick which was checked well.

No, freak injury implies it was simply misfortune. There was nothing accidental about Silva getting hurt. When a hard kicker kicks a knee, he hurts himself. Sometimes it's enough to finish a fight, sometimes it's just enough to stop him from kicking for a while, but kick a knee Silva did.

 

[J0N0]

Tell me about it.

I can honestly say that I have never been more bothered and disgusted by posting on Sherdog. I like Weidman, I think he is a great guy and champion so it's not like I want him to lose or hate him.. but all this discussion about a shin break being on purpose has gone to show me how truly uneducated this forum is and proves that literally maybe 5% of this forum has even stepped foot into a striking gym. Checking with a knee hurts your opponent sometimes ya, it happens by accident in training all the time. You go to check a kick but don't get your leg up fast enough, guess what? It hits your knee sometimes that is just reality. "Checking kicks" is not a game plan, it is HOW YOU BLOCK A KICK. A professional fighter shouldn't have to gameplan blocking a strike, that is like saying "My game plan is to block getting punched in the face", no it is not a game plan it is an expectation of any fighter.

I like Chris and am happy to see him be the champion, but claiming he broke his shin on purpose is literally the dumbest thing I have ever read here, let alone from someone who writes articles like Jack Slack who I usually respect. There is such a thing as hard blocking where you purposely try to hit their shin when you check my leaning hard into it to make them pay for their kick, I have done that in fights to guys who like to Low kick a lot, but you aren't do it with the intention of breaking their shin in half, that is just a crock of shit, you can't plan for that.

Jesus Christ people.

I think you misunderstood the piece if you think that he's saying Weidman broke the shin on purpose. What he said was that Weidman purposefully used the correct technique, and a rare byproduct of doing that correctly can be a shin break to your opponent. I don't think anyone's suggesting that he did it with the intent of doing so.

It's like if you slam someone, you're not doing it to try and ko them.. but if you do it well, on rare occasion you can. No one says Rampage was lucky for ko'ing Arona, or Tito over Tanner etc..

 

[TheStrikingGuy]

This guy sure like to write alot.

It's my job =P

Sorry I haven't got round to that Alves article you messaged me for btw. Hope he gets back in action soon.

 

[Deleted member 347815]

Not one person has ever said that.

Another thing is posters like you, I have had ever post of mine quoted and me being called an idiot (Even though I have been fighting for nearly 10 years in MT and Kickboxing) by keyboard warriors.

Blocking kicks is not a game plan, when you're fighting a guy with devastating kicks you are going to make sure you block them that is common sense.

Does strong/hard blocking exist? YES, instead of just intercepting with your leg you can lean into it to make them "pay" or think twice about kicking you (I have done this in fights), but you do not PLAN for a shin break. If you could plan for a fucking shin break don't you think we would see fighters in Muay Thai winning every fight with this mythical shin breaking technique?

Chris was smart to recognize Anderson can throw hard low kicks so he made a mental note to be wary of them and check them like any smart fighter would. He wants to make them hurt Anderson so he wouldn't throw them as much since they are devastating, again like any smart fighter should be doing. However, planning to break his shin in half is NOT what happened, sure you can have the mentality "I'm gonna check him so hard like i'm gonna break his leg" but that isn't what you're actually doing, you're just making them hurt for kicking you. Breaking your shin in half rarely ever happens and if it was an actual technique it would happen in kickboxing and muay thai fights on a daily basis.

 

[THECYNDlCATE]

tell me about it.

I can honestly say that i have never been more bothered and disgusted by posting on sherdog. I like weidman, i think he is a great guy and champion so it's not like i want him to lose or hate him.. But all this discussion about a shin break being on purpose has gone to show me how truly uneducated this forum is and proves that literally maybe 5% of this forum has even stepped foot into a striking gym. Checking with a knee hurts your opponent sometimes ya, it happens by accident in training all the time. You go to check a kick but don't get your leg up fast enough, guess what? It hits your knee sometimes that is just reality. "checking kicks" is not a game plan, it is how you block a kick. A professional fighter shouldn't have to gameplan blocking a strike, that is like saying "my game plan is to block getting punched in the face", no it is not a game plan it is an expectation of any fighter.

I like chris and am happy to see him be the champion, but claiming he broke his shin on purpose is literally the dumbest thing i have ever read here, let alone from someone who writes articles like jack slack who i usually respect. There is such a thing as hard blocking where you purposely try to hit their shin when you check my leaning hard into it to make them pay for their kick, i have done that in fights to guys who like to low kick a lot, but you aren't do it with the intention of breaking their shin in half, that is just a crock of shit, you can't plan for that.

Jesus christ people.

thank you.

 

[Deleted member 347815]

I think you misunderstood the piece if you think that he's saying Weidman broke the shin on purpose. What he said was that Weidman purposefully used the correct technique, and a rare byproduct of doing that correctly can be a shin break to your opponent. I don't think anyone's suggesting that he did it with the intent of doing so.

It's like if you slam someone, you're not doing it to try and ko them.. but if you do it well, on rare occasion you can. No one says Rampage was lucky for ko'ing Arona, or Tito over Tanner etc..

No I understand that and I am agreeing 100% that he didn't just check the kick to lessen impact that he tried to hurt Anderson with the check (something that is not new at all and many fighters including myself have done it). I am arguing against the sherdog posters who are claiming the shin break was on purpose and have gone as far as to claim it is a dirty technique.

 

[Amygdala]

Another really good, insightful article by Slack. Thanks for posting.

Sidenote: I like the subtle point he makes about Anderson not setting up his low kicks. Seems like -- and I could be wrong -- that in both fights, he underestimated Weidman and his teams' ability to gameplan for him.