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I was sparring a guy the other day who must have done some kind of knock down karate or something. We were sparring in a narrow part of the crowded mat where there wasn't room for side to side movement unless we wanted to go into the weights or heavy bags.
He hit really hard and was way faster than me. He could bounce in, hit or kick me, and back up before I could counter, and he was hitting me pretty fucking hard.
Unfortunately for him, the reason that he was so fast is because I outweighed him by about 80 pounds (260 vs. 180) and he was not able to take ground or drive me back. I never stepped back.
I knew he couldn't clinch or grapple. I would have smothered him if he got to close. So this is how it went. He would step in and hit me, then step back. I would step forward. He would react by stepping back. Hit me or not, each time we engaged he lost ground. I was able to back him into the wall at will and when he was forced to trade hits he lost every time.
It was a pretty realistic set up when you think about it. It is easier to fight someone with infinite room to move around. In that situation though, he didn't have that luxury. He HAD to engage me at some point and he wasn't equipped for it.
While it goes against the normal martial arts practices of controlling the range, cutting angles, picking clashes, and so on and on, none of that was possible and I wonder if that is a major cause of martial artists losing fights with ordinary people.
Is blitzing, trading blows in close, clinching and in fighting, and straight up brawling more important for SD than being good at moving around the ring, or at least as important? I understand that those things (brawling and infighting) seem base and are less fun for most people to train. I don't think there is a way around it if you want to be good.
He hit really hard and was way faster than me. He could bounce in, hit or kick me, and back up before I could counter, and he was hitting me pretty fucking hard.
Unfortunately for him, the reason that he was so fast is because I outweighed him by about 80 pounds (260 vs. 180) and he was not able to take ground or drive me back. I never stepped back.
I knew he couldn't clinch or grapple. I would have smothered him if he got to close. So this is how it went. He would step in and hit me, then step back. I would step forward. He would react by stepping back. Hit me or not, each time we engaged he lost ground. I was able to back him into the wall at will and when he was forced to trade hits he lost every time.
It was a pretty realistic set up when you think about it. It is easier to fight someone with infinite room to move around. In that situation though, he didn't have that luxury. He HAD to engage me at some point and he wasn't equipped for it.
While it goes against the normal martial arts practices of controlling the range, cutting angles, picking clashes, and so on and on, none of that was possible and I wonder if that is a major cause of martial artists losing fights with ordinary people.
Is blitzing, trading blows in close, clinching and in fighting, and straight up brawling more important for SD than being good at moving around the ring, or at least as important? I understand that those things (brawling and infighting) seem base and are less fun for most people to train. I don't think there is a way around it if you want to be good.