tips on adapting my striking for mixed martial arts

[blanko]

also if your in an mma match, u can't just apply wrestling footwork to mma; yeah u might not be looking to strike, but ur in an mma match u have to be prepared to strike and/or def strikes..

so while your footwork is fine in regards to wrestling, judo, etc; it is detrimental and below par in regards to striking and/or mma.

that goes both ways. you can't say "wrestling footwork is bad for mma because it's not wrestling" and then say "striking footwork is good for mma".. It's MIXED MARTIAL ARTS you need to find the RIGHT KIND of footwork for your mma.

 

[RJ Powell**]

I'm starting to think maybe MMA has it's own type of footwork. It is being refined more and more with every fight and training session.

 

[blanko]

bingo!

 

[devante]

that goes both ways. you can't say "wrestling footwork is bad for mma because it's not wrestling" and then say "striking footwork is good for mma".. It's MIXED MARTIAL ARTS you need to find the RIGHT KIND of footwork for your mma.

in my first post, im not hating on wrestling footwork; all im saying is if u can't do certain things cut off the cage, get away from punches when an opp presses u, not back up in a straight line, get into a diff angle so u can get ur opp out of position and catch him. If u can't do those things, ur footwork isn't all that good; or if u can't get a takedown when an opp is sticking and moving, UNTIL they stop moving..then ur footwork isn't good. Good footwork can breakdown or neutralize good footwork or at least make u competitive; if that isn't the case, then ur footowork sucks compared to ur opp.

i was just making the point that just cus ur footwork is strong in one are, takedowns doesn't make it stronger in another..

an most strikers footwork has to be more balanced because they have to know how to def against strikes, as well as takedowns; alot of grapplers have good enough footwork to def grappling, but can't seem to adj it to intelligently def or get away from strikes.

edwards, cro cop schilt machida horodecki stout noons davis taylor-all have shown good footwork in that they can def strikes; an have shown the ability to def (sprawl, step back, stepout, spin out) against wrestlers/grapplers. Most grapplers/wrestlers haven't shown as much success or skill in maintaining dist, taking away angles, outpositioning opp, stepping out, etc when an opp is aggressive or effective w/their strikes; when they get hit, most of them shoot or clinch, but can't do the other stuff.

theoretically we are making the same point-im not arguing, just focusing on a particular aspect....

thanks for intelligent and well thought out responses

 

[devante]

I'm starting to think maybe MMA has it's own type of footwork. It is being refined more and more with every fight and training session.

true, but its like striking or grappling; you can't just lump it together, to be good to grow u have to develop it specifically and put it together. U don't have to be the best striker or grappler; but to become eff in mma u have to be able to increase ur skill/conditioning in those individual disciplines and then put it all together.

the biggest mistake is when a fighter tries to use the mma way, i.e. not learn how to strike or grapple correctly, instead they try to mma grapple and strike which only works when u have dev those skills individually w/in their own environments and ruleset; then u make the necessary adj to ur style, strategy and selection of tech.

ex-jens beats alot of guys standing cus he is the better striker/cleaner boxer cus he developed his boxing/striking independent of mma, then made it fit w/in the context of mma.

or penn/sherk-sherk had decent mma boxing; but obv hadn't dev his pure boxing, had he done so he would have put on a better whowing instead of lunging/missing and then eating jabs and one/two's. Had sherk shown more dedication to his BOXING, he might have had some success on the feet, done some damage and opened up td opp; but he lacked that polish and we saw the end result

 

[OwMyArm]

DISCLAIMER!!!!: I have only fought 1 MMA bout....... Got my ass kicked! However, this was the advice I would have given myself prior to my ass whipping! I fought a wrestler who laid on me the entire time, never really hurt me, just held me down the whole damn time....... As much as I would like to talk shit, he still got a W vs my L....... Either way, I have started working alot harder on my wrestling/BJJ, maybe another mma bout is in the future?

How does this help him with his striking? all you do is say you got your ass kicked, then tell us the guy layed on you the whole time
here's a cookie

 

[millasur]

in a cage the ability to "sprawl" is not that significant because you get pused to the fence and taken down.

Exactamundo! you have to make your opponent pay for his takedown attempts. This is one of the reasons i want knees to the head, the lack of them allows wrestlsers to just hang on one leg for dear life.

Again then, I'll ask (not being confrontational, I just know there are peopel with many many years more experience and frankly I'm a grappling noob, I have only trained MT) OBVIOUSLY every situation is different, and right now I can't think of any exact fighters off my head - but... fighter single legs, opp sprawls, and they kind of hop step until the defending fighter is pushed up against the cage. There a 'stalemate' forms, where the takedown guy can't get enough leverage or correct position,but the defender can't manoeuvre to a good enough position to capitalise. Is this not the perfect time for use of bodyweight by the person up against the cage to shift the opp to a position ofr judo trip? Or is that difficult because the fighter holding the leg is in such a low centre of gravity position with a strong base ?

And if it were allowed, (for the purposes of discussion) if someone had a single leg on you would you be able to knee them in the head? How risky would it be? You'd have to jump and throw all yhour weight into the knee and hopefully take out the opp. BUT, if that didn't happen, you'd have just levered yourself up into a prime position for the fighter taking you down to literally slam you hard? (ala rampage style).

Alternatively, what about downward cutting elbows from defending the single leg? Elbows to the exposed side of the head, or down into the traps. I understand that in practice all of this stuff is a lot more difficult, like when I have friends watching UFC with me and they see grappling on the floor they make throwaway comments - 'well why doesn't he just turn and roll out of it' or something, when in reality the position is DESIGNED to control, which is what they don't understand (the basic guard for example).

What about WRESTLER vs BJJ + Judoka expert? Cos judo is about leverage, but wrestling is about leverage and explosive power. If the judo player was good enough, couldn't they simply reverse or 'over commit' the wrestler in all their takedown attempts? Or at least, use that to their advantage as they know the wrestler will attempt to do certain things.

thanks

 

[chewabacca]

I find that the most important thing is point your hips toward your opponent and stand wider.

Both will slightly compromise your striking but seeing as you havent been wrestling long this will make defending takedowns alot easier.

Also, keep your guard tighter, i've seen a 80-9 amatuer boxer picked apart by a grappler in standup just because his punches with the "baby gloves" were getting through his guard.

Just go to mma occasionally rather than just BJJ/wrestling and spar full mma and you will iron out your problems and with such a strong stand-up background you will be KOing people left right and centre.

hope i helped