Wrestler needs striking

SteelHammer said:
wouldn't being a wrestler make it less dangerous for him to be taken to the ground, because he already has a ground game?
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Pure wrestlers have absolutely no idea what to do on their backs. They never train there.

Dave Rottenberg, the legendary high school coach in our town, put up a sign on the wrestling room ceiling:
"If you can read this, then you're in trouble."
 
Try out different styles and see which one works for you.
Don't lock yourself into a 'only MT or boxing' mentality.
 
you should practice stand up fighting as a whole

punches, kicks, knees, elbows, clinching

see what you are good at and go from there. this whole boxing vs MT argument is fucking retarded
 
It's hard for me to choose one because they both so good.

If you choose Muay Thai make sure your instructor teaches you some defensive manuevers like how to block punches and manuever out of a corner if you get trapped there. My boxing training gave me a good feel for defence and how to stay out of harms way. Knowing how to not get hit is arguably the most important part of stand up fighting.
 
Since you live in the US, I would say boxing. The US has plenty of legitimate boxing gyms but very few in the muay thai department. Also try to get some amateur boxing bouts if you can. A problem I constantly see in mma is wrestlers who think they know how to strike but when their in a fight and as soon as they get hit they think wrestling. The only way you're going to truely improve your striking is to compete in a sport where all you can do is strike.
 
felix748 said:
I've been wrestling collegiate and freestyle full-time for 4 years now and now I've decided to start practicing Mixed Martial Arts. I don't really have any striking technique and was wondering which striking system I should focus on.
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You should definitely start with boxing. It is the foundation of all "standup" fighting. It teaches you PROPER footwork, PROPER head movement, PROPER punching mechanics. It is the basis of of it all. Please, if you want to do really well, start with boxing. MMA fighters lack in this area so much that it is sad.

Muay Thai is not a bad form of martial arts. They just don't teach you good fundamentals. If you started with boxing and then went to Muay Thai, you'd do a lot better.

That's what I have done and I have an immense advantage over most guys in my gym because I am so light on my feet and understand how to create angles to punch.

I say boxing and then transition to muay thai.
 
You could also look at other wrestlers who have had to make the same transition. I think Belcher is a wreslter who favors muay thai , Hendo favors boxing etc..There are plenty of examples out there. It depends on what you feel comfortable with.
 
austinlarg said:
You should definitely start with boxing. It is the foundation of all "standup" fighting. It teaches you PROPER footwork, PROPER head movement, PROPER punching mechanics. It is the basis of of it all. Please, if you want to do really well, start with boxing. MMA fighters lack in this area so much that it is sad.

Muay Thai is not a bad form of martial arts. They just don't teach you good fundamentals. If you started with boxing and then went to Muay Thai, you'd do a lot better.

That's what I have done and I have an immense advantage over most guys in my gym because I am so light on my feet and understand how to create angles to punch.

I say boxing and then transition to muay thai.
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they teach good fundamental muay thai

jesus christ do you people even read what you post?
 
austinlarg said:
You should definitely start with boxing. It is the foundation of all "standup" fighting. It teaches you PROPER footwork, PROPER head movement, PROPER punching mechanics. It is the basis of of it all. Please, if you want to do really well, start with boxing. MMA fighters lack in this area so much that it is sad.

Muay Thai is not a bad form of martial arts. They just don't teach you good fundamentals. If you started with boxing and then went to Muay Thai, you'd do a lot better.

That's what I have done and I have an immense advantage over most guys in my gym because I am so light on my feet and understand how to create angles to punch.

I say boxing and then transition to muay thai.
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MMA fighters lack proper fundamentals and proper technique because they're lacking the proper training. Not because muay thai lacks it.
 
Craftster said:
MMA fighters lack proper fundamentals and proper technique because they're lacking the proper training. Not because muay thai lacks it.
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These are professionals that you're talking about who I would believe get some decent training... Are you saying that every single professional athlete in mma that trains thai boxing is training it in the wrong way?

I would not say that Muay Thai has no foot work, it is simply less mobile and different from boxing.

I would not pick a place to train based on the art that they are teaching, but rather pick an art based on the place that's teaching it .
 
Madmick said:
From what I know of (and have seen) of San Shou, it's not a bad complement to an MMA regimen, but it would take the place of Judo/Greco or some other throwing art that deals a lot in the clinch.
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Some valid points but I would have to say I disagree with this one due to the rule set of san shou. There is a 3 second clinch break so there isn't too much clinching. Of course it depends on where you train as well. I find that san shou's strong point is using a lot of leg catches and blending punches with takedowns.
 
Well, by no means am I an expert, but I would say focus on what works for you. For example, do you wanna' be like Liddell and Crocop? Or like Lutter? Or like Couture or Hughes? Little bit of everything possibly? If I were you, I would find an MMA school personally instead of a straight-up boxing or muay thai gym, because as a wrestler, you may think you know the ground game, but MMA Grappling is a different kind of animal. Sure, sometimes you can just slam someone to escape a triangle choke, but guess what. If he doesn't let go after that, the choke will usually get even tighter. But, if you do wanna' focus strictly on stand-up, I would say muay thai cuz the transition's easier.
 
As a practioner on kyokushin karate it almost hurts to say this, but do boxing. It teaches you more about movement, distancing and parrying of blows than many martial arts will. Dont neglect kicks ( they work great as body blows or wear down moves) practice them on a heavy bag regulary, round kick and front kick to leg height, body height, and head height and throw them out there dureing your MMA sparring. But do boxing. Saw a boxer cream a martial artist in a match where the martial artist could kick, punch, elbow, knee etc and the boxer could just punch. He was just too quick and landed too many blows too fast and avoided and blocked most of what was comming. I practoce kyokushin karate, a good striking art. But im damn sure gonna do boxing to round off my hand work.
 
72Chambers said:
These are professionals that you're talking about who I would believe get some decent training... Are you saying that every single professional athlete in mma that trains thai boxing is training it in the wrong way?

I would not say that Muay Thai has no foot work, it is simply less mobile and different from boxing.

I would not pick a place to train based on the art that they are teaching, but rather pick an art based on the place that's teaching it .
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I wouldn't say all of them but most of them, you can see it in their clinch game. The muay thai training in the US right know is crap with only a handful of legitimate trainers.
 
San shou, its the new thing on the block. It much more open and helps you learn boxing and kicking with much more flexibility in what you want to bring to the table. most importantly, it helps you learn how to strike to close the distance so you can grapple.

try it if you have a club in your area.
 
There is no one road to MMA. Its mixed martial arts, and whatever mix you want to have is up to you.

Its up to you to find what styles suit you best, and what you want to spend the most time and money on. Your best bet is probably look at the gyms in your areas, and find which ones have the best instructors and go with that gym.
 
Wow, I left for awhile and I didn't expect to get this much feedback haha. I've been watching a lot of MMA and I understand that I need to expand my grappling to be good on the ground and I know I'll need more than MT or boxing to do well in MMA but I have no striking game at all right now and I think it's important that I look to work on that right now.
I've been looking at gyms in my area and I've found one that offers both boxing and muay thai classes and it looks legit so I'm going to give it a shot over there. I never imagined that I'd get all this feedback but thank you everyone for your advice. I'll consider everything you guys said here as I move forward with my striking training
 
Congrats on finding a gym, bro. I can now officially designate you "non-wannabe". Come back and tell us how much of a blast it is.
 
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