- Joined
- Feb 22, 2005
- Messages
- 48,469
- Reaction score
- 15,074
So one of the most recent questions around here lately has been "how do I get hit without ______?" Be it pissing the pants, panicking, losing the tempter, closing the eyes, etc. I thought I'd give my perspective on the matter, because it's arguably the hardest thing an intelligent adult male can face in the ring. That is, to resolve to take damage and be alright with it. And there are things that can make it easier. First, let's begin with the do's and dont's.
DON'T: Be tense. Flexing is bad and wrong. So is erratic movement. If you're all flexed-up and edgy, you're burning energy and you're going to be gassed before you know it. When you're tired, everything hurts more.
DO: Be loose. My trainer says there's a difference between loose and relaxed. When you're relaxed you can be caught day-dreaming, when you're loose you're mind and eyes are alert, but your shoulders aren't flexed up and your movements aren't erratic.
DON'T: Run or jump. Jumping is not only silly, but it's wasteful and it lets your opponent know where you're going. Guys like Roy Jones Jr. could get away with it, and maybe you're the next RJJ, but there's a 99% chance you're not. So stop jumping. Running is also not good, don't back-pedal to the point of cowardice, you'll only end up somewhere and be twice as tired once you're there and getting hit.
DO: Step and slide. Stepping and sliding makes life easier. I'd even argue for MMA that the "explosive" movement learned in Wrestling can be modified to be a bit more loose and compact as opposed to big and powerful. When you're circling your opponent, small steps rule, sliding movement rule.
DON'T: Swing. Swinging your punches uses way too much energy. By swing I mean with your arms. This is something I'm in the process of really refining, as I tend to arm-punch when moving at full speed. It doesn't accomplish much save for by me time, and I don't want to just buy time with my punches. Neither do you.
DO: Twist. Learning to twist your body with your strikes will give you offense and defense at the same time, and you won't have to burn energy doing one or the other as hard as you can. I'm learning to twist as opposed to swing, and it's working out well.
DON'T: Panic and guess. Frightening yourself leads to guessing how to get out of it. Guessing usually doesn't work in Combat. It leads to getting hit with unexpected shit, which is far more painful than anticipated shit. Part of guessing is when a guy closes his eyes and throws a punch, that's a panic and guess all in one. But what you're liable to get hit back with by the guy who keeps his eyes forward and anticipates your shot, will be what ends the Fight. I've only ever seen one guy in Boxing get away with closing his eyes on the Elite level, and no one here is Marco Antonio Barrera.
DO: Be alert and think. Thinking is the opposite of guessing in Combat the way I see it. If I'm thinking and you're guessing, I'm in control. Even if you throw over 100 guesses at me in a 3 minute round, I'm liable to land more of my 80 thoughts than your 100+ guesses. Get my meaning? Don't lose your head. Wait for the other guy to do that and you'll coast.
DON'T: Hope. If you go to the Gym and you "hope" you don't get your ass whooped that day, just don't go in and save yourself the trouble.
DO: Decide. If you go to the Gym and have decided that you'll learn from even the most grave possible outcome of the impending ass-whoopin', you'll be alright. You might even find yourself able to think when you're over-matched, as opposed to guessing. A long time ago Josh Barnett got beaten up by Pedro Rizzo, right? (I think it was Rizzo.) Back when Josh was fatter and in the UFC. But Josh gave Rizzo a lot of trouble, because he decided to go into that Fight thinking, not hoping.
Methods of practice:
There are actually ways to train this up that don't necessarily require hard sparring, though that is the ultimate training tool. Here's some ones if you're just starting out.
Ring/Cage tag: The little Ugandan speedster who tore me apart showed me this. What you do is one person starts out trying to touch the other person. Gut, shoulders, chest, those are fair game. You can use your open hands to block, or you can use your footwork. It's actually very fun when you get up to full speed, and you learn how to function with your heart-rate high, adrenaline pumping, and someone trying to touch you while you try to get away from it, within the confines of the ring or cage.
Touch-and-run: In Boxing, Jesse Reid (World Class trainer) is notorious for having his younger budding Fighters do a lot of this exercise. It's almost like partnered Shadowboxing, only light touches and taps are allowed. Full speed, minimal power. This gets you used to punches coming at you, and tends to be faster than just light sparring. Plus, minus the gear, the feel of threat is a bit heightened.
Playing defense: Occasionally do rounds of only defense in your lighter sparring sessions. Put yourself in corners and let your opponent run off numbers, keep your defenses up but really look at the guy while he unloads. See the openings, the ways out, the ways around. Concentrate on just seeing them, and staying loose, not tensing up.
Full power to the body: This is another one that's used by old school trainers because of how it almost always goes down. It almost always leads to in-Fighting, where panic can be at it's highest. And almost always accidentally someone will get popped in the mouth, at which point everything stops, and you decide it's okay. That decision is what has to be made more rapidly in live sparring or harder sparring.
Take a full round of whoopin': One of the guys I sparred with routinely was very very experienced. Every time I ever saw him spar other people who tried to maul him, he did next to nothing for the first round. But that's not the case, he was always watching, paying attention, seeing how the other guy moved, and realizing how much energy it took to handle the storm from each particular guy. Once he had that figured out he'd start to fight back, more times than not he'd end up dropping the guy eventually. Rashad Evans is one of the few MMA guys who understands what a "feeling out" round is and how to use it right. But in sparring it's a valuable tool. If you don't know the guy, give yourself a round to feel him out, let him think he's getting over on you, but watch for his flaws, he's bound to have some.
Now in-terms of the movement techniques I named, those you'll have to ask your own Coaches about. I've had to learn this the hard way myself. In the thread asking who the best Fighters were we sparred with I named a guy, Rodge Gorman. He was the most physical person I'd ever gotten in with. Watch how he Fights:
And here's a small HL:
He got the better of me a bit, and my trainer always said the same thing. "Ya kno' 'e comin' right atcha...ya kno' what 'e gunna do." One of the last times we worked in the last round I was pretty tired and fought mostly off the ropes because as you see, he bowls right into you when he can. But my trainer said it was the best round I'd ever had against him. Out of all the ones I did, it was the only one where I wasn't concerned with getting hit so much as I was responding.
I also spar a Mexican kid a lot who is like Rodge only slower and more steady. He puts A LOT of pressure on, hardly ever backs up, and doesn't really feel pain. I only do well when I just keep calm, utilize the things mentioned above, and pick apart at the flaws he does have. Here's how that looks:
That was the 4th and 5th rounds and I'd already sparred another guy. So I was a bit fatigued and my main concern was keeping him respectful. Staying calm and keeping my cool worked out well, particularly in the closing moments of the rounds.
Hope that helps.
DON'T: Be tense. Flexing is bad and wrong. So is erratic movement. If you're all flexed-up and edgy, you're burning energy and you're going to be gassed before you know it. When you're tired, everything hurts more.
DO: Be loose. My trainer says there's a difference between loose and relaxed. When you're relaxed you can be caught day-dreaming, when you're loose you're mind and eyes are alert, but your shoulders aren't flexed up and your movements aren't erratic.
DON'T: Run or jump. Jumping is not only silly, but it's wasteful and it lets your opponent know where you're going. Guys like Roy Jones Jr. could get away with it, and maybe you're the next RJJ, but there's a 99% chance you're not. So stop jumping. Running is also not good, don't back-pedal to the point of cowardice, you'll only end up somewhere and be twice as tired once you're there and getting hit.
DO: Step and slide. Stepping and sliding makes life easier. I'd even argue for MMA that the "explosive" movement learned in Wrestling can be modified to be a bit more loose and compact as opposed to big and powerful. When you're circling your opponent, small steps rule, sliding movement rule.
DON'T: Swing. Swinging your punches uses way too much energy. By swing I mean with your arms. This is something I'm in the process of really refining, as I tend to arm-punch when moving at full speed. It doesn't accomplish much save for by me time, and I don't want to just buy time with my punches. Neither do you.
DO: Twist. Learning to twist your body with your strikes will give you offense and defense at the same time, and you won't have to burn energy doing one or the other as hard as you can. I'm learning to twist as opposed to swing, and it's working out well.
DON'T: Panic and guess. Frightening yourself leads to guessing how to get out of it. Guessing usually doesn't work in Combat. It leads to getting hit with unexpected shit, which is far more painful than anticipated shit. Part of guessing is when a guy closes his eyes and throws a punch, that's a panic and guess all in one. But what you're liable to get hit back with by the guy who keeps his eyes forward and anticipates your shot, will be what ends the Fight. I've only ever seen one guy in Boxing get away with closing his eyes on the Elite level, and no one here is Marco Antonio Barrera.
DO: Be alert and think. Thinking is the opposite of guessing in Combat the way I see it. If I'm thinking and you're guessing, I'm in control. Even if you throw over 100 guesses at me in a 3 minute round, I'm liable to land more of my 80 thoughts than your 100+ guesses. Get my meaning? Don't lose your head. Wait for the other guy to do that and you'll coast.
DON'T: Hope. If you go to the Gym and you "hope" you don't get your ass whooped that day, just don't go in and save yourself the trouble.
DO: Decide. If you go to the Gym and have decided that you'll learn from even the most grave possible outcome of the impending ass-whoopin', you'll be alright. You might even find yourself able to think when you're over-matched, as opposed to guessing. A long time ago Josh Barnett got beaten up by Pedro Rizzo, right? (I think it was Rizzo.) Back when Josh was fatter and in the UFC. But Josh gave Rizzo a lot of trouble, because he decided to go into that Fight thinking, not hoping.
Methods of practice:
There are actually ways to train this up that don't necessarily require hard sparring, though that is the ultimate training tool. Here's some ones if you're just starting out.
Ring/Cage tag: The little Ugandan speedster who tore me apart showed me this. What you do is one person starts out trying to touch the other person. Gut, shoulders, chest, those are fair game. You can use your open hands to block, or you can use your footwork. It's actually very fun when you get up to full speed, and you learn how to function with your heart-rate high, adrenaline pumping, and someone trying to touch you while you try to get away from it, within the confines of the ring or cage.
Touch-and-run: In Boxing, Jesse Reid (World Class trainer) is notorious for having his younger budding Fighters do a lot of this exercise. It's almost like partnered Shadowboxing, only light touches and taps are allowed. Full speed, minimal power. This gets you used to punches coming at you, and tends to be faster than just light sparring. Plus, minus the gear, the feel of threat is a bit heightened.
Playing defense: Occasionally do rounds of only defense in your lighter sparring sessions. Put yourself in corners and let your opponent run off numbers, keep your defenses up but really look at the guy while he unloads. See the openings, the ways out, the ways around. Concentrate on just seeing them, and staying loose, not tensing up.
Full power to the body: This is another one that's used by old school trainers because of how it almost always goes down. It almost always leads to in-Fighting, where panic can be at it's highest. And almost always accidentally someone will get popped in the mouth, at which point everything stops, and you decide it's okay. That decision is what has to be made more rapidly in live sparring or harder sparring.
Take a full round of whoopin': One of the guys I sparred with routinely was very very experienced. Every time I ever saw him spar other people who tried to maul him, he did next to nothing for the first round. But that's not the case, he was always watching, paying attention, seeing how the other guy moved, and realizing how much energy it took to handle the storm from each particular guy. Once he had that figured out he'd start to fight back, more times than not he'd end up dropping the guy eventually. Rashad Evans is one of the few MMA guys who understands what a "feeling out" round is and how to use it right. But in sparring it's a valuable tool. If you don't know the guy, give yourself a round to feel him out, let him think he's getting over on you, but watch for his flaws, he's bound to have some.
Now in-terms of the movement techniques I named, those you'll have to ask your own Coaches about. I've had to learn this the hard way myself. In the thread asking who the best Fighters were we sparred with I named a guy, Rodge Gorman. He was the most physical person I'd ever gotten in with. Watch how he Fights:
And here's a small HL:
He got the better of me a bit, and my trainer always said the same thing. "Ya kno' 'e comin' right atcha...ya kno' what 'e gunna do." One of the last times we worked in the last round I was pretty tired and fought mostly off the ropes because as you see, he bowls right into you when he can. But my trainer said it was the best round I'd ever had against him. Out of all the ones I did, it was the only one where I wasn't concerned with getting hit so much as I was responding.
I also spar a Mexican kid a lot who is like Rodge only slower and more steady. He puts A LOT of pressure on, hardly ever backs up, and doesn't really feel pain. I only do well when I just keep calm, utilize the things mentioned above, and pick apart at the flaws he does have. Here's how that looks:
That was the 4th and 5th rounds and I'd already sparred another guy. So I was a bit fatigued and my main concern was keeping him respectful. Staying calm and keeping my cool worked out well, particularly in the closing moments of the rounds.
Hope that helps.
