Fighting on the Inside: offense

Badr Hari (img.from borilacki-klub.com)

Last time we discussed how to survive the onslaught of strikes when fighting on the inside, perhaps while being on the ropes. But what if you decide, you have had enough of being pressured on the inside and wanted to return the favour? This is what we are going to discuss here.

Getting inside

When trying to fight on the inside offensively, the footwork is an absolutely crucial element. Since getting inside of an opponent means that you have to somehow bypass their strikes while moving forwards, it needs to be done properly. One such way is to learn how to slip punches. When punch comes in slightly tilt upper body to dodge the strike. The tilt has to be very slight to allow quick recovery to strike back quickly. Also tighten up your guard on the side that is at risk should the slip fail. Once the punch has been slipped successfully move inside and you’re ready to fight on the inside. While moving in, it’s often a good idea to land first punch on the way in. Depending on slip, strike to ribs, or head is usually possible. Another powerful method of getting inside is to utilise good footwork. Move forwards with your jabs to push the opponent onto the ropes and get inside by either just moving in, or parrying opponent’s punch and then moving in. To make this strategy even more effective, try to move in such way to force opponent into corner. This is a bit like pushing a crate. If you stand in front of crate and push, you will push it forwards. However if you stand on right side of it and push, you will push it to the left, from the initial point of view. Also make good use of rule set specific methods, such as Thai clinch or kick catches. Once in clinch, you can push opponent onto the ropes. Or if you catch kick, you can dish out few punches before moving in, or even throwing their leg to side and move in with a big knee.

Once inside

Once inside, a lot of rules from defensive fighting on the inside still apply, however there are few differences. While in defensive situation, you would stand with legs side by side with one leading only slightly, in offensive situation, you should lead front leg a little bit more to make it harder for opponent to push back. Also, when inside make sure your guard is tight to deal with the pesky bob and weave from the opponent. Another difficulty while fighting on the inside is deciding on the power of the punches and their speed. While it is good idea to punch hard and increase chance of KO/TKO immensely, it makes you slower, therefore opponent has greater chance to escape. When it is beginning of fight with little chance of KO, you might lean towards speed to score more points and tire them out, whereas when it is late rounds, or high KO chance then go all out. For speed stand close to opponent and punch in same way as defender without fully following through and without fully twisting hips. If you are going for power, move back few inches while they are on ropes to give you some working space and start landing those big punches, fully following through and twisting your hips all the way. Also mix your punches to open up holes in their guard, such as right hook to open space for left uppercut when they lift hand to protect against hook. Another great advice is to never underestimate body strikes, as body is often left unprotected in favour of the head. This is a perfect opportunity for liver punches and big knees!

These are my main tips regarding the offence on the inside. I hope this will help you and of course if you have any tips or points you wish to discuss, you are more than welcome to comment! One thing to bear in mind is that this way of fighting inside constitutes for a very aggressive style.

Article written by: Hubert Bieluczyk

The Bane of Our Existence- The Bad Days

Hard Training (img. from boston.com)

We’ve all been through this. You come into the class. Warm up starts. Instructor shouts out 100 push ups! Easy peasy, you’ve done it like million times! However after 30 push ups you feel like you’re going to pass out. Jelly knees, weak muscles, tunnel vision and that hellish brain ‘fog’. Whilst we’ve all been there, there could be many underlying causes for this, most of which are not on medical grounds strictly speaking. I’ll outline few possible reasons and ways of preventing those crippling days.

1. Food type and timing- This is probably the most common reason for the bad days. You’ve just come back from school/uni/work, quickly make and eat that steak to be ready to start training in half an hour. You make it just in time, but you feel horrible right from beginning of the warm up. This actually has very good scientific explanation. Your body has two ‘modes’, the fight or flight mode and rest and digest mode. After ingesting large amount of food, you tend to start training right when body starts digesting food. Most of the blood is rerouted from muscles and brain to the stomach and intestine to aid digestion. This causes all the muscle weakness and light headedness. By eating food soon before training, you are essentially forcing your body to work in wrong mode! The best solution to the problem is to finish eating at least two hours before training in order to allow some time to at least partially complete digestion and ensure greater ‘working’ blood supply. Of course in this day and age, our hectic lives might not allow it, in which case the best idea is to eat something light before training, such as a banana, or cottage cheese. This doesn’t place as much stress on digestive system, allowing a better workout.
2. Daily activity level- This is another fairly common cause for bad training days. Our daily activity varies greatly during week between the midweek madness and weekend lay in. This has a paramount effect on our performance. The key here is to try moderate the activity levels and avoid vegging out on couch all day or splitting yourself into four to perform all your daily tasks. If you spend all day in front of TV with bag of crisps doing nothing, your body as well as mind become very sluggish, and training session gives body a massive shock and not enough time to adapt. Solution to this is quite simple and it is to either plan to do something productive or physically active to wake the brain and muscles up. If you really can’t think of anything, do a little cardio pre-warm up an hour before the actual training. The other end of spectrum is equally bad as you’ll be knackered before you even start. Here the solution is much harder to implement, as it means you have to slow down and resign from some other responsibilities. Another thing to try is to get bit of shut eye during transit (if it is safe to do so).
3. Not breathing during exercise- This sounds silly, but it is just insane how often we forget to breathe during the intense moments of the workout. If you don’t breathe your cells are not getting enough oxygen for aerobic respiration and your body quickly shuts down on you. Check your breathing during any workout paying most attention when throwing combinations, be it on bag or pads. Breathe out vigorously with every punch, kick knee or elbow thrown. This clever trick, not only makes your strikes more powerful by reducing the slight resistance given by air filled lungs during the movement, it also forces you to breathe in soon after the punch, ensuring the continuity of air supply.
4. Medical Conditions-Various medical conditions and illnesses can be significant factors contributing to your bad training day. Even common cold will significantly reduce your performance and increase risk of injury by placing additional stress on your body rerouting resources to immune system. Therefore keeping yourself healthy is always a good idea. Another condition that can majorly affect your performance is insomnia. It puts additional stress on your body by not allowing proper recovery and also affects your brain activity even after one rough night. There are various way of treating persistent insomnia from perfect sleep hygiene and melatonin tablets to prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines. Of course seek an advice of a doctor before commencing any treatment and be aware that most sleeping pills are benzodiazepines which are banned by many sport regulatory bodies such as the NCAA.

These are 4 most common reasons for bad training days, however if you believe the cause could be much more serious (such as heart problems), never hesitate to seek advice from your doctor. What are your most common reasons for bad training days, have I missed anything out? Let me know in comments!

Article written by: Hubert Bieluczyk.

The Almighty Wallop- How To Increase The Power Of Your Punch

img. from http://img.youtube.com/vi/g-478QGV9pc/0.jpg Tyson’s Punch!

Firstly I wish to apologize to all readers for my 1 year long absence, however I had few things going on in my life, meaning I could not devote the time necessary to run the blog, however now I am back, hopefully stronger than ever!

Now isn’t it a dream of every fighter, to possess that Tyson-esque punching power, sending opponents to sleep with one punch? Of course it is! Many fighters have different ways of increasing their punch power and we will outline the few main ways of increasing the power of your fists.

1. Increase the size of your muscles- Now this seems like a no brainer, bigger muscles are able to generate more power, leading to harder punches! However, while doing this we must take the fact that our weight will increase with the muscle size into consideration. This is of paramount importance in competitive fighting, where there are weight classes. Also be sure to bulk up all muscle groups, as most punches utilise the entire body and thus power transfer happens across most major muscle groups. Working on just triceps, will not increase the power of jabs and crosses until other groups, such as back muscles and core also bulk up.
2. Develop functional strength- It is crucial to make sure the increased muscle size translates into harder punches by training your functional strength. If someone works out just on weight machines, the movement happens on single plane every time and same fibres are activated every time, which may not necessarily be the ones required by punches, therefore adding functional strength exercises to your regime is a must. Rope climbs, towel pull ups and heavy bag work are a great start, as these exercises work different muscles on different planes every time, promoting the muscle’s efficiency. Of course heavy bag work might include punching it, which of course is a great way to improve punches.
3. Improve your punching technique- This is probably the most important and efficient way of increasing the punching power. Punches were designed by various martial arts and fighting systems to be as effective and as injury free (to the thrower) as they can be, therefore following the technique precisely will yield greater power. For example moving the hips through the hook punch and twisting the foot right way will yield much bigger force on impact, than arm-punching without engaging the body or legs.
4. Tactic- While this strictly speaking does not increase the absolute punch power, utilising punching in clever ways will help you increase the impact your punch has on the opponent. Firstly punch in a way that your opponent is always moving towards your punch, if opponent moves to your left throw left hook! This causes additional impact due to opponent basically ‘walking in’ on the punch. Another trick is to strike vulnerable areas. Hook to jaw hinge will hurt opponent significantly more than hook to temple. Examples of areas to aim for include tip of the jaw, nose, liver, and groin (self-defence only!).

So, these are few ways of increasing your punch power. Of course most of these tips also apply to other strikes such as kicks, knees and elbows! Do you have any other ways to increase your striking power? Comment below!

 Article written by: Hubert Bieluczyk

Hooking punch: a valid technique or waste of time?

 

image from xfilexplore.com

Hooking punch is probably the most common punch. It is frequently used all over the globe, be it in boxing, kick boxing or MMA. In fact even on the streets it is most commonly albeit poorly applied. Surely it must be a valid technique as it has led to countless knock outs and broken jaws. Yet there are many who are screaming that hooking punches must never be used. Many people believe straight punches are way to go due to their speed and control. Let’s explore this matter further.

Hooking punch is a powerful punch that applies momentum gained from rotation of entire body to the target, usually the opponent’s jaw, temple or torso. This punch with little bit of practice can be correctly executed and incorporated into some combinations. Of course much greater amount of practice is required to truly master it. It’s probably the technique’s relative ease of use and its high power delivery that has made it a first choice in street brawls. Here are some knock outs achieved with the hooking punches.

Uploaded by MrBumboclart

However the punch’s ease of use and power don’t come without disadvantages. While the punch is easy to use it’s just as easy to misuse. It’s poor and sloppy execution has led to countless broken fingers, thumbs and torn biceps muscles especially in street fights. Hooking punch is practiced most commonly on bag or pads while wearing gloves. This may lead to martial artist developing bad habits such as punching with finger joints other than knuckles just to increase range slightly. While this is less likely to injure the punch thrower if he, or she is wearing gloves it will certainly cause some nasty consequences if applied without gloves. Also the hooking punch travels in circular motion, rendering it much slower than punches travelling in straight line. This is probably the main reason why some may discredit validity of the punch. However we have to bear in mind that this punch was never meant to be used for stalling opponent’s techniques, but as a part of combination or surprise element, where need for speed is outweighed by the need of knockout power.  It is like saying shooting for take down is not valid as lifting knee to opponent’s face is faster.

I believe that while the hooking punch has numerous disadvantages compared to straight punch, it is a perfectly valid technique in the ring as well as on the street if executed correctly. It is packing more power but sacrifices speed. Like any technique it has its advantages as well as disadvantages and it is not what punch you use but how you use it.

I’d love to hear and discuss your views on this topic regardless whether they agree with mine or not.

Article written by Hubert Bieluczyk