[Tease T Tickle]

Since I mentioned in another post that we need more threads like this, I thought I'd start one up. I picked the MMA forum because I didn't want to be pigeonholed into one style or one set of styles; I just want to do my best to answer any and all questions regarding striking in the martial arts. Think of this like Bushi's thread about BJJ or Bad Boy's thread about boxing, only with the mindset being for something like K-1 or the UFC (although we'll neglect everything the UFC entails).

For anyone who really wants to know, I feel I am qualified to do this because of my "jack-of-all-trades" experience. Starting at the age of seven, I have accumulated 4 years Tae Kwon Do, 2 years American Kenpo, 1 year Hapkido and 4 years (self-trained) Muay Thai. For the past two years, I have been working in what has come to be called The Lab, an egalitarian training studio run by myself, three former Detroit police officers and a former bouncer. Our goal has been to take everything that's possible and find out how to make it work. For the past year, I have been involved in unsanctioned no-holds-barred fights, obtaining a record of 9-3, eight of my nine wins came from knock outs.

Ask away.

[Kyorgi]

What were your losses from?

[Tapout95]

What combos do you train the most? Which seem the most effective in your fights? Thanks for taking the time to do this. Its great to have a source where their are so many experienced people out their to ask direct questions to. If only I had a spot to train that had the same.

[bamboo]

Heres a question that needs answering for so many.

Could you please go over the body mechanics of a jab and hook?

Too many people watch mma, buy a bag and start throwing combinations not knowing the simple basics behind this classic combo and usually even a basic strike.

-bamboo

[Tease T Tickle]

Originally Posted by Kyorgi

What were your losses from?

One was a guillotine choke, one was a knock out (I have no idea what technique he used) and the latest loss was when I submitted after getting cut open badly and bleeding into my eye. There's no ref stoppage, so I had to do it myself.

Originally Posted by Tapout95

What combos do you train the most? Which seem the most effective in your fights? Thanks for taking the time to do this. Its great to have a source where their are so many experienced people out their to ask direct questions to. If only I had a spot to train that had the same.

You're welcome. I do my best to be helpful, so it's only natural that I would attempt something like this. The single best combo I've ever used was a left jab-left hook combination I picked up watching Klitschko (spelling?) boxing matches. Virtually no one can pick up that hook, and if you have a solid, snappy jab, you can seriously rock somebody right off the bat with a very quick combination. That being said, the combo I practice the most is the dirt simple left jab-straight right; just about everything comes from the jab and the straight right is probably the most powerful punch in most people's bag of tricks. I also like to practice the overly flashy right roundhouse kick-left spinning back fist. I never use it, but it's fun to play with.

Originally Posted by bamboo

Heres a question that needs answering for so many.
Could you please go over the body mechanics of a jab and hook? Too many people watch mma, buy a bag and start throwing combinations not knowing the simple basics behind this classic combo and usually even a basic strike.

I could not agree more, especially with the hook. In even the professional fights, I see more people throwing haymakers or "roundhouse" punches than true hooks. That being said, though, my jab is much more like a JKD or Wing Chun lead hand strike than what most boxers have traditionally used. Anyway, I'll break it all down as best as I can. All of this will be assuming an orthodox boxing stance, which if you don't know the details of, you need to stop living under a rock.
The Lead Hand Strike:
Pushing off with the balls of the feet, twist your core clockwise until your left shoulder is perpendicular to your opponent's face. Slide your right hand, palm open, to catch any shots that may be thrown at your chin during the strike. With your shoulder in line, snap the arm to full extension as quickly as possible by letting the fist drop down by gravity at the same time as elevating the elbow to the level of the shoulder. Impact should be made with the first two knuckles, in a vertical orientation, at the nose. The aiming of the LHS is not important to the strike itself, but becomes important later when connecting other strikes off of it. The entire motion should be fluid and lightning fast, your body should be moving forward into the punch and you should retain enough of a stance to follow up immediately with another strike.

The Basic Hook:
I've found that the hook is most effective when thrown by the lead hand. I don't know if others would agree, but for the purposes of this mechanic, assume your hook is coming off of your lead (left) hand. Push very slightly forward with the ball of the rear foot, this is not for power generation it is for distancing. The lead foot should pivot clockwise until the toes and knee cap are pointing to 3 O'Clock. At this point, push in that direction off the ball of the lead foot while simultaneously rotating the core clockwise with the lead arm, level with the shoulder and bent at the elbow, fist horizontal. All of the power of the hook comes from the hip rotation and the arm, really, doesn't need to extend. The hook was developed as a close range punch and as such wasn't intended for full extension. Deviating the elbow and shoulder positions, even just a little bit, in the wrong direction can ruin the punch. Instead of extending the arm at the elbow, you should bring the entire arm in towards your chest with the pecs and anterior deltoids. The point of impact should be the corner of the chin or the ear. Your rear (rght) hand should be covering your lower face just like in the lead hand strike.

[Tapout95]

Thank you.

[lakan_sampu]

I've seen a video where Pat Miletich was showing some basics on how to defend against jabs into the face. His method was to "create a window between you and your opponent", wherein you slightly raise your guard several inches in front of your face and imagine this as a "window" and parry all the incoming jabs. how effective is this? Is there a jab aside from the ones that are aimed on the face? can you cite some tips on how to defend aginst them? Thank You....

[Tease T Tickle]

Well, I haven't seen the Miletech video, so I don't know specifically what he was advocating, but there are a few issues with the high hand guard. First and foremost, it makes defending bodyshots that much more difficult. In a format that includes non-punch strikes, the majority of knees will be to the body, several different kicking techniques aim at the body in addition to punches. Furthermore, if you're in a format that allows for any form of grappling, you need your arms lower than you think to help defend the takedown, get clinch position etc.

That being said, if you're not too worried about bodyshots or takedowns, or if your opponent's jab is tearing you apart, I suppose I can justify raising the guard higher. Really, this position by itself does not help defend the jab, especially if the plan is to parry the incoming jab, since it brings your hands farther away from the level at which the jab will be coming. The "window," as I imagine it, really just focus your visual attention on strikes coming down the middle and thus makes jabs (and straights) more readily detected. If you're keeping your guard lower, you're also looking at the whole picture, so to speak, so you might not react to the jab as quickly because your attention isn't focused on the interior enough. All of this in mind, experience and composure are better for this purpose than a higher guard.

To answer your other question, yes you can put the jab elsewhere than the center of the face. You can jab at the body, you can jab towards the outside of their guard, you can jab directly into their guarding arms and hands; this all depends on what other techniques you want to set up. For instance, throwing a jab purposefully wide of the guard and face may make your opponent think that protecting the middle is less important, leaving him open to a straight, uppercut or even something exotic like a flying knee. Unfortunately, it also has the tendency to expose more of your face, so you might eat a straight or hook, but if you're quick and tough you can capitalize on that, too. This is aggressively setting up the counter-punch, which is a rather esoteric notion, and requires much more extrapolation than I'm prepared to give here right now.

[dscott]

Originally Posted by lakan_sampu

I've seen a video where Pat Miletich was showing some basics on how to defend against jabs into the face. His method was to "create a window between you and your opponent", wherein you slightly raise your guard several inches in front of your face and imagine this as a "window" and parry all the incoming jabs. how effective is this? Is there a jab aside from the ones that are aimed on the face? can you cite some tips on how to defend aginst them? Thank You....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOqMYmAt6wo

I don't know how much I agree with this. Like TTT said, it takes away from protecting against body shots. I also don't like how he doesn't even move his head to the side when he parrys. He's strictly relying on "catching" the punch but if it slips through his parry, he doesn't have a back up. If he slips his head off to the side while he parrys, then he has a back up if the jab gets through.

[zefff]

Re: Bodyshots. It seems to hark back to something I asked Badboy on his thread when I noticed nobody in the top promotions ever really effectively uses bodyshots. Maybe the lack of threat has moulded the technique here?