Undefeated Fighters

Whenever you hear of fighters with undefeated records, don't beleive it. Sure on paper they might be but the reality is that everybody at one time losses. A lot of well know fighters in martial arts just lie about their records. In sports like boxing and kickboxing it's hard to lie as records are better kept. But you can be undefeated in these sports if you have your own promoter and they pad your record. A guy like Floyd Mayweather is undefeated but, we know he avoids fights that could result in a loss. Now there's nothing wrong with being an undefeated champion but they should keep their mouth shut about it and not claim to be unbeatable. Nobody is.

Practical Kicking

The martial arts are known for various methods and philosophies on kicking. Do you need to know kicking for self defense? Not really. You could learn boxing and mix in some judo/wrestling and you'd have good self defense skills. In kickboxing back in the day, there was a mandatory kick count of 8 to make sure fighters would kick. If not, it would turn into a kickboxing match. Folks watch tournament karate and taekwondo and see spinning, jumping, double and triple kicks and say, cute but not effective. Now I always say if I can land a spin back kick on a world class fighter, I sure as hell could in a self defense situation. But when you look at most fights, it usually boils down to who as the bette hands. The main reason being, is that it takes a lot of practice to be a good kicker. You have to be in good shape and you have to get lots of practice under pressure. Going back to kickboxing, even though it's called kickboxing it is more like box kicking. Now, I want you to develop and practice your kicks because if you can land a leg technique effectively the dividends pay well. Here's a nice clip of some kick KOs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exYXeMkpoCM

Style Insecuriy

Here's a funny one for you. In addition to working as a personal fitness trainer, martial arts instructor, I also do seminars. Anyway, I send emails out all the time to different groups. I recently sent an email out about my boxing seminars and got a weird reply. It was from a kung fu guy stating that his school produces competitors who compete in national level events (sanshou, sanda). He made it a point to say that he was kung fu (as I am a combat sports guy not bogged down by a style). It was obivious that there was some insecurity going on in his reply. I responded by thanking him for taking the time to read it and if he did not want to receive emails in the future to click the unsubcribe tab at the bottom). The interesting thing about traditional stylists is that they tend to be insecure and tend to stay in their on little world. In order to be enlightened, one has to step outside his or her comfort zone and open their minds to other things.

SOG Andre Ward

I think that Andre Ward is the last American boxer to win a gold medal in the Olympics (2004, so you young fighters to need to get with it). Ward is not as well known as Floyd Mayweather, but he is the best in the business. He wan the Super 8 Super Middleweight tournament that featured the top champions from the major boxing organizations. Here's a highlight of the champ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPws2hPKGbE

Fighting Is Self Taught

Fighting is partly self taught believe it or not. I'm not say that you can just read a book and go fight or you can't learn anything from somebody else. People will show you the basics (how to stand, movement, etc.) but you will teach yourself how to apply them. When I hit the pads or mitts, I prefer to not have punches called for me most of the time. Why? Because I will throw what my body feels like it will land on a live opponent. Ok, that might not make sense if you haven't had a lot of fights or sparring. You have to get experience through sparring and fighting first before the other stuff (bag, pads, etc.) really makes sense to you. After I learned how to stand and what a jab was, I watched fighter train and what I saw was a lot of self motivated athletes get in and train. Coaches would walk around make a suggestion and guys would do it. Nobody told them to run or do exercises. Over time they watched the good fighters and took mental notes and just did it. I don't think I ever had a coach say to me, "Go over there and do 5 rounds of bag work and 100 sit ups". It was as simple as, "I don't know how to do this, so I'll go over there and work it till I get it". You learn through self exploration to fight.

American Full Contact History Lesson

I've mentioned in some old posts how full contact started in the U.S. Karate tournament fighters wanted an outlet to test their skills under a realistic contact method in the 70s. This gave rise to American Full Contact Karate, then American Kickboxing. I came across clip of Joe Corely Vs. Howard Vanderbeck from 1975. Joe was the first big time promoter of kickboxing and is the creator of the Battle of Atlanta (one of the major karate tournaments in the U.S.). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a86gnwgdnU

Where are the fighters?

These days there are a lot of people going to various martial arts clubs. With MMA being popular, guys are going to MMA and BJJ gyms to be Ultimate fighters. In the traditional martial arts schools, I see a lot of adults in martial arts programs. The funny thing is that when tournaments come up, these same young, able bodied adults shy away from COMPETITION. I'm not saying that one has to compete, but the guys who talk the most and take sparring in the gym to competive levels are usually the guys that don't go to tournaments. I've hosted Karate, Judo, Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA events, and I will tell you that in most cases (about 15 events), I always have a few that will compete. I always have a group that talks the talk all they up to about a week before the event. Then they will stay out for a week after the event. Once again, if you are not going to compete then never act like you intend to from the start. It's not just my gym. It happens in every martial arts style. Get out their and fight. Don't be scared!