Arkansan Presents: How not to get punched in the face, a quick guide to pugilism.
So I thought it was about time I contributed something educational to the site. I was assessing what skills I had to teach and since jerking off isn't anything I imagine my fellow posters need lessons in I thought that I would write a bit about fighting. Martial arts and fighting in general are something I have a passion for, since I was about fourteen I have studied, Jeet Kune Do, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Boxing. All of these are fine arts and have something to offer someone who is looking to learn to fight, provided that is you find a school that trains in an alive manner and spars, other wise you are wasting your time and money.
To my mind one of the most important skills one can learn in fighting, is the fine old art of not using your face to stop punches. You see all the latest research indicates that face punches are in fact bad for you. Who knew?
There are many ways to avoid being hit, blocking, footwork, slipping etc. To my mind blocking is typically the least effective way to stop a punch, though it does have its uses and if properly developed as a skill can be done with a relatively high degree of effectiveness. Footwork and Slipping are my personal preferred methods of avoiding strikes. Now why is this? One thing is that by making the opponent miss rather than simply stopping the blow, you are in a much better position to counter him. The other factor that causes me to prefer these methods is power, if you come against someone who is a big enough hitter they can fuck you up right through a block, or worse yet batter your arms until you can no longer punch with maximum efficiency.
Now in this article I am going to focus on slipping, or head movement in general, as it is the skill I have been working on most here lately. I will however touch on footwork and blocking, though not in as much detail.
First things first, stance and guard. You should stand with your feet about shoulders width apart or slightly less, non dominant foot forward, knees slightly bent, chin tucked down but not pressed against your collar. Now when it comes to how forward you are facing there are varying schools of thought, in the MMA world you will often be taught to stand some degree of square with your opponent, kickboxers will often be slightly less squared than mixed martial artists, and boxers are often standing at much more of a slant than either of the two prior groups. There are a litany of reasons that each group cites for the way the stand, honestly each has their advantages and disadvantages find what you are comfortable with and stick with it. I will however caution that I have always found that I eat more shots when squared up with my opponent, I find that a traditional boxing stance works for me, perhaps just a bit more squared as it makes kicking and grappling a bit easier for me.
Now as to guard, or hand position, again there are varying schools of thought but there are some general rules to be observed. Hands up, non dominant hand forward, you should keep both hands at about chin height, keep your elbows in don't flare them out. I don't care how fucking cool you think it looks do NOT drop your hands. You don't want your lead hand extended to far forward, nor to close to you face a mice medium distance should do. Now I personally keep my lead hand a bit more extended than most do, I find it puts my jab on target a bit quicker and allows me deflect a lot a straight shots by flicking the elbow up about two or three inches, but this is a personal thing and may not work for everyone.
A quick word on footwork, move whichever foot is closest to the direction you want to go first and then slid the other foot up so as to be back in position. I personally keep my feet fairly flat and am not a fan of all that bouncing around on the balls of the feet bullshit. I find that keeping my feet fairly well grounded keeps me constantly set to throw a big shot, and I am of the school of thought that every punch should have bad intentions written all the fuck over it.
Now on to not being hit, moving your head and body is a highly effective way not to be punched.
Slipping
What you will do is move the upper body, forward and to either your right or left, with a slight rotating motion of the upper body. As you do this shift your weight onto the foot that is in the direction you are slipping while rotating the opposite foot at the ball. You can slip either to the inside or outside of a shot, for instance if a jab from an orthodox opponent is coming and you slip to your left then you have slipped to the inside. If you had slipped to the right that would have been slipping to the outside. Now when slipping the goal is not to make the opponent miss by a mile but rather by inches. Your head should only move about its own width in the direction that you are going. You should also keep your hands in the proper position, do not pull an Anderson Silva and drop them, that shit is just retarded. Another important point, you are not moving your neck, your head stays in place your whole upper body moves, moving just the head at the neck is liable to expose your chin and that falls on the list of bad things. Really most of the movement on this should come from your hips.
Here is another important point to remember, slipping is not just about avoiding a punch, it is also about being in the proper position to return fire. For instance if you slipped into the inside of a Jab, you should pop a Jab back in his face or dig a shot to the body, if you have slipped to the outside come across with the right hand. Put something back downrange at him, don't just wait for him to load up and fire off another shot.
Getting under a Hook.
The Hook follows a different line of movement than a straight shot, this means things need to be done a bit differently to avoid being hit. As the hook comes, say from the opponents left hand, bend your knees into about the half squat position and rotate the upper body under the hook moving into the hook not away from. As you do this shift your weight in the direction you are moving. Doing this gets you under the hook, puts you in position for a counter and gets you primed avoid another hook from the opposite hand. Don't bend your head down, DO NOT bend over at the waist, both of these fall into the bad things category, another thing to be mindful of is the upper cut, be aware of that possibility as you avoid the hook. Again keep your fucking hands up!
Now a few words on using footwork to avoid being hit. Stay on the move, don't sit still, I don't mean run around constantly I mean always be trying to move your self into a better position to hit. A good rule of thumb is that you typically don't want to move straight forward or backward. Move at angles, if you are moving back cut away at a 45 degree angle away from the opponents power hand, also the same is true of moving forward. Typically try not to move toward the other guys power hand. A tactic I use quite a bit is to pop forward behind a heavy jab and then immediately cut back at a 45, after the jab gets home. This keeps them constantly turning to face me, and having to get reset, it also keeps my in a good position to fire off as they react.
Now on blocking, generally I prefer just to not be there when the shot ends. However this is not always possible or convenient. The block I use most is to pop the lead elbow up a few inches, sort of driving my forearm up and into the forearm of the oncoming punch. This motion is enough to offset the line of the punch without compromising my guard, you don't want to move the elbow up too much or you can expose your self and you never ever want to drop the arm down to block a body shot as you leave your face wide the fuck open. Now this block works best if you keep your lead hand a bit more extended than most fighters do, not everyone will be comfortable that way, play around with it and see.
Practice
It is essential to make these movements as close to second nature as possible, you should not have to think about the steps of each movement when the time comes, if you do then consider yourself hit. You can purchase slip or maize bag to practice slipping, however you can also make one on the cheap. What I do is take a tennis ball and put inside a tube sock and then put that inside another tube sock, which I then hang from the ceiling with one of those screw in hooks and a piece of fishing line. This is not quite an ideal slip bag but it does well enough, what you want is to make sure that you are getting a nice smooth pendulum motion when you tip the bag. Hang it so that the tennis ball is about on level with your chin. When you use it stand so that your chin is touching the bag, give it a solid tip outward and practice slipping to the left and right of it, a good basic combination is to slip left, then right, and on the third time the bag comes back bob under as if it were a hook. You can also slip left and right and just bob under the bag as if a hook at random intervals. At first I would keep it simple and after you are comfortable work on adding counter shots in. This exercise will not replicate the exact experience of avoiding a shot, however it will help build the timing needed and make the motions second nature. Oh also only slip the shot when then bag is a ways from hitting your chin, don't anticipate the bag to much, that kind of habit will make you easy to feint.
If you have a partner you can cut a pool noodle in half and have your partner hold one half in each hand, jabbing at you to replicate straight shots and swinging at you to emulate hooks. Have them break up their patterns and rhythms, this can help you get used to having things come unpredictably. Again just work on making the noodle miss you by about the width of your head.
Well this is long enough and I am out of shit to say. I am by no means a pro so if I have made a mistake or given bad advice, tough shit. The best way to learn to fight if you are serious is to find a martial arts school, check out the instructors credentials, and make sure they are sparring on at least a semi regular basis. They don't have to be killing each other, hardy body shots and taps to the head are enough to help keep you honest. In fact I would stay away from a school that is always sparring full contact, that shit is what adds up to brain damage later on, all you need are drills that keeps things random and have variability. Light sparring is fine as long as all the tools are available with no arbitrary restrictions, particularly for someone who is just looking to learn to defend themselves, not be the next world champ, though others may disagree with me on this point.
To my mind one of the most important skills one can learn in fighting, is the fine old art of not using your face to stop punches. You see all the latest research indicates that face punches are in fact bad for you. Who knew?
There are many ways to avoid being hit, blocking, footwork, slipping etc. To my mind blocking is typically the least effective way to stop a punch, though it does have its uses and if properly developed as a skill can be done with a relatively high degree of effectiveness. Footwork and Slipping are my personal preferred methods of avoiding strikes. Now why is this? One thing is that by making the opponent miss rather than simply stopping the blow, you are in a much better position to counter him. The other factor that causes me to prefer these methods is power, if you come against someone who is a big enough hitter they can fuck you up right through a block, or worse yet batter your arms until you can no longer punch with maximum efficiency.
Now in this article I am going to focus on slipping, or head movement in general, as it is the skill I have been working on most here lately. I will however touch on footwork and blocking, though not in as much detail.
First things first, stance and guard. You should stand with your feet about shoulders width apart or slightly less, non dominant foot forward, knees slightly bent, chin tucked down but not pressed against your collar. Now when it comes to how forward you are facing there are varying schools of thought, in the MMA world you will often be taught to stand some degree of square with your opponent, kickboxers will often be slightly less squared than mixed martial artists, and boxers are often standing at much more of a slant than either of the two prior groups. There are a litany of reasons that each group cites for the way the stand, honestly each has their advantages and disadvantages find what you are comfortable with and stick with it. I will however caution that I have always found that I eat more shots when squared up with my opponent, I find that a traditional boxing stance works for me, perhaps just a bit more squared as it makes kicking and grappling a bit easier for me.
Now as to guard, or hand position, again there are varying schools of thought but there are some general rules to be observed. Hands up, non dominant hand forward, you should keep both hands at about chin height, keep your elbows in don't flare them out. I don't care how fucking cool you think it looks do NOT drop your hands. You don't want your lead hand extended to far forward, nor to close to you face a mice medium distance should do. Now I personally keep my lead hand a bit more extended than most do, I find it puts my jab on target a bit quicker and allows me deflect a lot a straight shots by flicking the elbow up about two or three inches, but this is a personal thing and may not work for everyone.
A quick word on footwork, move whichever foot is closest to the direction you want to go first and then slid the other foot up so as to be back in position. I personally keep my feet fairly flat and am not a fan of all that bouncing around on the balls of the feet bullshit. I find that keeping my feet fairly well grounded keeps me constantly set to throw a big shot, and I am of the school of thought that every punch should have bad intentions written all the fuck over it.
Now on to not being hit, moving your head and body is a highly effective way not to be punched.
Slipping
What you will do is move the upper body, forward and to either your right or left, with a slight rotating motion of the upper body. As you do this shift your weight onto the foot that is in the direction you are slipping while rotating the opposite foot at the ball. You can slip either to the inside or outside of a shot, for instance if a jab from an orthodox opponent is coming and you slip to your left then you have slipped to the inside. If you had slipped to the right that would have been slipping to the outside. Now when slipping the goal is not to make the opponent miss by a mile but rather by inches. Your head should only move about its own width in the direction that you are going. You should also keep your hands in the proper position, do not pull an Anderson Silva and drop them, that shit is just retarded. Another important point, you are not moving your neck, your head stays in place your whole upper body moves, moving just the head at the neck is liable to expose your chin and that falls on the list of bad things. Really most of the movement on this should come from your hips.
Here is another important point to remember, slipping is not just about avoiding a punch, it is also about being in the proper position to return fire. For instance if you slipped into the inside of a Jab, you should pop a Jab back in his face or dig a shot to the body, if you have slipped to the outside come across with the right hand. Put something back downrange at him, don't just wait for him to load up and fire off another shot.
Getting under a Hook.
The Hook follows a different line of movement than a straight shot, this means things need to be done a bit differently to avoid being hit. As the hook comes, say from the opponents left hand, bend your knees into about the half squat position and rotate the upper body under the hook moving into the hook not away from. As you do this shift your weight in the direction you are moving. Doing this gets you under the hook, puts you in position for a counter and gets you primed avoid another hook from the opposite hand. Don't bend your head down, DO NOT bend over at the waist, both of these fall into the bad things category, another thing to be mindful of is the upper cut, be aware of that possibility as you avoid the hook. Again keep your fucking hands up!
Now a few words on using footwork to avoid being hit. Stay on the move, don't sit still, I don't mean run around constantly I mean always be trying to move your self into a better position to hit. A good rule of thumb is that you typically don't want to move straight forward or backward. Move at angles, if you are moving back cut away at a 45 degree angle away from the opponents power hand, also the same is true of moving forward. Typically try not to move toward the other guys power hand. A tactic I use quite a bit is to pop forward behind a heavy jab and then immediately cut back at a 45, after the jab gets home. This keeps them constantly turning to face me, and having to get reset, it also keeps my in a good position to fire off as they react.
Now on blocking, generally I prefer just to not be there when the shot ends. However this is not always possible or convenient. The block I use most is to pop the lead elbow up a few inches, sort of driving my forearm up and into the forearm of the oncoming punch. This motion is enough to offset the line of the punch without compromising my guard, you don't want to move the elbow up too much or you can expose your self and you never ever want to drop the arm down to block a body shot as you leave your face wide the fuck open. Now this block works best if you keep your lead hand a bit more extended than most fighters do, not everyone will be comfortable that way, play around with it and see.
Practice
It is essential to make these movements as close to second nature as possible, you should not have to think about the steps of each movement when the time comes, if you do then consider yourself hit. You can purchase slip or maize bag to practice slipping, however you can also make one on the cheap. What I do is take a tennis ball and put inside a tube sock and then put that inside another tube sock, which I then hang from the ceiling with one of those screw in hooks and a piece of fishing line. This is not quite an ideal slip bag but it does well enough, what you want is to make sure that you are getting a nice smooth pendulum motion when you tip the bag. Hang it so that the tennis ball is about on level with your chin. When you use it stand so that your chin is touching the bag, give it a solid tip outward and practice slipping to the left and right of it, a good basic combination is to slip left, then right, and on the third time the bag comes back bob under as if it were a hook. You can also slip left and right and just bob under the bag as if a hook at random intervals. At first I would keep it simple and after you are comfortable work on adding counter shots in. This exercise will not replicate the exact experience of avoiding a shot, however it will help build the timing needed and make the motions second nature. Oh also only slip the shot when then bag is a ways from hitting your chin, don't anticipate the bag to much, that kind of habit will make you easy to feint.
If you have a partner you can cut a pool noodle in half and have your partner hold one half in each hand, jabbing at you to replicate straight shots and swinging at you to emulate hooks. Have them break up their patterns and rhythms, this can help you get used to having things come unpredictably. Again just work on making the noodle miss you by about the width of your head.
Well this is long enough and I am out of shit to say. I am by no means a pro so if I have made a mistake or given bad advice, tough shit. The best way to learn to fight if you are serious is to find a martial arts school, check out the instructors credentials, and make sure they are sparring on at least a semi regular basis. They don't have to be killing each other, hardy body shots and taps to the head are enough to help keep you honest. In fact I would stay away from a school that is always sparring full contact, that shit is what adds up to brain damage later on, all you need are drills that keeps things random and have variability. Light sparring is fine as long as all the tools are available with no arbitrary restrictions, particularly for someone who is just looking to learn to defend themselves, not be the next world champ, though others may disagree with me on this point.