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- on Jul, 16 2009
- in General
I’ve been training for a little while now over at RedLine, and while I have a few decades ahead of me before can call myself anywhere even remotely close to an authority on combat sports, I think the easy publishing capabilities of a blog gives me the ability to have a mouthpiece even though I don’t deserve it. I’ve been training for about 3 months now, and can say that I see no signs of stopping anytime soon – it’s just far too much fun. In those three months I’ve heard a lot of phrases repeated – here’s five of them.
“Breathe”
When you’ve got someone on top of you trying to get your arm into a kimura, your thinking about a lot of things – How am I going to get my arm free? How do I flip him over so I can counter him? What the heck did he have to eat for lunch in order to smell this bad? There may be one thing that you’re not thinking about: Am I breathing? Periodically taking controlled breaths can do a lot for you – it gives your muscles much needed oxygen to keep yourself going, it allows any movements to be a lot more effective when you make them (try exhaling when you throw a punch as opposed to holding your breath), and most importantly it helps you relax.
“You’re switching your stance”
One of the fundamental aspects of a combat athlete is his/her stance. It allows someone to move quickly, deliver effective strikes, and gives a foundation for someone to build effective combinations. In general, those who are right-handed maintain a stance with their rear leg back, while lefties do the opposite. There’s no doubt that your rear leg is the side that you’re most powerful at, so the kicks that you’re pulling off and the punches that you throw from that side are going to have the most effect (and offer the more satisfying sound when you hit a heavy bag).
However, in order to get that sound, or to just get a more comfortable position, you might want to switch your stance before you throw a kick. If you find yourself stepping forward, alternating feet, or even sliding your back foot up so that you’re square against your target – you may have a more powerful strike, but you’ve switched your stance, and your strike is no where near as quick. Not to mention the fact that by switching your stance, you’ve totally revealed your intentions to your opponent (called telegraphing).
“Reload.”
Ok, they don’t quite say “Reload”, but it’s a whole lot more memorable than some of the long explanations that you’ll hear for this. Basically, it’s like this – when you punch, the easy thing to do is let your hands fall to your sides or lazily get back to the ready position. Similarly, when you kick – it’s very easy to just relax your quads and let gravity take care of the rest. This isn’t a good idea. You want your punches in kicks to come in the same way they went out, just imagine some suddenly hit rewind once you made contact so your body returns to your neutral stance.
“Use your whole body”
There’s a lot you can do with your arms, legs, neck, or whatever – but if you’re not supplementing it with your whole body, your technique is going to be lacking some power. When grappling, this is even more important – sure you can try to throw someone around with your arms, but when you use your legs, arms, and back in unison – you’ll probably end up being a lot more successful, and a lot less tired. In the striking game, it’s pretty easy to tell when you get roundhouse kicked by someone who used their hips as opposed to being kicked just by the leg. I’ll give you a hint – one of them leaves you black and blue.
“Keep your hands up”
Come on, you had to see this one coming – if you’re anything like me, your first few months of training will be filled with coaches making sure that you keep your hands up at all times. There’s really no need for an explanation on this – if you don’t want to go down like a sack of potatoes, glue your gloves to your eyebrows and keep them there every time you strike.
