I Watched Some Smokers this Weekend

[HumbleWCGuy]

So I watched some smoker fights this weekend. They were pretty fun. I saw some flashes of brilliance and some really sloppy fighters.


The highlight of my day was when a fighter unloaded on another with a vertical fist cross from about 9 inches away and dropped his opponent. I was fairly far away, in the stands, and I could see the shock on the face of the fighter who delivered the punch. He could not believe how hard the shot landed from so close.

Had I not been so excited about the shot, I should have yelled, "Timber!" from the stands.
lol

[Phil Redmond]

I guess they weren't MMA fighters because there are no sloppy MMA guys. :rolleyes:
Sorry, for some reason T came to mind.

[HumbleWCGuy]

I guess they weren't MMA fighters because there are no sloppy MMA guys. :rolleyes:
Sorry, for some reason T came to mind.
They are all varieties of kickboxing, American rules, San Shou, and "International." There was mma but I didn't stay to watch it.

Edit: Of course you are correct. No MMA fighter could be sloppy. They are just doing things that no one but another person who identifies himself as a mmaist could understand.

[HumbleWCGuy]

There were 4 schools that competed a boxing gym, a Bando school, a Kung Fu school, and a MMA school.


During the San Shou Fights I noticed:
They all had horrible clinching skills and takedowns. Non of them knew how to combine hand and foot techniques very well. The mma, Bando, and Kung Fu schools could not put punches together either. The boxing school had TKD kicks.

Wrestlers were trying to use double legs and single legs to take down their opponents but since their knee wasn't allowed to touch the canvas, the wrestlers were relegated to football tackles and hilarity ensued. Guys were getting their arms trapped behind their backs while they were getting kneed in the face and all manner of nonsense.

[Frost]

so what exactly were the rules, was it a sanctioned event?

[HumbleWCGuy]

so what exactly were the rules, was it a sanctioned event?

I could not tell you whether the events were sanctioned or not.

Edit: The referees were of quality so I would assume that it was a sanctioned event.

[Lee Chiang Po]

In the original post about the 9 inch vertical punch putting a guy down, it is not unusual. Speed equates to power if you have your structure behind it. You can achieve the same speed as if you brought it from behind you, with only a few inches of thrust. Thus the one inch power punch. With a long punch pulled from behind you, the last half of it is just cruising speed only. It gains it's speed immediately and does not continue to excellerate until impact. The short vertical punch is excellerating all the way until impact. With long punch power there tends to be follow through. Follow through amounts to a shove. On impact the energy transfers into the impact area, and it radiates into and through the area causing shock to that same area. It is disipating as the hand follows through and continues to shove the target. A short vertical punch never extends completely, and when it impacts all the energy radiates into the impact area causing the same shock, but it quickly recoils into another punch. The vertical punch is awkward to say the least until one develops it into a weapon of power. I have been doing the vertical punch for so long I simply can not do any other kind of punch. Drawing back and firing from the shoulder or behind that feels like throwing a baseball left handed, as I am right handed.

[HumbleWCGuy]

Right. With all the punching discussion no one mentioned that the vertical fist has effectiveness though a greater range. When punching, you always want your opponent on the far end of them, but the vertical fist can better account for crowding.

[YungChun]

I have often found that short range strikes have more penetration than longer range shots, or the way some folks use longer range strikes.. As some will try to stay just out of range often those strikes don't end up penetrating as deeply.

By the same token a close range deeply penetrating shot will be better at breaking structure.. and to me often appears to accelerate the 'head snap' better..as we drive through their base..

[t_niehoff]

Right. With all the punching discussion no one mentioned that the vertical fist has effectiveness though a greater range. When punching, you always want your opponent on the far end of them, but the vertical fist can better account for crowding.

Whether you hold your fist vertically or horizontally or in-between makes no difference in the length of your arm or the "reach" of your punches.

I agree that if you are throwing boxing-type, long range punches that you want your opponent at the "far end" or slightly outside of your punching range.

However, with WCK-type punches you want to be very much inside that range, as this acts to both smother your opponent's strikes but permits you to maximize the WCK-type punching (which includes, among other things, "built-in" bridge suppression).

Finally, w/r/t the vertical fist alignment of the WCK punch -- the alignment of the fist is a consequence of keeping your elbow down (try to punch with a horizontal fist while keeping your elbow down and you'll see). And you want to keep your elbow down since you are on the inside.

[k gledhill]

if you drive rear foot and lead fist in opposite directions at the same 'timing' you can do a lot of damage ...by keeping elbows in you harness the force created ...let elbows up and its
lost....
Yo can never feel your own force delivery, so many try to compensate with extra movement from shoulders, pushing, wind up before striking, aka a telegraphic punch etc....or knees are wrong, hips pushed back out of alignment etc....

Seung ma -toi ma drills :D 'feel the force' ;) a good timed punch will feel like you walked into a wall and stop you cold.