How do you train to become a good fighter?

[IronFist]

That was pretty creative.

[dezhen2001]

Originally posted by Mat

that was a **** impressive post sir!

dawood

[David Jamieson]

If you wanna train to be a good fighter then that has to be your objective and your goal. No objective and no goal = no direction.

So, you wanna be a fighter eh, well, the meat and potatoes of that is to fight.

Do all your augmentation training. Keep learning whatever it is you are learning.

You need to understand a couple of things though if you are going to fight for real.

1. you experience some pain from your own strikes, this can be minimized with correct form.

2.you experience some pain when being hit, this can also be minimized by progressive learning with a sparring partner.

So, get a partner, if you're lucky you will get someone better than you. If you get someone who is not better than you, then you aren't gonna learn as much as you will from someone who can best you at almost every turn.

Get into a place where you can fight. Decide what you are going to be working on and get to work.

static drills, forms and such give you tools to work with, but they don't mean that you can build the house simply because you own the tools capice?

Like anything, you have to learn it by doing it. Wanna learn to fight? Start fighting. It's that simple, but it is also that hard

good luck and try to understand that you are going to need to take a few shots before you "get it".

cheers

[illusionfist]

Good points Kung Lek.

[Nick Lo]

Dude, you just agreed with Kung Lek.
I hope you used a tissue...

[Mr Punch]

Originally posted by IronFist
I can do jabs and crosses, just not on a wing chun wall bag. I'll have to go mess with those again. I think it's cuz maybe I'm used to a heavy bag moving when I hit it but the wall bag just sits there. I dunno.

Reminded of this from your punching alignment thread: one thing that makes it hard to do crosses with any conviction is that you're punching a rather unforgiving flat surface.

To get a good angle on it you need to practise your footwork, so you can hit it roughly square-on, to prevent catching the 'corner' of your knuckles...

The other way of getting round this, as I discovered when I lived in a country without paper-thin walls and could hang a ****ing wall bag somewhere... is that by conditioning in stages, carefully and correctly, you should be wearing the sides of your wall bag so it becomes somewhat convex.

You start with relaxed straight on punches, then build up to upturning driving punches, then work on your driving turning punches which should loosen up your bag a little, making it easier to practise crosses. Depends on the fabric and the contents of the bag. That one was a slightly springy kind of vinyl with very hard 5 mil round white beans in it... dunno what they were.

Um, yeah. The target is like 12x12 so how did he hit the screws on accident? (Knock on wood)

Hmmm, my mum's five foot five and about seven and a half stone, how about yours?

Didn't know there was a standard wall-bag size either!
1) The one we used was approximately 5x12;
2) It was set at shoulder height for my 6'6" friend, and my brother is 6'2";
3) He was extremely drunk.

One thing I got yelled at in MMA class was for keeping my back wu sao hand up when punching. They're like "no, keep it up by your face like this (like a boxer) and not down by my chest/chin."

Personally, if I'm going in aggressively and turning my hips a lot, I like to have my wu up by the side of my face.

If I'm going in like a typical wing chun girlie, chainpunching pushing and squealing, I like to have it pretty much with the fingers over the opposite elbow at round about upper breast height, so I can get more spring into a tan, if I turn it outwards, or into a biu if I shoot it forwards, but it's in a good place for a high cross-body pak away from the side of my face, or dropping into a jum or low gan.

It means I'm crossing my own centreline. So sue me!

The reasons I'm not bothered about this are:

1) It's a good relaxed lan sau position, which makes it effective for turning into an elbow, raising into a bong or a rising fut, dropping into a chum jarn to protect my ribs (and give them an elbow hitting their incoming fist/forearm to think about), or stepping in and jamming with the lan as it is. Plus the actions listed above.

2) Martial arts are quite silly really! ... though admittedly, you shouldn't break the rules so much until you've learnt them... but then I'm all for not engraining them into your reflexes if they don't make any sense to you and seem effective... It's a fine line.

Also practise with shooting out a bong, then turning the hand into a fist and striking downwards with the bottom three knuckles.

Just throwing out a bong for fun? Or actually to block something?

For fun!? How dare you, I'm always deadly serious !

I don't use them to block much, more to jam, uproot and clear defences, and sometimes to set up a throw.

Why? Because the only thing they are good for blocking are straight mid-level punches a la wing chun. And more times than not, even they'll just get guided nicely into your own face.

I have used them to dissipate the force from a badly thrown hook, or haymaker, and then follow through with the above mentioned 'monkey punch'. But it's a bit risky as to whether it's a well-thrown or badly thrown one in the first place!!!

No, the reason I mentioned it is because it's good to practise, and you can get a lot of power into it, plus it comes at a surprising angle. You can use it as an overhand over their guard, riding a jab, or from the inside, forcing their arm out.

Haven't got time to address your other points now... next time. Good night!

[Mr Punch]

btw, i also agree with kung lek, but i'm assuming from what you've said you don't have full access to training partners whenever you like and for whatever you like...

[illusionfist]

Dont' mind Nick, he's a troll.

Peace

[Nick Lo]

what is it about the holidays? everybody's so testy. illusionfisting knows what i's talkin about. anybody who's anybody knows I don't train, i'm just a hungabee.