"; include('bottom.php'); ?>Controlling the Range With Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts

Controlling the Range With Mixed Martial Arts

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In any fight there are three factors: yourself, the opponent and the environment. Martial artists will often spend hours focussing on just the first of their factors; they pick a martial art and train hard until they are masters. They have become the best they can be within the parameters of their chosen art, for perfection is only possible within an imperfect framework. They would rather be the 'best' in their field than risk branching out and starting from the bottom once again or 'diluting' their skill. They become a teacher and preach their route, rejecting all others. But by choosing to become an expert in just one style they have also chosen to limit themselves. By accepting these parameters they have actively selected to set limits on how far they can progress.

Therefore, when our expert comes across a foe that they are not trained to defend against they will be in trouble. For example, someone who has always trained only in Judo might be in for a surprise when they try to fight a tall opponent who may be able to keep them at arm's length. Likewise a Karate exponent will be compromised when taken to the ground as they have no training to deal with such close-range grappling. The best way to combat an opponent with a stick is to get in close enough that it becomes largely ineffective. They might be an 11th Dan, but they will still be unprepared.


These fighters can not adapt to their opponent and so they will only win so many times. This is one of the reasons that Bruce Lee rejected classical training and set styles and forms. He believed that a fighter should be able to adapt and react to his opponent and the situation. The same conclusion has been reached by cage fighters who learned that they needed to learn several different martial arts in order to be effective at every range. In a street fight or any real life situation range and environment play an even bigger role in the outcome of a fight (obviously as you are not confined to a ring). In a real fight the whole area is your ‘ring’ and there are all sorts of elements and objects that can be brought into play.

To demonstrate this point I have a short story from my childhood. It was the summer of ’99 and a lovely summer’s day. My friends and I had taken the opportunity to go fishing in a local river. We were peacefully minding our own business when some kids swimming in the river cut our line and ran off. Real funny. After throwing some choice words their way we fixed up and recast the rod thinking they were gone only for them to repeat the performance.

Now normally I’d have clobbered them and my friends, not being the most patient of characters, would probably have strangled them to death and set fire to their corpses. The problem was though that we didn’t have anything to swim in and it was freezing. Short of throwing rocks at them (which I thought was a bit harsh) there was no way we could stop them short of moving on. Here they had trumped us by being able to move in the water.

Fortunately I quickly realised that it was the environment that was causing the problem. I also realised that being soaking wet was also a limitation – and we had bikes. So putting my genius plan into action we proceeded to steel their clothes, moony them, then cycle away with them unable to chase us.

This was an example of using the environment to turn the tables during a confrontation. Another example might be climbing onto the roof to get away from an attacker. The lesson here is that outmanoeuvring your opponent can give you the upper hand and prevent a full on fight. That’s why it’s so useful to train to improve your Power Quotient (see Project Superman) and to increase your ability in every discipline.

If I get into a fight I size up the enemy. First of all I attempt to outsmart him – can I talk this guy down from his aggressive mood? Then I try to outrun him, rather than fighting I’d rather just avoid the situation altogether and leave him eating my dust. If this won’t work I consider using my environment to climb away from him or go somewhere he can’t. If none of these will work and he’s too fast, smart and agile (or if he’s just really pissed me off about something), then I consider knocking his block off. As someone who’s trained to be above average in all these areas it’s very unlikely that I’ll encounter someone who I can’t beat in one of these areas, usually several. That gives you an awesome amount of freedom – I can insult anyone.



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