Martial Arts Secrets - The Left Lead

Standing Stretch 2

...Its an age thing ;)

RingCraft Priority and Basics of Fakes

Sparring can be really fun if its done properly but too many schools allow students to spar without teaching them how to attack, defend, move and use strategy first. If you don't learn the basics first you can have a seriously bad experience. In these series of clips you will see some of the strategies I use to teach students how to get the most out of sparring.

AEGIS Driffield

Remember

Today I an reminded to remember and everything I can say today is in the verses below: 

REMEMBER

Dare to be different, swim upstream when everyone else
Seems to be going with the flow and Never do what is expected
Unless it is also what is right.
Develop rhino skin against false friends and fools
As they are everywhere and often difficult to recognise.

Remember those who help and support you, especially those
Who have the courage to disagree with you.
Be big enough to forgive them for saying their truth as they see it.

Remember to never judge anyone on hearsay,
Give everyone the chance to be right
Before you Decide that they are wrong.

Accept criticism but don't believe it unless you have examined it
And found it to be true and if it is true then act upon it without
acting too hard on yourself.

Remember your journey is your journey
And though some will join you for a while their destination
Cannot be the same as yours.

Remember all the problems you face today will one day
Not be important enough to be remembered beyond a few weeks
And most of the fears and worries that haunt you
Exist only in your imagination.

Remember to never let your emotions, thoughts or body rule your life,
Keep them in balance and remind yourself constantly
That you will be remembered for your actions more than
Your words and that your greatest gift is that invisible,
immeasurable spirit within that is the real YOU.

                                                                                                               Tony Higo

Thank you for reading...

Leverage Strategy No. 5 - The Depress

The fifth and final strategy of the leverage strategies is the Depress. Whereas the Tire strategy sought to utilise the opponents own energy by getting him to blindly overexert himself the depress strategy is not allow him to exert himself enough. In ground fighting when we have an opponent in side control or have the top mount position, part of our strength, our leverage, is the weight we can physically apply without using much strength. A good lock applied to a down opponent who is held down by our bodyweight on top of him can be an easy ‘tap out’ unless he has especially good grappling skills.

In boxing or kickboxing we can depress our opponent through overwhelming him, imagine in a full contact competition you manage to ‘tag’ your opponent with a good shot to the jaw; his knees wobble and his eyes glaze over slightly, he is stunned but not downed. What do we do? We press our attack hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink! We feel the fight is close to being finished so we leverage every bit of energy we have to end it there and then. If we manage to overwhelm him, monopolising his vulnerability we take the trophy and end up the winner.

The opposite side of the coin is that we don’t manage to finish him by him, either being tough or us not targeting our shots well enough. This can turn the tables on us and end up with us being defeated by being burnt out, in effect if we misjudge or misuse our moment we can apply the first leverage stratagem against ourselves by tiring ourselves out. I use this to demonstrate that strategy will not always work which is why we need a range of them in order to get what we want more often.

These then are the FLITE strategies of LEVERAGE; Tire, Recruit, Isolate, Align and Depress. We use the mnemonic T.R.I.A.D. to help us recall them more easily. Study them, observe them and apply them to learn how to better use the techniques and methods you have. Observe others and how they use them and whether they know they are using them or not. Leverage is as I said earlier the key to all strategy, to get what you want with less effort. Remember that they can be applied against someone else or in cooperation with another and that you might also be using them against yourself without realising. Strategy is a fascinating subject especially when it starts to bring results. 

Thank you for reading today's message

Best wishes

Tony Higo

Chief Instructor National Martial Arts Colleges UK

8th Degree Black Belt

www.nat-mac.co.uk

0800 092 0948

Leverage Strategy No. 4 - Alignment

In combat martial arts we create leverage in our techniques by aligning our bodies to create more force for less effort. For instance on a lead leg side kick we can multiply our body weight in the delivery of the kick by aligning our head, hip and heel. If we make contact with these three body parts in a straight line from the kicking foot to the hip and to the head we can generate more force for less effort. 

On a right cross or left jab we do the same a strong and bio-mechanically correct technique creates force not just through speed and strength but by aligning the body in such a way as to deliver the most body weight we can. The difference between a heavy puncher and a light puncher in a boxing match is not their weight differences as there isn’t much of that but in how they apply the technique. If you examine the position of a fighter delivering a knockout technique you will often observe that his fist, elbow, shoulder, hip and both feet are closely aligned to maximise his leverage or force.

In life we can align with others who have similar aims such as a political pressure group, an association or organisation. Consider here the similarities between these first 4 leverage stratagems. Recruitment is you recruiting others to create leverage, tiring them is you persuading the opponent to use all his leverage, isolation is the opposite of recruitment and alignment is effectively joining someone else’s army. To fully understand strategy and how to use it you must consider how the different strategies contrast and compare. Without this you can never fully master them which if you think about it removes the leverage that you could have exerted had you studied them well enough.

Best wishes

Tony Higo

8th Degree Black Belt

Chief Instructor - National Martial Arts Colleges - UK

www.nat-mac.co.uk

0800 092 0948