I hate and love him with equal measure. Every time one of my favourite wrestlers is doing well, they inevitably lose to him and I think, “Fuck, I thought this time would be it”. But then I watch the replay and I’m absolutely in awe of his ability to turn a situation around in his favour.
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I think learning curves vary with the learner. That said, I’m glad I learned striking when I was a pre-teen rather than having to learn as an adult.
Glad you’re honing in on what you really want to do. It isn’t always so easy. I tried to convince myself I wanted to learn judo rather than jiu-jitsu because judo was less expensive and “more effective in a street fight.” 15+ years later, I’m glad I followed my heart toward Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
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As a former competitive judoka I can confirm that this is the worst possible option in judo. Going into a randori session with shot legs is a recipe for serious injury, especially in tachi waza.
As has been said on the Forum numerous times, you have to decide whether you’re a martial artist who lifts to get better at the art or a lifter who does martial arts as a hobby.
That’s delusional thinking that can get you hurt or worse.
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I would, but I have the physique of Buakaw Banchamek. I just won against T3hPwnisher in a Men’s Physique competition three days ago, didn’t you know?
It’s been a while since I’ve been into martial arts so I may be wrong, but I think that 200 lbs of solid muscle is going to leave a dent in someone’s face regardless of how martial-arty they are. And a guy with a 250 lb bench will probably be harder to take down than a guy with a 100 lb bench, all else being equal - the strength you gain to get good at the bench press isn’t specific to only the bench press. But it’s a combination of fighting knowledge and overall strength of course - although there must be a point where the difference in size and strength simply becomes too much. But I genuinely don’t know where that point lies - it’d make an interesting experiment.
Yeah, it pretty much is. Virtually no real world application for that exercise. If you punch using bench muscles, it’ll be slow and do relatively no damage. Leverage is everything I would expect, and your bulk can be used against you if you lack agility.
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Interesting. So where would you say the point lies where size and strength would outweigh technique and skill? Does it just depend entirely on the individuals in question?
I imagine weight classes are arranged as such for some sort of logical reason. I know my wife at 5’-0 and just over 100lbs would wear herself out swinging and fall down before she dented me in any way, with pretty much any training you want to give her. I’m 6’0 285lbs. Somewhere between our size difference and being the same size is my guess. But, I also do not have a glass jaw, which matters.
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I may have missed it, I didn’t read with ewxhaustive care through here, but I think OP would get more from learning some throwing techniques (Like shot or javelin) than squats - given his changing but associated desired endeavour. Blocking and weight transfer technique would help him a lot more than static strength.
Bro, it’s been seen. Check this out.
Bob Sapp is, was, and will always be a terrible striker. But like you said, there just comes a point where you’re so strong, anything you do will hurt.
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Huh wow. The size difference isn’t comically large either, and the big guy was still soaking up hits and punishing the smaller dude. I wonder if the advantage would have been even more skewed towards the bigger guy in a street fight, since endurance would be less of a factor than who can get their opponent to the ground/KO’d first?
And also - I’m not a martial arts expert so again I could be wrong. But if this
is your real motivation, wouldn’t something like Krav Maga, or military-style close-quarters combat, be a better option than competitive judo or boxing?
You gotta be careful with your terms there. Static strength is isometric strength. A heavy squat might be slow, but it is still dynamic. And it’s the foundation for many sporting activities, Olympic Lifting obviously, but also any sport that requires the triple extension movement of the ankles, knees, and hips.
I think of it as a statue. Yes, the skill of the sculptor, the fine details of the statue, and the quality of the contours all matter. But how can you create a statue with the absence of a large block of stone? And the bigger the stone, the more potential for a grander statue. Just like the Jesus giant statue of Brazil and the Liberty woman of America.
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My terms are correct, it is your understanding that is lacking. A squat is static, because it is performed in a linear fashion and you don’t move around with it. A back squat actually has very little direct application in Olympic lifting, unlike a Front Squat. The statue of “Lady Liberty” is copper, not stone, and was not carved. “The Redeemer” is not something I have bothered to learn much about, but I would lay odds that it did not come from a single block of anything. Statues are also notoriously fragile, and many break during carving when the “Carve it from a single block” method is used. For example, Michelangelo’s statue that he intended for his own tomb broke during carving and was abandoned unfinished. Which is you if you train the way you want to and try and do any form of fighting. You will end up broken and unfinished. Nice try, but you should try to know something about the thing which you desire to use in illustrating a point.
Numbers, that’s my issue. How can you measure your competence in Krav Maga? There are no sanctioned competitions that count your wins, losses, draws, or knock outs. Competitive combat sports are different. You know that if a person has had 50 fights with 45 of those fights being wins, he wouldn’t be anyone to mess with. Krav Maga trains you, yes, but nobody knows how good of a Krav Maga fighter you are outside of what your coach decides to say about you or tell you yourself. I also operate under the assumption that the fighting skills of a hardened Israeli soldier who’s been in warzones is far less applicable to me, who lives in a civilized place where the closest thing to real danger he’d ever encounter is some aggressive immature dude who not only doesn’t have the discipline to train in anything, but also can’t even control his basic emotions.
Doesn’t Krav Maga primarily teaches you to go for truly vital areas like the groin and the eyes? Do I really have the lack of conscience to do that kind of damage to a person who is simply grabbing my girl’s ass? lol. No man. I think grappling skills where I can push him away is gonna be much more helpful than eye gouges. Especially since I will be answerable to the law.
Of course if my goal is to be a 100% warrior assassin type of guy, things would be different. But I don’t really need that stuff unless I get drafted to the armed forces or something.
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You do know that punching is not a triple extension motion
And squatting is not a foundation to triple extension
And triple extension is not a foundation to anywhere near as many things as people think
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I still don’t quite understand. Why are you wanting to learn how to fight? It sounded earlier like you wanted to be able to defend yourself/loved ones against attackers. But now…
…it sounds like you just want to be able to rough hooligans up a bit because you don’t want legal repercussions?
Krav Maga is sort of an amalgamation of everything, boxing and judo included. That’s a part of it - because it’s intended for real combat where stakes are high.
Fair enough, but you can still spar and practice. It will definitely become obvious pretty quickly if you’re any good.
Okay but my point remains. You need a foundation of something before you can build upon it. Firstly, I think I should point out the type of squat that I do and care about. I don’t do the classic IPF squat unless I’m testing myself. I’m an Olympic-style back squat kind of guy, adding a pause at the bottom. THAT kind of squat is in fact applicable to Olympic Lifting. We can argue about whether the front squat is better, but even if it turns out that the front squat is better, it’ll prove the same point. What does an Olympic Lifter aims to do when doing heavy front squats? He’s overloading his legs. You can’t overload anything if the movement you’re doing is way too multi-sectional and complex. Olympic Lifters don’t thrive by doing just the snatch and the clean. They gotta squat as well, front and/or back. And my point remains: You can’t build upon something when there is no something. The icing of a cake is its tastiest part, but no sane patisserie is gonna make a cake with only icing without an actual cake.
To further my point, I know there are some strength training proponents out there who greatly suggest to powerlifters and weightlifters to include myofibrillar hypertrophy training to their overall program because they recognize that no amount of neuromuscular efficiency is gonna make up for being thin and small.
Define “defend”.
To me, defense is not offense. Offense is to do something that will cause damage. So if a battalion of musketmen in the Revolutionary Wars in post-Renaissance Europe move forward, get in range, and unload bullets into a body of enemies, that’s OFFENSE. It’s an ATTACK.
Defense, on the other hand, is building a concrete wall so thick and imposing that the enemy forces are gonna be forced to lug around a bunch of cannons just so they can get to us.
Lethal force is rarely required unless you are a soldier defending his nation against invaders or a police officer dealing with dangerous criminals. For civilians like me, I just need to control my opponent’s body (through grappling) to put him AWAY from doing any damage. And if he attacks again, then I would be justified to do something really damaging, like do a throw where his body is slammed on the ground. And at worst, that’s gonna be considered a counter attack, which will be FAR EASIER to defend against a prosecutor in a court of law.
Boxing, to me, is great too as long as I don’t throw the first punch, but to be competitive with it, I gotta do intensive aerobic conditioning. The kind of aerobic conditioning that will enable me to be a long distance runner. I can’t handle the loss of squat gains due to the long distance running. I just can’t.
I am operating under the assumption that competitive fighters, as long as the fight stays one-versus-one and the enemy has no weapons, will be much better prepared than a guy with no ring experience or mat experience. They’re just a different quality of people when it comes to unarmed combat.
The way I look at it is this…
If I wanted to impress people with my physical abilities, I will do it in a lifting platform, a boxing ring, or a grappling mat. I will NOT do it in a real combat situation. I personally think that’s very stupid. I’m just there to defend myself and someone, not prove a point.
That’s why I chose Judo instead of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I wouldn’t take the fight to the ground if I can help it. I just wanna get myself and my girl away from danger.
I once was in a real self-defense situation where literally all I had to do to get the idiot neutralized was to push him away from me. That was it. lol. Imagine if instead of that, I punched him…
To use your illustration:
The Statue of Liberty is a framework of steel that is welded and riveted and bolted and shaped into a framework that receives the cladding of copper. The framework is specifically designe to fulfill the job of holding up the copper which forms the veneer. There is no extra framework to also hold up a sword or allow her to put on a battle helmet on occasion. You want to be able to fight, then build that framework. that copper veneer placed over the exteriot of Christ the Redeemer would not magically form the veneer of Lady Liberty over that statue - the framework is incorrect. And to add to it, most “Fancy” cakes, the really expensive and fantastic ones, taste like crap and the “Icing” is like a softened up rubber mat. Because they are made to look cool, not taste good.
The notion of a required “Hypertrophy” stage is at best debateable, and I would argur that it is entirely unnecessary in achieving the goal of hypertrophy. Lift hard, put in the work, and you will without fail get bigger. delude yourself that you are in fact doing all of those things when you are not, and you will fail. It’s that simple. If fighting matters to you, set up the program around that and let squatting come later and be the icing. The icing is made and applied last, not first. If you don’t make a cake, it’s pretty hard to make the icing do more than form a puddle.