This video outlined various striking strategies better than anything I have ever seen. I’ll have to watch it a few more times to soak everything in but wow, what a great vid.
Boxing and Bruce Lee: The Five Ways of Attack: Boxing and Bruce Lee: The Five Ways of Attack - YouTube
Barbell Rows
135x20
225x10
275x5
295x5
315x3x3
DB Rows
110’sx8
120’sx8
130’sx8
Barbell Curls
95x10
95x10
95x10
Rear Delts on the pec deck
3x20
Ran for 25 minutes on a treadmill
This is a funny video too:
AM
Shadow Boxing
4x2 min
4x4’s
3x2
Heavy Bag
2x2
I couldn’t throw powerful strikes because my neck was still really tight and sore so I just worked on using proper form and having really good control of my techniques. I drilled 2,1,2, switchkick and 1,2,1, thai kick.
PM
Squat
135x10
225x5
315x5
405x3
495x3x3
Romanian Deadlifts
315x8
365x8
405x8
Ab Roller
3x20
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
That’s a great video. The very first thing in it is my jab to the body that London hated! hahah. Perfect.
Can’t wait to watch the whole thing … normally I hate shit involving Bruce Lee cause he was … you know, just an actor and shit … but this looks good. [/quote]
Yea, I agree that he gets more credit than he should as a fighter since he never really got in a ring but he did a lot of good things for martial arts as a whole. I’ve seen some interviews with guys that sparred with him and said that he was a total beast; fast, technical and super powerful for his size, so I’m sure he would have done well in a ring if that were his focus.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
That’s a great video. The very first thing in it is my jab to the body that London hated! hahah. Perfect.
Can’t wait to watch the whole thing … normally I hate shit involving Bruce Lee cause he was … you know, just an actor and shit … but this looks good. [/quote]
Yea, I agree that he gets more credit than he should as a fighter since he never really got in a ring but he did a lot of good things for martial arts as a whole. I’ve seen some interviews with guys that sparred with him and said that he was a total beast; fast, technical and super powerful for his size, so I’m sure he would have done well in a ring if that were his focus.[/quote]
I’m a total Bruce Lee hater. But I won’t disagree that he at least popularized the arts way beyond what they could have done on their own.
To me, he’s like Sylvester Stallone, who did more to popularize boxing with the Rocky movies than 95 percent of the fighters who’ve ever laced up the gloves. So for that, no amount of credit can be enough. [/quote]
Yea, I think everyone wanted to be a boxer after they saw Rocky for the first time hahaha.
I’m not a big Bruce Lee advocate or anything but, just out of curiosity, why all the hate?
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
I’m not a big Bruce Lee advocate or anything but, just out of curiosity, why all the hate?
[/quote]
Because to me he was just an actor. One who liked the martial arts, sure, and seemed to be good at them from the clips we see, but everyone looks good on TV. To me, there is just no reason for this obscene mythology that’s sprung up around him - people idolize him, and claim he had a a million streetfights in China and beat this guy and that guy and blah blah blah … but it’s like, fuck off, quantify it for me. I could tell you that I won a bunch of streetfights that I actually lost, and my buddies were always so drunk when they happened that I could convince them too, I bet, even though they were there.
But I mean, there’s no mistaking what Jack Johnson or John L. Sullivan or Jack Dempsey did - they were well-chronicled fights in a time long before television cameras were around. Bruce Lee could kill all those guys, his blowjobbers say. But where’s the fights? Where’s the real accounts from reputable sources? Where’s the clips? And if they happened, were they just a well-trained martial artist beating up some drunk guy? Did those fights even take any of his infamous “skill”? Or did he just sucker punch a few guys and claim all kinds of crap after? How good does that really make him?
I’m a journalist man. I need proof of shit. And I hate, hate, HATE when people show me some “accounts” (often written by his students) that he beat up a guy in a parking lot and then say that it proves this stupid-ass mythology is justified in existing.
Sorry man. It’s just something that ALWAYS pisses me off.
[/quote]
Ye, it’s not that he wasn’t a fantastic athlete, or an innovator, it’s the fact that everyone who knows fuck all about fighting suddenly becomes an expert on combat when Bruce Lee gets mentioned. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard ‘ye, but Bruce Lee would have knocked Mike Tyson out inside a round if they’d ever fought - he could break concrete blocks, his hands were too deadly for him to be able to fight in a competition, they’d never let him in a ring with a boxer, he’d kill them’.
It’s not Bruce Lee’s fault that he is the poster boy for every wanna-be-tough-guy, but it is annoying for everyone who trains to fight to be told it over and over again. You obviously can’t say anything in polite company without looking like a wanker. All you can do is smile and nod. Even worse is that he encouraged a generation to believe the whole kung fu my-hands-are-too-deadly-I-don’t-want-to-hurt-you-that’s-the-only-reason-I’m-not-going-to-fight with their box-top black belts. I am biased because I got into significant trouble when I was 14 because a couple of kids accosted me walking home and one who was some kind of Mcblack-belt kept tagging me pretending he was doing me a favour by not hurting me, but getting harder and harder each time as his friends egged him on. Because I didn’t know at that age that he wasn’t actually dangerous for being a black belt, I decided to be the one to end the threat, and smashed him with an overhand right, and his nearest mate with a left hook. Needless to say the threat disappeared very quickly, I broke two fingers stretching for the hook, I was hauled off by the fuzz in the middle of my dinner that night, there was the threat of criminal court action that hung around for a long time because there were no witnesses to my side of the story, just him and his mates who claimed I attacked them for no reason.
So ye, fuck Bruce Lee.
That is the reason I stick to wedgies and chinese burns nowadays. I’m a reformed character.
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
I find that doing shadow boxing half speed makes a big difference when I am trying to incorporate a new technique, or refine one. Go as slowly as you need to perfect it, and build it up from there. I think Irish has had some success with this approach too! Concentrate on getting your steps, timing and extension right. You’re bound to be slow at the moment, because everything is a conscious process. Everyone is slow when they start because you’re thinking step and jab before you actually do it. By the time you execute it, the guy in front of you is gone, even if he isn’t much good. It’s natural and part of the learning process. That said, meticulous shadow boxing will dramatically cut the learning process down. Ultimately, from a standing start, you can cover 2" forward much more quickly than your opponent can cover 2" backwards. The skill is all in how you start that 2" movement whilst already in motion, while at the same time trying to catch your opponent at a momentary standstill. All the best jabbers have unearthed this skill. [/quote]
I’ll do that with my shadow boxing tonight. I have 2 questions about executing a step forward when I jab.
Should I just step forward with my left foot and leave my right foot where it was or should I step with both feet?
Should I step and plant my feet before I throw a jab or should I throw the jab at the same time that I step forward? (I’m assuming I would try to land my jab at the same time I landed my foot)[/quote]
I realize I’m way late to the party, but have been swamped with work and family obligations and unable to check this log for a while but wanted to give you advice on a few topics that you seemed to be having issue with.
First the above questions (since the jab is the single most important punch in fighting and if you don’t learn how to execute it correctly, then everything else will be difficult to learn).
If you only step in with your front foot you are less committed, and this can quickly bounce back out of range before your opponent can answer with a counter. This is called “probing” footwork, and when combined with a jab is called a “probing jab” (or sometimes “speed jab”). It is useful for gaining information about an opponent’s defensive tendencies, lulling the opponent into a false sense of distance or complacency with their defensive actions, causing opponent’s to over reach on their attempted counters (as they try to catch you going back out of the pocket), setting a specific rhythm that you intend to break, etc… You can also take a second probing step forward as you double up the jab, slide up your right foot as you simultaneously fire yoir straight right, step off at an angle with your right foot to change angles as you bump, hook, turn/spin, or just move your head and body off line. There are actually lots of variations that I could detail here, but I’m not trying to write a novel, so hopefully this makes sense.
If you step in with both feet on your jab it is a more committed movement that will also cover more distance. Unless using a “spring step” though, which given your size would probably not suite you all that well, you should still step the front foot forward, land heel first, and as the ball of the foot comes down slide (not drag) the rear foot up to reassume your usual fighting posture (you may also turn the rear toe/hip out as you do so to allow more rotation/power on the straight right if you intend to follow with it, but that’s getting into more details than you probably need right now). This double step footwork is also useful for throwing a “power jab” (more on that later).
If you set a rhythm of probing in and out with your jab and start to see your opponent stop defending or defending half heartedly, then step in with the double step footwork jab (I call it a committed jab, or economy jab) and you will likely catch them off guard and crash through their defense (if they attempt one). Likewise if you throw some economy or speed jabs but aren’t fast enough to get them past your opponent’s defenses, then step in and throw a power jab and you should land it (as their success with defending the economy/speed jabs will accustom them to a specific rhythm/timing and thus when you throw the power jab their timing will be incorrect and your punch will land). Realize that it’s not always the faster punch that lands, it’s the one that your opponent’s timing or judgement was off on that lands. I could show you how to land either a “slow” punch or a fast punch on even a faster opponent by manipulating rhythym (and therefore timing and judgement).
Hope this helps.
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
I find that doing shadow boxing half speed makes a big difference when I am trying to incorporate a new technique, or refine one. Go as slowly as you need to perfect it, and build it up from there. I think Irish has had some success with this approach too! Concentrate on getting your steps, timing and extension right. You’re bound to be slow at the moment, because everything is a conscious process. Everyone is slow when they start because you’re thinking step and jab before you actually do it. By the time you execute it, the guy in front of you is gone, even if he isn’t much good. It’s natural and part of the learning process. That said, meticulous shadow boxing will dramatically cut the learning process down. Ultimately, from a standing start, you can cover 2" forward much more quickly than your opponent can cover 2" backwards. The skill is all in how you start that 2" movement whilst already in motion, while at the same time trying to catch your opponent at a momentary standstill. All the best jabbers have unearthed this skill. [/quote]
I’ll do that with my shadow boxing tonight. I have 2 questions about executing a step forward when I jab.
Should I just step forward with my left foot and leave my right foot where it was or should I step with both feet?
Should I step and plant my feet before I throw a jab or should I throw the jab at the same time that I step forward? (I’m assuming I would try to land my jab at the same time I landed my foot)[/quote]
First, I would strongly encourage you to read Jack Dempsey’s Championship fighting book, which does an amazing job of explaining punch mechanics.
To try to answer your questions:
Both. Generally, step with the left (tiny step), then bring the right foot up the same distance as your left foot lands. This is your go to jab. It is also possible to ‘bounce’ in, both feet together, as you suggest. There is even footage of Klitschko doing it, proving that big guys can do this sort of stuff too. It’s more of a frustration/goading punch though than a proper jab. You’re trying to frustrate your opponent, make him counter jb and miss, and over commit, so that you can then set yourself and come over the top with some solid punches.
Step and jab at the same time. You want your foot to land split seconds before the jab does, so that you are solid, but all the momentum is transferred forward. Think of it as just trying to set your body in motion in the same direction as the punch. [/quote]
Thanks for clearing that up. That actually helps a lot. It seems to me that my coach doesn’t really think about things like that because it just came to him very naturally so when someone, like myself, who needs everything broken down into its’ smallest components in order to understand it thoroughly he doesn’t really know what to say.
He also has us do a lot of drills where we step in with our left foot but leave our right foot planted, throw a 1-2 or a 1-2-3 and then step back with our left foot. This doesn’t seem to work well for me on the mitts and it works even worse when I’m sparring. I can’t ever land anything that way so I thought I was doing the technique wrong. Turns out it may just not be that great of a technique.[/quote]
First this brings up an important point; just because someone is good at something, doesn’t mean that they at a good coach or teacher. Being a good coach or teacher requires a much deeper understanding of the material and is a completely separate endeavor than just learning how to fight well. There are of course those who can do both at the highest level, but even they had to work their butts off in both aspects to reach that level.
Second, don’t do that drill, it’s just plain bad footwork and is ingraining bad habits into you. As I mentioned above, it’s ok to “probe” your front foot in and leave your back foot where it is if you are just throwing a speed jab (or even doubling up on a speed jab), but the second younwant to throw a straight right, hook, uppercut, or any “power punch” (because in actuality all of those could be thrown as speed or power punches), then you need to bring the rear foot up to regain your fighting posture. Without doing so you won’t have your legs underneath you, won’t be able to effectively shift your weight to add mass to your punches, and will be off balance. Once you land your combination, then you can clear via backwards step and slide footwork, pivoting off line, angular footwork out the side door, etc…
Regarding Bruce Lee, anybody who thinks he could have taken a prime Tyson (or Wallace, or Lewis, or Urdiquez, or any great HW or even middleweight boxer, a Muay Thai Champ, MMA fighter, etc…) is suffering from delusions of grandeur. That said, Joe Lewis said multiple times that Bruce was the quickest person that he ever stood in front of (and when you consider that included Wallace, Urdiquez, Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson to name a few that is saying something); Bruce was very strong for his size (especially considering that he didn’t get into strength training till in his mid twenties); in tremendous physical condition; and had that competitive “fighters spirit”. So, I don’t think it’s out of the question to say that he probably could have been at least a decent boxer, Thai fighter, or MMA fighter had he actually done it, but I agree that claiming that he wouod clean house is ridiculous.
What he should get credit for though was his ability to synergize concepts and principles and plug them into a cohesive and innovating system that can be applied to combat (regardless of the discipline). His principles that he later called Jeet Kune Do, we’re proven effective time and time again by the likes of Joe a Lewis, Chuck Norris, and Mike Stone in full and semi contact kickboxing/karate and, as that video that was posted before accurately points out, are still in use in today’s Combat Sports. These principles weren’t just pulled out of thin air, and Lee actually hated and strongly disagree with the whole “too deadly to spar” mindset that permeated Martial Arts at that time. He was one of the first Martial Artists to put on the protective gear and soar full contact with his students, he and Lewis orchestrated and promoted the very first full contact karate match in the US (which Lewis won by TKO/KO), he absolutely loved boxing and used to watch countless hours of fight film on Ali and other great boxers of that time and incorporated much of boxing’s defensive and offensive skills into his own training and his training of others. So you guys are actually completely wrong that did or would endorse such nonsensical attitudes.
Again, it’s these principles and his ability to structure them in a cohesive fashion that make him deserving or respect from combat athletes and martial artists alike. If you can take those and just let the fan boys have their fantasy nonsense and not let it bother you, then there is actually much you can gain and benefit from Lee’s teachings (though, personally I would go with Lewis’s teachings since he was fortunate enough to live another 40 years in which he further refined this principles as well as continuing to glean knowledge off of the best combat sports coaches and fighters he could (like Eddie Futch, Angelo Dundee, and Cus D’Amato to name a few) and incorporate that into his system.
^good stuff Sento. You’re an encyclopedia, man! I have stopped drilling a lot of the things I learned at that school because it just flat out wasn’t effective. Examples: Long, reaching straight right, quarter turn, switch kick to inside of left leg, step left, right round kick to body. Why the hell would I do all that walking around between strikes? It gives your opponent WAY too much time to see what is going on and the kicks always get checked. Maybe I am just too slow but I trimmed it down to jab, cross, right round kick to the thigh (or switch kick to the inner thigh) which I land almost every time I throw it.
I will have some time to train these things on my own before I get into a striking school again so I will have to keep it very basic to avoid learning bad habits. Anyway, thanks for your input.
I hear you, I also think that had he actually lived to this day that he wouldn’t have been the icon he became; his early untimely death forever cemented him in our collective imaginations in his physical and artistic prime. Combine that with his charisma, stage presence, the fact that he broke down race barriers, and cultural impact and you’ve got a recipe for icon. Just imagine if Arnold had suddenly tragically died after making T2, or Stallone had died after making the first few Rocky movies, or Harrison Ford had died after making the 3rd Indiana Jones Movie (and none of them single handedly put a movie genre on the global stage or broke down any barriers). Instead we have gotten a chance to see all of them age, make less than stellar movies, and become humanized in our minds; that has not and will never happen with Lee, so his image has become one of eternal youth, vigor, and unrealized/unknown potential.
Edited: Stupid autocorrect
AM
Shadow Boxing
4x2 min
4x4’s
3x2
Heavy Bag
2x2
I couldn’t throw powerful strikes because my neck was still really tight and sore so I just worked on using proper form and having really good control of my techniques. I drilled 2,1,2, switchkick and 1,2,1, thai kick.
PM
Single Ply Squat
Straps Down
135x5
225x5
315x3
Belt On
405x3
Straps Up
495x1
545x1
I only put on the squat suit because I’ve never been small enough to get into it lol. I finally lost enough weight to use it so I wanted to try it out and see how it felt. It was really strange, I’ve never been a geared lifter so I am not used to wearing a squat suit. I could probably have squatted well over 700lbs in that thing but I didn’t have any spotters so I decided to take it easy. It gave so much rebound out of the hole that I couldn’t even hit parallel with 545! Plus, I have a killer sunburn on my back and holding anything over 500lbs was getting to be pretty painful.
Haha, true. But we also might have been spared Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, so the trade offs would be plenty.
BJJ Class
This class was awesome. It was me, 2 brown belts and a black belt. Their idea of warming up was grappling for 45 minutes and they put me through the ringer. I rolled with all 3 of them and was able to establish and hold a dominant position for a majority of our time on the mat. Then we went over escaping the half guard to scarf hold and to side mount. It was a great class, I’m looking forward to Thursday.
Since I started at this new BJJ school, my training split is going to have to change quite a bit. I have found that strength is a huge advantage when grappling so I’m going to move to lifting 3 days a week since I have been getting weaker lately. I will lift at times when doing other forms of training isn’t really an option though so I’m not cutting into technique drilling time.
Sunday: Rest/Maybe for a walk or something really easy
Monday: AM Bench/Overhead Press, etc…
Monday: PM Striking Drills and Conditioning
Tuesday: BJJ Class/Push Ups/Sit Ups
Wednesday: AM Barbell Row/Pull Ups, etc…
Wednesday: PM Striking Drills and Conditioning
Thursday: BJJ Class/Push Ups/Sit Ups
Friday: Squat/Deadlift, etc…
Saturday: BJJ Class/Push Ups/Sit Ups
There are times on Monday and Wednesday when I am too stiff and tired to train in the AM so on those days I’ll do my conditioning and striking drills at night along with my lifting. This isn’t that much different than my last training split, the days are just jumbled up a bit.
Judged wanted to say that it’s very cool you have found a Marcelo Garcia affiliate in your area to train at. MG is considered by many to be one of the best of not the best P4P submission grappler in modern Jou Jitsu history.
“Just” wanted to…stupid autocorrect. 
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Judged wanted to say that it’s very cool you have found a Marcelo Garcia affiliate in your area to train at. MG is considered by many to be one of the best of not the best P4P submission grappler in modern Jou Jitsu history.[/quote]
The guys I rolled with from that school were much more technical than the guys from SFS. People at SFS handled themselves much more like wrestlers than these guys did. They were completely relaxed and would let me sort of “have my way with them” (i know that sounds weird but I am sure you know what I mean) although I couldn’t have ever submitted them. By the end they were kind of tired and I was wiped out. I will say this though: in an MMA match I could have slaughtered these guys. Although I couldn’t submit them, I was able to maintain a mounted position of some sort for 90% of the rolling session despite their efforts to escape so if punches were thrown in the mix it would have ended pretty quickly. These were strictly bjj practitioners though. I am sure they will be good guys to learn my ground game with and they were very eager to train and to teach so they’ll make great training partners.