Joker's Training Journal

I think of fighting as a combination of many factors, a collection of arsenals forming a spectrum of violence. I'm also developing a habit of creating corny acronyms. So here's another one addressing the facets that I think go into developing fighter excellence. In practice you may develop or drill all, a few, or only one of them. In sparring or a fight all of them will come to bear, deficiencies will reveal themselves as weaknesses while superior aspects will be relied on for victory. In truth, we cannot grow as martial artists without recognizing our own "pluses and minuses" and training in all aspects of the spectrum of fighting. Just as a painter cannot capture a scene with monochromatic palette or a picture record an event with one color, a fighter must be more than one-dimensional to excel. I give you SPECTRUM:

Stymie

A superior fighter can "shut down" the game of another. They take the strongest tools of their opponent and render them ineffective. This can be as simple as working in a range your opponent is unfamiliar with or scoring points early and then stalling out the action. I may train in another person's method of fighting but I will never fight my opponent's fight.

Protect

Your collection of defensive tools from evasion to covering a cross, from rolling out of bad position to stopping a submission, and sprawls as well as other takedown and throw defenses. Without a protective shield a fighter cannot engage in fighting, they will be damaged or hurt at the first exchange.

Engage

The partner to protection is engagement, the offensive arsenal that you bring to the game. This is your punches, kicks, takedowns, chokes, submissions, etc. A fighter must have tools to cause a fight, the threaten and do damage to an opponent.

Conceptualize

Combat sports are often compared to chess, probably the most cerebral of strategy games. As fighters and self-defense practitioners we must make a conscious and concentrated effort to think about what we are doing. Strategy must be analyzed, discarded or attempted during a time of increased physical and mental duress. Practicing something without understanding it is a useless effort. Self-perfection is as much a part of martial arts as self-preservation.

Technically excel

As workers in violence we must hone our tools. There is no room for inefficiency or lack of fine combat motor skills. Technique in all aspects of fighting must first be chiseled out of the working clay of the synapses in a controlled and non-competitive environment. It can then be molded into the game of fighting. Every male over the age of 18 thinks they know how to throw punch, but very few of them do it with any skill or true power.

React

Fighting is a series of action and counteractions. The actions are easier than the counteractions, and as such we must train an answer to every threat posed by an opponent. We can never create a bag of tricks suitable to react to every attack, but we can evolve general formulas that address wide aspects of combat reference points. For example, in Thai boxing I always return cross-hook-cross no matter if I picked up the initial attack or if I'm barely conscious. In a bad spot on the ground, shrimping hips away and pointing your belly button at your opponent will often make things a whole lot better.

Utilize

All the gedanken (thought) experiments or pondering of martial skills are useless without application. Even as we self-perfect we are building our arsenal of self-preservation. Concepts and great technique essential but without application when the excrement hits the air conditioning it's largely useless. Without the raw physical and emotional presence to assert your fighting skills all the training in the world will never be enough.

Modulate

Fights are by nature chaotic, when the ebb and flow of combat begins to favor your opponent over you, a change in tactics or strategy is called for. The ability to adapt or modulate your game in response to losing or stymieing of your game is a another key to victory. Modulation can be considered the flip side of stymieing.

Other than being excessively verbose I also trained with Kyle and Jeff, started off with rotations on the wall then switched to rounds with one guy on bottom or starting from clinch. Did some Thai boxing work with Joe after this and I give you some new combinations:

• Jab-Cross-Kick-Overhand-Lead Uppercut-Overhand (2-Kick-Overhand-Uppercut-Overhand)
  
• Jab-Overhand-Lead Hook (Overhand 3)
  
• Jab-Overhand-Lead Hook-Rear Kick (Overhand 3 Kick)
  
• Tiip-Jab-Cross-Lead Hook-Rear Kick (Tiip-3-Kick)

We worked several pad rounds, the ones of note being preceding every combination with a tiip and finishing every round with a tiip.