Coach's Corner - Fighting Truths

by Kirian Fitzgibbons

As a Coach there are some universal truths to combat, no matter the style, language or geographic location, a "Punch in the Face...Is a Punch in the Face" and what I'm going to offer here today are some of these "Universal Rules" that I use in training some of the very best Stand Up Fighters in the World everyday at CSA. Most of this was taught to me by someone else through the years... there is nothing new in Combat Sports, just unique takes on movement and concepts. The 1st time I saw the "Rules of Fighting" it was a shorter list from Erik Paulson, one of the Coaches I have looked up to for many years. I've modified a few things, reworded a few things, but inherently the original list was his. 21 RULES OF STAND UP FIGHTING Hands Up Chin Down Sit Down Move Head / Move Feet / Movement Hides Movement Outside Range-Circle Left or Right – AWAY from Power Inside Range- Circle the Direction You Finish Always Fake or Feint In Be First - Hit Them 1st Be Last - If they do hit you, Hit them Back Be Gone - When you do hit them, don't stand in the same spot you were in...Move Never Take With Out Giving Return at least 2-3 for every 1 Punch when Kicked Kick when Punched Clinch when Rocked Hands Set Up Kicks Always Hit out of the Clinch Dictate Center of The Ring/Cage Cut Opponent off (Stalk Them-Don’t Chase Them-Pressure) Always Change Up Your Attacks When You Score “Blitz” but w/ Good Defense. With that said, the "practical" application of these rules into the live dynamics of sparring can be difficult, to say the least, easy to say, hard to do kind of thing...but there are some common traits we can look at to help overcome and improve our sparring, thus improving our ability to fight the way we train. 

COMMON SPARRING MISTAKES 1st Realize Sparring is not Fighting...Sparring is Learning. Don't brutalize your teammates. In sparring, the main objective is to sharpen the skills of the participants. It is a learning process.... When someone knocks out his teammate in sparring it achieves nothing but kill brain cells and take away a sparring partner for an extended period of time. Even working with someone below your skill level can make you a better fighter because he/she may possess fighting traits that compliment your weaknesses. With that said, our fight habits start with sparring, so most of these sparring points will transfer over and apply to fighting. 

1. Backing up more than 3 times when someone is bearing down on you: One of the first things I teach my fighters when they begin sparring is to never back up more than 3 times. What I am trying to prevent is someone retreating back in a straight line. Fredrick the Great in writing a letter to a general said it best, “the first step backward makes a poor impression in the army, the second step is dangerous, and the third becomes fatal." Think of it this way: if you are moving backwards, then it is very difficult, even impossible, for you to hit hard. Hitting hard requires you to move forward. Secondly, running backward diminishes your ability to time shots effectively as well. Thirdly moving back in a straight-line activates the opponents hunting response. When he sees you peddling back, it says to him you are in trouble. Maybe you are in trouble and maybe you are not, either way, you can bet the opponent will intensify the pressure. What’s the best thing to do? Anytime you need to move away from the opponent try to circle straight away. If that’s not possible and you find you need to back up in a straight-line, count two steps, but then circle off. Once you back up more than three times, even though you could still circle off, the intensity bearing down on you from the opponent will make it difficult for you to recover efficiently and get yourself back to a position of composure. Circling off instead of running back allows you to make the necessary space, without losing your ability to effectively time your counterattacks. This is nothing new, even Napoleon knew this when he said, “Space I can recover, Time, never”. The idea here is to move out the way of incoming attacks, but to stay just far enough to capitalize on timing your counterstrike. 

2. A focus on attacking when you are already losing: Most people who find themselves losing in sparring, who are caught by incoming punches, try to turn the tide by hitting back with everything they have. There is a problem with this strategy. If you feel you are already out gunned, then you are probably thinking that too. Laying down a flurry of punches, while thinking you are losing, is a recipe for disaster. Being able to hit while moving forward requires not only confidence but tenacity. Both of these will be affected drastically if you feel you are being out gunned. What you need is something that will enable you to re-activate your confidence and tenacity. One word comes to mind here, 'Defense'. Defense is a positive primer that can enable you to absorb your loss of confidence and tenacity and help you rebuild it. If you can ride the storm of incoming attacks, while saying to yourself, “I am still here”, “I am not getting hurt” this has a way of giving you back your confidence and your will to fight back. Almost everyone I meet in the martial arts underestimates how much their confidence in their ability to defend incoming attacks bolsters their overall psychological game. Simply put, if you feel and think you are losing and you just try to fight your way out of it and it does not work (Which it probably won’t because you already thinking “I am losing”) where do you go from there? You are likely to turn tail and run. Defense allows you to turn the tide back in your favo.

3. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result People get caught in trying to make something work, even when it clearly isn’t or use the same strategy again and again because it worked in the beginning of the round. If there is anything I have learnt in sparring, if you want something to work, keep changing it up. This does not mean you have to be fancy, it just means play with variations. If I want to land my jab just by trying to force it in, it probably won’t work. But if I hide it behind a feint or a cross it has more likelihood of succeeding. I know this may sound obvious. But too often we so badly want a specific strategy to work, that we throw out the rational and hope that if we do it one more time, it has to succeed. Sometimes letting go of your favorite stuff, and working your not so favorite techniques may be the answer to winning. My simple rule of thumb is this, after trying the same thing three times and it is still not working do something else. 

4. Trying to look cool Many people try to be to fancy in their sparring game. Sometimes because they are over confident, but many times because they are trying to show off to the people who may be watching them. What people think about your game, that’s if you could read their minds of course, wouldn’t change what is happening right now. The secret to a successful physical game in martial arts is to KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid! Don’t get hooked into looking cool, or trying to pull cool moves off because you want to impress others on the sideline. Looking cool doesn’t win fights. Keeping focused on the game in the present moment does. 

5. Thinking about the end before you have even gotten through the ‘now,' jumping to the end, thinking about the outcome while sparring or wishing the intended outcome, is a big mistake. You take your attention away from the present, from the process, from what you should be doing right now - what you should be focusing on. This builds into point 4. You have to stay focused in the present to win. Thinking ahead sets you up for failure. The more you move forward in time, the more you try to plan the next step, the more can go wrong. As Confucius reminds us, "To go too far is as bad as to fall short." Moving forward in time takes you away from where your attention should be, which is dealing with what is happening right now in the match. Secondly, anytime you plan ahead in the heat of battle and it does not work out the way you wanted it to – it can quickly degrade your confidence and make you second guess your actions. Once you are sparring, once the fight is on, you have to rely on your training. It is simply too late now to start thinking about what you should have been doing. 

6. Silence in action for more than 3 seconds: When in doubt of what to do – ‘JAB’. With the hands or the feet. Anytime there is in-action, a lull in you hitting back for too long, the opponent will start thinking that he has you, that you are losing or too afraid to hit back. Always make the opponent think he has to be worried about something. Sticking out a jab, even if it is not landing, puts the opponent on the defensive. If not physically at least mentally. You want to make him move. Joe Frazier knew this all to well when he noted, “It is not the same when a fighter moves because he wants to move, and another when he moves because he has to”. In the book, Wiles Of War, we are reminded, “Make a false move, not to pass it for a genuine one, but to transform it into a genuine one after the enemy has been convinced of its falsity”. 

7. Believing that you have won, before you really have: So you are doing well. It seems that you are scoring the deciding blows. But never congratulate yourself, never become over-confident until you have actually won. Wait until the bell has rung and signaled the end before you celebrate. Keep present. Do your work. Win without even knowing you are about to. 

8. Using anger to try to win: Anger doesn’t win fights, it loses them. Anger is fear in disguise. Be a “machine” and an “assassin,” not a “psycho”. I kind of like Napoleon’s take on this, “Never interfere with an enemy that is in the process of committing suicide”. And that’s what you are doing by trying to use anger to win a fight. It rarely does. Staying centered, unattached from emotion is the best way to win a fight. You want Zen Mind not Killer Instinct Mind. This is not to say that anger, aggressiveness and the killer instinct cannot win a fight, but it comes at a terrible price if you don’t. If you don’t win using it, then the consequences are total psychic meltdown. You will simply spiral into frustration, begin second guessing yourself, lose your focus and even want to give up. Being detached affords you a place of stoicism, where you realize that emotion does not predict the outcome of a battle, but rather acknowledging that it is simply there does. Ride the wave of emotion. It is simply what it is, your body's message center. Acknowledge the message, thank your body for telling you and get back to work!. Again, much of these basic "fighting truths" have been taken from multiple sources and coaches... if I could credit a "single" source I would, but just know that as a coach I have copied, watched, studied, mimicked, begged, borrowed, pleaded and plagiarized any and every Coach I've ever worked with to come up with my fighting system. Any coach who claims otherwise is full of ego and pretense...what I teach was taught to me or I have seen somewhere else and have now adapted it my use. So with that said please feel free to make what I offer you here your own.