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I concur with the previous answers - punching an immoveable surface is bad unless your knuckles and wrists are already conditioned. For example I frequently do single-knuckle strikes on doorway framings - while I do it considerably harder than the normal person I still don't do it with anything near the power I would use on a soft target.
I would strongly ...
18
Sparring should emphatically not end in you being beaten bloody, no matter the sport. Sparring is a contact activity, and you should expect to take some knocks, but it is also an activity founded on control and trust. There's an important difference between toughening up and learning to take a hit and actually being harmed.
This is doubly important for ...
15
I am an amateur boxer competing so perhaps I can share some insight.
Basically breathing technique is a major aspect one needs to learn. You can very quickly gas out (lose your breath, which also leads to a lack of oxygen for your essential muscles). Therefore, we learn to breathe through our noses when you're not tense - i.e. when you jump-rope and such.
...
14
I want to be able to be prepared against any kind of opponent.
You are looking for a unicorn there. No martial art whatsoever is able to do that. There is no ultimate fighting art. That said, most martial arts (McDojo excluded) can give you an edge in self defence. It will shift the odds in your favour which is a good thing.
However, self defence is not ...
answered Jun 23 '14 at 6:49
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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14
There's basically a few things going on, for boxers, or any heavy contact sport that involves potential head hits:
Neck muscles are stabilizers
In general, better stabilizer muscles for the head helps reduce concussion rates. Less whiplash effect means less brain damage.
This means neck, shoulder, and spinal strength training helps. The rates for high ...
14
As others have said, a knockout is typically not the result of a blow to the nose, but to the chin.
The brain is basically a loose spongy thing trapped inside your skull. When you receive a hard blow to the head, the brain will hit the inside of your skull – much like when you shake a nut, and you can hear it rattles against the shell. This will ...
14
There are many reasons for this.
Boxers use oil/vaseline to make their bodies more slippery. Obviously doesn't work in a tank-top.
12-rounds of boxing against 8/10oz gloves would end up wrecking an olympic style tank top really fast. Something would go loose, and there would have to be breaks in the fight. You don't want to hit anything that is not just the ...
13
If the students are going too hard on the beginners, the instructor either don't care or has lost control of the class. It's his or her responsibility to make sure everybody is safe. Most good schools ease their beginners into sparring. They start of with some light sparring, and then progress from there. Even pro fighters spar easy a lot of the time, as it'...
12
They don't train their head. They train their ability to dodge out of the way of the punch, block it, or take enough of its force out of the equation as to impact with a lot less force or impact on part of the head or body that is more protected.
It's true that boxers can generate huge amounts of force with their punches. But that force is measured using a ...
12
Height gives a considerable advantage to striking martial arts. The first and most obvious advantage is that height means you can reach out further than your opponent, meaning you can hit him before he hits you.
But there are other advantages that you don't immediately consider:
If you have to punch upwards towards a taller opponent's head, you don't punch ...
11
I would advocate that you throw the boil & bite mouthguard away and spend the money to get a properly moulded one from your dentist or orthodontist. The advantage these have is that they are moulded very closely to your teeth, and they are very hard to dislodge. Consequently you don't end up distracted by it while sparring and don't end up gagging from ...
11
This is really simple. Not every impact to the head (whether jaw or nose) knocks someone unconscious. Plenty of soccer players get hit hard by the ball in the face and don't get knocked out.
You're more likely to be knocked out if you're weak, if you don't see the impact coming, or if you have a history of being knocked out (that is, people can develop ...
11
Heavyweight fighters are more susceptible to knock-outs. It's why heavyweight fights sell better than lightweight fights. Fans want to see a knock-out.
Heavyweights generally hit harder than lightweights, because they have more muscle and more mass behind their punches than lightweight fighters do.
When they're being punched at, heavyweights are slower to ...
10
In a perfect world, your mouth guard should fit for the life of the guard if properly molded in the first place. It is extremely common, however, to have a mouth guard that doesn't properly retain its shaping, mostly because of a relaxation or remodeling of the guard from wear, being cleaned with too high of heat, or simply from never having been properly ...
10
My master told its not good for bones.
and he is right. Practicing "non-sport" karate (bushido dzen) I am following a simple rule: hit soft with hard (like a punch to stomach or strike to throat) and hard with soft (palm-strike to the head can cause lots of damage if done right). Of course, if/when you wear gloves, everything will be different.
10
One of the eternal truths about martial arts is that you're going to get hit. And another eternal truth is that sometimes you're going to get hit hard. So it's a good thing to learn to take hits. Being struck in the belly is a good way to learn to tighten the abs and discover that they are an effective shield when they are properly developed and trained.
A ...
10
Try talking to them; You're sparring so they working on their toughness is dumb; toughness is not a skill that increases with practice*; it's a deteriorating factor.
Being tough is a good quality to have, but it should never be someone's primary way to win. It's a backup. During sparring, where you are trying to improve, you should be working on (placing) ...
10
The question asks which is more effective: Doing MMA or doing multiple different martial arts.
There are a couple of different interpretations about what is meant by "effective" in this context, however. First, it can refer to how well all the different styles of martial arts are integrated into a cohesive system whereby all the techniques work together and ...
9
First, I think your coach is wrong: weightlifting, properly done, is excellent for boxing.
Second, I think your assumption that your legs are strong is wrong: running is not a particularly good way to develop leg strength compared to methods like barbell squats and deadlifts.
Third, I think punching with weights in the hands or on the wrists is a bad idea ...
9
But, when training, you can stop and breathe. But there's no time to breathe in a real fight.
This difference does not have to exist. A coach should occasionally put students through sparring of some kind that the student should not take breaks in. That can take many forms, including hard rounds with someone else from the gym, or a smoker match-up with ...
9
Yes, there is scientific evidence that boxing is harmful to the head -
Amateur/Olympic boxers show cerebrospinal fluid changes indicative of neural injury
Neurochemical aftermath of boxing (Note - Some same authors)
Seminar on boxing damage, recognition and intervention
Abstract only - K-D test for head trauma in boxers/mma
Given the spotlight shined ...
8
It sounds like you are fighting people tougher than you, a lot of the time this means you can be faster. Every time they throw a punch, do a quick strike to spots like the side of their arm, in between the tricep and bicep. Strike to their armpits. Strike upwards to their lats and if you can, down on their trapezius muscle. Also try striking the inside of ...
8
This reminds me of a training technique my old track and field trainer sometimes used for condition training. If you get short(er) breaks then you'll be forced to run (or in this case fight) while you are more fatigued than usual which indeed is good for condition training. It will also teach you to "keep up" your coordination and technique while running/...
8
There are all kinds of places on the body where fighters can get hit (the nose, the jaw, the solar plexus, the thigh, the liver, the kidneys, etc.), and each one of those triggers not just pain but subconscious, automatic physical reactions and altered psychological states. The pain is really the least of anyone's problems in this situation. It's the other ...
8
An analysis of the literature in 2006 presented data for a number of team and individual contact sports.
Concussions in boxing were identified at a rate of 0.8/10 rounds (for pros) or 7.9/1000 man-minutes (amateur). So in a pro bout you can expect one guy or the other to be concussed on average, and one guy or the other to be concussed per hour on average ...
8
One thing to realize is that you have two factors that affect blocking a strike: 1) reaction time, and 2) tracking.
Reaction time is the time taken by your brain to notice the strike coming towards you, to calculate an appropriate response, and to begin to move to counter it. (Notice I said "begin" to move, not the complete movement.)
If a strike has a ...
8
Any conditioning exercise that can prevent concussion caused by a punch or kick to the head or neck?
My first piece of advice is to see a doctor. If you are suffering something other than a concussion, that's important to know. However, if you are suffering concussions, you are risking your health in a serious way, and that's even more important to know.
Concussions ARE brain damage
All the current science points to the fact that concussions produce ...
8
Symmetric training is encouraged only at higher levels, and only by some coaches. The reason people mostly stick to their base stance in training is because "you need to learn to walk before you can run." In a complex sport like kickboxing, learning to "walk" takes a looong time. Some would say it takes an entire career.
There's no sense in learning a combo ...
8
The only thing wrong is that you are currently out of shape and really have presented no evidence that you are doing anything to get back into shape.
I used to play basketball a lot, I could play 3 full court games one after another.
So, you had a really decent baseline fitness level, in a short burst/long duration type activity.
So I sat on my couch ...
7
You're going to get a lot of push-back and they'll probably close this question, but you're not far off. Hard-sparring arts have proven themselves in ways that non-competitive arts have not.
However, don't forget that other arts spar hard as well: san da/san shou is akin to kickboxing with fast throws and takedowns. However, like how all modern mixed artial ...
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