Staying on your feet for the stand up fighter

[Andrew Green]

Alright, this is going to be fairly general, and fairly basic. So if you are a skilled grappler some of these rules might not be the best ideas, but if you are a purely stand up fighter looking for some basic ideas maybe is will.

- Square up. Don't face your opponent in a sideways stance, you are easy pickings for a single leg takedown and a few other nasties with little hope of defending.

- Stay low. Keep on your toes, but bend your knees and get youyr hips low. Most takedowns require getting your hips bellow the other guys in order to excecute, so try to keep yours low.

- Keep your elbows in. As soon as they come away from your body you can get underhooked, ducked under, arm dragged, thrown, etc. If you end up in a clinch especially, fight like a dinosaur.

- Butt out as soon as he clinches. Keep your hips away from him, and his away from you. This often comes in the form of posting a hand on his hips. If he can't get tight, he will have a very hard time throwing you.

- Keep your head up, if you're looking at the ground you will end up in neck ties or a front head lock. From here you have no punching power, your knees are useless, and you will be getting punched, kneed or thrown.

- Circle. If you are circling you are much harder to shoot in on. If you are in opposite leads keep your lead foot outside his, he won't have a proper angle to shoot on. In the same lead, circle towards your lead side. Don't be predictable in your movements though.

- Learn to change levels. Very simple drill, keep your hips lower then the opponents, and train it. So if he drops low to shoot, you drop low. Like doing a funny squat, back straight, and drop. This is your first step in a proper sprawl as well, which leads too...

- Learn to sprawl. This means change levels, arms between you and your opponent if possible, kick your legs back and drive your hips in and to the ground keeping your head up. Many people when first learning to sprawl leave there butts in the air, which will lead to a reshoot even if it works. Hips to the ground, head up. Too stand back up hold his head down and jump both feet up and away, then release the head and get away.

- Straight punches straight up the center. Anything that circles, and any kick can open you up to a take down. Fire straight punches straight down the center, if one hits and hurts then you can try following it up with something else, but must of what you throw is straight up the center.

- After you hit move out on a angle, not straight back. Moving back makes you hard to take down, but moving back on a angle makes it even harder.

- When breaking out of a clinch remember the key points, head up, elbows in, hips away. When you push away do it with your body, not by extending your arm, otherwise you may find the guy on your back.

- Learn to shoot properly. This means change levels, keep your head up, elbows in and shoot. Practicing against people coming in like a airplane is of no help.

- Add some basic clinch drills into your training. Fight for underhooks, neckties, etc. These drills are excellent and take little training to get started at.

 

[PG_ShaolinKempoKarate23]

Good Post, I train at USSD "cough"Mcdojo"cough" so things like clinch fighting are like a foreign language to me, so resources like this are invaluable. Especially since I have begun doing some NHB fighting with some fellow martial artists(nothing serious, just for fun) and have had trouble grappling, mainly because Shaolin Kempo Karate is primarily a striking art.

Again, great post!

 

[Andrew Green]

Glad it helps, here's another post on some drills that you should be able to work without a coach http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16393

 

[WilliamJ]

Don't square yourself completely and always be ready to get underhooks. If you are to sqared off you will get double legged in a heart beat. Also remeber to circle away, if you close you are helping them close on a shot.

In general you don't squat before sprawling, it's more just one motion. If you squat while being double legged you are going to get slammed. You kick your feet back and drop your hips at the same time.

 

[Andrew Green]

Don't square yourself completely and always be ready to get underhooks. If you are to sqared off you will get double legged in a heart beat. Also remeber to circle away, if you close you are helping them close on a shot.

Not true, in straight wrestling wrestlers stand dead on, often without a lead foot. In order to finish a double you need to get an angle on the guy, staying square is the best way to stay on your feet.

First link from a quick google on wrestling stance: http://www.randyswrestling.com/WC1.html

In general you don't squat before sprawling, it's more just one motion. If you squat while being double legged you are going to get slammed. You kick your feet back and drop your hips at the same time.

ALWAYS change level before sprawling. Otherwise the guy will get under you and you'll be in the air. In order to take you down he first has to get his hips under yours, so your first step in defending is to get your hips as low as his.

 

[WilliamJ]

Sprawls don't happen in steps, you do it all at once. Feet back hips down. Not a jump, a drop, but your feet HAVE to go back at the same time. If your feet stay planted, even for a second, the take down is complete.

And by not completely squaring up I mean one foot must be slightly behind the other. Not turned sideways but not completely facing your opponent either.

 

[Andrew Green]

Everything happens in steps, they just overlap.

Shooter - level change, penetration step

defender - level change, legs out and hips drive in.

But here is a simple experiment for you. Have someone shoot and grab your legs, not take you down, just secure their grip and get in. Sprawl. Now try it by changing levels first.

When you change levels you will get free and defend, without that you are going to end up on your back real fast.

Obviously thats not quite the way it happens in reality, but it illustrates the importance of that level change. And there is a good reason why wrestlers spend time working just level change drills.

 

[WilliamJ]

I am not disagreeing about level changes. Just saying that in real time you have to drop and get your feet back at the same time. Unless you want to try and use something like Tawara Gaeshi to reverse the takedown.

http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/tawaragaeshi.htm

 

[Andrew Green]

Won't work on a proper shoot, blue's butts in the air

If someone shoots like that you got more options then just sprawling

 

[WilliamJ]

You can do it even if he has better form. You do sort of a mini sprawl to level him out a little, then grab and roll back. It's also a good way to recover on a failed sprawl. Judo guys do usually double leg with awful form though, not sure why. But I have gotten this to work on a number of good wrestlers.

 

[Loki]

Great post Andrew, thanks for sharing! (wanted to give you rep, but I probably did it too recently...)

 

[Drag'n]

Great Post Andrew!
I'm primarily a Muay Thai style stand up fighter. In MT when you clinch you try to keep your hips close to your oponent to avoid exposing your body to knees and avoid getting pulled down into a knee to the face.But MT dosent alow hip throws. I've often had oportunities to do hip throws in MT neck wrestling practise, but I've had to hold back because of this rule. It seems to be a weakness in the MT grappling style.
Because I also fight in MMA comps I've been wondering about this a bit lately. As you say in your post, having your hips close to your opponent makes you prone to getting thrown. But having your hips out makes you prone to knees. Is there a trick to getting around this seemingly no win situation?

 

[Navarre]

Thank you for the post, Andrew. You give some good advice.

Even the minor debate over technique is allowing those of us who grapple less to explore the principles behind the techniques. Thanks!

 

[jonah2]

Mr Green

As a standy upy type, I thank you for your thought process.

Can you confirm something for me. Is your advise for us standy upy's in a self defence synario or a ring environment

respectfully,

jonah

 

[Andrew Green]

More for fighting someone that is trained, but much would apply to both.

Obviously not all self-defence situations are going to follow the structure of a "fight", but when someone is trying to take you down you defend the same way no matter where you are.

Also the way a untrained person would try to take you down will not be as technical, and in theory a lot easier to defend My theory is if you can stop someone that has been trained to take you down stopping someone that hasn't should be a lot easier.

 

[jonah2]

More for fighting someone that is trained, but much would apply to both.

Obviously not all self-defence situations are going to follow the structure of a "fight", but when someone is trying to take you down you defend the same way no matter where you are.

Also the way a untrained person would try to take you down will not be as technical, and in theory a lot easier to defend My theory is if you can stop someone that has been trained to take you down stopping someone that hasn't should be a lot easier.

Hard to gauge through text but I think you misinterpret my question. My query was not trained V un-trained attack, but rules V no-rules. In a 'ring' environment the defence against a shoot are more restricted and obviously when you are down the options are further limited for the standy upy conforming to rules. Not saying your observations are incorrect - just want to gauge were you commence the principles

jonah

 

[Andrew Green]

Ok, in that case it doesn't matter. Works for both, the difference is what happens before and after (can you knee 'em in the head after the sprawl?)

But the structure and movement to prevent the takedown remains the same.

 

[jonah2]

Thank you sir, now I know your reference point of view I can examine the moves more objectively

Thank you again for your observations,

jonah