skribs
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When you combine a slow day at work with my ability to overanalyze everything, you get opinion pieces like this. And since I am a very opinionated person, this seems like the perfect thread for me to start!
My opinion is there are 5 types of striking combos. I will briefly discuss each of them, and then go a little more in-depth on each. First, I would like to say I am purposefully ignoring grappling. Why? Because it's my thread, and I can do that. More specifically, I want to eliminate the rabbit trails that I would go down if I did not limit myself. So I am specifically talking about combos involving strikes and blocks.
What are the 5?
The ol' adage "give 'em the ol' one-two." The one-two combo has been part of my vocabulary long before Martial Arts. It is probably the most well-known combo style. The one-two is a sort of oscillation between striking with the left, and striking with the right, which serves the advantage of using the recoil motion of one strike as the driving force behind the next.
Power in a punch does not come from arm strength, but rather the rotational power in your core and the power in your legs pushing against the ground. Striking with your lead side is generally weak, because your hips are already oriented towards the target. Striking with the rear side is generally strong, because that's when you can bring all of those other muscle groups into play.
However, after a reverse punch, a jab can carry a lot more power. This is because after that reverse punch, you twist your hips back, and now you have the twist of your lead hip returning to position that adds to the strength of your next jab, hook, or lead leg roundhouse kick.
This principle follows whether you're doing a jab-reverse, a hook-uppercut, or even a pair of roundhouse kicks. It also follows with the basic block-punch drills you'll learn as a white belt in most Taekwondo (or similar) schools.
The principle also works if you are using different punches, for example the jab-reverse-hook-uppercut combination is going to apply this over and over.
The one-two allows you to deliver your most powerful strikes more than twice as fast, by letting you use the pendulum effect to great effect.
Repeating Combos
A repeating combo is the exact opposite of the one-two. Where the one-two is designed to maximize the rate at which you can deliver power, the repeating combo takes your fastest hits and just uses them over and over again. A repeating combo is when you strike, rechamber, and strike again with the same limb.
A repeating combo could be:
Repeated jabs are going to be used for keep range, finding weak points, and distracting your enemy. Repeated power hits are going to be used like those high-damage attacks in a video game after you've stunned the enemy (anyone who has played a Zelda game knows what I'm talking about). You've gotten your opponent into a position where you can repeatedly hit them with a powerful hit, and so you do so. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless it's your opponent, in which case if it ain't broke, break it!
In most cases, the repeated combos will allow you to stay in a safe position, whether it's an advantaged clinch or a well balanced stance, instead of letting go of the clinch or orienting yourself closer to your opponent.
The advanced level of the repeating combo is when you combine footwork to change what it is you're repeating. For example, a boxer can step through a cross, switching from orthodox to southpaw by doing so, and then follow up his cross with a strong-hand jab.
Repeating combos are generally not going to be powerful in and of themselves, but are going to work well to chain into another combination style.
Flowing Combos
A flowing combo is something that uses the same limb over and over again, where the finishing point of one technique is the chamber for the next. It could be a hook punch followed by a backfist, a hook kick followed by a roundhouse kick, or any number of strikes that flow from one chamber to the next. It can be as ludicrous as a Loony Toon slapping their opponent with the palm and backhand, or it can be as technical as a parry-counter combo (i.e. block on the way to a strike).
Subjectively, I think flowing combos are the most fun to execute, and they make for great "chess match" fight scenes in movies. They allow you to throw a lot of different strikes at your opponent in a relatively short amount of time, which can be a really good way of getting past your opponent's guard.
Like the Repeated combo, a flowing combo can generally keep you in a safe position. You probably won't be able to put as much power as some of the other combos, but hopefully you can get a strike to a soft target that doesn't need much power.
However, I think the real power in the flowing combo is not in the flowing strikes, but in the ability to chain from a block to a strike. For example, an inward block followed by a chop to the neck, a downward palm followed by a backfist to the nose or temple, or an outward knife-hand block followed by a palm strike to the chin.
In addition to protecting yourself, these combos also position you inside their guard in such a way that you can make the hit. This hit is generally not the strongest hit, because in addition to not getting your hips in, you only have half the normal chamber. However, it is usually a high percentage hit and usually to a highly valuable target.
Spinning Combos
A spinning combo is pretty self explanatory. It's a combo where you spin. It's similar to the 1-2 in that you're alternating limbs again, but also similar to the flow in that you're using the follow-through of one technique in order to set up the next.
Spinning combos can keep spinning indefinitely in the same direction, and once they pick up momentum they can flow pretty well. They also look pretty, which in some purposes is very important.
A good spinning combo can catch you off-guard, because you can be looking at the right shoulder that's coming towards you, but get hit by the left elbow or left foot as it comes around. However, these combos are harder to reverse direction on, and there are times when you would take your eyes off of your opponent.
Simultaneous Combos
The Simultaneous combo is even easier to describe - more than one limb hits at the same time. The most common use of this is by untrained martial artists - the shove. On the trampoline, I'd use a variation of this where I would do a double push kick, land it on my back, and bounce to my feet. I just had another idea, but I'll save that rabbit trail for another thread.
In general, this combo as a strike is mostly for demonstration, whether it's a double punch or double block in forms, or a split side kick where you break two boards at once. Now I have seen double-punches used in the UFC (can't remember the opponent, but there was an absolutely brutal one done by Miesha Tate), but in most cases a single punch is usually better.
Where the simultaneous combo shines, in my opinion, is the block and strike combo. Block with your left hand, strike with your right, or vice versa. This allows you to get the block-and-counter like a flow combo, but also allows you to do so from a full chamber position and with full power.
So uh...what does this all mean?
This can mean a few things:
So now for your thoughts. How crazy am I, on a scale of 1 to Buka? Is this a worthwhile line of thinking, or do you feel I wasted your time reading this? Are there combo styles I missed, or did I pretty much cover them? Did you learn anything from this post, or have anything to add so I can learn?
My opinion is there are 5 types of striking combos. I will briefly discuss each of them, and then go a little more in-depth on each. First, I would like to say I am purposefully ignoring grappling. Why? Because it's my thread, and I can do that. More specifically, I want to eliminate the rabbit trails that I would go down if I did not limit myself. So I am specifically talking about combos involving strikes and blocks.
What are the 5?
- One-two (for example, jab-cross, or hook-uppercut)
- Repeating (throwing repeated jabs, or a TKD throwing repeated roundhouse kicks with the same leg)
- Flowing (like an elbow strike, which is used as the chamber for a chop)
- Circular (hook - spinning elbow, roundhouse kick - back kick)
- Simultaneous (both hands strike at the same time)
The ol' adage "give 'em the ol' one-two." The one-two combo has been part of my vocabulary long before Martial Arts. It is probably the most well-known combo style. The one-two is a sort of oscillation between striking with the left, and striking with the right, which serves the advantage of using the recoil motion of one strike as the driving force behind the next.
Power in a punch does not come from arm strength, but rather the rotational power in your core and the power in your legs pushing against the ground. Striking with your lead side is generally weak, because your hips are already oriented towards the target. Striking with the rear side is generally strong, because that's when you can bring all of those other muscle groups into play.
However, after a reverse punch, a jab can carry a lot more power. This is because after that reverse punch, you twist your hips back, and now you have the twist of your lead hip returning to position that adds to the strength of your next jab, hook, or lead leg roundhouse kick.
This principle follows whether you're doing a jab-reverse, a hook-uppercut, or even a pair of roundhouse kicks. It also follows with the basic block-punch drills you'll learn as a white belt in most Taekwondo (or similar) schools.
The principle also works if you are using different punches, for example the jab-reverse-hook-uppercut combination is going to apply this over and over.
The one-two allows you to deliver your most powerful strikes more than twice as fast, by letting you use the pendulum effect to great effect.
Repeating Combos
A repeating combo is the exact opposite of the one-two. Where the one-two is designed to maximize the rate at which you can deliver power, the repeating combo takes your fastest hits and just uses them over and over again. A repeating combo is when you strike, rechamber, and strike again with the same limb.
A repeating combo could be:
- Multiple jabs in a row, waiting to set up the perfect cross
- Body blows with one arm or knee while you're clinching your opponent
- A TKD fighter throwing several roundhouse kicks with the same leg, for the same purpose as multiple jabs
- Grabbing your opponent's collar with one hand and repeatedly reverse punching them in the face with the other
- Lead jab followed by lead hook
Repeated jabs are going to be used for keep range, finding weak points, and distracting your enemy. Repeated power hits are going to be used like those high-damage attacks in a video game after you've stunned the enemy (anyone who has played a Zelda game knows what I'm talking about). You've gotten your opponent into a position where you can repeatedly hit them with a powerful hit, and so you do so. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless it's your opponent, in which case if it ain't broke, break it!
In most cases, the repeated combos will allow you to stay in a safe position, whether it's an advantaged clinch or a well balanced stance, instead of letting go of the clinch or orienting yourself closer to your opponent.
The advanced level of the repeating combo is when you combine footwork to change what it is you're repeating. For example, a boxer can step through a cross, switching from orthodox to southpaw by doing so, and then follow up his cross with a strong-hand jab.
Repeating combos are generally not going to be powerful in and of themselves, but are going to work well to chain into another combination style.
Flowing Combos
A flowing combo is something that uses the same limb over and over again, where the finishing point of one technique is the chamber for the next. It could be a hook punch followed by a backfist, a hook kick followed by a roundhouse kick, or any number of strikes that flow from one chamber to the next. It can be as ludicrous as a Loony Toon slapping their opponent with the palm and backhand, or it can be as technical as a parry-counter combo (i.e. block on the way to a strike).
Subjectively, I think flowing combos are the most fun to execute, and they make for great "chess match" fight scenes in movies. They allow you to throw a lot of different strikes at your opponent in a relatively short amount of time, which can be a really good way of getting past your opponent's guard.
Like the Repeated combo, a flowing combo can generally keep you in a safe position. You probably won't be able to put as much power as some of the other combos, but hopefully you can get a strike to a soft target that doesn't need much power.
However, I think the real power in the flowing combo is not in the flowing strikes, but in the ability to chain from a block to a strike. For example, an inward block followed by a chop to the neck, a downward palm followed by a backfist to the nose or temple, or an outward knife-hand block followed by a palm strike to the chin.
In addition to protecting yourself, these combos also position you inside their guard in such a way that you can make the hit. This hit is generally not the strongest hit, because in addition to not getting your hips in, you only have half the normal chamber. However, it is usually a high percentage hit and usually to a highly valuable target.
Spinning Combos
A spinning combo is pretty self explanatory. It's a combo where you spin. It's similar to the 1-2 in that you're alternating limbs again, but also similar to the flow in that you're using the follow-through of one technique in order to set up the next.
Spinning combos can keep spinning indefinitely in the same direction, and once they pick up momentum they can flow pretty well. They also look pretty, which in some purposes is very important.
A good spinning combo can catch you off-guard, because you can be looking at the right shoulder that's coming towards you, but get hit by the left elbow or left foot as it comes around. However, these combos are harder to reverse direction on, and there are times when you would take your eyes off of your opponent.
Simultaneous Combos
The Simultaneous combo is even easier to describe - more than one limb hits at the same time. The most common use of this is by untrained martial artists - the shove. On the trampoline, I'd use a variation of this where I would do a double push kick, land it on my back, and bounce to my feet. I just had another idea, but I'll save that rabbit trail for another thread.
In general, this combo as a strike is mostly for demonstration, whether it's a double punch or double block in forms, or a split side kick where you break two boards at once. Now I have seen double-punches used in the UFC (can't remember the opponent, but there was an absolutely brutal one done by Miesha Tate), but in most cases a single punch is usually better.
Where the simultaneous combo shines, in my opinion, is the block and strike combo. Block with your left hand, strike with your right, or vice versa. This allows you to get the block-and-counter like a flow combo, but also allows you to do so from a full chamber position and with full power.
So uh...what does this all mean?
This can mean a few things:
- Skribs is bored
- Skribs doesn't know how to grapple
- Skribs is an absolute genius who came up with the best striking analysis of all time
So now for your thoughts. How crazy am I, on a scale of 1 to Buka? Is this a worthwhile line of thinking, or do you feel I wasted your time reading this? Are there combo styles I missed, or did I pretty much cover them? Did you learn anything from this post, or have anything to add so I can learn?
