To Win or Not to Lose?

You are right.

- For striking art, step 2 may not be that important. You just want to land your fist on your opponent's face.
- For grappling art, step 2 is the most important part. You want to control your opponent's leading arm.
I may want to seal the lead arm for striking purposes as well as grappling. Neither is right or wrong.
 
You can get this same effect without the second step. Throw your punch 1/3 or 1/2 way. The opponent will tense and maybe get a block started. Stopping it short for a half-second will cause him to relax. Then you continue the punch, catching the opponent off-guard. This is called "stuttering" in Parker's kenpo. Also works very well with a front kick. I've landed those many times, setting it up with a full front kick or two.
Is boxing dodging better than Karate blocking, or the other way around?

When you

- dodge your opponent's punch, your opponent will punch you again.
- block/control/hurt your opponent's punch, your opponent may not be able to punch you again. There are a lot of advantages to establish "arm contact".

Some people make fun of "chasing arm". If you pull your opponent's arm, his body will follow. If you allow your opponent's arms to be free, his arms will punch you.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top