Many of us have the work ethic but are trapped by it. I’m working hard, therefore I must be getting better, seems to be the concept. So what’s the answer to this problem of putting more in than you are getting out? These problems of slowness, lack of power, tiredness and inability to hit the target tend to fall into four categories. One; using the top of the body to do the work. Two; Not compounding levers together. Three not spiralling through the body and four getting in your own way.

Firstly for the boxing/ kickboxing aspect the key thing is work the base. Most people are used to working with their hands and arms therefore that’s where they do most of their work with the top half of their bodies. Instead you need to concentrate on leveraging from the bottom. Look at good boxers shadow boxing there is very little arm movement and it’s all very snappy if it’s there at all. Think of Bruce Lee coaching you and saying- ‘ I will turn your body into a weapon’ That means your body not just your arms, your whole body.

I always jokingly describe working with the top of your body as similar to manufacturing in Germany. Good but expensive. Working lower down your body is like producing in China the costs are lower. Work the base. Lower down never gets as tired, doesn’t complain as much and is also good at it’s job. Therefore it’s important to work the base in particular the feet. The rear heel should always be up. Do what the Thai’s do and put a little stone under your heel or imagine a drawing pin in your shoe. In my own club anyone with their feet flat is doing pushups. You’ve got to associate the heel down with pain. Sometimes, you’ll have both heels raised so it’s easier to keep the hips up and engaged making kicking easier but the rear one is always up. Then, you can move easier, It acts as a shock absorber and the leverage in the foot makes your strikes more powerful with no telegraphing. A flat back foot means I can see you coming as there’s a start up time as you load the foot. Think of it like having to cock an automatic pistol. You really only want to pull the trigger. A small thing but huge.

Think about the levers in the foot. You’ve got toe joints then a nice span of arch (a great lever like a trampoline) then all the joints in the ankle. If you think of all of these working together each multiplying the force of the previous joint you can understand the power. Flexible feet work more efficiently so simple mobility exercises help. Then take this power (think of a number) then multiply it by each joint as it goes up the body. Then you get to the back if you’re punching. How many joints there? And all to help you punch harder. Sometimes punching is taught like opening a door with a hinge down one side. That’s a good way to teach beginners but a better way is to think of a central pole like a spiral staircase with each joint going round a little further. Think of a helix and you could almost say it’s based in DNA. Line the knee and skeleton up so they are aimed at the target. Make sure your hitting with your skeleton not with your muscles that will fold or collapse. Work it on the heavy bag to check.

Don’t get in your way by being tense. In my Karate days you could always feel how strong your punch was. I loved the feeling, but when changing to boxing in the early seventies I realised that if I could feel it, then it was still in my body! I was fighting two people, myself and the other guy. You’re arm should feel empty like a hose with power flowing out the end or a whip with a rock on the end. Good punches seem effortless – Opponents just go down.

A big thing that reduces your effectiveness is getting in your own way. Think of it as two people trying to go through a narrow doorway you can’t both go through together, it gets jammed up. Like a wide equal triangle it becomes easy to block or easy to see because it’s wide.. Make it slimmer. If hitting you can either let the arm go first or the body with the arm following. This gives you two types of timing that is hard for an opponent to read. In classes I often joke with students and tell them to imagine they’re punching someone who’s got one of those old megaphone loud hailers they have on sports days in old movies. You want to put both punches down that and hit the person in the mouth. A hated school teacher perhaps?. You’re body has to spiral with one hand going first, then your body, then the second punch, all as far as possible down one line otherwise you can’t fit them in. Think of your opponent with a tight guard. You want to put your jab and straight right through that hole not let them get stuck or jammed on his arms. Successful striking is a great buzz. Why would you plan or train to miss? Once you’ve got the jab and straight right down then you can loop the cross around his lead arm. It’s called a cross so it goes across. With the cross you’ve got two options. First the hand can go first and the body follow. Like a Ferrari the engine is in the back. The skeleton lines up on contact-POW! Or second move the body first so he doesn’t know where it’s coming only that it’s been launched. That can be a horrible feeling, you know it’s going to hurt, but don’t know where.

Successful striking is all about the basics. Work the footwork and lower body. You won’t get as tired so you can use your work ethic to develop more skill or train for longer. Don’t use the arm in shadow boxing, work your body it’s less trained and needs educating. Mix and integrate the feet and the body with spiralling through the body all working together. Then add the big muscle groups like the abs to pull you in or stabilize you so you punch ever harder. Apply the same concepts, ease of use and doing less with levers, not strength, to your kicking and ground game too. The principles are the same. The martial way is one of constant polishing. Like Karate’s Master Funakoshi Gichin you want to realise you’ve got a great punch when you’re at the end of your life. Good training.

Copyright bob breen 2010

Those who were in the class also learnt the three big and simple counters to the pak sau and punch. I trained the basic trap today with Steve Payne in my garden and he found it was very hard to see or stop. This is what you want. Simplify how you think of trapping, just think of it as clearing the path to the target or a way of assisting your jab. It works on even the best fighters so should be part of your game. Once you can do it then apply it in sparring. David Onuma looking at the class wrote a version of a quote from Bruce Lee on the board. ‘To know and not to apply is not to know’. Thanks Dave. Good training.

On the other side we added stop hitting for the defender. This counters those who want to attack really deeply. Often they no longer attack where you are, but where they think you’re going to end up. Most people on the street do this if really trying to hit you. That’s why you need to have the courage and understanding to stand your ground and ‘stop hit’. The great japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi said, if surprised, he’d step forwards. So it should definitely be part of your game.

Played together this retreat and stop hit approach gives you a simple but profound ‘attack by drawing’ scenario. On retreat you have to retreat so their kick just misses. Important here is that you judge the distance so its just enough. Too far, and you’ve created work for yourself on the counter attack. Often, as It’s a near miss your opponent has another go. Surely he’ll be more successful a second time! Normally you’d retreat again, then when he goes to attack the third time; stand your ground or move forwards and take him out with a simple hand attack. In this situation you’d normally kick him as he retreats. Thus the circle goes. Empathy and reading of your opponent is really important in all of this. It’s not a fixed formula. Intuition and experience help immensely. This was just some of the stuff we covered. Here we’ve only covered the forwards and back axis. We also covered moving left and right and ‘tai sabaki’ body evasion. I’ll cover this in a further blog. Good training.

Once I’ve explained this concept to many of my friends who specialise in the ground the whole area becomes more interesting to them. It’s when you mix the systems up that it becomes really powerful Normally I start with a mix of Greco Roman standup and pummelling with the tie and untie stuff from Kali. So you’ve got the wrist, biceps and head tie’s plus the chained single traps which everyone knows as hubud. However that’s really just a term for the whole area. Once you’ve got that down you can add in the wing chun drills though everything from all the styles has to be adapted and be less buttoned up and be easy to learn too! The Greco is too grappling focused but fabulous. There’s no striking and there are no finger locks to help stabilise and slow down dynamic opponents. Though if they manage to crash through your fence or guard you could be flying through the air on the receiving end of a supplex. Therefore it’s even more essential you have great sensitivity and understanding here. The Wing Chun can sometimes be too stiff conceptually in this framework but is marvellous stuff and it’s designed for this range. The vertical fist means that your elbows are in and tight so the underhook is very hard to get and even harder to get when you’re being punched repeatedly in the face. Similarly the sideways palm strike defines which way your opponent can move next. A single choice. You can also add close quarter boxing and locks to this amazing mix. All of these clinch games are best when trained together or synched together after training them separately. I drill my students and Instructors on the various pummelling methods then we spar the standing grappling area looking for a body tackle or sweep or throw. Other times we’ll concentrate on striking from common positions just as you would work your defence from the guard or half guard on the floor.

Adding in the hits in with the clinch makes it more interesting. Here Kali’s panatukan comes into its own. Though often taught purely at boxing range it’s at loose clinch/grappling range that you get the best results as it’s slower. Trips and sweeps have similarities to those in Greco-roman but it’s striking based not throwing based. The aim is to half throw you then punch you in the head or knee you. Wrist pummelling where you’ve got an underhook on one side and you add the striking is very very similar to Wing chuns single arm work. add in grips and reversals and you’ve got a hell of a game.

Both Kusushi unbalancing from Judo and Thai clinch are only a step away from here. Obviously, this is an area where instead of a simple game like scissors, paper and stone you’ve now got six or ten variables or separate games, if you join the games or techniques together you’ve got even more. Finger lock to arm drag to rear choke is my current favourite though anything that works repeatedly is good. Unlike the ground where generally you’re going to pin before you submit here there’s a lot more possibilities. However, if you train it with the intention that you’re either going to tackle or throw, unbalance or hit your opponent then you get a simpler model and common positions come up time and time again. Then you can use whatever knowledge you’ve learnt to good effect.

Sometimes seeing the same problem from different style perspectives changes the way you train everything. What becomes clear is that everything trumps everything else, it’s just when and where you use it and how you set it up.

Training clinch in a multi disciplinary way like this means that you’re less likely to be a run of the mill fighter. Your sensitivity and understanding increases even if your focus is only in a sporting / martial arts way. In the street a large amount of the situations I’ve been in have been this standing clinch or tussle type of encounter. What better than to train for what you’ll probably end up having to do.

Above all if you’re into MMA or ground see the trapping systems that are out there as fodder to add to your standup clinch game. Just like on the ground where its could be closest or furthest knee to pass the guard with, the same structures apply here but with the hands. Understand the concept and add techniques then spar that area trying to get what you’ve been training to work. Is it easy? of course not. But if you work it you’ll learn loads. You’ll have games you can play when injured which pay off when you’re not. You’ll find your own way and add depth to your original stuff in the process. Keep an open mind and embrace all systems and you’ll prosper. I’ll be covering this on the BIG instructor camps and on the Filipino Boxing day later in the year. Good training.

Watching an Instructor friend spar the other day his experience was obvious. He did little but stop kick his opponent. The other guy was trying everything but badly needed coaching to make him more thoughtful and more strategic. My friend Matt had great alignment with his body focused behind his lead leg. In Karate they’d call it a cat stance but in Thai you just post on the back leg and let them come in. When the stop kick worked well he followed up with another kick or stepped forwards (into front stance) and used his hands before retreating to his back stance again and repeating the same formula. His opponent a good level Black belt fighter was too square. Anything coming could be seen more easily coming as it did from the corners and intersected with the centre line foot jab. If you do this low to the shin or thigh and then to the stomach / hip or face it’s very hard to handle. In many ways it’s pure JKD. Controlling the centre line. Using the closest tool to the closest target. Then moving in to jam with a raised leg if you aren’t fast enough.

Many inexperienced fighters want to do lots and get big rewards. In the process they take big risks and get chipped away at by the experienced guy. To improve your fighting just being aware how much distance you can create WITHIN your stance without moving is a good place to start. It’s classic ‘do less and be more’. Obviously, sometimes you’ve got to move your whole position backwards or forwards but the principle still endures. Once you’ve got this down also concentrate on alignment so that your body is focused behind the tool you are using whether jab or foot jab. Have the foot aimed at his centre. When that’s working you can throw in the big guns but you have to set your opponent up. Just swinging away is like the lottery. Sometimes you win big but most times you lose. The best way to work this is slow sparring concentrating on just this working from the front of your stance when boxing to the back stance to either crush or foot jab/ stop kick. It’s a case of now I’m here and then now I’m not. Just playing the distance inherent in your stance will pay dividends. Once he’s all over the place from your foot jab then you can play what games you like. His confidence is shot. Good sparring.

Lauding leverage as I am doesn’t mean that strength isn’t to be sought after and used. It’s great to have strength and conditioning but these are easier for everyone else to also attain. The downside is it requires hard training and lasts only as long as you keep up the conditioning and strength programme. Training with strong people you realise that they don’t use half of their potential because generally they can power their way against less strong or less big opponents. I’ve been working with a number of large strong opponents lately and we’ve been sharing our experience. They’ve blasted through some of my tricks and I’ve been showing them how they can be stronger and make their techniques more painful by just focusing on improving the leverage of their techniques.

Initially this can just be making the lever arm of the technique longer. Think of an arm bar where you’re grabbing the wrist then move it up an inch or so towards the hand and you’ve almost doubled the force. Similarly use the whole of your body to put on locks not your arms. Standing arm wrenches and arm bars are much more effective when you rotate the whole body and on the ground using the hips and legs to do the work rather than the arms turns you into a superman. Even hitting or kicking I see people just hitting with their arms or legs and not their body as a unit plus not using gravity to help. Think of gravity as free bonus leverage points

There’s also lots you can do by hitting at the leverage sweet spot where you get the most power. (Think of a tennis player on his serve and you’ll know the sort of place) Distance makes a big difference as your lever arm is longer as does bringing more levers to bear on the problem. When using arm bars it’s also important to use the fulcrum well. Many people have a sort of blurred fulcrum using all of their chest to do a two on one instead of focusing your power on his joint by rotating and making the shoulder a sharp fulcrum. Where you put the fulcrum in relation to his joint is also hugely important. Do it in the wrong place and he can counter or power out of it. Do it right and it’s like turning on an electric light it’s so fast, and painful too.

You can see that it’s not more technique that’s important but understanding how to get the most out of what your doing. Above all look at, and polish, everything you do to see if you can make your levers more effective. If you have to work hard or use lots of effort thats not it. Feel the grain in the wood and go with that, not against it. Going with the flow is leverage in another way. You’re leveraging the moment. This approach makes training very Zen like. Is this easy? No but that’s the art.

Sometimes you have to have it done on you or be shown the way to appreciate how great it is when done well, but once shown you have to do your own research. When you can, use leverage principles in other areas of your life. Where can you get the most for the least effort?  Above all don’t beat yourself up about any of this the most important thing is to enjoy your training and enjoy it’s ebb and flow. Like all arts, it only takes a lifetime!

Fighting and music have lots of parallels so I always sort of cross train by listening intently. It’s all art. I’ve been listening to lots of Scarlatti classical minor key piano music lately and he does the same JKD thing there. A simple theme then just variation after variation showing how much he knows his stuff. Modulating through subtle changes. Sonny Rollins the jazz saxophone player does the same thing on ‘saxophone collossus’. Check them out if you’re into that sort of music. The thing with JKD is to realise it’s not about more but about deeper. Surprisingly, then you get more.  Do less and be more-how strange is that.

We’ll be continuing in this field with a much more sparring related approach over the coming months. Less technique in terms of number but more understanding and facility. Training this way you learn to have a more subtle, fluid and changeable game. As a Tai chi master I know well says.’ If they’ve got a shape I can break it-I look for the guys who are formless/ shapeless and fluid. They’re the ones to train with’. See you there!

Being in a southpaw lead you’ve go all the advantages of the closer tool set, and as Bruce put it your strongest tool to the front and his strongest far away on the other side of his body. Bruce of course added to this advantage with hard training a quick mind and devastating timing. Plus he was playing out of the box, not conforming like the others he fought. It was great being there and fighting in that time as you understand the mindset of fighters at that time. Of course if he’s also in a southpaw lead then you’re back to matched leads.

So far we’ve studied how to counter this JKD setup and also methods to change stance. Many of the traditional styles like karate and silat and kung fu work both stances both for the wholeness of combat and also as its good for the body. However all the Filipino masters I trained with who did lots of fighting didn’t seem to change stance. It’s an 80/20 thing you’re never going to be equally good in both leads. Have your main stance and then a restricted game in the other side. In real combat you’ll have to fight opponents coming form all sides so it pays to have some game on both leads.

There are a number of ways to change lead. Firstly we change at distance just like the circling the pad drill we do for beginners. You retreat a little and then circle the other way hiding behind your jab. This is highly effective. Second is to kick and step through or just step through much like Oi-tsuki in Karate. I remember seeing Oishi do this in the 69 all Japan championships and he smashed everyone. In Kali you can crash through with a stance change hiding behind your elbow or by manipulating his head off line or just extend your cross by stepping through. As you’re hitting or crashing it’s very hard for them to counter. My friend Andy Norman has utilized this Kali concept a lot in his Keysi style. Once your in unmatched leads there’s a limited amount of options but there are certain rules. Keep your foot outside his if possible and keep your hand higher than his. Then you’ve got leverage advantages and dominate his hand. Simple beats on the lead hand or jerks (jut sao) give you a host of options from hook kicks to simple hand traps. Kicks and punches from the rear are easily countered and this is a great place to throw if you attempts to round kick you. We’ll be working on this for a further three weeks then rotate onto something else and come back to it later. The thing is to mix and match training methods from all the arts and pick the best. You just have to understand the conceptual framework. Good training.