So here are some recommendations I think you should follow in order to integrate stretching in a healthy and proper way into your practice.

Always warm up before stretching.

Make it an habit to warm up your body before stretching your body, especially when it's cold. This will prevent possible injuries, and will get your muscles ready to stretch better. Remember, you don't need much time or much space to quickly get your body to warm up, and running is not the only option. You can skip-kneeing, rope jumping, do split ups, squats, any kind of active footwork or shadow boxing. As long as you get your body to warm up, everything is good enough. (And since we're at it, remember that stretching and warming up are two different things. Many people tend to confuse the two).

Establish different routines.

Depending on the amount of time you got at your disposal, and on the purpose, you should have different stretching routines in your arsenal. Personally, I have established three stretching routines, one for quick stretching, one for regular stretching, and another for intensive stretching. I highly recommend you to do the same, so that you are set to use the appropriate one depending of the moment.

Use a logical progression.

When you stretch, always do it form top to bottom, or the other way around, if you prefer, but don't just mix everything up. That means that you shouldn't work on your arms, than your legs, than your head, than your legs again, than the shoulders, and so on. Make sure you use a logical progression. Personally I like to start form top to bottom, therefor I always begin my stretching by working on my neck, than on my shoulders, than on the arms, than on the torso, than on the hips, than on the knee, than on the legs.

Hold the position, don't get lazy!

For effective stretching you should hold every position for 30 seconds at least. If you really don't have enough time and you have to speed things up, than you can hold it for about 10 seconds, but do that only if you are out of time, not out of laziness.

Don't bounce!

Ballistic stretching has become quiet obsolete and it's been abandoned over the safer static stretching. Ballistic stretching is the method that make use of repetitive bouncing movements, but it can cause some injuries, so don't use it. Just go with the static method.

Don't over-stretch!

Always remember to respect you body and to listen to it. Don't take your stretching to a point where you can damage your body. You should remember that some injuries can happen without you to actually notice them. Of course, if you take your stretching seriously, you should always try "to push your body a little further", but just don't over do it. Again, listen to your body. Also, remember that your body flexibility is always changing, exactly like your inner energy do. You can be more flexible during a given period or even on a given day and less (even much less) on another, therefor your of over-stretching limits can shift constantly. That means that you shouldn't systematically reach the further stretching point you have attained in your records, but the one that feels right depending on the flexibility level on that particular moment. So, if you don't stretch for a long time or you feel particularly tied up, don't over do it just because you know that you can normally stretch more than that. Listen to your body, always.

Stretch and release slowly and smoothly.

When you stretch a part of your body, you should always do it gradually, never in one go or too fast, in order to avoid injuries. Not less important is to apply the same principle when releasing the position: don't let go too fast, always slowly and smoothly.

Breathe.

I always notice people stretching without using proper breathing, or even without breathing at all. Breathing is probably the most important factor to consider while stretching. Try to set your breathing to a regular cadence by inhaling with your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Proper breathing will help you releasing the tension in every part of your body and to bring oxygen to your muscles.

Focus your attention on the body part that is stretching.

While stretching, don't just be there with your mind set on something else, forgetting your body. Your attention should be focused on the part of your body that is stretching, so that you can feel what's happening, even visualise it. Remember, establish and keep the connection between your mind and your body when you stretch.This is very important.

Stretch also after training.

Stretching should not only be used as pre-training routine, but also as a post-training one. After training, your muscles need to be stretched out in order to release the tension accumulated during the efforts. Some new researches will disagree with this, but again, even so, since your body has been properly warmed up, it's the best moment to increase your flexibility level.

Conclusion

I'd like to wrap this article up by saying that stretching is not only about preparing your body for training or develop your flexibility, but should also be used as a ritual to focus on your upcoming training session by establishing the right mindset for it.

Here is a list of recommendations to adopt for a street fight that I wrote and included in the theory section of our Manonuda Self-Defense Program (MSDP) curriculum. I thought that it would be nice to share it with anyone interested in the subject, and to provide a description for each point.

The list

1. Avoid physical action if you can
2. Accept fear, don't fight it
3. Have your hands up and inbetween you and the danger
4. Use the surprise element
5. Score first
6. Always use more than one strike
7. Alternate the lines of attack and the targets
8. Use everything you can
9. Avoid going to the ground
10. Avoid high kicks
11. Against multiple opponents, always keep moving
12. Against a knife, try to use an equaliser
13. Expect anything
14. Be determinate, never give up
15. Respond proportionally to the danger and stop when you're safe

1) Avoid physical action if you can

Funnily enough, my first recommendation about a street fight is not to get into one in the first place. Most of the time a real fight will get as ugly as it can, so whenever you find yourself in a verbal confrontation, no matter the circumstances, try not to take it to the physical stage.

The results of a real fight are never good, and there are no winners in the end, only injured people, or worst, so be ready to jump into it only when there is no other solution available. Most of the times, there are.

2) Accept fear, don't fight it

The possibility of getting totally frozen up by fear, of not being able to physically react when we most need the full control of our body, is probably what pushes most of us to integrate martial arts into our lives.

It's a fact that when it comes to any kind of confrontation, fear is what we all have to deal with. But dealing with it by trying to reject it is actually not the best way to avoid getting momentarily paralysed, and that is because, realistically, when someone's life is involved, fear will occur always, and it won't let go easily.

Being scared is a natural reaction, so one should not tend to fight fear, but to mentally accept it without being dominated by it. And that is the hard part, sure. But the simple fact of being ready to accept it, of knowing in advance that the fear element will be for sure involved in the process, and that you should just let it come and be there without focusing on it, will make a big difference, believe me.

So whenever the moment comes, don't fight fear, you've already got someone else to fight, just let it there it and if you can, use it to your advantage by turning it into inner strength instead.

3) Have your hands up and inbetween you and the danger

As a prevention measure, one of the first things I teach in our MSDP training is to always have your hands up and inbetween you and the potential aggressor, for you to be ready to react in real time, if you need to. That doesn't mean you should take a fighting stance whenever you are involved in a verbal confrontation kind of thing, because that will just make things worst.

In MSDP we have some drills in which the student takes natural postures that do not indicate a ready-to-react posture, but at the same time would position the hands where they need them the most: between them and the potential danger.

The rule here applies also, and especially, when you have already engaged in the actual fight. Having the hands up and inbetween you and the source of danger, is a very basic and fundamental instinct to build when you train for self-defense, and will allow you to have a quick defensive and offensive system available at all times.

4) Use the surprise element

If you want to increase the chances to score effectively, or in other words have your technique to work successfully, you should use the surprise element at own your advantage, whenever you can.

Catching your opponent by surprise is a key factor that comes into play especially when you find yourself in a threatening situation, be it armed on unarmed. For instance, you may act scared and willing to submit, only to create the opportunity to explode into your defensive action of choice.

And, once again, the surprise element is a card that can be played also during the dynamic aspect of a fight, by not showing up your moves or intentions to the opponent and have him tricked in order to beat him.

5) Score first

If you ask to a majority of street fighters (and by street fighters I don't necessarily mean bad-ass bullies or criminals, but just people who got involved in some fights during their "wild days", and who don't practice martial arts) how to win a street fight, they will all tell you: "Hit first!".

While I comply with the result of such statement, I don't particularly agree with its formulation. That is because there is actually a subtle misconception between initialising the action by "striking or hitting first" and "scoring first", and the difference is somehow quiet important to me for a clear distinction between the role of the aggressor and that of the defender. Usually, and technically, whoever strikes first, take the role of the aggressor.

But see, in reality, you don't need to strike first, to score first. The point is not who starts the hitting process, but who gets the target first. So you should bare in mind that at all moments, you should be in the right conditions to respond appropriately to an attack and hit your opponent before he does, even if he attacks you first. And that, of course, is simply what self-defense is all about, actually.

6) Always use more than one strike

Unless your biceps look exactly like the Hulk, most of the time a single strike won't be enough to defeat an opponent, therefore you should never limit your offensive action to a single strike, even if you aim for a high sensitive target or vital spot.

You actually don't know what effect a given strike or technique will have on your opponent. An opponent can be less sensitive by nature to some targets, or can have a big deal of drug in his system in that moment and won't feel much of your striking, believe me. Or maybe your strike will not land effectively as it should, or as desired.

A combined action will always bring more results than a single one, so make it an habit to use combinations, and when you do, try to apply the next recommendation on the list.

7) Alternate the lines of attack and the targets

If using multiple strikes is the way to go, you also want to make sure those strikes are not all directed to the same spot. This tactical approach has the benefit of making your opponent more vulnerable because he won't be able to cover all the targets during your blasting action.

Also, by varying the lines of attack, you'll have more chances to land your attacks successfully. For example, using one combination you can hit the nose, the knee, the neck, the groin, which will make your aggressor unable to counter your global offensive action.

8) Use everything you can

Well, this is about the dirty part, but since we are talking about surviving to an aggression, we can't really leave beside the more brutal and practical aspect of the topic.

In a street fight there are no rules, and since the aggressor is very likely to use this fact at his own advantage, you should as well do the same in order to survive.

You should therefore be ready and wiling to use everything you can to get out of there, and that can mean biting, spitting, throwing objects, screaming, using the environment or any kind of object you have at hand. Street fighting is a "everything goes" situation, so make the best out of it.

9) Avoid going to the ground

This one is a big DON'T in the domain of self-defense, but unfortunately it's a recommendation that is very much underestimated by many teachers and instructors, and therefore, sadly enough, by many students.

The reason why you don't want to go on the ground is that no matter how good you are in ground fighting, you certainly can't deal with more than one opponent if you're wrestling someone on the ground, and you should always consider the possibility of multiple opponents, even if you're sure there is only one aggressor. Another thing to take into account is the fact that your aggressor can pull a blade or other weapon out while you're wrestling him on the ground, and most of the time you can't see it coming, and anyway fighting weapons on the ground is too risky.

Avoiding going to the ground doesn't mean that you should not train for the ground (actually, you should). It simply means that the last thing you want to do is to take the fight there, and more precisely yourself. Not your opponent. Yourself. I watched many videos and participated to many self-defense semianr in which a lot of techniques end by controlling the opponent to the ground with locks and holds that are not convenient for street fight purposes.

Teachers should make the difference between the idea of a one to one fight, like in a ring, cage or sport room or dojo, and consider the reality of things when they teach self-defense techniques, and they should teach what you want to do and don't want to do in certain situations and especially why.

The fact that many techniques in self-defense end by taking the aggressor to the ground, doesn't mean that you should end up with your back flat on the ground to do an arm-bar, compromising your mobility, even if temporarily. There are other ways of restraining an aggressor and still be able to move out and away in a split second, if necessary. So consider this point whenever you train for self-defense.

10) Avoid high kicks

Another big DON'T in a street fight is kicking high. High kicks looks great on TV and in competitions. But a street fight is neither one nor the other. In a street fight, you want to make sure you are on your two feet as much as possible, and be able to move and to keep your balance at all times.

As for targets, you should never aim higher than the groin area. Some exception could be made for middle kicks to the ribs or the stomach area, but the problem with them is that they're easy to counter by grabbing your leg.

In any case, you don't want to compromise your ability to move when you're in a street fight, so keep your kicks on the low line, even if you're a kicking dragon in the dojo.

11) Against multiple opponents, always keep moving

One rule that you want to apply when fighting multiple opponents is to move around and never stay stationary in one spot. By moving around you should try to align them so that you can deal with one at the time and not with all at the same time. And that is achievable only if you keep moving around.

12. Against a knife, try to use an equaliser

If a knife is involved in the fight, you should try to get out of there as soon as you can. Running is the first and the best self-defense technique (and the oldest too!). If that is not possible right away, and you have to deal with it, try to use any object to disarm your opponent, like an umbrella, a chair, your handbag, or else. You should use your own body to disarm a knife only as a last resort.

13) Expect anything

Reality bites, but in the case of a street fight it can get you seriously injured or killed. Whenever you find yourself involved in street fight, you should always expect any possibility. The aggressor is alone? Expect some others to pop out from nowhere! The aggressor is unarmed? Expect him to suddenly pull out a knife!

Expecting anything means also that you should be ready to get hit, hurt, and feel pain, and also that your attack may not have the desired effect on your aggressor. If you expect anything, you will lower your chances of being caught by surprise and you will just go with the flow of teh fight and follow it, wherever it will take you. And that is one real survival attribute to build.

14) Be determinate, never give up

One undeniable truth about surviving during a street fight is that you need a very good dose of self-determination and on different levels. You need to be fully determinate and commit yourself into every action you take, whether it's a defensive or an offensive move.

But above all, you should be determinate not to get out of that situation as a victim. Even if for a split moment you think that surviving is not an achievable task, you should never stop believing you can do it and give the hardest time possible to your aggressors.

Remember, no technique will ever get you out of a hostile situation if you don't have self-determination in that particular moment and the spirit of a true warrior.

The aggressiveness and determination of your aggressor will always beat the techniques you've learned, if you don't put the same or a higher dose of determination into it.

As a metaphor, I always say to my students that I can give them techniques and principles and methods, but in the end, is like giving them a car without fuel. In order to function, they need to put the fuel in.

So whenever the moment comes, if the situation calls for action, be fully determinate to go for it, and don't ever give up!

15) Respond proportionally to the danger and stop when you're safe

The line between self-defense and aggression is very thin, and that is true by two standpoints, the legal one and moral one.

Not everybody is aware of the fact that crossing that line is very easy, and I admit that there is something quiet disturbing, about it. One very common scenario is somebody who gets an aggression and in order to defend himself causes injuries to the aggressor, and he ends up paying him medical charges and sometimes even getting sued by him, which is crazy. Still, I know so many cases just like that. From a legal standpoint, you should apply physical action in order to get out of the threatening situation, but as soon as you are in the position to run out, you should. If you instead choose to "give your aggressor the lesson he deserves", and keep beating him up, in just a second you are considered an aggressor as well, because you did more than just defend yourself (or another).

And than there is a moral aspect to consider as well. Do you really want to disarm somebody who attacks you with a knife and let him pay by stabbing him and risk his life? In my opinion, if you can get out without causing serious or permanent injuries to your aggressor, you should. The point of self-defense and self-preservation is to put yourself in the condition get out of there, not to play the avenger.

In a proper self-defense method, one should learn to respond proportionally to the danger, so that if someone grabs your wrist and pull you, you don't automatically react by breaking his neck and smashing his nose against the sidewalk, but by using the right technique to get free of the hold and get out of there. If that involves hitting, it should be just enough to put yourself in the position to run away, that's all. So train with that in mind.

Conclusions

While writing it, I found it very hard not to expand more (much more) on each of the points of the list, believe me. But I tried to cut it to the essential, and the frustration of saying more was appeased by the idea that I can always write a separate article for those points that could be expanded further, and for which I got more to say.

I should say that the list presented here is not exhaustive - as it couldn't possibily be, because there are so many aspects in the domain of self-defense and street fighting that I don't believe it's possible to cover them all in one article.

However, I hope you find this article interesting and that it will get you to put certain things into perspective, and if you do, than share it with your friends. It may be interesting for us as well.

In this article I'd like to go through some basic rules that should be applied when sparring, which are valid for Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, and MMA competitions (for the standing striking portion of it).

Now, if after reading the article you think that there are many more considerations to add to the list, is because there are! The game of combat has many layers of sophistication, and I'll probably cover many other aspects in a later article, in which I'll describe some more "advanced rules for sparring".

In the meanwhile, here are what I consider the basic rules of sparring, so make sure to study and apply them when you spar or fight.

The 10 basic rules for sparring

Here's the list, followed by a detailed description of each point.

1. Keep your chin down
2. Keep your hands up
3. Keep your elbows in
4. Move your head
5. Stay dynamic
6. Keep your balance
7. Never retreat on a straight line
8. Always strike with a purpose
9. Think about your defense when you attack
10. Always monitor the action

1) Keep your chin down

The chin is one of the primary targets that a fighter aim for, and this is because it's the best spot to hit to have you knocked out.

When you fight, never let your chin fly around, singing "hit me, hit me!". You should always have it tackled in. This also forces your head to expose the forehead more than your nose and to cover the throat, which is a very sensitive spot, and at the same time this positions helps to better absorb the shocks to the head section.

Make it an habit to keep your chin down even when you shadow-box or when you work on focus mitts or on the heavy bag, so it'll become a natural position to have when you fight.

2) Keep your hands up

With a few exceptions, your hands have no business to do under your shoulders line. Keeping your hands up will create a defensive structure for your stance, and will allow you to cover, visually and physically, many of your lines of attack from your opponent.

But how high should your hands actually be? The best compromise not to limit your own field of vision and not to expose your lower body target, is to have your hands right below the eyes line, in a way that you will be able to see effortlessly from the top of your hands (actually, your gloves).

Of course, the position should change and adapt to the situation. Your hands can move over to your forehead when covering powerful strikes, for example. But you should always "reset" to the basic position right afterword.

It's no surprise that keeping the hands up is a rule very much respected by beginners, and that's because they're pretty much scared to get hit in the face, so they hide it behind them. What's more surprising, instead, is to see many confident fighters getting knocked out to the ground because at some point and for a short moment during the fight they neglected this basic rule, and got hit on a line that would otherwise be closed if they would have kept their hands up. This happens especially in MMA, where the gloves cover less space than the Boxing ones, and lines of attack get opened up much more easily, if you don't keep a perfect stance at all times.

Of course, in the action of the fight, everyone can get caught with his guard down, but in many occasions, even at higher levels, this is often the result of some sort of laziness in regard of this very basic rule, believe me.

With that in mind, remember not to get too lazy: keep your hands up all the time! Unless you're Mohamed Ali, of course.

3) Keep your elbows in

Your elbows play a fundamental role in defending your body. Maybe you don't know this, but in combat every single rib of your ribs cage is screaming out for your elbows not to get too far from them.

Spreading out the elbows will not only open some lines of attack, but will also weaken the proper body mechanics of your straight punches, which should be executed with the elbow tight in.

4) Move your head

Obviously, you want to move your head when a nice, big punch is about to hit it, but that's not even a rule to respect, that's a self-evident necessity!

Move your head actually means that you want to constantly change its position, whether you're attacking or defending, even when it's not actually being threatening by attacks. Forced by experience, all fighters start to incorporate this habit of not waiting for an attack to come, to actually slip it. As the saying goes, is always better to prevent than to cure, right?

The reason why you want to change the position of your head is that you don't want it to be an easy target for your opponent, so you make it hard to track by constantly move it. Of course, the moving should never be over-exaggerated, otherwise you'll compromise balance, position and stance. Just move your head enough not to have it in the same exact spot, and just enough to keep the motion alive, because as you should know, it is faster to move something that is already "in motion" than doing it when it's still.

5) Stay dynamic

As I just mentioned, keeping something moving, even slightly, will add speed and reaction, and those are attributes that everyone needs in a fight.

Staying dynamic doesn't necessarily mean that you're moving all around playing' Mohamed Ali with your opponent. Staying dynamic means that you want to keep everything in perpetual movement, because that is the essence of fighting.

For example, you should never stay still in front of the opponent, doing nothing, because that is where you turn yourself into a heavy bag, when instead you should be looking to take angles for a convenient position, to get out of range or get into range for an attack.

But just moving your feet is not what this rule is all about. For instance, even if you happen to stand stood, you should still apply this rule by "smooth bouncing" from your stationary position, because in any case, something will happen when you're engaged in a fight, so you better be ready all the time. And the best way to do so, it's to stay dynamic.

6) Keep your balance

This rule will be never stressed enough. Balance is everything when you attack, balance is everything when you defend, balance is everything when you do none of the two. Balance is just everything.

And, balance comes from a perfect stance. Keeping balance, therefor, means keeping a good stance at all times, before an attack, during an attack, after an attack. Same thing, actually, goes for defense.

Knowing how to move comfortably by keeping the fighting stance, will result in having a perfect balance at all times (when your feet move out of stance, you move your off-balance points all around and become vulnerable).

Also, you want to keep your balance when you execute and attack, or when you slip some punches, and that, again, comes from having good form.

7) Never retreat on a straight line

One of the most common reactions when fighting is to retreat backward when the opponent is aggressively advancing toward you while striking.

In reality, there is nothing wrong with moving away from an advancing opponent that is trying to blast you out with strikes, on the contrary, the ability to move out of range and to get into range is one of the most valuable skill that a fighter can have.

Footwork play a fundamental role in the game of fighting, but like anything else, you need to consider how to use it properly, and strategy should be applied in this matter too.

Moving away from an advancing opponent by retreating on a straight line will not stop an opponent from following you. In fact, by doing that, you will only draw the easiest path for him to follow, which is a straight line, and he will have no problem to track you down while keeping the blasting on. In this case, all he has to do is advance forward, and remember, as a general rule, anyone is faster moving forward than moving backward.

If you want to stop the attack of the opponent by moving away from him you have to move at an angle, circle around or combine a short retreating with a sudden circle around (speed variations will make this strategy even more effective). This will break his advancing and it will give him a hard time to track you down.

Remember, retreating on a straight line will only suck him in your path, and with increasing speed and aggressiveness. And you don't want that, do you?

8) Always strike with a purpose

A very common tendency in inexperienced fighters, is to fill the empty moments that a fight can have with meaningless attacks, just because "nothing is happening".

Remember, fighting become a fascinating art when fighters stop swinging and trading punches and kicks around, and turn into chess players instead.

Don't shoot attacks just because nothing is happening for a split moment, or out of fear. Any strike you throw, should have a precise purpose, always, and the purpose may vary. You can execute an attack because an opening was suddenly created, or you can strike to try to create one, or to stop an attack, or to keep the opponent busy while you reset your position or mind, for example.

But all your strikes should always have a precise purpose. Always. The moment you strike just to strike, you're only wasting motion.

9) Think about your defense when you attack

This is one of the most fundamental rules when fighting. And still, try to play some fights with high-level fighters in slow motion, and notice how they all have weaknesses in this matter at some times during the fight.

As I said before, any fighter get caught out of guard at some point, and this happens quiet often while attacking, because that is the moment we become vulnerable since we open up lines of attack in our stance.

Believe me, no matter on what level you play, this will never be stressed enough: think about your defense when you attack!

10) Always monitor the action

It looksI like I can't make a list of rules without having this one in. Well, as it turns out, the reason is because without monitoring the action at all times, chances are you'll find yourself on the ground before you know what happened.

In practical terms, monitoring the action, means to keep your eyes open and on the opponent all the time and your brain lucid and clear.

Some bad habits to be avoided to respect this rule are, for example, blinking when being attacked or loosing sight of the opponent for a split moment. This last example happens more than you think: you bob and weave under a punch without keeping your eyes stuck on the opponent, or you put your head down while you fire a big swing around the opponent's guard, and look at your shoes instead of looking at the source of your problems (your opponent).

Anyway, last but not least of the rules to apply in sparring is, keep your attention on everything all the time. Monitor the action!

Conclusion

Every fighter at some point in their progression develop their own style, but this rules should not be discarded by the fighter's style. These are the basic rules. Without them, chances are you 'll have no game, or worst, you'll go down, and you probably want to minimize that possibility when you fight.

I hope that this article come useful in your training, that it'll enhance your sparring game, and that it'll make you better fighter. Let me know the results…

The most important aspect in every striking-based martial arts is, of course, hitting!

But when it comes to fighting, knowing how to hit properly is something that is achieved over time and training, for the action of hitting is never just a matter of hitting "as hard as you can", "or "as fast as possible".

Of course, a strike should be fast and powerful in order to be effective. But power and speed are not the only factors related to proper striking, and you'll be surprised to discover how many considerations can come into play in the simple action of striking.

Note that these principles, here presented as a list of rules, apply to every kind of striking, be it a punch, a kick, a elbow strike, a knee strike, or even a head butt, and wether it's a single strike or a combination (a combination is nothing else than several single strikes put together, if you think about it).

I could have surely merged some of the rules together, and make the list shorter, as some of the points are strongly related to each others and maybe even depending on each others, but I really wanted to bring the focus on one singular aspect at the time by isolating it from the whole.

Note that these rules apply wether the striking is intended for self-defense or for combat sports, because the art of striking relate to both worlds.

So, go ahead and dive into it, but I warn you, after reading this, hitting will never be the same again!

13 rules for proper striking

Here's the list of rules for proper striking, and a detailed description for each of them.

1. Don't load up
2. Penetrate the target
3. Use rotation to generate power
4. Keep perfect balance at all times
5. Be at the right distance at the moment of impact
6. Use your whole body
7. Apply proper body mechanic and form
8. Don't tense up
9. Be accurate
10. Use explosive energy
11. Have genuine intention and determination
12. Always monitor the action
13. Be ready for anything next

1. Don't load up

Loading up means pulling back the hitting tool (the part of your body you're going to hit with) before delivering the strike. Loading up the hitting tool is what untrained people usually do when they perform a striking motion, and they do that in order to generate power. Rightly enough, this is also the very first thing you are taught "not" to do in most of martial arts and combat sports classes.

There are different reasons why this is considered the worst of the bad habits in any striking technique, the first being the fact that power can and should be generated by other body mechanics principles (as you'll see later on this article), not by loading up.

Another factor that makes loading up totally inappropriate is that in a real fight situation by doing that your intention becomes obvious and predictable by the opponent, thus the strike can be quiet easily countered. Also, by loading up, you don't only waste time (and you usually want to get to the target before your opponent does, as a basic rule) but at the same time you end up opening a line of attack in your defense structure, which is one of the biggest mistakes you could possibly do in combat.

With time and practice everyone should learn how to perform effective strikes with speed and power, without having to load up the hitting tool.

2. Penetrate the target

In a fight situation, we hit to cause damage and inflict pain: however hard this may sound, it's the bare and crude truth and it's the ultimate goal of any striking action in martial arts. Now, in order to be effective, the hitting tool should never stop at the surface of the chosen target upon impact: it should drive through it! This means that the strike must penetrate the target.

If properly applied, this principle will add a damaging effect even when the striking is done by a "not-so-strong" person. The penetration principle is often drilled out on focus mitts, where the student learn to aim about one inch (a few centimeters) behind the visible surface of the actual target.

Unfortunately, when trying to apply this concept, a common mistake is often made by turning the "penetrating energy" into a "pushing energy", but a good teacher will correct that by showing you the difference between the two ways.

Different martial arts have different kind of striking motion: Boxing has a snapping kind of striking motion, while Karate has a stiff kind of striking motion, but in any case and regardless of the kind of motion delivered, the hit must penetrate the target in order to create effective damage.

3. Use rotation to generate power

In most of the cases, the principle behind generating devastating power with your body is rotation.

Think about this: when you want to throw a stone very far in the water you don't just use your arm, but instead you naturally use your whole body and pivot your hips and shoulders to add motion, which ultimately turn into power.

Well, that's exactly the kind of rotation needed to generate power with your body. I personally teach to start the rotation from the hips more than from the shoulders, as there are many hidden benefits in doing so, and because the shoulders line adjust naturally and automatically align with the hips, when these are rotated.

If you notice, most of the martial arts moves are generated from the rotation of the hips (not only attacks), but then, when you actually analyze it, that is true for most of the moves in any sport. The human body is just build that way.

Although the rotation principle is applied in most martial arts, there are exceptions, and there are systems that don't rely on this concept to deliver the kind of power needed to hit effectively. Wing Chun, for example, use minimal hip rotation and only on certain strikes and techniques, but for the most it uses fast-following motions to achieve the devastating power needed (like with Chain Punches), and some other principles.

In any case, rotation can be very effective, but you want to watch it not to overdo it too much, firstly, because a minimal rotation will often be enough to add the necessary power (think about Bruce Lee's "one-inch-punch"), but also because you will otherwise end up loosing the right body form, or position (or angle) and above all, balance.

And as you are about to read, balance is one of the most important factors in hitting.

(A quick note: Muay Thai body kicks are a perfect example of using rotation to generate maximal power, and the result is that, in a way, they do "overdo it", and end up compromising their fighting stance, but because they "know it in advance", they are kind of "programmed" to automatically recover the position and stance right after the kick).

4. Keep perfect balance at all times

As obvious as this may sound, keeping balance is one of the most important things when performing the action of hitting.

I feel safe to say that this is for sure the most underestimated rule of the whole list here, and the reason is that for many people, the concept of "keeping balance" wrongly evokes its opposite extreme, which is "loosing balance" as in "falling".

While the application of this rule can be self-evident when kicking (especially on the middle and high lines), it may seem less of a fundamental rule to respect when we stand on our two feet and strike with hands or elbows, for example.

But keeping perfect balance at all times is something that transcends the notion of actually loosing balance and fall, and require subtle understanding.

For a start, "keeping balance" actually means that your body maintains a perfect fighting stance, which will make you able to keep your action to flow properly, be it for keeping the attack going or for switching to defense mode. "At all times" means that you want to be balanced before, during and after the actual striking motion.

Believe me, it's amazing how many martial artists don't respect this basic and fundamental rule, only to find themselves out of position for the next attack or for defense and, in addition to that, taking away some potentiality from the strike. If you happen to be a little bit into Bruce Lee, you will know how much he emphasized the application of proper balance, because he, more than anybody else, understood the full importance of the balance factor and how this relate to all actions, among whose, striking.

A very common mistake when punching or delivering elbow strikes is to slightly lean forward to reach the target. Remember, you never want to reach for the target with the hitting tool, you want to adjust your position to be able to hit and keeping perfect balance.

Which leads us to the next rule…

5. Be at the right distance at the moment of impact

Distance judgment and fighting measure are essential attributes that makes the difference between a very good fighter and a mere one.

When hitting, you want to be at the right distance at the moment that the strike is delivered. The right distance, of course, depends of the hitting tool and the related target. You don't want to be too close, and you don't want to be too far.

I should say that the words "too close" or "too far" don't translate into being "totally out of position". Very often, the striker is not at the right distance by a matter of very little space, and that is due to the fact that he or she can actually "touch" or "reach" the target with the hitting tool from a certain position. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he or she is at the right distance.

Being at the right distance, ultimately means that you want to be at range in order to properly respect the penetration rule (rule #1) and the perfect balance rule (rule #4), and to do that most of the times all you need is to make some "micro-range-adjustments", not full steps. Unfortunately, I must say that I see many people having a hard time with "miscro-range-adjustements".

Again, with a proper supervisor and training you will be able to apply this very subtle but important rule.

6. Use your whole body

This point here could probably be considered an implicit consequence of the rule #2, "use rotation to generate power", and of the next rule too (apply proper body mechanics and form), but as I said in the beginning, to bring the focus on some details, I decided to isolate some aspects from each others.

When you hit, you should never consider the hitting tool as the only part of your body that strike. The strike should be performed with the body as a whole, no matter what part of the body is actually used to hit the target.

One of the main differences between an untrained person and an effective martial artist is that the latter know how to use his/her whole body when striking.

Beyond its physical interpretation, "using the whole body" happens first of all on a mental level, because you want to feel and to put all your body in the strike.

Of course, in order to apply this principle, one needs proper body mechanics and form. Which we will be discussing next.

7. Apply proper body mechanics and form

One of the most fascinating thing about martial arts is that every single strike requires a proper body mechanics and form, and this is the product and the result of a meticulous study.

Applying proper body mechanics and form is fundamental in order to gain power, but also to output a defensive structure while the strike is being delivered. A basic example to illustrate this last aspect is the covering hand in Boxing: while one hand is striking, the other covers other possible lines of attack that would otherwise expose some targets if left uncovered.

I won't go through any other body mechanics and form examples, as it's really no the case to cover them all (and it's quiet impossible too), but one thing that I'd like to mention is that for many of the possible strikes, bending a little your knees will add some impact and penetration to the execution of the strike.

In any case, a proper hit comes always from proper body mechanics and form first.

8. Don't tense up

Here's another basic notion to consider when hitting: don't tense up any part of your body!

Tensing up is totally useless. You should keep all your muscles loose and relaxed when hitting, in order to let the strike flow free toward and trough the target. If you're punching, your hand should only clench into a fist right before the impact, never before.

Not tensing up starts on a mental level, which is always the hardest thing to get and achieve, and it's very difficult for beginners, but this will happen naturally over time and training.

9. Be accurate

It goes by itself that, as a true martial artist, you want to be able to hit exactly where you aim to, and you should always aim for a precise target when delivering a strike.

That is what a real martial artist does, he selects the right target at any given moment, and is able to hit it accurately, even (and especially) at speed.

As a bonus rule, I will add that you never want to "look" at the target, before delivering the strike, because this will result into making it obvious for the opponent to read your intentions (it's a common habit for some to look down at the opponent's legs before delivering a kick, for example). (On the other side, you can use this to deceit the opponent and use it as a fake, but well, let's not get too far away from the subject).

10. Use explosive energy

Never mind speed, never mind strength: for it to be effective, a strike should be explosive!

This one is probably "the" golden principle to master, if you want your strike to have the devastating effect they deserve.

As you suspect, explosive energy is something that is generated from within, from the inner part of ourselves, and like anything that belongs to this field, it's something that needs to be experienced more than understood.

Some internal-based martial arts, such as Tai Chi, refers to this principle as Fa-Jing (or Fa Jin), which literally means "explosive energy", and they dedicate most of the training efforts in order to master it.

But before you get too frustrated, let me tell you that you don't need to take hours and hours of Tai Chi or Qigong lessons if you want to learn how to use explosive energy when hitting (even if it would surely help the process to get familiar with these arts). I can tell you that all kind of good strikers, from Boxers to Kickboxers or Thai Boxers use this kind of explosive energy (and they don't necessarily wear silk kimonos and go to the park to practice "internal energy", do they?), because at some point and level it's something that just start to happen.

But if you want to start walking the path that leads to the mastery of "explosive energy", and because many good things comes with proper breathing, one thing that you can do is to exhale intensively while delivering the strike. Breathing out "into the hit" will help you to channel all the energy within your body and suddenly release it into the hit. The more you get used to it, the more you'll find yourself becoming louder and louder while breathing out when striking. One of the reason why you hear a Karateka (just to pick a martial art) screaming while hitting is to release all the inner energy into the strike. By the same principle, you'll notice that in other sports, like in tennis (just to pick up a sport), the player exhale loudly at the moment he hits the ball.

I could obviously write much more about the subject, but I'll keep it short (not really one of my skills when it comes to writing), and as a last thing I will just add that one secret to master explosive energy is to train "the inner switch", meaning to pass from a relaxing mode to the explosive mode upon command, and than at will.

Knowing how to channel and use internal energy can change your approach to striking forever. Therefor, make sure you integrate the use of explosive energy in your practice.

11. Have genuine intention and determination

The real fuel of any hitting tool is not physical power: it's the intention to hit!

There is no strike more effective than a strike that is delivered by someone willing to hit, someone who puts everything in it, like if it's the last thing he'll do in life.

Some may say that you need to let go all your aggressiveness in the strike, and on some level they're probably right. Personally I like to think more about this in terms of determination rather than of aggressiveness, because of the negative nature of the word (also, aggressiveness can be generated by fear or anger, while determination can be generated by courage).

But in any case, however you name it, one needs to put his guts in the strike, and this is something that has to be trained on each single strike executed during the training, for it to become natural. Remember this: if you are really determinate to hit, the exact moment you're about to strike, your expression should change. Call it as you like: the "bad-ass look", the "crazy-face", the "eye of the tiger", it doesn't matter. But your face should indicate determination and true intention to hit. Personally, that kind of expression, I call it the "Eye of the Warrior", and without it, you're just a body swinging arms or legs around whenever striking.

And as a martial artist you don't want to be that.

12. Always monitor the action

As I said in the beginning of the article, many are the aspects involved while hitting, and they're not always related to add more devastating power (or speed) to the strike itself.

For examples, you may apply all of the above rules every time you hit, but if you don't keep your eyes on the opponent, one day you will surely end up finding yourself on the floor before you know what really happened.

For a start, you don't want to get into the habit of blinking or look away from the action while hitting, not even for a fraction of a second. I see many people hitting and looking down or hitting and blinking while doing it.

If you notice, I deliberately used the words "look away from the action" and not "look away from the opponent", because in the case of multiple opponents the "action" is not represented by the opponent you're engaged with, but by each of the opponents. So, in that particular case, you may want to strike someone and at the same time monitor all the others, without loosing focus on the opponent you're attacking. This ability is developed in many Silat systems, as they're based on multiple attackers.

Anyway, "monitoring the action" is one important aspect to consider while hitting, believe me.

(For more information about it, you can read the article "Read the action").

13. Be ready for anything next

All rules applied, when fighting, you should consider any hit like a part of a wider game. A strike can land successfully and close the game, but that's not always the case, so when you hit, you mentally want to be ready for anything that may come next, be it an attacking follow up from your side or a sudden defensive move.

During a fight, always keep your mind flowing and be ready to every possible reaction for any of your given actions. A real fighter is should be ready for anything, at any moment, even when engaged in the striking process.

Conclusion

As you can see, many are the considerations behind proper striking in martial arts, some of physical nature, others psycological, other emotional, but all these notions are in some way linked together and even if they have been analyzed in their individual aspect, they need to be applied all at once, in the split moment that a strike last.

Anyway, remember that the list here is not intended to make the simple action of hitting to look complicated, but it shows how many layers of consciousness should be considered and trained to make the striking effective in combat. I believe that the best thing I can do to resume the fact that at some point it all becomes as simple as it's supposed to be, is to leave you with fitting quote from the great Bruce Lee: "Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick."

I hope you enjoyed the article, and if you did, share it with your martial arts friends.

Today, the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) have earned a very remarkable place in the martial arts world, but because of the multi-faceted nature of the art, they often tend to confuse some, if not many, of their practitioners, and this happens on different levels.

For a start, if a martial art begins with its name, Filipino Martial Arts troubles you from the very first step. Kali, Arnis, Escrima (or Eskrima) are all different terms to name what is more commonly called Filipino Martial Arts (also shortened to FMA).

Then, when you get more into the discipline itself, you discover that there are so many different styles under the same art, not to talk about the different terminologies employed to refer to techniques, moves, and the rest of it (this due to the countless existing dialects the Philippines).

But besides terms and styles, there are some other aspects that can be hard to figure out, like getting a proper understanding of the different segments, or areas, of this extremely heterogeneous art.

The Filipino Martial Arts are best known for their weaponry training - mainly stick fighting and knife fighting - but also for their empty hands (hand-to-hand) aspect of the art. Now, the thing is that even within those two main areas - weaponry and empty hands - some subdivisions exists, and I know that a lot of practitioners out there, be them students or instructors, try their best to define them, especially when it comes to the empty hands area.

Therefor…

A possible, simple subdivision

After all this years of practice and immersion in the world of the Filipino Martial Arts, at some point I came up with my own classification for the main areas and their respective subdivisions of this discipline, so I'd like to share it with my students and of course with any other FMA fellow out there.

Here's what it looks like:

Panandata (weaponry subdivision)

• Double sticks
• Single stick (Solo Baston)
• Knife
• Stick and knife, or long blade and knife (Espada y Daga)
• …

Pangamut or Suntukan (hand-to-hand subdivision)

• Panantukan (Filipino boxing)
• Sikaran/Pananjakman (Kicking art)
• Hubud (trapping, flowing drills)
• Dumog (grappling area)
• Kunsi (locking)
• Buno (takedowns, sweeping, unbalancing)
• Walis (sweeping)
• Kina Mutai (art of biting, pinching, eye gouging)

As you can see, a first "big" division is here made between weaponry art and hand-to-hand combat. (Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive classification for all of the FIlipino Martial Arts areas, but just the main ones, the ones to which the majority of students and instructors actually devote most of their training time).

So, we got Panandata (or Pananandata), which is the weapons-based aspect of the art, and than we have the Pangamut (or Pangamot), which represents the empty hands - hand-to-hand - part. Somewhere, depending of the geographical area, the term Suntokan is used for describing the Filipino hand-to-hand combat art, but I believe that Pangamut is more common.

Within the Panandata a very simple subdivision is made by the different kinds of weapons (or combination of them). Again, we could identify more subdivisions, such as "double knives" or even "knife to hand", or stick to hand", but to me those are implicitly included in the relative subdivision.

One word of warning needs be spent here to say that this list does not include "all" of the weapons used in FMA. I deliberately left out some of them, like the "Stuff" and the "Pocket Stick", or some flexible weapons such as the "Sarong" or the "Nunchaku" and some sort of singular blades, like the "Karambit" (or Kerambit). My intent here is to provide a "first-level" weapons-arts that are most commonly used in FMA training.

Now, more interesting than the weaponry area and its subdivisions, is the empty hands one, since it's subject to many interpretation and therefor confusion.

First of all, it is a general habit to use the term "Panantukan" to refer to the hand-to-and Filipino style. Nothing wrong with that, actually, except that technically speaking "Panantukan" is only one part of the global empty hands system. (Panantukan gets translated into Filipino Boxing, or "Dirty Boxing" which uses various hand-type strikes, elbows, and limb destruction techniques, commonly called "Gunting").

But when you dig deep into the empty hands portion of the discipline, you discover that there are many other divisions in addition to the Panantukan, as we can see from the above classification, in the the entire hand-to-hand system.

Pananajakman (or Sikaran), for example, is the Kicking art in the system, while Hubud (shorten from "Higot Hubud Lubud") is a division that focus on the trapping range development as well as on different flowing drills needed to implement techniques and attributes into the practice.

A last division is the Kina Mutai, which is the art of biting and pinching and even though it is not often taught into the system, it is still a valuable part of the Filipino empty hands system.

So, there it is, my way of classification (at the moment of this writing), published here to help everybody visualize the main aspects of the Filipino Martial Arts.

But, as already stated, this classification is not exhaustive, and does not represents the entire Filipino Martial Arts universe.

Therefor…

The 12 areas of the Filipino Martial Arts according to Guru Dan Inosanto

I could't write an article about the Filipino Martial Arts subdivisions without mentioning the well known work of classification that Guru Dan Inosanto use to share with us and that is obviously used by many as a steady reference.

According to Dan Inosanto there are 12 areas that embody the Filipino Martial Arts (or maybe more precisely the Lacoste system), and I'd like to publish it here to accompany the rest of the article. This classification looks like this:

1st Area

• Single Stick (Olisi or Bastone)
• Single Sword
• Single Axe
• Single Cane

2nd Area

• Double Stick (Double Olis or Dubli Bastone)
• Double Sword
• Double Axe

3rd Area

• Stick and Dagger (Olisi-Baraw) or (Bastone y Daga)
• Cane and Dagger
• Sword and Dagger (Espada y Daga)
• Sword and Shield
• Long and Short Stick

4th Area

• Double Dagger (Baraw-Baraw) or (Dubli Daga)
• Double Short Sticks

5th Area

• Single Dagger (Baraw-Kamot)
• Single Short Stick

6th Area

• Palm Stick (Olisi-Palad)
• Double end Dagger

7th Area (Pangamut, Kamot-Kamot or Empty Hands)

• Panantukin (Boxing to include use of the Elbows) Elbows (Sieko)
• Pananjakman or Panantukin and Sikaran (Kicking to include use of Knees and Shin)
• Dumog, Layug, or Buno (Grappling) and Kuntzi (Locking)
• Ankab-Pagkusi also heard kini mutai (Bite and Pinch)
• Sagong Labo or Higot-Hubud-Lubud (“Tying-untying, and blending the two”, trapping range sensitivity exercise)

8th Area (Long Weapons)

• Staff (Sibat)
• Oar (Dula)
• Paddle (Bugsay)
• Spear (Bangkaw)
• Spear and Circular Shield
• Spear and Rectangular Shield
• Spear and Sword/Stick
• Spear and Dagger
• Two Handed Method (Heavy stick, Olisi Dalawang kamot)
• Two Handed Method (Regular stick)

9th (Area Flexible Weapons)

• Sarong (clothing worn in Southern Philippines and Indonesia)
• Belt or Sash
• Whip (Latigo)
• Rope (Lubid)
• Chain (Cadena)
• Scarf, headband, Handkerchief (Panyo)
• Flail (commonly known as the nunchucko) Olisi Toyok or Tobak Toyok
• Yo-yo
• Stingray Tai

10th Area (Hand thrown weapons, Tapon-Tapon)

• Spear
• Dagger
• Wooden Splinter
• Spikes
• Coins, Washers
• Stones, Rocks
• Sand, Mud, Dirt
• Pepper, Powder
• Any object that can be thrown

11th Area (Projectile Weapons)

• Bow and Arrow (Pana)
• Blowgun (Sumpit)
• Slingshot (Pana Palad)
• Lantanka (Portable Cannon)

12th Area (Mental, Emotional, Spiritual training)

• Healing Arts
• Health Skills
• Rhythm and Dance
• History, Philosophy and Ethics

As I said, this represent quiet an exhaustive list. Never less, I wanted to suggest my own classification, with just 2 main areas and their subdivisions, because thiose are what we actually train the most in the Filipino martial Arts and I always tend to simplify what can be simplified.

Conclusion

I hope this article is useful for my students and everyone else involved in the training and in the practice of the Filipino Martial Arts, and that will help you to make some sort of order out of the possible confusion that sometimes the wonderful Filipino martial Arts can generate when it comes to identifying the many areas of this art.

Feel free to comment and share your insights on the subject. I'll appreciate any adding to the article.

The series really helps developing the most used hands strikes and combination in the art of Kali empty hands. It's also a good way to work on your your cardio system, as you constantly move on the forward triangle (female triangle). You don't need much space to work this series, really, so you can practice it almost anywhere you like.

Ok, let's see how this one goes. The series can be divided into 6 sets, each with different repetitions. Each repetition is executed 5 times on each of the the two sides of the female triangle, so we have 10 executions per repetition, 5 on the left lead and 5 on the right lead.

The first set has 3 repetitions:

• 1) Just footwork
• 2) Just footwork with false lead
• 3) Cross

So, the first repetition gives you the rhythm for footwork. Even without punching yet, keep your hands up, in good guard form. For the second repetition you just put your opposite shoulder forward when stepping in on the triangle side, so to assume the so called "false lead" stance (left foot forward with right shoulder forward, and other way around). On the third repetition you just shout a Cross (bring it back on the same line, don't drop it).

Here's the second set, with 5 repetitions:

• 4) Cross - Hook
• 5) Cross - Uppercut
• 6) Cross - Body Hook
• 7) Cross - Long Hook
• 8) Cross - Low Slap

Try to work on good form. The Long Hook is a hook executed with a straight arm, not a bent arm, and the hit can be with the fist, with the open hand (slap) or with the part of the forearm near the wrist. The Low Slap is a palm strike to the groin area. Those last two attacks are very common in Panantukan. This set is a basis for the following sets of repetitions.

Here's the next set:

• 9) Cross - Hook - Cross
• 10) Cross - Uppercut - Cross
• 11) Cross - Body Hook - Cross
• 12) Cross - Long Hook - Cross
• 13) Cross - Low Slap - Cross
• 14) Overhead - Uppercut - Overhead

We now just added another motion, and the result is a 3 strikes combination for each repetition. Also, notice the addition of the Overhead - Uppercut - Overhead, which is used especially when breaking the opponent's posture and when his head ends up being in the middle line level. In application, the Overhead strike can also be a slap to the back of the head.

Let's move to the next set:

• 15) Ikis - Cross - Hook - Cross
• 16) Ikis - Cross - Uppercut - Cross
• 17) Ikis - Cross - Body Hook - Cross
• 18) Ikis - Cross - Long Hook - Cross
• 19) Cross - Low Slap - Cross
• 20) Ikis - Overhead - Uppercut - Overhead

As you can see, this set is the same as the previous one, with the addiction of the Ikis motion (or "X" pattern), which is kind of a trademark for the Filipino Martial Arts, as it is used in the weaponry area as well (stick, knife, pocket stick). The Ikis is executed with the lead hand (in a fist shape), in coordination with the stepping in.

The next set is the same as this previous one, only we now add the Ikis motion at the end as well, always performed with the lead hand:

• 21) Ikis - Cross - Hook - Cross - Ikis
• 22) Ikis - Cross - Uppercut - Cross - Ikis
• 23) Ikis - Cross - Body Hook - Cross - Ikis
• 24) Ikis - Cross - Long Hook - Cross - Ikis
• 25) Cross - Low Slap - Cross - Ikis
• 26) Ikis - Overhead - Uppercut - Overhead - Ikis

The last set has only one repetition, and it consists of an Ikis with the lead hand, followed by one with the rear hand. I believe it's a nice way to end up the series because the double Ikis, even with bare hands, just feels so "filipino martial arts", doesn't it?

• 27) Ikis - Ikis

So, there you have it, a series you can work on as a warm up or as solo training session.

If you really want to, you can work that on the "male" triangle too, actually.

Go ahead, download the PDF file, print it out, and put it together with all the rest of the Manonuda prints that we offer on the website.

Download the panantukan Shadow Boxing Series V1.0 (PDF)

Have a nice Panantukan solo work out!

This attribute is called "Reading the action".

The brain process in a fight

Actually, before we dive into the knowledge of such an attribute, I'd like to outline the brain process involved in the every fight. The dynamic of a fight is made by the interaction of the fighters' action, and this action is movement, motion, and for our brain this motion is perceived as an information.

We, as human beings, deal with this action, with this information, as follows:

1. We gather (read) the information (in our case, the opponent's motion).
2. Our brain treats this information, and choose the most appropriate way to deal with it.
3. We respond, physically, to the action, which makes it a "reaction".

Obviously, it all happens quiet fast (or it should). Some factors, like the speed of the brain to treat the information in order to choose one option among endless possibilities, and the speed of our physical reaction to the brain stimulation, those are other attributes. But as the title suggests, in this article I will focus only on the first step of the process, and the reason why I described the whole process and decidebroke it down is to draw the big picture and see where "reading the action" actually fits.

So, as you can see, the very first step of the process is, indeed, gathering the information, and such an information in our world translates into physical action. But what does "reading the action" actually mean?

Well, "reading the action" is the way we gather the information we need to pass out to our brain so that it can treat it. The ability to properly read the action is a skill that makes the difference between a fighter and another, because no matter how technically skilled one is, if you can't "see" what it's happening, you cannot respond effectively, meaning you cannot use your technical skills.

We're going to see that, probably to your surprise, there are different kind of ways to "read the action".

Visual reading

Surely enough, the word "reading" suggests that it "happens with the "eyes", and in fact the first way to read the action is indeed visually. Reading the action "visually" means that we rely on our visual capability to pass the information to our brain.

This may sound like a very basic notion that doesn't necessary deserve a paragraph (or an article) about it, but my point here is to define the importance of this attribute, how it comes into play, and how to improve it. Believe me, when you are in the wild dynamic of physical threatning you want to have the ability to understand what's happening before it's too late. In order to "see" what's going on, what moves the opponent is about to make, one needs to be clear and focused.

Of course, visual reading happens through our eyes, but the eyes are only the tools that we use in the case of "visual reading". They don't do the hard part. "We " do the hard part. Our ability to stay focused and clear, without fixing our attention on something in particular but to the whole action, this will allow our eyes to "read the action".

Bruce Lee explains the phenomenon of "focusing without focusing" quiet extensively in his "Tao of Jeet Kune Do".

Visual reading is like having our "radar" on, being totally aware and being 100% present with all ourselves. It's being able to scan everything that moves in the action, so that "as soon as he moves, you move", and to make things like "he starts the action but I score before" happen.

Visual reading mostly applies in Boxing, Kickboxing, Stick fighting, Knife fighting, whenever we need to anticipate the moves to be able to react accordingly. Therefore, proper visual reading means being able to identify the angles of attack (straight, curved), the lines of attack (high, medium, low, right, left) and also and foremost the opponent's fakes or change of movement. Identifying what is about to happen is the most important thing in all kind of fights.

The opponent's attacks are not the only things we need to "read" in a fight. Other stuff can and need to be read: openings, hesitations, intentions. All of those things are stuff that, during a fight, we need to "read".

But are the eyes the only tool we need to actually "read the action"?
Well, they're not.

Tactical reading

There are martial arts that focus their working principles on body energy, or more precisely, on the opponent's energy. Some of those are self-defense martial arts, others are combat sports.

However, those kind of styles rely very little on the eyes as a tool to gather the information from the opponent, and that is primarily due to the range of combat in which they use to live. Those are closed-range martial arts, and in close range, things are a little different than let's say, in kickboxing striking range. In close range, inevitably, body contact occurs between the fighters, so "tactical sensitivity" comes into play.

Some systems such as Wing Chun dedicate most of their training efforts to develop this tactical sensitivity, so that they can rely on this attribute rather than on their sight. In Wing Chun this strategic choice is pretty much intentional, I'd say, and it defines the whole style.

Another style that employs the principle of tactical reading is Aikido, for example.

Obviously, there are also combat sports that rely very much (if not almost entirely, in some cases) on tactical, energy reading, and in their cases the choice is probably "not intentional", meaning that they don't use this as a conscious fighting strategy (like with Wing Chun and Aikido) but they just "naturally" develop the "tactical reading" attribute because of the nature of the fighting style itself.

Basically, every grappling system relies on tactical reading, be it standing grappling or ground grappling. Judo, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and Greco-Roman Wrestling are some examples of styles that need to "feel" the opponent's action with their own body, more than scanning it with their eyes. Even Muay Thai fighters, when clinching occurs, use this kind of attribute. It is very common, when grappling, that a fighter puts his head in a position where he cannot even see the rest of the opponent's body, but he does "feel" him, therefore he "reads" his action, and can therefore act or react upon that.

One last example of the use of tactical reading is in knife fighting. When a contact is made with the arm holding the knife, the opponent's action can be read tactically.

As a general rule, as soon as there is contact with the opponent's body, as soon as a tactical connection is established, there is energy (motion) that can be "read", and so "reading the action" becomes tactical, rather than visual.

Metaphysical reading

Picture this: a master is quietly sit crossed legs in his dojo (I picture an open space dojo on some lost asian mountain). His eyes are closed. A disciple peacefully approaches him from behind his back. When he's close enough, he attempts to attack the master with a stick to his head. The master suddenly turn himself and grab the stick of the disciple, blocking his attack. The disciple asks: "Master, how did you know I didn't come to you to bring you a cup of tea or something? How did you know I was about to attack you with a stick from behind?" The master answers: "Of course I knew. I read your intention".

We are about to enter the mystical area of martial arts.

The martial arts world is full of this kind of stories and some are build on what could be defined as martial arts myths.

I'm not going to tell you that this kind of thing is possible, neither I'm going to tell you that it's impossible. I just believed that "metaphysical reading" was the next one to close the circle on the matter.

Now, can someone develop the skill of reading the action around him even with his or her eyes closed and without establishing any physical contact? If so, it is surely not an easy skill to achieve and it is probably not given to everybody to get to that level of sensitivity.

But on the other hand, there are people who don't believe in the "Chi" because they can't even acknowledge the concept of it, and surely they cannot experience it. Still, I do believe in it and for sure I do experience it in my practice.

Even if quiet skeptical about being able to read the action with the mind, I have to say that when you think about it we all happen to say or think, from time to time, "I feel something's wrong", even if there are not apparent reasons to feel that way. So, metaphysical reading is probably something that all of us experience on some degree and that could maybe be taken to an upper level.

As I said, either it is humanly possible or not, either it's accessible to some or to none, metaphysical reading is a third way of reading the action, and this way probably deserves its place in this article.

Practical development

So, with all that said, how can one develop this essential attribute of "reading the action"? For a start, let's say that any kind of sparring develops that, and it is probably the best way to really build it up.

But beside sparring, there are some drills that can help the development of this attribute. Obvious examples for the "tactical reading" way are some sensitivity drills like the Wing Chun's Chi Sao or the Filipino Martial Arts' Hubud.

But what about "visual reading"?

If you want to build "visual reading" abilities you need to train in what I call the "variables training format", instead of the "pre-arranged format". That means that as long as the drills are pre-arranged you cannot develop this attribute. Instead, if you work a drill with variables, you force the student to having to "read the action". Variables are not the only factors that can be used. Tempo is another one.

I know, you want examples, so here are some.

Let's take Kali stick fighting, and let's take the tempo factor. Say this is the drill: you do a forehand diagonal slash (angle 1), your partner blocks with a Roof Block. Than he attacks with the same attack and you do the Roof Block. This makes it a continuous flow drill with the same tempo: I attack, he blocks, he attacks, I block. Now just add the tempo factor in the drill. One can break this tempo and after he blocks, he just wait a moment before attacking, while other times he attacks right away after the block. You'll notice that now the students will have to adjust to the action and respond with the movement of the block not automatically, but only when the actual attack occurs. They have to "read the action".

Another examples could be used with Boxing. This time let's use variables. The attacker uses a Cross, the defender uses a counter to the cross (no matter which one, this is irrelevant for the example). The attacker uses a Hook, and the defender respond with a counter to Hook. Than the attacker randomly fires one or the other, so to force the defender to "read the action" and respond with the adequate counter.

These are just some examples, the principle can be employed in endless ways, as you can imagine.

Conclusion

I often find myself using the expression "read the action" when I teach my students, so last week I thought that maybe some of them could be troubled by the meaning of these words, although I try to briefly explain it. So during a class I said I would write an article about it. And as with any published articles, this is not only for my students, but to anyone else. Hope you enjoyed it!

In this article I'm going to outline some basic Muay Thai program that you can work on solo. Suppose you're by yourself and feel like training a little bit, but there is no class to attend and nobody around to train with.

Well, instead of getting frustrated and go wasting the next couple of hours on YouTube watching martial arts videos, put your Thai shorts on and get down to business.

Remember, working solo is a very fundamental aspect of the training. It helps you to build the right frame of mind in order to really "feel" an art. When you work solo - be it executing forms or shadow boxing - you feel some kind of intimacy between you and the art you are practicing and you'll create a special connection with it. I believe one needs that, at some level.

This applies to all arts, not just Muay Thai, of course. But as I mentioned, this is about Muay Thai solo training, so let's get to it.

A Muay Thai shadow boxing series

I wrote this program for myself, so I thought that you could benefit from it by using it as well. Basically, the program is divided into series. I usually work each series for 2 minutes with 30 seconds break, but you can change that to 3 and 1 minutes if that suit you better.

The art of Muay Thai uses 4 main tools (or areas): Boxing, Kicking, Elbows, Knees. We use this division to define the series.

In the first four series you work just one of the 4 divisions at the time:

• 1) Boxing
• 2) Kicking
• 3) Elbows
• 4) Knees

Than you go on by combining those tools with all the different possibility:

• 5) Boxing + Elbows
• 6) Boxing + Kicking
• 7) Boxing + Knees
• 8) Elbows + Knees
• 9) Kicking + Knees
• 10) Kicking + Elbows

We got 6 other series out of it. This workout is really beneficial because it forces you to use one tool with the other, because otherwise you develop the tendency to use the same combinations over and over again when shadow boxing, and therefor when sparring.

You may think that this is it. 4 areas, single and combined, 10 series in total, checked. Well, don't worry. There is more.

So, moving on, let's get to the clich area. Working the clinch in solo is very hard for some, but like anything else, it is so only if you don't train it enough, right? The clinch-work as shadow boxing is very limited, of course, but still, it improves your balance and posture when knee-striking from that position, and those are fundamental factors in the clich game, aren't they?

So, this is what you can do from the clinching position:

• 11) Straight skip knees
• 12) Curve skip knees
• 13) Combined skip knees (straight and curve)

That assumes that you know what "skip knees" is (and I hope you do because that is beyond the purpose of the article). Make sure to keep a vertical straight posture while doing that, put your hands together in the proper way, and pull toward you when striking. Also, you can pivot-step and than knee-strike. Really imagine grabbing to an opponent.

So far, we have produced a total of 13 series. Let's make it 14! As you might suspect, the next series is going to be about putting it all together, which is what most of us consider to be the actual shadow boxing thing.

• 14) All together (Boxing, Kicking, Elbows, Knees, Clinch)

If you followed the whole series you should be have already worked for 35 minutes (with the 2 minutes and 30 seconds break model).

Of course, if after that you really feel like wanting more, you can always go back and start the whole thing over again. Otherwise, you can add more stuff to it, because, well, there is stuff that can be added, isn't there?

Taking it further

Beside the above ones, there are other series that you can work on and which you can create yourself. For example you can make a series of defensive moves, evasiveness and blocks. While it may feel less fun to work defensive moves than striking, those moves are very important for the fight or for sparring, and doing it by himself helps record the motions in the mussels memory.

Now, you could isolate the evasiveness and blocking moves, and than combine them into another series. For example you could work Boxing evasiveness defense such as Slipping, Ducking, Bob & Weaves, Shoulder roll, and than work on blocks, like Side covers, Front covers, Deflecting, Scooping, Straight arm blocks. (For the evasiveness part, there is not so much Ducking and Weaving in Muay Thai, but still, while you're at it, you can work this Boxing skills).

Also, you can work the lower, leg blocks: Left Shield, Right Shield, Cross Shield, and can do it for the low line and the medium line. Again, don't think this is useless only because you're just imagining a kick, not getting a real one. Mussels memory is what we are drilling out here. Don't under estimate that.

Since you start to get the idea about creating possibilities and playing around with the shadow boxing game, here's a last tip: make combination series.

Need some examples? Here's one. Imagine defending and reposting to a low kick to your left leg. You can use the same defense but different responses (options) and make it a combination series:

• 1) Left Shield, Foot Jab
• 2) Left Shield, Left Kick
• 3) Left Shield, Right Kick
• 4) Left Shield, Right Knee
• 5) Left Shield, Left Knee
• 6) Left Shield, Cross

The possibility are quiet endless, so you can really be creative, and you should. Maybe one day I'll put some options down in a downloadable document. Until then, you already got some good stuff to train with, I believe.

Ways of doing this

Remember that for the same series you can work with different intensity and purpose. You can work slow and smooth to work the proper form and body mechanics, or you can go "full speed", which is good for conditioning too. What I like to do is to alternate one mode with the other during the same series. From slow and nice to short explosions combos. Don't forget to breath out when you strike, even when you're in the slow mode. Don't worry if your neighbors (or wife), hear you through the walls of your room, you're doing Muay Thai, there's not half way of doing it.

Wrap up

So this is it. Put some music on, warm yourself up with some rope jumping, stretch properly, get started with the program and let me know how it goes. And remember, shadow boxing is one great way to "make it yours". So keep it up.

Download the Muay Thai Shadow Boxing Series V1.0 (PDF)