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Video of me fighting (critiques wanted)

3K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  Voiceless 
#1 ·


I am in the trunks.
The reason i didn't throw many punches is because I jammed my left wrist the day before. We aren't trying hard in this video and only body shots were allowed.
Constructive criticism would be great!
(I did not upload the video, therefor the song choice wasnt mine. Im sorry lol)
 
#2 ·
fixed the video for you,

honestly though for your first post being wanting hits on your youtube vid makes you suspect,

I dont mind you posting this but I hope you become a good member here for if all i see is you posting youtube vids you wont last long here

but yeah welcome to the forum
 
#3 ·
yeah, I was thinking that too. But I really want to get into MMA when I get back from Basic Training and AIT for the Army. I've been in TaeKwonDo for 13 years (started when I was five) so I'm not really a stranger to fighting. I was just looking on things to improve, and many people say they cant help unless they see me fight.
 
#4 ·
No its all good to post the youtube vid and you came to the right place to have people critique you as we have some great helpful fighters on this forum as well as people that have trained for many years, its just my job to make sure you were not only here to spam/get web hits
 
#5 ·
My computer sucks at the moment showing youtube vids, so only a couple of things:

- Check your body composure. You don't seem to be really stable
- You show some typical TKD habits that will be a disadvantage in MMA:
-- As TKD is strongly oriented at point fighting you don't take the time to properly turn your hips into your kicks. That way you lose a lot of power in your kicks.
-- You tend to drop your hands or spread your hands away, especially while kicking, but also while giving body shots. That leaves you open for counter punches. People often do that to gain momentum and to retain balance. So work on proper form of your techniques. Train them as slow as you're able to do them correctly and only then gradually go faster. In order to keep your hands high you may incorporate some kicking drills where you pinch your cheeks or grab your ears with your fingers. It may look and feel awkard, but so you make sure that your hands are near your face for protection.
-- Watch out with those jumping kicks. In TKD it's no problem if you lose balance and fall down as the fight gets interrupted to let you stand up again, in MMA you may find yourself in a very bad position when you fall.
- Spinning back kick: you throw your kick while you head was turned away from your opponent. Make sure to turn your head to see your target.

At the grappling sequences my computer stuttered too much so I couldn't properly see what you did there.
 
#6 ·
Voiceless mentioned some good stuff, I'll try my best to expound on a few things.

On the ground, too much guillotine. The guillotine from guard is one of the most situational submission techniques. When it sinks its almost guaranteed to finish, but its VERY hard to sink, especially when sweaty. Beyond that, there really wasn't enough ground work to seriously look at technical ability, but I will mention that the upkicks were illegal as his knee was down. I'd also recommend working some submission defense and more importantly recognizing the set ups.

Standing, there were a few glaringly obvious things, but others were more subtle imperfections in form/technique. Movement was a big thing. In and out is okay, but laterally in and out is the key to outworking and innevitably working for the finish. Another aspect of moving were the kicks. Charing in like that may work against someone scared to take the hit, but a counter-fighter, or even someone with solid boxing will counter the charge with punches in bunches.

The punching itself needed addressing. It seemed like you were stiffening up before thorwing a big body shot. Remember that 90% of people don't have "Kill You" power, it takes several rapid power punches to accumulate serious damage. Tensing up and throwing as hard as one can once may feel good, but its a bad strategy.

The hands need to stay up. This isn't a stylistic thing, they HAVE to stay up. Voiceless suggested a solid exercise to develop the instinct to keep them up no matter what. Chin level is an approximation that works. But I prefer to keep mine about eye level or slightly above. Your hands should also be slightly forward from your face. If you aren't throwing a punch or sprawling, they should stay just forward, think of them like a shield (this also moves the chin back making it a harder target from their perspective).

Along similar lines, the chin needs to stay down. A great way to train the mind to do with is to shadowbox with a tennis ball under your chin, pressed into your chest over the sternal notch (where the clavicals meet) directly below the Adams Apple.

Onto the leaping, spinning, running all over the place kicks. Doing kicks like that is okay per say, however do them against an opponent who's not uncomfortable with them, or is able to punch you in the head, you'd get countered. In MMA, nothing beats a solid push/snap kick (front or side) and a few well timed roundhouse kicks.
 
#7 ·
Thanks to both of you! That is exactly what I was looking for! I will work on all of what you guys said, the only reason my hands weren't up is because it was "no head strikes". And the reason I do all those kicks is because I'm still in the mindset of a TaeKwonDo fighter where we can't really punch. Thats probably why my punches are ridiculous as well lol
 
#8 ·
Just a short remark as I don't have the time to go more into details.

the only reason my hands weren't up is because it was "no head strikes".
That doesn't matter. Unless your name is Anderson Silva and people consider you to be the best P4P fighter ALWAYS keep your hands up. I've seen too many people who don't pay enough attention on that aspect and get caught, because they didn't make it their nature to keep the hands high.

Make it a habit to keep you hands up at every exercise you do. When you do kicking drills, keep them up. When holding one punching mitt for your partner, keep the other hand up etc. Make it you nature to have the hands up and only drop them if you do it consciously/intentionally (i.e. to lure your opponent into a trap). If you have to think about keeping your hands up, you can be pretty sure that your hands will be somewhere else when you're under pressure. They have to stay up automaticly/by default without any thinking.
 
#10 ·
There's clearly a lot of experience point-sparring there. It's not just in the fact that you're only throwing the kicks, its in the general attitude of throwing the kicks and then walking away. It's in the dancing and dropping the hands while well out of range, and staying well out of range, moving in briefly, and then way out of range again. It's an approach that we see very rarely in MMA, because it's very difficult to make work against people who are good inside fighters, whether grapplers or boxers, because they will wait and use their counterpunches or the clinch.

I don't really like the backyard thing, so that definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth, generally. I'm not gonna lecture you, since I'm sure you have a reasonable understanding of the risks involved. I'm a young guy and like just throwing down with friends as much as the next guy. Just keep them in mind when you don't have a referee or a coach around to keep an eye on your safety.

If you want a lengthy critique of your grappling, I'm happy to do that. You posted in the standup technique thread, and you're clearly a guy who cares more about his striking than mat work, but I will say that both guys have a long way to go on the ground. There are several serious mistakes in the ground work where both guys had attempts to end the fight with simple submissions and couldn't make anything happen.

I'm a broken record on this stuff, and the guys around the grappling section know this: it's the little things in jiu-jitsu. If you're going to go for a guillotine, lock your guard up high, in the armpits and crank down with the legs. If you're going to use of the half-guard, secure the position, get the underhook and attempt to keep your opponent close instead of letting him stand out to pass. Don't just throw legs up randomly and hope to land an upkick. Apart from being very dangerous, a competent grappler will either (if he's nice and trying to work a game) pass or (if he's feeling cocky) attack your leg and possibly put you in a really dangerous (from a health standpoint as well as a technical one; even more so out in the backyard) spot.

EDIT: I will echo Intermission, just for the purpose of clarity. It really is a bad idea to fight in a backyard like this. I hate the Kimbo Slice style stuff, and I deal with enough tough guys who think that they are the UFC-bound on the basis of a few backyard brawls. It causes more serious injuries, from what I've seen, than supervised sparring sessions, because of the lack of headgear and general supervision. I strongly recommend joining a gym, where you have the opportunity to train both with people who can give you tips while you're training and who can make sure that you don't do anything to seriously injure yourself.
 
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