The Way of Least Resistance

It's more than a year since I wrote my analysis of Ronda Rousey's loss to Holly Holm .  My conclusion back then was as follows: "If there's a lesson in there for Rousey it is this: in a stand up fight, simple aggression is often enough to win against an unskilled opponent.  And if you're a good grappler, it will certainly give you some good chances to close the gap and use your real skills.  But if you want to fight a good stand up fighter, you need to know enough about stand up  defence ."  It would seem that in the intervening year, Rousey has done nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing - to improve this skill, as was clearly evident in Rousey's fight last night against Amanda Nunes. Many think that the cornerstone of stand-up fighting is  attacking : striking, in the form of punching and kicking. Indeed, this is very much the philosophy of some schools who tout themselves as " target focused ". But, as I have stressed over many years a...

Okay, so the dust is settling on Ronda Rousey's historic loss to Holly Holm. And there are no shortage of pundits analysing the details of what went wrong with Rousey's game and what went right with Holm's. Heck, some people managed to get the commentary right before the fight even started.  Consider this adept video that my friend Gene Burnett put me onto: Doubtless, writers like the amazing Jack Slack will use this kind of analysis to examine the fight down to the finest technical degree. [Edit: Jack has posted an article  - and I'm glad to see his conclusion is consistent with mine!] But I'm going to be brutally frank here.  I don't think we really need to go to that level of detail to understand what went wrong for Rousey and right for Holm.  I think that in the end it's as simple as this: All of Rousey's previous opponent have been second rate strikers (compared with Holm). Rousey  simply wasn't prepared for a good stand-up game . ...

Following on from my recent post concerning "separating the right leg" and its use as an " anti-clinch " technique, using your legs to counter, I thought I'd go to one of the last movements in the Chen Pan Ling taijiquan form - the related (rather mysterious) sequence known as "step back to ride tiger". Here is a description of the technique: Starting from the previous position (not shown), step/pivot clockwise to the right to face an opponent. As you do so, you extend your left hand out (this has an important function - I'll explain why later) and load the right hand near your ear. This is followed by a step forward with your left leg.  Again, this has a vital function which I'll explain in due course. At precisely the same time, you extend your right hand forwards, leading with the knife edge of your palm which allows you to wedge your forearm in towards your opponent at an angle (facing downwards). Your left hand scoops dow...

I've decided to "break the drought" in my martial writing by doing a series of coaching clinics. The I'm going to "kick off" (pardon the pun - you'll see why) with the move sometimes called "separate right leg". It has often been interpreted as a kick - however with the toes in prominence it makes little sense to me. Here is the sequence: You start off in "single whip". You open both palms and lean back.  You also happen to look back (more on why later, but the direction of gaze is important). You preform an inward sweeping anti-clockwise move with your left arm and a corresponding clockwise turn of your right arm. Your right arm then glides down at an angle over the top of your left which is pulled back slightly. Surprisingly, you then sweep both hands back in a clockwise arc, looking at your arms as you do so.  Again, I'll discuss the significance of the head turn in a moment. The arms continue in a circle...