Book of Five Rings Examination, Part 3

“Upset happens in all sorts of things. One way it happens is through a feeling of being under acute pressure. Another is through a feeling of unreasonable strain. A third is through a feeling of surprise at the unexpected.
In large scale military science, it is essential to cause upset. It is critical to attack resolutely where enemies are not expecting it, then, while their minds are unsettled, use this to your advantage to take the initiative and win.
In individual martial arts also, you appear relaxed at first, then suddenly change powerfully, as the opponents mind changes pitch, it is essential that you follow what he does, not letting him relax for a moment, perceiving the advantage of the moment and discerning right then and there how to win. This must be investigated diligently.”

A fighter must seize his/her opportunities when they are presented in order to win. In order to create these opportunities for success there are many strategies. The one talked about above by Musashi is the strategy of upsetting.

Imagine you are fighting and the bell for the first round has just rung. You square off with your opponent, each curious and cautious about what type of fight will be presented to them. After a couple of rounds of steady fighting you decide to completely change your game around and come out full force with a flurry of punches and kicks. After hitting your opponent hard with the first punch he/she becomes shocked with total disbelief at the sudden change in your approach to the fight. Seizing this moment of shock and upset you have gained, you attack harder and stronger, until your opponent is unable to defend himself and the ref stops the fight awarding you the win.

Musashi states “It is critical to attack resolutely where enemies are not expecting it” and “you appear relaxed at first, then suddenly change powerfully, as the opponents mind changes pitch, it is essential that you follow what he does, not letting him relax for a moment, perceiving the advantage of the moment”. The above example does exactly this. You make your opponent think that you are in a relaxed state, allowing him also to relax and within a moments notice you change your way of fighting, exploding in with a flurry off attacks which may fluster and take your opponent off guard.

The reason this strategy works is because for a split second your opponent is shocked and upset how you have suddenly changed your way of fighting. If your fast and explosive, this split second is all you need to press your opponent hard and gain the advantage while he is in disbelief. The perfect example of this is Frank Shamrock vs Tito Ortiz. For the whole fight Tito was on top of Frank, pressing him, trying to wear him down. Frank then suddenly exploded at the end with a flurry of attacks. Tito was completely flustered by this and it cost him the fight.

As Musashi states "this must be investigated diligently".

Marks
Introduction
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

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Frank Shamrock vs Cung Le

Frank Shamrock took on San Shou phenomenon Cung Le during last weekends epic MMA fight and to me it was one of the best fights in a while.

Firstly respect has to go out to both fighters. They both proved that they can take clean shots and carry on fighting. Cung kept Frank away with the side kick, a kick not favoured amongst MMA fighters but may be after this fight. It’s a kick that can do great damage by being thrust into your opponent rather than snapped in like the round house. Also witnessed was Cungs ability to catch Franks kicking leg and sweep his standing one. An excellent technique which can make your opponent think twice about kicking you and great to take the fight to the floor. More on this technique here.

Frank Shamrock is one if the greatest technical fighters ever to grace an MMA arena but also showed again that he is a great entertainer. He smiles at his opponent, shows funny hand gestures but also shows his respect for his opponent when getting hit from a good shot, by offering to touch gloves. Frank could not enter round 4 because of a hand injury which saw him forfeit the fight, handing over his championship belt to Cung, but at the end of round 3 Frank dominated Cung with some great punching ability and if the round carried on an extra couple of seconds, maybe the winner may have been different. Being known as a submission fighter it was surprising to not see Frank try and take the fight to the floor much, and it was clear that Frank wanted to keep the fight standing. This showed that Frank truly is a mixed martial artist who is capable of fighting from all angles and positions.

Because of the way the fight went, its most probable that there shall be a rematch between them. If that happens, it should prove again to be one of the most anticipated rematches ever.

This truly was a great fight, if you have not seen it yet, then search it on the Internet and watch it on one of the hundreds of websites showing it. You will not be disappointed.

Marks

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Fighting Strategy, Taking the Centre of the Ring

Cage Rage 25 saw Ken Shamrock get beaten by a fighter called Robert “Buzz” Berry. Ken and Frank Shamrock have always been my favourite fighters and even if Ken lost another 500 fights, his status as a legend in MMA is always going to be there in my mind as he has done so much for the sport. Maybe he should quit maybe he should not. That’s up to him, but his heart is among the best around.

A strategy that has been employed by Ken and passed to Frank and most of his Lions Den fighters throughout the years is taking the centre of ring. Once the bell before each round rings, you come out of your corner and take a position in the centre of the ring. To some, this strategy shows dominance, control, authority and can decide the outcome of the fight sometimes. By taking the centre of the ring or cage you are saying to your opponent “here I am, am not afraid to fight, im not afraid to exchange blows, Im a problem, deal with me!” Just by doing this you can make your opponent become a defensive and negative fighter, you cut off the fighting area so he/she has limited space to move and in the judges eyes you can sometimes be noticed more. This will help in gaining a decision at the end of the fight if there is no knockout or submission

As mentioned, this was always the strategy employed by Ken Shamrock, and could well be one of the reasons why he was seen as such a dominating and fearsome fighter in the nineties. To be able to pull this strategy off, all you need is courage. The courage to show your opponent that YOU are the one in control of the fight. Usually the one who takes the centre of the ring wins, and is not just a strategy for the bigger guys. Smaller fighters who also employ this strategy include Rickson Gracie and Genki Sudo. Do it once and you will have the courage to always do it.

Marks

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How to Sprawl for Fighting and Training

A while back, I wrote an article entitled Defending the Takedown (for Strikers), in which I talked about the basic takedown defences. I mentioned the Sprawl as part of the defences. Many Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and other grappling styles know of the sprawl and use it to defend mainly pickups and tackles (shoots).

One thing I have noticed unfortunately though is that most Judo practitioners still don’t use this technique when attacked with the above takedowns, and instead try to spin out them, by trying to turn so they land on there front. Although they will stop there opponent from winning in competition, they will always find themselves in a very vulnerable position, and it is not wise to be done on the street. By sprawling, you land on top of your opponent, in a dominating position, and it is easy to get back up on your feet if you’re on the street. The best demonstration of the sprawl which I have seen was on a production by Frank Shamrock called The Ultimate Home Workout. In my previous article I wrote that “When your opponent dives in for your legs in a rugby tackle type attack (or pickup), kick your legs back, and drop your chest onto his upper back area. You will both end up on the floor but lying on his back, it should be YOU in the dominating position” The drill to practise the sprawl is,

From a normal fighting stance,
Drop your legs behind you, landing on your thighs as opposed to your knees, toes as opposed to the top of your feet and hands,
Make sure you hands land on your palms, (not fingers or fist), shoulder width apart with your fingers pointing outwards,
On landing, remember to keep your chin up and breathe out (breathing in when you’re up again)
As soon as you land, quickly thrust back, and stand, ending up in your fighting stance, taking about 1-2 seconds for the whole sprawl.

If your new to sprawls, perform repetitions to begin with, concentrating on slow and quality technique, and after you feel you have mastered the movement, the best way to carry out this drill is to sprawl by time. Perform as many as you can in 30 seconds then 1 minute, working up to two minutes, and least 5 rounds.

This is a great exercise which works nearly all of the muscles in the body, providing a strength, ploymetric and cardio workout in one.

Marks

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