Fighting a Defensive person

**Sang** · Posted On: 2/21/2011 8:09am

Don't mix up aggression with contact level. I am super aggressive when i spar a light female fighter yet never go over 30% power with my shots.

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 2/21/2011 10:37am

A lot of technique, reach, and experience disparity can be covered up by aggression. Basics like guard up chin down, not going in stragiht, and punching and not stopping. Forward forward forward. More time you give him to think the worse you are. Its a trait I'd like to develop actually, but I've given more advanced guys (usually skinnier than me though) their share with this strategy.

You have to commit especially if the guy is waiting for you to make a move so he can counter you. You have to pressure him so much that he doesn't have time to breathe.

Of course, you can't overcome everything, you gas out, not learn anything in sparring, etc. Many many many shortcomings to this strategy.

But in your specific situation, the answer is just be more agressive. If you keep hitting somethings gonna go through his defense.

Also, learn to time follow ups from your jab. Don't just go in straight and don't be too predictable with your angles.

**Homernoid** · Posted On: 2/21/2011 3:20pm

Some time ago I managed to get some people to get more agressive by introducing stick-"fighting" into lessons: I was holding some bo or hanbo in front of me letting such a non-aggressive person hitting it as hard as possible and to receive hitting (in a hyper-secure manner - still thrilling for them) from different angles for a couple of lessons.

The drawback was, they got used to try to hit the stick and not the guy behind it, what is actually less than smart for fighting a person.
However, after taking away sticks and switching back to hand-to-hand, they transformed pretty well.

Back then I had the impression, it was well invested time in getting people used to some inevitable basics of fighting.

my two cent

**Smoke** · Posted On: 2/23/2011 10:59pm

Thanks everyone. I'm fearing if I'm not aggressive enough during sparring, I feel if I get mugged or something on t3h st33tz I'm going to get pummeled. :(

***WhiteShark*** · Posted On: 3/05/2011 6:20am

One trick for being more aggressive in your combinations is to take your typical three move combo whatever it is and think about each shot getting harder so that the real value is in landing that third shot. A good example is jab-cross-hook. The whole combination should be about landing that hook. Even if you have to just throw the jab out there and snap the cross always be focusing on the hook that is coming at the end. If you focus on your combinations this way after a while you will automatically be using aggressive combinations because you will have to in order to consistently land that last technique.

**JSK_83** · Posted On: 3/05/2011 9:25am

I'm the kind of fighter that likes to make the opponent fight aggressively, and that allows me to sneak in and counter-attack. But there are times where you need to be aggressive.

**Neo Sigma** · Posted On: 3/05/2011 10:46am

Originally Posted by WhiteShark

One trick for being more aggressive in your combinations is to take your typical three move combo whatever it is and think about each shot getting harder so that the real value is in landing that third shot. A good example is jab-cross-hook. The whole combination should be about landing that hook. Even if you have to just throw the jab out there and snap the cross always be focusing on the hook that is coming at the end. If you focus on your combinations this way after a while you will automatically be using aggressive combinations because you will have to in order to consistently land that last technique.

Help me out here on this one. If your partner notices you're just tossing it out there, it seems like an open invitation to counter because he's not going to have to worry about it. At least, that's how it sounds to me.

Smoke- how tall are you relative to the other people in your dojo? I think I'm the shortest guy in my gym, which has sort of forced me to fight aggressively by default, or else I eat jabs and leg kicks all night. It's probably easier to hang back and play a more defensive game if you know you have reach on other people.

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 3/05/2011 11:39am

I found that if you kick better than all your opponents and check kicks properly, you can play defensively pretty often even if you are shorter than your opponents. But thats beyond the scope of this dicussion

**MMAMickey** · Posted On: 3/05/2011 12:05pm

Originally Posted by Neo Sigma

Help me out here on this one. If your partner notices you're just tossing it out there, it seems like an open invitation to counter because he's not going to have to worry about it. At least, that's how it sounds to me.

Don't just toss it out there, just don't put 100% in.

**Wasa** · Posted On: 3/10/2011 1:04pm

Smoke you didn't mention if being defensive worked for you. If your opponent is more aggressive and that works for you resulting in you coming out on top, is there really a problem other than your sensei on your butt? Normally defensive people will become more aggressive if needed. Example, defending family.

Could you be missing some opportunities by not being more aggressive sure. Can people be making mistakes due to being overly aggressive, sure.