FMA effect of speed and empty hands

[jdoc619]

That's a good point, keep in mind Manny Pacquiao has a background in Arnis. But you can't become rich and famous in a short amount of time as you would being a professional fighter. As for pitting PMA/FMA fighters vs professional fighters, I think it would fluctuate. Probably being primarily in favor of the professional fighters. Because of the fact that most self defense martial arts do not incorporate feints, unlike boxing. There are also the boxing rules that the martial artists must abide by. I would guess, that if you took a martial artist that is used to sparring with sticks and blades, and then immersed them into a pure boxing system, then you'd have a formidable opponent for the professional boxer...then again that's just opinion.

[silvernight]

Jimmy from fight quest, his views on this subject begin a little after 4:00.

[DubhGhaill]

I’ve always been a tall, clumsy guy with slow feet but, for some reason, pretty naturally heavy hands. As a result, my approach to standup has always been a fairly low-tech slugging, brawling style. My defense has never been great but I’ve always, somehow, gotten by on my willingness to take two hits if it will give me a chance to land one good one.

When I started Kali/Eskrima, of course, that approach stopped working for me. When you’re sparring with knives, if you take it seriously, you obviously can’t ever afford the mentality of taking a hit to land one. All of a sudden I found myself really focused on footwork and defense for the first time ever. I started to really make a conscious effort to relax in sparring because the degree of tension I’d been using before just made my strikes way too slow for this style of play. For the first time, too, I began to actually use parrying as a form of defense instead of just trying to crowd my opponents and take everything on the elbows and forearms.

I think you can all guess where this is going. When I went back spar kickboxing again, I found I had much lighter feet, snappier punches and a much quicker, more varied defense game. Learning Kali has helped me grow from being someone who knows how to punch into someone who almost looks like he actually knows how to box. I don’t know whether my visual perception speed has improved or not but I definitely believe the other skills, attributes and attitude that I’ve developed in Kali have been invaluable in making me a better fighter.

[DubhGhaill]

Double post, dammit.

[jspeedy]

That's a good point, keep in mind Manny Pacquiao has a background in Arnis. But you can't become rich and famous in a short amount of time as you would being a professional fighter. As for pitting PMA/FMA fighters vs professional fighters, I think it would fluctuate. Probably being primarily in favor of the professional fighters. Because of the fact that most self defense martial arts do not incorporate feints, unlike boxing. There are also the boxing rules that the martial artists must abide by. I would guess, that if you took a martial artist that is used to sparring with sticks and blades, and then immersed them into a pure boxing system, then you'd have a formidable opponent for the professional boxer...then again that's just opinion.

I mostly agree with this post. I'll add a few things though. I'm not sure if when jdoc619 mentions self defense arts he's referring to FMA or not, but since this is an FMA thread I assume he means FMA. He mentioned that self defense arts don't incorporate feints. FMA is a diverse group of arts with many different focuses ranging from RBSD, to traditional or classical training, to sport based training. However, many systems do incorporate feints. Abanicos can be used like a feint drawing the defenders attention to one side only to snap around to the other side to attack. Also double strikes can be used as a feint, the first motion snaps out quickly without the intention of causing damage, then a quick wrist rotation brings the stick around to the same angle to attack again. MY point is FMA uses feints.

[jspeedy]

That's a good point, keep in mind Manny Pacquiao has a background in Arnis. But you can't become rich and famous in a short amount of time as you would being a professional fighter. As for pitting PMA/FMA fighters vs professional fighters, I think it would fluctuate. Probably being primarily in favor of the professional fighters. Because of the fact that most self defense martial arts do not incorporate feints, unlike boxing. There are also the boxing rules that the martial artists must abide by. I would guess, that if you took a martial artist that is used to sparring with sticks and blades, and then immersed them into a pure boxing system, then you'd have a formidable opponent for the professional boxer...then again that's just opinion.

I mostly agree with this post. I'll add a few things though. I'm not sure if when jdoc619 mentions self defense arts he's referring to FMA or not, but since this is an FMA thread I assume he means FMA. He mentioned that self defense arts don't incorporate feints. FMA is a diverse group of arts with many different focuses ranging from RBSD, to traditional or classical training, to sport based training. However, many systems do incorporate feints. Abanicos can be used like a feint drawing the defenders attention to one side only to snap around to the other side to attack. Also double strikes can be used as a feint, the first motion snaps out quickly without the intention of causing damage, then a quick wrist rotation brings the stick around to the same angle to attack again. MY point is FMA uses feints.