Monday, February 26, 2007

Japanese Defense Forces MMA Tournament

Via fightclub.gaijindo.com.



A couple of observations:
  • The participants are mostly stand-up fighting, not grappling (though I admit this is a highlights video, and could give a poor perspective). This is good battlefield tactics (see this critique of the US Army program).
  • There is liberal use of the old reverse punch to the body, which is a good technique. I smiled when I saw the Karate influence and that tried and true basic technique working so well.
  • Most of the kicks aren't very high, and are basic (front and round kicks).
  • The fighters are extremely aggressive, not waiting for the fight to come to them. Remember, the fighter who lands first with the most firepower wins 99% of the time. Be decisive and commit.
  • Against a blitzing attack, never move straight back. The reason most people get hit (see this) is that they're moving backwards and lose the intiative and balance to be able to counter.

What do you think? Comments are open.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great video and your observations are spot on. The two opponents approach each other very linearly in just about every clash. They don't circle nor try to sidestep. Very Karate! And very effective against other Karate fighters.

Unknown said...

Thanks to you both for the comments.

Good points, Sam. I guess it'd be hard to avoid the "sport" aspect, considering it's a competition, but what I like was the combatives inclination, rather than seeing what you'd expect in MMA.

Thanks George, and I appreciate the linkback from Boot. The "...effective against other Karate fighters" point is well taken, but I think that it'd be equally (if not more) effective versus the untrained or other soldiers in combat gear.

One thing I just thought about was that a soldier with 40-70# of gear isn't going to have as much use for footwork, at least of the sparring kind, much less feints/fakes. Imagine trying to stay mounted with that much weight and the higher center of gravity of a pack on your back! Or if you were on the bottom, with the enemy on top of you, you'd never get up! I'd try to stay on my feet!