In this day of grappling's rise to prominence, some may question whether boxing is a viable tactic or style for self protection. I think that's why Boxing for Self-Defense and MMA has been one of our most popular posts. If you have any doubt as to whether boxing can be used in self-defense, watch this fascinating video.
You'll notice that the man defending himself against the mob in this footage is following the principles of defending against multiple opponents. He's constantly moves, never lets anyone get behind him, keeps his weight forward on the balls of his feet, and actually attacks the mob rather than waiting for them to come to him. What can happen in the case of mob attack is a swarm, where someone is overwhelmed by the clutching mass of his attackers, taken down, and usually stomped or beaten into unconsciousness, if not death. Using footwork and straight punches the defender prevents them from grabbing him, much less taking him down. See the hesitation in the body language of the attackers as the "defender" sticks and moves, taking the fight to them. I especially like how he drops one guy with a stiff jab, and floors someone who attempts a lame kick! Watch it!
See the Multiple Attackers category, and our recent, Grab releases critical versus multiple opponents post with video examples of preventing someone from grabbing you.
Hat tip to AirSoft Canada forum.
4 comments:
very nice man i work in boxing too and i know that this fight is very importanto and we get very toughther than we are this fight show us how to defend our selfs in the all ways never let anyone get behind you and never stay in the same place you need to get all the distance you can from all the others opponents that guy has a very good punch and gave than a very good lesson thanks for rating and have a nice weekend
Boxing is a very direct, practical and hands-on (pun intended) approach to fighting. Yes it is limited technique-wise (you fight only with your hands and boxing-training focuses on engaging one opponent under very strict rules) but boxers are pretty generally tough, experienced and determined fighters and with proper technique it’s relatively easy to score a knockout, especially against untrained street-thugs. On the street a knockout is one of your best options to quickly end a fight and even if there are more opponents if you’re quick on your feet and pack a good punch you’ll be able to keep your distance and take them on one by one. Once you knock someone out cold with one punch most people will think twice about attacking you. That being said it leaves quite a few rather essential aspects of self-defense and fighting out of the picture (grabs, chokes, weapon-attacks, kicks, ground-survival) but with boxing you’ll actually learn how to fight and hit solid objects instead of just air (boxers spar regularly and one of the main training methods is hitting the heavy bag and focus-mitts), you’ll build up stamina and endurance and you’ll learn excellent defenses and counters against the most common street-attacks (punches).
That is more than a lot of ‘traditional’ MA or mcdojo’s can and will teach you. A lot of people claiming to be experts and masters aren’t very knowledgeable and their techniques are doubtful at best, at least with boxing you know what you’ll learn is tried and tested (if it works in a full-contact environment against a professional fighter it’ll work against pretty much anyone). If you want to even out the weaknesses of the sport take some kind of respectable self-defense orientated art on the side but as far as fighting one on one goes boxing is and always will be one of your best options. There’s simply no better way to learn to throw hard, fast and accurate punches than to join a boxing gym and hand-attacks most likely will be your primary offensive and defensive option. Having trained in a classical art myself (ju-jutsu) I never realized how much I lacked in proper punching technique and defense against such techniques until I came into contact with boxing. I know this is not the aim of self-defense but if you’re a student of an oriental style (karate, kung-fu…) and you want to test your fighting ability I suggest you try sparring a boxer. If you can hold your own than you’ll know you’re good but even then it’ll difficult at best to take him out. That is how effective and practical boxing is. I rest my case.
Zara
zara,
I agree wholeheartedly with what you said. I trained in Kung fu for 13 years and boxed for 2, and I wish I would gone to boxing instead.
Well, I'm by no means an expert but I can speak from my own experience. Traditional, asian MA are valuable and you can learn alot from them (under qualified supervision at least, too bad this is sadly lacking in a number of cases) but if your aim is self-defense sooner or later you'll have to acknowledge the fact that alot of the traditional stuff is fairly outdated and not very useful on the street (sometimes even quite dangerous, to you and not to the other guy). Boxing is a very practical art and a good base in it is a useful addition to any other art, for self-defense it's great aslong as you don't get stuck in the trading-blows, competitive mentality.
For me I'll never abandon my background: JJ is very cool and I'll never forgot the debt that I owe to my sensei but I'm not planning on getting stuck in the old patterns and I am trying to broaden my horizons (by studying other arts, including boxing, and by modifiying the traditional stuff to suit my needs and the reality of fighting in today's streets). I don't know alot about kung-fu but from what I've seen alot of it seems pretty flowery and acrobatic, wing-chung is a very effective, practical style though and very useful on the street.
In any case boxing is a very good skill to have and while I do not consider it the ultimate in MA (if such a thing even exist), in large part due to it being too limited, I do feel it augmented my fighting-potential enormously (in offense and defense). Before I learned some boxing I was always doubting the value of my technique but now I know if things go awry I can always fall back on a few good boxing-combo's and proper striking-defenses (based on proper attacks and not the old karate lunge-punch you see coming a mile away) I feel alot more confident and able.
As I said I've got nothing against traditional MA (I'm schooled in one) and there is alot more to training than just learning how to beat a guy into submission but you need to adapt and evolve your art and if someone else has a better solution to a certain problem than you (e.g punch-defenses) than why not copy it and integrate it into your system? That's at least my point of view.
Zara
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- Nathan