What The Pro's Don't Do

There are things I want to be true but know/understand that they can’t be. As a Judoka, I’d love to believe it was possible to throw off a punch, but my experience tells me otherwise; I’ve tried to do it, but it’s never worked: not in sparring or reality. When it comes to real-life violence, we need to be honest with ourselves e.g. we can’t change an attack, in order to get our techniques/solutions to work. I could set up a training partner, to make such a punch, that would allow me to execute a throw off it, but I’d have to alter a lot of things to do so, such as stop them from recoiling the punch, take away their ability to throw a second strike, get them to over-commit their weight forward, and lunge into the strike, etc. – things that nobody in real-life altercations does. Maybe in another world where the stars aligned, such things would happen, but not in the one I exist in. This doesn’t negate the value of throws and takedowns, but trying to catch a punch, in order to execute a throw, although not in every context impossible, shouldn’t be something I expect to work for me. Whilst combat sports such as MMA, don’t mirror real-life encounters (I’ve written about this in the past), they do reinforce such points. If an MMA athlete had found a way to consistently catch punches and throw off of them, they would be doing it. The financial reward of being able to do this would have motivated not just one fighter, but many, to find a way to make this possible. MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) contests, and other combat sports give us a good insight, into what won’t work in a real-life encounter, and it is worth us taking note, as in reality-based systems we often lack an outlet for really testing what is possible and what is not.

To my knowledge, and recollection, I have never seen somebody in an MMA fight, grab a punch i.e. block it, and then with the fingers grab hold of the arm, and control it. If it has ever been accomplished, it’s not an action that is consistently repeated, successfully. I have seen punches controlled by hooking actions, and wrapping actions, but never by grabs. The physics bear this out. Punches are recoiled, and pulled back, after being thrown, with the pull back potentially generating more power than the actual punch i.e. if the punch is recoiled with the pulling action of the body rather than just the arm, the back muscles, along with those of the hips, will be employed, and that will overcome anybody’s grip strength. If it was possible to hold on to a punch, the MMA guys would have figured it out, as the financial rewards would have justified the training investment; to be able to catch a punch, by grabbing it, would give you immediate control of the arm, and a significant advantage over the other person. However, there is a reason that this doesn’t happen in MMA matches, as it’s almost impossible to pull off; especially without potentially injuring the fingers and the hand. If you train blocking, and then grabbing the arm with your hand, consider why a professional fighter, looking for every competitive edge doesn’t do this. If your argument is that it needs a simultaneous strike to accomplish it, ask yourself again why a professional fighter doesn’t employ this tactic to get it to work. They have the time to train it, and the financial incentive to do so. There’s an obvious reason why they don’t.

If you think that this would work against a knife, but not a punch, understand that a knife can be recoiled faster than a punch, as a knife attack doesn’t need the same level of power as a concussive blow. Knife attacks are far more frenzied and involve much shorter and faster movement than punches and strikes. Is it possible to control, an attacker’s knife arm? Yes, but not by trying to grab it with your hand; you need to wrap their entire arm with yours, etc. Is this easy to do? Of course not, trying to control any rapidly moving limb is difficult, however trying to grab it with your hand is next to impossible. If the MMA guys, don’t train to grab/catch a punch, then we’re wasting our time trying to do the same with a knife attack. I understand why people want to think it’s possible, but in reality, no knife attacker will allow it to happen. Of course, we can always change the way a training partner attacks with a knife, so that we’re able to grab it, but in doing so, we’re fooling ourselves. Just like throwing off of a punch, I wish grabbing the wrist of a knife attacker’s arm was possible, but everything I see – and have experienced – tells me otherwise.

In a cage/ring fight, many conditions have been set (some which drastically differentiate it from a street-fight), however one that’s not, is how the other person attacks; that is entirely their choice. They’re not from the same system, they’re not someone that “knows” how to attack in a certain way – they’re doing everything to be as non-compliant/competitive as possible. In this regard, they mirror a real-life assailant. They don’t want their opponent’s defenses and techniques to work, and this is why nobody tries to grab a punch – it’s going to fail. Hooks, wraps, jams, traps, etc. are all viable options that have been proven to work in MMA, and our techniques that reflect and replicate these methods should be celebrated, and we should have confidence in, but trying to grab a punch and hold it in your grip, there’s no precedent for. If it was possible, professional fighters would have found a way to do so. It was this argument that convinced me that lifting my heel and turning on my toes would allow me to deliver a more powerful punch i.e. that’s how professional boxer’s punch, and when there’s millions of dollars on the line, you’re going to choose substance – that delivers – over style, where it doesn’t.