You fight like you train. That’s that’s all. I could stop this article right now. But I won’t, because this is such an important topic that I will keep talking about it.
Myelination and the SAID Principal
This is a theory that the more you do something, the more myelin covers your nervous system, which makes the transmission of electrical impulses to fire faster. Therefore, your reaction time is much faster, to the point where you don’t have to think to pull off a technique (I could go into Bruce Lee’s theory of the 4 stages of learning, but I won’t in this article). . The SAID principle stands for “specific adoption to imposed demands”. As one of my mentors said, “Your body becomes good at things.” Now, that’s not correct English, but that’s the truth about it. The more you practice a certain way, the more you’re going to fight that way when a situation arises. Take, for example, the way I do a one-legged squat. I taught myself to do it Pavel Tsatsouline style, with one leg forward. At the APEX Certification I went to, I was taught to leave it about a centimeter off the ground and right next to my other foot. Suffice to say, I had a lot of trouble doing it! My body, operating with the practice (stimulus) I had given it, lifted my leg further forward (not quite, but it felt more comfortable doing it that way)!
That is why Bruce Lee called the practice of swimming on “dry land” kata. There is nothing wrong with katas, but when you don’t train, you still don’t know your techniques very well. You don’t understand how to use them on the move, you must learn to use your techniques in a safe environment where you don’t get hurt.
Static practice will get you nowhere
All training must aim at the final result. Movement when the real fight arises. Each practice should move along a logical progression further and further into combat, until you finally are. The test of the truth of a technique is its applicability in the field, and that is why Bruce Lee was so rigorous with combat. How do you know how applicable it is? Well, by getting your friend to punch you (hand techniques are most likely in a real fight, it’s generally not natural to kick for most people), or getting into real fights. I sincerely hope you don’t go for the other option, because if you’re not trained, you better prepare yourself for a massive kick in the ass.
conclusion
Train with a progression towards boxing, and only (and I repeat) only train statically at first when you are learning and then learn to fight in conditions similar to those that you demand of yourself to fight. So, you will be on your way to learning how to be a fighter who can survive in the real world.