What type of Martial Arts are you looking to do?

Striking: Punching, Kicking, and Blows

The "striking" category includes many of the popular martial arts many people in Western culture are aware of. If you've ever seen a martial arts movie on television, and the fights were a series of punches, blocks, and kicks, you probably saw a martial art that emphasizes striking. Heck, even Rocky Balboa was a master of a "striking" martial art!

In striking, the emphasis is placed on quickness and power - can you knock out your opponent with quick blows that take him off-guard? If so, you might be able to neutralize any size or weight advantage the opponent has. Learning how to strike also includes learning to believe in yourself and having the power to break wood using only your fist.

Martial arts that emphasize striking: Boxing, Kickboxing, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai

Grappling: Locking and Throwing

In the Mixed Martial Arts world, grappling is what you often hear referred to as "ground game." In grappling, your power and technique is directly pitted against your opponent's as you wrestle out the match on the ground. Being an effective grappler means being able to defend yourself at a tremendous disadvantage, as well as capitalize on a "takedown" - when you bring your opponent to the ground.

Martial arts that emphasize grappling: Wrestling, Judo, Jujutsu, Brazilian Jujutsu, Sambo

Weapons: Extending Your Body's Radius

Striking and grappling have one thing in common: they both force you to rely on the weapons you always have available in your body, such as your arms and legs. When it comes to weapons, you are essentially extending the amount of damage and the potential area you can strike in with a foreign object. In other words, you're using something outside of your body to take down an opponent.

Martial arts that emphasize weapons: Fencing, Kendo

Photo Credits: Frank Peters

Originally posted 2009-08-20 03:29:06.

David and Goliath

Gaining leverage over your opponent means that you are able to use something small and make it incredibly important. Has anyone - perhaps a teasing older brother - ever held your hands in such an uncomfortable position that you weren't able to fight back at all? This is the concept of leverage, of which the root word is "lever." By changing one small element of a combat situation, you are able to change the entire momentum.

Common leverage points usually deal with weak areas on the human body, such as joints. When you're able to disable an opponent's joints, they won't be able to bend. The joint is a small area that enables a whole lot of movement, which is why it's important to focus on joints in a combat situation; you want to keep yours free and inhibit the bending of your opponents' joints.

But leverage doesn't only have to apply to the levers in the physical human body. Leverage can also refer to using one aspect of a fight to your advantage: in jujutsu, you learn how to use an opponent's weight to your advantage, and against your opponent. By utilizing momentum and gravity, you can utilize this idea of "leverage" to defeat someone who is larger than you.

Oftentimes, getting leverage over an opponent is a simple matter of quickly discerning their advantages and working to inhibit them. If you're fighting a smaller, quicker fighter, then you'll want to get that fighter in a situation where their quickness doesn't count - such as wrestling on the ground, where your strength can overpower them.

In the Battle of Thermopylae, 300 Spartans and other warriors famously used leverage (in this case, the terrain) in order to repel a massive army. What can you accomplish in your martial arts sparring - or even your life - if you understand leverage? A lot.

Photo Credits: maha-online

Originally posted 2009-11-17 03:02:50.