Thinking outside the box...

Ok, I hope your enjoying the blogs so far. This one will hopefully get you thinking a little bit and looking at your training slightly differently.

First of all, I have a question for you. Ultimately, how many ranges of fighting are there? Long range, medium Range and close range or do you break it down into, kicking, punching, trapping, vertical grappling and ground fighting? 

You can even add verbal range or if you want to think outside the box, long range weapons. But for the sake of this blog let's rein it in a little. So, what is your answer, 3, 4,5? Want to know the right answer, ONE, yes that is right, ONE. Ultimately there is ONE range of fighting. Why? Because at the end of the day you are either fighting or you're not, end of. All the other ranges, kicking, punching etc are just ranges to develop yourself as a martial artist, combat athlete; however you want to view yourself. Remember though, my focus is to give you the edge on the street and here we cannot stick to the rules. We need to think outside of the box.

Just to make it easier, let me give you a couple of examples. The first one is a little extreme but it gets the point across.

You are in a fight and your opponent throws a kick at you which you just happen to catch. Your response is to take a bite of their leg. So which range are you in, Kicking or grappling? Neither...you are in fighting range. Another example, you are on your back and your attacker is in your guard, you need to get to your feet asap and start to kick him (back heel, you can picture it) in his kidneys. I ask you again, what range are you in, ground grappling or just fighting on the ground or just fighting. I hope you can see where I am now coming from. Try not to limit yourself and your perspective of fighting by being influenced by trends, arts and having a narrow mind. 

The different ranges of combat everyone talks about are there just as a way to develop oneself in whatever art they train. Breaking down the different weapons in ones arsenal into ranges allows it easier to train individual principles, techniques and tools. It is the integration of these that will make you a more complete martial artist.

I am going to leave it there for this month as I also want to make this the theme for next month's blog and expand on my thoughts some more. But as always I welcome any questions you may have.

Until then, stay safe, train safe and have fun.

To find out more about Rider Martial Arts visit: http://www.ridermartialarts.webs.com/
 You can e-mail Stuart at: stuart.rider@hotmail.co.uk