A serious question to adept martial artists about physical fitness...
I'll just be blunt with it. But please don't think I'm trolling. I am being sincere here and I am honestly curious.
Why do martial artists in general (emphasis IN GENERAL), traditional or MMA, know so little about the science of strength and conditioning?
I'll give you an example... Many many months ago, either here or in another martial arts forum, I saw a very classic, very uneducated response with regards to me commenting about certain martial artists in a youtube video having great physiques. I said that I thought they have great physiques, and I got this sort of response:
"Martial arts training builds a lean, functional physique as opposed to useless bulky muscles."
Any person experienced enough in the field of physical fitness would tell you how uneducated and amateurish such a comment is. I know, because I'm one of them. I was a competitive powerlifter back in my teens and have never struggled with matters of strength training.
But often, both on TV and the internet, I see dozens upon dozens of strength and conditioning coaches employing stupid approaches to their athletes.
Why is this? Is martial arts so skill-oriented that even with absolute shitty strength and conditioning, skilled martial artists would still dominate?
Your thoughts are appreciated. And also, I'm not trolling (ignore my avatar). I'm just really curious about this.
I am not claiming as a master of MA, I put in a few years. The reason is because they are
IGNORANT!!!
I was brought up in Hong Kong, I was told many times by the so called kung fu masters that muscle is in the way and slow you down. They glorified lean and trim as oppose to strength. They
TALK as if "with the right technique, you don't need strength to do damage". They are more than happy to demo to you, telling you to put your hand grabbing him and how he use two fingers to make you to submission!!!.......That is if you grab him and hold him in static position and let him do whatever he want!!! The whole problem is not whether it's true. If you given the chance to position in the perfect way, yes, you don't need strength. BUT.......BUT......to get to that position, you most likely need strength to get to that position, all the tuck of war to get to that position. The other person is NOT going to stand still and let you take the time to get to the perfect position. That's when the strength comes in.
In UFC or Boxing, they have different weight categories, you think they do it for fun? You seriously think a 160lbs fighter can fight a 220lbs if they are both trained? Let say they both are same height and same reach. You seriously think the 160 have any chance to win over the 220? I bet the 160 won't last 1 minute unless he dance away from engaging.
I would say strength and technique are equally important. I just saw a women fight in Profession Fighting League fighting on tv. It's MMA style. A gold medalist Judo woman fight against a very well known MMA submission fighter. The odds of betting was like 15:1 the Judo one would lose. Guess what, the fight did not last a round and the Judo won. That Judo woman was buffed, you can clearly see the muscle even they are in the same weight category. The submission artist just cannot get into position to do her submission. The Judo flipped her around, pushed her away, threw the whole game plan off and won. I don't remember was it by ground and pound or submission. It was an easy won, was never even close.
Also there is a whole lot more about strength training. You damage your body from MA training, strength training in the right way help you heal your body and make you last longer. Notice the professional athletes are getting older and older now compare to like 30 years ago. The difference is they emphasis on weight training for recovery and the last longer and longer. It used to be like 30 or so and you retired, now you talking about up to the mid 40s.
I personally can attest to the weight training as I benefited tremendously from it. Between 1983 to 1986, I was training in Tae Kwon Do. I ruined my back from all the high kicks and for almost two years, I cannot even stand over 2 minutes without tingling feeling all the way down to my toes. I went to all different kinds of treatments short of operation. Finally one doctor in St. Mary's Spine Center ( hospital that operated on Joe Montana) suggested to go on a weight training regiment. It brought me back all the way. I am still doing weight training over 30 years after that. I still cannot do side kick, spin kick or round kick high, but I pretty much can train everything else. Weight training literally saved my life.
Almost half of my training is still on weights today. I added stick fighting with a cane lately, my body is screaming from the added exercise, it's the weight training that still keeping my body together.
A lot of MA are way behind time. Look at MMA, they do weight training. My wife goes to UFC gym ( for exercise and weights, not fighting). they have full set of weight training equipment. Don't think for a moment those fighters don't do weights. Look at their body, do they look thin and trim? Anyone say weight training is useless are absolute ignorant.