All combat sports, despite the tools and methods, involve two combatants engaging each other with certain rules and win conditions. Just as the sports require top physical condition, they also need a very fine-tuned strategic capability in order to succeed. I will look at some instances of combat sports, and explain how countless hours of practice leads to conscious decisions and habits of muscle memory.
This first picture contains 3 details that I wish to discuss. I will go in order:
- Boxers aim to protect their selves at every moment, as any punch leads to 1. points and 2. damage. Here, the boxer was protecting his face until he noticed his enemy aiming for his body. This enabled his muscle memory to pull down his elbow and protect his valuable organs, while still maintaining a decent protection around his head.
- This boxer is very focused on his combatants reaction, very cognizant that reaching out like this puts him in danger.
- This right hand is essential for strategy, as it is in a position to do multiple things at once. He not only uses it to protect the other side of his body that his opponent may aim for next, but it is also free to counter-attack his vulnerable opponent if he spots an opportunity.
All of these things are occuring in a moment, and are a result of hundreds of years of training, mastery, teaching, and maximization.
In this image, we see less complexity in interaction, as MMA contains much more complex scenarios instead of Boxings mutual opportunity form. In this example, the fighter on top has his legs hooked into the man’s legs on the bottom, disabling any movement of his hips. This allows him to free his hands to strike him and do damage, which the man on bottom must respond to with protection, or else he could very quickly lose. There is a double threat here, as any movement from the man on the bottom can enable many different strangling and striking attacks.