Technique or strength?

[White Warlock]

13 years ago, i had this musclebound guy visit our club. After about 30 minutes of workout he asked, quite bluntly, what use were all these studies when they wouldn't work on him. I was amused and asked him what types of things he would do. We had a friendly chat and then i told him i wasn't going to hurt him, but to try each of those things he had communicated. In every instance, he ended up landing hard on the mat, with me standing or kneeling over him.

Without training, strength is a liability, for it interferes with your common sense. Instead of leveraging, one attempts to present force. Instead of exploiting joints, one goes for muscle. Instead of quick strikes to vital targets, one attempts power strikes to obvious targets.

With training, strength 'can' still be a liability, in that a person's build can interfere with some of their mobility and make them more vulnerable to certain types of attacks, or make them too slow to deliver a strike/submission. But more than those, it can interfere with the learning process... in that strength is employed to complete an action, rather than technique. Those with ample strength have a harder time learning the more subtle aspects of the arts.

[Anbu Alex]

in some styles like kungfu tech in key in developing strength its like a double edge sword when it comes to these things this is a hard question to answer

[mikaveli]

I've always found that a lot of strength is more useful then technique. A 9-stone martial artist verses a 15-stone isn't even a match!

[Meguro]

Are strength and technique mutually exclusive? I think not.

[japanman]

thanks for all ur advice and opinions

[elbows_and_knees]

Are strength and technique mutually exclusive? I think not.

bingo.

[elbows_and_knees]

Without training, strength is a liability, for it interferes with your common sense. Instead of leveraging, one attempts to present force. Instead of exploiting joints, one goes for muscle. Instead of quick strikes to vital targets, one attempts power strikes to obvious targets.

I would argue that in an all out fight, strength is never a liability. When fighting, you want to use every advantage that you have. I see your point about levraging, but in ring sports, what causes the most KOs? a hook to the jaw. Where do most untrained fighters strike? straight at the jaw. exploiting joints isn't necessary to win a fight, nor are strikes to vital areas. strikes to common sense areas like the jaw, nose and stomach can still end a person.

Now, if you are doing push hands or grappling or something, that's a different story.

With training, strength 'can' still be a liability, in that a person's build can interfere with some of their mobility and make them more vulnerable to certain types of attacks, or make them too slow to deliver a strike/submission. But more than those, it can interfere with the learning process... in that strength is employed to complete an action, rather than technique. Those with ample strength have a harder time learning the more subtle aspects of the arts.

1. a person would have to be HUGE for those things to happen. strength training and body building are not the same thing. tyson is a good example - at 215-225, he was a monster. Do you think he was too slow to hit anyone?

2. strength only interferes with learning until you have learned how to turn it off. And even then, it only applies to some styles.

[AndrewGreen]

Being strong is bad.... I wonder if any other sports make that sort of claim...

[Ego Assassin]

Bodybuilders gas in about a minute and then they beg for forgiveness I know this from experience. My school used to be in a gym where their were some serious competitive bodybuilders. Skill involves more than just knowing a technique just knowing is like just owning a tool you don't know how to use. Skill = Experience, knowledge, timing and athletic ability.

[AndrewGreen]

Body Builders.... ok, how about Heavy weight boxers?

Body builders train for one thing, and one thing only, looking pretty. That's it, not cardio, not effieciency, just looking pretty.

Strength isn't what is causing them to gas, the fact that they do NO CARDIO is, and they gas out as quickly as anyone else that doesn't.