This is why I chose defense for my very first course. It is undertrained and I want everyone to have the opportunity to improve alongside me. Register for the Strike Ready Defense Course. Early bird pricing available now. vargacombat.com/
I am interested in the course, but I don’t see how they are accessed. Are they accessed through a website? Can I download them to my iPad, so if I’m in a location with no internet I can still train?
I agree with you completely Gabriel. But the problem is not the fighters not the trainers or the teams or the sport. The problem is the fan that only watches the sport for violence. That's what encourages these spiders do not be disciplined in difference. Cause they think popularity revolves around the knockout. And maybe it doesn't the UFC and that's why I want nothing to do with it.
That's awesome Gabriel I hope all your new training videos and training sessions go well. You deserve all this success. You are 1 person that won't sell out who you are for money. Or for anything
My first boxing instructor when I was a child would watch u shadow boxing and if u weren't moving and "reacting" to a shadow fighter hed get a stick and stand in front of u n start poking away 😂😂
I think it was Icey Mike who said if you want to know if someone is good or not, test their defense, put the pressure on them. It's funny but a lot of people know how to attack really well, but don't know what to do when being attacked.
Sorry my friend but this is sport and not real fight. Good luck trying to defend in a real battle on the streets. It will all be over in a minute. Plus gloves protect half the face try slipping without them in the streets. Of course defense is important to be trained but it must follow up with offence nonetheless.
@@ceckolalovia This is a common sentiment amongst people who don't know how to fight. They claim "in the streets without rules" they would somehow magically gain the ability to beat a martial artist who has been training for many years. It has been proven time and time again that a trained martial artist without rules is a much more dangerous person than a random angry person in the streets. Slipping a big glove is more difficult than slipping no glove. Slipping, parrying, and blocking are options without gloves. You just don't know about them because you don't train and have zero experience in fighting. Defense is followed up by offense this is true nobody is arguing that, but if you lack defensive capabilities you won't know how to get out of a bad situation. Again this only shows that you don't know much about fighting.
@@sammalama I never assumed any of that. Im training for years and i still am not entirely certain that i can deal with some crazy dude without rules on the streets. Of course as trained people have many more options balance and so on but what is the chance that will happen? Most likely as a friend of mine said when i have no sleep for 1 day caught by suprise and fact they will be more than one. In a sport situation you got perfect rules, perfect equipment , coach who most of the times will protect you and so on. The only difference is that not everyone will be at the same rest rate, mindstate and recovered. Sorry my friend again i dont have much training to claim im some kind of john wick on the streets just because i train a sport as boxing. But probably thats what helps me progress cause i always have begginers mindset. No offence just a discussion. Thank you for the perspective nonetheless.
@@ceckolalovia You're completely wrong. You are creating a situation where everything lines up perfectly against you in a street altercation, no sleep, the other person has ten friends and so on. I've seen many people fight on the streets and most of them look pathetic, awkward, uncoordinated, and sloppy. In fact I've witnessed street fights where after they fight they just go about the rest of their day like nothing happened. I don't know what your idea of street fights are but the vast majority of them are drunken bar hoppers, not ninjas.
My coach taught me defense and it gave me the confidence to fight in the pocket and stop running away because I knew I had a defensive answer to almost any situation
3 categories of technicals training, Offence, Defence, Positionning and Footwork. Most Gym work offence 70% of the time, 20% defence and 10% footwork and positionning. I do 40% Footwork and positionning, 30% defence and 30% offence. Great vid!
“I train six days, actually six days a week. Five days a week, I’ll train three days a week. One of those days I will train two days of the week. So, six days a week I will be training.” - Tito Ortiz
“Get my blessing before I let you go fight” Definitely new folks to the Martial Arts World really need to take that one line in. I’ve met so many people who just come into the gym and say they want a fight, or they set a fight up and haven’t put the time in OR got invited / blessing and asked to come fight. It’s really up to the Coach when they feel it’s time for you to fight. You may think you’re “ready” but if you aren’t in the gym 6 days a week and running, sprinting and swimming ON TOP of your Martial Arts classes for a solid 8 week camp…. You aren’t ready. Also, you have to be training at least a year I personally feel to really understand yourself as a Martial Artist and understand someone’s movement and how to react to it. Love that line you said 👌🏼
If you're not working defense it's basically cardio kickboxing. You might get really good technique and cardio but under live conditions you're not trained/ready for taking shots or pacing yourself.
Before my first fight my coach had me do defense only sparring. Basically I had t on do round after round with one of our hardest hitters, and I could only defend. And by the end, I went into my first fight with a stronger defense and a calmer more confident mind. Don “The Dragon” Wilson said that his 28 year fight career was due to his defense. I’m glad to hear a successful fighter discussing its importance.
100% agree. Most people do NOT work defense. Including and especially in TKD. I'm a TKD 5th Dan and most people I spar have ony one defense strategy, back up or circle around.
Another great video Gabriel. Also speaking of Spartacus, I started watching it back in 2010 and I had been training martial arts for about a month. Hearing the character Doctore constantly talk about defence and foot positioning, made sure I never neglected working on my defence. Everybody who's into fighting and martial arts should give Spartacus a try
Not counting sparring experience, my gym works defense about 25% baseline for everyone, and then for competitive fighters, it bumps up to something like 35-40%. Definitely agree that it's important, because it's _very_ apparent when I'm doing defense drills with someone who is seemingly terrified of the slightest incoming attack.
I train loads of defense. it's my most used thing. I like just being defensively on point and in some sparring rounds I won't even throw many if any punches and will just practice range control and sliping and rolling to see how long I can go without getting hit and it's usually quite long maybe 30 seconds against a pressure fighter before they catch me with something.
This is on point. I come from a karate shotokan background, with some training in kickboxing and muay thai, and practical defense is overlooked a lot. They tell you about it sometimes but then the matter is never touched again, mainly in karate shotokan. I lost count of how many times people got a hard kick to the throat because they just jumped toward the opponent trying to score a point, but met halfway through a kick that was aimed at the head, this happened mainly with kids. I got my share of injuries because I was so focused on scoring points that I forgot that despite it being a point fight, an accident happens and defense is key to keeping you and your opponent safe enough. Nowadays I train defense as much as offense because my goal is to compete more in combat sports, and I am glad that I found channels like this one that give practical tips for me to implement in my training routine.
My old Muay Thai coach started everyone on defense basics. It also built the basic impact conditioning. Even light impacts hurt when you first start. Ever new attack strategy we trained the defensive tactics to address it were drilled.
Last night I sparred with a friend of mine who s having his novice mma fight next month, to work on defense we did russian boxing, 1 foot in a band and worked in the pocket trading light blows to work on defense, shells, elbow blocks, parries, all comes togheter
Hi Gabriel. Such a great point you made here. I've been training for a long time but I'm from the Netherlands and like 90% off all gyms seem to focus only on basic hard offensive combo's and as defense you're basically just told to put your hands up and do the turtle shell. There might be a slip or a duck put in a combo sometimes but that's it. Also mostly just hard sparrring with puts you in survival mode and makes it hard to practice new techniques in real sparrring/fighting scenarios. It has bugged me ever since I started training that we never learn the proper defensive techniques and practice them specifically. I have a couple of fights now and did some training and fighting in Thailand and i'm giving class now to a little group (just recreational) and I try to base my lessons on the principles you teach on your channel, it has helped so much and it's really cool to see them do moves in their first year that I was only doing after 4 years or something because I learned to do them myself from watching youtube videos. Thanks for all the great content man. This channel is awesome. Are you fighting again BTW or are you retired now?
@RancorousSea Yeah but there is a LOT of boxing in dutch kickboxing so I don't understand why they don't focus more on headmovement, parrrying etc. Not just rely on turtle shell as only defense. It works for some people (robin van roosmalen comes to mind, he also beat gabriel, but he has a toughness in him that don't many people posses I think, so it works for him). Alistair Overeem also uses clinch regularly, even though it's not really allowed, he uses it for his knees, he has some of the hardest knee strikes in all off combat sports.. but also a lot of turtle shelll yes
Thank you all guys, I appreciate it. I am lucky because I was running Alot and my cardio is on point but my grappling isn't where I would quite want it. I will keep you all updated about the result in a week
Spot on! Every martial art I learned including Muay Thai focused on striking and rarely defense. I have to make up my own defense drills because of it. Will def check out your system.
I did a seminar with petchtanong petchfergus, and I heard him say "americans dont have any defense, we're gonna work on defense" to someone before the seminar, and then we worked on defense the entire seminar, lol
It's so bizarre to me that people don't prioritize defense. I'm a grappler, but I used to do kickboxing. The gym I was at did tons of mitt work, and after each combo, the pad holder would feed a combo. We did rounds of just checking kicks and things like that. I wanted to get better at striking, and my first thought was defense. A couple months of added focus on defense, I was a lot better. I sparred 2 people at my friend's house, and I was hit 1 time between the 2 rounds. I ended up moving to a new gym afterwards that did not focus on defense the same way, nor do mitt work. I got worse at striking. The coach at the 2nd gym was a way better striker by far, but the teaching/training style was not as practical.
One of the first things my gym stresses is defense. Especially keeping your hands up (MT and Kickboxing). We still do drills before sparring for checking kicks, evading, catches, etc. That's wild that he would go into a fight and they barely work defense. Like you said in your other video you can tell how experienced someone is by watching their shadowboxing and seeing if they actually practice defense.
oddly enough I'm watching Spartacus as well. Also the thing about about defense reminds me of this gym where I had a trial at. There were two rows of us, one row smashed a combo onto us and anyone who didnt defend had either a sore midsection or bleeding nose like this one kid next to me. You cannot neglect any part of combat sports.
That was such an important thing. Defending is not easy, especially when the opponent comes rushing or combos. If defensive protection, footwork and e.g. so-called fleeing attack techniques are not trained enough, nor are they able to implement them. The opponent will notice quickly if you move in shock in every situation and take a step back with your hands in front of your eyes. Of course, you notice it yourself and wonder why you haven't practiced defense more.
*He's 100 percent on those three things to prep prior to your first fight. I gassed and got TKO'd in the second round (Muay Thai). Sparring cardio is not even close to the same when it's your first fight. Nerves!!!!!!!*
Defense should be the number one priority.. especially starting out. It's like in jiu-jitsu. If you can't defend, then your attacks are almost useless. You're just gonna get smashed and not know what to do when it happens
I'm still relatively new to kickboxing (been training for half a year now) and Gabriel his videos make me appreciate my gym more! Besides learning me lots of new things off course.
defense is #1! I'll be signing up for your course ASAP. I've been a religious follower since I started Muay Thai and my 6 pack is shredded and my kicks are high because of ur videos and also have implemented sparring concepts can't wait for the course. I don't mind getting hit, but why get hit if I don't need to?
"Attack the attack." Urban Combatives, Netherlands . Defend while attacking .Of course you have to know how to evade, cover, parry, redirect, block, drag etc.; But only to facilitate your attack . If you concentrate on defense, you will inevitably lose.
The same goes for some grappling gyms. Some ppl just want to do flashy stuff and neglect defensive fundamentals. Having a solid layers of defence, so the early, the mid and late defence stages is where you get your confidence, so that no one can pin or submit you, when get countered
this is it man! i was sparring last night and my partner came at me hard, threw a lot of heavy accurate straight head punches. I guarded with my 16oz gloves, rolled with the hits and used my long guard. Then he started to gass out and I began to capitalize. Took maybe 2 clean shots in a 7 minute round where i threw half as much and was telling him not to quit in the last minute
Love your content and teaching method. Do you have any advice against "blitz" fighters? That's where I get into all kinds of trouble. Thanks in advance.
Wow, thank you so much for all of the tips Gabriel, the only thing I am lacking a bit at is the power to hurt somebody so I will be sure to implement it much more into my training sessions, because I have a fight upcoming in 2 months from now, amazing video as always Gabriel!
I think you might be understating it a bit. I think defense is more important because it is reactionary and you have so many more factors to track such as feints. If you throw an attack and it doesn't land, you can just throw another one. If you miss a crucial block/slip/parry/etc, it could easily lead to lights out.
What's interesting is that the more you venture into edged weapon based martial arts the more you encounter a focus on defense. You can't just eat a stab to the stomach, push through and retaliate. I mean... You could... but you're dead in the near future then which makes this a very bad strategy if you prefer to rather go on with your life afterwards. Even if no deadly weapons are involved I'm convinced a solid defense is the best base to build upon.
Gabriel! What some ways to train defense alone at home? Any good devices or equipment? Just straight shadow boxing? In a mirror? Thanks for everything man.
Man, in Asian marital arts, defense is the very first thing we train in. Offense comes later. Sometimes though, new students are excited so you need to throw them a bone and give a little bit of offense to make them happy, and then you go deep into defense.
My gym doesn't teach defense unfortunately. Just your typical MMA gym that teaches boxing, muay thai, and bjj. Yup, I need to switch gyms. Like none of my instructors tell me what to do when someone comes at me with a right cross or a simple 1, 2.
Well, keep your hands up! If you do that, thats 90% of it, and you have lots of options available to you. And either catch the strike, parry, cover, elbow block, or slip it. Wash, rise, repeat. My "instictive" one is to catch for straights & cover for hooks/overhands. Im working forcing myself to parry/elblow block more. Im also working on slipping more. I can slip the 1st one, but i was always getting caught with the followup. My coach said to slip the 1st strike, then pivot out & post on opponents side & that puts you in good position to follow up (usually with a body kick). I admit: i do like that one, and im trying to integrate it more.
@@beta_cygni1950 Yes I keep my hands up all the time during sparring. But that's sparring, in a real life situation someone wants to come at you, it's different, it's no longer practice. My muay thai class teaches you how to check kicks, but it's mostly drills on combinations, same thing with boxing. It's mostly offense.
@@owainkanaway8345 In a "real life" situation, most of what i wrote still applies (the exception being the catch). You would still either parry, cover, elbow block, or slip (an elbow block has the added benefit of wrecking his fist). For hooks/overhands, you can add a "360 defense" in addition to a cover. And the slip-pivot-bodykick counter still applies too. Also, in a "real life situation" drilling an immediate (or even preemptive followup- like a preemptive teep) is important too. Like, parry & immediate straight or cover & immediate elbow. Or knee. Or anything.
@@beta_cygni1950 My boxing coach rarely if at all teaches you how to parry. I had to learn that myself on youtube. It's an MMA gym, it's the typical "Muay Thai" "Boxing" BJJ stuff. I am not saying all MMA gyms are bad.
100% its not just defence, i think some gyms shortcut train a lot of things including defence, power, punch technique (focus on kick technique ignore punch technique), headkicks & flexibility, body shots & tactics, and details. Im glad you mentioned power so many people train without any power these days and i dont understand why? Wen you watch thais hit pads you can see them hittting with power and intent. Commecialization of the sport maybe or they pull their shots to make it look 'faster' 'nicer'? 🤷
When I started I realized no one was talking about defense. It was all offense and combinations. I remember asking my mates how to parry jabs. It makes no sense you don’t learn how to defend in a gym where everyone is focused in competing.
My coach has a specific day for defense, where we spar as one keep evading and blocking and the other dude going 70 just to inflict a little pain, imagine going 8 rounds of blocking a chain of fresh guys XD
I wonder if part of the reason why defense is so under-trained is because it is more difficult to do properly? It's one thing to curl up/block/swat like most new people do when overwhelmed. Being able to use a defensive strategy that allows a quick and effective counter is quite another. Somewhere in the middle is the "Charge!" mentality, where people compensate for defensive INcompetence with overwhelming flurries because they heard "offence is the best defense" too many times.
👌. Thank God my Kickboxing gym trains everything.we some time do round of sparring where one attack and other blocks. My first fight is Tomorrow. Wish me luck 🤞🙏.
What are your thoughts on doing hard sparring often? I though we headed in the right direction with sparring being more technical and less often, but I think Steickland is making a trend in the reverse direction.
a buddy of mine was in a Muay Thai gym for 4 years I learned Savate and Karate sprinkled with some boxing from my dad and uncle way back when I was teenager, I never took it seriously but my father always instilled defense while attacking. I had a spar with this friend and while his pressure was great he had no idea how to deal with counters angles I ended up dropping him not because i threw 100% but because he didnt see my strike due to his poor defence
Gabriel what’s your opinion on age and fighting. I’m planning on fighting this year at the MTUSO, but I’m 29. I feel like I’m so old for the sport, but I’ve been doing MT for 5 years at this point and I’ve competed in wrestling before. This would be my first set of MT fights, I feel like my age is so demoralizing.
I put my guard up high. Parried some straight punches. Then he hit me with 2 big hooks around my guard. First time sparring and I had a very slight headache afterwards. I noped the fuck out of there after third round. Send help😢😢😂.
Drilling defense requires the students to dial the intensity and pace of the hits against their partners. In my experience, if the environment is off in a gym, students may hurt each other or they may go too soft and too unrealistic. Sometimes trainers do not wanna take chances with that, they do not wanna be creative with drills or they don't wanna spend mental energy setting the mood right for the group.
as a soldier in Korea, 1973, I learned under a 5th Dan in TKD, who was also first Dan in Judo. He taught me to stay out of reach, We'd jump, or glide in, usually with a kick, or block a kick and then move in , clash and either score a point, or jump back out of kicking range. I"m too old for that now, but I still move in and out of arm's reach. , It's just idiotic to stand there at punching distance. Even at my age, jabs are so fast that nobody's going to slip them unless I first have to close to within arm's reach. They are also so powerful that, bare-knuckle, if I hit you in the ribs, that rib is going to be broken.. Hooks can break your sternum if there are no gloves., So EYE aint just standing there at punching distances! :-) It's bad enough that I have to stay at back foot roundhouse kick distances! If that roundhouse kick is done with the ball of the foot, it can easily cripple me with an impact on my leg.
My gym trains 95% offence in the beginner class and intermediate plus is 50% defence with sparring. The people that just want to hit things for fitness just stay in beginner class. The people that want to fight move up
a gym standard for drilling i've seen before is doing check return regardless of the drill. (I.E if drilling roundhouse it will be checked and returned (or with hands parried/slipped and countered) what do you think of this practice?
It's weird that any gym wouldn't teach defense. The only rule that is repeated to every professional fighter at the start of every match is "protect yourself at all times". In order of importance, I'd probably place the ability to defend yourself right at the top. If you lack the offensive strength to hurt someone, yes they're not going to respect you, and you're going to have a rough fight, but if your defense is good enough, you should hopefully at least be able to survive it without taking too much damage. If you lack the endurance, yes you could gas yourself and be left extremely vulnerable, but if you lack the ability to defend yourself, how much offensive strength you have and how much cardio you have is never going to matter unless you pull a McGregor or Masvidal and KO your opponent with your first strike, and depending on that happening is possibly worse than not bothering to budget your finances because you could win the lottery tomorrow. I dunno that I'd stick with a gym that straight-up didn't teach defense, because if their priorities are that messed up, I'm not sure you want to learn what they're teaching.
Gabriel I have a problem. I am currently at a fitness gym for middle aged people but we do mma once every two weeks.There is a full time mma gym but it is to far for my parents what should I do.
Depends. Can't you go by yourself to the other gym? By Bus or by bicycle? If this is not a possibility, do you have a friend or trainingspartner at your place? Then you could meet and train for yourself. Use video courses and repeat it together. If you stick to a plan and start with the basics (don't jump from technique to technique if you haven't mastered the one before) you can get far. Some champions started this way.
That's because you have spent all your time in one stance, it probably felt awkward learning to punch in the first place when you first started. Just get into the stance and drill shadowboxing everyday for a bit. Also multiple people have unique stances, Thai boxers have a different more square on stance than more of a bladed kickboxing stance, just drill it until it feels natural.
Defense MUST be trained on your OWN.... most gyms will not build this in primarily ( that isnt what gets bodies in the door and keeps them there 💵) and alot of western styles aren't 'defense first' . Also,Defense and countering is simply not easy to do at a high level
This is why I chose defense for my very first course. It is undertrained and I want everyone to have the opportunity to improve alongside me.
Register for the Strike Ready Defense Course. Early bird pricing available now. vargacombat.com/
I am interested in the course, but I don’t see how they are accessed. Are they accessed through a website? Can I download them to my iPad, so if I’m in a location with no internet I can still train?
I agree with you completely Gabriel. But the problem is not the fighters not the trainers or the teams or the sport. The problem is the fan that only watches the sport for violence. That's what encourages these spiders do not be disciplined in difference. Cause they think popularity revolves around the knockout. And maybe it doesn't the UFC and that's why I want nothing to do with it.
That's awesome Gabriel I hope all your new training videos and training sessions go well. You deserve all this success. You are 1 person that won't sell out who you are for money. Or for anything
Totally agree
My first boxing instructor when I was a child would watch u shadow boxing and if u weren't moving and "reacting" to a shadow fighter hed get a stick and stand in front of u n start poking away 😂😂
I think it was Icey Mike who said if you want to know if someone is good or not, test their defense, put the pressure on them. It's funny but a lot of people know how to attack really well, but don't know what to do when being attacked.
100%. I was like that for a long time into I finally got tired of getting starched.
Sorry my friend but this is sport and not real fight. Good luck trying to defend in a real battle on the streets. It will all be over in a minute. Plus gloves protect half the face try slipping without them in the streets. Of course defense is important to be trained but it must follow up with offence nonetheless.
@@ceckolalovia This is a common sentiment amongst people who don't know how to fight. They claim "in the streets without rules" they would somehow magically gain the ability to beat a martial artist who has been training for many years. It has been proven time and time again that a trained martial artist without rules is a much more dangerous person than a random angry person in the streets.
Slipping a big glove is more difficult than slipping no glove. Slipping, parrying, and blocking are options without gloves. You just don't know about them because you don't train and have zero experience in fighting.
Defense is followed up by offense this is true nobody is arguing that, but if you lack defensive capabilities you won't know how to get out of a bad situation. Again this only shows that you don't know much about fighting.
@@sammalama I never assumed any of that. Im training for years and i still am not entirely certain that i can deal with some crazy dude without rules on the streets. Of course as trained people have many more options balance and so on but what is the chance that will happen? Most likely as a friend of mine said when i have no sleep for 1 day caught by suprise and fact they will be more than one. In a sport situation you got perfect rules, perfect equipment , coach who most of the times will protect you and so on. The only difference is that not everyone will be at the same rest rate, mindstate and recovered. Sorry my friend again i dont have much training to claim im some kind of john wick on the streets just because i train a sport as boxing. But probably thats what helps me progress cause i always have begginers mindset. No offence just a discussion. Thank you for the perspective nonetheless.
@@ceckolalovia You're completely wrong. You are creating a situation where everything lines up perfectly against you in a street altercation, no sleep, the other person has ten friends and so on.
I've seen many people fight on the streets and most of them look pathetic, awkward, uncoordinated, and sloppy. In fact I've witnessed street fights where after they fight they just go about the rest of their day like nothing happened. I don't know what your idea of street fights are but the vast majority of them are drunken bar hoppers, not ninjas.
My coach taught me defense and it gave me the confidence to fight in the pocket and stop running away because I knew I had a defensive answer to almost any situation
3 categories of technicals training, Offence, Defence, Positionning and Footwork. Most Gym work offence 70% of the time, 20% defence and 10% footwork and positionning. I do 40% Footwork and positionning, 30% defence and 30% offence. Great vid!
“I train six days, actually six days a week. Five days a week, I’ll train three days a week. One of those days I will train two days of the week. So, six days a week I will be training.” - Tito Ortiz
"Defense with someone really trying to hit you is very important." Amen!
“Get my blessing before I let you go fight”
Definitely new folks to the Martial Arts World really need to take that one line in.
I’ve met so many people who just come into the gym and say they want a fight, or they set a fight up and haven’t put the time in OR got invited / blessing and asked to come fight.
It’s really up to the Coach when they feel it’s time for you to fight.
You may think you’re “ready” but if you aren’t in the gym 6 days a week and running, sprinting and swimming ON TOP of your Martial Arts classes for a solid 8 week camp…. You aren’t ready.
Also, you have to be training at least a year I personally feel to really understand yourself as a Martial Artist and understand someone’s movement and how to react to it.
Love that line you said 👌🏼
If you're not working defense it's basically cardio kickboxing. You might get really good technique and cardio but under live conditions you're not trained/ready for taking shots or pacing yourself.
Before my first fight my coach had me do defense only sparring. Basically I had t on do round after round with one of our hardest hitters, and I could only defend. And by the end, I went into my first fight with a stronger defense and a calmer more confident mind.
Don “The Dragon” Wilson said that his 28 year fight career was due to his defense. I’m glad to hear a successful fighter discussing its importance.
100% agree. Most people do NOT work defense. Including and especially in TKD.
I'm a TKD 5th Dan and most people I spar have ony one defense strategy, back up or circle around.
Great tips. Btw, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” was a great series!
The training montage where Spartacus begins his gladiator training was awesome!
Another great video Gabriel. Also speaking of Spartacus, I started watching it back in 2010 and I had been training martial arts for about a month. Hearing the character Doctore constantly talk about defence and foot positioning, made sure I never neglected working on my defence. Everybody who's into fighting and martial arts should give Spartacus a try
Not counting sparring experience, my gym works defense about 25% baseline for everyone, and then for competitive fighters, it bumps up to something like 35-40%. Definitely agree that it's important, because it's _very_ apparent when I'm doing defense drills with someone who is seemingly terrified of the slightest incoming attack.
I train loads of defense. it's my most used thing. I like just being defensively on point and in some sparring rounds I won't even throw many if any punches and will just practice range control and sliping and rolling to see how long I can go without getting hit and it's usually quite long maybe 30 seconds against a pressure fighter before they catch me with something.
without defense, you have cardio kickboxing...
This is on point. I come from a karate shotokan background, with some training in kickboxing and muay thai, and practical defense is overlooked a lot. They tell you about it sometimes but then the matter is never touched again, mainly in karate shotokan. I lost count of how many times people got a hard kick to the throat because they just jumped toward the opponent trying to score a point, but met halfway through a kick that was aimed at the head, this happened mainly with kids. I got my share of injuries because I was so focused on scoring points that I forgot that despite it being a point fight, an accident happens and defense is key to keeping you and your opponent safe enough. Nowadays I train defense as much as offense because my goal is to compete more in combat sports, and I am glad that I found channels like this one that give practical tips for me to implement in my training routine.
My old Muay Thai coach started everyone on defense basics. It also built the basic impact conditioning. Even light impacts hurt when you first start. Ever new attack strategy we trained the defensive tactics to address it were drilled.
Last night I sparred with a friend of mine who s having his novice mma fight next month, to work on defense we did russian boxing, 1 foot in a band and worked in the pocket trading light blows to work on defense, shells, elbow blocks, parries, all comes togheter
It’s crazy . My guys work 50/50 offence and defence and LOTS of footwork. To me your first line of defence is good footwork
Hi Gabriel.
Such a great point you made here. I've been training for a long time but I'm from the Netherlands and like 90% off all gyms seem to focus only on basic hard offensive combo's and as defense you're basically just told to put your hands up and do the turtle shell. There might be a slip or a duck put in a combo sometimes but that's it. Also mostly just hard sparrring with puts you in survival mode and makes it hard to practice new techniques in real sparrring/fighting scenarios. It has bugged me ever since I started training that we never learn the proper defensive techniques and practice them specifically. I have a couple of fights now and did some training and fighting in Thailand and i'm giving class now to a little group (just recreational) and I try to base my lessons on the principles you teach on your channel, it has helped so much and it's really cool to see them do moves in their first year that I was only doing after 4 years or something because I learned to do them myself from watching youtube videos. Thanks for all the great content man. This channel is awesome. Are you fighting again BTW or are you retired now?
@RancorousSea Yeah but there is a LOT of boxing in dutch kickboxing so I don't understand why they don't focus more on headmovement, parrrying etc. Not just rely on turtle shell as only defense. It works for some people (robin van roosmalen comes to mind, he also beat gabriel, but he has a toughness in him that don't many people posses I think, so it works for him). Alistair Overeem also uses clinch regularly, even though it's not really allowed, he uses it for his knees, he has some of the hardest knee strikes in all off combat sports.. but also a lot of turtle shelll yes
I have my first MMA fight in 9 days (found out yesterday). Thanks for the tips coach
Goodluck and enjoy!
9 days notice? Sheeesh. Hope youre in Shape. 😅
Gotta have that wrestling and jujitsu defense too on top of the striking defense
Good luck man enjoy it and don't worry about the outcome 👍
Thank you all guys, I appreciate it. I am lucky because I was running Alot and my cardio is on point but my grappling isn't where I would quite want it. I will keep you all updated about the result in a week
"Protect yourself at all times. Defend yourself at all times." Is literally what the ref says before the fight starts haha
Spot on! Every martial art I learned including Muay Thai focused on striking and rarely defense. I have to make up my own defense drills because of it. Will def check out your system.
I did a seminar with petchtanong petchfergus, and I heard him say "americans dont have any defense, we're gonna work on defense" to someone before the seminar, and then we worked on defense the entire seminar, lol
It's so bizarre to me that people don't prioritize defense. I'm a grappler, but I used to do kickboxing. The gym I was at did tons of mitt work, and after each combo, the pad holder would feed a combo. We did rounds of just checking kicks and things like that.
I wanted to get better at striking, and my first thought was defense. A couple months of added focus on defense, I was a lot better. I sparred 2 people at my friend's house, and I was hit 1 time between the 2 rounds.
I ended up moving to a new gym afterwards that did not focus on defense the same way, nor do mitt work. I got worse at striking. The coach at the 2nd gym was a way better striker by far, but the teaching/training style was not as practical.
One of the first things my gym stresses is defense. Especially keeping your hands up (MT and Kickboxing). We still do drills before sparring for checking kicks, evading, catches, etc. That's wild that he would go into a fight and they barely work defense. Like you said in your other video you can tell how experienced someone is by watching their shadowboxing and seeing if they actually practice defense.
oddly enough I'm watching Spartacus as well. Also the thing about about defense reminds me of this gym where I had a trial at. There were two rows of us, one row smashed a combo onto us and anyone who didnt defend had either a sore midsection or bleeding nose like this one kid next to me. You cannot neglect any part of combat sports.
Tyank you, coach!! I will emphasize my defense. Thank you.
That was such an important thing. Defending is not easy, especially when the opponent comes rushing or combos. If defensive protection, footwork and e.g. so-called fleeing attack techniques are not trained enough, nor are they able to implement them. The opponent will notice quickly if you move in shock in every situation and take a step back with your hands in front of your eyes. Of course, you notice it yourself and wonder why you haven't practiced defense more.
*He's 100 percent on those three things to prep prior to your first fight. I gassed and got TKO'd in the second round (Muay Thai). Sparring cardio is not even close to the same when it's your first fight. Nerves!!!!!!!*
Defense should be the number one priority.. especially starting out. It's like in jiu-jitsu. If you can't defend, then your attacks are almost useless. You're just gonna get smashed and not know what to do when it happens
Damn right! Defense first.
I'm still relatively new to kickboxing (been training for half a year now) and Gabriel his videos make me appreciate my gym more! Besides learning me lots of new things off course.
Maybe it’s unusual, but in my mma class 2x a week we spend the first 30 min of class parrying, slipping, and checking kicks. 😂😂
defense is #1! I'll be signing up for your course ASAP. I've been a religious follower since I started Muay Thai and my 6 pack is shredded and my kicks are high because of ur videos and also have implemented sparring concepts
can't wait for the course. I don't mind getting hit, but why get hit if I don't need to?
Gaberial, you should do a video on how to structure weight training for kickboxing while still training kickboxing.
"Attack the attack." Urban Combatives, Netherlands . Defend while attacking .Of course you have to know how to evade, cover, parry, redirect, block, drag etc.; But only to facilitate your attack . If you concentrate on defense, you will inevitably lose.
Those urban combatives people would lose 99% of the time to someone who’s done 6 months of Bjj.
Haha I'm so glad you mentioned about the black belts that can't fight.
Good defence leads to better offence, it is super necessary.
The same goes for some grappling gyms. Some ppl just want to do flashy stuff and neglect defensive fundamentals. Having a solid layers of defence, so the early, the mid and late defence stages is where you get your confidence, so that no one can pin or submit you, when get countered
this is it man! i was sparring last night and my partner came at me hard, threw a lot of heavy accurate straight head punches. I guarded with my 16oz gloves, rolled with the hits and used my long guard. Then he started to gass out and I began to capitalize. Took maybe 2 clean shots in a 7 minute round where i threw half as much and was telling him not to quit in the last minute
This pattern is universal among all sports and literally every gym I’ve been to has had a strong focus on defense.
I agree, you taught me how to block, not the kickboxing training I am going to. 🙈
Great take on this Gabriel !
You sound sick Gabriel. Get well soon brother.
I love this channel mate keep on grinding your a hidden gem
Great rant, coach!💪 I'll definitely try to find someone at the gym tomorrow who wants to practice more defense!
Love your content and teaching method. Do you have any advice against "blitz" fighters? That's where I get into all kinds of trouble. Thanks in advance.
Wow, thank you so much for all of the tips Gabriel, the only thing I am lacking a bit at is the power to hurt somebody so I will be sure to implement it much more into my training sessions, because I have a fight upcoming in 2 months from now, amazing video as always Gabriel!
everybody knows how to attack and throw strikes! defense, vision and rythm is what "separates men from the boys" in strikers
My man mentioning Spartacus!! The best show ever!
I didn’t know zach galifianakis was a kickboxer
Thanks for the continued great work giving us knowledge.
I think you might be understating it a bit. I think defense is more important because it is reactionary and you have so many more factors to track such as feints. If you throw an attack and it doesn't land, you can just throw another one. If you miss a crucial block/slip/parry/etc, it could easily lead to lights out.
What's interesting is that the more you venture into edged weapon based martial arts the more you encounter a focus on defense. You can't just eat a stab to the stomach, push through and retaliate. I mean... You could... but you're dead in the near future then which makes this a very bad strategy if you prefer to rather go on with your life afterwards. Even if no deadly weapons are involved I'm convinced a solid defense is the best base to build upon.
Gabriel! What some ways to train defense alone at home? Any good devices or equipment? Just straight shadow boxing? In a mirror? Thanks for everything man.
Man, in Asian marital arts, defense is the very first thing we train in.
Offense comes later. Sometimes though, new students are excited so you need to throw them a bone and give a little bit of offense to make them happy, and then you go deep into defense.
Yes.
I was kidding you. You got me.
legit content never disappoint. all love
My gym doesn't teach defense unfortunately. Just your typical MMA gym that teaches boxing, muay thai, and bjj. Yup, I need to switch gyms. Like none of my instructors tell me what to do when someone comes at me with a right cross or a simple 1, 2.
Well, keep your hands up! If you do that, thats 90% of it, and you have lots of options available to you. And either catch the strike, parry, cover, elbow block, or slip it. Wash, rise, repeat.
My "instictive" one is to catch for straights & cover for hooks/overhands. Im working forcing myself to parry/elblow block more.
Im also working on slipping more. I can slip the 1st one, but i was always getting caught with the followup. My coach said to slip the 1st strike, then pivot out & post on opponents side & that puts you in good position to follow up (usually with a body kick). I admit: i do like that one, and im trying to integrate it more.
@@beta_cygni1950 Yes I keep my hands up all the time during sparring. But that's sparring, in a real life situation someone wants to come at you, it's different, it's no longer practice. My muay thai class teaches you how to check kicks, but it's mostly drills on combinations, same thing with boxing. It's mostly offense.
@@owainkanaway8345 In a "real life" situation, most of what i wrote still applies (the exception being the catch). You would still either parry, cover, elbow block, or slip (an elbow block has the added benefit of wrecking his fist). For hooks/overhands, you can add a "360 defense" in addition to a cover. And the slip-pivot-bodykick counter still applies too.
Also, in a "real life situation" drilling an immediate (or even preemptive followup- like a preemptive teep) is important too. Like, parry & immediate straight or cover & immediate elbow. Or knee. Or anything.
@@beta_cygni1950 And to clarify further, my instructors don't teach defensive drills specifically. When they teach defense it's during combinations.
@@beta_cygni1950 My boxing coach rarely if at all teaches you how to parry. I had to learn that myself on youtube. It's an MMA gym, it's the typical "Muay Thai" "Boxing" BJJ stuff. I am not saying all MMA gyms are bad.
No defense makes for short fight careers.
100% its not just defence, i think some gyms shortcut train a lot of things including defence, power, punch technique (focus on kick technique ignore punch technique), headkicks & flexibility, body shots & tactics, and details. Im glad you mentioned power so many people train without any power these days and i dont understand why? Wen you watch thais hit pads you can see them hittting with power and intent. Commecialization of the sport maybe or they pull their shots to make it look 'faster' 'nicer'? 🤷
Evasion first, then defense, then grappling, then counters, then offense. That's my philosophy
When I started I realized no one was talking about defense. It was all offense and combinations. I remember asking my mates how to parry jabs. It makes no sense you don’t learn how to defend in a gym where everyone is focused in competing.
Very genous video garbiel. You seem like you know what you are doing with this chanel
My coach has a specific day for defense, where we spar as one keep evading and blocking and the other dude going 70 just to inflict a little pain, imagine going 8 rounds of blocking a chain of fresh guys XD
I wonder if part of the reason why defense is so under-trained is because it is more difficult to do properly? It's one thing to curl up/block/swat like most new people do when overwhelmed. Being able to use a defensive strategy that allows a quick and effective counter is quite another. Somewhere in the middle is the "Charge!" mentality, where people compensate for defensive INcompetence with overwhelming flurries because they heard "offence is the best defense" too many times.
👌. Thank God my Kickboxing gym trains everything.we some time do round of sparring where one attack and other blocks. My first fight is Tomorrow. Wish me luck 🤞🙏.
What are your thoughts on doing hard sparring often? I though we headed in the right direction with sparring being more technical and less often, but I think Steickland is making a trend in the reverse direction.
a buddy of mine was in a Muay Thai gym for 4 years I learned Savate and Karate sprinkled with some boxing from my dad and uncle way back when I was teenager, I never took it seriously but my father always instilled defense while attacking. I had a spar with this friend and while his pressure was great he had no idea how to deal with counters angles I ended up dropping him not because i threw 100% but because he didnt see my strike due to his poor defence
nice action from inside Victoria Martial Arts
Looks good this ep
Gabriel what’s your opinion on age and fighting. I’m planning on fighting this year at the MTUSO, but I’m 29. I feel like I’m so old for the sport, but I’ve been doing MT for 5 years at this point and I’ve competed in wrestling before. This would be my first set of MT fights, I feel like my age is so demoralizing.
easy answer: how's your defense? Good? then go for it!
Sergio Martinez went pro in boxing at around your age and went on to have a fine career so to down scale that you'd be just fine at the ammy level
He has one or more videos talkin about that. Check his channel
You were watching a show called spar-ticus??
....That checks out.
I asked this very question to my gym yesterday.. it’s a great gym but they do not teach enough defence.
I put my guard up high. Parried some straight punches. Then he hit me with 2 big hooks around my guard. First time sparring and I had a very slight headache afterwards. I noped the fuck out of there after third round. Send help😢😢😂.
He was lke "defense?" "what's that?"
Is it possible to train Defense alone? By oneself?
Shadowboxing? Erm...ShadowGuarding?
Drilling defense requires the students to dial the intensity and pace of the hits against their partners. In my experience, if the environment is off in a gym, students may hurt each other or they may go too soft and too unrealistic. Sometimes trainers do not wanna take chances with that, they do not wanna be creative with drills or they don't wanna spend mental energy setting the mood right for the group.
Is the defence course downloadable???
I don't get it how could you not work defense
Defense IS the best offense
Ive always said defence is the best offence.
It seems like it’s really rare for gyms to train defense which is so weird
Isn't this how Mr. Miagi coached Ralph?
as a soldier in Korea, 1973, I learned under a 5th Dan in TKD, who was also first Dan in Judo. He taught me to stay out of reach, We'd jump, or glide in, usually with a kick, or block a kick and then move in , clash and either score a point, or jump back out of kicking range. I"m too old for that now, but I still move in and out of arm's reach. , It's just idiotic to stand there at punching distance. Even at my age, jabs are so fast that nobody's going to slip them unless I first have to close to within arm's reach. They are also so powerful that, bare-knuckle, if I hit you in the ribs, that rib is going to be broken.. Hooks can break your sternum if there are no gloves., So EYE aint just standing there at punching distances! :-) It's bad enough that I have to stay at back foot roundhouse kick distances! If that roundhouse kick is done with the ball of the foot, it can easily cripple me with an impact on my leg.
Great as always, thanks
Hey! Will the course be suitable for southpaws too?
Will there be anything for takedown defense in the course? Maybe not exhaustive, but at least the initial reaction or something?
Would you consider doind drills, working defense? Cause tecnicaly you’re working attack, and them defense
My gym trains 95% offence in the beginner class and intermediate plus is 50% defence with sparring. The people that just want to hit things for fitness just stay in beginner class. The people that want to fight move up
a gym standard for drilling i've seen before is doing check return regardless of the drill. (I.E if drilling roundhouse it will be checked and returned (or with hands parried/slipped and countered) what do you think of this practice?
Twist... twist... buhy
It's weird that any gym wouldn't teach defense. The only rule that is repeated to every professional fighter at the start of every match is "protect yourself at all times". In order of importance, I'd probably place the ability to defend yourself right at the top. If you lack the offensive strength to hurt someone, yes they're not going to respect you, and you're going to have a rough fight, but if your defense is good enough, you should hopefully at least be able to survive it without taking too much damage. If you lack the endurance, yes you could gas yourself and be left extremely vulnerable, but if you lack the ability to defend yourself, how much offensive strength you have and how much cardio you have is never going to matter unless you pull a McGregor or Masvidal and KO your opponent with your first strike, and depending on that happening is possibly worse than not bothering to budget your finances because you could win the lottery tomorrow.
I dunno that I'd stick with a gym that straight-up didn't teach defense, because if their priorities are that messed up, I'm not sure you want to learn what they're teaching.
You're awesome
Gabriel I have a problem. I am currently at a fitness gym for middle aged people but we do mma once every two weeks.There is a full time mma gym but it is to far for my parents what should I do.
Depends. Can't you go by yourself to the other gym? By Bus or by bicycle? If this is not a possibility, do you have a friend or trainingspartner at your place? Then you could meet and train for yourself. Use video courses and repeat it together. If you stick to a plan and start with the basics (don't jump from technique to technique if you haven't mastered the one before) you can get far. Some champions started this way.
@@philippculture489 thank you very much
Excellent
Gabriel, I find it difficult to throw punches from a kick-boxing stance. I’m used to throwing punches from a boxing stance.
That's because you have spent all your time in one stance, it probably felt awkward learning to punch in the first place when you first started.
Just get into the stance and drill shadowboxing everyday for a bit.
Also multiple people have unique stances, Thai boxers have a different more square on stance than more of a bladed kickboxing stance, just drill it until it feels natural.
I know I'm not Gabriel but have years of knowledge and also struggled when I changed from a boxing heavy stance to kicking. Get creative!
Appreciate it
*has fight March 30th* Learns defense in 5 days
Why don't you have your own gym?
Defense MUST be trained on your OWN.... most gyms will not build this in primarily ( that isnt what gets bodies in the door and keeps them there 💵) and alot of western styles aren't 'defense first' . Also,Defense and countering is simply not easy to do at a high level
Gabriel my fckn idol!
Does he turn u on