Formidable Fighter Series

Outlasting your opponent in competition or learning to combat a bigger person under stress requires hard training. You must be physically fit, strong, and powerful. Supplemental strength training in addition to your martial arts training will help you develop the toughness you need to equalize or overcome the power of a bigger opponent. Strength also helps you win in competition and establishes your reputation as a formidable and competent student of the fighting arts. When you are physically unfit, your martial arts techniques become sloppy, slow, and powerless. You should therefore value physical strength and fitness as highly as you value good martial arts techniques. Your supplemental strength training should complement the martial art you are studying; you should never lose focus on the fact that you are training for a combat art and not just for getting into better shape. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

Aggressiveness is a strong character trait that is to be embraced as the core value of any respectable martial artist. It is not something to be avoided or ashamed of. Aggressiveness does not equate to cruelty or misuse of skill. Although it is possible for a smaller well-trained and intelligent person to prevail against a bigger and stronger opponent, or against a not-as-smart adversary, it is a tough uphill battle. A force that is strong and focused is difficult to defeat. Willpower and intent to avoid domination by others may therefore be the ultimate live-saving strategy. You will increase your ability to hit hard when you practice hard-hitting impact techniques against dead targets, such as mitts, bags, and boards. But a problem is that dead targets don’t hit back. Timing, chaos, and ability to control fear and pain must therefore be practiced against a resisting partner who returns the offense. Whether training for competition, a general education on the fighting arts, or realistic combat at close range, to gain an edge, you must train with intent and intensity. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

The martial arts have a two-fold agenda: To prepare you to participate in tournaments (or sports), and to prepare you to participate in real life scenarios. This split focus might be the prime element that distinguishes the martial artist from other sports participants who are preparing to run a marathon, go to the Olympics, or win a hockey match but are not concerned with issues of life and death. So to those who say that winning and losing don’t matter, that your only competitor is yourself, and that you should strive to be the best that you can be, I say, Baloney! In struggles of life and death, winning matters. Winning is good for the spirit even in martial arts simulations not involving life and death. In competition, too, winning matters. A central theme of martial arts training is resolve, the spirit to win, which must shine not only in the real battle, competition, belt promotion, demonstration, or teaching endeavor, but in all the training that prepares you for this test. The techniques you learn are your backbone, your foundation for building greater skills. Your effectiveness is measured through a combination of theoretical knowledge of technique and ability to use these techniques. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

In martial arts competition or on the street one fighter normally dominates the other; it is how fights are won. Once you start viewing the arena as yours and yours alone, your mindset should be to press the attack. Offense is essential because only offense can hurt your opponent enough to demolish his fighting spirit and force him to retreat. Any good offensive strategy consists at least of some forward movement where momentum helps you take advantage of your opponent’s retreat. Pressing the attack helps you establish command presence by positively demonstrating that you control the arena. Pressing the attack is not about displaying uncontrolled rage, however. Rather, it means that you resolve to stay a step ahead in strategy and tactics at all times. Strategy involves a calculating mind, good defense, and even retreat at times. The winning strategy is this: Think offense; think forward; think one more step. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

The study of the martial arts encompasses more than self-defense for a smaller individual against a bigger opponent on the street. Many arts emphasize tournament competition as well as the more noble idea of subduing an opponent without hurting him or her by only taking the fight to the level necessary to ensure safety. The inherent chaos of physical confrontation sometimes makes it difficult to end a fight with a single strike. The martial arts strategist considers how one strike or technique leads to another until the final blow that ends the fight can be launched. We call this type of strategy force escalation. Although a defensive technique such as a block may help you avoid your opponent’s first strike, it does little to end the confrontation. You cannot win a fight in the training hall, ring, or street without offense. Remember that you are not just a defender; you are an elite fighter, and you must know how to dish it out as well as take it. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

When you attempt to break a board and fail, there is a simple solution: Hit harder. Although it is tempting to engage in such elusive concepts as “striking through the target” and “extending ki,” understand that a board breaks only under the stress of a specific amount of force which can be pre-calculated. The lesson is that no matter what you choose to call the force, you cannot expect to do damage unless you strike straight. No matter how powerful, attacks fail when the direction of force is misunderstood or misapplied. This book focuses on the single strike or single technique concept to end a fight, primarily on the street where you are looking for a quick and decisive victory over your adversary. The focus is on overwhelming force resulting in disruption and defeat. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

When there is chaos, the techniques you have mastered flawlessly in the training hall don’t work as intended. They may work, but only partially, and often not at all. Why? Because your opponent is not cooperating, he or she is struggling to escape the onslaught of your attack, and he is intent on winning the fight. The effectiveness of a technique is always measured against the chaos of the attack. If you can’t end the fight now, you can at least limit your opponent’s ability to counterattack. You can buy time through intimidation tactics and mental control, and maybe save yourself from further assault. Striking or kicking seldom satisfies this need, however, because strikes and kicks are generally not effective for controlling your opponent’s movement. By contrast, techniques that stifle movement generally stifle the opponent’s ability to counterattack. These are the techniques we will explore in this book. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

Weight is important when engaged in a fight, and more often than not weight works to your advantage. Luckily there are many ways in which you can take advantage of the laws of physics to make yourself appear heavier than you are; for example, by pushing your weight into an opponent, spreading out on top of him, or pinning him to the floor through the use of a sharp weapon. How you handle your weight may be especially prevalent in ground battle, where you remain in close contact with your opponent. Whether in the training hall or on the street, you defeat your adversary by waging a decisive battle. Strike with force and determination, press the attack, preselect vulnerable targets, use sound scientific principles, and endure until the end. There is no excuse for lacking strength, but if you lack size you can still be powerful and win through the use of sound body mechanics. The use of bodyweight is taught in most martial arts classes, but applying these concepts consistently and with determination requires effort in training. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

Fear drains a person of his will to fight; it denies him the ability to mount a sufficient defense. Fear reduces a strong man or woman to inaction. Fear makes us cower in a corner, look for a way out, or stand quietly at the sidelines unable to act. Fear eats our souls, little by little. Fear steals from us our fine motor skills. When we are afraid we can no longer poke an adversary in the eye, apply a joint lock, or coordinate movement for a throw or takedown. The conquest of fear lies in the understanding of fear and in its acceptance. We drill the same techniques over and over in the training hall, we drill thousands of times, we drill with the intent of letting muscle memory take over in a dramatic situation, we drill so that we can respond automatically and don’t have to think. The idea is sound, but the failing element lies in the lack of realistic stress in training. To understand fear, you must introduce uncertainty, chaos, and pain to your training regimen. Not until your body has experienced stress in a semi-realistic way can it relate the techniques you learn to your performance in a real encounter. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.

Martial arts, combat, fighting, whatever you call it, goes hand-in-hand with courage, toughness, dedication, and focus. What sets the formidable fighter apart from other martial artists is that he or she approaches the training with the intent to develop an edge that allows him or her to dominate the opponent physically and psychologically. The goal of the formidable fighter is to retain the initiative by interfering with the opponent’s ability to counter an attack or defensive technique. The greater physical shape you are in, the less likely you are to sustain an injury, because your body is better prepared to handle the stress of combat. Superior strength and conditioning give you an edge that can act as an equalizer against a bigger opponent. Powerful punches and grips are the product of proper training and conditioning. Good training also makes allowances for failures and prepares you to win. On the field of battle, you command the fight by force, not finesse. The formidable fighter knows how to approach a scenario with the appropriate mindset that allows him or her to act rather than react and beat the opponent to the punch. Know how to play the cards you are dealt. Martial arts techniques are not complicated; it is the surrounding situations and how we think about them that complicate how we use them. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series is the print version of the full series of 14 e-books, and includes also a bonus section; a quick reference to all concepts discussed in the text. The book is a variation of the previously published book (now out of print), Combat Fitness for the Elite Female Martial Artist, also by Martina Sprague, revised to be particularly suitable also for the male student.

We can learn a lot from failure. Failure, when studied, brings enlightenment. One of the greatest pitfalls of group martial arts training is failing to ask: “What can go wrong?” Combat in any form or way is a potentially dangerous activity. There are only you and your opponent on the field of battle, whether it be a mat in the training hall, a ring in the center of a ten-thousand person audience, or a dark back street somewhere near home or far away. The years you have spent training in the martial arts have not made you immune to failure. There is somebody out there who is better, stronger, smarter, tougher, and more vicious than you. The years of martial arts training under your belt have failed to make you invincible. There is no guarantee that you will perform according to textbook standard. At best a failed technique can cost you loss of face; at worst it can cost you your life. The study of failure is therefore an important part of your self-assessment. Formidable Fighter: The Complete Series, a compilation of all 14 books in this series, is available in both electronic and print format.