Why Wrestlers Have Knockout Power...

 

It isn't uncommon to see a fighter with a wrestling background knock out a striking specialist. Chuck Liddell was known for his devastating stand-up even though his background was wrestling. King Mo, Josh Koscheck, Jimmy Hendricks, Jose Aldo, Jon Jones and a whole lot of other Top 10 Fighters came from a grappling background.

It could be because striking came naturally to these fighters allowing them to excel at a rapid pace. Or that small gloves and takedowns/clinch change the standup game in MMA completely. But it could be because grappling-based martial arts have a huge strength component which increases their potential to produce power when they began to practice striking techniques.

When training with weights, strength is the most important fitness parameter for beginners. When practicing sport, power is the dominant fitness parameter. The law of specificity says something is wrong. Why are we trying to develop strength, when our sport calls on huge amounts of force to be developed rapidly (strength is the ability to produce force regardless of movement velocity). Strength is a component of power and when you increase an athletes absolute strength, their power producing ability also increases. It doesn't necessarily mean they will be more powerful, but when they begin power training, they have more power to unleash.

Grappling based martial arts have a huge strength component. Holding your opponent down while he tries to escape, grabbing a leg while your opponent tries to sprawl or squeezing onto a choke requires huge amounts of muscle activation. It is also common for coaches in wrestling to prescribe strength training to their athletes. They have done this for years. In contrast, striking is mostly about speed and power. Being able to deliver a forceful blow with speed is the ultimate goal. This is combined with most coaches advocating their fighters don't lift weights because it makes them slow (which is wrong).

For fighters whose origin lies in grappling based martial arts, there has been a huge amount of strength developed. When they begin to integrate striking into their training schedule, they have so much power to unlock because there strength levels will be higher to fighters with a striking background. Some bias exists because my personal background is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but it does explain why so many grapplers pack a heavy punch!

RT Origins: Athletics, Not Aesthetics

Movie prequels seem to be the ‘in thing’ in Hollywood at the moment, so I thought I would follow suit. 

Being involved in some form of coaching for professional fighters was a goal of mine since I was sixteen. I followed two things religiously from a relatively early age: MMA and Fitness Training. My global awareness was poor and I had limited general knowledge, but I did know fitness. Every bit of free time I had was invested into training, reading about training or thinking about training. 

When I reached the age of twenty, I decided to open the door of the fitness industry and take my first step. I had adopted a training philosophy focused on objective results. I was interested in developing specific fitness parameters, rather than focusing on my physical appearance. This eventually became the backbone of RT: ‘Athletics, Not Aesthetics’. 

I remember talking with a gym junkie friend, and explained the slogan I had planned to use: ‘Athletics, Not Aesthetics’. He wasn’t impressed. He insisted that the majority of people want to train to look better, and aren’t concerned with their physical ability. He predicted our RT jingle would be a deterrent.

Aware that I was targeting a niche market, I was willing to do whatever it took to make it work. Those who trained in the ‘shed era’ can vouch that equipment we had was far from sophisticated, but we still made great strides. Had I modified RT’s philosophy and settled for a training system to build the ultimate beach body, things would be a lot different. 

Some clarification… we don’t want our athletes to look like Roy Nelson - a good physique is great for self-confidence, attracting the opposite sex, etc.  We are simply guiding our clients in unleashing their athletic ability (enhanced aesthetics are typically a by-product). We don’t want our clients to just look like athletes. We want to make them athletes.

Are Heavy Hands Genetic?

 

No, we aren’t talking about gigantism. For anyone who is a fan of combat sports, you will often here the expression ‘heavy hands’ given to fighters who possess dangerous knockout power. Along with this term is the general acceptance by most coaches that some people are born with it, and some people are born without it. Is there truth to being born with heavy hands? Science says yes.

There are two types of muscle fibres: Type I and Type II (not really, it is a continuum, but identifying each end of the spectrum simplifies things a lot). Type II muscle fibres contract quickly and have the ability to generate large amounts of power. This is in contrast to Type I fibres which contract slower and cannot produce power like their Type II counterparts.

Evidence suggests that the proportion of slow/fast twitch fibres is determined by genetics - that some people are born with a predisposition to succeed as a sprinter, and some to succeed as a marathon runner. Similarly, some people are born with heavy hands, and some are not. 

Wait, you may not be doomed…

-       Everybody has Type II fibres. These are also called high threshold motor units because they are only activated when muscles have to produce a high amount of force. Learning to activate these high threshold motor units is done via strength/power training

-       Some evidence suggests that performing exercises that require large amounts of force can cause a transformation from Type I to Type II fibres

-       If you do have more Type I fibres, your muscle is more fatigue resistant so you will probably be able to outlast your heavy handed opponent.

-       Taking the fitness component of punching out, developing good technique and focusing on your accuracy may make you more dangerous than someone born with heavy hands.

Even with a genetic disadvantage, everybody can improve their power output. The key is training with the correct training protocol. Using strength and power exercises is critical for any combat athlete!