The Bodyweight Challenge: Formidable Fighter, #8

By Martina Sprague

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Martina Sprague
• Release date: Apr 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386192039

Martina Sprague

Martina Sprague grew up in the Stockholm area of Sweden. She has a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich University in Vermont and has studied a variety of combat arts since 1987. As an independent scholar, she writes primarily on subjects pertaining to military and general history, politics, and instructional books on the martial arts. For more information, please visit her website: www.modernfighter.com.

Book preview

Preface

The Formidable Fighter Series is a series of booklets for martial artists desiring to learn the concepts that create formidable fighters in the training hall, competition arena, and street. Each booklet is between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length and includes fighting scenarios, training tips, and illustrations. The Bodyweight Challenge, the eighth booklet in the series, deals particularly with how to use the weight of your body, whether you weigh a little or a lot, to increase the power in your techniques and bring you a step closer to victory. Since the advice is not style specific but explores the underlying concepts of personal combat, it is applicable to students of most martial styles.

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. If you follow the instruction and tips in the Formidable Fighter Series, you will learn how to develop your physical strength and mental tenacity and triumph as a fighter in the training hall, ring, and street.

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.

—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), 1818-1885, American Humor Writer and Lecturer

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Victory; a matter of staying power.

—Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American Editor, Publisher, and Writer

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Each player must accept the cards that life deals him or her. But once in hand one must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

—Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), 1694-1778, French Writer and Philosopher

Get ready for the bodyweight challenge! No, it’s not about trimming down but about using your weight in battle, whatever weight you have regardless of whether it is a little or a lot. Because of the physical effects of gravity, you cannot instantly make yourself weigh more or less. You weigh what you weigh, period. It can’t be disputed, however, that 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. Think like this: If your opponent were holding you down on the ground, how would he or she move to make you as uncomfortable as possible? Now reverse the scenario and you have a game plan for your opponent’s discomfort.

Whether in the training hall or on the street, you defeat your adversary by waging a decisive battle. We talked about winning in Book 4 of the Formidable Fighter Series and decided that to win, you must want to