Andrea 
5 opponents that you can face if you practice combat sports but not only is a post that I want to write to give you an idea of how beyond training on your personal characteristics as a fighter you have to take into account.
The ability to adapt is a fundamental characteristic if you want to evolve your ability as a fighter because each opponent has its own characteristics and having the ability to read them and adopt the right tactical, defensive approach, etc. is very important.
Both you and your opponent want to make a game that imposes itself on each other but as you well know, it is not always feasible to direct the game with your strategy, that is the ideal condition but going to challenge your opponent where he feels stronger is perhaps not the best solution and for this reason that reading the game of your opponent and studying methods to counter him is part of your job, of your coach, of your preparation team.
There are generally five categories of opponents you can face if you do combat sports, where your opponent:
- Blocks and dodges blows
- is a “runner”
- is a banger
- is a wrestler
- is an eavesdropper
Identifying an opponent is something important because you can try to adopt a strategy that is not the one that your opponent prefers and therefore avoid falling or working in his zone of strength that is that way of fighting that is most congenial to him.
To know when to hit an aggressor, a martial arts or self-defense practitioner you need to identify what kind of opponent you are facing.
Understanding the opponents/ aggressors you may face can get you to adopt the best strategy to win or prevail.
Surely if you know your opponent and his characteristics, when you prepare the match you have to do conditional and balanced sparring on those characteristics and also perform the sessions at the Focus Pad / Pao Designed for that type of opponent, and that’s why the one who holds the strikers must be a professional who knows what he is doing.
To simplify there are generally five categories of opponents in combat sports:
Your opponent blocks and dodges shots
In this case your opponent/aggressor wants to parry or dodge then use the block, hoping to finally find an opening space for a counterattack.
Study your guard by firing strategic shots to understand how even, how you move, where you move when dodging, etc.
Like a boxer,he covers himself and waits for the moment and space to hit you, then parries and hits or dodges and hits.
He is already an expert in standing combat who is used to moving between the blows of an opponent.
Your opponent is a “runner”
This is an opponent who retreats, is evasive, runs away and tries to stay away from your shots.
In this case your footwork must be exceptional to press him and give him pressure and take him to a corner of the ring and limit his possibility of “escaping”
He is an opponent/aggressor who hopes that by giving up direct confrontation and observing your attack movements he will understand the best strategy to hit you and take advantage of your fatigue for example while you unbalance to strike (a bad balance), etc. to attack you just then in that moment of bad position and stability.
With this type of opponent you must have good athletic preparation and a lot of patience.
Your opponent is a banger
It is a not very sophisticated opponent, who throws himself blindly in a fight, hoping to beat his opponent with a barrage of kicks and punches.
It does not have a real strategy but simply that of a strong violence with gusts of nonsense but with extreme aggressive momentum.
His simple but very aggressive, impetuous and violent style makes him dangerous because you don’t have time to do any kind of complex defense.
Don’t fall into this trap but move a lot.
In this case the side and diagonal outputs and a footwork are crucial.
Your opponent is a fighter
It is a wrestler, a wrestler, a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or Sambo who is therefore a skilled fighter on the ground.
In this case this type of opponent tries to close the distance by creating an opening with an attack or using your attack to close the distance and bring you to the ground, once there, he repeatedly tries to hit you to create openings and perform choking and joint levers to submit and force you to do tap out.
Although in many self-defense systems but also Bruce Lee himself with his Jeet Kune Do focuses mainly the system on standing fighting, you still have to study the fight on the ground.
Lee himself was introducing many aspects of ground fighting into JKD because he understood its importance.
The phrase that says that on the street never end up on the ground, is a nice slogan but the reality is different, if someone tells you this means that he knows nothing about self-defense is a fake instructor, be careful.
Studying and improving your grappling skills so you can quickly get back on your feet or get out of the fighting positions and resume your most congenial position is something you need to train.
It does not mean that you have to become a black belt of BJJ or other fighting systems such as CSW but at least a blue belt where there are fundamentals that I recommend it.
Even if they tell you that you must never end up on the ground when it comes to personal defense I assure you that it is easy that you will end up there.
Stop believing certain stupid things because the reality is that it’s not hard for you to end up on the ground in a street fight so you better know what to do.
Of course if you feel experienced and skilled in fighting nothing prevents you from doing so but you must be very careful for the hard ground and above all be sure that your aggressor is not alone and also that he does not hide some improper weapon.
Remember that it’s not just about sports!
An aggression in the street has more complex variables than the protected environment of the gym, there may be more opponents, weapons, important differences in weight, the surprise effect, etc.
Your opponent is an eavesdropper
It is an opponent who waits for your action, wants you to make the first move and then throws a shot to stop you, to create a stop, is a matchmaker, hits you while attacking.
Stop-football example or a counterattack.
He wants to anticipate your action.
An interceptor fights a bit like a JKD practitioner who does not anticipate but parries and hits at the same time or if you want a boxing matchmaker.
So an opponent who attacks you while you are advancing with your shots and places his.
Conclusions
These are the main ones you need to know but now for you to experience you need the knowledge and training to understand what kind of opponent you have in front of you.
It is essential to do this to familiarize yourself with as many combat sports and martial arts as possible!
For this reason, doing sparring sessions or internships with other disciplines is essential!
For example, to understand what wrestling is, you could participate in some Open Mat, or go to some boxing gym to spar, clearly all under a careful presence of trainers, explaining the reason for these training sessions.
This is a path you have to take if possible because so you can experience all these kinds of opponents because every partial art has a peculiar attitude.
Surely you have friends or know practitioners of other fighting styles and it can be interesting to always deal with ethics and the right attention to work safely.
Study and observe how other martial artists attack, load shots, how they move because this knowledge will help you determine if you have the tools you need to deal with certain types of attacks and defenses before a real conflict.
You have to train your skills in the face of certain attitudes, types and series of attacks.
Remember that the blow that surprises you is the one you don’t know, not just what you don’t see.
The more you learn and know, the less surprised you will be because you are aware of what you need to do.
Another training method
Now to be able to train these strategies that of course you can also use as an attacker you have to strive to do exercises of Sparring where you and your training partners Emphasize this 5 certain approaches and you have to make a strategy that is not the same as where your trainer wants to take you.
But if you really want to see the result you shoot with people who do different martial arts like boxers, wrestlers, pure personal defense, etc. and even friends who do nothing because you will be surprised because in addition to people the same martial arts clearly prefer a certain approach.
Of course, as I have already told you in other posts, it is essential to train safely, so complete protection and beyond the protection be aware that it is a workout and that it makes no sense to get hurt or hit a training partner in obvious difficulty, it is not a match!
Have a good workout! Stay Tuned!
Street Fight Mentality & Fight Sport
Andrea
