A martial artist's successful keys in a fight

Part two

By: Mehran Movallali

5-Fighting ability in the close range:Fighting in the most martial arts is in the long range and by reason of this, the most martial artists can just fight in the long range and they can't fight in the close range effectively if the gap is closed.
Fighting ability in the close range is the greatest advantage for a martial artist. If you see a street fight carefully, you will notice that two opponents will close their gap and use hand techniques spontaneously. This matter happens in all real fights. Because of this, the most martial champions who have won classic competitions, they can rarely win street and real fights.
There are a few martial arts that their sparring are in the close range. Wing chun kung fu is one of the martial arts that its sparring is in the close range and naturally. By reason of this, the most wing chun fighters have not been defeated in the free and real fights yet.
For example, let’s see one of the greatest wing chun master’s fights: Master Emin Boztepe is dai sifu (chief master) in modern wing chun (Wing Tsun) that has won more than 300 real fights, and he has not lost yet. These are few of master Emin’s successful factors in his fights: His much bravery, quick reactions and quick closing the gap. Therefore, Emin can easily make the fight into close range and then he quickly defeats his opponent with unique close fighting techniques of wing chun.
If you want to be able to fight in the close range, you must improve your hands techniques(specially defences) and then grappling and self- defence techniques too.
6-Correct breathing and strengthening lungs:There is a chinese proverb says: “If a martial artist strikes without breath control, his blow won’t be powerful”. A real martial artist should know breathing techniques and practise them regularly. If we take a look at the martial arts exercises, we’ll see all of them have breathing techniques in different manners and they are very important.
Why is correct breathing so much important for a martial artist indeed? You will understand it through an example: If you are angry or afraid of something, at first your breathing will be out of control and you breathe quickly. Now if you then began to breathe deeply and abdomenally, you will be relaxed very soon.
So if you are willing not to get tired soon and have much stamina and power in fighting and training, you should do breathing exercises regularly. Through breathing techniques, at first your lungs will gradually be strengthened and thus in martial tiresome trainings, your strong lungs not only won’t let you get tired and stop working, but also by deep breathing and getting more oxygen, you will have more energy. If you had seen that some martial artists get tired soon in fighting or training, it’s because of they don’t konw correct breathing Another important point it’s that: A martial artist should apply defence techniques when breathing in (Because then his body is weak) and strikes when breathing out (Because his body is strong).
7-Don’t restrict yourself to one martial art:Because every martial art has some advantages and faults and can’t be said which martial art is the best, so you should not restrict yourself to one art.
Some martial artists have too prejudices to their own art so that they can not accept their art faults. As a matter of fact, all different martial arts have originated from shaolin temple and thus “The root of all world martial arts is the same.” All kick and hand techniques of every martial art are the same with a little difference and the names of techniques just make difference.
One of the reasons that has made Bruce Lee very famous in the world that is: He has learnt principles of many martial arts while his own art was wing chun. So he had not restricted himself to one art. Therefore he could achieve martial movements with much fluidity and speed and attracted people.
You can use effective movements from other martial arts while keeping your own art principles. By this way, you will increase your martial abilities.