The fundamental principles of combat are universal: One of the more fascinating aspects of working as part of an MMA camp is the interplay between the various specialist coaches and listening to their perspectives on fighting within their domain and in MMA. I have had the honor of working alongside many great coaches. One who greatly impressed me was Freddie Roach. His vast experience at the highest levels of boxing makes him a fascinating and captivating repository of knowledge in both the history and theory of the sport. Each of the various arts that comprise MMA has its own approach to victory in unarmed one on one combat. The broadest division is that between the grappling arts, which typical focus upon maximizing control as a prelude to strangles and joint locks as the path to victory, versus the striking arts, which use mastery of distance, positioning, timing etc to create situations where sufficient kinetic energy can be imparted upon a vulnerable part of the opponent's body to end the fight. Then within each of these two approaches there are many different variations, each of which goes in different directions or emphasizes different aspects from the others. underneath all the differences however, the basic pillars of a rational approach to personal combat remain the same. “ALWAYS SEEK SOME FORM OF PRIOR ADVANTAGE BEFORE INITIATING AN ATTACK,” “SEEK POSITIONS FROM WHERE YOU CAN ATTACK YOUR OPPONENT MORE READILY AND WITH GREATER EFFECT THAN HE CAN ATTACK YOU.” Fundamental Maxims like these hold true across the board. Only when we get down to specifics on how to actualize the maxims do we get differences. Once you see this clearly, all the various arts can become a source of learning for you and the cross over from a single art to MMA becomes easier. Here I discuss boxing footwork patterns with Mr Roach and their application to MMA on the morning of Georges St-Pierre's return to the UFC. Interestingly there was much common ground in his insights with footwork patterns in boxing for standing grappling in Judo and Jiu Jitsu. Movement is movement, advantage is advantage, whatever form in which they are made manifest.
