The two ways: When unarmed humans fight, there are two main ways they can inflict sufficient damage upon each other to attain victory. The first is through the use of KINETIC energy – moving a hard part of the body at speed towards a vulnerable part of the opponent's body. The second is through the use lever and fulcrum to apply BREAKING FORCES on joints or CONSTRICTING FORCES on arteries. Traditionally the history of martial arts has always divided these approaches to combat into striking arts- boxing, Muay Thai, karate, Tae Kwon do etc etc and grappling arts, jiu jitsu, Judo, wrestling styles, sambo etc etc. The fusion of the two in MMA is the purest and most complete and the one which makes the greatest demands upon the athlete in terms of broadening their skill set. I am always grateful that my sensei Renzo Gracie always encouraged me to remember the link between jiu jitsu and fighting. This made me always put a very heavy emphasis on submission holds in my jiu jitsu teaching as this is the grapplers equivalent of a KO punch. It was in this fascinating interface between grappling and striking that I first worked with Georges St-Pierre and now with Garry Tonon and Gordon Ryan who are now both beginning this new journey from one skill set to another. Here, Garry Tonon warms up in the OneChampionship cage shortly before his most recent fight – working on his mixed grappling/striking skills on the floor where athletes get the best opportunities to display the two ways to victory in unarmed combat working in unison.
