Martial Arts Tips : How to Take a Punch

Hi everybody, I'm John Graden from the Martial Art Teachers Association, and johngraden.com. How do you take a punch? First off you try not to, you try to avoid that punch, because blocking is technically a waste of time. I would rather be hitting than blocking. But sometimes they do score, sometimes we do take a shot. Let me talk to you and demonstrate a couple of ways you can take a punch. Joining me from Pro Star Mixed Martial Arts is my good friend, Joe Brignoli. Okay, it's for my safety. Okay, let's start forward, and just throw a right hand right here please. Okay, here's a classic cross or reverse punch from boxing or kick-boxing. When I am going to take the shot, and I'm not able to avoid it, I want to ride the power; ride the power. I'm going to try to rob the punch of its power by moving my head in the direction it's going. Often you'll see boxers and kick-boxers do this in the rink. And if you're at the wrong angle, for instance it's here and he punches and I ride it, it looks like he really hit me hard. But a good fighter's riding that power. So sometimes you'll say, "oh that was a really good right hand", not really, it just looked that way because I rode the power. The other option, if I stay here I'm going to absorb all that concussion, and that really hurts, that's where you get in trouble. So I'm going to try to ride that power. Here's another technique that I use a lot through the years, because I'm a counter fighter; when I come in, I'll use my forehead to block the punches, rather than my hands. So in other words, if I'm using my hands (throw a right hand please), If I'm using my hand to block, I'm tying that weapon up, I like my weapons to be free. So what I'll do sometimes, I'll snuff the punch with my forehead, I'll just take it right- there's a hardest part of your head right here. When ever you see martial artist break boards, or break ice with their head, it's always in the front because it's very strong. You could take a good shot there. So I'll snuff it here, which allows me to keep my hands free, and fire on my opponent. So you want to ride it; first you want to avoid it, but if you're going to take it, ride it, and if you have to get hit, try and snuff it out with your forehead. I'm John Graden, I hope that helps. Thank you.