This is the second week in a series where we will focus solely on FightWriter questions. In this round, we compare chops and punches and bring a knife to a gun fight.So, why don’t you see them in MMA? I have several reasons. Here we go:
One: MMA is a sport and as such, it has rules. Any strike to the groin, back of head/spine and neck are illegal. Knife edge strikes work very well in those places.
Because the contact of knife edge chop is to the side of the
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| Floyd Mayweather post Canelo fight. |
hand, you have a great deal of force impacting the side of a single bone. The odds of the fighter breaking their hand is much greater because a knife edge is meant to be decisive rather than repetitively thrown hundreds of times in 3 to 5, five minute rounds.
But, you can absolutely pull off certain strikes, leave your jaw open and be fine. You can see that in the pic here with Urijah Faber. However, his opponent is down so his jaw isn’t vulnerable. He is delivering a hammer fist because in that position, it’s the most efficient strike. Now, my coach respectfully disagrees with me on this point, but I don’t think physics are in your favor with chops. In my first post on size disparity, I explain that a punch gets its force from the fighter’s mass times the acceleration of the punch. The reason the mass comes into play even though it’s not the fighter’s entire body making contact is that a punch is driven by the mass of the body. With a chop you should put the weight of the body behind it but I don’t think you can as much as with a punch. You don’t have that same torque in the hips which really gets more of the mass of your body behind the strike.
Going with the grain makes the break easier. And, that’s ok because a board break is symbolic of strength and breaking barriers more than demonstrative of either. The one time that the grain direction of the board didn’t matter was the time I broke it with a punch. Which, I don’t suggest. It ate my knuckles up. But because the force was concentrated in a smaller diameter rather than spread over the length of my hand, foot or elbow, the grain didn’t matter.
Lastly, when you get in the cage and you see your opponent, $%&! gets REAL, real quick. You tend to go primal and just plain forget training. That’s why you see even seasoned fighters do stuff they shouldn’t. They’re human! So, even if you are black belt chopper, that whole concept might fly right out your head once the punches start landing. As the sage Mike Tyson once said…
There was a British study done that found reaction to be faster than action. However, in that study the participants knew absolutely that something was going to take place. They were simply waiting on a cue. That’s not the case with a knife wielding assailant and a police officer. The law enforcement officer has no idea what the offender may do. By the time the officer’s brain reacts to an assailant’s movement, the assailant will, in fact, be moving which makes aim with a taser or gun more difficult. If the distance between them is twenty one feet or more, the officer will, hopefully, have time to combat the movement effectively.
So, if your character has brought a knife to a gun fight, all bets aren’t off. Especially if you are Master Ken.
Thank you, Johne.
Ohhh, Emmi, thank you!! Funny story about apple cider vinegar and fruit flies: We had a little jar of ACV out for that very reason, fruit flies. I had completely forgotten about the little jar being there. I was sitting on the couch with my daughter and kept smelling something. I looked down at my teen daughter's feet, that were on the couch, and said, baby, your feet smell awful. She pulled one up to her face and said they smelled fine. I said they didn't! They smelled awful and she needed to go wash them NOW! It was the ACV… I apologized to her later. 🙂
Thank you for reading!