Got Defense?

 Steve Morris shared some video clips on his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/morris.method

Here is what he commented on Floyd Mayweather:
"Here is a master of defence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK9en6g9JTQ . It's not that Mayweather never gets hit, its just the way he defends reduces the effects of the shots as well as the percentage that reach him. thats what gives him the confidence to go on the offence. He knows he can deal with whats coming at him."

Give 2 people swords and get them to spar, and the most common pattern will be some dancing around from the outside with some hand tagging ... and then generally either this continues ... or both people get 'bored' and decide to enter and both 'die'.
Sonny asked me once after spent rather long dancing around him - 
"Why don't you enter?" 
"Because when I enter I get hit" ....
"So you need to work on your defense, no?"
Ahhh .......

Steve Morris:

"If the person you're fighting can't effectively strike you, clinch, tie you up, take you down, positionally control, submit or ground and pound you .. Then your chances of winning the encounter on the feet or the ground rise considerably ..... Provided that is you have a good offensive game by which to finish your opponent off and you are prepared to invest in loss as part of learning your defensive skills .. And there's the rub in that not many people out there are prepared to invest in loss because they are too much invested with winning the encounter ..."

 

"Invest in loss" - Wise words, and exactly what Sonny tried to teach me, except he called it 'give something to get', You need to put yourself in danger to learn, to actually LOOK at (and feel) what is going on, to understand it and to deal with it.

This may seem totally logical on paper, but the doing of it goes counter to our ego. As an example, I did a mental experiment one day to try to pick the slowest line to stand in at the Post Office and grocery store, tried to stay in the slowest lane of traffic, tried to make everything I did take the longest time possible .... it was much, much harder than I thought. I guess we are programmed to 'win' on some very deep level.

But ... in training - it's absolutely invaluable to reaching the next level of skill.

Here is another great clip Steve Morris shared on the defensive skills of Rocky Marciano:
Rocky Marciano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b0yHvw-vW0