Last night one of my students talked to me about how helpful it was that I "see things" in movement. I see kata movements everywhere in our prearranged kumite, and can show students each and every aspect of our kata training with every move and ad lib off the main path. This is fun for me, and helpful for them. And in doing it, I implore them to take half-learned material and try to figure out the missing pieces on their own. Last Tuesday two of my students (Andrew and Jim) came up with a better interpretation of Sanseiryu in Dan #6 (without knowing Sanseiryu) than is demonstrated in the "traditional" sequence. You have to love that. This is what the classroom is supposed to be about.
With that as a backdrop, I went to an unfamiliar place for lunch today. I stopped in at Champps to eat the healthiest greasy food I could find on their menu, and vege in front of the sports TVs. Well wouldn't you know that they had the classic Ali vs. Foreman fight on - from beginning to end. The sound was off, but I didn't need to hear what the bozos were saying. I just wanted to watch these two classic fighters going at it in the primes of their careers.
Several things come to mind after viewing it again. There's nothing like 33 years of martial arts experience behind you watching this thing. And this is particularly true after being a trained Uechika AND listening to RBSD folks talk about our worst nightmare on the street.
A young Foreman is indeed your worst nightmare. He comes at you with strength, power, and no fear. He already had made Norton and Frazier look absolutely ridiculous in short order. He has those long, hard, arcing punches that come at you with frightening power.
And then he came upon Ali.
It was clear to me this time watching round 1 that Foreman had absolutely no hope of beating the Ali of that era. He was the right mix of youth and experience. In fact, his skill was absolutely stunning. He repeatedly toyed with Foreman, taunting him with his trash talk all the way through. But what was even more fascinating this time is that I saw my Uechi all the way through what I once thought was a fairly simple fight.
Next time you look at this fight, look at the frightening street-like power Foreman brings to the ring. And then look at Ali employing the following.
HEAD MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES
* Look at him use the left hand closed gate (from Sanchin) to break Foreman's center from around the back of his neck. The right hand is there... Use of his right knee would have been even more interesting, but that's another venue.
* Look at him use left sukuiage uke from hawk chases sparrow (Seichin and Sanseiryu). He uses this whenever Foreman drops his head down too far. He's helpless until the referee frees him.
DEFENSE AGAINST LOOPING PUNCHES
* There's a mastery here of "answer the telephone." That's the way my boxing teacher taught that technique. And it's right out of the Seisan jump posture.
* Look how he moves in with Sanchin posture to stop the attacks at the insides of the elbows.
* Look at the good body protection with Sanchin arms up - particularly with all those low blows to the ribs.
COMFORT ZONE
* No matter how much people rant about "kumites", I see a value here. Ali looks like someone who literally has seen tens of thousands of punches coming at his head. The more we throw things at each others' heads, the slower these techniques will look. That's my experience anyhow, and I'm getting to be an old fart.
He doesn't look the least bit intimidated.* Ali has a weeble-like control of his center. Many deadly punches never hit because of his ability to use his spine like a flexible rod while maintaining his center. They call it bobbing and weaving I guess. More and more, I see that as something we can layer on top of good Sanchin mechanics when we understand all the degrees of freedom of motion available to us. But that does take time...
And then of course there are those relentless, quick, on-the-mark, straight-up-the-middle, whole-body-whip punches. Watch his warmup punches before the fight. You've gotta love it. Talk about sequential summation of movement... Watch what the body does before the arm goes out like a shot from a rifle.
- Bill
