Those guys with little muscles and great fighting skills.

It always amazes me.
I see a guy posing in a magazine or on line. Allot of Mexican fighters are like that. Also some European are the same way.
The look like slim guys, not much muscles. I look at it and say, how can the be champions? Than I see them fight. They move fast, punch or kick with power.
How can that be? Same with some of the Le Parkour guys. They do crazy stuff, but don't look like they can do it.
Do they train specifically for functionality and try to avoid hypertropy at all cost? Do they have genes that make their muscles stronger, but not bigger?
If you are a special agent, you want to look like that so no one suspects you. If you a regular guy, you want muscles. (I would assume)

So what's the trick?

[speedy]

There is no trick. One's muscle size isn't the key here. Technique and strength exercises are key. You can have the biggest arms in the world, but if you don't have proper technique behind your punch it won't mean squat. I have fought some really strong guys, but some of the weakest punches I have ever felt. Why? Because they did not throw it with proper technique. Same goes with grappling, kicking, and so on. You need to condition yourself, but you also need to be able to execute properly with technique without even thinking about it.

[koltz]

skills and reflexes.

I don't see the point why so many people pay so much attention to fightign sports around here

[speedy]

Fighters do a fair amount of bodyweight training. How much depends on the individual. Tito Ortiz says his number one thing is conditioning.

I would safely guess that fighters as well as military people use WB to complement their training.
Others do bodyweight exercises as part of their jobs- Dancers, gymansts, sport acrobats.

I think that some people just have body types that allow for strength without much gain in size. Plus certain methods of training allow for allot of strength gain and not much muscles.
And of coarse technique. All of that together makes average looking individuals into great athletes without looking like bodybuilders.

[solidscorpion69]

maybe its explosiveness

[Danootje]

A lot is in the technique.. But also they do high reps with relatively low weights..
That will make you gain maximum strength slowly and gives you most endurance..
But it WILL give you max strength.. only slower; positive is that these are real fast and in my opinion the only good muscles :roll:

[koltz]

A lot is in the technique.. But also they do high reps with relatively low weights..
That will make you gain maximum strength slowly and gives you most endurance..
But it WILL give you max strength.. only slower; positive is that these are real fast and in my opinion the only good muscles :roll:
it can't give you maximum strength

simply because the body builds different adaptations for strength and endurance traing

each one breaking the other

[Razor]

But then how is it possible to build both of them separately?

[cheesedog]

You train for muscle power with heavy weights for few reps. For explosiveness you use a moderate weight but move it as fast as possible. For endurance you use a light weight many times.
You can train for all three by alternating cycles emphasizing one or the other, or by combining all three in the same cycle, with care to prevent overtraining.

Go to Bud Jeffries website "Strongerman Productions". He has several articles there about combining all of these. He may be the strongest drug-free lifter in the world. Anyone who can squat 1000# AND do 1000 bw squats is very impressive, IMO.

[Sepanto]

there are 3 main components which make small guys much better fighters.
SPEED!! small guys are mostly faster than bigger guys.
Skill- It's not unlikely that the small fighter was more skilled than the big one.
Psychological Advantage- When a big guy sees a small guy he gets overconfident and cocky, which makes him do stupid mistakes.

[koltz]

although MOST of the time , bigger fighters beat smaller fighters

and bigger people (especially taller) are actually faster. ( levrage)

[crisgaecar]

there are 3 main components which make small guys much better fighters.
SPEED!! small guys are mostly faster than bigger guys.
Skill- It's not unlikely that the small fighter was more skilled than the big one.
Psychological Advantage- When a big guy sees a small guy he gets overconfident and cocky, which makes him do stupid mistakes.

you are completely wrong
not because you are smaller you are more rapid, not more agile, any more I had not even to, not more skillful.
I will give you an example:
my best friend is a South American champion of kickboxing, he measures 1,88 m and weighs 88 kilos. compared with his rivals of the same age,hi is of the biggest (in terms of volume), but it is much faster, agile and skillful than his couples.
everything depends on the training, but remembers that a person with major bony capacity can support major muscular mass (this one is proportional to the quantity of force), which would indicate that between major major muscular mass it might be the speed. also it is true that a smaller person can have more balance, because his center of gravity is nearer to the floor.
nevertheless this depends on his training, nutrition and life style

[arifreedom]

they -like those muay thai guys- do lots and lots of cardio...burns off everything

[Sepanto]

you are completely wrong
not because you are smaller you are more rapid, not more agile, any more I had not even to, not more skillful.
I will give you an example:
my best friend is a South American champion of kickboxing, he measures 1,88 m and weighs 88 kilos. compared with his rivals of the same age,hi is of the biggest (in terms of volume), but it is much faster, agile and skillful than his couples.
everything depends on the training, but remembers that a person with major bony capacity can support major muscular mass (this one is proportional to the quantity of force), which would indicate that between major major muscular mass it might be the speed. also it is true that a smaller person can have more balance, because his center of gravity is nearer to the floor.
nevertheless this depends on his training, nutrition and life style

I can tell you from experince, that muscle mass is a major factor between untrained indivduals, and a minor factor between experinced indivduals.

I found that the more a person weights generally (gross overgenralization, but still overly true) it is easier to make him fall (mostly by the fact that they tend to overcommit and lean in with 100% mass, and try to push, a case in which a well-timed pull can maker them fall...) . however my point still remains, that there are factors far more important than physical strength.

Example : Amir, a sempai of mine whom i outweighted at the time by 60 kilos (i 115 he 65) was able to make me fall 9/10 by using my overreaching and mass to make me fall by pulling me when i pushed him or pushing me when i pulled him and such. Despite my mass and strength adavantage, i usually got stuck on the ground in a wrist lock when he was standing...

But i agree that in cases of untrained indivduals mass matters,

[pedro luiz paulucci]

The training of this fighters is, so so ,the same of the Rocky Balboa.

[Perttu10]

I do capoeira myself and now i started to train russian martial art called systema. That is the best example how someone can beat the crap out of others without using force. The key for the good punch is that you need to be relaxed and punch like you are punching trough guys stomach or something like that. I have taken very hard hits to my abs but when it comes to these systema punches i have been gasping and rolling on the floor.

And systema is that you need to use less force so easier it will be to knock down the opponent. You just need to use the opponents force and movements.
It is not very good looking sport but it surely is effective.
here is a little video link. and these guys are far from athletic looking guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfvxTOVgQk


Youtube is full of systema videos. So basically IMO you dont need to be strong to know how to fight

[warriorscholar]

I can't really tell much from the video. I would need to be punched to know the effect of systema punches. But it'd be pretty awesome if it works.

[Perttu10]

Well i can guarentee it works and very well too. And it is also a veryh good punch because the power of the punch is not coming from the shoulder or the feet and it can be hit from very short distances so you can hit very quickly even two or three punches and even if you can take the first punch to your abs the second one goes trough.

It is almost the same technique with bruce lees one inch punch

[oldtimer1]

I think that our image of what's a great physique has been corrupted beyond repair due to the "sport" of bodybuilding. It's a sport based on drug use. Now that Hollywood is indulging for male action movie stars it furthers the confusion into what is a functional athletic physique.

Look at sprinters, Olympic lifters, gymnast,running backs (USA football), wrestlers, boxers and many of the MMA fighters for what a real functional great physique is about. How many athletes look like the physiques in those professional bodybuilding contests?

A functional physique involves power, strength, speed, skill, and endurance. Some guys can bench 400lbs and can't punch hard due to being slow, lacking skill, and lacking the agility to coordinate the whole body into the punch. A punch comes from the entire body not just a pec, tricep, and shoulder movement.

I remember back when I use to be involved with martial arts there was a little hispanic guy. He had about 5% body fat. He also had speed and endurance. To look at him you would never bet on him against some of the weight lifting guys who came into the dojo because of watching the first UFC. This guy would choke them out quick. Arm bars would come from no where. He could also punch like he had steel in his hands. He couldn't bench 200lbs but he could explode into a punch.