Ultimate Defense

With more and more people taking up kick boxing or MMA-like martial arts these days, a common defensive move they are taught is the 'boxer's cover up" where the arms are held up to the head, protecting it from getting hit and letting the forearms take the blows.

This is a very easy move to teach and implement. It also caters to our natural instincts as well.

Gone are the "karate" days where people would actively block in an outwards fashion.

So how do you crack through the defense of the boxer's cover up? Do you go for the body shots? Do you resort to elbows? Do you try to jolt the arms out of the way?

What is your tactic?

If you aim for the body - how do you protect yourself from getting hit? Do you have enough punching power to do damage to the body? Are you trapped with chain punching where punching to the body feels awkward?

If you use your elbows - how do you manage to maintain a close distance? are you accurate enough to hit your intended target or only manage to hit the forearms?

If you move the arms out of the way - do you have enough power to move the arms out? What if the attacker has thick forearms? what if the arms don't move out of the way?

So what do you do?

Until then.