Balance and striking ••••••••••••••••••••••
When you are balanced you can move forward, backward, be aggressive or be defensive. When your center of mass moves outside of your base of support you are unbalanced. The next response has to be one that allows you to regain your balance or you will fall down. If you are unbalanced you cannot move or counterattack effectively.
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Regarding striking often people will say you have to move your head, however head movement should not come at the expense of your base. If head movement is used to evade a strike but you are now unbalanced you have no effective counter to the second strike.
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An example of this was Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero @ufc 221. Rockhold demonstrated this technical defensive mistake which cost him the fight. Rockhold kept his lead hand low so he had to rely on distance and head movement to avoid strikes. Yoel Romero rushed forward with a flurry. Rockhold’s first response was to lean away, which made him unbalanced. At this point he lost the ability to use intelligent footwork to angle away from the follow up strike. He had to stumble backwards to try to avoid the barrage of strikes. When he was too unbalanced and close to the cage his feet no longer could move effectively. His last resort was to lean his head away. Romero showed he was too fast and long and still managed to find his mark.
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Don’t make this mistake: keep your feet underneath you, maintain balance and you will not limit your future defensive options.