Rules Compendium - Kickboxing, Boxing, MMA, Jiu-Jitsu & More!

by Mike

This is a directory of rules for events where WWNHH? type-folks tend to find themselves competing.

When reviewing the rules, note that it's the responsibility of the fighter and the cornermen and trainers to know, understand and hold to the rules. WWNHH? recommends that during training for a fight, someone act as a referee in order acclimate the competitor to the different pace of the fight when breaks and other directions are involved.

It is imperative that the fighters contact the promoter of the event and obtain and understand a current set of the rules governing the contest. It is possible that state athletic commissions or other entities may have rules that alter (or more likely add to) those below. Any questions about the rules should be clarified with the officials no later than the rules meeting.

MMA

Unified Rules - Note that the unified rules have recently been updated. Though not official, this document from MMAJunkie may prove enlightening.

Illinois Rules

Boxing

Amateur Boxing Contact USA Boxing for details

Association of Boxing Commission Rules

ABC Boxing Female Rules

World Boxing Association Rules (it's a pdf!)

Kickboxing

International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) Muay Thai and IKF General Rules

Federation Internationale de Savate

K-1 Rules

"American" Rules Kickboxing aka Full Contact (IKF) and IKF General Rules
Grappling

International Judo Federation (IJF)

NAGA

Pan-Ams/Mundials aka International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF)

Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling

Weapons

World Eskirma-Kali-Arnis Federation (WEKAF)

Dog Brothers Scroll down to "magic words."

How I learned to stop worrying and defend the guillotine

by Mike

I'm always surprised at how many trained fighters get caught in guillotine chokes. At UFC 81, both Jeremy Horn and Tim Sylvia tapped to guillotines. One one hand, these guys should have known how to defend against them. I'm going to show you how to successfully defend against the guillotine, at least until you run up against Nate Marquardt or Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueria and their next-level jiu-jitsu.

When the rest of us are facing good, or even excellent opponents, defense against the guillotine choke is simple and effective. It was very sad that I went so far in my career getting caught in guillotine after guillotine until I finally learned this defense. Since then, I've never tapped or even been in danger from a guillotine.

Aesopian taped a Bryan Harper seminar where guillotine defense was shown, I've added some commentary to the mix.

Defending the Standing Guillotine



How does this defense work?

• Like the demonstrator says, the most important thing is to turn your head into your opponent, keeping your opponent from attacking both carotid arteries. This will not necessarily be sufficient to spare you the choke, but it will keep you in the game long enough to go to step 2:
  
  
• Reaching up to pull his choking hand down. If you're lucky, you'll break his grip and you'll be able to escape. If not, he's still putting pressure on your neck and it is possible to be submitted/go out if you spend too much time in the choke.
  
  
• Putting your arm around the opponent's shoulder and pulling tight. The pulling tight thing is vital, but not mentioned. The guy applying the submission wants to stretch the defender out as much as possible. Either from standing or in the guard (see next video), he wants to stretch himself out and, by virtue of his tight grip, stretch you out as well. From standing, this involves pulling his shoulders back (from the guard, he pushes your hips down as well, giving him more leverage). If you can keep yourself tight to him you and/or prevent him from pulling his shoulder back, you can take away a lot of the pressure of his choke.
  
  
• One thing that I'd like to add to this presentation is that it's not only important to reach as far up as you can, but to try to put your hand/arm as deep into your opponent's back as you can. This will hold you closer/immobilize their shoulder more effectively.
  
  
• The bump/trip should be obvious, but note if the guy on the bottom doesn't let go, you set yourself up for a very nice Von Flue choke.

Just as an aside, it's really embarrassing to tap to a Von Flue choke. Defense against the Von Flue - let go of the guillotine.

Guillotine defense from the guard



Why does this work?

• As noted earlier, the attacker wants to stretch you out, the defender wants to keep that from happening. The easiest way to do that is to clamp down on his shoulder and start trying to stack him.
  
  
• It's important to keep a good base so you don't get swept or have your legs kicked out and you're back to square one.
  
  
• Putting pressure from your shoulder onto the opponent's neck/chin, causes him to instinctively curl up, keeping him from stretching you out. If he's stubborn and stupid, you might even get him to tap.
  
  
• In an MMA situation, a dick move (but very effective) is to throw some shoulder strikes once you've gotten up on your toes and secured a good base.
  

In a future installment, we'll demonstrate a variation of the guillotine that Renzo Gracie likes that turns the guillotine from a Hail Mary into a high-percentage move.

Until then, don't get caught in guillotines.

This might have helped Brock Lesnar - Defending the Kneebar

by Mike

Brock Lesnar showed some decent skill in his UFC 81 match against former champ Frank Mir. Brock's standup was much better than I anticipated it being, but he got caught by a canny jiu-jits player. It happens.



From MMA Saddle, which has a nice collection leg lock information.

One of the dangerous things about kneebars is that your knee doesn't feel pain the same way that your other joints do - instead of "this is hurting, pop," you have more of a "this is kinda tight, but I'm pop."

That is to say, the knee feels pressure, not pain. Careful training kneebars.

Remember to show your junk when you kick

by Mike

Or at least when you throw roundhouses.

When you throw a roundhouse kick, whether it's Thai-style, a Savate fouette or a Kyokushin "Brazilian kick," you want to connect with either the shin, toes or instep respectively. In order to hit with the proper part of your leg/foot, you need to turn your hip over.

In each of those kicks, nearly all of the power is generated by the hips turning into the target. At the time of impact, a technically sound kick will see the ankle, knee, hips and shoulder in a straight line.

Dude on the right's doing it well. Dude on the left, not really.

That's a lot to keep in mind though. Maurice Smith came up with a simpler way to think about this. He said, "pretend there's a hot girl standing at the side of the room. You want to impress her, so show her your junk."

You show your junk, you turn your hips over; you turn your hips over, you can make that nice line; you make that nice line, you hit with the proper part of your leg/foot and you can KTFO dudes easier.

For more on kicking, see keep your kicks on the level.

CC-licesend photo from TaeKwonWeirdo

The Real Reason boxers fight left hand forward

by Mike

Granted, this belongs in the category of "things I can't prove one way or the other," but here's my take on it.

I'd received a lot of answers when I'd researched/asked this question.

"You want your power hand in back so you can find distance and then drop a big right on them."

Nah, there are plenty of martial arts that think the power-side should go first so you can hit more often with it.

"Back in the beginnings of boxing, two guys would just grab each other by the hair and then start pounding in each other's faces. You wanted to be able to throw your power hand."

Not buying it. Could you imagine if every fight looked like Frye/Takayama?

Thought about it a little and then it dawned on me:

Boxers tend to fight left hand forward because it protects your liver.

"Body shots are a lost art" may be a trite saying for people trying to sell "lost art of body shot" DVDs, but anyone whose gotten caught with even a solid shot to the liver knows that it affects you more than an equally hard shot to the dome. (Those who have never seen the effects of a liver shot before should check out Hopkins/De La Hoya or MMA fans can see McCarthy/Loiseau or more recently, Buentello/Overeem)

If you fight in a left lead, you keep your liver away from the easy shots (jabs and crosses), your opponent needs to get inside and throw shovel hooks to start targeting the liver. Theoretically if they're inside, you have some options while they're moving in and you can tie up, etc., or at least have the opportunity for your own body shots.


Flickr photo from Wildebeast1

Keep your kicks on the level

by Mike

I generally try to advise my partners/students to use Thai-style shin kicks when kicking to the body or the legs, rather than snapping-type roundhouses (unless of course, they're savateurs and have the benefit of reinforced toes). Two reasons for this, namely

• The body and legs are big and generally don't have much give. Even if you snap your kick properly, there's a lot of force going into a relatively small ankle and that force is being applied in a way that the ankle isn't meant to go. The knee a lot bigger also bends into the kick, so it's more likely to bend rather than break if things go poorly.
  
  For my money, an all-out Thai kick is going to to a lot more damage to the legs or body than a TKD-style snapping kick.
  
  
• You can easily damage your foot when you kick knees and elbows. Hitting your shin isn't much fun either, but at least the possibility of damage is significantly less. Throwing a foot into a shielding shin is also a great way to break your foot.

Heads are hard too, but I recommend using the foot to kick to the head for a couple reasons, including: not being off balance so much should the kick miss (and if you are, you can always spin through) and buying yourself an extra six-inches of distance to protect yourself if the other guy tries punching into the kick or keeping you from being overextended if you're kicking at someone backing up.

The most important thing to remember for any roundhouse kick though is to make sure that you turn your hips over properly. The best description of this that I ever heard was in a Maurice Smith seminar, where he said, "pretend there's a pretty girl sitting at the other side of the ring and you're trying to impress her. Show her your junk."* Doing this also ensures that your kick is coming in level, where it's going to have the most force behind it when it hits your opponent, as well as avoiding his elbows, should you go for a body shot.

Same thing applies to leg kicks - your foot/shin needs to go get past his knee on its way to the target. You can still hit the knee if you go in level, but in this case I'd say it's because either your aim was off or he moved - these things happen, but you're still less likely to hit the knee than if you came straight in.

Now, this isn't to say that upward angle kicks have no place in your skillset, but they should be a distinct technique and not a result of sloppy kicking.

* To be sure, Mr. Smith also taught the snapping roundhouse to the inside lead leg....