Strength or Speed

[Ryo]

An equal balance of strength and speed is ideal. However, if you had to choose one...which would you choose? Strength or speed?

[academian]

Speed. If they cant hit you they cant hurt you. If you hit them enough it will start to hurt no matter how strong you are.

[Tom Yum]

Explosive speed & reaction timing

As said earlier, if they can't hit you and you've got speed and technique you can do well.

I can bench press and deadlift more than some professional boxers in my weight class but in a stand up match you will see how their speed and technique will outclass me within a minute, if that long.

Ok, I've decided that I'll take speed, technique and experience over muscular strength: can you give it to me?

C'mon there's got to be some video series shortcut that can give these things to me now or some new weight training excercise to help my sparring get better

[Bjjexpertise@be]

How much do you bench and how much do you weigh, tom (just curious)? I just started weight lifting for the first time and I can bench 170 (I weigh 142 pounds) is that good considering I'm starting off or is my strength below average?

[Tom Yum]

I weigh 168 and can push up 305 for 1 rep (allmost a second rep, but allmost doesn't count). I don't max on the deadlift, but I do 5 reps with 455 with pretty good form.

I lift to maintain a base of limit strength and condition my body to reduce injury. It does relatively nothing for my fighting ability that sparring and drilling can.

[academian]

I choose speed although my strength could stand some improvment.

[Spider Web]

Originally Posted by Ryo

An equal balance of strength and speed is ideal. However, if you had to choose one...which would you choose? Strength or speed?

I would pick speed any day. My instructor often remind's us that technique will beat strength (providing the person you are fighting is not equal to or above your training level). So logically the faster you can apply your technique the more success I believe you will experience.

I wish I knew of some type of drill's or conditioning that would help you develop quickness but I do not. I don't know if it is possible to develop quickness? Speed, yes, quickness, I don't know. There is a difference.

Good Luck!

[academian]

so whats the difference?

[4141]

For a very long time i competed as a powerlifter and i am now still working out 4 times a week. But not for that any more. There are three kinds of strength max strength and that is well how much you can max out for one rep. static strength for how much you can hold in one place for a set of time. And Explosive is how fast you can lift it. when power lifting that was what we went for. if i can get the wieght moving fast then i can lock it out and more can be lifted. Power is speed. You don`t have to be a friggin giant but working on both will in my mind can be done. Watch the best base stellers in the league there first two steps are explosive. Good luck.

[cakegirl]

Strength or speed?

I choose TECHNIQUE

[bodhisattva]

Originally Posted by academian

so whats the difference?

ACADEMIAN is our winner with the SMART ANSWER.

Strength and speed are not opposites.

Strength will actually GIVE you MORE speed.

Think about it. "Speed" in this case is the Ability to Accelerate the weight of your arm/fist as quickly as possible, in a short time, to the highest velocity.

That takes strength.

People have this weird mentality that I think must have started before I was born. They believe strong guys aren't fast. They believe if you bulk-up, you get slow.

That CAN happen. If a guy gets TIGHT he gets quite slow.

But for strong guys that stay loose, they aint slow, baby. They aint slow.

It is an old wives tale, probably started by insecure skinny-guys like me. "I may not be strong, but I'm FAST, man!" blah blah blah.

[bodhisattva]

Originally Posted by Chris Ward

I would pick speed any day. My instructor often remind's us that technique will beat strength (providing the person you are fighting is not equal to or above your training level). So logically the faster you can apply your technique the more success I believe you will experience.

I wish I knew of some type of drill's or conditioning that would help you develop quickness but I do not. I don't know if it is possible to develop quickness? Speed, yes, quickness, I don't know. There is a difference.

Good Luck!

Technique DOES beat strength.

So long as your technique is GOOD ENOUGH to outdo whatever his strength level is.

If it isn't, technique DOESN'T beat strength. On that day, technique gets some busted lips and doesn't drink OJ for a week.

Keep in mind, Technique WITH strength will ALWAYS beat technique WITHOUT strength.

Technique and strength and speed aren't opposites. They are part of a chain of power. And that chain is "only as strong as it's weakest link"..

Speed is the ability to get the weapon fired out on time, not late. Strength is the powerhouse used, and technique is the intelligence used to get the most efficient application out of that powerhouse: leverage.

These are not opposites. Having one without the other is like having a big engine with a crappy transmission, or a small engine with a tranny full of racing gears.

[EmptyneSs]

if i had to choose one, i would pick speed just because my defensive skills and evasion skills are good and i could probobly get away from people easily, but without power ur attacking skills will be shit. with speed u can get away from people and evade strikes, but if u lack power its gonna be tough to drop somene, especially when they are in that zone people get into when they fight, they feel pain less then normal because the andrenaline is rushing.


i saw this boxing match about a month ago. it was a heavyweight bout, but one of the boxers was much bigger and stronger than the other. through the entire match, the smaller guy was much faster, had better technique and was outboxing the bigger stronger guy, landing way more punches. sadly though, for all his effort, not a single one of the many punches he landed had enough power to do any dmg to the bigger stronger guy. the smaller guy would have won on decision no doubt because he landed more punches, but in the last round, the bigger guy landed one solid strong shot, and dropped the smaller boxer and won the match.

the fact is, u need power and strength in order to stop a person coming at u. someone mentioned u can hit a person many times and eventually hurt him, but that really isnt gonna go in your favor, nor is it the right mentality. u need to stop your attacker fast and hard. i think speed and power are equally important, but it seems to me alot of people underestimate strength and power.

i really like muay thai because every technique u use is supposed to be executed with full, devastating power, using speed as well.

-hoduken

[HtTKar]

Strength will actually GIVE you MORE speed.

Thats not completely true. You dont see world record weighlifters competing in 100M sprints. They are no doubt much stronger, but would never win a professional race of any kind. Using cars as an example; strength is comparable to torque, a bulldozer pushing over a house. Speed is the Viper cruising at 150mph.

If I had to choose between strength and speed, I'd choose speed. It's pretty easy to get stronger, much harder to get faster. Speed is more of a natural talent, strength can be gained by hard training.

[Tom Yum]

Originally Posted by HtTKar

Thats not completely true. You dont see world record weighlifters competing in 100M sprints. They are no doubt much stronger, but would never win a professional race of any kind. Using cars as an example; strength is comparable to torque, a bulldozer pushing over a house. Speed is the Viper cruising at 150mph.

If I had to choose between strength and speed, I'd choose speed. It's pretty easy to get stronger, much harder to get faster. Speed is more of a natural talent, strength can be gained by hard training.

Speed is good.

Sun Tzu is actually pronounced "soo-en-tsi" not "sun zoo"