facing your fears

[L3FTH00K]

I have trained in boxing and grappling. The funny thing is when I asked boxers if they want to learn to groundfight they decline. When I asked grapplers to go to a boxing gym to spar, they decline. People usually fear the " Unknown. "

I know many of you practice some sort of groundfighting in this forum but aren't you guys curious to see if you have a good set of whiskers. I mean aren't you guys curious to know if you own a glass Jaw.

Before I even joined a boxing gym 11years ago I already had some sort of idea how strong my chin was from my street fights. Once I joined my boxing gym I knew my chin was going to be tested by better strikers. My background has always been ground fighting but joining a boxing gym really answeared all my questions. The way I look at it, I think all grapplers need to have this questioned answeared. I think "knowing how stong your chin is " would probobly diminished many of fears you might have. I'm sure knowing if you take a good punch will alter the way you might fight if ever you are confronted. I'm sure people like RockinRonnie and Big Bird who I know have boxed, already know how strong their chins are.

L.H.:

Yeah, I would like to box at some point. When I get my BJJ skills up to par (they suck), I will look for a boxing gym. I did karate for ten years. I got hit hard a few times, but never by a full-power shot (I think). I think I am built pretty well for taking punishment, i.e. broad-shouldered, no-neck, but I won't know until I'm really clocked.

My family and friends are terrified I'm going to get brain-damage, but that's okay, I'm not planning to challenge Tyson or anything.

[SweepEm]

L3, just curious how many boxers and how many grapplers you asked in order to make some generalizations about being able to theorize a statement about different athletes.

Judo dude's question got me thinking about school again.
Damn statistics class and all those psychological studies I did. Being able to get a large enough sample group to make sense of our conclusions. It sure was fun to experiment on the freshmen Psychology students.
We were doing a comprehensive study about reading an excerpt and I would come out and tell the group that we were running behind but the equipment would arrive shortly for the electro shock learning experiment. There were a few that were wide eyed and were thinking of running out the door.
Heh heh.

Ooops, I got off topic again. Hmmm.

Cross training.........I've done some boxing, some stand up Kung Fu and now BJJ.
Am I the exception?
I don't think so.

[Bau13]

I am primarily a stand-up fighter (muai thai)
And I have no fear whatsoever of learning grappling..
I WANT TO LEARN SOME but there are like NO good grappling schools here..

[L3FTH00K]

Sweepem to answear your question I did not take a poll of 100 boxers or grapplers wether they would cross train. Instead it was a topic I brought up to my friends who train in boxing, Bjj, and who are wrestlers.

You see awhile back I had boxing sparring session with an old friend. After we were done I asked him what he thought of the UFC. He repplied it was interesting, so I asked him if he would like to roll with someone I knew who grappled. He said he really was not interested. I have also possed this question to friends who have grappled and they were not interested in going to a boxing gym to develop their striking skills.

Later on while disscusing with both friends if they wanted to cross train they both said they would only if I personally taught them myself. When I asked why they would rather train in a garage with me instead of a boxing gym or a wretling matt my friends basicly replied the same answear.

They all said it was a combination of PRIDE and a little of FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN. My grappler friends were not technically scared to get into a streetfight with a boxer but they felt it was a little scary to simply stand up throw punches with a boxer. I expressed to my friends that they would have to feel a little bit of pain to learn how to box. They knew that they would probobly get hurt a in a sparring session with an boxer. I told them it's just a small price to pay to learn.

As for pride, I understood this a little. You see before I got into boxing when I was 16 I was trained by my family how to fight. My training involved ground fighting and submissions. Before joining my boxing gym I have been successful in my streetfights, and I was not used to loosing. Well I knew when I joined my boxing gym for the first time I had to swallow my pride. I knew if I had to learn how to box I would probobly get my head handed to me by an experienced boxer, and I did.

My friend who was an boxer told me," of course I have pride, I can't imagine smaller guys kicking my but on the matt." I sort of compared to Mike Tyson walking to a Royce Gracie gym to learn how to grapple. This would never happen because Tyson would have to much pride to get beat up by Royce to simply learn how to groundfight.