Head movement for MMA, the lost art.

Head movement for MMA, the lost art.

I was talking with my good friend who owns a very successful MMA academy down south and he was talking about head movement for MMA and why you should see more of it. I was thinking that this would be a good time to talk about the ins and outs of the last art of head movement for MMA or striking training in general.

First off, what is head movement? Lets make this simple, if someone throws a punch to your face and you move your head so that the punch (or kick) misses, then you have head movement.
For MMA the best example of head movement would be Anderson Silva. If you watch his fight with Forrest Griffin you will see how well he moved his head to avoid the punches and ended up knocking out Forrest in the process.

Why is head movement even more important for MMA fighting then Boxing? Because let me be the first to tell you, those little gloves fly fast and if you think you will block them all with your arms then you’re mistaken. You have to be moving your head and body a whole lot to not get hit because it only takes one blow to the chin with the little 4oz UFC gloves on to knock you out.

Some good drills to help with head movement would be slipping on a slip bag, ducking under a rope or simply moving your head more while shadow. All three things don’t require a training partner at all.
Rather then write all this stuff on head movement for MMA or Boxing, take a look at the videos posted below. I think you guys will find all the details needed in the videos.