Why I Try To Box Like Pernell Whitaker

In June of 2016, the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, and one my personal heroes, passed away.  Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest human beings to ever lace up the gloves, left us at the age of 74 after battling Parkinson's disease for decades.  Never has a celebrity death hit me harder.  His greatness inside and outside the ring simply filled me with awe.  Who else could have not only the boxing record he had, but have that record after being forced to give up the sport during his prime athletic years because he refused to fight in the unjust crime against humanity we call the Vietnam War?  My respect for that man was, and still is, limitless.

Yet my favorite boxer died three years later, in July of 2019.

Ali was my favorite person who ever boxed, but Pernell Whitaker was my favorite boxer.  While any serious boxing fan knows his name, few outside of the boxing world do.  As only a casual boxing fan myself, I didn't even discover him through boxing- I discovered him when UFC legend Anderson Silva was in his prime, dancing around punches as if he could read opponents' minds.  One night, inspired by Silva and in the mood to watch some boxing, I Googled "boxers with good head movement" to see what I could find.  I stumbled across a Pernell Whitaker highlight video.  The rest was history.

One of the best to ever do it.

Any of you reading this know me as someone who loves fight science.  You're probably expecting me to name specific nuances of his game I admire.  While that does sound fun, I actually wanna focus on something a little more broad here.  And something that even goes beyond the realm of boxing.  It gets into why I got into martial arts in the first place, and why I continue to train in the combat sports world as a martial artist.

Pernell Whitaker, if you're not familiar with him, was a master of defensive boxing.  Everyone remembers him for his amazing head movement especially.  It was how I stumbled across him, after all.  Unlike Anderson Silva, who could employ amazing head movement against MMA fighters during an early era with incredibly primitive boxing, Whitkaer danced around the punches of world-class boxers.  Most boxers who have highlight reels on YouTube have highlights of their knockouts; Whitaker has those, but he has even more highlight videos of him dodging punches like he was in The Matrix.

On a less flashy level, he also had crafty footwork.  He could change the tempo of his movement like nothing, which made it hard to predict how he might move when he wasn't punching.  Sometimes he exited an exchange by rapidly darting away, other times he strolled away at a leisurely pace.  Sometimes he pretended to stroll away, wanting an opponent to chase him, where he would then spring his trap and explode into a rapid-fire punching combination.  On top of his footwork, he also had a surprisingly strong jab for a southpaw, which he used to disrupt the rhythm of his opponents.  It was the combination of his head movement, footwork, and southpaw jab that together created a world-class defense that few fighters in boxing history have been able to match.

Trying to catch prime Whitaker was like trying to nail jello to a wall.

Okay, I guess I couldn't help my self, I had to talk at least a little bit about fight science.  But there's more to this than that.

I've been into martial arts since I was a kid.  I wanted to be like the Green Power Ranger, Batman, and Superman.  My parents enrolled me in karate when I was around eight; it was pretty generic US karate, nothing special, but I loved it.  I never continued it when we moved from Virginia to California roughly a year later, but I always dreamed about returning to martial arts in some way or another.  I wanted to be like Goku and Gohan from Dragonball Z.  In high school I started lifting weights, but I also watched a bunch of Asian martial arts films.  My favorite were the muay thai movies of Tony Jaa.  Shortly after I graduated high school, I found a studio that taught muay thai, jeet kune do (Bruce Lee's martial art), and kali/arnis (Filipino fencing with bamboo sticks and knives).  Since then, I have been training martial arts in one form or another almost my entire adult life.

The thing is, fighting goes against my nature.  I was a gentle, sensitive kid.  There's a reason Gohan was my favorite DBZ character; I wanted to be like Goku, but I related to Gohan's gentleness.  I don't like hurting people, nor do I particularly enjoy the sensation of getting punched or kicked myself.  While I get used to it when I've been training for a while, anytime I leave striking for an extended period of time and come back to it, I find myself deeply uncomfortable in sparring.  I push through it, but I don't enjoy it the way some people in the gym do.  It's simply not my element.

This moment helped define my childhood.

I train for a variety of reasons.  To be healthy, to have a place of community, to have self-defense skills in my back pocket (or community defense skills, should I ever see something like a hate crime or violently angry fascist somewhere).  Perhaps the main reasons I train, though, is that I love both the science and the art behind fighting.  To be able to understand how fighting isn't about brute force, but about smarts and technique and strategy; a science.  How it's also about your own personality and creativity and ability to improvise; an art.  When I'm sparring, I'm not doing it because I want to hurt my opponent.  I'm doing it because I want to perfect my craft and learn a little bit about myself in the process.

What I love about Whitaker's fighting style is that it shows how fighting isn't just about how effectively you can hurt someone.  He knew how to go on the offensive when the chance came to him, but he truly created a masterpiece of the art of defense.  Of preservation.  Of diffusing aggression.  Not only that, but he looked so damn cool doing it!  From that very first highlight video I saw of his, I knew I'd found something special.  Something that showed me that it's okay to focus on making an art of diffusing aggression and keeping both me and my partner safe, rather than trying to get in as many shots as I can.

Don't get me wrong, I still practice my punches.  I still try to set up good offense in sparring.  I'd be an obnoxious training partner if I didn't, because it's that back and forth that makes sparring such a valuable method for learning how to fight.  It's my defense, though, where I truly put my focus.  And, while it may be a bit dorky to admit, I do try to make it look flashy and cool whenever I can, because what's training without a little fun?

Thanks for everything you taught me about what fighting can be, Pernell Whitaker.  RIP.

Self-Defense for Women

How awful is it that I even have to make this post?  Unfortunately, we live in a society that teaches young men that they are entitled to women's bodies.  Ever since childhood we are shown and told stories of men saving the day and essentially winning their love interest, even if that love interest previously didn't have any interest in them.  In every day life,"nice guys" think that if they act pleasant toward a woman then they somehow deserve her, as if a woman is a prize to be won at an arcade in exchange for politeness points.

 

Redeemable for 20 chivalry coupons!

Beyond that, men are often encouraged to not respect when a woman says no, or to try to push the boundaries of what she is comfortable with, in order to score and prove how "manly" we are. It's an unjust situation.  If we lived in an ideal world, this post wouldn't be necessary.  Alas, we don't, and this is where we find ourselves.

The main focus of this post will be two-fold: critiquing so-called "self-defense" oriented programs and recommending better alternatives for training.

The main problem with most self-defense focused programs/styles is that they offer very little "aliveness" in their training- in other words, they don't have opportunities to go against an opponent who is actively resisting.  Instead, they usually only do choreographed drills that involve your opponent compliantly letting you do to them whatever you're being taught.  Static drills are an important part of any training regimen, but they can't be the only part.

The excuse you'll hear from these "reality based" styles is that their moves are "too deadly" to train with aliveness. And certainly, there are indeed highly effective moves you don't want to perform on your training partners for risk of severe injury.  But here's the thing: if you're not supplementing your training with aliveness, everything you learn will fly out the window the instant someone in real life actually tries to attack you.  If you're not used to someone trying to fight back when performing your moves, you will have no idea how to deal with an opponent who isn't being compliant.

Basically, if your training has no aliveness, this is what you're doing- which is all good,
but let's call it what it is.

And that's what most self-proclaimed "self-defense" styles do.  Compliant drill, after compliant drill, after compliant drill.  It's like becoming really good at playing catch and thinking that alone can make you a quarterback in the NFL, when in reality you need to practice throwing the ball while dealing with people trying to tackle you to the ground.

Instead, train in a style that offers aliveness.  The ultimate form of aliveness is sparring (or its equivalent in other styles such as randori in Judo, rolling in Jiujitsu, kumite in Karate, etc): a simulated match where each participant is trying to win.  There are other forms of aliveness, too, such as drills where your opponent offers increasing levels of resistance when you try to apply techniques on them.

Now, because you're training in a style with aliveness, your training won't focus on "deadly" moves.  But it's much better to be able to perform well-trained normal moves under pressure than to have "deadly" moves that you can't use on anyone willing to fight back.

To bring this back to women in particular, I'd recommend a good grappling style to train in.  Most violence against women outside of domestic abuse doesn't involve a man hitting a woman, but trying to force himself on her.  That is what a good grappling style will prepare you for- also, size also tends to matter less in grappling arts than in striking arts.  I'd recommend Judo, Jiujitsu, Sambo, or even good ol' Wrestling as consistently reliable styles.

A grappling match between a man and a woman where the woman wins by submission.

Check out that video up there (the advertisements end at about 20 seconds in).  Even when the guy gets the dominant top position and is trying to go for the finish, she is able to keep her cool, fight off of her back, and go for the finish herself.  That's what training with aliveness does.

Now, I do have to warn anyone reading this and considering training, it is not easy.  I honestly think part of the reason people train in less effective arts without aliveness in the curriculum is they know how hard it is  to train effectively.  In my post about martial arts and violence, I talked about all the setbacks and small victories that define training.  It sounds noble and almost romantic in writing, but in the gym it can sometimes be frustrating and discouraging.

However, the results are more than worth it.  That grappling match I posted was from an actual competition; in other words, that guy was actively trying to beat her and still lost.  Very, very, very few non-trained men could ever smother an experienced grappler, regardless of their sex.  When I first started training Jiujitsu, women that probably don't even have weight in the triple digits were able to submit me easily.  Even with my training, a high level grappler half my size can still wipe the floor with me.

For those of you reading who don't know me in real life: I am 6 feet tall, just shy of 200 pounds, and do strength training a couple times a week.  I am not exactly a small guy.  But if I were trying to win a match in Jiujitsu, I'd much rather take on a 250 pound man without training than a 120 pound purple belt.

We shouldn't have to live in a world where women are put in charge of defending themselves from sexual assault and other forms of violence.  Thanks to the objectification of women, however, we do.  To all the ladies out there, please, don't be taken in by talk of super deadly, super awesome, super quick self-defense classes.  It's a scam.  Instead, take a class where you are being pushed to your limit and put up against people in an alive training environment.  It'll be difficult, but if you are ever forced to put your training to the test, you need to be able to make it out okay.