I've been avoiding writing about Lyoto for a while, wanting to do him justice. I could only avoid it so long however, as he's my most requested fighter! I hope my karate background can add a little something to my analysis on this one. Fair warning, there's a bit more Traditional Martial Arts philosophy in this one than usual ;)
Cheers,
Jack
Lyoto Machida is as fine a striker as has ever stepped into the octagon. A master of movement and timing despite his limited move set and technically mediocre kickboxing, Machida has shown how much of striking is in the intangibles and not in how pretty one's technique looks on it's own. [B]In my humble opinion,*Lyoto Machida's*performances against*Thiago Silva*and*Rashad Evans*are the two striking performances*which came closest to true perfection[/B]. Against elite level competition Lyoto left both matches almost untouched and with knockout victories on his record - no-one can argue that this isn't the objective of traditional striking martial arts.
As a passionate karateka since infancy, I have had the pleasure of training with a great many of the Machida family's competitive opponents and have been saving my thoughts on Lyoto Machida until I feel I can begin to do his style justice on paper. I even excluded Lyoto Machida from my first ebook,*Advanced Striking, with the intention of saving a detailed examination of his technique for a second volume - simply so that I could articulate his style as completely as possible. With his meeting with heavy handed wrestler,*Ryan Bader*approaching, I felt that it was time I broke down some of the subtlety of*karate*to Bloody Elbow readers.
The first thing to establish is that in*karate, the reverse punch is king. This is the right straight for an orthodox fighter or the left straight for a southpaw fighter (often mistakenly called the "cross"). The reverse punch is known as gyaku-zuki in Japanese, and landing it is the single most practiced facet of Shotokan karate. Training at the Japan Karate Association headquarters in Tokyo, I must have been counted through well over two hundred thousand reverse punches by various instructors in my brief few months there - not to mention in my private training.
Gyaku-zuki*is seen as the heart of karate-do, and it is*certainly*the heart of Lyoto Machida's fighting style. A strong reverse punch alone does not make a good fighter however, and I have encountered dozens of*karateka*in my travels who have believed themselves to be competent martial artists but have fallen apart terribly when movement and "aliveness" is added. Indeed, many karateka do not even engage in*Jiyu Kumite*or free sparring all that often.
The genius of Machida lies in his timing - which can usually be defined under the Japanese concepts of*Go-No-Sen*or*Sen-No-Sen. Go-No-Sen is the act of taking the initiative after an opponent's attack, blocking the opponent's strike and striking back as they recover - such Lyoto famously used against Sam Hoger, or even as Rampage used his block and hook against*Wanderlei Silva.*Sen-No-Sen,*however,*is the highest level of skill in*karate*and all striking arts - the act of taking the initiative by attacking*simultaneously*with the opponent.
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