Tip Tuesday: Elliot Compton’s 5 Keys To Striking Success
Elliot “The Dragon” Compton is one of the most unique strikers on the ONE Super Series roster, but he believes that solid fundamentals are the key to progression.
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Posted by ONE Championship on Wednesday, August 8, 2018
The Australian striker began his journey with a combination of Muay Thai, jeet kune do, wing chun, and Filipino martial arts. He continued his education in “the art of eight limbs,” and added in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts.
Compton, who has been training for more than 20 years, has learned several universal concepts that extend beyond any single discipline, and he teaches them to beginners at his family gym, Team Compton Training Center, in Brisbane, Australia.
Now, “The Dragon” offers up his five most important tips to improve your striking game for Muay Thai, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts.
#1 Footwork Is The Most Important Thing
“The first one – and in my opinion, the most important – is footwork.
“It doesn’t matter if you have the hardest punch or the hardest kick. You can be the most powerful person who has ever lived, but unless you have the delivery system to deliver that power, it is pointless. Footwork is your delivery system, so that needs to be one of the first things you master.”
#2 Go Live, But The Right Way
“The second one is light sparring, Dutch drilling, and live drilling.
“This is where you can use that delivery system and use the things you’ve been learning in the gym. This is where you can try things without getting knocked out, hence ‘light sparring’ and ‘light drilling.’ Rather than punching pads and punching bags, you’re actually looking for a target to perfect your accuracy, as well as your timing.”
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#3 Practice With A Goal
“Practice every single day without fail and set specific goals for every single session. Rather than just going to the gym and going through the motions, set a goal that you want to achieve in each session, and focus on achieving it.
“It’s so easy to get caught up trying to do everything all at once and confusing yourself with too many different things. Set a task, like, ‘Today, I’m just going to focus on landing a jab,’ or, ‘Today, I’m going to work on angles.’
“Eventually, when you put it all back together, you won’t have to think about it. You will have all the different dimensions of your game that will come out and they will just be second nature to you.”
#4 Control The Range, Control The Match
“Establish an understanding of range and timing.
“Again, you can be the most powerful person in the world, but if you punch from too far away, you’re too close to land it, or you can’t keep somebody at the end of your punch, it’s pointless. By understanding range and timing, it will increase your offense, and also increase your defense and your ability to control the fight.”
#5 Do Not Rush
“Take your time to perfect your technique.
“A rush job is not a good job – meaning, anyone can throw a punch and anyone can understand technique, but if you just do the technique for five minutes at the start of class and then just try to go as fast and as hard as you can over and over, you are not perfecting your technique. You are just going through the motions.
“Make sure you take your time and give attention to the detail of the technique. Then when you’ve got that, you can add speed and intensity into it, and muscle memory will take over. Then you will start to develop some serious power.”
Read more: Tip Tuesday: Bibiano Fernandes’ 3 Rules For Success In BJJ
