A comment if I may on stances. The reason judokas (as well as jitsu practioners and wrestlers, for that matter) get away with leading with their dominant throwing leg/arm is that since their is no striking allowed, there is no danger (in theory) that their dominant limbs will be damaged. Since less distance to travel = less work, grapplers want their dominant limbs forward for throwing/shooting to get at the opponent with both the fastest and the strongest hold.

Strikers (boxers, karatekas, thai fighters) put their weak sides forward because they want finishing power in their strikes, which requires distance to build up. Also, they want to keep their strong sides away from their opponent’s strong side as well so that they aren’t too badly damaged in a fight. In essence, strikers are sacrificing their weak sides in order to nail their opponent with their strong side.

Oddly, jeet kune do and sanshou strikers are the only strikers that lead with their strong sides forward. They wanted less distance to travel for their stronger side, which traditional strikers weren’t used to. So all throughout the 70′s and 80′s sanshou and jeet kune do fighters would cream everyone else.

Then the Muay Thai guys wised up and started damaging their strong side limbs, especially with their thundering thigh kicks, leaving the JKD and sanshou fighters helpless as they fought with weak side limbs. So now virtually all strikers fight with weak side forward… with one very important exception.

SOUTHPAWS. A southpaw is usually a left-handed striker like me who naturally has to lead with his weaker side (the right). However, many right-dominant fighters have forced themselves to fight as a southpaw specifically to mess up the 90% of the world’s strikers that fight with their weaker left side forward.

When mixing martial arts, things get interesting. As a striker you put the weaker side forward, but you have to grapple/throw with your strong side forward. So what’s a mixed martial artist to do? Simple. Learn to fight ambidextrously with either your striking or your throwing. You can even do both if you’re amazing.

Personally, my stance changes depending on what the situation is. If i’m only throwing, I lead left (strong side). If I’m only striking, I start by leading right (weak side) to mess the other guy’s mind up but then alternate between right and left lead during the fight (often as I’m striking) to mess his head up even more.

If I’m allowed to do both strike and throw/takedown, then I start left leading and alternate between left and right lead during the fight with the specific goal in mind of tricking my opponent into thinking he’s in a boxing/kickboxing/muay thai fight only to throw him on his ass or take him down and neutralize his striking.

Tran