15 Mar To Practice One Side or Both?
Early in my career as a martial artist I simply tried to listen to my instructors. When the topic of practicing moves on both sides came up, there was split advice. My stand up coaches all agreed to pick one stance and stick with it. It was considered better to have one strong side than two mediocre sides. Ground coaches had the opposite approach, they all advocated being able to work on both sides, but in actuality my practice was always probably 75% on my strong side and 25% on my weak side.
Then I heard Marcelo explain his justification for only practicing one side and I was sold. Marcelo believed much like my standup coaches it was better to get as many reps as possible on your “good” side to insure that it was as proficient as possible. For a long time I was content to work on my stronger side almost exclusively. This plan had sound reasoning, but it did not prove itself in practice.
In three consecutive MMA fights, which included my first two fights as a professional I submitted opponents on my weaker side. Suddenly I had mounting evidence that there was a lot of merit to making sure I was ready for every situation. This thought process would begin to affect every aspect of my training. I felt growing freedom to open up my training and practice more and more different ways of both ground and standup techniques. Now I practice everything (stand up, take downs, and ground work) on both sides, not just to develop the techniques but also to continue to develop the kinetic awareness of my body and to increase my adaptability to future situations.