Striking for the Submission: Punish First, Submit Later
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I was watching a Shonie Carter video on throws and he said something pretty catchy: “Punish first, submit later.” I’ve known about the concept for a while, but I loved the phrase.
The idea is that after you gain a dominant position, you punish your opponent with some strikes and hopefully open up a submission. When they are defending your punches, try to isolate a limb and crank it – flowing between ground and pound and submission searching. I’ve heard a couple of different MMA legends – BJ Penn and Bas Rutten come to mind – say that you don’t want to have two modes: a striking mode and grappling mode. It shouldn’t be an on/off switch – your strikes and submissions should be integrated.
That being said, it seems that submission attempts can wear both combatants out physically, and unless the submission finishes, you may not have been better off because of it. Strikes however, chip away at the enemy and even when they are blocked cause cumulative damage. As long as you are striking efficiently and following some smart guidelines of ground and pound, you are making active progress toward both a potential striking victory and a submission finish – given that you have an integrated punch/submit attitude.
The season 9 Ultimate Fighter Finale Wilks vs. Johnson is a good example of a fighter who have this mentality. (Watch it below for as long as it stays up)
Also, here’s a little clip of Fedor teaching how to use strikes to open up and finish an armbar. Here fighter Joe “Jitsu” Chrisopher setting up the armbar via strikes from the mount – as the the bottom guy uses his arms to defend punches, he gets a grip control and eventually pulls off the armbar.
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