Pressure Fighting is NOT About Offense 

If you prefer more detailed instruction, I have a couple of in-depth courses up at hard2hurt.teachable.com

Seth and Mike together just makes me imagine some cartoon sitcom about a big, friendly, chill Great Dane who just wants to be friends with a small dog that's just all like "YO COME AT ME BRO, FUCK YOU UP LIKE DYNAMITE!"

"Pressure isn't necessarily being hit, but the threat of being hit, and pressure makes a person tired"-Cus D'Amato

Love the collabs with Sensei Seth! You guys work so well together, despite being almost the opposite of each other in terms of personality. The contrast is excellent, and very entertaining.

Those hips don't lie.

This beats the bike video as your best one. 1. Dealing with the guy who forgets what you JUST demonstrated. 2. Pressure fighting is not solely for people that walk forward 3. There’s levels to defense. Great shit as always

Two major takeaways from this video: - Those two have the comedy genius of Laurel&Hardy. - Sensei Seth is a target rich environment. Keep up the good work! :-)

Seth is an incredibly good sport

"New guys that want to be counter fighters are just running away" Icy Mike with the cold truth. Appreciate it 🙏🏽 Sincerely, A New Guy Who Is Also A Counter Fighter 🤣

I said it in a message on your podcast when Sensei Seth was back in Dallas, you're a great comedy team. Your (Mike) ability to communicate your lesson is amplified with Seth around. You gave a great explanation of the pressuring that more advanced players should be able to implement to help novices. That's a real gift!

Another beautiful installment of practicing the things you don’t wanna do to allow you to do the things you want to do!

Pressure fighting doesn’t work

Rocky Marciano was phenomenal at that. I've been watching him lately and just blown away with his ability. He got hit a lot, but rarely got hit clean. Nobody that ever hit him ever got away without getting hit themselves. When he got into position he was always working. A prime example of pressure fighting

I love the videos of you two. The differences in size and style really show a lot- even to someone like me who didn't do MA in the last 15 years and won't be able to do for the next 2-3yrs... Keep it going :)

"Fuh dis, me fight good too!" - Icicle Michael 2022

I imagine that was the point of the old Chinese military martial art footwork systems; how to step into & off of a line. Integrating more footwork drills to these sparring sessions is offering great value to us weekend warriors. Thanks again

The interplay between you two is seriously entertaining. :)

As one of the older guys at my Muay Thai gym that tends towards pressure fighting (because I'm not going to be able to do the evasive thing with asthma against people 15-20 years younger than me), parrying and countering is a big part of my strategy in sparring. This especially applies to younger but newer people. Once I've answered their jabs with kicks and crosses a few times, they become more hesitant to throw and I have more opportunity to close into my preferred knee and clinch ranges. Works a lot better than just trying to Leeroy Jenkins my way in.

NGL you two almost have an older brother / younger brother kind of vibe going on when you do these collabs with the faces, jokes, eyerolls, etc. Makes it entertaining as well as informative, kudos to you both.

Dope ass gloves Seth!!

I just started utilizing pressure fighting, amazing timing😁

this concept of forcing action, is really key to kendo - it's called seme in that context. It's interesting to me that fencing in all forms really teaches this type of pressure game - you don't need to worry about loading up for power or anything, it's just that interplay

Yo this was dope. One of my main friends who i spar with is way taller, has a way longer reach and is legitimately a better fighter than me. I can barely land anything cause when i would try to pressure to get in close, he'd just back up and pick me apart because his reach is so much longer and id only be moving forward. By the time i get close enough to land one shot, I've eaten 4-5. The only way i can find myself landing hits is when i throw body kicks, feint a kick, then when he drops his hands, i step in and land a couple

This was a great episode Reminds me of many training sessions in the past and gives pretty good drill/sparring ideas to include in the future

its so common for people to get stuck using the same weapons and they think mastering one thing actually means they are a master 😅. I love how you teach how to be a versatile fighter 👏 🤗

Excellent video, I can’t wait to drill more lateral movement during sparring because I’ve noticed I can get into that tractor mentality you’ve mentioned.

this explanation makes a lot of sense to me, thank you Mike! I've recently found some great succes using pendulum stepping to invite agression on my terms while keeping range with sparring partners. Now i finally understand why it has been working so well for me, appreciate it!

Very cool explanations of these apparently notions that can become very strong tools. I also like how Seth seems so humble about taking tips, even though we know that if he went serious on someone with a karate move, he could very well knock their entire dentures out. Good job you guys!

Lomachenko is a pressure fighter. High volume and great defense. He DOES counter some punches, but he initiating most exchanges. Floyd is a counter puncher, he uses his IQ to download his opponent. Than he removes their most dangerous tools with adjustments, and focuses on what's left. He forces them to things HIS way, which allows him to counter things much easier.

I love when you and sensei Seth collab! Keep the content coming you guys are awesome 💪🏽

This is awesome! I never in a million years would have guessed that Icy Mike would be teaching people footsies and how to whiff punish buttons IRL! Lol

Wow congrats on the 441k subscribers Mike! Can't believe the growth!

This is some next level business, right here! I learned a lot from this one! Thank you kindly!

this is so entertaining to watch!! I smiled the whole time. Great!

Super helpful tips. Love it!

I think, that was the video with the most take aways for me. Thank you very much indeed! 🙏🏻

Well Seth's neck is seriously well-muscled.

- Pressure fighting is about defence. - opponent will hit you - find their pattern of shots - take a few to give a few - set a target for opponent to hit. Hand position high lvl force Mid lvl predict Low lvl react - They're going to adjust to you and try and stop you - ex. Kicking you too keep out of range. - stay just out of range, use missed kick tk come in - if they're backing up when in close, use side to side movement to cut angles to follow them - OODA observe orient decide act - moving constantly fucks up their ooda - if what your doing stops working your nit wrong it just means you need to move to the next step in the system.

0:06 best connor mcgreggor imitation ever 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Helpful video brother. Thank you

1:26 set an expectation & rhythm 3:25 defense levels 4:39 go 5:20 bait 5:39 side to side moving6:19 7:00 ooda example 7:50 win quote 9:08 Hip swivel9:50 10:31 Mess with their timing 11:05 he going fwd 11:50

This was a great video! Loved all the advice, don't tell Shane but I definitely watch your channel more these days 🙊

Icy Seth and Sensei Mike...it's gotta ring to them. Lol. Thanks for the information man. You really help me out quite a bit.

Dude!... that was too good! 👏🏼

Thanks! I was one of those new guys thinking I wanted to be a counter fighter, hah! Then I realized that my personality is much better tuned to being a pressure fighter, but I thought I had to throw a lot of offense to do it. This video was perfect for where I'm at, ~1 yr of classes and a bit of sparring.

Great video, thanks!

Definitely will seek to retain this information in my next sparring session.

There’s some serious gems in this video. Great video

OMG! Sensei Seth and Icy Mike sparring! This is awesome!

Probably one of the best boxing videos I've seen thank you

This is the Mutt and Jeff team, you guy’s make learning and watching these vids that much better.

I'm really happy someone said this

Great tips!!!

When I trained in jkd about 20 years ago, we had a full body suit(foam). To get our assistant instructor certificate, we had to fight 3 guys at one time. 3v1. They came in hard and we had to fight for real. Only 1 minute though. It felt like 10. How about seeing a full contact training fight. The suits were cool cos it was obvious that the guy doing the exam would get a beating. Sometimes. respect dude. Love the channel

If I may also add, work on keeping your balance when attacking. It makes a huge difference! Don't overextended to try and "hit harder". You'll hit hard enough. :) Love the videos!

I like the sneaky "you go both ways" you snuck in

Is it “Hard-Tohurt? Or “Hardto-hurt?” 😂🤚lol fantastic video. I liked the interplay between you and sifu Seth.

This video was top tier, the dance of rhythm & timing

Thanks!

Mike could you make a full guide on minimizing cte. I know u arent an expert on neurons and that stuff but have lots of experience in training so can probably offer a good perspective. Please

so much of this relates to dueling with sharp weapons. The pressure fighter who has a perfect defense and forces/ draws the op's counter attacks to take advantage of them is the true master.

Great video

that's good stuff. In russian it is called "rocking the boat", meaning get/impose the rhythm to either break it or use it.

OHHHH Seth's Cap America gloves!!!! GREAT VIDEO!

My coach in muay thai calls my style pressure fighting. I agree with him. I've always been REAL serious about making sure my head and face(and ribs) were well defended. From my own experience; its more about cutting off the other guys options than just mindlessly moving forward. Moving forward is definitely part of it but only it has to be done in a skillful way(if you don't wanna get hit more than necessary anyway). And with my style; and prob a ton of other guys with similar styles do this too; you wanna block their shots while moving inside on them, so you can land some hard hooks on the side of their head(or their ribs if that isn't open or not considered an optimal target). The ultimate goal in pressure fighting is to make them panic, or come close to panic, with how much you are moving in on them and deflecting their shots with ease and bombing on them. The shots are gonna be softer in sparring; but you can still very easily get dropped with a shot to the face or head even in sparring, even with headgear on. Ive done it plenty of times; and also its been done to me before a handful of times. I attack on the off beat, off the rhythm they think I'm gonna stick to, this is an enormously useful asset in fighting. Even if you're technically slower than them you will still hit them square if you throw in this way. You NEVER take your eyes off your opponent, ever, even if they are throwing combos at your face you use the best blocks or parries or head movement/footwork to evade, you wanna make sure you STAY in hooking range with a high guard once you get there; you wanna use leg kicks quite often too esp as setup strikes to begin(and/or end) your punching combinations; and you wanna force them into a corner of the ring ideally, though the edge of the ring, near the ropes, is also good since it cuts off backpedaling. In short, make them play YOUR game. That's what its about. That's what I think of as "pressure fighting". Since I use it myself I have a very high opinion of it and the results it gets.

LOL... 13 minutes of Icy Mike explaining working angles and slipping... LOL Love this!

1:07 Mike: "I know you go both ways." Seth: *doesn't deny it* Me: "So you're saying there's a chance?"

reading Bruce's "Jeet Kune Do " at the moment and he's talking about breaking the opponent's timing, by forcing the opponent to go on your timing. Obviously the point is to control the fight. Speaking of which, every strike (even blocks are strikes!) in Wing Chun is Offensive, with no backward movement whatsoever. Some of the parrying here is somewhat reminiscent of this philosophy, of disturbing the opponent's balance, by placing them in unfamiliar territory; so that you may begin to set pace as a human metronome with your own strikes (while they attempt to recalibrate to a position they're familiar with or regard as "comfortable"). Of course this is all philosophical, and perhaps my absolute favorite aspect of martial arts. Lee himself wasn't the first to discuss the importance of Timing, as you may know, Miyamoto Musashi also spoke of this... and who knows how many before him. The "ways to get there" are perhaps infinite in variation. This presentation does get one to think a lot about it. Great video.

Please shoot me the link to find them boxing gloves

3:13 reacting, predicting, forcing (parrying and head movement)

Mike, When you are doing the sort of "everyone on the mat" soft sparring that you do and most MMA gyms do, how do you make sure people stay aware of and keep using pressure and volume fighting tactics? I find it difficult to do because soft sparring kind of trains you to point fight because you feel like if you come forward and throw too much you are more likely to let a hard shot go by accident and the constant resetting contains a false impression that being evasive works better than it actually would in a fight, causing both partners to favour that tactic more. Could you do a video on this?

I've been blessed to be a shorter guy with an extremly long arm/leg reach, good footwork, very hard to hit, and faster than most. When sparring all the taller guys, I throw so many differnt combos from differnt angles, mixing fakes with real in a way that makes them seem one and the same, and always ready for counters. Great video!

100% of the game is 90% mental -Sensei Seth

Icy Seth in the back giving the outro 👌🤣🤣

This video is excellent!

I like how many similarities there are between fighting technique and motorcycle riding technique. 😂 There are different styles like: - Hanging off as much as possible from the bike, dragging elbow in the ground, aimed at reducing lean angle of the motorcycle - More neutral, mostly pushing upper body into the turn - Completely neutral upper body, - Foot out, pushing the bike down beneath the upper body, simplified called 'dirt bike style' cornering, where the goal is to maintain control when the bike starts sliding - Etc. Everyone loves to argue about how their 'style' is superior. The comment sections are always a blast.😅

Nice side kick Icy Mike

Fantastic video. This is how you become a dangerous striker. This is I think the absolute essence of being a good striker. And I thought I was clever because I’m beginning to understand this lmao this video sums up in 12 minutes like 9 months of progress for me! Mike question, when you understand this what do you believe is the next level beyond this? Or does it become more so a physical thing at that point?

Makes sense. You can only build up pressure in a gas tank if the tank walls are sturdy enough to resist the gas set under pressure.

Chuck Liddell was one of the greatest counter punchers in ufc he dealt with pressure fighters very well

Hiroki Akimoto from ONE Championship is a great example of this IMHO. He's like a pressure fighter and counter striker wrapped up into one and it's beautiful to watch.

I think this will help me a lot, simply because my defense is good moving backward using head movement or parrying but it's very rare I'm moving backwards, I always try to be the aggressor in the center of the cage, but recently I've been getting peppered on my way in and after seeing this video I think it's because my head movement as the aggressor is poor so I should be parrying but I don't have my hands up, so maybe instead I should be having my hands up and parry on my way in and save the head movement for being on the backfoot or in their pocket after parrying to get there

1:30 good thing you ... SETH the expectations early in the vid!! I'll show myself out

I used to be a counter striker on RU-vid comments, but then I realized I could write whatever I want and not have to answer for it.

Sensei Seth in the background at the end had me dying. Actually laughed out loud

I didn't want to be a pressure fighter, but I sure waded into a lot of punches when I first started kickboxing thinking that if there's a lull I should go forward and be the aggressor.

Very educational video

im not even a fighter and i just watch this shit cause you two are entertaining.

Everytime I see Mike's sub count it trips me out. It doesn't feel like that long ago he only had a couple thousand subs.

I feel like Mike is coming at me. I'm trying here dude🤣

i'm totally guilty of this and this video will help me a whole ton , Thanks Guys !

Hey Icy Mike I have a video idea for you. Fighting in motorcycle gear. Like a road rage incident where one person is a car driver with regular clothes against a guy in full motorcycle gear. Maybe even test if pepper spray works on someone wearing a helmet.

Somehow, I got into this channel looking for flashlight reviews, and here I am. I'm obsessed.

I just figured this out myself, and here's RU-vid recommending this video. Funny how that works. I used to think counter-fighting was too difficult for most of us with typical reflexes. If you wait for your opponent to throw a punch, you're mostly going to get punched, right? Being aggressive seemed to be the easiest way to gain the upper hand for a while, but my sparring partners have come to expect it, and I found myself running face-first into punches all the time. I realized that I needed to work on countering and timing, and that if I'm more strategic about my aggression, I can get my opponent to react and then counter it, instead of running into it. Some good tips here on doing that more effectively👍

You two are so funny together!

Im usually sparring with bigger people, so the stakes for me are usually higher. One punch from them can be a lot more dangerous than of mine, which makes me less agressive and looking for that perfect counter which sometimes doesnt come.

Mike, having just watched your videos on tomahawks and axe, I was wondering if you've ever tested or tried kukris?

Very educational and very funny 😆

Counter attack if it stuns move them into a desire direction, then move right into pressure attacking. That's how I learned to deal with faster attackers.

Could you do a video on lights vs lasers on your pistol?