North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
Striking is much more technique specific. The acceleration portion is fairly low strength stuff in all reality as it is generated by total body movement. Once the strike is in motion, most strikes rely on relaxation and allowing the speed to develop, you cannot power through with as much force as can be generated by letting momentum kick in - tightening up only with the striking surfaces. If you practice speed for real, you have to be hitting something or you'll give yourself joint problems, so some conditioning no matter.
That said, a more muscular person with greater limb mass will hit harder even with somewhat lesser technique - up to a point. But that's not necessarily greater strength.
And then the body isn't really designed to strike as hard as one can learn to execute. Even among well trained MMA fighters, broken metacarpals are not uncommon and I'd not like to see the stats on wrist issues/torn ligaments in the wrist or osteoarthritis down the road.
Taken to an extreme example of technique vs strength, watch some video from a Dog Brothers meet and you'll see that size and strength have even lesser bearing in many matches - taking a back seat to speed and timing, especially in small blade matches. When it comes to most sport MA, strength is far more important than more reality based combat training.
The one constant across most MA, sport or otherwise, is grip strength.
That said, a more muscular person with greater limb mass will hit harder even with somewhat lesser technique - up to a point. But that's not necessarily greater strength.
And then the body isn't really designed to strike as hard as one can learn to execute. Even among well trained MMA fighters, broken metacarpals are not uncommon and I'd not like to see the stats on wrist issues/torn ligaments in the wrist or osteoarthritis down the road.
Taken to an extreme example of technique vs strength, watch some video from a Dog Brothers meet and you'll see that size and strength have even lesser bearing in many matches - taking a back seat to speed and timing, especially in small blade matches. When it comes to most sport MA, strength is far more important than more reality based combat training.
The one constant across most MA, sport or otherwise, is grip strength.