Here are a few streetfight/full contact common sense things i see students screw up all the time:

Full contact

1.) Keep your hands up.
-this is not competition style
-do not drop your hands when you kick

2.) Do not do fancy schmancy stuff unless u are an expert at full contact fighting an amateur. THis means:

-No ridiculous 360 roundhouses
-or body drop sweeps
-or anythign else u saw in a movie

3.) use POWER - in every move.
this means
-no hopping roundhouses (unless your fast as hell and cna get it to the head)
-i repeat NO HOPPING ROUNDHOUSES
-nor any double/triple roundhouse crap

4.) DO not MOVE BACK while PUNCHING
-this relates to power, if you move back at 5mph and punch at mph - your net force is ZERO. Move first, and strike as soon as you have your footing.

k - thats the most obviosu stuff

TO train full contatc you start with the basic moves. Very basic punches- very basic kicks

You should develop atleast one kick or one hand tecnique that you can really rely on when you need ot stop an opponents attack - some of the easiest methods for accomplishing this are straight tecniques:

reverse punch
turningside kick (back-kick)
Front kick

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Groundwork:

First i have to say - the method or style - or strategy you employ in grappling depends ENTIRELY on the situation( or rules) you find yourself constrained to.

For instance - UFC example.

UFC has outlawed certain maneuvers: fishhooking - eye gouging - face ripping - the really nasty stuff that hurts

incidentally this is the stuff that is incredibly effective when you are in a close combat scenario

thus first thing in a grappling situation is to STAY ON THE GROUND for the minimum amount of time possible in order to get in a FINSIHING STRIKE.

UFC peopel stay down there so long becayse they know they are not goign to have thier faces ripped off. Thin kabout it - exactly how hard is it to ip something off someone's face in a ground position - you guessed - its easy - his face is right there - you don't need to hit it hard - all u have to do is rip somethign off it

k - so - liek i said grappling depends on the situation and for some instances this means the rules

general street fight - which i assure you is very short - you grapple as quickly as possible in order to place a finsihing blow

some important tecniques to knwo one the floor are:

-How to escape a simple body mount
-how to keep your chin tucked to avoid a full fledged choke hold

conversely you should know the basics of how to stay on a mount - and how to apply a choke hold

any other grapple brekaign tecniques are great to know - but useless if they cannot be performed in an instant so stick with the basics

Good advice here...

I am a firm believer in the "keep it simple" school of fighting. That is why I like muay thai, its simple to learn and effective as hell at least for stand up.

two rules I try to remember in every fight..

Think offensive not defensive, full power attacks at flat out speed and don`t slow down. I don`t like to waste time measureing range, feeling the other guy out, etc, it just gives him time to think. I am not a real good technical fighter, but I am fast and strong and I control my fear very well.

Forget about points etc, this full contact, if I get knocked out all the points in the world will not help me. The same goes for the other guy, if I sense his punches are too weak for a k.o. etc, I will ignore them competely and go right in for the k.o.. I may get hit more but I know my punchs are NOT weak and I don`t mind taking a few weak ones. In my choosen sport (muay thai) the fighter who does the most damage usually wins a split desision any way. I won`t land every thing I throw, I am pretty wild, but what I do land will hurt, because every thing I do is full power.

I work hard at building speed and "directness" into all my techniques. "Directness" means to me the shortest possible distance to the target, from whatever posistion I may be in. I often throw kicks from off balance posistions during sparring/fighting, it happens because I see an openning and feel I can hit it, I don`t waste time thinking about it. Often these unothodox kicks/punchs end fights as they are hard to block.
I try real hard to start all punchs, kicks etc. the same way, it makes it hard to tell what is coming and keeps things simple and fast. Watch yourself for "telegraphing", that little set up you do might give more power, but who cares if it allows me to avoid the thecnique because I see it coming.
What I am saying is I hit as hard as I can without sacrificing speed and directness to do so.

The Golden Rule of muay thai...

Tis better too give, than too recieve.

I think this will apply to all full contact sports.