The Baseball Savant has been bulking up:
I remember asking you this
awhile back but I’ve went through some physical changes. I’m going to
start to really try and master a martial art. I remember talking about
brazilian jiu-jitsu because I thought at 5’10 it might be better to
ground fight given my lack of height but I think I remember you saying
something about akido because of my strength at potentially being a
striker. I think when I e-mailed you I was around 200lbs but now I’m 245lbs and have been doing some lifting. My best lifts are:BENCH: I can do 225lbs for 49reps and my last max was 430 although it might be higher.
SQUAT: 550lbs
MILITARY: I do bells for this and my gym only goes up to 135lbs but I can get reps (6-8) with theseDEADLIFT: 600lbs for oneWhat is your recommendation on this? Is it still strike-oriented?
Okay, that’s ridiculous. That’s 3x more reps than I can do at 225, or rather, than I could do before I dinged my shoulder. Anyhow, with that sort of power at his disposal, BS probably doesn’t need to do much in the way of strike-oriented training. Strike-training allows one to deliver more power through speed and technique, but when one already has power in truckloads, it’s not necessary.
However, all the power in the world doesn’t do much good when one doesn’t have the reflexes, moves, and combinations that come from training. So, I would look at something in the grappling range that still uses strikes, in other words, aikido rather than judo. But some strike-oriented sparring is still a good idea. Ender does judo and I’ve noticed that while he and his fellow judoka have an enhanced ability to defend themselves, it hasn’t given them the heightened sense of alertness or the hair-trigger fighting reflexes one is accustomed to seeing in a well-trained strike-oriented fighter.
Aikido may do so; I don’t know. But either way, I would encourage BS to look for an aikido school that utilizes multi-discipline sparring. At the end of the day, there is simply no substitute for getting hit.