This is your guide to learn to fight at home.
Below we cover:
- the best fighting techniques that are also the simplest to learn
- how to incorporate strength and conditioning and why it’s so important
- the most basic equipment needed to learn at home effectively and how to make your own equipment
- what your goals should be in learning to fight at home
So let’s get into exactly how to learn to fight at home.
But first it’s is important to cover what you can and can’t accomplish through learning to fight at home.
And what your goals should be.
Can You Learn to Fight at Home – Realistically?
Absolutely!
It all depends on your own effort and determination and with a solid plan there is nothing you cannot achieve.
Can you become a champion and compete at a high level by learning to fight at home?
Probably not. You would need one-to-one guidance and instruction, sparring partners and regular competition in order to become a champion.
But, you can definitely learn the basics of how to fight at home and progress to joining a gym or academy and begin your competitive career with a solid foundation from learning to fight at home.
Can you learn to defend yourself by training at home?
Yes, with solid instruction (of which there is plenty online these days) you can learn how to defend yourself in the street by mostly training at home.
But it would be advisable to make the journey to a gym or academy when you do get the change to make sure you are on the right track and verify what you are learning is correct and effective.
What Should Your Goals be in Learning to Fight at Home?
#1 Finding a reputable system to learn at home
In my opinion your main goal should be to find and commit to learning and training a reputable system.
The system should build oyu up from the very basics to have a strong foundation to advance to more advanced techniques and strategies.
Some excellent examples that you can get started with for self defense or for competition are:
- i) gracieuniversity.com
- ii) mmashredded.com
#2 Focus on Strength & Conditioning
Having the strength and fitness necessary to fight effectively is just as important if not even more important than technique.
Often a more powerful and fitter person can overwhelm a weaker less conditioned person even if they have more knowledge and better technique.
And strength and conditioning is something anyone can do effectively at home with basic or even zero equipment.
#3 Plan to Visit a School and get Live Instruction in the Future
You can definitely start off learning to fight at home.
And this post will cover below the best techniques to get started learning at home effectively.
But eventually it will pa to visit a school and get live instruction and verify what you are learning is correct.
Also if you want to eventually compete and even become a champion, then learning at home must be later advanced to learning at and training at a gym with a trainer and sparring partners/fellow students to push and encourage you.
The Best & Simplest Fighting Techniques to Learn at Home
If you are reading this post then I assume you are more interested in learning effective fighting techniques rather than learning a martial art per say i.e you are not interested in learning Kung Fu forms or katas but just the best techniques.
So I have a full article that covers the 7 best fighting techniques anyone can learn step by step you can access here
But in summary they are:
- Push kick
- Double leg takedown
- Horizontal elbow
- Knee from clinch
- Oblique kick
- Hip throw
- Palm strike to the face
And the post linked above covers exactly how to learn and train these simple but effective techniques for anyone, beginners included.
The palm strike to the face is probably the most self defense and real life fighting focussed technique i.e can’t be used in combat sports competition.
But the rest of the techniques are all effective in both combat sports like MMA while also being very effective in a street fight/self defense situation.
Strength & Conditioning
Strength and conditioning for fighting is one area you can improve immensely by training solo at home.
And with just very basic equipment and even bodyweight training only you can get into incredible shape if you have the focus and determination.
And as stated, just by. being in great shape, a person has a much better chance in handling a self defense situation or fight.
There are an endless amount of workouts and S&C training routine you can access online that are both free and paid.
I don’t think you need to really pay for any.
Keep things simple and focus on:
- i) building strength through resistance training (weights and/or bodyweight calisthenics)
- ii) increasing and improving overall mobility and flexibility (especially in the joints i.e hips, shoulders, ankles)
- iii) building your endurance through cardio(jogging, swimming, hiking, walking)
By covering the three areas above and improving consistency over time you will be in a much better position to use what you actually learn in terms of techniques for fighting in a real situation.
What Equipment do you Need?
I would highly, highly recommend a punching bag/heavy bag.
In fact this is really the only piece of equipment you need to learn to fight at home.
A punching bag would allow you to train each of the 7 techniques discussed above and to improve your technique over time.
A heavy bag is also extremely useful for developing fight conditioning as well as developing power in your techniques.
You can even make your own punching bag for free!
There are many resources online on how to make your own punching bag for free – just google or ask Chat GPT.
Putting together your Home Training routine
There are many ways to put together your home training program.
But the general consensus is training technique at least 3 times per week minimum is required in order to keep improving.
Training technique 2 times per week is sufficient to maintain your current level of technique.
But to improve 3 times per week or more is necessary.
For strength and conditioning a minimum of two sessions per week would be the recommendation also.
So the basics of your home training sessions could look like this:
Technical Sessions (3-5 times per week)
‘Shadow’ technique training – 20 – 100 reps each of individual techniques
- Push kick
- Double leg takedown
- Horizontal elbow
- Knee from clinch
- Oblique kick
- Hip throw
- Palm strike to the face
Combination training – putting together the techniques in combination
- push kick to double leg
- elbow to knee
- knee to elbow
- palm strike to push kick
Heavy bag – 5 by 3 min rounds with 1 min rest using the techniques from above
You can finish each technical session with sit ups and pushups also.
Strength & Conditioning (2-3 times per week)
Dedicated S&C sessions 2-3 times per week is recommended to compliment your technical training sessions.
Again keep it simple but stay consistent.
And remember the three areas to focus on from earlier:
- i) building strength through resistance training (weights and/or bodyweight calisthenics)
- ii) increasing and improving overall mobility and flexibility (especially in the joints i.e hips, shoulders, ankles)
- iii) building your endurance through cardio(jogging, swimming, hiking, walking)
Final Thoughts
It is possible to learn to fight from home.
But if you want to compete and even to eventually become a champion then you cannot do this exclusively on your own from home.
You will need to train at a gym and get live instruction eventually and sparring partners.
If do not intend to compete and want to train to be confident to handle yourself in the streets then yes you can do this at home. But visiting a gym for live instruction and training partners is also recommended.
But the bulk of your training can be done at home.
Also training at home you can still get yourself into the best shape possible through focussed strength and conditioning which will help in your ability to learn how to fight.
