History Main / BoxingLessonsForSuperman

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' mostly zig-zagged. Played straight in the sense that the Jedi are extensively educated in various topics and mundane skills to complement their ability with the Force. But also inverted since that training seems to be at least in part to draw out their ability with the Force to begin with, and where most untrained adepts first manifest affinity. Anakin Skywalker first manifests unconcious ability with the Force while piloting a podracer, while Luke gets a crash-course at lightsabering before being blindfolded, and manifests adepcy first time making the decisive shot at the Battle of Yavin. Luke's training in Dagobah is shown to feature an extensive physical regimen.
** Mostly averted with Rey, who may or may not manifest minor phenomena in fields like piloting and mechanics she's already good at, but goes straight for telepathy, telechinesis, and both combat and regular meditation with no relation to her other skills in the first two films. In fact her piloting and combat prowess monstly gets handwaved as Force Adepcy.

** Mostly averted with Rey, who may or may not manifest minor phenomena in fields like piloting and mechanics she's already good at, but goes straight for telepathy, telechinesis, and both combat and regular meditation with no relation to her other skills in the first two films. In fact her piloting and combat prowess monstly gets handwaved as Force Adepcy. [[BaseBreaker It's one of the more popular arguments against her and the films she appears in.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'': Starting with ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', the protagonist Ben Tennyson starts learning basic martial arts from his cousin, and, according to WordOfGod, received basic [[SpaceCop Plumber]] training from [[OldMaster Grandpa Max]], all so he could be somewhat capable of defending himself whenever the Omnitrix fails him. Most memorably, ''Above and Beyond'' has him put these skills to use, having him disarma a super-strong opponent while in human form.

* ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'':
** Starting with ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', the protagonist Ben Tennyson starts learning basic martial arts from his cousin, and, according to WordOfGod, received basic [[SpaceCop Plumber]] training from [[OldMaster Grandpa Max]], all so he could be somewhat capable of defending himself whenever the Omnitrix fails him. Most memorably, ''Above and Beyond'' has him put these skills to use, having him disarma a super-strong opponent while in human form.

* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', the big problem most combat mages face is the fact that they are {{Squishy Wizard}}s. Evangeline gets around this both through her natural toughness as a vampire and mastery of the perfectly mundane martial art aikido (it's implied that she learned from [[OldMaster Morihei Ueshiba himself]]), which she uses to great effect whether in magical or non-magical battle. Negi takes a page from her book and begins learning martial arts as well as powerful magic, which serves him very well in his battles.

* ''Manga/OnePunchMan'':

** Pre-ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}}, a {{ComicBook/Superboy}} story had Pa Kent give a few boxing lessons to his super-son, after Superboy initially fails to stop a powerful new villain (and Pa realizes Clark had never really learned about such self-defense/fighting methods).

* In ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', several Legionnaires take up training in various ways. Night Girl's super strength only works in the dark, so she learned martial arts so she could still take on bad guys in the light. Princess Projectra was taught martial arts by Karate Kid, which allowed her to kill Nemesis Kid after he negated her powers. Triplicate Girl had the ability to turn into three of herself. However, she learned to get formidable martial arts from Karate Kid, so when she uses her power, it's like fighting ''three'' Bruce Lee's.
* ''{{ComicBook/Hitman|1993}}'': One arc has Tommy aboard the JLA's space station when they run into aliens who DePower them all. This isn't as big a problem as it seems until Batman (specifically noted as being the only guy they can rely on in these situations) gets knocked out.

* One issue of the ''Franchise/GreenLantern Corps'' had Kyle Rayner encounter a situation in which he could not challenge Sinestro without breaking a truce that kept a fragile peace. Kyle proposed that the two fight as normals--without ''any'' {{Green Lantern Ring}}s. Sinestro accepts, brags that he had been trained by some of the greatest martial artists in the known universe, and asks Kyle who trained ''him''. Kyle's reply? Franchise/{{Batman}}. [[http://thebatmanuniverse.net/image/Misc/Blog/Indivdual%20Posts/Dave/Green%20Lantern%20Schooled/Bat%20punch%20B.jpg In a two-page splash, no less.]]

** Comicbook/{{Psylocke}} is a borderline example; while she has martial arts skills in addition to her PsychicPowers, and has the ability to use her powers and martial skills in unique ways, this was granted to her in an impossible FreakyFridayFlip fashion, and not something she learned herself. Kwannon, the woman whose body she inhabits, is this trope played straight, as a low-level empath who trained to become an expert assassin.

*** After discovering his powers, but before becoming Magneto, Max Eisenhardt studied numerous scientific fields, including mechanical and genetic engineering, as well as electromagnetic radiation. Because of this, Magneto is capable of instilling the mutant gene in ordinary people, creating DesignerBabies from genetic tissue, and building technological marvels (such as an orbiting base on an asteroid) that even [[ScienceHero Reed]] [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Richards]] admits are pretty impressive.

** Comicbook/{{Domino|Marvel Comics}} underwent training from Comicbook/ShangChi after experiencing some PowerIncontinence.

* During ''Comicbook/PlanetHulk'', the Comicbook/IncredibleHulk becomes a gladiator on a planet with beings who approach him in sheer physical might, so he slowly but surely becomes a craftier fighter, using his strength in more ingenious ways instead of merely relying on it exclusively. The other Marvel "[[NiceJobBreakingItHero heroes]]" were in for a ''rude'' awakening during ''Comicbook/WorldWarHulk''.

* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHercules'' has had both SuperStrength and NighInvulnerability since he was a newborn. During his growth into manhood, he became a hero and adventurer, learning all manners of hand-to-hand and weapons combat. ''Comicbook/{{Hercules 2015}}'' also reveals that he has mastered ''modern'' forms of combat also, such as assault rifles, grenades, and tasers.

* In depictions where Comicbook/DoctorStrange didn't [[KungFuWizard learn the martial arts]] at the same time he learned magic, he picked them up later (often with the help of Wong) so that he could defend himself even without magic.

* More justified than usual in one issue of ''Comicbook/SheHulk'' when Shulkie is in training to [[TheBoxingEpisode box]] the Champion of the Universe. She weight lifts as her human alter ego because she realizes that increasing her strength as a human has a '''geometric''' effect when she [[HulkingOut Hulks Out]].

* ''Comicbook/IronMan'': Tony Stark, unable to access his armor for the time being, goes to [[Comicbook/CaptainAmerica Steve Rogers]] to learn how to fight during the Demon In A Bottle story arc, under the pretense of being more vulnerable to his enemies now that his "bodyguard" Iron Man won't be able to protect him. It comes in handy when Stark is captured by Justin Hammer and his goons.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Irredeemable}}'', not ever learning how to fight and relying only on his strength alone come back to bite [[spoiler:Plutonian]] hard, when somebody equally strong, who knows some moves, showed up.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm:''

* The central premise of ''FanFic/DuelNature'' is giving these to Twilight Sparkle and watching what happens.
* In ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'', Professor Quirrell advocates this for his students.

* In the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'', Sam underwent concentration training in order to keep her newly developed [[PlayingWithFire fire powers]] under control. It had the bonus of making her ecto constructs more refined.
* In the backstory of the Italian remake of ''FanFic/BattleFantasiaProject'' [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Venus]] forced her fellow Sailor Senshi to undergo these after their poor performance against Galaxia. Appropriately enough, they included ''actual'' boxing lessons, [[JustifiedTrope as boxing includes the most powerful punch of martial arts and dodging skills that come handy when facing multiple opponents]].

* ''FanFic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'' has teenage Barry and Kara stranded on Lian Yu, and join Oliver for a decade with the League of Assassins. This makes Kara pretty much the WorldsBestWarrior, as she's a master hand-to-hand combatant on top of her other ComboPlatterPowers.

* Every Jedi in ''FanFic/StarWarsLineage'' undergoes some of these. In addition to learning how to wield the Force, each Jedi is expected to be at least proficient in both [[MagicKnight lightsaber combat]] and [[KungFuWizard hand-to-hand combat]]. Of course, plenty of Jedi are MasterSwordsmen (and women) who are far beyond being "merely proficient."

* In ''Videogame/{{Mabinogi}}'', player characters gain stat points from training skills, including noncombat skills. This leads to players training, for example, the Weaving skill to use the Dexterity it rewards to help in combat. This also works in reverse, as some noncombat skills benefit from higher stats that can be gained by training skills, including combat skills.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Played with in ''FanFic/WithThisRing''. While it's good for Superboy to learn hand-to-hand combat, Orange Lantern fears that he's being held back by [[FightsLikeANormal Black Canary]]. [[DeconstructedTrope Black Canary is a good fighter, but she's still a normal human going against a Kryptonian. One wrong move from Superboy and she's paste. If Superboy gets too used to holding himself back, he will not fight at full strength in combat. ]] So OL asks Wonder Woman, who has over eighty years of martial experience, regularly wins against Superman, and is {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le to train Superboy.
** OL learns how to use a gun in-case he gets separated from his ring or his ring runs out of power.

* The post-prologue beginning of ''VideoGame/GoldenSun2001'' suggests briefly that Isaac, Garet, and Jenna were learning about Alchemy from Kraden to understand their powers better. Isaac's mother is baffled, since [[TheMagicGoesAway Alchemy itself is a dead power]] [[spoiler:and supposed to remain that way, in theory]].

** Chopper is an interesting case, as he picked up Kureha's scapel-throwing skills... by using his higher intellect to unlock his trauma-locked memories of her throwing scapels at ''him''.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'', ''not'' learning how to fight has major consequences for [[spoiler:Cassidy]], who - despite being [[spoiler:a vampire]], stronger and faster than a human could ever be - finds that Jesse, who suffered through a protracted bout of TrainingFromHell and is quite a CombatPragmatist, can hold his own when they go toe-to-toe. Jesse himself has a lack of training in one area - he doesn't speak French (or any language other than English), which turns out to be a bigger problem than you might imagine when your sole superpower is a CompellingVoice and you need to speak a language your target understands for it to be effective.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6918217/1/Absolute-Zero Absolute Zero]]'': Lelouch Lamperouge in ''Manga/CodeGeass'' has a powerful Geass and intellect, but last physical strength for a hand-to-hand fight. Adding the fact he can't remember his past as Lelouch vi Britannia and as Zero leads to Kallen training him to build up his physical ability.

** Zoro takes the role of DrillSargentNasty (particularly to Cross) to get his crewmates in better fighting shape. He and Leo also began teaching Cross swordsmanship [[spoiler:after the latter acquired [[EmpathWeapon Funkfreed]]]].

* ''{{Manga/Gate}}'': The world beyond the Gate is still working with ElementsOfNature, with mages using them in their magical theory. Lelei studies several Earth books on modern Physics and Chemistry, which makes her magic much more potent.

* ''{{Manga/Gate}}'': The world beyond the Gate is still working with ElementsOfNature, with mages using them in their magical theory. Lelei learns how atoms and such work, which makes her magic much more potent.

** Mirio's power is {{intangibility}}, but comes with a LogicalWeakness: while intangible, he cannot see, hear, or breathe. So he's had to develop AwesomenessByAnalysis to anticipate where his opponent will be when he regains solidity. [[Spoiler/ This was best shown when he was shot by a [[BroughtDownToNormal quirk destroying bullet]] but still managed to go toe to toe with ''Overhaul'']]