Thai Clinch (diary entry)

September 27, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Knee strike to head from clinch

26.09.2022 Hour seven of my new client’s Muay Thai course focused on developing the Thai clinch. I also introduced diagonal, horizontal and curve knee strikes. After our warm-up of footwork, muscle activation exercises, dynamic stretching and shadow boxing we moved onto the basic clinch. The position taught is the double collar tie or “plum” position. From here looked at dominating the inside position as well as pushing and pulling using the basic box footwork (forwards, backwards and lateral). This was […]

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Hook Guard (diary entry)

September 27, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Cat & Ollie Hook GuardIMG_1818

26.09.2022 Hour seven of my couple’s current submission grappling/ground-fighting course looked at guard passing from the outside and introduced the hook guard (De La Riva guard). We warmed up with exercises specific to submission grappling including toe-to-the-line drills, combat base sit-ups, triangle crunches and half-guard side rolls before proceeding with some guard-passing drills. We looked at stepping around the guard to knee-on-belly (knee-pins) working these in as muscle memory drills. Then we did the same with back-scooting out of an […]

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Muay Thai Defensive Foundation (diary entry)

September 25, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
shin block

24.09.2022 My father and son clients continued their Muay Thai course with an emphasis on developing a good defensive structure. After our warm-up of specific exercises, we revised the footwork covered in the previous lesson. This time I put it into a box pattern, which is an easy concept to remember and a good basis to build techniques on the move. I then introduced the cover block for straight punches, the shield blocks for hooks to the head, the body […]

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Turtle Submissions & Cuban Boxing (diary entry)

September 22, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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21.09.2022 My junior lesson continued work on the turtle position whereas my session lesson was a boxing lesson looking at Cuban method influences. After a warm-up my junior client first covered attacking the turtle. We looked at variations on attacking with the arm-bar. This was followed with defending from the turtle using knee bars. The session finished with 2 x 5 minute rounds of specific sparring from the turtle position, attack and defence. The adult session brought together everything I […]

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Caramelised Onion? (diary entry)

September 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Robinson-vs-Basilio-rematch-2222-color

21.09.2022 Today’s “Learn from the Fight Lesson” stuck with Sugar Ray Robinson and Carmen Basilio’s careers as they collided in two middleweight title bouts that were declared fights of the year in 1957 and ’59. Sugar Ray Robinson versus Carmen Basilio Undisputed World Middleweight Championship 23.09.1957 After winning back his title for a record fourth time and knocking Gene Fullmer out for the first time in his career with the “perfect left hook” Robinson took his first title defence of […]

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Basic Elbow Strikes for Muay Thai (diary entry)

September 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
elbow strike 2

20.09.2022 Hour six of my client’s beginner course in Muay Thai introduced elbow strikes for the first time. We covered the horizontal, slashing, spear and smash-down varieties of elbow strikes. These are the most common major elbow strikes in Thai Boxing. We began with our dynamic stretching flow exercises to warm-up before I moved straight into the new techniques. Elbows, although very effective knockout weapons, are largely used to create cuts to prompt referee stoppages in matches. The elbow’s tip […]

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Catch & Shoot (diary entry)

September 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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20.09.2022 Hour six of my client’s current boxing course brought us on catch and shoot drills. After a warm-up of revisions on pendulum footwork and coordination drills, slipping and working pivots on hooks and straights, we moved onto the new drills. A strong principle running through these Cuban boxing inspired techniques is the use of the back-foot. When it comes to catching punches the back-foot pivots. It pivots out on rear arm blocks and lead hooks and lead uppercuts, and […]

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Junior Muay Thai Continues (diary entry)

September 20, 2022 | Uncategorized [ssba]
low-kick

17.09.2022 My father and son clients returned to continue Muay Thai basics. Today’s lesson introduced the low round kick and we also worked on some basic footwork patterns. We used the agility ladder to introduce how to roll the hips correctly for round kicks as well as pivot on the supporting leg. This was then introduced in the shadow work. We then went through simple forwards, backwards and lateral footwork movements. The lesson finished with a three-minute round on the […]

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12 Rounds of Grappling-Based MMA (diary entry)

September 15, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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14.09.2021 Sticking to the 12 x 3 minute round formula, my client covered specific areas of mixed martial arts training. We began with our usual warm-up of dynamic stretches and the full body flow drill. Then we moved onto the rounds. Round 1 – Striking (stand-up) versus Pure Takedowns (clinch) Round 2 – Pure Takedowns (clinch) versus Striking (stand-up) Round 3 – Takedowns versus Takedown Defence (with striking) Round 4 – Takedown defence versus Takedowns (with striking) Round 5 – […]

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The Gentleman, The Kid & The Little Terror (diary entry)

September 14, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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14.09.2021 “Learn from the Fight” included a couple of short reviews of significant boxing events before we went back to the new reigning heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, make his first defence of the world title. Alphonse Halimi versus Mario D’Agata NYAC and Ring World Bantamweight Championship 01.04.1957 Alphonse “The Little Terror” Halimi was born on 18th February 1932 in Constantine, Algeria. He was Jewish and born into a country that was impacted severely by the Second World War. He was […]

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Uppercuts & Spear Knees (diary entry)

September 14, 2022 | Uncategorized [ssba]
Botley Class 3 uppercut

13.09.2022 As the title to this blog states, Tuesday’s second private lesson (hour five of my client’s course on Muay Thai basics) introduced uppercuts and spear knee strikes. The spear knee was briefly touched upon in our previous lesson during the warm-up. We warmed up with basic dynamic stretches followed by a flow drill. I then introduced my client to the agility ladder where we trained chopping forwards, sideways and backwards, Ali shuffles, Ickey shuffles and hip roll set for […]

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L-Step & Applying Cuban Boxing Methods (diary entry)

September 14, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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13.09.2022 Tuesday night’s first lesson was the fifth hour of my client’s current course on boxing. After a warm-up of muscle activation and agility ladder exercises, we moved straight onto more footwork. I emphasised the small stepping and pendulum-step motions found in Cuban footwork with our basic forwards, backwards, angling and circling movements. Then we went back over the use of the L-step. Unlike the V-step, which is usually a very aggressive angling-off action, the L-step provides a fighter more […]

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Improving Speed & Timing (diary entry)

September 11, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
footwork 2

10.09.2022 I was booked to teach a one-off private lesson for a client, focusing on boxing and kickboxing. His mandate was to help him improve engaging. We looked at footwork to better improve timing and speed as well as maintaining a strong guard defence. My client suffers from a few medical conditions limit him in certain ways. We worked together to get around these restrictions. After some muscle activation exercises, we got into some ladder drills in better improve coordination […]

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MMA Turtle & Cumulative Sparring (diary entry)

September 8, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Pete shovel hook head kick comboIMG_1366

07.09.2022 My junior mixed martial arts lesson looked at attacking and defending the turtle position. My senior mixed martial arts lesson consisted of cumulative sparring. The junior lesson begun with dynamic stretches and the new muscle activation flow drill. We then looked at five ways to attack and two ways to defend from the turtle position with mixed martial arts. Due to the presence of the striking attacks and defences are more direct and simplistic. However, they also require a […]

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The Perfect Left Hook (diary entry)

September 7, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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07.09.2022 “Learn from the Fight” returned with two championship fights from 1957. Joe “Old Bones” Brown defended his lightweight crown against former champion, Wallace “Bud” Smith in their third meeting whilst Gene Fullmer put his middleweight title on the line against its previous three times owner, Sugar Ray Robinson. These were two totally different bouts but both had very decisive victories. Joe Brown versus Bud Smith Undisputed World Lightweight Championship 13.02.1957 Bud Smith had originally outpointed the legendary Jimmy Carter […]

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Muay Thai Agility & Basics (diary entry)

September 7, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Teep

06.09.2022 The father and son clients returned on Tuesday night for their second Muay Thai lesson. As previously stated, the father of this duo has substantial experience in Thai Boxing whereas his son is just six years old. Therefore, I spend a good deal of the lesson working with the father to train his son and later dedicate individual rounds so they both a get a workout. After dynamic stretches and a flow muscle activation drill we were straight into […]

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