Escapes, Sweeps & Knee-Bars

December 13, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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12.12.19     On Thursday night ran my client’s final lesson in my junior course of Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting. We looked at escapes from the north-south, knee pin, reverse scarf-hold and the full mount pins as well as executing knee-bars from the top and bottom of half-guard.     The lesson began with static only exercises for muscle activation. These consisted of a full range of top and bottom ground-fighting callisthenics.     Escapes from north south and knee pin were […]

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All Ranges MMA (diary entry)

December 13, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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ground

11.12.19   Wednesday night saw my ongoing junior Submission Grappling and senior Mixed Martial Arts lessons. We continued our work on escaping the North-South position in the first class and I covered various areas in all three ranges of MMA in my second class.   We warmed up with stationary specific ground-grappling movements. This includes upas, snaking, sit-outs and lizard push-ups. Then we went straight to the North-South escape. We worked more on getting the upa movement structurally strong. Details […]

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Weapon Awareness & Defence at Kingham (diary entry)

December 12, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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blunt weapon

11.12.19   On Wednesday lunchtime I was booked for one extra lesson at Kingham Hill School to round off the term. We touched upon weapon awareness and accessing exit points. It is important to note that this one hour lesson is in no way a substitute for the full Weapon Awareness bolt-on courses I offer.   We began with a warm-up using weapons to promote good body mechanics and the relevant movements for later practice. We then went back to […]

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Collar Tie Punching (diary entry)

December 11, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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10.12.19   My client consultancy lesson continued with a more practical theme as we expanded upon the Dirty Boxing introduced last week. We warmed up with switching levels, getting used to moving a wrestler’s stance. I introduced the left, right and Japanese stances. We then clinched with the collar tie. Here I introduced bulling, an activity designed to control an opponent’s head whilst staying stable one’s own stance. We also regularly switched sides and looked at breaking an opponent’s balance. […]

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Attacking the Back (diary entry)

December 11, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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10.12.19   My client reached the fourth hour of his Submission Grappling course where we covered attacking from the back in more detail.   We warmed up with various crawls and snaking exercises to activate the right muscles and feed in muscle memory. Then we went straight into half guard.   From the half-guard position we looked at a loose lockdown and revised taking the back mount. From here we also revised the rear-naked choke. I took the time to […]

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Crocodile Whips His Tail (diary entry)

December 10, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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crocodile 1

09.12.19   Monday night was my client’s last lesson in her current course of Muay Thai. We revised various material over the course and then looked at the back kick (deer kick) and the spinning heel kick (crocodile kick).   We warmed up with mirror footwork. Here I introduced hopping steps and diamond steps. We then began some one-for-one light sparring, ensuring that all kicks were set up with hand techniques. This led onto some counter-work with the belly shield […]

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MMA Footwork & Timing (diary entry)

December 9, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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07.12.19   The seven hour point of my client’s MMA course on Saturday looked at layering the entire game at each range.   We warmed up with partner-work from the off. This began with mirror footwork. Here we looked at some advanced movements, such as the diamond step, back-peddling, the Thai knee hop and the forward slide. We then switched levels before staying at a low level for an extended period of time, testing agility at wrestling range. Next we […]

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From Butterfly to Back Mount (diary entry)

December 6, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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05.12.19   My junior clients covered their penultimate lesson in Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting on Thursday evening. I introduced the butterfly guard, half-guard and back mount as well as the butterfly sweep, knee shield and rear naked choke. We also had some fun with a few advanced techniques.   We warmed up with the usual specific callisthenics for ground-fighting such as various crawls, snaking and escape movement drills. Then I introduced the butterfly guard. Here we paid attention to keeping sat up […]

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The Importance of Fundamentals (diary entry)

December 5, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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04.12.19   Wednesday evening consisted of attacking with and escaping the North-South pin for my junior client and MMA training with senior client where we expanded upon clinching against the cage as well as guard-work on the ground.   We warmed up with various ground callisthenics such as crawls and snaking. Then we went straight into the North-South position and looked at its function when transitioning from scarf-hold. My junior client covered the Kimura from here as well as the […]

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Ground-Fighting in the Final Lesson (diary entry)

December 4, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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Guard for street

05.12.19   Wednesday’s lunchtime lesson saw the end of this term’s course of Self-Protection at Kingham Hill School. Today we focused entirely on symmetrical ground-fighting.   Training began with a warm-up of various crawls, snaking and other ground callisthenics designed for good muscle activation. Then we revised escaping to standing from a guard position. The object here was to empower the guard position, a typical place someone might end up in a sexual assault, and to present the best options […]

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Dirty Boxing Introduction (diary entry)

December 4, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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IAIN & JAMIE

  My regular teacher consultancy lesson later on Tuesday evening took a stronger physical turn tonight as we began work on Dirty Boxing. In essence, this in-fighting and clinching, the use of trapping and standing grappling techniques whilst striking. Tonight we covered a general introduction, began laying the foundations and covered a simple drill.   The lesson began with a short warm-up on the mitts as we went through some simple Western Boxing combinations. I introduced the pawing jab and […]

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Long Guard Theory (diary entry)

December 4, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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03.12.19 My first evening class on Tuesday brought my client up to the third hour of his Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting and we focused on long-guard concepts. We warmed up with various ground callisthenics and agility ladder drills. From here we moved onto techniques from the spider-guard. The spider-guard has limited use in no-gi training and MMA. I was taught very much as a gi technique, taking full advantage of sleeve holds and other useful grips provided by the uniforms worn in […]

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Four More Elbows (diary entry)

December 3, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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02.12.19   Monday night saw the final lesson of my client’s second course in Muay Thai/Kickboxing. We looked at four new elbow strikes – uppercut, side, chopping and upward diagonal – and generally revised a lot of work done during this course.   The lesson began with mirror footwork. Next we went straight onto the pads warming up with punch/lock kick combinations followed by teeps and then moving onto a wider range of kicks. This gave me an opportunity to […]

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Introducing the Defensive Guard (diary entry)

December 2, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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resistance band guard

30.11.19   We reached the five and a half hour point of my client’s MMA course on Saturday. This morning we worked on all areas, but mainly concentrated on fighting off the cage and from the guard.   The lesson began with a wide range of warm-up and revision activities for muscle activation and muscle memory. This began specific light callisthenics and dynamic stretching – rising kicks, Indian push-ups and Indian squats – moving onto agility ladder training – chopping […]

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Shoulder Locks & Stacking (diary entry)

November 29, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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omoplata

28.11.19   Thursday night’s junior private lesson introduced the omoplata shoulder lock and stacking guard pass.   We warmed up with a wide variety of top and bottom position callisthenic exercises, including bear crawls, lizard crawls, crab crawls, seal crawls, snaking, side-winders, sit-outs, upas, arm-bar leg raises and triangle choke leg raises. Then we went straight into revising escaping to standing from guard, arm-bars from closed guard and triangle choke from closed guard. These last two exercises were then performed […]

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Scarf-Hold Submissions, Defence from the Cage & Half Guard (diary entry)

November 28, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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27.11.19   Wednesday evening’s junior lesson revised escapes from scarf-hold and focused on attacks from this position. The senior lesson continued MMA training with more work against the cage and fighting from the half-guard.   The junior lesson began with a warm up of crawls, snaking and submission grappling callisthenics. We then quickly ran through the pin transition drill. This was followed a revision of escaping side control both as a reversal and pulling guard as well as escaping scarf-hold. […]

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