Introducing Transitions in MMA (diary entry)

January 24, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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standing arm triangle

23.01.20   My Junior MMA course reached its second hour on Thursday night. Last week served as an introduction to the three ranges and the qualities that made them MMA rather than their composite disciplines. This week we began to look at the all-important area of transitions.   We warmed up with MMA callisthenics and dynamic stretching before moving onto mirror footwork. Here we looked at switching levels and checking ranges with jabs and teeps. Next we moved onto assessing […]

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Hip Bump Sweeps, Knee Bumps & Shoulder Bumps in the Guard (diary entry)

January 23, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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kimura hip bump sweep

22.01.20   Wednesday night covered a Junior Submission Grappling course the use of the kimura and basic sweep from the closed guard as well as more Dirty Boxing in MMA, including controlling entry into the clinch and ground-fighting applications.   The junior lesson began with a series of warm-ups for developing ground-fighting fitness. I also introduced specific callisthenics for fighting from the guard. These included kimura crunches, arm-bar and triangle hip raises.   Moving into the closed guard, my junior […]

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Training Attitude (diary entry)

January 23, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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soft skills presentation

22.01.20   With all the students back from their mock exams at Kingham Hill, my third lesson in their Self-Protection course focused primarily on soft skills and also setting the foundations for developing effective habits.   We made use of the facilities and I went through the early slides of my “When Parents Aren’t Around” presentation. This established the importance of placing more emphasis on soft skills than hard skills when it comes to self-protection, defining and agreeing upon the […]

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Strike to Grapple to Strike (diary entry)

January 22, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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21.01.20   My second Tuesday night lesson: my teaching consultancy sessions continued with Dirty Boxing and striking in the clinch. Tonight we looked at turning strikes into grips and general inside transitioning.   We began with a warm-up of bulling with the collar and elbow tie and under-hook/over-hook pummelling. Throughout this I cued in freezing to check for balance points. This was layered in last time. This time I also added in looking for actual sweeps and takedowns. This would […]

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Intensive Turtle! (diary entry)

January 22, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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DSC_0466

21.01.20   This Tuesday brought my client up to the seventh hour of his second Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting course. We focused entirely on attacking and defending the turtle position.   The lesson began with a series of crawling callisthenics, specific to submission grappling. These also included three variations of sit-outs, rolling from turtle to guard partner drills and movement around the turtle position, all of which are directly relevant to tonight’s subject matter.   We then revised the basic attack on […]

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Convince a Little Man: Peer Pressure in Film Drama (archive article)

January 21, 2020 | Insights and Reflections
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Recently I have had an idea for a podcast concerning social circles of bad influence. A good part of personal security is an awareness of people. In fact, it is a vital component of situational awareness. Just as different people will change the dynamic of any situation, friends and associates can help determine an individual’s future. We are often judged by the company we keep. Coming from a circus background I know this fact only too well. Certain groups of […]

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Different Hooks (diary entry)

January 21, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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Hook Punch (close) darker

20.01.20 Monday night saw my client reach the third hour of her third Muay Thai/Kickboxing course. As previously discussed on this blog, we are focusing on punching techniques. Each lesson roughly follows this plan: isolate the punch, integrate the punch into punching combinations and then integrate the punch into other combinations making use of the remaining “six limbs” of Muay Thai. Tonight we worked on the lead hook. We began with a light warm up of mobility and dynamic stretching. […]

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Junior MMA Begins (diary entry)

January 20, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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16.01.20   On Thursday my junior client began her Mixed Martial Arts course having completed all the four recommended component parts as 10 hour private lessons over a one year period. We touched upon all three ranges, linking in techniques covered within the four disciplines already taught.   We warmed up with a range of specific callisthenics for stand-up, clinch and ground. Then we moved onto the stand-up range on focus mitts. From jabbing high and low I taught jab […]

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Self-Defence & the Law (diary entry)

January 17, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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law self defence

15.01.20   My Kingham Hill School Self-Protection course today was mainly a soft skills lesson. Again, due to mock exams I did not have a large attendance. I decided to treat this lesson as I would regular private clients and allowed them to ask me questions.   We discussed some basic martial arts history to dispel a few misconceptions about self-defence systems. After this our main focus was on self-defence and the law. We discussed proportionality, pre-emption and the UK […]

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More Dirty Boxing Teacher Training (diary entry)

January 17, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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Against the Cage1

14.01.20   My teacher training continued with more Dirty Boxing work. We drilled both collar tie and hooking pummelling exercises. From here I began layering forearm bumps, the ear rip and the under-hook into the cross-face. These strikes are directed to the sciatic and femoral nerves in the legs. The ear rip allows for a greater manipulating of the head than a standard collar tie. The cross-face from the under-hook is then combined with this technique for even greater domination. […]

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Attacking the Turtle Position (diary entry)

January 17, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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Tarn back mount1

14.01.20   My first Tuesday night lesson brought my client up to the sixth hour of his second Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting course. Due to missing a few weeks’ training we decided to do a revision of all the main areas before finishing with work in the turtle position.   We began with ground grappling callisthenics. The final callisthenics included three different types of sit-out exercises that can be utilised to better condition for the turtle position. Then we ran through both […]

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Micro Ranges in MMA (diary entry)

January 15, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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clinch

11.01.20   We reached the eight and half hour point of my client’s MMA course, looking a lot at Dirty Boxing tactics to manipulate ranges.   We warmed up with some basic callisthenics before a five minute round of light MMA. During this round I used a lot of clinching and dirty boxing techniques in order to illustrate some the points we would cover later.   We then revised the slap-down parry entry into the collar-tie punching. At this point […]

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Isolating and Integrating the Cross (diary entry)

January 15, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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Straight right

13.01.20   Monday night’s lesson was the second hour of my client’s third Muay Thai/Kickboxing course. This course is focused on developing better punching. Tonight we looked at the cross (straight right) and how to develop its power as well as its place in various combinations.   We began with some simple callisthenic and dynamic warm-up exercises, specific to Muay Thai. Then we moved onto mirror footwork and revising the basic and step-jab. This was done with just hand wraps […]

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Arm Bars from Mount & MMA Overview (diary entry)

January 15, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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08.01.20 My junior and senior regular double lesson resumed for 2020 with a focus on the arm-bar from mount for the junior class and an overall look at MMA with component sparring rounds for the senior class. The junior class began with some simple ground-fighting callisthenic exercises – crawls and snaking (hip escape). We then drilled the pin transitions from each side. Next we moved onto the mount which is the final original pin of the drill. From here I […]

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Sixth Self-Protection Course at Kingham Hill School (diary entry)

January 14, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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08.01.20   Kingham Hill School began their sixth Self-Defence/Self-Protection course with me in their new sports centre. This means I have access to more facilities to better deliver this constantly developing service. With mock exams in progress, I had a smaller group today. I used this situation to prepare those who learnt today to help train the new attendees next week. We covered the basics on pre-fight personal security, tactical escapes, sprawls and covers as well as pre-emptive striking.   […]

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Shoulder & Elbow Bumps (diary entry)

January 14, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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07.01.20   Tonight we resumed more Dirty Boxing work to be integrated into my client’s regular lessons. This included revising material from before, training three combinations and development of an exercise. We began with clinch training. This started with the collar and elbow pummelling exercise progressing on bulling and checking for balance points. Next we looked at over-hook/under-hook pummelling. We then revised over-hooking and under-hooking to control the clinch for punching. The main emphasis here is respond to blocks by […]

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