Stack-Pass, Hip-Bump Sweep & Kimura from Guard (diary entry)

July 5, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2022-07-05 at 11.40.49

04.07.2022 The ninth hour of my couple clients’ submission grappling course moved onto one more pass, a sweep and a submission. We kept everything from the close-range guard, passing a closed guard and sweeping and submitting from an open close-range guard. As usual the lesson began with a warm-up of dynamic stretches and muscle activation/muscle memory exercises. We covered the standard stack-pass. Rather than using the hip-pin standard get up strategy we used in our first pass, we went for […]

Continue Reading

Robinson’s Revenge & Saddler’s Savagery (diary entry

June 29, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
RobinsonOlson174

29.06.2022 Sugar Ray Robinson versus Bobo Olson Undisputed World Middleweight Championship 09.12.1955 The fight took place at the Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois, USA, in front of 12,441 spectators. According to BoxRec: “The gross gate was $128,462 and the net gate was $107,051. Olson received 35% of the gate and a share of the $75,000 in TV and radio money. His total came to $61,718. Robinson got 25% of the gate and a share of the TV and radio money. His […]

Continue Reading

Managing Violence Part 3 (diary entry)

June 29, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2022-06-29 at 16.27.28

29.06.2022 Wednesday morning started with the 19th hour of my Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu teacher client’s consultation course with me. Today we continued with potential triggers and moved onto situational awareness in relation to social violence from Joe Saunders’ “Managing Violence” course. We finished off potential triggers by tracing them back to two universal triggers: disrespect and disempowerment. These two triggers act in a vicious circle, further triggering each other. With socially violent offenders nearly always acting from a place […]

Continue Reading

Around & Through Guard Passing (diary entry)

June 28, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Defence from guard to standing4

27.06.2022 Monday night’s lesson brought my couple client to the eighth hour of their submission grappling/ground fighting course. Tonight we looked at basic guard passes. The lesson started with a warm-up of dynamic stretches, muscle activation exercises and sport specific exercises focusing guard passing actions. We then went back through the guard drill taught in the previous lesson. Moving onto the lesson in earnest, we looked at going around the closed guard. This procedure begins in a neutral posture where the […]

Continue Reading

Five Rounds of MMA Pad-Work (diary entry)

June 26, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
set up sprawl

23.06.2022 Last Thursday saw the beginning of my clients’ new course. We do not have a set theme this time due some injuries he has suffered outside of lessons so tonight we had a general overview of Mixed Martial Arts. After a warm-up of sport specific exercises and dynamic stretching we trained for 5 x 5 minute rounds on the focus mitts, covering individual areas. Round 1 – Boxing Round 2 – Muay Thai Round 3 – MMA Clinch Round […]

Continue Reading

Rubber Guard & Half Guard Review (diary entry)

June 23, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
omoplata specific sparring

22.06.2022 My senior submission grappling/ground-fighting lesson was an hour and a half full review of the rubber guard. After a sport specific warm-up, we went back through Eddie Bravo’s rubber guard setup – half-guard/lockdown/catch/rubber guard – and also completed the rubber guard flow drill – mission control/New York/chill-dog/invisible collar. Then we trained the  gogo-clinch as taught by Brandon Mccaghren. This occurs when the shoulder has been isolated in the rubber guard and the neck is trapped with a single hand […]

Continue Reading

Managing Violence Part 2 (diary entry)

June 22, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
289658801_2051545251694390_4694670844246688654_n

22.06.2022 This was the 18h hour of my work with Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu where I have been engaged in a teacher consultancy role. We are continuing with Joe Saunders’ Managing Violence course. Dissecting the anatomy of social violence, we looked at the de-escalation process. Social violence comes from a place of insecurity as opposed to predatory/asocial violence which comes from a place of inflated superiority. This is why empathy is so important in order defuse a situation. We also […]

Continue Reading

Technical Slugging (diary entry)

June 22, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2022-06-21 at 15.46.29

22.06.2022 Gene Fullmer versus Eduardo Lausse 25.11.1955 Lawrence Gene “The Cyclone” or “Mormon Mauler” Fullmer was born on 21st July 1931 in West Jordan, Utah, USA. Fullmer came under the management of Merv Jenson, who was known for encouraging West Jordan youth to enter amateur boxing. Fullmer began boxing as a professional in 1951 winning all 29 of his first fights, 19 of these coming by knockout. He then lost his first fight to Gil Turner by unanimous decision in […]

Continue Reading

The Guard Drill (diary entry)

June 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
armbar from guard2 (close up)

20.06.2022 Hour seven of my couple clients’ submission grappling course brought them to using the guard. As with the top positions, I covered a flow drill. They transitioned from closed guard to open guard to spider guard to butterfly guard to half-guard back to the open guard and closed guard. Throughout the drill they did variations from different positions and we looked at the all-important safe transitioning. Services 

Continue Reading

Single to MMA Ground Strategies (diary entry)

June 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
half guard attack

15.06.2022 My junior MMA client linked the single-leg takedown with his new ground strategy. After going back through the basics on the single leg from clinch we went to the guard and looked at using the half-guard get-up. When a fighter chooses to stand whilst holding their opponent in half-guard they are effectively carrying over the single-leg takedown positioning. The lesson finished with 4 x 2 minute specific MMA sparring. My senior submission grappling lesson continued looking at attacks from […]

Continue Reading

The Other Rocky (diary entry)

June 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
rocky castellani vs ray robinson

15.06.2022   Rocky Castellani versus Bobo Olson Undisputed World Middleweight Championship 20.08.1954   Having almost finished with 1955, we needed to make a return journey to 1954 to see Rocky Castellani’s first attempt to win the crown from Bobo Olson. The last time we saw Olson was in his ill-fated attempt to challenge Archie Moore for the light-heavyweight crown, having just defeated its former holder, Joey Maxim. 10 months prior to this match, Olson had taken on Catellani in his […]

Continue Reading

Managing Violence Part 1 (diary entry)

June 21, 2022 | Uncategorized [ssba]
Screen Shot 2022-06-22 at 08.04.41

15.06.2022 Last Wednesday I began teaching Joe Saunders’ course on “Managing Violence”. The course is split into two sections, social violence and predatory violence. A strong emphasis and specialism of Joe Saunders’ approach to self-protection teaching is de-escalation. The course is the 17th hour of my work with Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu where I have been engaged in a teacher consultancy role. Today we began the social violence section, establishing definitions and providing examples. We then posed the question whether […]

Continue Reading

Final Basic Escapes (diary entry)

June 20, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Striking from the mounted position1

13.06.2022 Monday’s lesson lesson on ground-work submission grappling brought my clients’ up their sixth hour. After revising the top position flow drill, we picked up on knee-pin, reverse scarf-hold and mount. The lesson finished with 4 x 2 minute specific sparring from chosen pin positions.   Services  

Continue Reading

Classic Combinations & Sparring (diary entry)

June 11, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Jamie Clubb of Clubb Chimera Martial Arts in the Bodyguard drill! (small)

09.06.2022 Due to my client suffering from a work-related back injury, we didn’t cover the planned MMA class but went back over boxing instead. After a light warm-up of dynamic stretching, we moved onto the focus mitts. This session began with basic combinations before moving onto some classic tactics inspired by the greats. We used Kid Gavilan’s bolo punch on back-step to handle swarming attacks. Then we used Jersey Joe Walcott’s upward diagonal hook/overhand right before focusing on two of […]

Continue Reading

MMA & Rubber Guard Revision (diary entry)

June 9, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
78130701_10157979655463804_6223387305298624512_o

08.06.2022 My last lessons on Wednesday were my junior MMA and senior Submission Grappling. In the former we went through boxing, kickboxing and a new strategy on the ground. In the latter we looked at linking up the basics of Eddie Bravo’s Rubber Guard in a flow pattern. The first lesson began with our normal warm-up specific and muscle activation exercises. We then went straight into boxing. After some assessment on my client’s defence against straight rights and some basic […]

Continue Reading

Continued Self-Protection Development (diary entry)

June 8, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
284349842_2040953972753518_603174618340711022_n

08.06.2022 My Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu client enters his 16th hour of CPD/teacher consultation with me as we looked at broader issues in self-protection teaching. I went back over my 3 Ps approach to self-defence/hard skills (pre-emption, proactivity and pressure testing) as well as my views on what I call the three tribes of martial arts subculture. These are two resources I produced on these topics: CSI Approach Three Tribes   Ahead of me going through Joe Saunders’ Managing Violence […]

Continue Reading