Off the cage & spider-guard (diary entry)

December 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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01.12.2021 Wednesday night’s two lessons were junior MMA and senior submission grappling. In the former we looked at fighting off the cage. In the latter we looked at the use of the spider-guard in no-gi fighting. Junior MMA mainly centred on a simple flow drill that involved striking whilst pinning an opponent against the cage and reversing a pin from the cage. By using an under-hook and a wrist grip, we executed a shoulder bump to the face followed by […]

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Final Self-Defence Lesson for Kingham Hill This Year (diary entry)

December 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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01.12.2021 The final part of my self-protection course for teenagers at Kingham Hill drew to a close on Wednesday. My two groups went back over their anti-grappling training, we also revised a lot of the main material from the course, looked at protecting others, dealing with “friendly interference” and I finished on discussion regarding the post-fight. My “When Parents Aren’t Around” course on teenage self-protection has been a 10 hour course for each of the two groups. We have gone […]

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Great Feuds: Robinson vs Turpin 1 (diary entry)

December 1, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
robinson v turpin 1

30.11.2021 Tuesday night’s “Learn from the Fight” gave us arguably Sugar Ray Robinson’s toughest fight since he first fought Jake La Motta, as he put his world title on the line against the great Randolph Turpin. After his sixth and final bloody match with Jake La Motta, taking the World Middleweight Championship, Sugar Ray Robinson beat Americans Holly Mimms by unanimous decision and Don Ellis in a first round KO before embarking on a European tour. Now a legitimate superstar, […]

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Speed Training and Conditioning for Muay Thai (diary entry)

November 30, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
chamber kick

29.11.2021 My client reached the third hour of his latest Muay Thai/Kickboxing course. Tonight he wanted to focus more on speed development. Speed like power are attributes that are best developed with good technique. The order of training should go technique, speed and then power. For example, fluidity through technique is great basis for adding more speed. As Rodney King better put it, “If you can’t do it slow, you can’t do it.” However, I incorporated specific exercises to increase […]

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Thai Clinch Overview (diary entry)

November 30, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
clinch

29.11.2021 Monday night saw the conclusion of my client couple’s 10 hour course on the Muay Thai clinch. After a warm-up we worked 11 x 3 minute rounds on different aspects of the clinch. Round 1 – Neck and arm clinch wrestling Round 2 – Setting up for sweeps Round 3 – More sweeps Round 4 – Knee strikes Round 5 – Elbow strikes Round 6 – Knee strikes and sweeps Ronund 7 – Knee strikes and sweeps Round 8 […]

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Battling from and Against Side Control (diary entry)

November 25, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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24.11.2021 Wednesday night’s lesson brought us back onto the ground game. We looked at side control and scarf-hold attacks and defences. This began with a simple sequence of likely counters. The person under side control attempts to reverse his opponent. Said opponent switches to scarf-hold. Here it is important for the person defending to frame and snake his hips out. He then counters with a triangle choke. Looking at it from the attacker’s perspective, we transitioned into the scarf-hold whilst […]

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Anti-Grappling at Kingham Hill (diary entry)

November 25, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
eye gouge

24.11.2021 On Wednesday I continued to teach my self-protection course for Kingham Hill School. As usual, this consisted of two lessons taught to two different groups of years 12 and 13. We got to the business of dealing with a grappling attack. The following areas were covered: Grappling is not the first choice for high risk self-defence situations Grappling is a good choice for middle and low-risk situations In order to defend against grappling, students need a rudimentary knowledge of […]

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Great Feuds: Return of the Rock (diary entry)

November 24, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
graziano janiro 1

23.11.2021 “Learn from the Fight” returned to the career of the popular slugger, Rocky Graziano, and three of his fights in 1950 and 1951. This was following his loss of the World Middleweight title to Tony Zale in the conclusion of their trilogy. Zale had since been beaten by Marcel Cerdan and retired. Cerdan had lost the title to Jake LaMotta before being killed in a plane crash. LaMotta lost the title to Robinson in the conclusion of their sextology […]

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Teacher Development Programme: Submissions (diary entry)

November 24, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Guard Teacher Development (1)

23.11.2021 Tuesday night’s first lesson brought my teacher development programme, booked by Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom, to a conclusion for this year. This was an extra 12th hour added on in order to better round off the ground-figthing/submission grappling section. Fortunately due to the experience, knowledge and adaptability of my client and his assistant teacher, we have been able to cover a surprising amount of material. Tonight we finished off the top position with some work on arm-locks […]

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Clinch and Elbows (diary entry)

November 23, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Elbow sparring (2)

22.11.2021 The ninth hour of my client couple’s course on Muay Thai clinch brought elbows into the clinch. Our previous lesson isolated the technical aspects of the major and minor elbow strikes. Now we looked at how to set up and execute these inside the clinch. Setups included breaking posture to allow slashing and horizontal elbows over an opponent’s collar tie or uppercut and spear elbows from a fighter’s own collar tie as well as using knee strikes as distractions. […]

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Attacking & Defending Round Kicks (diary entry)

November 22, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
low kick jamie

19.11.2021 Tonight was my new junior client’s third hour of his 10 hour course. He is focusing on Muay Thai. This lesson I introduced the low round kick and its defence. We also spent a lot of time looking at stance integrity. Interestingly, Muay Thai’s stance does a vary a lot from teacher to teacher. I was initially taught to have both of my feet pointing towards an opponent with the back heel raised. This is something I have retained […]

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MMA Clinch (diary entry)

November 18, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
body clinch

17.11.2021 Wednesday night my client continued his work from the clinch. This time we explored it through MMA and worked our way through 12 themed rounds: Collar and elbow-tie drilling and sparring in MMA gloves Layered in under-hooks and over-hooks Layered in foot sweeps and Muay Thai sweeps Layered in leg grips and ankle picks Layered in full takedowns and throws Layered in knee strikes Layered in body punches Layered in leg kicks Layered in body kicks Layered in punches […]

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Fighting from the Ground (diary entry)

November 18, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
ground and pound 2

17.11.2021 Wednesday saw my two Kingham Hill lessons deal with the very difficult subject of ground fighting in self-defence. This can be a difficult topic to handle for non-martial arts students, unfamiliar with grappling and in their teenage years. However, we made it through with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Those who felt uncomfortable in dealing the symmetrical situations drilled this as a solo exercise. We revised transitioning through postures, followed by asymmetrical ground-fighting, followed by symmetrical ground fight both from […]

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Teacher Development Programme: Ground Pins (diary entry)

November 17, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
mikael zoom teaching

16.11.2021 Tuesday night my client’s teacher development programme booked by Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom reached its 11th hour. Originally this course was booked for 10 hours, but early on an extra hour was added now yet another hour has been added for next week. This is little surprising given the amount of content present in ground fighting. Although my client is a highly experienced martial arts teacher with an experienced and very able co-teacher as his training partner, […]

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Bring on the Elbows! (diary entry)

November 16, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Cover Elbow (loose)

15.11.2021 The eighth hour of my client couple’s course on the clinch brought in elbow strikes. For the benefit of at least one of the two clients we isolated elbow strikes than looked at their place in the clinch or even in combinations. After our standard warm-up of sport-specific dynamic stretching, callishenics and shadow boxing, we went through the following techniques: Major Elbow Strikes Horizontal Elbow – Popularly delivered off both lead and read arms from mid and close range. […]

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Building a Foundation (diary entry)

November 15, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
coaching juniors 1

11.11.2021 After last lesson’s taster of Mixed Martial Arts, my new junior client has opted to train in Muay Thai/Kickboxing for the remaining nine hours of his course. We focused on setting up the classic modern Muay Thai stance, which is square on, and coninued work on the teep, jab and cross. I also introduced spear knee strikes both in the warm-up and in the final intensive section of the lesson as well the lead hook punch. We worked on […]

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