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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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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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New Year, New Trend? Old Idea, Past Mistake

January 8, 2020 | Reviews and Interviews
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fads and fallacies

I wrote this review on “Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science” back in 2010 when it appears I had far more time at my disposal. Presently, it has been very difficult to write anything other than my lesson reports and podcasts. I hope 2020 will see me be more engaged in my book writing but what with the beginning of a new CPD course and increased teaching and need to produce more online content that might be wishful […]

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Jabbing for Muay Thai (diary entry)

January 8, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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Boxing Jab

06.01.20   Monday night saw my Kickboxing/Muay Thai client start her third course with me. After the end of year closed-door workshop, she told me that she wished to focus on punching. I suggested two options: my cross-training option of Western Boxing whereby this art is entirely embraced and the final two consist of integrating its attributes into Muay Thai or isolating punching within the general context of Muay Thai each lesson before putting them into Muay Thai combinations at […]

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“When Parents Aren’t Around” Seminar in Botley (diary entry)

January 7, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes
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04.01.20   2020 was kicked off with a 5 hour “When Parents Aren’t Around” seminar for the Oxford School of Martial Arts. This school has been working closely with me in the development of a self-protection module specifically designed for children and teenagers. This edition of my seminar had a fairly broad target audience consisting of various ages. The majority were teenagers. I tailored the course accordingly, taking into account the locality which has seen a rise of 12.2% in […]

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Dirty Boxing for MMA Stand-up (Diary Entry)

December 19, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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Attacking the cover1

18.12.19   Wednesday night was my junior and senior clients’ last lesson before the Christmas break. The junior private class covered escapes from the knee-pin and the reverse scarf-hold for Submission Grappling. The senior class focused on dirty boxing techniques for Mixed Martial Arts.   The junior class began with a series of stationary callisthenics specific for submission grappling. We then looked at defence against the knee-pin. Key points for this defence were to secure the knee joint and the […]

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Turtle Knee Bar (diary)

December 18, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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new logo1

17.12.19 Tuesday night’s fifth hour of my client’s second course on Submission Grappling continued work on the back position – this time defending – and also went back over the omoplata. We warmed up with ground callisthenics – Indian press-ups, horizontal squats, lizard press-ups, upas, snaking on the spot and sit-outs. Then we moved onto the turtle position. Previously we were focusing on the back mount. This time we looked at means for closing down this attack. From the turtle […]

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First Closed-Door Workshop (diary entry)

December 17, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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impact (smaller)

16.12.19   Tonight I held a very special lesson just for my private clients. Hopefully these will be regular workshops for all my clients to meet up and train together, providing the added benefit of a club atmosphere and goals to aim for within the group. This took the form of a two-hour workshop. We covered coaching and impact development. Partner work was constantly revolved with everyone getting an opportunity to train with one another.   The lesson began with […]

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Escapes, Sweeps & Knee-Bars

December 13, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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Kneebar_2-Neil_Melanson_Seminar_March_2012

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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