Diary / Training Notes

The Rampage Continues (diary entry)

September 26, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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“Learn from the Fight” brought us onto the continuing career of Sonny Liston as he beat his way through the heavyweight division. We watched him face Roy Harris, who we last saw challenge Floyd Patterson for the world title, and then Eddie Machen whose in-ring tactics against Liston was claimed inspired a future nemesis. Sonny Liston versus Roy Harris 25.04.1960 Although Roy “Cut and Shoot” Harris had been definitively stopped by Patterson after being knocked down four times, he had […]

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TEACHER TRAINING – CHILDREN’S SELF-PROTECTION 4 (diary entry)

September 26, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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26.10.2023 Today’s online teaching consultation with Drum Martial Arts and Fitness in Ireland brought us into hour four. We are discussing children’s self-protection and related topics that help develop my client’s teaching knowledge. We went back over last lesson’s details. This brought up brief discussion points on the general ignorance still present in self-protection teaching. As per one of the adverts for the Animal Instincts programme, “Teach Honest Self-Protection to Children and Grow up as a Teacher”. Self-protection teaching on […]

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Layering in Low Line Attacks (diary entry)

September 22, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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22.09.2023 At hour six of my UKSO Cotswolds’ teacher client’s clinch course on clinch-work, it was time to allow attacks to the leg. Up to this point we have been exclusively training upper-body holds and takedowns. This way he has had five hours of establishing grips and positioning, mainly focusing on sag takedowns. After a warm-up of appropriate muscle activation exercises, we sparring for three minutes under the upper body clinch rules. The most obvious first stage of low line […]

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Honing Defence (diary entry)

September 22, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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21.09.2023 My client embarked on hour four of his fight preparation course. We are getting him ready for his Boxing match in November. My job is to supplement the main training he is receiving. We decided to focus areas he feels he needs to improve upon whilst keeping his conditioning up. All his training is now going to take place in the form of batches of 2-minute rounds to keep everything as relevant to his fight as possible. This should […]

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Pre-Fight Hard Skills (diary entry)

September 22, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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21.09.2023 My client moved into hour eight of his self-protection course. This specialised course has been mainly orientated towards conflict management but we are now bridging into self-defence training. We began with accessing exits and tactical escape, gradually progressing the level of difficulty. Next we isolated cornering escapes where I brought in hip-switching and agility training. Then we looked at basic evasive manoeuvring with the upper-body. Here my client under and around my moving arms, constantly moving towards my back. […]

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Burn Out on the Pads (diary entry)

September 21, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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20.09.2023 Wednesday night’s final lesson began as an intended overview of boxing techniques but ended up becoming an unashamed burn out on the pads. My client has been training a lot of Greco-Roman Wrestling inspired clinch-work up until last week when we diverted into some dirty boxing. My intention here had been to see how the grappling had helped. However, I saw a few areas in his punching that I thought were worth going over tonight before we returned the […]

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Restrictive Training Continues (diary entry)

September 21, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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20.09.2023 Early morning session at 7 a.m. for this client as she continued with the eighth hour of her special Muay Thai course. Ahead of an impending operation we have been training restrictive methods that she will be able to employ as soon after the operation as possible. We are mainly focusing on the upper body and techniques that can be performed without standing. We trained individual punches and combinations from kneeling, seated, from her back. These were performed both […]

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TEACHER TRAINING – CHILDREN’S SELF-PROTECTION 4 – Escape/Fence (diary entry)

September 21, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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19.09.2023 This was my fourth lesson of Tuesday and hour four of my online teacher training for Hostlebro Taekwondo Klub in Denmark. We focused on hard skills covering natural posture, tactical escape and the fence. We also went through the strategy of pre-emption, scaling down responses according to the level of risk and the blink test. The latter is a way for individuals to train themselves to take in important body language information in the blink of an eye. Services

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Teacher Training – Children’s Self-Protection 3 (diary entry)

September 20, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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19.09.2023   Today’s online teaching consultation with Drum Martial Arts and Fitness in Ireland brought us into hour three. We are discussing children’s self-protection and related topics that help develop my client’s teaching knowledge.   We began with a discussion on how the new Animal Instincts teaching programme intends to involve parents. Having parental support is the most efficient way for self-protection information to stick. Just as adult self-protection teachers can benefit from their child student feedback –as covered in […]

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Double Lesson of Muay Thai (diary entry)

September 20, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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18.09.2023 Tonight my couple clients returned for a double lesson, completing the eighth and ninth hours of their current Muay Thai course. We spent the first hour and much of the second looking at details on the clinch. This included establishing a dominant grip, using timing of curved knee strikes to sweep, countering the inside grip with a horizontal elbow strike and safeguarding against spear knee strikes. My clients trained in semi-live and live specific sparring before we moved onto […]

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The Petulant Pretender (diary entry)

September 20, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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Gene Fullmer versus Carmen Basilio NBA World Middleweight Championship 29.06.1960 Gene Fullmer might have been a busy defending world champion since he stopped Carmen Basilio in round 14 of their clash for the forcibly vacated NBA version of the title with his two 15 round wars against Ellsworth Webb and Joey Giardello, but Carmen Basilio hadn’t fought anyone. He seemed to be in a state of semi-retirement and many would remark about how he had become soured to the sport. […]

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Underhook & Overhook Takedowns (diary entry)

September 15, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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15.09.2023 Hour five of my UKSO Cotswolds’ teacher client’s clinch course brought us on to overhook/underhook centred takedowns. We trained the following: Overhook Off-Balance – This technique is a counter to a strong underhook. The takedown can be set up by pushing and pulling an opponent in a body-clinch. Timing is essential and the purpose is have the opponent commit to their underhook, pushing the shoulder high. From this position the fighter presses their palm onto the top of the […]

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Fear & Social Violence Conclusion (diary entry)

September 14, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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14.09.2023   Hour five of this course finished our work on social violence. We continued looking at fear management, covering breathing exercises, visualisation, mental blueprinting and mental detachment.   I then covered Mo Teague’s version of the OODA Loop, called the Three Rs. These have been covered a number of times on this blog. However, in essence they are both response cycles. The OODA Loop is more based on decision-making whereas Mo’s version takes decisions out of the equation. In […]

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Fight Preparation Resumes (diary entry)

September 14, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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14.09.2023 Hour three of my client’s Boxing conditioning course continued with our specific sparring. This time we went for three minute rounds to shake matters up a bit. His fight in November will be 3 x 2 minute rounds. Round 1 – Attack only Round 2 – Defence only Round 3 – Southpaw versus orthodox Round 4 – Ditto Round 5 – Southpaw versus southpaw Tabata 1 – Speed punching Tabata 2 – Power punching Services

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Dirty Boxing Interval (diary entry)

September 14, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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13.09.2023 With my 1.5 hour client nursing a niggling knee injury we decided to take a break from takedown training and to look at how some of the grappling techniques transferred into Dirty Boxing. We began with a review of the foundational holds, grips and positioning we have been training. I also introduced a skull-snatch hold but not into a throw. Then we went back through some body-shot training. This was then combined with the upper body grappling. Finally we […]

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TEACHER TRAINING – CHILDREN’S SELF-PROTECTION 3 – Managing Fear (diary entry)

September 13, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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12.09.2023 Tuesday’s third lesson was yet another online session and also the third hour of my 10-hour teacher development course for Hostlebro Taekwondo Klub, Denmark, ahead of their seminar weekend in November. We are going through my foundational self-protection course with deviations into extra material recently acquired and also explanations on how to adapt it to children’s self-protection. Tonight we largely kept with Jo Saunders’ material on social violence but also crossed onto my general self-protection presentation as we discussed […]

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