26.11.20 Ahead of teaching my client’s martial arts class on Monday, I suggested that we have a teacher consultancy lesson covering the clinch. Monday’s lesson is all about anti-grappling in connection to my “When Parents Aren’t Around” webinar series. Through experience, I have learned that it is important for students to have an understanding of stand-up grappling if they are to use effective tools to extricate themselves from a grappling situation. This is also important for partner work. It seems […]
Diary / Training Notes
Solo Focus Mitt Technique (diary entry)
24.11.20 Tuesday night’s third lesson saw my client conclude his latest 10 hour Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training with a 10 round workout that included several rounds working the solo focus mitt. I was asked about the dangers to form when using a single focus mitt. It is a fair question and I am sure there are some coaches who would argue that form is in danger of being sacrificed. However, I would contend that we can get around […]
Lockdown in Lockdown (diary entry)
24.11.20 My second lesson of the night was my teacher consultancy lesson, where we continued our work from the half-guard. This time we moved into the lockdown half-guard position and transitioned into the electric chair position. The lockdown is a technique used for immobilising an opponent’s leg caught in the fighter’s half-guard postion. The concept is to compromise the opponent’s balance and set them up for a sweep or submission off the other side. The electric chair involves trapping the […]
Anti-Grappling Continues (diary entry)
24.11.20 I continued my series of anti-grappling classes with Athena School of Karate as we looked at countering lowline takedowns. After the warm-up we looked at the double-leg takedown as a model attack for an attacker to use. Quite simply, there is a primal form of tackling that individuals will commonly default to when struggling with someone around similar size in the clinch. When there is a substantial size, weight and strength difference it is common for the larger individual, […]
Kick Workout (diary entry)
23.11.20 With her lockdown partner currently recovering from an operation, my client trained alone tonight and I used the opportunity to get back to kicking. The entire workout was focused on developing better kicking technique and increasing speed in her legs. This is the third hour of my client’s course. After the usual warm-up of dynamic stretching and callisthenics we moved onto developing round kicks more effeciently. Firstly, we addressed the importance of the pivot and turning the shin. However, […]
Hard Skills II: Danish Edition (diary entry)
22.11.20 I was delighted to provide a webinar for my Danish friends again. Hinnerup Karate kindly hosted my Hard Skills II webinar on Sunday. This part of the series focuses maintaining the initiative. After a quick revision of the previous material on pre-emptive striking, involving some physical training, we looked at continuous forward pressure. The webinar then began in earnest with a simple procedure set out based on defined objectives, preferred targeting areas and preferred primary weapon. We covered repetition […]
Building Technique (diary entry)
21.11.20 My client’s second hour of his new Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training course consisted of six rounds of technique and conditioning based training followed by one round of virtual pad-work and then two rounds following the technique/speed/power format, finishing off with a static stretching session. This routine is very similar to last Thursday’s lesson. However, due to the fact that my client doesn’t have a heavy bag in this instance, the “power” part consisted throwing single free […]
Shadow Boxing, Virtual Pad-Work & Heavy Bag (diary entry)
19.11.20 My client’s third hour of a 10 hour Muay Thai course was a high intensity 10 x 3 minute round session. We began with isolated combinations and techniques, we had a round of virtual focus mitt training and then three rounds on the heavy bag, building up techniques. Given the client’s high level of skill and experience, this was an extremely focused lesson of explosive techniques. The shadow technique rounds were all separated into 1.5 minutes per combination. The […]
Defence & Counter (diary entry)
17.11.20 Tuesday night’s third and final lesson saw my client reach the ninth hour of his Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training course. Tonight we completely threw the spotlight onto defence. After warming up we would be going through 12 x 3 minute rounds of virtual specific sparring, mainly isolating certain defences and then adding on counter punches. My client would be responding to techniques I through at the camera. Round 1 – Slipping Round 2 – Slip and […]
Twist and Shout (diary entry)
17.11.20 Tuesday night’s second lesson saw my teacher consultancy continue from the dog fight position. Last week we looked at as a means for escaping a type of side control. This week we attacked the back and I chose a particularly no-gi style back mount position. This began with the threat to sweep from dog fight position. Here the opponent will block and the fighter can ascend the back.After getting one hook in we threated with another hook. Typically submission […]
Grappling/Anti-Grappling (diary entry)
17.11.20 Tuesday night began with my second of a four-part short course on managing grappling in self-defence. Last week we established the role the clinch played in self-defence situations. We discussed when to grapple. Tonight we revised clinching positions – collar and elbow, underhook/over-hook and we also looked at sprawling to defend low line takedowns and we also trained lowline takedowns in the form of the double-leg. With some of the students getting the hang of the pummelling flow of […]
Tighter Combinations, Speed, Power and Restriction
16.11.20 The second hour of my clients’ current 10 hour course, continued more revision on the set Western Boxing combination began at the end of the last course. The two lockdown partners worked together for partner drills, then on the focus mitts and then I divided them up into restrictive training and kicking. The lesson started with a warm-up of callisthenics, dynamic stretching and line-work. Then we shadowed the complete boxing combinations: pendulum step/jab/cross/pendulum step back/parry/parry/slip/lead hook/roll/spleen shot/roll/liver shot/lead hook. […]
Bear Hugs & Bag Work (diary entry)
15.11.20 Sunday morning’s PT consisted of half an hour self-protection teacher consultation and half an hour work on heavy bag combinations. Teacher consultation was in response to a question regarding dealing with rear bear hugs. My teacher client had been asked about this from several of her students. Although she had some reasonable counters, she was sceptical about a lack of mechanical effeciency. Such concerns are highlighted by big size, height and weight differences. Smaller people can easily be dominated […]
Technique Isolation; Combination Innovation (diary entry)
14.11.20 My client began the first hour of his Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training with a 12 round dissection of popular techniques. The premise for most rounds was to do two combinations primarily featuring the chosen technique. As we progressed, I encouraged my client to suggest his own combinations. This was to make the entire experience less passive and more proactive. Here and there I would suggest ways to improve the combination he put forward from a tactical […]
Dogs, Snakes and Pancakes (diary entry)
09.11.20 Tuesday night’s teacher consultation continued with ground-fighting revision. We used escaping side control as a starting point, covering reversals, arm-triangles and sweeping from the dog fight position. The reversal – a technique referred to by my client as a “pancake” roll – came from head-lock version of side control. Here we set up for escaping to guard and timed our reversal off our opponent countering the guard escape by putting more weight forward. The fighter immediately switches from snaking […]
Barn Dance from Hell (diary entry)
09.11.20 Athena School of Karate kindly re-booked me to teach another specialised topic: grappling for self-defence. This lesson was born out of teaching anti-grappling tactics in my 10 hour self-protection course. What I soon learnt from teaching a wide range of students was that in order to properly defend against the clinch range, one needs to be familiar with clinching. Wrestling is probably the oldest form of combat known to mammals and possibly the first codified sport alongside running. Although […]