12.10.2022
My final two classes of Wednesday consisted of my junior MMA and senior Boxing sessions. In the former we continued on from our work in the turtle position with defences against chokes and in the latter we looked at Cuban boxing’s peculiar corkscrew punches.
The first lesson began with a look at the details of the rear naked choke. Many martial arts systems teach this technique but it is still often poorly executed. This included using the seatbelt hold, getting the head level with the opponent and ensuring the actual choke is performed by constricting and compressing properly. Once this was established, we looked at the ways to defend against this technique. A fundamental defence is tucking in the chin and raising the shoulders. Then it is important to be familiar with grip-fighting to keep the attacking limb at bay. Next we got into the nitty gritty of turning and pinning the non-choking arm to escape the hips out.
The second lesson began with a brief revision of most areas covered in our exploration of Cuban boxing. This included the square stance, circling footwork, slipping, contralateral punching forwards and ipsilateral punching backwards. Then we looked at how the straight punches are executed using a corkscrew action. The jab can be performed with an inward pivot of the foot. This lesson finished with 5 x 3 minute rounds of specific boxing sparring.