10.12.2024
Rather than summing up material covered in this online course with Dunstable’s Zanshin Karate, we decided to go in a totally different direction and cover stand-up work.
Tonight’s theme mainly focused on taking angles. The session began with some fairly standard line-work exercises, training Boxing and Muay Thai techniques with some visualisation.
We began with a simple single shoulder tap game where both fighters stand in mirror stances. They take it in turns to call out the number of shoulder taps they intend to administer and try to execute them before their opponent moves to their rear square. The exercise, taken from Cuban Boxing, trains a number of attributes including reaction timing and linear footwork. However, I used the mirror stance element to focus on taking angles.
The next game had both fighters don boxing gloves and restricted to using their lead hand or their rear hand. This encourages fighters to step to the outside of their opponent’s lead foot when fighting in a mirrored stance. They are forced to lead with their rear hand which can be done when standing close at this angle. The rear straight acts like a jab.
I then brought in the up-jab, which can be effectively used from the outside of a mirror stance. We incorporated that technique into the games, keeping them live but with some fairly strict constraints.
Next, I introduced them to the rear Thai round kick. The mirror stance set-up was a great opportunity to demonstrate how stepping out at an angle opens the hips and allows the close proximity for this particular kick. It changes things a lot from a Sport Karate or regular Boxing perspective where fighters typically fight at a greater range. The angle puts the rear side closer to the opponent. However, the kick wasn’t completely added straight away. Instead I used the same game with the side using their rear hand now pushing their hand in their opponent’s as if using a long guard rather than pumping a cross. The step was also changed with the lead foot’s angle now changed. This opens the hips better for the kick.
We then did a series of games pitting a rear leg round kick against a jabbing opponent. As with the previous Boxing games, I later layered in another tool for the rear side opponent: the teep. This was largely due to solving the problem of having the rear-side round-kicker avoid getting punched after they threw their kick.
Moving back to Boxing, we went back to the shoulder tagging game. This time, using an exercise I taught at the joint seminar I held with Les Bubka earlier this year, one opponent sought to tag the opponent’s chest with their lead hand whilst the other was restricted to landing tags behind their shoulder. This was then taken to actual Boxing where the rear shoulder tagger found overhand rights and body hooks. We then layered in jabs, creating a slip/jab/overhand response to a jab. They were all tested in live games. This concept was then taken back over to Muay Thai and the overhands replaced with low kicks.
I then taught a couple of technical variations for MMA: slip/jab/single leg takedown and slip/jab/arm-triangle. Like all the other set-ups these can be and should be turned into live games and even be broken down further.
This has been a very rewarding course for me working with two keen and dedicated teachers who want the best for their students and their own personal development. When it comes to Vagabond Warriors, work like this exemplifies my cross-training teaching mission. I hope the material will help profit Zanshin Karate’s knowledge base, producing more developed and rounded fighters. My thanks to Brian and Luke for using my ground-up approach to teaching by suggesting material and areas to explore as well as running with my various training games. Training remotely online is a great way to access material in an affordable way not allowing distances to get in the way of learning. Brian and Luke have joined teachers like Will Garnsworthy in Ireland and Mikael Oddershede in Denmark in embracing my online training services. Another way to train online is to download my Vagabond Warriors training courses from https://payhip.com/vagabondwarriors