01.12.2021
Wednesday night’s two lessons were junior MMA and senior submission grappling. In the former we looked at fighting off the cage. In the latter we looked at the use of the spider-guard in no-gi fighting.
Junior MMA mainly centred on a simple flow drill that involved striking whilst pinning an opponent against the cage and reversing a pin from the cage. By using an under-hook and a wrist grip, we executed a shoulder bump to the face followed by a slashing elbow as we transitioned to the other side. After executing this off both sides the fighter being pinned reversed his opponent by blocking the shoulder, under-hooking and pushing down against the wrist-grip. The session was finished with pad-work coaching off and against the wall.
Senior submission grappling looked at the long-guard concept and how to best use the spider-guard in a no-gi situation. For a while this type of guard-work wasn’t popular in MMA circles or even no-gi. It was formulated by using the cloth of the gi to grip and entangle an opponent to set them up for sweeps and submissions. However, with with alterations the same principles can apply. Mixed martial artists have also noticed that this no-gi application is a great way to prevent an opponent from punching and to keep them at bay whilst they seek to escape to their feet. We looked at several variations setting up sweeps, springing submission traps and fighting an opponent kneeling as well as standing. We then spent 10 minutes straight doing some flow work with light resistance. The defender sought to maintain a minimum of three control points at all times. This was followed 2 x 5 minute specific sparring using the spider-guard and 1 x 5 minute free-sparring starting from standing.