Tag Archives | Combat Sports

Muay Thai Motivation (diary entry)

April 5, 2023 | Uncategorized [ssba]
Sarka image1

03.04.2023 My client’s third hour of her third course Muay Thai addressed training mindset and overcoming “bad” days. We did some technical work on the switch-kick shuffle using the agility ladder but mainly trained through rounds. Some days motivation can be low. There might be a variety of reasons from training burnout to general tiredness to current nutrition to other contributory factors. Some days, you feel physically fine but your focus feels off. My view is that in most cases […]

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Testing the Ranges with One-Sided Sparring (diary entry)

January 30, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
omoplata specific sparring

27.01.2023 Hour 10 of my client’s first Mixed Martial Arts course with me focused on looking at both conditioning exercises and putting his skills under some pressure. One of my mandates for taking these sessions was to not use sparring due certain medical reasons. This is something of obstacle when it comes to teaching a combat sport. However, we have found ways to work around this challenge. We have regularly used reaction games, both touch and no-contact, and I keep […]

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Elbow Strike Clinic (diary entry)

November 15, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Cover Elbow (loose)

14.11.2022 Tonight for my client’s second hour of her second Muay Thai course we took a break from looking at southpaw strategies to focus on elbow strikes. It proved to be a deep dive into just two types of elbow strike – the horizontal and spear variations – and how they fitted into combinations. After a specific sport and muscle activation series of exercises, we isolated the two elbow strikes and looked at their delivery. This was done a shadow […]

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The Guard Drill (diary entry)

June 21, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
armbar from guard2 (close up)

20.06.2022 Hour seven of my couple clients’ submission grappling course brought them to using the guard. As with the top positions, I covered a flow drill. They transitioned from closed guard to open guard to spider guard to butterfly guard to half-guard back to the open guard and closed guard. Throughout the drill they did variations from different positions and we looked at the all-important safe transitioning. Services 

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MMA & Rubber Guard Revision (diary entry)

June 9, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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08.06.2022 My last lessons on Wednesday were my junior MMA and senior Submission Grappling. In the former we went through boxing, kickboxing and a new strategy on the ground. In the latter we looked at linking up the basics of Eddie Bravo’s Rubber Guard in a flow pattern. The first lesson began with our normal warm-up specific and muscle activation exercises. We then went straight into boxing. After some assessment on my client’s defence against straight rights and some basic […]

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Trapping with Sticks & Tricks with Kicks (diary entry)

May 17, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
chamber kick

12.05.21 My first client continued work with single and double stick fighting. We went through some more angles of attack, looking at extra stabs and then at one stick versus two stick sequences. The latter involved side checks to the head and I emphasised rebounding off intercepting strikes. Next we moved onto trapping with the sticks, making use of the butt end of the stick. My second client continued on the focus mitts with rhythm and flow combinations 11 and […]

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Deconstructing Basics (diary entry)

March 5, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
19TH CENTURY BOXING SPARRING

02.03.21 Work continues in my teacher consultancy regarding the progress of sparring/pressure-testing for grades, especially but not exclusively to child students. As my progressive and proactive client suggested, we began at the beginning and looked at where and how sparring should be introduced. Key things to consider would be that gradings would not be a test for everything. A club does not have to have sparring in the first grading and yet students by this stage can be accustomed to […]

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Combination 1 on the focus mitts (diary entry)

February 16, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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15.02.21 This is the third hour of my client’s second 10 hour course on stand-up striking. After a 10 minute round of warming up, my client with her lockdown partner decided to completely focus on the first combination from our 14 rhythm and flow sequences. The benefit of having a lockdown partner allowed me to teach the combination in three stages: Stage 1: Shadow boxing the entire combination Stage 2: Virtual focus-mitt training – using the combination in direct response […]

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Dogs, Snakes and Pancakes (diary entry)

November 13, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
diary ground fighting 1

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 […]

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Fluidity & Footwork (diary entry)

October 26, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Dempsey book 7

24.10.20 My client reached hour seven of his course on Boxing techniques for martial arts cross training. We followed a similar routine to Tuesday and Wednesday’s clients, looking to increase fluidity through punches, develop footwork and look for small details to improve in basic technique. After our callisthenic and dynamic stretching warm-up we went through the basic punching isolation exercise. This consisted of throwing a constant flow of single straights, single uppercuts and single hooks before separating these into two-combinations […]

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Kickboxing & MMA from the Philly Shell (diary entry)

September 16, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
philly shell front kick

15.09.20 My Philly Shell training carried over into my teacher consultation lesson where we looked at bringing together much of what we had covered and integrated into kickboxing. We looked at the pullback/shoulder roll/rear hand parry into the right cross and back-step. From here we covered front kick variation or an inside round kick and then into a diamond step and spleen shot or outside round kick into a liver kick. This combination was then changed for MMA into jab/double […]

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MMAyhem in the third official online workout (diary entry)

September 14, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
rashguard training2

13.09.20 Sunday morning kicked off with a 12 round train along routine. This will be the third official routine offered on the CCMA channel. It was an invitation only event for all those who bought the CCMA rashguards. The routine differs from the previous two in the respect that movement is continued during the rest spots to keep the heart rate up and as a form of active recovery. Rounds included one dedicated entirely to speed, another to virtual pad-work, […]

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Passing guard and sweep revision (diary entry)

August 18, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
17 08 20 submission grappling

  17.08.20 The third hour of my client’s Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting course went back over the basic sweeps as well as the Kimura arm-lock from guard and passing guard. We began with our normal solo warm-up routine of ground-fighting callisthenics, including some new movements directly related to guard passing. Next the two lockdown partners performed some guard-passing drills before moving onto some resistance work. This took the form of a guard passing game where one had to get past the other’s […]

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Muay Thai for Karate Cross Training Workshop (diary entry)

February 13, 2020 | Courses, Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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08.02.20   The Oxford School of Martial Arts kindly booked me for a two-hour clinic on Muay Thai tactics for Karate sparring. Quite simply, black belt gradings for these particular schools include a half hour fortitude test where conventional sport karate rules are abandoned in favour of a virtual no-holds-barred format (contact to the head is light and foul techniques are carefully monitored). I have previously taught a ground-fighting workshop with this in mind. This time we looked at the […]

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Junior MMA Begins (diary entry)

January 20, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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16.01.20   On Thursday my junior client began her Mixed Martial Arts course having completed all the four recommended component parts as 10 hour private lessons over a one year period. We touched upon all three ranges, linking in techniques covered within the four disciplines already taught.   We warmed up with a range of specific callisthenics for stand-up, clinch and ground. Then we moved onto the stand-up range on focus mitts. From jabbing high and low I taught jab […]

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From Butterfly to Back Mount (diary entry)

December 6, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Tarn back mount4

05.12.19   My junior clients covered their penultimate lesson in Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting on Thursday evening. I introduced the butterfly guard, half-guard and back mount as well as the butterfly sweep, knee shield and rear naked choke. We also had some fun with a few advanced techniques.   We warmed up with the usual specific callisthenics for ground-fighting such as various crawls, snaking and escape movement drills. Then I introduced the butterfly guard. Here we paid attention to keeping sat up […]

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