Tag Archives | cotswolds

Vagabond Warriors Boxing Workshop Report (diary entry)

July 30, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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28.07.19   The first of our Vagabond Warriors Workshops focused on Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training. We spent the majority of the lesson training footwork, various guards and the jab. These are all key components for setting up everything else in modern boxing.   We began with an overview of cross-training. I discussed the problems with “welding” martial arts styles and techniques. That is forcing together two fighting aspects that do not complement each other. This creates a […]

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Agility Training for Clinch and Stand-up Fighting (diary entry)

July 18, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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17.07.19   The nephew and uncle team focused on agility and grip-breaking in the clinch as well as ring-craft in stand-up fighting. The introduction of the agility ladders and cones has had an influence on this lesson too. I brought in both agility and coordination exercises to form a good amount of the first half of each of these two lessons.   The junior clinch lesson began with the agility ladder. We covered various basic footwork exercises, including the wrestling […]

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12 Rounds (diary entry)

May 24, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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low-kick

22.05.19   Tonight’s junior and senior lesson saw considerable overlap. Both nephew and uncle cover 12 rounds between them on Muay Thai and Western Boxing.   I began the junior lesson with a round of Western Boxing on the focus mitts. This was followed by a round of Muay Thai on the Thai focus mitts. Then we did a round of clinch before we began sparring. This consisted of two rounds of Wester Boxing and two rounds of Muay Thai […]

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Heavy Bag Training & Reverse Scarf-Hold Escape (diary entry)

May 10, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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08.05.19   Wednesday night’s lessons consisted of Junior Muay Thai and Senior Submission Grappling. The former provided an overview of combination set ups and counters to the back kick. The senior Submission Grappling continued work on escaping the knee-pin and also looked at escaping reverse scarf-hold.   We began with basic distancing and mirror footwork. This led onto combination setups. Here I focused on using the teep as an effective jabbing tool, creating and maintaining distance. Then it was used […]

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Symmetrical Ground Defence at Kingham Hill School (diary entry)

March 19, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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Striking from the knee pin1

13.03.19   My Kingham Hill Self-Defence class focused on symmetrical ground fighting. We looked at fighting from the back in two different positions and general conditioning for this type of situation.   The class was warmed up with our standard tactical running, covering, switching directions and sprawling. Then we did an additional segment, which also brought in relevant ground movements. This segment included bear crawls – backwards, forwards and sideways – and snaking/shrimping – backwards and forwards.   We then […]

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Cross Training Angles (diary entry)

January 15, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes
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stick jamie

12.01.19   My first lesson of the day brought this client up to four and a half hour mark on what has becoming a course dedicated entirely to Martial Arts Cross Training without focusing on one particular discipline. We used 12 basic stick angles from Eskrima and then went through elbow and punching applications. Not every angle was accounted for, but we focused on representation of the slashing, horizontal, smash-down, chop, backward and side elbows as well as overhands and […]

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Submission versus Takedown (diary entry)

November 23, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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23.11.2018   My second lesson of the day continued my veteran client’s current theme on stand-up to ground grappling. We have been looking at takedowns, finishing in submissions. Linking directly to last week’s class, we looked at submission counters to takedowns.   The lesson warmed up with partner work. Stand-up grappling warm-up included collar/elbow tie up bulling, over-hook/under-hook pummelling, takedown entries, arm-drag drilling and arm-drag/takedown counter drilling, whereas ground grappling warm-up included pin transitioning, guard transitioning, submission and sweep drilling. […]

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Peek-a-Boo & the Art of Good Head Movement (diary entry)

June 12, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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12.06.2018   The fourth hour of my client’s 5:30 a.m. sessions in Basic Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training brought more emphasis on upper-body mobility. We spent a lot of time on the slip, coordinating it with footwork and the basic 1-2 combination. Then I introduced the peek-a-boo guard as well as bobbing and weaving.   The lesson began with mirror footwork. This teaches better dynamic movement when facing an opponent, anticipating and predicting actions as well as understanding […]

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Kingham Combat Grapplers

May 24, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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23.05.18   Training at Kingham Hill School moved onto combat grappling. We began with an energetic series of movement exercises, designed to reinforce various behaviours learnt over the previous lessons and to increase reaction timing. This started with simple changing directions, then altering heights of stances, varying footwork, striking whilst moving, covering, sprawling, switching ranges and finished with transitioning through postures to regain footing.   We began our technical training with the side headlock. This is a primal grappling move […]

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Clinch and Sweep (diary entry)

May 18, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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Knee strike to stomach whilst grappling (b)

17.05.18   Tonight was the penultimate lesson in my client’s second course in Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. We continued our work with the clinch and exclusive worked in and around this range. We also spent the majority of the lesson going through three sweeps.   Warm-up began with mirror footwork, which progressed onto pad-work. We went through a series of punching, kicking and punch-kick combinations that all ended with achieving a clinch position. The purpose of this […]

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Grappling Defence at Kingham Hill (diary entry)

May 17, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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eye gouge standing

16.05.18   The second lesson of the day was part of my continuing Self-Protection/Mixed Martial Arts course I am running at Kingham Hill School. Today the class moved onto anti-grappling tactics. We overlapped pad-work, technique application and live testing on all the techniques cover today.   We warmed up with posture transitioning and movement exercises. Then we began an anti-grappling exercise that involved one partner using grappling holds and the other placing strikes. This built up into a series of […]

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Combat Grappling Continues (diary entry)

May 16, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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16.05.2018   The 5:30 a.m. training continued with combat grappling, going to the ground and also adding on anti-grappling tactics. This is my client’s ninth hour in a 10-hour course on Basic Self-Protection. We began with revision on headlocks, initial head-lock escapes, back position, rear naked chokes and head-lock takedowns. Then we moved onto the cross-buttocks throw and striking from grappling holds. We went into some more detail regarding escaping the side head-lock. Here we focused on a deeper head-lock […]

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Combat Grappling Begins (diary entry)

May 11, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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Rear naked strangle1

10.05.18 We reached the eighth hour point of my client’s 10 hour course on Basic Self-Protection held at 5:30 a.m. We continued with the anti-grappling taught in the previous lesson, moving into combat grappling. The lesson began with a revision with the eye-gouging/head-butt/elbow strike combination. Then we moved onto side headlocks. The side headlock is a primal grappling technique in that it is a very instinctive move for a human to use. Therefore, it is a likely if a fight […]

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Gouges, Head Butts, Elbows, Bites & Sprawls (diary entry)

May 9, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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eye gouge standing

  09.05.18   The 5:30 a.m session today is the first of two anti-grappling lessons I will be covering today. It is this particular client’s seventh hour of his basic course on Self-Protection and time to start putting the pressure on. We began with the warm-up, where he placed strikes within a grappling context. This is a light form of pressure testing. It helps convey the dynamic of the asymmetrical, encourages striking whilst being grappled and is also a good […]

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Setting up Strikes Inside the Clinch (diary entry)

May 5, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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05.05.2018   My client’s Second Course of Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross-Training brought us to the seven and a half hour point. This morning we focused on the clinch. We warmed up with some basic kickboxing combinations I would use to set the mechanics in place for the short-range strikes. This consisted of the four punch-kick combinations. We then revised the jumping knee and jumping smash-down elbow.   The clinch work then began with set-ups for the spear knee, […]

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Complete Combat Movement (diary entry)

May 4, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes
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Guard for street

02.05.18 Work continued tonight on combat transitioning. We warmed up with movements from the back, seated, kneeling and footwork. After going through a few fundamental details, we added in punching combinations and kicking. Next we looked at the hook-guard and how it worked within the first transition. We revised the half-guard/butterfly guard flow drill, which was then used as method to train the hook-guard/butterfly guard flow drill. Here we went back over attacking with a knee-bar. Everything was then brought […]

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