31.10.20 Saturday morning’s lesson brought my client up to the 8.5 hour point of his 10 hour course on Western Boxing for Martial Art Cross Training. This morning’s very technical lesson covered putting together two combinations that coordinated footwork and head movement with punches, creating tactics that work well within the to and fro of a fight. We began with the step-jab and step-back-cross, eventually blending them with the pendulum step. Next we brought in slip left/lead hook and slip […]
Tag Archives | footwork
Making Basics Better (diary entry)
21.10.20 Wednesday night continued my client’s current work in footwork and fluidity. This is a regular theme at present amongst my stand-up fighting clients with some variations. After warming up, we looked at punching in isolation. The idea was to promote flow and check recovery. Straight punches, uppercuts and hooks were trained as two-punch combinations. First we isolated them as a constant flow then as sharp two-punch combinations and finally we transferred the sharp two-punch combination to my client’s heavy […]
Movement and Southpaw Fighting (diary entry)
19.10.20 My second Monday night lesson saw the beginning of a 10 hour Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training course with a new client. This client has been training for 15 years in Muay Thai and that includes in-ring fight experience. It was a new challenge for me and I enjoyed being able to introduce new concepts to an individual with firm knowledge on the art. After a warm-up of skipping my client went through some basic combinations before […]
Peek-a-Boo Revision (diary entry)
29.09.20 Tuesday night’s first lesson saw my client focus on the peek-a-boo style of boxing. It was a good opportunity to unpick, deconstruct and rebuild form, creating stronger habits. The lesson was divided up into an outline of using pendulum footwork, angled footwork, slipping, pullbacks and ducking before isolating and combining these through six rounds, finishing on a six-part seventh round of technique/speed/power development. The objective of the lesson was to drill moving into range using the pendulum step, slip/jab […]
Takedowns off the Wall (diary entry)
09.06.20 Tonight’s teacher training picked up from last week’s session, focusing on cornering and setting up takedowns off the wall. We began with footwork and cornering drills, moving into more resistance-based work. My client and her training partner built up a series of specific sparring exercises where I layered in footwork, head movement, feints, body shots and switching levels for takedowns. We also used takedown contingency plans, using the the calf-kick on low stance (as when an opponent drops their […]
Scissor Sweep & Footwork Patterns (diary entry)
19.02.20 Wednesday night’s Junior Submission Grappling went back over sweeps from the basic guard. In preparation for Friday’s closed workshop and March’s open workshop, the Senior MMA class worked on footwork and the clinch. The junior class began with the hip-bump sweep. This is the most basic of sweeps from guard and is also another example of using the Kimura setup. After this sweep I took the opportunity of covering the Kimura sweep from guard. We then covered […]
Long Guards and Extending the Knee (diary entry)
18.02.20 Tuesday night’s teacher training covered footwork, chaining kicks at close range and principles behind both the long-guard and the spear knee strike. We began tonight’s training with a review of the new footwork pattern we are using for punches, kicks and clinching. This simple exercise works forward, backward, lateral, v-stepping and switch-hitting stances. Attack and defence can be layered onto it and the movements should complement each other. The specific pattern is not important other than as a means […]
A Footwork Pattern (diary entry)
17.02.20 Monday night saw the seventh hour of my client’s third course on Muay Thai. Tonight we took a break from centring everything on punching and worked a lot on footwork. We warmed up with some simple shadow boxing and specific dynamic stretching. This moved us onto footwork and I introduced a basic sequence I have been using with most of my clients. We move forwards, backwards, sidestep both ways, v-step both ways and then the switch hit v-stance backwards […]
MMA Footwork & Timing (diary entry)
07.12.19 The seven hour point of my client’s MMA course on Saturday looked at layering the entire game at each range. We warmed up with partner-work from the off. This began with mirror footwork. Here we looked at some advanced movements, such as the diamond step, back-peddling, the Thai knee hop and the forward slide. We then switched levels before staying at a low level for an extended period of time, testing agility at wrestling range. Next we […]
Changing Levels in Grappling (diary entry)
15.06.19 My second Saturday morning lesson saw my two junior clients enter their fourth hour of a 10 hour course on clinch/stand-up grappling. We looked more in depth into the waist-lock and taking the back, and I introduced the single-leg take down. We warmed up with a revision on break-falls and rolls. With this confirmed we got straight into some bulling and pummelling. From bulling I introduced the two-on-one position, controlling the arm. There were elements from this, such as […]
Sweep Combinations for Clinch (diary entry)
23.05.19 Tonight’s lesson brought my client up to the fifth hour of his clinch/stand-up grappling course. We looked more at using sweeps and Judo style takedowns as well as tightening up positioning and an introduction to sparring. The lesson began with sets of breakfalls and rolls. This was followed with bulling (neck and elbow-tie), pummelling (over-hook, under-hook), drilling arm-drags, drilling arm-drag counters and drilling two-on-one arm holds. Then we did some grip-fighting sparring. This sparring was restricted only […]
Beginning Clinch-Work (diary entry)
23.03.19 This morning my junior clients continued into their fourth hour of Basic Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training. This lesson introduced the clinch and we also continued work on kick-catching. We warmed up with mobility exercises, dynamic stretching and specific callisthenics before we moved through basic punch, kick and knee combinations. This led us onto kick-catching and the importance of breaking an opponent’s postures. We covered both the cross-arm check from a round kick into a catch and […]
Final Boxing Lesson – Assessment Sparring (diary entry)
22.02.19 My second lesson of the morning was my two junior clients’ final lesson in their 10 hour course on Basic Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training. We revised all combinations, slips, blocks and footwork covered before sparring for four rounds and then we assessed all areas that needed attention. Taking each client individually I warmed them up with mirror footwork and evasion training. Here we addressed the importance of moving in and out of danger as well exploiting […]
Position before Punching (diary entry)
09.02.19 My two junior clients arrived at the eighth hour of their course on Basic Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training. They are showing a lot of great progress and have clearly been putting the work in. This was my second lesson of the day. We went over 11 punch combination, uppercuts, body shots and general positioning. The warm up consisted of partner-work, where the two junior fighters coached each other. They began with footwork and then […]
Footwork and Uppercuts (diary entry)
26.01.19 This morning’s private lesson brought my two junior students up to the six hour point of the Basics in Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training Course. We worked making footwork more unpredictable, moving out of corners, low hooks and I introduced the lead hand uppercut. We began with mirror footwork. This began with a large focus on backwards and forwards footwork, layering it with jabbing, slipping and parrying. Then I had the side feeding the jabs dictate footwork, […]
Footwork in the Clinch (diary entry)
23.01.19 Tonight I continued my work with the nephew and uncle team, which comprises a half an hour junior lesson and an hour senior lesson. The junior lesson brought in aspects of footwork and how they relate to the Muay Thai clinch. The senior lesson transitioned between stick-work, punching and elbow strikes, including groundwork. The junior lesson built up a series of punch-kick combinations. These were then connected with shin-checks, Dracula guard and teeps. Homework for this section was to […]