Tag Archives | ground fighting

Striking Setups for Submissions (diary entry)

November 8, 2022 | Uncategorized [ssba]
Striking from the knee pin1

07.11.2022 Hour two of my couple clients’ course on Mixed Martial Arts groundwork brought us on to layering the striking work from last week with submissions. All of these submissions came from the opponent defending the strikes and taking advantage of the positioning presented. We covered the following: Side control – hammer-fists to the head, knees to the near side ribs and elbows to far side ribs to set up a cutting armbar. Scarf-hold – hook punches into arm-triangle. Knee […]

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MMA Ground-Fighting Begins (diary entry)

November 2, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
ground and pound

31.10.2022 My couple client began the first hour of their new Mixed Martial Arts Ground-Fighting course. After a warm-up of sport-specific exercises, including drilling attack and defence from guard, we went through striking from different pins. This began with side control where we looked at knees to the hip and ribs as well as elbows to the side and head in addition to hammer-fists. Moving into scarf-hold, we looked at hooks and hammer-fists to the head. In north-south we covered […]

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Knee Bars & Toe Holds from Half-Guard (diary entry)

August 30, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Cat & Ollie Half Guard Bottom Knee Bar & Toe HoldIMG_1642

29.08.2022 Hour four of my couple client’s submission grappling/ground-fighting course brought us on to submissions from half-guard. Rather going to the kimura, I decided to take them into leg-locks. These are submissions we have not covered together yet and they also link up with some of the back-attack material we touched upon last lesson. We began with the knee-shield setting up the knee-bar attack. This also provided an opportunity to cover contingencies with the shoulder-over knee bar and toe-hold. This […]

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Butterfly Guard Basics (diary entry)

August 2, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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01.08.2022 The first hour of my couple clients’ new course on Submission Grappling/Ground Fighting looked at the butterfly guard. We covered three sweeps, including two different types. After our normal specific warm-up and muscle activation we moved onto the fundamentals of the butterfly guard. Having covered some posture work in our warm-up, I specified the importance of a concave back so that the core was fully engaged and it was difficult for an opponent to flatten a fighter out. We […]

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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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Bridge, Snake & Roll (diary entry)

May 31, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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30.05.2022 My couple client’s second course on submission grappling/ground fighting continued into its fourth hour on Monday night (the first course having been undertaken via live streaming at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown). This time we looked at escapes from underneath pins. Although there are clearly nuances and numerous ever-evolving counters to pins, bridging and snaking form principle movements to escape and reposition. The respositioning aspect, as always, is of paramount importance. We cannot simply escape. At best this […]

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Submission Grappling Overview (diary entry)

May 27, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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26.05.2022 Thursday night saw the penultimate lesson in my client’s return to Mixed Martial Arts course. Tonight we focused on submission grappling, trying to cover all the fundamentals of the ground game. After a warm-up of sport specific and muscle activation exercises, we covered the following basic topics: Top Position Transitioning – flow drill and with mild resistance Top Position Transition Escapes Top Position Submissions – Americana, Kimura, arm triangle, snake-choke, north south choke and reverse arm-triangle from all six […]

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Ground Fighting Begins (diary entry)

May 6, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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02.05.2022 Monday evening saw the beginning of my couple clients’ new course on submission grappling/ground fighting. The bulk of their previous submission grappling course was conducted at the beginning of the national lockdown and training was done online. Although a lot can be covered this way, and it is especially helpful when I have two clients working together, hands on training has its obvious advantages. We spent the first lesson revising the top position transition drill. I was happy to […]

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Half-Guard & Lockdown (diary entry)

January 6, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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05.01.2022 Wednesday night I continued my current Submission Grappling programme with my veteran client followed by a stretching routine. We focused on the half-guard tonight. This began with the classic half-guard work that marries up with the butterfly guard sweeps we used before the Christmas break. In short, we looked at framing and transitioning to the dog-fight position. From here the fighter has option to shoot for the sweep or to attack the back. This is dependent on whether the […]

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Side Control & Scarf-Hold Escapes (diary entry)

December 13, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Tracey & Liam 2

11.12.2021 I gave a bespoke private class over Zoom to Kuroten Karate founder and her son, focusing escapes from two fundamental pins: side control and scarf-hold. After a grappling based warm-up of dynamic stretching and callisthenics, we moved onto pin transitions. From here we looked at working from reversals and hip escapes, which are the main basis for escaping pins. We also looked at different stages of a pin, such as when it is in transition, and how to best […]

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Teacher Development Programme: Submissions (diary entry)

November 24, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Guard Teacher Development (1)

23.11.2021 Tuesday night’s first lesson brought my teacher development programme, booked by Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom, to a conclusion for this year. This was an extra 12th hour added on in order to better round off the ground-figthing/submission grappling section. Fortunately due to the experience, knowledge and adaptability of my client and his assistant teacher, we have been able to cover a surprising amount of material. Tonight we finished off the top position with some work on arm-locks […]

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Fighting from the Ground (diary entry)

November 18, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
ground and pound 2

17.11.2021 Wednesday saw my two Kingham Hill lessons deal with the very difficult subject of ground fighting in self-defence. This can be a difficult topic to handle for non-martial arts students, unfamiliar with grappling and in their teenage years. However, we made it through with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Those who felt uncomfortable in dealing the symmetrical situations drilled this as a solo exercise. We revised transitioning through postures, followed by asymmetrical ground-fighting, followed by symmetrical ground fight both from […]

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Teacher Development Programme: Ground Pins (diary entry)

November 17, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
mikael zoom teaching

16.11.2021 Tuesday night my client’s teacher development programme booked by Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom reached its 11th hour. Originally this course was booked for 10 hours, but early on an extra hour was added now yet another hour has been added for next week. This is little surprising given the amount of content present in ground fighting. Although my client is a highly experienced martial arts teacher with an experienced and very able co-teacher as his training partner, […]

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Junior MMA Clinch & Senior MMA Striking Combinations (diary enry)

September 16, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Striking from the knee pin1

15.09.21 My evening sessions covered my junior client’s MMA training and senior client’s MMA training. In the junior class, after the warm-up, we began with some grip and clinch sparring adding on Muay Thai knees. We then went through using strikes to set up the arm-triangle clinch into takedown and submission. I finished the junior MMA with a tabata of jab/cross/sprawl/spear knee strike. The senior lesson began with a series of lowline takedown set-ups. We covered jab/inside leg feint/overhand punch/single […]

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Ground Striking & Mixing Strikes with Takedowns (diary entry)

August 26, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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25.08.21 My first lesson on Wednesday evening was junior MMA for my teenage client. We began work on ground fighting and striking. Here we looked at ground ‘n pound, sitting in and stacking the guard. We covered the defensive structure first: Hips forward and close in to prevent the opponent hip escaping Establising a strong posture to prevent sweeps Keeping the arms in but mobile to prevent submission traps Next we moved onto the strikes themselves. We covered the hammer-fist/overhand […]

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Fighting from the Ground (diary entry)

February 23, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Striking from the knee pin1

22.02.21 I was delighted to be invited back to teach for Forest School of Karate as we continued the second part of my virtual “When Parents Aren’t Around”. The past few lessons have been concerned with learning how to grapple in order to learn how to fight against someone trying grapple. This lesson took everything to the ground. Again, within this context, everything is geared towards escaping the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Therefore, we began with a […]

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