Tag Archives | mma

Saddler & Zale in MMA (diary entry)

September 24, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
half guard attack

22.09.21 Wednesday night’s training was a junior and senior MMA lesson. The first looked at using the half-guard and the second also covered this, but also used the combinations of the great sluggers, Sammy Saddler and Tony Zale respective nemesises of Willie Pep and Rocky Graziano. Half-guard has evolved to become an important part of ground-fighting in MMA. The knee-shield and the lockdown are particularly important parts of this guard that can be used to better control someone fighting from […]

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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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Striking Set-ups for Takedowns (diary entry)

September 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
mma takedown

01.09.21 Wednesday night’s 1.5 hour lesson continued my client’s MMA work from the previous week. We are exploring eight set-ups for double-leg takedowns. Each of tonight’s four alternated between right and left double leg takedowns. Combination 1: This one was a nice continuation from the single combination we explored last week. After leading with a jab, the fighter feints a single leg takedown with an inside leg tap from the same side that is used to set up an overhand […]

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Look, Step, Punch (diary entry)

August 30, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
coaching juniors 2

29.08.21 The fourth hour of my client’s five hour course in junior MMA began with father and son warming up on the agility ladders. It is important to note that this lesson is as much about helping the father client to coach his son outside of lessons as it is for me to directly teach the son. Feedback from the previous lesson was that footwork and punching were fine in isolation but there were problems with them both together. Therefore, […]

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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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Junior Boxing Work for MMA (diary entry)

August 23, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
student coaching punching focus mitt pad

22.08.21 Today was my client’s third hour of a five hour programme for junior MMA. We worked exclusively on boxing technique, where I incorporated more head movement as well as methods for improving agility for footwork and keeping elbows in. We warmed up with some simple forward, backward and circular footwork. Then we returend to our stick and move drill: jab and circle away from the power hand drill followed by jab/cross circle away. Then we went back to the […]

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MMA & Wrestling (diary entry)

August 5, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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04.08.21 Wednesday night’s first lesson focused on junior mixed martial arts training. It has been a long time since this client has covered unarmed combat arts and decided to give him a lesson of overall run through the different areas. We began with a warm-up of dynamic stretches and MMA specific callisthenics. Then I started him on the focus mitts using MMA gloves. Once he was comfortable throwing combinations and defending, I layered in takedown defence, knee strikes and the […]

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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 3 Partner Work (diary entry)

March 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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01.03.21 Monday evening began with hour five of my client’s course on stand-up pad-work. As previously mentioned these are both lockdown partners, one of which is on the road to recovery from a knee injury. The previous course took them through the 14 Muay Thai combination for rhythm and flow. Now we are taking each combination and applying them to the focus mitts. Having a lockdown partner allows for me to coach pad work whilst not holding pads and it […]

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Adding Kicks & Restricting Movement (diary entry)

November 12, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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08.11.20 Tonight my two lockdown clients began their next course. One of them is looking to improve her kicking speed whilst her partner will be going into an operation soon that will restrict movements with one of his knees. With this mind, I continued with the boxing combination I taught last week and adapted it for both of them. Prior to making these adaptations I went through footwork patterns, slipping and ducking before layering on the punching combination. Then I […]

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More Superman Punching (diary entry)

October 29, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]

27.10.20 My teacher consultation lesson was originally intended to tackle ways to set up the Superman Punch. Although this topic was touched upon, along with feedback on the Bizarro punch, we also took several detours into discussing several self-protection topics for teachers and students such as how violent crimes can dramatically adjust an individual’s morality and the problems with martial arts discussions in general. Superman Punch is generally set up with kicks. This isn’t to say the technique cannot be […]

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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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Movement and Southpaw Fighting (diary entry)

October 20, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Boxing southpaw

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 […]

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Ground ‘n Pound Against the Wall (diary entry)

June 19, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
wall takedown

16.02.20 Tonight, during teacher-trainer, we completely focused on fighting from the top position against the wall. This is fairly peculiar to MMA and offers certain benefits for self-defence training. A solid wall or cage has no give and there cannot really contribute much to a rope-a-dope strategy other than it limits an opponent’s angles. Being pinned or stacked on the ground against a wall is even worse as there is only way to escape and your opponent can concentrate all […]

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Restricted Training Zoom Class for Forest Schools Karate (diary entry)

May 26, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
forest school karate zoom

20.05.20 Tonight I was booked to teach for Forest Schools of Karate on Zoom. This 45 minute lesson focused on restrictive training and visualisation exercises to get the most out of home training. Whenever I guest-teach for clubs I am always impressed by the way particularly young students are continuing to engage as Lockdown fatigue sets in for society. Vijay Pathek’s child students were no exception. Siblings and individual students enthusiastically gave all my different training methods a fair go. […]

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