Tag Archives | mma

Junior MMA Trial Lesson (diary entry)

November 7, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
sprawl

04.11.21 Thursday night’s class saw a new client begin his course. He is a junior who has opted for my Mixed Martial Arts programme. I have advised that the best way to tackle MMA is by training in its component arts first. Usually this takes the form of boxing, then muay Thai before wrestling and submission grappling. However, some choose to start with any of the other arts depending on their experience or general preferences. Upon conducting an informal and […]

Continue Reading

Junior & Senior War! (diary entry)

October 5, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
ground and pound 2

04.10.2021 Tonight my junior and senior private lessons were combined as uncle and nephew had a fun session of sparring and conditioning in MMA. This is the first time the junior client has sparred under full MMA rules (light contact). During each two minute round the student not sparring or working pads shadow boxed, reacting to the targets and openings they watched. Round 1: Focus mitts – MMA punching with kick and grappling defences Round 2: Focus mitts – MMA […]

Continue Reading

Mirror Side & Defence in MMA (diary entry)

October 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
sprawl

29.09.2021 Somewhat inspired by the Usyk vs Joshua World Heavyweight Championship match, we focused on dealing with a mirror side opponent in the junior MMA. That is an opponent with reverse side stance. This mainly consisted of fighting with the lead foot on the outside of an opponent’s lead foot. From here I introduced using the rear side first in combinations that utilised boxing, muay Thai and MMA techniques – punches, kicks and takedowns. This was all mainly done using […]

Continue Reading

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, Sandy 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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

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, […]

Continue Reading

Ground Striking & Mixing Strikes with Takedowns (diary entry)

August 26, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
76674514_10157979655418804_1665178122242228224_o

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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

MMA & Wrestling (diary entry)

August 5, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
DSC_0115

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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

Combination 3 Partner Work (diary entry)

March 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screenshot_20210303_125040

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 […]

Continue Reading

Adding Kicks & Restricting Movement (diary entry)

November 12, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 19.44.32

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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading