Tag Archives | mma

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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Attacking the Back (diary entry)

May 22, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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19.05.20 The final part of this particular client’s MMA course was a round-up of most material previously covered with an emphasis on attacking the back on the ground. We began with our normal warm-up of dynamic stretching followed by shadow boxing where I grafted on kicks, takedowns and takedown defence to boxing combinations. This area transitioned from instructional to visualisation. Training switched to the loose heavy bag where we began clinching for knee strikes. Here I coached my client to […]

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Ground-Fighting using the Heavy Bag (diary entry)

May 15, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Heavy bag ground diary

12.05.20 Tuesday’s second lesson brought this client up to the ninth hour of his Mixed Martial Arts course. Unlike Monday’s – who was primarily a kickboxing student – this client has been through several of my different courses and is very familiar with ground work. However, this course has been his first introduction to striking on the ground. Having a free heavy bag in his isolation, we were able to complete his ground-striking drills. I also did some more clinch-work […]

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Arm Triangles and Snake Chokes (diary entry)

May 14, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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11.05.20   The ninth lesson of my client’s Mixed Martial Arts course saw her and her fellow self-isolated partner focus a lot on ground-work. We stayed in side-control, prompted some escapes and looked at set-ups for submissions.   The lesson began with some simple callisthenics, movement exercises and dynamic stretching starting with the neck and ending with the calves. We then moved into some shadow boxing, drawing combinations and individuals techniques from stand-up and clinch ranges. Training then went to […]

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More Grappling Bag Work (diary entry)

May 12, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
heavy bag ground 1

07.05.20   The eighth hour of my client’s Mixed Martial Arts course looked at more solo bag work for grappling. My client was outside and I instructed through video link how to execute double leg takedowns and supplexes. This was followed by transitioning through pins.   We warmed up with shadow boxing, sport-specific callisthenics and dynamic stretching, going through stand-up and clinch movement. Then my client brought out his heavy bag, which is not hung up, and we began drilling […]

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Partner Training via Video Coaching (diary entry)

April 28, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
double leg takedown shadow

27.04.20 Monday night’s client seventh hour of her current MMA course added in another element with the full inclusion of her fellow isolation inmate! It is always great to train a couple as we can do a lot more using two people and I took full advantage by going through stand-up to clinch combinations. The lesson began with a warm-up of simple dynamic stretches and sport-specific callisthenics. We then eased our way through some simple stand-up combinations before they brought […]

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Technique Confirmation (diary entry)

April 25, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Shadow Scarf Hold

20.04.20   My client continued her Mixed Martial Arts online live video training on Monday, reaching her sixth hour. Tonight was mainly concerned with running back through and re-confirming individual techniques.   After a short warm-up of dynamic stretching and sport-specific callisthenics, we began moving through the various stand-up techniques. These were first done slowly as part of the warm-up process and to check body mechanics. We covered jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, shovel hooks and variations on the major punches […]

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Shadow Ground Training Progresses (diary entry)

April 16, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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13.04.20   Monday night’s online video lesson was my client’s fifth hour of Mixed Martial Arts training. Due to the lock-down situation that has meant our regular face-to-face lessons are now adapted to online live video tutorials, I was grateful for the assistance of my client’s live-in partner. I do not charge any extra if other people who are self-isolating with my client wish to join in or assist with the lessons. Tonight we linked up some grappling with the […]

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Video Training: Chaining MMA Techniques (diary entry)

April 1, 2020 | Courses [ssba]
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30.03.20   My client began her third hour in Mixed Martial Arts training. This is her second live video link tutorial. We went back over details for the double-leg takedown, the sprawl and two break-falls. We also continued ground work positions and focused a lot on chaining and transitioning techniques.   We warmed up through the usual callisthenics and dynamic stretching exercises. Then I began technical work with the simple high and low jab. The low jab involves changing levels […]

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Visualising Ground-Fighting (diary entry)

March 24, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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23.03.20   My second Monday night online video coaching took my client up to the third hour of his first MMA programme. Being an online video training session, we looked at better developing shadow sparring, sport specific callisthenics and solo training in general to progress his MMA knowledge.   The lesson began with the usual series of dynamic stretching, muscle activation and sport specific callisthenics. We then onto some technical work, the first part of which was combining strikes with […]

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First Online Video Lesson (diary entry)

March 24, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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23.03.20   Monday night saw the first of my online video coaching. This is my client’s second lesson in her Mixed Martial Arts programme. This is a service I have always offered but only now with the world dealing with a global pandemic have I had to transfer all my regular clients over to this form of teaching. As can be seen by various media, I have a long history on developing solo training methods as a means for enhancing […]

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MMA Kickboxing (diary entry)

March 17, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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16.03.20   Monday night began my client’s first Mixed Martial Arts course. She is coming to it from a Kickboxing/Muay Thai perspective. With this mind, we will be extending and adapting techniques from this discipline to MMA. Tonight was mainly about exploring the different ranges before we began putting together some simple combinations.   With the stand-up range already covered in three previous courses, we began with the clinch and immediately started work at using wrestling positioning. We worked on […]

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Junior MMA Progress (diary entry)

March 13, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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12.03.20   Thursday night’s third junior MMA class for Kingham Hill School continued linking boxing techniques with Muay Thai and Wrestling whilst also introducing the class to more active ground-work.   We warmed up with some dynamic stretching and simple shadow boxing exercises – jab/cross, jab/front kick, jab/low round kick, jab/double leg takedown and sit-outs. Then we moved onto the focus mitts. Here we drilled teep/footwork/jab/cross. Next we drilled jab/cross/double-leg takedown. Then we drilled ground ‘n pound in the guard. […]

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Three Half-Guard Attacks (diary entry)

March 13, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
half guard attack

11.03.20   Wednesday night’s junior Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting lesson brought us onto strategies from half-guard. The senior MMA lesson continued work focusing on how different disciplines relate to the entire game.   After a warm-up of callisthenics specific for grappling, the junior lesson began with the half-guard. This is the basic half-guard which better suited for Submission Grappling than MMA. We started with the dog-fight sweep which is a very low line attack and is a good beginner position because it […]

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Junior MMA & Western Boxing (diary entry)

February 28, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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27.02.20   My junior MMA client has reached her seventh hour where we looked MMA from a Western Boxing perspective.   After a warm-up, we went through a full footwork pattern – forwards, backwards, sideways left, sideways right, v-step left, v-step right, v-step switch stance and v-step pivot. These movements were then mirrored with me and then we added on jabbing and jab/cross as well as switching levels.   Going to the focus mitts, we looked at several Western Boxing […]

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