Tag Archives | mma

Developing Footwork (diary entry)

March 8, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Boxing Jab

05.03.18   My client’s second course on Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training brought him up to the seven hour mark. Building off this course, where we have focused on upper body mobility and defensive tactics, we looked more at footwork and looping punches.   The lesson began with our revision of combining footwork with head movement. This was trained through line-work, then as partner-work and then onto the focus mitts. Techniques and combinations were trained in isolation and […]

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Punches, Kicks, Submissions and Takedowns through Postures (diary entry)

March 2, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
armbar from guard5 (close up)

28.02.2018   The second lesson of the day continued my long-time client’s transitional combative applications. We continued to go over and develop drills. Training began with the deck squat base exercise and then we broke up the various connection points used for fighting through postures. Next the humble jab was used as the single technique to transition through the postures. We began with a double jab, overlapping the second jab across the postures. Then, in order to promote faster and […]

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Flurry and Clinch (diary entry)

February 28, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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24.02.18   This lesson in my client’s second course in boxing for martial arts cross training brought us up to the five and a half hour point. The purpose of this morning’s training was to work more on blending upper-body mobility with footwork and introduce some strategies. Said strategy today highlighted the use of the clinch in Western Boxing.   We began with a warm-up of line-work. First we just isolated footwork. Then we isolated upper-body movement – slipping, bobbing […]

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Testing the Transition MMA-style (diary entry)

February 23, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
fight back

21.02.18   As per the previous diary entry, we continued with this project on combative transitioning. This time we started to look at the possibility of having different base drills to teach different tactics, and also included some progressive specific pressure-testing.   We began our transitioning from the warm-up onwards. This started with performing bridges/upa and then sit-ups into a three-punch combination. From here we built on alternate leg-triangles into butterfly guard (mid-range guard) and the three-punch combination again. Then […]

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C.S.I. The Three Missing Fundamentals of Combative Training

February 21, 2018 | Insights and Reflections [ssba]
keyboard warriors5

Introduction – The Cross Trainer and the Information Age   The Information Age aptly describes the era of the modern mainstream martial arts cross-trainer. Unfortunately The Confusion Age is an equally fitting title. The meteoric rise of the internet has provided most in the developed world with more instant access to knowledge and data than ever before in the history of civilization. Similarly, training in multiple combative disciplines is no longer the practice of the hard-core martial arts enthusiast or […]

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Grapple ‘n Strike Transitioning Continues (diary entry)

February 15, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
meme multiple

14.02.18 “They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most,”– Floyd Patterson Tonight’s lesson continued the transitioning theme for MMA and self-defence training. Our work was to hone coordinated striking and grappling techniques throughout the transitioning phases of getting up and standing. The lesson started with a series of break-fall exercises. This led us onto break-falling and regaining footing in the same motion. Then we went back to the core […]

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“Fighting is making the other fella miss” (diary)

February 14, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Bob and weave

13.02.18   “Fighting is not hitting, any fool can hit. Fighting is making the other fella miss. He miss, he think, he worry. It’s a mind game.” (Gladiator, 1992)   Tonight’s second course in Boxing for Martial Arts Cross-Training brought my client up to the four hour point. We combined the previous two lessons’ work on slipping, bobbing and weaving, and also introduced ducking for a comprehensive review of upper body mobility. As my client pointed out, we had mainly […]

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Grapple ‘n Strike Transitioning Begins (diary entry)

February 12, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Guard for street

07.02.18   Tonight my client returned to the all-range transitioning course after a brief interval of stand-up training. After a warm-up of rudimentary dynamic stretching and specific calisthenics, we went back to the deck squat. This exercise is at the core of my transitioning work, developing the right force-vectors and muscle groups to enable individuals to fight off the ground to a stand position. The deck squat presents the fighter with a good indication on over all conditioning in relation […]

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The Bobbing and Weaving Disappearing Act (diary entry)

February 9, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
bobbing and weaving

06.02.18 The second lesson of my client’s second course on Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training brought us up to the two and a half hour point. We are continuing with our theme on head movement, this time concentrating on bobbing and weaving. The lesson began with mirror footwork, including various cornering and drawing drills. This was followed by line-work, moving forwards, backwards, switching stances and angling off. We then revised the slip/jab/overhand work we did in the previous […]

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MMA Self-Defence Adaptation

January 29, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
eye gouge standing

27.01.18 This morning we covered the final hour of my client’s course in Basic Mixed Martial Arts for Martial Arts Cross-Training. As with subsequent courses, the lesson brings my client back to his self-protection line. For the most part, this is a revision of the culmination of techniques taught in his original self-defence course and an examination of how strong MMA’s attributes are in this respect. MMA, being an art dealing with all ranges of unarmed combat and combining techniques […]

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Transitioning with Kicks (diary entry)

January 26, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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24.01.18 Tonight’s lesson continued on our theme of transitioning, still focusing on transitioning from postures. We warmed up with my current regular partner-drills that build on MMA combinations. Each new element involves at least two new ranges. This was finished with a revision of ground transitioning from pins and guard-work. We then got back to the main work in hand: going from the ground to stand-up. Our core attribute exercise for this is the deck squat. The entire movement required […]

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Striking & Submission Combinations (diary entry)

January 15, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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13.01.18   This morning’s lesson brought us to the seven and a half hour point of my client’s 10 hour course in Basic Mixed Martial Arts for Martial Arts Cross-Training. Our theme was ground-fighting combinations from the top position. We looked at revising all transitions from different pins and submissions, isolating striking from the various pins and then combining them. A key point being made throughout the lesson was how much a well-executed, strong position can give a fighter. A […]

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Transitioning as an Art in MMA (diary entry)

January 5, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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04.01.18   The first official lesson of 2018 began my client on an exciting new exploratory adventure in mixed martial arts and martial arts cross-training. Having spent the latter part of 2017 focusing a lot on half-guard and its place in grappling, we decided to bring it back into MMA. However, the resulting lesson ended up exploring a more encompassing yet specific topic. We looked at our old friend, transitioning. This is a common soap box subject with me. It […]

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Stand-up Fighter’s Game (diary entry)

January 3, 2018 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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30.12.17   The final lesson of 2017 brought my client’s Basic Course in Mixed Martial Arts for Martial Arts Cross-Training up to the four and a half hour mark. We continued to take our cue from the stand-up range and looked at the bobbing and weaving/rolling action as well as an overall strategy maintaining a stand-up fighting range and disengagement.   The lesson began with a series of exercises based on changing ranges. Partner-work included mirror footwork and transitioning out […]

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Slipping the Jab for MMA (diary entry)

December 27, 2017 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]

23.12.17   Tonight’s lesson on Basic Mixed Martial Arts for Martial Arts Cross Training brought us up to the three hour point. We revised some of the previous lesson’s material and then focused on stand-up to clinch transitioning, finishing with a groundwork conditioning exercise.   We warmed up with footwork add-ons. We began with western boxing and then adding on Muay Thai techniques, followed by bulling and pummelling from wrestling and then some basic movement drills attacking and defending the […]

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