Tag Archives | online training

The Hook is important (diary entry)

March 17, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
athena diary workshop hook

15.02.21 Monday night’s second lesson was the third in Athena Karate’s course on Boxing techniques. Tonight we covered variations of the hook punch and a selection of legendary boxers who exemplified its use. For details on the hook in self-defence and its relationship with boxing, please check out my private lesson/teacher consultancy blog post. Before we moved onto techniques, I warmed everyone up with a routine inspired by the late “Marvellous” Marvin Hagler who died last week. Hagler was an […]

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Head, Body, Head, Body, Head, Body (Diary Entry)

February 24, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
athena diary workshop

22.02.21 The final lesson for this month’s special workshops for Athena Karate brought us up to kickboxing combination seven, designed to promote rhythm and flow. This particular combination was designed for close range outside fighting using an upstairs/downstairs strategy – jab/low jab/cross/liver shot/head hook/long knee. We discussed different hand positioning for the knee stike. Personally I don’t like to pull down arms for any knee strike other than with the diagonal knee. The long knee is a rear spear knee […]

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Virtual Pad Combinations Begin (diary entry)

February 15, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
scott focus mitt skype 2

    13.02.21 We began my client’s new course of 10 hours with work on transferring five combinations for shadow boxing to the virtual pads. This was done using a shorter round format. You might recall from previous diary entries, that we have been using the 10 minute round format to allow for easier to digest tutorials on the 14 rhythm and flow stand-up striking combinations. Using the 5 minute round format keeps the focus tighter for shorter periods. I […]

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Flurry and Smash (diary entry)

February 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
diary mary combo 14 (3)

02.02.21 Tonight my teacher consultancy covered their 14th and final combination to promote rhythm and flow in stand-up striking. We then went through the next two combinations to be covered by their school. Much of the lesson became a focus on better transitioning through economical footwork and using the momentum of previous technique. Combination 14 uses the momentum of the Dutch block to deliver force first into a lead hook and later into a cross. Likewise, combination six carries the […]

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Round Kick Clinic (diary entry)

February 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
JAMIE KICK

02.02.21 My second lesson on Monday night was an half-hour round kick (roundhouse, turning) clinic for the excellent Athena School of Karate. The school’s head teacher wanted her higher ranking and adult students to have a break in the combination work in order to better focus on the Thai round kick. This technique is reoccurring throughout the 14 combinations and is of vital importance for many forms of stand-up fighting. It is a decidedly different technique to round kicks typically […]

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Another Final Combination! (diary entry)

February 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
diary catherine 01 02 21 left cross

01.02.21 My first Monday night client is into her second course on stand-up striking. We made it to the 14th and final combination of this series. As described in Saturday’s lesson, this combination makes use of the Dutch block on both sides. There are different ways to interpret training this in shadow boxing. Firstly, simply see it as a jamming interception of a round kick to the body. This one is easy to envisage and the subsequent technique can roll […]

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Building Dutch Combinations

January 5, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
dutch pt 6

29.12.20 Tonight’s teacher consultancy served as preparation for a series of online workshops I am running for the Athena School of Karate on stand-up combinations and strategies. We looked a two Dutch-style Kickboxing combinations, designed to promote fluidity of techniques, chaining of punches with kicks, blending in defences and the camouflaging of powerful kicks. The first combination utilised heavy body kicks and was used to set up a powerful rear low kick. This final technique was made particularly effective by […]

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Denmark Under-Cover (diary entry)

December 22, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
HS3 Denmark

20.12.20 My final webinar for 2020 was hosted by my friends, Hinnerup Karate in Denmark. We went over the third part of my hard skills series, working on everything from hunting a target to using the cover. This was a lot more physically demanding than the previous webinar and we also made use of available furniture in dealing with obstacles and obstructions. Questions included dealing with weight problems when fighting from the ground and how much this area of training […]

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Nine Combination Deep (diary entry)

December 22, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Scott Diary Dutch Combinations

19.12.20 Hour five of my client’s current online course took us up to nine different combinations.  Previously, we had trained up to five. All these combinations have MMA and Muay Thai techniques, but there is definitely a Dutch theme. They are lengthy and fairly complex, involving a lot of slipping punches and smuggling in kicks. They were done over 5 x 10 minute rounds, including one round of warming up. New techniques in this session including the superman punch and […]

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Dutch Division Training (diary entry)

December 15, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
diary catherine 14 12 20

14.12.20 Hour six of my client’s current online course saw the lockdown partners begin work on the recent Dutch-style kickboxing work introduced to my client on Saturday.  This time due to my client recovering from his aforementioned football injury, I split the combination work into two variations. Where one client threw kicks he would through corresponding punches. Kicks to body would be shovel hooks; high round kick would be hooks to the head. We used the 4 x 10 minute […]

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De-Escalation and Limb Control (diary entry)

December 14, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
tracey diary heavy bag 2

13.12.20 Sunday morning’s teaching consultancy was split into a soft skills section on de-escalation and then some heavy bag work using limb control. For the former we went through information taken from my anti-bullying lesson. We discussed various tactics for defusing incidents at the pre-fight stage. These tactics should always start from a position of strength i.e. the fence must always be en force. From here options include deflections, empathy, separating leaders from groups and simple ignoring. As with all […]

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Road to Recovery Continues (diary entry)

December 10, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
road to recovery diary

07.12.20 The fifth hour of my clients’ current online Skype course saw longer combination work. One of the two sharing a bubble is developing kicks and the other has a knee injury and focusing on punching. My plan is to follow on from last week’s lead in going through a series of timed rounds using combinations where the kicker adds on kicks and the puncher adds on extra defensive work. After a warm-up , we went through 5 x 3 […]

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Longer Rounds (diary entry)

November 30, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
scott 28 11 20 (2)

28.11.20 Saturday morning kicked off with the third hour my client’s current Muay Thai for martial arts cross-training course. We went for a totally different format with the rounds this time. The objective was to have the lesson separated into longer periods of uninterupted activity. Round 1 – Warm-up Besides the usual martial arts specific callisthenics and dynamic stretching, this section elevated the heart-rate with footwork, knee-marching and blitzing. Round 2 – Linear Techniques and Principles Everything in this round […]

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Kick Workout (diary entry)

November 24, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2020-11-24 at 08.52.23

23.11.20 With her lockdown partner currently recovering from an operation, my client trained alone tonight and I used the opportunity to get back to kicking. The entire workout was focused on developing better kicking technique and increasing speed in her legs. This is the third hour of my client’s course. After the usual warm-up of dynamic stretching and callisthenics we moved onto developing round kicks more effeciently. Firstly, we addressed the importance of the pivot and turning the shin. However, […]

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Building Technique (diary entry)

November 23, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2020-11-23 at 08.43.55

21.11.20 My client’s second hour of his new Muay Thai for Martial Arts Cross Training course consisted of six rounds of technique and conditioning based training followed by one round of virtual pad-work and then two rounds following the technique/speed/power format, finishing off with a static stretching session. This routine is very similar to last Thursday’s lesson. However, due to the fact that my client doesn’t have a heavy bag in this instance, the “power” part consisted throwing single free […]

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Bringing Boxing Together (diary entry)

November 4, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2020-11-05 at 08.29.18

03.11.20 Tonight’s second lesson was my client’s eighth hour of Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training. We looked at developing much of what has already been covered and also bringing a lot of it together. After warming up we went into our footwork drills, progressing through steps forward and back into the pendulum footwork drill, pivoting off and creating angles as well as some lateral footwork drills.I covered set-ups for the gazelle punch and the Bizarro punch. We then did […]

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