Tag Archives | self defence

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]
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 […]

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Anti-Abduction Course Begins (diary entry)

March 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
When Parents Aren't Around front cover

27.02.21 My “When Parents Aren’t Around” webinar series for Ryukyukan Okinawa Karate and Kobdudo, Matsuri Dojo returned to soft skills training on Saturday. We looked at the subject and skills related to anti-abduction. The presentation addressed the reality of child abduction and the infamous “Stranger Danger” myth. It is imperative for all responsible self-protection teachers to understand and teach that the overwhelmingly more likelyl type predator in a child’s life is going to be someone they know rather than some […]

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Fighting from the Ground (diary entry)

February 23, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Striking from the knee pin1

22.02.21 I was delighted to be invited back to teach for Forest School of Karate as we continued the second part of my virtual “When Parents Aren’t Around”. The past few lessons have been concerned with learning how to grapple in order to learn how to fight against someone trying grapple. This lesson took everything to the ground. Again, within this context, everything is geared towards escaping the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Therefore, we began with a […]

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Self-Defence on the Ground (diary entry)

February 19, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
ground and pound 2

18.02.21 Thursday night’s lesson was a teacher consultancy session in preparation for Monday’s “When Parents Aren’t Around” webinar. We have been covering the grappling section because of its relevance for peer-on-peer and anti-abduction training. The ground section deals primarily with symmetrical ground-fighting. However, we briefly looked at defending against a standing enemey. Like all aspects of ground fighting for self-defence the priority is to get to a standing position. We then went through the postures and transitions from top position. […]

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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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Children Anti-Grappling with Forest School of Karate (diary entry)

December 2, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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30.11.20 Forest School of Karate booked me for their sixth When Parents Aren’t Around lesson. We are at the first part of the anti-grappling section. The previous lesson concerned adapting and the open mind tenet. This lesson covered similar material covered for the Matsuri Dojo. Students began the lesson with a discussion on the role grappling plays in my approach to self-defence and the warm-up largely consisted of striking, covering and exiting drills. We then went through some simple clinching […]

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Hard Skills III: Regaining the Initiative (diary entry)

December 2, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
hard skills 3

29.11.20 The third part of CCMA’s Hard Skills webinars, presented in cooperation with Keiryu Practical Karate and Athena Schools of Karate, addressed the first stages of when matters go wrong in a counter-assault situation. Our overall strategy has been to be take charge of a bad situation as quickly as possible. We can see their proactive approach runs throughout the CCMA combat strategy. Everything is geared towards gaining control and minimizing personal injury. Initially this is through trying to avoid […]

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Sprawling, Takedowns & Hunting for Matsuri Dojo, Pitsea (diary entry)

December 2, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
hunting the target

28.11.20 My second Saturday session saw me virtually return, via the magic of Zoom, to the Ryukyuakan Okinawa Karate and Kobdudo, Matsuri Dojo in Pitsea, Basildon Essex for seventh hour of children’s self-protection. Last session we looked at the reasons why grappling in self-defence was generally avoided in high risk situations, when it was needed in high situations and its place in medium to low risk situations. I also explained that, for the most part, the grappling explored would be […]

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Hard Skills II: Danish Edition (diary entry)

November 23, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
HS2 Denmark (1)

22.11.20 I was delighted to provide a webinar for my Danish friends again. Hinnerup Karate kindly hosted my Hard Skills II webinar on Sunday. This part of the series focuses maintaining the initiative. After a quick revision of the previous material on pre-emptive striking, involving some physical training, we looked at continuous forward pressure. The webinar then began in earnest with a simple procedure set out based on defined objectives, preferred targeting areas and preferred primary weapon. We covered repetition […]

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Grappling/Anti-Grappling (diary entry)

November 18, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]

17.11.20 Tuesday night began with my second of a four-part short course on managing grappling in self-defence. Last week we established the role the clinch played in self-defence situations. We discussed when to grapple. Tonight we revised clinching positions – collar and elbow, underhook/over-hook and we also looked at sprawling to defend low line takedowns and we also trained lowline takedowns in the form of the double-leg. With some of the students getting the hang of the pummelling flow of […]

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Combat Grappling in Children’s Self-Defence (diary entry)

November 2, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
When Parents Aren't Around 6 Image

31.10.20 My second Saturday lesson today consisted of the sixth part of my online adapted course on “When Parents Aren’t Around” children’s self-protection hosted by Ryukyukan Shorin Ryu Karate Matsuri Dojo, Pitsea, Essex. We took the focus onto the grappling/clinch range. At this point in a conflict the defender should be doing their best to avoid being clinched for a variety of different reasons, but in order to train defending this range one needs to understand this particular range. Drilling […]

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Multiple Attack & More Post-Fight (diary entry)

October 31, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]

29.10.20 The seventh hour of my teenage self-protection course brought us onto the subject of in-fight multiple attackers. We revised all the hard skills material previously covered from pre-emptive striking to recovering from the ground, including multiple attackers at the pre-emptive stage before moving onto the main area of training. Here we looked at covering and striking against multiple attacks and using tactical escape footwork to exit a situation. I was fortunate to have my client’s brother present as well […]

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Postures in Self-Protection (diary entry)

October 26, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Defence from guard to standing7

22.10.20 My teenage client’s sixth hour in self-protection focused entirely on asymmetrical ground-fighting and the post-fight phase. We warmed up with some simple callisthenics and dynamic stretches, directly relevant to the training we were about to undertake. This included shadowing pre-emptive strikes and covers. Then we moved into transitioning from different postures. On its own, this particular exercise is a great warm-up routine and a simple way to reinforce efficient recovery from compromised positions. Each posture transition was isolated and […]

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Chokes in Self-Defence (diary entry)

October 16, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
choke knife

15.10.20 The fifth lesson of my client’s self-protection course took us back through the fence, incidental combinations, clearing obstructions, hunting targets and then into anti-grappling, which became the focus. We looked at the use of chokes in self-defence situations and fighting on the ground. I also introduced combative kicking. Kicks introduced included the groin kick and low round kick. Next lesson we will look more into fighting through ranges.

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Why the Fence is THAT Important (diary entry)

October 5, 2020 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
FENCE

06.10.20 Tonight’s teacher consultation took the form of a self-protection overview. We discussed various points surrounding pre-emptive striking and how it should be taught to students. The fence is an extremely important tool for testing whether or not a pre-emptive strike would be required. If executed correctly, the user will be on-balance and have sufficient space to take action should the potential threat confirm violent intentions. Debate has arisen as to what this pre-emption to should be depending on the […]

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