Tag Archives | train the trainer

Final Muay Thai Professional Development for Now (diary entry)

July 27, 2023 | Uncategorized [ssba]
363007702_10161363510033804_778030223168490281_n

25.07.2023 Athena School of Karate booked me for the final in this course of classes on Muay Thai. Next week we will return to the “Learn from the Fight” format. Tuesday morning’s second class saw my client being run through themed 2 minute rounds to test and revise previous material. Round 1 – Teeps and jabs Round 2 – Round kicks and hooks Round 3 – Combinations with punching and low kicks (muay mat) Round 4 – Combinations with elbow strikes […]

Continue Reading

Close Range Weapons (diary entry)

April 26, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
343145567_896918538271407_5267362553231984222_n

25.04.2023 Tuesday morning’s teaching consultancy lesson on Muay Thai finished basic punches with the uppercut and introduced knee and elbow strikes. Training began with our usual warm-up but this time immediately followed by 2 x 3 minute rounds of sparring to continue coaching the Thai range of fighting. I introduce the Thai uppercut which is virtually indistinguishable from Boxing’s upward angled hook. Thai krus don’t appear to teach the traditional Boxing uppercut much if at all in basic training. We […]

Continue Reading

Defending the “8 Limbs” (diary entry)

April 19, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
342163433_2166313960233083_4572724451094882210_n

18.04.2023 Hour three of teacher consultant course in Muay Thai cross-training got further into the specifics of the sport’s fundamental aspects. For a while we worked at maintaining the most common ranges of Muay Thai. Nak muays generally consent to do their out-boxing at a much closer range than other stand-up stand-up fighters. This is probably why pull-back evasions are more common in their sport. The closer ranges allows for the use of all so-called “8 limbs”. For example, a […]

Continue Reading

More from the Grappling Angle (diary entry)

March 1, 2023 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
333950978_879663443260979_4816085813708795695_n

28.02.2023 Tuesday morning’s session continued with the expansive grappling version on the angling/circling footwork pattern with Athena School of Karate. We looked at sit-up out variation should an opponent sprawl and then at striking tangents from the sprawl and circle line. In the former (a late branch off from the footwork pattern) I brought in the circle round to back mount and choke. This is a simple submission response and offers a good staple counter to sprawling. In the latter […]

Continue Reading

Stand-up to Clinch Fighting Extended Session (diary entry)

November 11, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
IMG_1900

09.11.2022 On Wednesday night I was honoured with a visit from Holstebro Taekwondo’s chief instructor, Mikael Oddershede and senior instructor Kim Frandsen, to teach a private three-hour session on stand-up to clinch fighting. These are the two Danish instructors I helped in the development of their sparring programme via virtual teaching consultancy last year. Having first met Mikael when I taught for Jan Drachman’s  Hinnerup Karate in November 2019 (my second teaching visit to Denmark), I have been happy to assist […]

Continue Reading

Protecting the Frontline Course for Teachers 5 (diary entry)

March 10, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
81618122_10158112642328804_5458966917127602176_o

09.03.2022 Wednesday’s first lesson – an online teacher consultation for Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu in Ireland – brought us up to pre-emptive striking. We discussed the tactical reasoning for pre-emptive striking and I described why it is important for students to test the effectiveness of this tactic or rather the ineffectiveness of blocking at conversational range. It is too easy for teachers to find themselves inside an echo chamber that takes the effectivness of this tactic for granted whilst preaching […]

Continue Reading

Teacher Development Programme: Grappler’s Clinch (diary entry)

October 13, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2021-10-13 at 09.09.53

12.10.21 Tuesday night’s first lesson brought my teacher client up to the sixth hour of his sparring development programme. Moving on from the Muay Thai clinch work we had covered in the previous two lessons we explored clinching in general, using methods from Wrestling and Judo. After a thorough stand-up grappling-based warm of callisthenics and dynamic stretching, we moved onto partner work. Client feedback on grappling was that the teachers struggled to get students to relax and flow more as […]

Continue Reading

Teacher Consultation: Combinations for Traditional Martial Arts (diary entry)

October 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
271113_20221

28.09.2021 Tuesday night’s lesson was also a teacher consultancy class. This time it was a break from our usual “Learn from the Fight” session and we worked face-to-face on combinations used in a karate in syllabus. My client has a series of combinations that exist in the grading syllabus she teaches that need reappraisal. They appear to be a mixture of sport, kata-based application specific conditioning exercises (i.e. balancing for kicks). We went through them and began to devise a […]

Continue Reading

Teacher Development Programme: Clinch (diary entry)

September 29, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
mikael 2

28.09.2021 Hour five of my client 11 hour teacher development programme looked at the Muay Thai clinch. We ran through various compliant drills for technique development and then into specific sparring. The lesson focused on building on the various composite parts of the Muay Thai clinch, isolating and then integrating them. The objective was develop through compliant partner work switching intensity to a competitive format and then back into flow drilling before eventually building to full clinch-based sparring. Warm-up, including […]

Continue Reading

Teacher Development Programme: Muay Thai Sparring (diary entry)

September 22, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Screen Shot 2021-09-22 at 08.31.44

22.09.21 Hour four of my client’s teacher development course for sparring moved into the kickboxing range. This was for Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom. We focused on layering in Muay Thai teeps, round kicks, shin-checks and scooping blocks over the western boxing previous covered. Feedback Consultation: My client reported that attack versus defence specific sparring worked well on the whole with his class. Most students felt more confident with this boxing sparring once they could proactively defend. However, there […]

Continue Reading

Sparring for Teacher Development Continues (diary entry)

September 15, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Mikael

14.09.21 Tonight we entered hour three of an 11 hour course on teacher development. This was for Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom. We took a more in depth look at better addressing the dual concerns of defence and confidence. These are elements that can be positively linked. Many students fear sparring due to an exposure of their own limitations or, as is true for a substantial proportion, timidity. Building a strong defence can help install better confidence when it […]

Continue Reading

Taking the Straight/Cross/Overhand to the Pads (diary entry)

July 28, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
vijay devesh straight right

27.07.21 The second part of my client teacher’s preparation for Wednesday night’s live-streaming lesson was another private lesson on boxing. Again, we went through the difference between the straight right and the cross, and we also had time to cover the chopping cross/straight right and the overhand. I ran through each of these punches inspired by Aguello, Louis, Hearns and Marciano. After shadow boxing we took them onto the focus mitts and then I had my client and his son […]

Continue Reading

Children’s Self-Protection Programme Consultancy (diary entry)

November 18, 2019 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
child training

12.11.19   My second evening class on Tuesday was my teacher consultancy lessons focusing on a new children/teenage self-protection syllabus. My client presented a systematic overview of a programme she wishes to run alongside her established martial arts lessons that offers reward levels of achievement in alignment with the age group of the participants.   My children’s self-protection programme is usually aged from 7 years to 13 years. However, I have taught younger participants and I also have a teen […]

Continue Reading