29.06.21 Forest School of Karate’s head teacher booked me for a second private lesson on Tuesday ahead of our class on Wednesday. Tonight we worked on using the jab. He was partnered with his and I was able to coach them both on use of the jab/parry and the duck, countering with jabs to the head and body. This was then integrated into footwork drills. I also introduced a simiple timing exercise. The lesson was finished with 2 x 2 […]
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 […]
15.02.21 This is the third hour of my client’s second 10 hour course on stand-up striking. After a 10 minute round of warming up, my client with her lockdown partner decided to completely focus on the first combination from our 14 rhythm and flow sequences. The benefit of having a lockdown partner allowed me to teach the combination in three stages: Stage 1: Shadow boxing the entire combination Stage 2: Virtual focus-mitt training – using the combination in direct response […]
17.01.21 I was booked for teacher consultancy on footwork development for stand-up fighting. We went through a pattern of basic footwork exercises, layered them with punching combinations and then moved onto footwork conditioning exercises. Key things to remember include retaining a balanced stance (Never place more than 50% of your weight on the front foot, preferrably less), back heel should always be raised and front heel should be just off at all times, most Western Boxing stances (with the exception […]
17.08.20 The third hour of my client’s Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting course went back over the basic sweeps as well as the Kimura arm-lock from guard and passing guard. We began with our normal solo warm-up routine of ground-fighting callisthenics, including some new movements directly related to guard passing. Next the two lockdown partners performed some guard-passing drills before moving onto some resistance work. This took the form of a guard passing game where one had to get past the other’s […]
18.06.20 Due to bad weather conditions, my online client’s third hour of his second Mixed Martial Arts course took place indoors and without the heavy bag. Tonight we decided to change pace and do a 12 x 3 minute round of continuous MMA shadow training. This included direct instruction, improvisation prompts, visualisation coaching and virtual sparring. So-called rest rounds consisted of active recovery – footwork/skipping. We warmed up with 10 minutes of dynamic stretching and fight-specific callisthenics. […]
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 […]
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 […]
30.04.20 On Thursday the Oxford School of Martial Arts booked me to take a video class. 30 students logged on to train along to a self-defence visualisation/restricted training lesson. As is always the case with this club, the enthusiasm and energy was great. We began with some dynamic stretching and then performed a few basic techniques at increasing speed. Techniques included straight strikes, hooks and knee marching. I then covered some simple speed training exercises that can […]
28.04.20 My second client on Tuesday completed his seventh hour of this course of MMA training. Most of this course has occurred during the lockdown period which means we have had to train via online video streaming. Tonight we spent a lot of time looking at striking combinations on the ground, using strikes to set up submissions and progressing our pin transitioning. After a warm-up of sport-specific callisthenics and dynamic stretching, we moved onto striking combinations. I began […]
28.04.20 Tuesday night’s first lesson was my teacher training currently focusing on blending Dutch and Thai kickboxing combinations. The teacher I am training is self-isolated with her daughter and the two both partake in these live video sessions. We began with a warm-up that compressed the partner drills covered in previous lessons. This comprised of one-for-one kicking (with hand set-ups), two-for-two and then 1,2,3 combinations. I then addressed countering. Initially this was to bring in the shin-check and […]
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 […]
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 […]
18.04.20 On Saturday I hosted a webinar to various different teachers and students across the UK and also in Ireland and Denmark. The theme was restricted solo training. After a warm-up of callisthenics and dynamic stretching, I addressed the topic of using fight footage to inspire workouts. This is a form of reaction training where the fighter views a recording of a boxing match, chooses an opponent from the video and reacts every time he sees an opening. Boxing was […]
14.04.20 Tuesday night’s second online video lesson was also this client’s fifth hour of MMA training. We looked at chaining more techniques together and comparing different range combinations as well as more ground fighting from underneath. We warmed up various Boxing and Muay Thai techniques performed as dynamic stretches. Then we did some light shadow sparring, including footwork patterns. From here I looked at the simple jab/low jab transitioning principle. After going through the basic combination we […]
14.04.20 Tuesday night’s first online video lesson was my regular train the trainer coaching session. During lockdown, I am training a mother and daughter to run through various Muay Thai and Dutch Kickboxing inspired training drills. We looked more into framing, tempo, the calf-kick and expanding combinations. We warmed up with one-for-one kicking drills. Hand setups for kicks are now a given but I began emphasising the use of frames, pawing jabs and other hand obstructions that can […]
