Clubb Chimera Martial Arts : CCMA

Junior Class

We turned everything back to base simple self defence roots. This always needs to refreshed, as despite being the first and most simple thing that students learn it is often the most difficult to grasp. The is because concepts like “The Fence” or awareness/control of one’s personal space can only be efficiently learnt if they are practiced regularly in “real time”. In order to make it natural it has to become a habit.

After a specific CCMA warm-up they all engaged in our “quarrying exercise” of Strategy One versus Strategy Two multiple attacker game. Please see previous entries or my article “Reality Training for Children Part II: What?”  http://www.clubbchimera.com/?p=15 for details on how this is organized. This got across the importance of controlling distance and avoiding physical fighting.

Children learn best in physical terms, which can be challenging despite all the role play and discussions. Because of this factor I had them take the S1 versus S2 exercise, where they found raw techniques that worked for them personally, onto the focus mitts first before we started adding role play. It began with a gauging exercise. One student approached and the other called out when they felt they were on the border of being too close. They then stretched their hand out and in every instance the person was just out of reach, which further reinforces the theory that even young children can guess distancing at a practical level. Then they engaged in an exercise whereby they hit a focus mitt as soon as their fence was touched. We looked at improving impact and also making the fences more natural before making it more role play orientated. The problem with striking pad is that it a student can often not make the link between the pad and the actual target they are training to strike. I have seen this in a grading when those sparring kept striking each other’s hands. There has to be an overlap. We did this with the role play at touch contact level.

fence pad drill in a typical junior class situation

The class then moved onto the support system of grappling. Time was a little short, so rather than drill any specific techniques I felt it was better that they just get into some good resistance-based training. They did a couple of rounds of take-the-back stand up grappling, takedown grappling sparring, defence from under a pin ground sparring and regular ground sparring. Because the session was very heavy on discussion regarding the Jeff Cooper colour codes, the tenet of awareness and defining what a strategy was, we ended with a light warm-down.

Senior

We began with our revised anaerobic high percentage technique warm-up. Then we focused on the nature of chokes and strangles. For definition purposes a choke closes the airways off whereas a strangle restricts the blood flow from the carotid arteries. There are two basic ways to apply a non-clothes assisted choke or strangle. The easiest involves clamping the hands together and the strongest involves gripping the bicep and folding one arm behind the back of your enemy’s head.

clamped hands version of a rear naked choke

Discussion: Firstly we discussed ways to layer and test chokes and strangles. This included multiple attackers, how to safely release the hold in a self defence situation, drilling the holds off the mats, the addition of weapons and integrated with striking. The adage “strike when you can, grapple when you have to” still holds true when we are discussing civilian self defence in a high risk situation.

Secondly there was some informal discussion on the BBC special, “Stabbed: The Truth About Knife Crime” http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hhh30. Middleclass media sensationalism aside, the issues being addressed was one I had already covered throughout my “Reality Training for Children” series of articles http://www.clubbchimera.com/?p=14 . The people behind the knife attacks are getting younger and younger. Gang culture is connected, but a clear shift in motive comes from the unofficial or recreational gangs becoming increasingly more involved.

BBC article on knife crime: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7421534.stm This analysis looks at how the age of people involved in knife crime has gone down. Here is the Panarama special “Jailed for a Knife”, which is worth a view http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gmlhn/Panorama_Jailed_for_a_Knife/

Thirdly we recapped on the “appeals” logical fallacy arguments and “anecdotal evidence” discussion. On the latter one student put it quite succinctly: “It doesn’t mean s*** unless you can personally use it”.

Next week we focus on kicks.