Clubb Chimera Martial Arts : CCMA

Juniors

 

The general theme for today was stand-up grappling. It’s an area clearly best reserved for the mixed martial arts attribute training, but also provides a robust support system that promotes good balance, how to take advantage of positioning and also understanding the nature of a grappler.

 

After a warm-up promoting good functional movement - fence drills with partners, 45 degree angle stepping backwards and forwards, striking and sprawling, bear crawls, crab crawls, basic punching and kicking, and sit-through walks – we began looking at arm drags. I introduced an arm-drag flow drill. This is a drag and counter drill. The class first applied it just to get the movement right and then resistance was added so one student was attempting to get ahead of the counter and take the back. From here we went onto the two-on-one, a classic Greco-Roman wrestling hold and the bedrock of Karl Tanswell’s STAB (weapon disarming) drill. The two-on-one is great transitional and controlling position. You have many options to attack high, mid or low lines, plenty of opportunity to strike from and also to execute a takedown. This was introduced at a compliant level first and then full resistance was added.

 

The next obvious phase was to do stand-up sparring. This was done in two phases. The first was taking the back sparring and the second was pretty much freestyle wrestling. The class was finished with two rounds of MMA sparring.

 

Discussion: We talked about the benefits and the place for grappling. The class revised the five tenets of Respect, Awareness, Courage, Discipline and Open Mind.

 

Seniors

 

The main focus for the senior was on what Geoff Thompson calls “layering techniques”. I set out a series of different activities from the warm-up to the warm-down that concentrated on reinforcing certain movement principles, largely centring on attacking from a 45 degree angle.

 

In the warm-up the class performed solo movements – stepping off 45 degrees, striking and sprawling, snaking and performing sit-through walks. Then they did the equivalent with a compliant partner – line-up using the fence, striking a target and defending a double-leg takedown/tackle with a sprawl, snaking whilst covering and striking against a partner as well as performing the sit-through escape and alligator-roll triangle choke to work the sit-through movement against a partner.

 

To increase the level of resistance we devised several full contact pressure drills. As is always the case with any form of training, it is important to always keep the objective and the parameters that point you towards that objective in mind. It is a crucial part of training evaluation to “find the flaw” in any drill, but pointless to do this when you are clearly trying to isolate a set of skills or refine a method.

 

The first drill was classic Strategy One versus Strategy Two. Three students donned their head guards and were restricted to grappling while one fought from a wall to a safe zone. The purpose was to get the angular and circular foot movement working. Sometimes going straight down the middle is the best tactic, but when this blocked off your best ploy is move away, maintain distance and work around your enemies.

 

The Israeli martial art, krav maga emphasizes this circular footwork a lot against multiple attackers in its pressure drills. The daito ryu lineage of Japanese martial arts that includes aikido also promotes circular footwork. Muay thai and western boxing both have a type of angular movement that I knew as the v-step. When I trained under the great self defence coach, Matty Evans, a key concept that I used to hear from him more than anyone else in Geoff Thompson’s Real Combat Method was the use of angles. Matty would use angles in everything from his line-up – off-setting – to this different strikes and, most famously, with his stand-up grappling. We used this in our next phase of training.

 

It was at this point I felt I needed to discuss a type of training I have yet to understand the value. Some coaches, many who are far more experienced than me, get two students to lock-up in a wrestling clinch and then try to force each other backwards in a straight line. I really don’t get this method. Surely the heaviest and/or strongest will prevail here. What does it teach? Grip-fighting, by contrast, helps promote taking a partner’s balance, taking them offline, circling to take the back or release a hold and attacking from angles. We sparred like this, increasing the resistance up to 100%, for two rounds. Then the class moved onto pressure-testing the sit-through movement. As one student pointed out, this is also attacking or countering from the 45 degree angle, only you are doing the movement from your knees. After this there were two rounds of MMA sparring to see how these principles were integrated.

 

The class finished on some final tips on solo exercises. To train good straight striking from the fence, press-up and strike onto a padded area works a good structure especially when a resistance band is not available. The same can be said for training the hook strike by using the side oblique raise, where you prop yourself up on your elbow push isolate your side abdominal muscles and then strike the padded target with a hooking technique. We also looked at the endless possibilities presented by the resistance bands, including working the forward snaking motion. This is what I call functional fitness, the last part of the “Hierarchy of Training”. Please see my article of the same name on this website that discusses this approach to training in more depth.

 

Summary of exercises relating to specific principles and/or movements:

 

Key: S = Solo drill CP = Compliant partner drill P = Pressure test

 

1. 45 degree angles from the feet - striking:

 

• S - Three steps and step off 45 degrees with chosen tactic e.g. rear hand strike
• CP - Line up 45 degrees for a pre-emptive strike on a partner using the fence
• P – S1 versus S2 multiple attacker escape drill
• P – Grip fighting

 

1 (a) Striking tools – straight and hooked hand strikes

 

• S – Press-up and straight strike
• S – Oblique raise and hook strike
• S – Straight strikes with resistance bands (or cable crossovers)
• S – Hook strikes with resistance bands (or cable crossovers)

 

2. Striking and anti-grappling (“sprawl ‘n brawl”):

 

• S – Two straight strikes (jab/cross or lead palm/rear palm) and sprawl backwards
• CP – Target for strikes (focus mitts or coaching gloves) and sprawl to a low line takedown
• P – S1 versus S2 one-on-one

 

There are various other drills involving resistance bands for solo work and you can also use them in conjunction with a partner.

 

3. 45 degree angles from the knees:

 

• S – Sit-through walking
• CP – Sit-through against double over hook
• CP – Sit-through into alligator roll and triangle choke
• P – Specific sparring from double over hook position
• S – Sit-through with weight on back or resistance band on sitting through ankle

 

4. Movement on the back:

 

• S - Snaking (shrimping) backwards and forwards
• CP- Snaking forwards with feet hooked onto backwards walking partner’s legs
• CP – Snaking backwards covering and striking from between standing partner’s legs. Partner feeding targets with boxing/coaching gloves