Clubb Chimera Martial Arts : CCMA

Juniors

The class began with a short discussion on the second CCMA tenet: awareness. We first looked at what does not constitute awareness: being switched off and the much under looked state of being paranoid. Both nullify the true state of being aware, which is a relaxed yet switched on attitude. We also revised at the Jeff Cooper Colour Code. Most students had a strong grasp of what constitutes being aware. However, I think more research needs to go into whether the “net generation” are less turned onto the now than previous generations. They have been brought up with a lot of distractions and a hard emphasis on multitasking of a level unseen by generation x and the baby boomers. Having said this, there is a lot of evidence to support that their reflexes are faster and they are motivated to being more proactive. It’s a subject for serious research by those truly interested in teaching children realistic self protection and not viewing junior classes as just a cash cow. I recommend Don Tapscott’s “Grown up Digital” and Dr Stephen Briers “Superpowers for Parents” to address this matter.

Jessica versus Billy - taking the back grappling sparring

The warm-up consisted of a mini-obstacle course, this time using the large crash mats to create alleys for the students to break fall, roll, crawl, snake and tumble through. The exercises promoted agility, accuracy and task specific training. Next the crash mats were used to divide up “square rings” for partner work. We work in a very large training area and both juniors and adults both tend to use up as much space as possible when it comes to competitive or resistance-based activities. Therefore I have made the decision to limit space when necessary. Partner work began with a simple footwork and agility exercise taken straight out of Peter Consterdine’s “Training Day”. One student tries to corner the other using no contact. The other student does their best avoid and evade using fast footwork.

We continued to confirm the work of the past previous lessons. Grappling is a real art and it needs to be understood thoroughly to appreciate its value as both a support system in self defence hard skills and as the backbone of mixed martial arts competition. We went back to stand-up grappling and looked at taking the back again. This was done with a Mo Teague junior drill I call “Catch the Tail”. Both students put their sock down the back of their training bottoms to create “tails”. The aim of the game is then to catch and retrieve each other’s tail without losing your own. Before moving onto the logical progression of take-the-back grappling, the students did some basic pummelling. I am pleased to say the coordination for this exercise has really improved. The exercise begins with a slow transition from over hook to under hook. The student learns to defend the under hook whilst getting his own in. The under hook gives the student many controlling advantages such as taking the back, locking the body and taking an opponent’s posture to get a takedown. More fluidity is added and the students start changing stances and using their heads more to lock-off and defend each side. Then mobility comes into play as the students start moving around and using their footwork. Finally the exercise goes at full resistance and both students try to get both under hooks in.

After the take-the-back sparring, I had the students go back over their ground work training. They donned sparring kits and revise arm-bars and triangle chokes from the guard position.  This was followed by several rounds of MMA free-sparring.

Junior MMA sparring

School Question: Continuing from last week I challenged the juniors to give me a subject from school and I would find the martial arts/self defence connection. Last week we looked at physics and how it related to laws of motion, weight transference and kinetic energy in martial arts. This week I got given a far easier topic: history. It surprised me that the class couldn’t see the obvious connection. Most martial arts books are history books. History is made up martial arts. Whenever you cover a war you are looking at war arts or martial arts. Martial arts, in this respect, have altered the course of history many times and continue to do so today. From our earliest ancestors there have been formalized forms of wrestling and boxing used to decide dominant members of a tribe or to train soldiers or as a form of entertainment for the public. On from that martial arts are used in all stages of a military conflict from forming a shield wall in ancient times to planning an air strike in the modern era. Martial arts, themselves, have a long history all of their own in virtually every civilisation known to man and many famous people practiced them.

Seniors

The senior class began with footwork and skill specific exercises. From the skill specific exercises I began the theme of creating a strong delivery base. Last week we worked on developing body mechanics, as in generating force from the feet and creating a ballistic effect with the body. This time we looked at the next stage: the hand position or, to be more exact, the arm and shoulder positions. Something I have noticed in both strike-based and grappling arts is the close position of the arms and hands. This is tactically a good default position to have in most, although not necessarily all, situations. It what is referred to by some as “dinosaur arms”, keeping your elbows tight in so you resemble the shape of a tyrannosaur. This even has a place during pre-fight when you use the fence to subconsciously take control of a situation. Here the tactic is to keep your hands on the inside of your antagonist’s, so that you will be better prepared to anticipate a violent attack.

In the realm of in-fighting and full-contact sport fighting the position is far more evident. We began during the warm-up by shadow boxing with only our hands, keeping our elbows in tight. This is done to encourage speed as opposed to power. You punch within an imagined small box or circle, keeping the shots really tight. Power transference can come in with body mechanics by driving off the back foot and pushing the hip through, but the emphasis in this exercise is to get the feel of using your hands for straight and round shots whilst retaining the discipline of a tight guard. The default position for in-fighting is a high guard, which transfers well to MMA close-fighting and Thai boxing.

Next the class moved onto some grip fighting, again with the emphasis on keeping everything tight. The posture adopted not only keeps the guard high and the elbows in tight before and after an action with the arms but also promotes rounded shoulders, protecting the neck, which is not advisable at the pre-fight stage for obvious reasons. Grip fighting starts light and fluid and then gradually builds up to full on freestyle/Greco-Roman wrestling-style stand-up sparring.  We then went straight into full MMA free sparring to incorporate these factors. After this we specialized on some guard passing with the person inside the guard retaining the position and attacking from it. The position in Brazilian jiu jitsu/submission grappling is sometimes known as the “Safety Position”, as it makes it very hard for the person holding the guard lock off an arm or isolate the neck or head.

Having gone through the motions and felt it under pressure, the class went to refining the tight guard principle through some functional fitness exercises. Using the resistance bands one person holds the resistance band behind, ideally holding a high tight guard himself, whilst the person performing the exercise tries to strike a focus mitt without dropping an item he is holding in his armpit. The exercise promotes integrity in the position, as you are forced to return back to a high tight hard as quickly as possible. The resistance band promotes keeping a strong power line and good body mechanics. You also hit the target with impact as opposed to impulse. Both the lead and rear hand were used for this exercise. We used straight shots, but the same principle can be applied with round strikes too.

After the power exercise we went back to speed and stamina. Everyone had a minute each of hitting the focus mitt as many times as possible with a partner behind them making them keep their elbows in and their guard high. Pressure was then put on each student with a two-on-one drill using sparring kits. If you are new to our methodology CCMA try to do most of their mobility drills with sparring kits on rather than with focus mitts. This allows the coach to feed shots back more effectively and provide smaller and more rounded targets, which are more realistic than what is presented by focus mitts. This drill is often done, Keysi-style, with the coaches making the student drop cover from the shots being fed from behind at the same time as striking the targets at the front from standing, on their knees, backsides and backs. This wasn’t done on this occasion. The emphasis was on keeping the arms in tight and the guard high, so we focus on hand strikes only and the coaching behind just systematically fed shots to all the exposed areas, checking when elbows came out or when the guard dropped. If a mistake is repeatedly made the coach behind increases the intensity. The two-on-one coaching method was then applied to stand-up grappling. In this exercise the student has to clinch and move each attacking coach away whilst the one behind tests the arm positions.

Discussion: Research the best fighters and coaches on the net, books or on DVD and look for the close guard position.