Clubb Chimera Martial Arts : CCMA

Juniors

An attempt at an escape whilst at the ground stange of MMA sparring in the junior class

With two weeks to go with the grading, the students needed to work hard on getting their basics right. All honest training consists of basic principles for basic techniques. Advanced techniques are a bit of an illusion. They are really basic techniques performed well.

The tenet was the fifth and final one: Open Mind. This is perhaps our most controversial tenet, as it is open to some misinterpretation. CCMA adopts a sceptical view to martial arts training, we encourage critical thinking and therefore many might see the inclusion of “Open Mind” as a bit of a contradiction. It is my view that the modern sceptic or critical thinker is open minded, as they are the ones who question and find out more rather than just blindly believe. Please see my article on “Open Mind” for a full discussion on this. On a very basic level, having an open mind in CCMA terms means being able to adapt and being willing to investigate and research.

After a warm-up of specific exercises, the class did some flash pad work with movement and some revision on pre-emptive striking. They then did some takedown entries followed by individual demonstrations of takedowns. This was followed by transitional pins on the ground. The class was finished with some MMA sparring.

Martial Arts at School Topic: Cookery. Whether you study “food-tech” or catering at your school, college or university, you will need to understand nutrition. You won’t find a paid-for mainstream martial arts magazine without adverts for nutritional supplements and at sometime they will have had articles on various diets. Many martial artists take the issue of diet so seriously that they include an eating regimen in their training – see “The Gracie Diet” for example (that isn’t a recommendation). Nutrition sparks a lot of debate as there is also a lot pseudoscience connected to it thanks to the massive rise in celebrity endorsed fad-diets. Proper nutrition, of course, has strong connections to other subjects such as chemistry and biology.  Knowing how to cook is also part of survival and survival is what self defence is all about. Soldiers understand this and many are trained in how to live off the land when out in the wilderness with low supplies.  

Seniors

Today’s lesson was essentially an MMA class with no pretensions about self defence. It was only a small class with students who have decent foundation knowledge in the soft and hard skills of self defence. Therefore, it seemed appropriate to work on some attribute training.

After grip-fighting, freestyle proactive coaching drills (using boxing gloves as focus mitts etc.) and MMA sparring we focused back on the dinosaur arms concept again. This began with the drills we developed on the focus mitts, using two coaches to help iron out bad habits and also hand speed drills. For grappling we did the pummelling drill that trains over and under hooks. It also has the relevant benefit of teaching students to keep their elbows in, protecting their ribs. We then took the concept to the ground and looked at it inside the close guard. The person in the guard worked from the safety position with their arms in tight resisting the person holding the guard who attempted to isolate the arms. This is a great specific training drill that works well for both the attacker and defender.

Senior warm-up

I think the most rewarding training experiences are those where you can go away with information and then use it improve at your leisure. Sadly when most people train on their own they do it like a chore. Unless they have a pattern to learn or a combination to remember, which is commonplace in most traditional and even sport martial arts, they just work away at the bag or on the mats going through the same routine until they worked up a sufficient sweat. They rarely stop to think that although they may be maintaining or improving their cardiovascular, flexibility or strength training they might also be reinforcing bad habits. Remember, if we look at what has been uncovered relating to “muscle memory” and neurological pathways, we will do under pressure what we do most. If you are routinely dropping your left hand or telegraphing a movement before you strike then that is what you are reinforcing if you are not consciously checking it during your own personal training. From a philosophical point of view, you do best what you do the most. So if you are lazy and sloppy most of the time then that is what your most perfected trait is. Training on your own is great if you have direction. A regular class should give you that direction or at least inspiration to work on your weaknesses, to train out bad habits and make the right type of progress.