Clubb Chimera Martial Arts : CCMA

Juniors

 

Warm-up

 

The warm-up was led by our purple sash. He took the class through blitzing, bear crawls, snakes and various other movement drills before suggesting that we have a dodge ball reaction game.

 

Revision:

 

Over the past three weeks I have focused on movement with techniques. The first lesson was a brief overview. The second concentrated on hand strikes. Last week brought in kicks. This week moves onto some clinch-work, specifically takedowns. They did some proactive movement drills on the focus mitts to encourage good coaching and responsibility and then, for revision purposes, I prompted the class to break from the freestyle and to focus on blitzing, different ranges, jabbing with circular footwork and the fence for pre-emptive striking.

 

This week’s topic: taking the leg

 

We began with a basic footsweep. This was the no-gi version of judo’s kouchi gari (or small inner reap) http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/kouchigari.htm The footwork is similar to the blitzing method we used for both hand strikes and kicks. It also helped introduced the class to attacking and unbalancing the lowline.

 

We then moved onto the single leg takedown from a collar and elbow tie-up. I chose this beginning position as it began with the clinch, the range I wanted to focus on. This clip from another gym in USA demonstrates exactly the same version of the technique we trained, but from a longer distance i.e. without the clinch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdVJy6kxlgw

 

The class then moved onto catching the round kick and taking down, as well countering this catch. Like last week, this was done in-between bouts of MMA sparring to improve reactions and control. 

 

School topic of the week:

 

I was tested, once again, on the school topic of the week. This is a light-hearted chance for the students to watch me struggle to make connections between school subjects and the martial arts. On previous occasions I have been tested on easy ones like history, physics, cookery and modern languages. More tenuous connections were made to textiles, ICT (computers), handwriting and (gulp!) ballet. This week I had French thrown at me.

 

French, as taught in most English schools today, can be broken down and placed under the same method of uses that modern language covers. Language is communication and communication is a big part of the soft skills required in the pre and post fight stages of a conflict situation. You need to control communication if you are to use the fence properly and to control the pre-fight and you will need good communication in the post-fight in order to report the incident to the right people. As a component French is part of the culture of France. Coming under French culture we find French history, which has a long military and therefore martial arts lineage. Among the best known French martial arts/sports/self-defence are la savate, boxe Francais and la canne. There have been some very successful French martial artists.

 

Seniors

 

Case study with the CCMA improvement method

 

I looked at one student’s flaws to best improve them. Being a willing, eager and tenacious individual he went through the whole method and process. We used the MMA model for argument’s sake. It was easy to explore all ranges this way.

 

Warm-up

 

Proactive movement work. We went through all the ranges plus feedback for a five minute round. This promotes confidence, flow and encourages realistic application. A drill from a previous lesson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsTsfs6CSHo

 

MMA

 

The MMA sparring exposed areas of weakness that the rest of the lesson could focus on.

 

Escaping the mount

 

This appeared to be the first area of concern. A common fault for many is to turn onto your stomach and allow your opponent to get the back mount position. This is even worse than being caught in the original mounted position. The mount must be successful escaped in order to better counter someone. Yes, you can gouge, bite, claw, strike or whatever from the bottom position, but so can the guy on top and he has gravity on his side, far more weapons, including choking, and is controlling you at the same time. Plus, if we are playing self defence, he has the nice non-matted floor to slam your head into along with a better position to throw head-butts from. You want him off!

 

The best way to do this is to bridge. Trap the arm and bridge in order to turn him over. Alternatively you can bridge and exploit the gap to regain a type of guard position. The latter version works well if you are a competent ground grappler in a one-on-one situation, but is not that advisable for beginners or for self-defence.

 

Stand up sparring

 

We moved onto muay Thai sparring as it was discovered the student was quite comfortable with the ground and, in fact, was seeking it in sparring. This works up to a degree. The Gracie family made an entire art and business out the ability to do this. They also gave David a lot of chances over less experienced Goliaths by taking the fight down south! Big guys just seem to prefer to stand up in general. This is not to say there aren’t some brilliant big groundfighters, but the difference in size seems to be less significant on the floor than it is standing up. Modern fighters, particularly the “sprawl ‘n brawler” type have learnt how to keep their feet and to mercilessly punish those who persist only for the ground.

 

So, with this in mind we worked some stand up. Areas exposed were general down to confidence and mobility, although the biggest area that clearly needed work was kicks.

 

Kick training

 

Kicks are the weakest range when it comes to full contact combat sports and self-defence. This is the general paradigm I have arrived at and I feel is supported by most sources. However, coupled with grappling and hand strikes it is a devastating tool that should be respected. In self defence it comes into its own with asymmetrical ground fighting i.e. when one person is standing and the other is on the ground. As MMA progresses and evolves a good kicker has often secured surprise knockouts. High kicks are often advised against, but they are becoming increasingly more common in bouts at all levels.

 

Attack and defence: kicks

 

We began with some simple to and fro kicking to promote correct attack and defence with kicks. As a rule, low-to-mid section kicks are best intercepted by shin blocks, although if anticipate early enough it is a great opportunity to jam with a kick of your own. Shin blocks take a little conditioning and should be executed like strikes to the kicking leg. My old Thai boxing coach often chastised the class for not being bold enough with the shin block. It can be painful, but the block has to be assertive, strong and executed with a good posture. I also advise against any form of negativity. As with the cover, you should try to move into the strike with the block. Mid-to-high kicks can be caught, as covered in the junior class. Front kicks to the mid-section are to be absorbed and moved into or caught.

 

Here is some great advice on the execution of the round kick by Steve Morris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv0MD25LLtY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhualei4EK8

 

As an executing point, round kicks, delivered in the Thai or Burmese fashion should be thrown in a fluid motion. Good kickers deliver them with almost a sort of contempt they are so relaxed. However, in order to increase speed, intensity and explosiveness I advise an exercise that serves as a great last two minute burnout. Quite simply you kick a bag or pad at a 45 degree angle, as high as possible, non-stop for a minute on each leg. The foot touches the ground after each kick and your objective is to get in any as many possible within the minute. You shouldn’t get less than 60 kicks per minute. This old blog entry and video clip by my good friend and world renowned martial artist, Iain Abernethy, is worth checking out for further research on this training drill: http://blog.iainabernethy.com/?p=4