27.01.10 Kicking up and punching close (Diary Entry)

Jan 28th, 2010 by Jamie Clubb

Workshop this Saturday 30 January! Book your place now!

Juniors

After a student-led warm-up around the gym, I focused the class on kicking. We began from a ground position, which lends itself very well to good tactical self defence. Kicks, as I have said countless times on here before, are risky tools from a standing position, but from the ground, particularly in asymmetrical ground-fighting, they come into their own. Before any exercises were started we broke down simple objectives and tactics for the grounded person fighting a standing person. All understood that getting the head out of harm’s way as soon as possible was a good idea. All I could see that the best tool for the job is, in general, one’s own feet. It took a bit of explaining, but most appreciated the benefits of getting into a side-on position as opposed to the “dying fly” position reduced target area. The positioning and movements to achieve this objective were drilled in a series of solo repetitions.

We began with a simple game of “Touch the Head” with the grounded person not permitted to stand up and the standing person only permitted to use their hands. This promotes good defensive and evasive movement within the restictions imposed on the ground person. I followed this game with a light version of our ground defence exercise. The standing person can use hands and feet to strike and prevent the grounded person from standing up. The grounded person’s objective is to get to their feet as soon as possible by using any means necessary.

Next we moved onto developing the tools and transitioning. This came in the form of a simple pad-work set that forms part of the senior class’s high percentage technique warm-up. It consists of a low round kick from a side lying position, from a propped up lying position, from a standing position and then a mid-section round kick from a standing position.

With the students now standing, we covered we blended kicks with punches. This was a basic sparring to and fro exercise incorporating parrys and shin blocks. This was followed by a few rounds of kickboxing.

Seniors

My objective this week was to concentrate on striking from grappling positions. This is where the “mixed” part of MMA really comes in. Contrary to popular belief most traditional martial arts actually have a fairly comprehensive syllabus of grappling and striking techniques. Traditional judo contains an atemi waza section covering strikes to be used in self defence, but this is very rarely taught nor has it been for several decades now. Karate incorporates tegumi (traditional Okinawan wrestling), but this has largely been lost in the wake of a competition driven industry and, before that, the Japanese educational system. The Chinese martial arts are full of locking, throwing and grabbing techniques, but these are now is relegated to Chinese fast wrestling and chin-na which are virtually separate arts now. There are, of course, exceptions to the rules such as my good friend Iain Abernethy who teaches traditional karate as a full contact combative art with practical function for our times, incorporating striking, gouging, throwing, biting, locking and so on. However, these are few and far between. The execution of a lot martial arts are now focused towards either grappling or striking. However, the evolution of practical self defence systems and mixed martial arts has seen a greater appreciation for training as a complete fighter.

MMA is typically bases its three areas of stand-up, clinch and ground on the combat sports of western boxing, muay Thai, sport wrestling (Greco Roman, freestyle and catch) and Brazilian jiu jitsu. However, each of these sports is either completely grappling-based or strike-based. The exceptions being the restricted stand-up grappling found in muay Thai’s clinch-work and some self defence applications in Gracie jiu jitsu that teach some striking or at least defence against strikes. This is why cross training has to teach good transitioning. When you get to the clinch stage in either a self defence situation or an MMA bout don’t expect Thai style clinch-work. You are more likely to get full-on unrestricted wrestling with strikes thrown in where possible. This is where the person who understands how to strike from these positions has a major advantage. The same can be said for the ground fighting, but I will hopefully come to that next week.

Building on last week’s work, I spent a good deal of time getting the class involved in grappling exercises with the focus being on getting good positions as well as retaining and keeping balance. We covered both standing and ground grappling exercises to drill in the exercises I began teaching last week.

After a regular workout around the gym, everyone partnered up and drilled some light neck wrestling from the Thai plumb position. This was followed by some mid-line pummelling, working the underhooks and overhooks. A resistance-based exercise followed working head against head to get control. Next we coached takedown entries and counter-entries with one partner just giving weight and checking posture, as the other drilled the takedowns. Compliant exercises were then followed by resistance training and they all did some takedown sparring. We then moved to the ground, drilling transitional pins, escapes, jumping guard/sit-ups from guard and standing up in the guard.

With the positional work covered as a series of cardiovascular exercises, the class looked at striking in isolation. They sparred for a five short rounds under muay Thai rules to get a feel for fairly unrestricted striking. This was then followed by the transition from striking to grappling by use of the cover. This moved into a strategy one versus strategy two exercise (striker versus grappler) within the clinch. I used head cages on the grappler in this exercise, so the striker could use more contact. The class was finished with some takedown sparring permitting strikes and starting from the clinch. Specific exercises – bridging, stretching in sprawls, rolling to feet and slow shadow boxing – ended the whole session as a warm-down.

See our workshop page and our post on the upcoming workshop on Saturday 30 January in Warwickshire!