Articles
These articles are written by Jamie Clubb.
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20.02.12 Junior KEWAP
I presented the under16s KEWAP course for my junior CCMA class. This is generally aimed at students no younger than 11 years of age. However, my class are pretty used to this type of material and I felt all attendees took it on board. The carefully constructed PowerPoint presentation contains no graphic imagery.
The seminars were all the brainchild of Steven Timperley, founder of Elite Response Training and a man with a...
20.02.12
Junior MMA
Following on from last week we looked at striking in the guard. After a functional fitness warm-up we began with the guard-jumping exercise. As previously explained, this tends to cut-down on time in the clinch range and is favoured by those who want to take the fight from stand-up to submissions or sweeps from the guard. We then followed on with the jumping up in guard exercise. This is used to either break the guard or seriously impair it by stacking the person...
In the lead up to Vagabond Warriors 2.0 I decided to run a taster session at Kyushinkai Martial Arts Centre. The class I ran mainly consisted of MMA students, but there was some interest from the traditional karate. An aspect I love about Kyushinkai is that despite the fact that it has its many different lessons run by different instructors, there is a real spirit of integration going on. Everyone feels a part of the club and universal respect is shown for the different disciplines. It...
Double Self Protection Workshop with Jamie Clubb
Thanks to all that attended the self protection workshops taken by Jamie Clubb in association with Shinkenmi Ni Tesseyo Karate on Saturday 4th February 2012. The first session was tailored for juniors up to the age of 12 and the second session was tailored for students aged 13 and above, below is a brief write up of these session which I hope you find interesting.
Juniors Session
The students warmed up with a multiple attacker ‘cornering’...
THE NEW MARTIAL ARTS REVOLUTION STARTS WITH
“VAGABOND WARRIORS 2.0”
What is Vagabond Warriors?
Vagabond Warriors is a unique approach designed to enhance your personal training and education in functional martial arts. They take the form of monthly five hour seminars made up of purposeful and clearly targeted high intensity specific training, attribute training and functional fitness.
What Makes it Different from Other Seminars?
It works from the latest educational...
14.02.2012:
Today’s session focused on stand-up transitioning to ground ‘n pound. The three phases of mixed martial arts are stand-up (boxing, kickboxing), clinch (e.g. wrestling) and ground (e.g. Brazilian jiu jitsu). Clinch typically deals with the takedowns, but in this instance we transitioned straight to the ground. The tactic here is different to most takedown situations. Here we are dealing with an individual who chooses to "pull guard". This comes from...
06.02.12
Today’s approach to training began with some more revision of the fence and offline strikes. We began with natural postures and I isolated the pre-emptive stike. We began by firing it from the fence and then from less prepared positions, such as hands in pockets or with hands together in a “prayer stance”. This was to encourage fast twitch muscle responses from virtually nothing. It’s a concept I learnt from John “Awesome” Anderson, who used to...
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Birmingham’s Shinkenmi Ni Tesseyo Karate very kindly invited me to teach a children’s and an adult’s self-protection workshop. Both sessions were small and therefore I took a more informal touch. Rather than using a PowerPoint presentation, we covered all the soft skills material in a sit-down discussion format.
Both sessions covered pre, in and post-fight criteria. All attendees did well and...
02.02.2012
Woodlands School and Sports Academy invited me back to teach five sessions to their pupils. This was intended to promote my weekly classes at Eastern Green School. Students were aged 11-13 and were, on the whole, pretty enthusiastic and well behaved. It helps to have a teacher read the riot act out at the beginning and then to go in with vigour. Each session differed slightly, but these were key points I made:
The session would focus mainly on MMA, but we would...
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After a warm-up of follow-the-leader specific training exercises, we did a warm-up game two of the children suggested last week. This was a reaction game whereby anyone who failed to catch a ball thrown at them had to forfeit an exercise. Following on from this I had them play a similar game with the focus mitts. Whoever ended up with a focus mitt when the time was up had to do a series of exercises.
With fun-time over, it was...
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“You absolute whore!” were experienced martial arts champion, self-defence expert and fitness instructor Floyd Brown’s not-so-sympathetic words when I showed him the marketing campaign being used to sell my new DVD/download self-defence programme – “Rapid Street Defence”. And there I was at the beginning of 2012 with a stack of terrifying bills looming over me on one side and the prospect of a reputable career in imminent danger...
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23.01.12
So I listened and today’s lesson was concerned with takedown defence, a submission and some kicking. We began with a swift warm-up, training specific movements and then reversing them i.e. snaking forwards and backwards in one go. Then we went straight into grappling partner drills.
For me, it is more important to get students into the feel of tactics than to just train one specific technique. So, looking at takedown defence we used the stopping...
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I learn from my students all the time. This is no false modesty. It is very easy to think you know best for your class or family, but it can be difficult to actually listen empathetically to what is wanted. Today, I asked some questions and I got some answers. However, first I got them into a bit of burnout using the stand-up range as a model.
We began with punching and jogging on the spot. This moved onto some combination shadow boxing and some ballistic...
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Preface
Before I begin this article let me get a few things straight about its content. I will be discussing the training methods behind the hard skills required for what I see as efficient self defence. I will be setting down three very general performance criteria, which I think are fairly easy for a club to comply with if they are professing to teach effective skills for self defence, civilian combatives or anything else...
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10.01.12
Today’s lesson was focused on developing muscle memory at all ranges. We began with a footwork warm-up exercise. Both students mirrored each other's footwork and prompted each other to sprawl. We then moved further up onto some Greco-Roman bulling and grip-fighting. We then practiced overhook/underhook pummelling and did some clinch training, working the v-step on its own, with sweeps and then with knee strikes. Next we drilled arm-drag entries...
05.01.12
Our first session back after the Christmas break and time to check the rust! Today’s session was fairly comprehensive, beginning with self-defence and then moving onto MMA with a sufficient overlap at the transitional stage.
We began with a quick regular warm-up of specific cardiovascular exercises. Then we moved straight onto some partner work. It began with a revision of basic fence principles as a warm-up/memory retention exercise. One student kept moving into...
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I write this now as the proverbial and literal dust has completely settled over the England riots that held media and public attention from 6th to 10th August 2011. There is a reason for this. We are now past a time where the causes of these incidents and recriminations for those involved were being debated. What once felt like Armageddon has now become a small piece of violent history. We can now reflect without the knee-jerk reactions...
Cover of Columbine
On 20th April 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 people at their high school, injured a further 24, impacted the whole collective consciousness of an entire community and inspired terror across America and into Europe. For years afterwards the name of the tragedy would simply be referred to as "Columbine". There would be books and documentaries made. There would countless reports and stories. This was not the biggest mass killing in...
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12.12.11:
it's our final lesson of the year. So although I didn't want to break with the programme we have been following over the last two weeks, today's session was less technique or even tactic focused and inflused with plenty of "games".
We warmed up with the usual specific movements and shadow boxing from all ranges, and then went straight into some competitive exercises. This included a couple of chase-orientated games. Then...
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05.12.11.
Today's warm-up was more about getting a flow going and keeping heart rates moving. The weather is beginning to more resemble the winter now, catching most people off their guard, so I think everyone was grateful of a more thorough warm-up. We cover all the specific and functional fitness movements, moving in and out of freestyle and set movements. This same principle was then carried over onto focus-mitt work, which was a blend of high intensity...
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28.11.11
The agility/footwork programme using the cones continued today after a freestyle warm-up of specific exercises and shadow boxing (at all ranges) as well as breakfalls and rolls. With the class now quite familiar with many of the exercises we added in a competitive component. Two sides raced each other, relay fashion, with the following exercise combinations
1. Run around cones and three long jumps to extra set of cones on the way...
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Like punk rock, mixed martial arts seemingly smashed its way onto the public scene without compromise and upset the current order in a way that hadn’t been seen for decades. As with the petulant bastard child of rock ‘n roll, MMA began as a hard-edged spectacle that outraged the establishment and promptly got itself banned all over the place. Both were considered trends, but few realized just how well they would adapt, survive and thrive.
...
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Tonight the warm-up combined agility drills with regular mat exercises and a little partner-work. Therefore footwork exercises would quickly transition into bear-crawls, frog jumps, snaking/shrimping, rolls, sprawls, sit-throughs, takedown entriees and target striking.
Keeping energy levels up the class moved onto some focus-mitt work. Intensity was the name of the game today with the need to work fast-twitch muscle fibres with specific techniques and...
Will Knowles is our guest reviewer for the weekend combatives seminar held in Telford last weekend. Will is an instructor under my coach, Mo Teague. This seminar saw the historic pairing of Mo with the American combatives expert, W. Hock Hocheim. I was truly gutted that I couldn't attend this event, but feel I should draw attention to it just in case they decide to hold another one. From what I have heard back from both of these instructors, who prior to this had no direct or even...
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Jamie Clubb Interview by Michael Rosenbaum
Jamie Clubb’s study of the fighting arts is broad, varied and insightful. It reflects his experiences as a circus performer, author and martial artist. A noted pragmatist and innovator, Clubb’s viewpoints, nevertheless, have a certain ring of traditionalism to them. By traditionalism I mean combat being the reason for the fighting arts existence, not competition....
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14.11.11
Tonight began with the intention of focusing a bit more kicks and then into the other two ranges. I also had a nice guard sweep I wanted to cover. However, in the end most of the lesson ended up revolving around the stand-up game.
We began with a student led warm-up. Three different students took over to cover different specific exercises, covering all ranges. However, I wasn't happy with the all round performance. Perhaps it had...
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Contrary to the usual CCMA approach, today’s session session did not have much of a theme outside of introducing the class to some new MMA concepts. After a student-led warm-up incorporating blitzing, side-steps footwork, bear crawls, sprawls, snakes, crab-crawls, break-falls, rolls and the sprint catch game the class did some agility training. Using the cones we did the following routines for three sets each:
Pogo jumps
Running in and...
04.11.11
The basic junior course in self-protection came to an end today. After six weeks of intensive sessions the under 16s of Telford’s Kyushinka Martial Arts undertook their confirmation session/test. The course was designed to teach relavant personal security and high percentage combatives to youngsters and today’s session was designed to observe how much information had been retained. Having a highly individualistic approach to teaching Clubb Chimera Martial Arts is not...
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Tonight we looked at sensitivity, initiation and responsiveness at stand-up and clinch range. We began with some pummeling than some light clinch sparring, bringing knees. Attention was then taken to hand striking. This involved a drill to encourage punching at close quarters. In principle the drill is not that dissimilar to wing chun’s chi sau.
We then began drilling reversals from the wall and also a self-defence application involving an eye gouge...
24.10.11.
So, the grading is over and it is half-term. Time to look at what needs to be improved and where to new to begin. I put it around the group to pick some subjects. Both self-defence and MMA were requested. A senior student wanted more practice on knife defence and other students wanted to look at takedowns and submissions. So, I came up with a happy combination of all of these.
When it comes to teaching defence against weapons I normally make it a rule to teach evasion,...
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Vagabond Warriors was another enjoyable session – full of hard work and a good energy. We began with an introduction to CCMA and Vagabond Warriors concepts, discussing the CSI (Clarification, Scepticism and Individuality) approach to training. Then we looked at both partner and solo warm-up exercises. For partner work we began with fence sensitivity drills – developing tacticle responses and target familiarization. This moved onto body barges to get the...
Tonight saw a couple of firsts in CCMA's grading history. For the first time the grading was held straight after a regular class. This was due to October being a very busy month and our usual monthly hall booking being taken up the "Vagabond Warriors" seminar, a service that is growing all the time. The arrange
ment worked out okay, as students had a whole hour to go over areas they weren't confident on. The next of these firsts was the second time a grading award has...
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10.10.11: This is the penultimate lesson before the grading. Next week’s lesson will be immediately followed by a grading, so in a way this is the last real lesson. It’s an opportunity to have a final check on who is eligible to grade and where small areas can be corrected. We began with some new specific warm-up exercises mixed in with the usual movements, several taken from western boxing, and then they were free to do their own multi-range...
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04.10.11. Due to illness I was very grateful that Aaron O’Leary was able to cover my class last week. Aaron has a good background in boxing, Brazilian jiu jitsu and has attended various combatives seminars with me. The feedback I received from all my students was very positive and I looked forward to seeing what they had recalled from his special lesson on groundwork.
However, tonight it was important to review self-defence in order to see...
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30.09.11: Today was the the penultimate lesson of my children's self-defence course for Telford. The focus of this session was to up the pressure and to see students responded to a less than ideal training environment. Usually for various reasons a training area is kept clear, clean and open. However, this is obviously not the case for a likely self-defence situation. One key thing students need to understand is that fights travel and they will very...
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Fear
Fear has become a mainstay of Reality-Based Self-Defence training for a long time now. Both our understanding of how it alerts us to danger – immortalized in such RBSD “Bibles” as Gavin De Becker’s “The Gift of Fear” – and in the way it can restrict us from realizing our potential – see Geoff Thompson’s “Fear: The Friend of Exceptional People”. There have since been a plethora...
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19.09.11
Eastern Green Primary Schoolonce more hosted me as an all-day coach. I taught half hour taster workshops on mixed martial arts and the CCMA approach to students aged from five to 11. With such short spots it is very useful that CCMA’s warm-ups are not abstract exercises, but relavent movements that replicate what students would be doing on the focus mitts and in the sparring. We did some shadow boxing that covered all ranges then some MMA games and...
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12.09.11
After a completley student-led warm of relevant exercises - shadow-boxing, sprawling, rolls, snaking and so on - we focused completely on grappling. This began with some Greco-Roman positional work. I started this section with some overhook/underhook pummelling that increased in resistance to a game to get both underhooks in. Students then began away from the clinch and fought for the back position, working circular attacks and counters. Moving onto...
Cover of Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear
According to Dan Gardner, bad news easily outsells good news. He should know, having worked within the newspaper industry for his entire career. Gardner has first hand experience of seeing the way papers are driven by a need to report shocking headlines. Popular writing excites the senses and there is no quicker way to make something a "thrilling read" than to use fear. That's great when it comes to writing fiction or even an...
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We began the lesson with a revision of all basic functional and relevant training exercises from breakfalls to shadow boxing and finally back onto the leading knee principle touched up last week. However, this time we followed the shadow version of the lead knee strike and double leg takedown with a direct application. As explained before, the leading knee principle is an example of using two different techniques to drive maximum power off the leading leg. Usually...
