In the second hour of an online martial arts training course with a teacher from Drum Martial Arts and Fitness in the Republic of Ireland and his son, the lesson returned to the scarf hold. The son is preparing for an upcoming grading, with a focus on ground-fighting. The previous lesson explored attacking and defending from the position. This session shifted more clearly towards defence, especially the hip escape onto the back and the transition into an arm bar.

Some sessions need more movement, not more techniques. That was the theme for a recent remote online submission grappling personal training session with Drum Fitness and Martial Arts in the Republic of Ireland. The lesson changed pace with a father and son pairing working on the traditional scarf-hold, also known in many grappling rooms as kesa gatame. Rather than treating it as a static pin, we used it as a live attacking position. The focus was simple: control the body,

A grappling dummy will never replace a live training partner, but it can still teach useful habits if the session has structure. Tonight’s remote lesson with a teacher client from Hostlebro Taekwondon Klub in Denmark was meant to be boxing-based. We changed direction and moved into submission grappling instead. With no training partner available, the dummy became the training body, and the goal became clear: make the positions feel connected rather than treating each choke