Arm Bars from Guard, Dirty Boxing & MMA Turtle

29.01.20   Wednesday evening’s junior course in Submission Grappling progressed with the arm-bar from guard whilst the senior Mixed Martial Arts lesson combined takedowns with Dirty Boxing and focused on the turtle position for MMA.   We warmed up with guard position callisthenics and mobility exercises. These included variations of snaking/shrimping, hip raise arm-bars and triangles, and upas. We then went straight to closed guard and looked at the set up for the arm-bar. Hip movement is crucial throughout the execution of this technique from trapping the opponent’s arms to moving into the arm-bar position. Next we did a muscle memory exercise for the arm-bar. The lesson finished with one 5 minute round of sparring.   The next lesson began with a run through of various Dirty Boxing combinations. We then added on takedowns. These were chosen by the fighter. Then we went to the turtle position where we drilled striking into the turtle position and setting up a sweep as well as the anaconda choke. We also looked at defending with a Kimura and also rolling into an arm-bar or knee-bar. The lesson finished with 2 x 5 minute rounds of sparring.