Asymmetrical Combinations & Learning from the Fight (09.05.13)

09.05.13

General Lesson – Mixed Martial Arts/Self-Defence – Asymmetrical Combinations & Tactile Awareness

Today’s general lesson was inspired by two great martial arts teachers and friends of mine, Ron Goin and Iain Abernethy. After a brief session of solo movement drills for stand-up fighting, we went straight onto the focus mitts. Taking my lead from a discussion I had with Ron Goin, I looked at exploring asymmetrical combination work. I use combinations or any set patterns merely to quarry concepts and as a vehicle to develop attributes. I don’t expect all combinations to be adopted verbatim. I am very sceptical about any combination that goes beyond three techniques, especially any combination that does not include a degree of movement. Last week we used the standard three punch combination with evasions thrown in to test reactions to break rhythm and test timing. This week we used the same combination delivered using speed only. The students hit the pads very lightly and then finished with a heavy round kick or cross. These drills helped the students switch between intensity and also helped them understand tactics for setting up power strikes.

Iain Abernethy’s recent seminar on practical karate applications reminded me that not all my sources for pragmatic and functional martial arts cross-training comes via the usual full contact combat sport or modern combative route. By teaching some of the six throws of karate, as taught by Gichin Funakoshi, Iain Abernethy reminded me of ways to teach tactile awareness for grappling. We used a parry/grip entry, which lends itself very well to using striking in combination with gripping. This works very well in both a self-defence and MMA context and we looked at relevant application options. Takedowns covered included judo’s major outer-reaping and Funakoshi’s neck-ring.

Private Lesson – Mixed Martial Arts – Learning from the Fight

CCMA’s approach is to begin with the individual. That has always been at the heart of my teaching philosophy. When it comes to self-defence or combat sports, fighting is a very personal matter. When placed under pressure the individual will use what methods are most ingrained in his brain through experience. I believe a coach and a student should learn from the fight and reverse engineer the process from that experience. So, all three ranges were covered using specific sparring and we focused on what needed refining.

This private lesson presented two examples on individualization. I had two private students. One was active and at the beginning of his training with me. He had a background in weight training and muay Thai. In his case, I set up specific activities looking at range and allowed him to feed me what he knew under pressure. From there I helped him improve and focused on certain weaknesses that allowed us to dictate the course of the lesson. This is  what is called "Learning from the Fight".

The other student is suffering from a minor back injury. The back greatly affects most areas of training and is needed to generate force in all aspects of striking and grappling. However, there are ways to work around it and to use the temporary lay-off period (4-6 weeks). My initial advice was to cut out the back altogether. Get some rest in to see if it eased any of the discomfort. Then start working on improving grip strength in the hands and feet. I encouraged dropping and catching exercises done in repetition, forearm curls and various gripping exercises for the hands. Using resistance bands to work the ankles and picking up a pen or similar objects with the toes for a series of repetitions are great for the feet.

Here is a link from T Nation on working around back injuries.

Move on from there into gradual flexibility training - perhaps one of the most neglected areas of martial arts training anyway, unless you are a taekwondoka or wu shu martial artist where stretching is strongly enforced as part of the norm.

The active student began with clinch range, focusing on breaking and establishing grips. We then made this more specific by playing attack and defence. I noted that the student’s defence was purely negative. This is a very limited tactic that is likely to eventually fail. A solid defence should nullify the attack, protect against further attack and, if possible, be an effective means for counter-attacking. From this live exercise we moved onto drilling arm-drags and taking the back.  This was then integrated into a drill that promoted continuous attack and flow. We then covered the arm-drag from butterfly and began dissecting this particular guard. This section was finished with some specific sparring from the butterfly guard. The whole lesson finished with some stand-up sparring, where I fed-back issues with telegraphing punches, which can be covered in the next lesson.

Private Lesson – Self-Defence – Going to the Ground

The physical conditioning aspect of this training got a noticeable increase during this lesson. My mandate for these clients is to primarily teach self-protection and then increase fitness and confidence levels. Fortunately there is a good degree of over-lap from these respective skills, but we must not fall into the “By-Product Myth” and, extra attention is paid to the two secondary requirements to ensure that there is good progression.

We revised the fence and the cover drills, as well as anti-grappling. Transitioning through the postures has become a mainstay of our sessions for several reasons. Firstly, it is important to be able to strike from any position and training from these ranges enables an individual to properly “own” straight and hooked strikes. Secondly, striking from these postures is a form of restrictive training that helps improve striking from a standing position. Thirdly, you should be able to strike in transition and keep fighting with a strong defence as you move through these postures. Fourthly, these transitioning drills repeat the behaviour of getting to your feet safely. Finally, these drills hit the legs and therefore are an excellent way to strengthen and condition the body.

We then covered asymmetrical ground fighting. Here the students are taught to utilize the cover immediately and to get their feet attacking their attacker’s feet and get back to a standing position.

Photography by Charlotte Von Buelow Quirk