Balance Points, Angles and Move Those Hips! (diary entry)

15.11.14 Today’s cross-training lesson focused on attacking from 45 degrees, balance points and use the hip to drive techniques. We began with some agility exercises, using cones to coordinate footwork backwards and forwards. Then we looked at using a tyre and a bosu ball to draw attention to the stabilizing muscles required to execute correct technique. We practised straight knee strikes whilst stepping on the tractor tyre. This encourages the striker to gather behind the strike and engage the right muscles whilst retaining balance by keeping a good posture. We used the bosu ball for four directional balance kicking. The client confirmed a stronger sense of balance and form when he tried these same exercises on a firmer surface. Of course, you can easily get carried away when performing balancing exercises, but these simple ideas are great ways to draw attention to the correct form execution. I ran through some correctional exercises to get my client to get used to cutting off an opponent and moving in from different angles. As I have said numerous times before in these entries, moving at roughly a right angle at an opponent allows for many advantages. From a self-defence perspective lining someone up from a right angle position can affect an aggressor in many ways. Psychologically an aggressive and domineering person can lose confidence when his target stands offline. If the person using the fence needs to pre-emptively strike they are in a far stronger position than the aggressor. When we look at stand-up striking the 45 degree angle allows opens up the opponent to various hand and leg strikes. When grappling the clinch the 45 degree angle allows the fighter to dominate his opponent better. It also reveals the balance points and it is easier to take advantage of them.

The warm-up brought in the 45 degree footwork and ways to cut off an opponent both when advancing and apparently retreating. I also connected it to the pendulum or Newton’s Cradle foot movement that allows for an explosive thrust on the front kick and straight knee as well the v-step. The Thai clinch is a beautiful illustration of how the three points of this lesson can come together. The fighter manoeuvres around the opponent using footwork to achieve the 45 degree angle, exposes his balance point and then drives through with a knee strike using the hips. We then looked at how integral the hips are in most martial arts techniques. By appreciating the role the hips play in these moves the fighter creates less boundaries when he cross-trains. The straight knee strike and double leg take-down require a very similar activation of muscles and use the same force vectors. The overhand cross, superman punch and overhand downward elbow strike also share very similar hip movements, but this time from the reverse side of the body. The sit-through sends the hip action across the body. We looked at using a kettle bell to help encourage this explosive action. The hip should send the hand that is pulling the kettle bell through the technique. The same principle can be found with kettle bell swing frog jumps. The frog jump brought us back to direct applications. In this instance we covered posturing up whilst inside a guard, where the hips need to be pushed forward in an explosive manner and a straight posture retained as the fighter jumpers up and forward.

This brought us onto fighting from the top position. I covered pin transitioning both on a training partner and the Swiss ball. Emphasis was placed on using the pressure of the hips throughout the movements. We then looked at using the hips from underneath both to bridge up and from guard. The bridging exercise was coupled with the deck squat for an good overall body exercise that encourage regaining footing fast from a ground position and engaging core and leg muscles in a fluid action. The guards various attacks, particularly from the closed guard position, are led by the hips. The basic arm-bar from guard is a clear illustration of this technique. The hips must be kept mobile throughout and the hyper-extension to the elbow is best achieved by moving the hips into a 45 degree position.