Developing MMA Foundations (diary entry)

25.02.20   Tuesday night’s first private lesson began my client’s first MMA course. He has got this to this point having completed 10 hour one-to-one individual courses in Western Boxing, Muay Thai and Wrestling as well as two 10 hour courses on Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting.   The purpose of his first lesson was to build strong connections between the different ranges and to condition him the fast shifting between levels. The art of the sport of MMA is in its transitioning; the way it overlaps between different ranges. We began with shadow boxing, mirror footwork and drills. This was to get my client straight into material he can easily train at home between lessons.   We used Western Boxing as a simple foundation to get footwork, head movement and punching combinations going. Early on I taught switching levels as if to throw a low jab but also to bring in the Wrestling element. We then chained kicks, knees and low line takedowns as well as sprawls.  Finally, we brought in movement on the ground, both from the top and bottom positions. This was then integrated into drills and mirror footwork. At the end of this section, we did 6 x 30 second uninterrupted rounds on different shadow boxing ranges.   Bringing the focus mitts out, we looked at some simple MMA combinations – jab/double-leg takedown, jab/cross/double-leg takedown, jab/cross/sprawl/spear-knee, slip-jab/overhand punch, slip-jab/low round kick and slip-jab/single-leg takedown. The lesson finished with punching inside the guard both from kneeling and standing followed by defending from half-guard.