Different Guards (diary entry)

28.11.18   Tonight was my junior client’s last lesson in western boxing whilst my senior client focused on stand-up guards in MMA.   Revision consisted of going over the entire boxing programme. We warmed up with a demonstration of basic footwork – forwards, backwards, lateral, circular and v-stepping. These were then mixed and step numbers were given e.g. one step back/two steps forward. Upper body movement was then covered – slipping, ducking and rolling. Finally the basic punches were all called out – jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, overhands and shovel hooks. These were then strung together in various combinations before we took it all onto the focus mitts.   From here I put the pressure on to get head movement coordinated with footwork whilst throwing punches. This is really where the art comes into play. After work on the focus mitts, including stopping to assess certain areas that required correction and improvement, we had a round of sparring.   Stand-up guard training was similar to the classes I gave a fortnight ago to another one of my private clients. We went through the high guard, the mid guard and the low guard. Due to the size of the MMA gloves we needed to use footwork a lot more. Guards are also generally further out in front of the fighter than they would be in Western Boxing or Muay Thai. I drilled various counters coming off lineal attacks and mid-range punching exchanges for the high guard, takedown defence when in the mid guard and leg kicks when using the low guard. The lesson finished with two rounds of 5 minute MMA sparring. The first round focused on stand-up whilst the second round was freestyle. The above photo is from this highly informative video of the three ranges of guard taught in this lesson:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beauey16iv4