Different Types of Training (diary entry)

19.09.13

General Lesson – Mixed Martial Arts

Warm-up

We immediately got down to business with specific partner warm-up exercises that were directly related to today’s lesson. This began with two chasing games designed to promote good footwork. Then we moved onto taking-the-back clinch-work.

Specific Sparring

Specific sparring is at the top of the CCMA “Hierarchy of Training”. This is sparring that has a set objective, which is strictly adhered to with progressive levels of pressure. I believe this to be the best way to actively apply techniques effectively and efficiently. We began with takedown attack and defence sparring. Then we moved onto the ground with transitional pins into sparring. Then we broke down the guard into three phases – long, mid-range and closed.

General Sparring

This section began with boxing, followed by kicks verses punches, followed by kickboxing and then MMA sparring.   

Private Lesson – Mixed Martial Arts Stand-up and Striking

We focused on speed development today. The warm-up consisted of two chasing footwork exercises, the second being done from the grounded position. Then we took to the focus mitts.

I coached three different rounds on hand speed. The first involved developing the jab and then freestyle constant striking. The second involved more feedback and also reaction target training. The third brought in combinations.

Then we brought in kicks and looked at minimizing the delay between kicks. Despite being the area that made martial arts attractive to me and having a background in a lot of kicking arts, I concede it is the weakest range. The reason why I say this is because the risk incurred when kicking appears to be the most compared to hand strikes and grappling. Whenever you kick you compromise your balance significantly. Legs, of course, are much heavier limbs too and are slower than hand strikes. Therefore it follows that work needs to be put into making sure their execution is speeded up as much as possible, particularly the withdrawal from the target.

The session as completed with jumping to the feet when in guard and punching.

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