03.02.14
General Lesson
Today we went back to angle with a focus on attacking the shoulder. We began with rolling, working the bobbing and weaving motion in boxing/stand-up fighting. One fighter threw hooks of varying range and speed whilst the other responded by rolling underneath. We did not bring in any strikes, but just kept the momentum of this action going. Not only is this a great defensive/counter-attack tactic, but it promotes good upper body flexibility in general movement. In short, the fighter becomes harder to hit if their upper body is as fast as their footwork. Fighters like Roy Mayweather Jnr and the great Joe Frazer exemplify the importance of constant though mindful movement. I focused on this movement to address good form. There are tactical differences between some schools of western boxing and muay Thai/MMA when it comes to rolling, but the muscle activation principles are the same.
The difference, as was first pointed out to me by my now deceased muay Thai kru Tony Hayes, is that dipping low in western boxing has fewer risks than in muay Thai or MMA. Many western – Prince Naseem Hamid and Mike Tyson come to mind – have exploited low defensive head movement to create greater accelerated force in their strikes. However, Thai boxers and mixed martial arts fighters are open to knee strikes. It should also be pointed out that it is illegal in western boxing to dip too low.
Nevertheless, the movement still requires good posture and for the fighter to engage their gluteus maximus and quadriceps for explosive action. A typical lazy action is to bow at the waist rather than to bob, leading with the head rather than bending the legs. This leaves the head open and doesn’t allow for good positioning, which is the crux of the exercises place in today’s lesson. Good technique puts the fighter in a good angle if they are rolling off a circular strike, such as a hook. Furthermore, the correct action has conditioning benefits that help to develop explosiveness in the leg muscles whereas the incorrect action can place unnecessary strain on the lower back.
Rather than adding on strikes I took this motion straight into a type of restricted boxing sparring. One fighter was restricted to blitzing forwards on “tramlines” and the other hitting off angles using the bobby motion.
We then took the angulation principle into the jab/slip /45 degree counter-attack. One fighter slips the jab with their own and then shifts out to 45 degrees. There are several options here. Today we used the overhand right, going over the shoulder, the low round kick and the single leg takedown. The single leg takedown once again brought up the problem of not leading with all the body. I believe this stems from the same problem I encountered with the rolling. The student sees the extremity of the technique and tries to follow that. In rolling they focus on the head movement and don’t see what is behind it whereas when it comes to the single leg they see arms gripping the leg and focus this action. This latter mistake invariably leads to the student stretching his arms out in front and not having sufficient force to make a potent attack on the leg. As with any low line takedown, an efficient fighter drops his entire body as one unit and drives forward in the same manner.
Returning back to viewing the shoulder as an attack point we looked at the body clinch and, more specifically, finding the underhooks. This was trained from the cover. Various add-on options were discussed - knee strikes in the clinch, belly-to-bell and back suplexes, minor outer reap throw, front and back takedowns, as well as the shoulder lock.
We then attacked the shoulder from the guard on the ground. Here covered the oma plata into a shoulder lock and also an ankle-lock. The lesson finished with MMA free-sparring.
Private Lesson
The warm-up consisted of various footwork and escape exercises followed warm-up movements using the rattan canes. We focused on the basic two angle strikes of the rattan cane. This was done to look at basic diagonal movements that can be translated into other actions. We repeated forehand and backhand strikes off the same hand from a hand stance, backhand stance and stepping motion. Then we combined them. We looked at low angle strikes as well and applied them, stick-on-stick in a short drill.
This was then applied to slashing movements with an edged weapon. Prior to working on these angles we went through the self-protection procedure we use before this stage. This covers the fence and vocal alerts as well as spotting weapon concealment and approaches. We moved onto making space and tactical escapes. The angles of attack were then resumed with the use of incidental and improvised weapons. We then applied these motions to forearm, elbow striking and with hammer fists to various targets and under increasing pressure.
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