End of First Submission Grappling Course (diary entry)

05/11/19   Tonight – Tuesday - saw the conclusion of my client’s first course in Submission Grappling/Ground-Fighting. He has decided to roll on with a second course in this particular discipline straight away, which will begin next week. Tonight’s two hour lesson covered two more submissions from closed guard as well as three standard guard passes.   We warmed up with a combination of freestyle callisthenic movement and agility ladder crawls. This solo training was then followed by partner drills. In this instance we drilled moving through guards covered in the previous lesson. We also revised the arm-bars from guard both as a muscle memory drilling exercise and as a full technique. The same was done with the scissor sweep which had also been first taught in the previous lesson.   The new material began with the triangle choke from guard. This is the standard leg triangle. I explained that – much like the Kimura lock position and the rear naked choke position – the positioning for this technique is very versatile and can be applied to a wide range of other techniques. I also explained about the confusion regarding the term “choke”. Technically, this is a strangle-hold and there is no real variation that can change this into an effective actual choke, however, the term has persisted and ended up in the mainstream. We covered the purest way to put on this move which relies a lot on angling the hips off and fully engaging the core as well as mentioning “dirtier” ways that can be applied such as pulling the head down. This section was finished with a muscle memory drill.   We then covered the oma plata (shoulder lock) which also involves triangling the legs. However, instead of targeting the neck the fighter attacks the shoulder. From here we also covered a wrist-lock add-on as well as a neck-crank and a toe-hold. This section was also finished with a muscle memory drill.   Next up we looked at passing guard. I was taught three basic concepts – under, around and through. We looked at stacking as means for passing under the guard, the bullfighter pass to go around the guard and combat base/reverse scarf-hold to go through the guard.   At the end of the lesson my next client arrived who is booking me to teach a private workshop on MMA ground-fighting. I took the opportunity for my first client to revise both the pin transition and the guard transition drills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v_M_ea_7Ik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29JviJXtFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjDB9WrnG9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XiPwFVQGU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pjdpFCr4UI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOGbaXm3Htw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt10mEk4pms