Firing High, Shooting Low (diary entry)

21.10.19   Monday night began my client’s new course on MMA. Having just come off a few stand-up striking orientated courses and we will be looking towards a submission grappling/ground-fighting course in the near future, these lessons will serve as a type of link. I will work a lot on the clinch as this is really the connecting range between stand-up and ground. Tonight we covered using strikes to set up for shoots.   We began with a thorough warm-up of all ranges. After some initial dynamic stretching and sport-specific callisthenics we began our ladder drills. These included chopping in all directions, jabbing footwork in and out, shuffle steps, hip-switching, double-leg takedowns, bear crawls, monkey crawls, single-hand jump-overs and sit-outs. All of these exercises were duelled with slower movement drills such as jogging and punching, hip-rolling and backwards jogging. We then changed to agility cones, where we trained serpentine running with punching combinations, punch/kick combinations, changing levels and sprawl/double leg takedown combinations.   Technique work included the following combinations:   Double high switch-kick/shuffle knee-pick   Double low kick/ankle-pick   Sprawl/failed guillotine/double-leg takedown   Jab/Cross/Double-Leg Takedown   We then did two rounds on the focus mitts and belly pad and Thai pads and belly pad. Here we concentrated on using punches to set up lowline takedowns and punch/kick combinations to set up lowline takedowns respectively.   The lesson finished with a stretching warm-down.