We general focus of today’s lesson was looking at the biomechanics of the principles behind striking for self-defence. This included both the motion of the strike and the postures from where the strike can be best delivered.
We warmed up moving the hips forward to drive the straight palms, punches and elbows and torqueing the waist to throw hooks and offline/backhand strikes. In order to develop better muscle memory and faster transitioning I brought in several posture exercises. It is crucial for a student to be able to fight from any position and also be able to use the same basic strike from as many positions as possible. Restrictive training is also good for overloading the strike.
Here are two simple posture sets:
Transitioning from a Dead Start
Combat base to standing
Butterfly guard to standing
Back (guard) to standing
Rolling (active) to a Posture
Roll to Combat Base
Roll to Butterfly Guard
Roll to Standing
Then we performed the set all standing and moving forward.
This brought us onto integrating strikes into natural movements. When it comes to delivering a strike in self-defence, there is little point in thinking about guards or stances. Both John “Awesome” Anderson and Dennis “Samurai on the Door” Jones emphasized the importance of being able to deliver a strike from as natural a position or gesture as possible. We used walking to get the feel of striking in motion and then turned this into a partner exercise. By using a shoulder barge type motion a student get the feel of generating force into a real human body without harming the other person.
This took us onto discussions about striking from less ready positions, like sitting down in a chair or behind obstacles. Getting your legs working in a functional way using the earlier exercises will assist you in getting up from most unready positions. If I have one piece of advice for anyone who wants to train fitness practical combatives it would be to go to the legs! Get your fast twitch muscle fibres in your calves, quadriceps, hamstrings and gluts working.
Next we looked at natural combinations. The coach changes the position of the focus mitt in the manner one would experct a human target would take when receiving strikes. The lesson was finished with a code white test; an exercise performed with the student’s eyes closed at the beginning. He is physically prompted, opens his eyes and responds to what he sees.
The session finished with a decision to create some suggested programmes. I am getting asked this a lot form students and I understand it is a standard procedure with most coaches. I have no problem doing this, but I emphasise that I want those who train to me to develop internal compass rather than a map. So, please use the routines to look further into your own personal development rather than something that is set in stone.
Strengthening Knees with a Butterfly Guard (livestrong.com)
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