Grading aftermath and new beginners! (diary entry)

Due to the presence of beginners and my regulars having just come through a rather gruelling grading, I decided to make today much more laid back than usual. That doesn’t mean training wasn’t demanding, but the pace was a little slower than normal. We began with a basic warm-up of movement drills and breakfalling, where the regulars had an opportunity to help assist the beginners. Then we moved onto a technical circuit, consisting of two minute rounds of boxing on the focus mitts, stand-up grappling, fighting in the guard, fighting from a pin position, kickboxing sparring, MMA sparring and a round with me on the Thai pads. Next the beginners did a small amount of neck wrestling and clinch-work before they sat down to watch the seniors have a few extra rounds of MMA sparring. The session was finished with some guard-passing sparring and then a specific warm-down, covering punches, kicks, sprawls, ground movements and stretching.