Ground up Coaching (diary entry)

English: Knee in muay thai clinch (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

28.04.14

General Lesson

Today we used the CCMA ground-up teaching method. I put the children in the leadership position. They identified a collective problem or several different problems put forward by different students and then addressed these problems with appropriate exercises. My role was to individually coach and correct when asked.

The class began with issues regarding takedowns. The waist-lock takedown was selected after drilling arm-drags. I noticed issues with the actual arm-drag and a problem with the takedown that could be traced back to the side break-fall during the warm-up. The class then addressed dominating at the end of the takedown into side control then arm-triangle and Americana submissions. Specific sparring was then divided up into wrestling and submission fighting from side control.

Private Lesson

Today’s lesson addressed transitioning from two standing levels again. My two clients are cross-training kali, boxing, muay Thai and MMA to gain attributes for self-defence. We warmed up with a two-stick drill that actively engaged the legs to attack high and low. Many Southeast Asian martial arts have a cultural background of fighting in jungles and thick undergrowth with knives and sticks. They can provide good attributes for not only coordinating improvised weapons, but fighting around objects. It is easy to forget in the sterile environment of a gym that obstacles are highly likely to become a part of a real-life assault and training should accommodate this likelihood.

We then transferred this to the high and low jab. This then changed to the high jab/double leg takedown. Next we moved onto the sprawl/knee, again looking at changing levels of attack/counter-attach. I incorporated a bench to step up and knee in order to overload this action and get a good extension on the strike. The lesson finished with covering and lowline attacks, bringing training back to the self-defence line.

Points to consider tonight were the muscle groups that were engaged and their correct sequence. This all began with the low stick attacks and carried on over to the high/low jab and high jab/double leg. After this the same muscles were engaged again, but the action when from low to mid, sprawl/knee.