MMA Body Punching & Cumulative Sparring (diary entry)

07.07.2022 The second lesson in my client's seven lesson course focused on punching techniques in mixed martial arts. My client has also asked for an extra emphasis on conditioning within the context of the sport. Tonight we worked on a series of level-change drills, taking advantage of MMA's unique ranges, and then trained using cumulative series of specific sparring rounds. When punching in Mixed Martial Arts it is important to consider the challenges and opportunities offered by the sport's rules. Firstly, Mixed Martial Arts gloves potentially offer some similar conditions to bare-knuckle boxing. Guards need to be wider and even more mobile than they are in gloved boxing or kickboxing. The gloves also offer more opportunities to trap and you are permitted to actively grip an opponent's guard. With a greater number of weapons to be wary of, body shots can be more tricky to score. To add to this, the punishment for being blocked when trying to throw a punch to the body can be a naked elbow point to your far less protected hands. However, there are ways to circumvent these problems. One very controversial punch is the downward angled jab and rear hand straight. This is the technique you emphatically try to un-teach new students due to the way it exposes the face whilst in range. When you punch to the body without switching levels, you invite punches to the head. The technique immediately puts a fighter in the firing line and dangerously in the proverbial pocket. For the most part, body shots of any description should be thrown when a fighter changes levels. Even then this can be dangerous and should always be coupled with either tactical clinching or circling out footwork. We brought in a series of live sparring drills inspired by Martin "50 Cal" Stapleton of Full Contact Performance Centre in a video he filmed for the Warrior Collective and reproduced on Stuart Tomlinson's excellent channel.  The live drills involve one fighter to switch between three levels - high, mid and lowe. Once this pattern is established he then uses the levels to set up angled body shots. The first of these is the controversial downward angled straights. The second was the shovel hooks set up by shooting low i.e. tapping the knee of the opponent. With one side actively blocking, slipping, evading, using footwork and switching levels to defend, this live drill is great way to help develop effective feints and create false patterns in opponents. We then engaged in 6 x 3 minute rounds of cumulative sparring wearing MMA protective wear. These rounds were inspired by MMA Shredded's Jeff Chan.  Round 1 - MMA Boxing - Restricted to punching, with a liberal use of trapping, we fought to land and defend punches in MMA sparring gloves. Round 2 - MMA Shoot Boxing  - The same boxing conditions with added clinching/wrestling permitted. Round 2 - MMA Kickboxing - The same boxing conditions with only kicks added on. Round 3 - MMA Shoot-Kickboxing - The kickboxing conditions with the previous clinching conditions added into the mix. Round 4 - MMA Ground 'n Pound - Asymmetrical sparring with one fighter either trying to land shots or pass his opponent's guard and the other trying to escape, sweep or submit. Round 5 - MMA Ground 'n Pound - As above with the fighters switching roles. Round 6 - MMA Sparring - All ranges permitted. The lesson was then finished with a full static stretching flow routine. https://clubbchimera.com/services/