Mobility Training & Rolling Attack Deconstructions (diary entry)

03.08.16

Tonight’s private class was my client’s sixteenth lesson in his second course on Mixed Martial Arts for Martial Arts Cross Training. It became part one of a deconstruction of rolling attacks previously covered in the last lesson. After doing a series of mobility exercises, including alligator rolls, quadruped back circles and into the upward dog position before advancing onto repetitions of Indian press-ups and Indian squats we looked at the shoulder roll. This move is central to the attacks we have been covering from the turtle position. I was interested in getting my client to explode into the roll and then recover balance in the shortest time possible. The roll must be a fluid and tight action in order for the submission positions to be achieved. We then moved onto the rolling arm triangle. Here we looked at the detail of maintaining the weight low on your opponent’s back, initially trapping the far side arm and then establishing the seatbelt hold from this position. From here it is essential to get the momentum right to complete the full roll and secure the arm triangle. I advise getting into side control as soon as the roll had landed. Next we looked at the rolling arm-bar. Here we moved the trapped arm and put in a single hook in one motion. We then looked at the detail of switching the grip on the trapped arm into a Kimura grip. This was followed by bringing over the second leg, setting up for the roll. As the roll landed I encouraged my client push his legs to break any form of postural resistance offered by the opponent in order to complete the arm-bar. The lesson was finished with some high intensity MMA focus mitt work, going through all the ranges.