Newton's Third Law: Triple Bill (diary entry)

11.04.13

General Lesson

At the request of the class, we went through the finer details of two basic areas: the fence and a highline takedown. During our fence-work, we looked at the importance of minimizing delay for pre-emptive attacks and improving impact on the actual strikes. There are clearly big issues regarding teaching, learning and using the fence in the martial arts world. It is a simple and very natural concept adopted largely by individuals who have learnt to fight through experience. The concept has been articulated in professional circles over the decades and has been known as "the interview" and many martial arts systems that have their roots in civilian self-protection claim transferable principles. It wasn’t until the early ‘90s that it started to make the move into mainstream martial arts training, especially the emergeance of the “Reality-Based Self-Defence” subculture. Nevertheless, it often seems quite an alien concept for a person to learn. My experiences are convincing me that I should write an article on the matter, addressing common flaws encountered by both instructors and students.

Decision-making needs to be eliminated when it comes to striking first. Your decision is automatically made for you once a threat crosses the designated line or barrier you have created. Like a crocodilian we train to condition ourselves to attack at this stage without hesitation.

Next we looked at developing the straight and hooking hand strikes. Because we select the open hand over a fist for these shots, especially when aimed at the head, a common error is start slapping the flat surface of a focus-mitt rather than drive into the target as you would with a regular punch. We looked at body movement, mechanics and the nature of impact to correct this error. Furthermore, we ensured that the first shot was at least as hard as the successive strikes off the same hand.  

The side headlock is a technique found in many forms of grappling. Submission grappling has largely excluded it due to the exposure it gives to the back. Even very effective judo scarf-hold is adjusted in Brazilian jiu jitsu and submission grappling to a version that uses an underhook instead of a head-lock. However, the danger of not training a very primal and natural movement is that you become ill-prepared for it. I speak from experience having been caught in a solid judo scarf-hold on more than one occasion and finding that escaping it was not as easy as one might think. Furthermore, the primal version of this hold used by streetfighters is often accompanied by a barrage of shovel hooks to the face, something not permitted in grappling-only sports. Therefore, I feel it is my responsibility to teach this technique early on in a student’s self-defence education. We used the classic Greco-Roman/catch wrestling position, and then took it into a basic takedown.

The lesson finished with some MMA sparring and warm-down with some shadow boxing.

Private Lesson 1

My client had an injured knee, making ground work and takedowns troublesome. So, we worked around it by concentrating on the stand-up and a small amount of clinch-work. We warmed up with some footwork exercises and then some boxing on the focus mitts. I used some proactive flash-pad drills before moving onto the Thai pads to bring in all striking tools.

We then looked at series of combinations that promoted better coordination and reaction speed. We began with a typical muay Thai combination, jab/rear round kick/lead round kick/cross. Here we looked at speed, the jab setting the pace and setting up the rear kick. A skipping motion typically comes into play in order to shift the lead leg forward, which then sets up the cross. All strikes rely on a strong and explosive movement from the core, so we looked at the pulling action that helps generate that momentum after working on the next combination.

This combination is more closely closely associated with American or Japanese kickboxing, using the same side punch/kick combinations. This is a good exercise to focus on the hand-to-foot coordination. We began with jab/lead leg front kick. In order to minimize the delay between the two techniques I reduced the front kick to a straight knee. Then we overloaded the retraction of the jab using a resistance band. This encouraged my client to take better advantage of Newton’s Third Law of Motion, using the pulling force of the withdrawing fist to drive the kick forward.

Next we isolated the rear leg round kick and used the resistance band on the arm that is used to generate momentum.The round kick then set up an overhand right. The full combination was jab/lead front kick/rear round kick/overhead right. Having used punches to set the pace for kicks, it was time to have a look at using kicks to close down distance for punches. We used the lead leg roundkick/cross/jab/rear leg roundkick combination.

This work was then brought back into some freestyle flashpad work with feedback. Then we did some grip fighting before overlapping with the next private lesson. One client’s warm-down became another’s warm-up, meeting in the middle over the level of intensity.      

Private Lesson 2

The warm-up introduced the new client to the nature of exercises I promote through CCMA. Terms like “functional fitness” and “sport specific” are becoming unpopular in the higher end of coaching. It is an understandable reaction to the way both terms have become over-used. However, I feel there is a strong need to make a distinction between exercises that have a direct purpose connected to the actual sport or activity and those that are seemingly chosen to just get a sweat on. As my article, “The Hierarchy of Training” and its three follow-ups, demonstrate I am not in favour of wasting time when it comes to training. I want to be doing things that are either helping to reinforce certain behaviours attached to martial arts/self-protection or at least help train the correct muscle groups in the right direction. So, for example, we began the session with a series of agility exercises designed to promote better footwork, ground movement, balancing and also involved certain techniques. This involved using markers and sports benches.

We then did some boxing on the focus mitts followed by work on the Thai pads. The client had a background in muay Thai, so I used this as a base. We followed a simple MMA sequence, using the jab to set up the initial attack. This attack took the form of a double-leg takedown, which we broke down and worked through before putting it into the combination.

In MMA there is not a big concern in landing in someone’s guard. Unlike submission grappling, the fighter is free to strike and the person in the guard guard has gravity on his side. Taking this onboard we looked at the best way to stack an opponent. This took the form standing in the guard and striking. We then went through this whole sequence using focus mitts.

The technical session was finished looking at it from the person holding the guard’s point of view. Here we covered defending the strikes, breaking the posture and setting up for an armbar.

The whole lesson finished with a brief introduction to HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) using a 7kg medicine ball:

30 reps woodchoppers

30 reps 1-2-3 side slams

30 reps full body attack

30 reps full guard defence

30 reps slams  

30 reps shoulder bridging