Not Pulling your Leg (diary entry)

10.08.16   The first private class of tonight was my client’s seventeenth lesson from his second course on Mixed Martial Arts for Martial Arts Cross Training. We are currently focusing on rolling attacks and also looked at kick-catch counters. In short, we were more leg-grabbing focused than a frustrated Jack Russell or his embarrassed owner.   The class began with a series of mobility and muscle activation exercises. This began with reverse Indian press-ups, which place more pressure on the abdominal muscles and takes pressure off the spine. I am still a fan of standard Indian press-ups so long as you are not experiencing any pain in the lower spine and specifically sciatica. We then changed to Indian squats to open up the hips. This was followed by typewriter press-ups and then Cossack squats. The warm-up section was finished with single shoulder rolls, side rolls and forward rolls. Here we examined faster turning action and retaining a strong, balanced posture at the completion of the technique.   Tonight we looked at the rolling knee bar from turtle position. Setting up for this technique we looked at how to ensnare the attacker’s leg. Next we moved onto going into the single shoulder or side shoulder roll in order to get the full movement. Once we arrived in this position we looked at dealing with possible counters, including the use of the figure-of-four ankle lock.   Stand-up training looked at countering kick-catching. Since the ground area had been so focused on grabbing the leg, we thought we’d look at it from the other side when it came to Muay Thai. Here we did some very simple drills, designed to promote strong muscle memories. We drilled the cross and also the rip out into a round knee strike.   Knee-bar picture from DSTRYRsg