17.05.14
I was happy to see the return of a regular private student. He has a background in several martial arts, mainly specializing in western boxing and especially judo. He is also a school teacher and a jazz piano teacher. I take all of these factors on board when I train someone, but most of all I try to shape their training in the accordance with my client’s personality and personal fitness. My CCMA approach places the individual at the centre of training as opposed to any system or style.
He was keen to look at the fundamental elements behind my cross-training methods, starting with boxing and muay Thai. We looked at body movement, addressing the importance of footwork. Coordinating efficient movement to cut off an opponent using angulation or to follow up on a punch by moving forward at the right are vital body mechanics to execute good technique. As mentioned in many other diary entries, my aim is to teach behaviours rather than techniques and to get students to immediately work from the inside rather try to immediately model themselves on what they think they see. By getting the feet to move and stand correctly the rest of the body has a strong foundation to work.
These movements led onto us working on transitioning when combining techniques. We looked at switching levels, stepping offline and advancing. Outward expressions for switching levels included high/low jab for boxing and high jab/double leg takedown for MMA later. Stepping offline was exemplified by slip/jab/overhand right or left and jab/cross/hook for boxing, and jab/round kick and front kick/round kick for muay Thai. We looked at the pendulum or Newton’s Cradle footwork for generate force off a forward lead leg technique whether it was a jab or a front kick. We then revised speeding up transitions between hand and leg techniques.
In grappling we began with grip fighting. This immediately permitted me to pick up on errors in my client’s performance. I then reduced pressure with a degree of guidance to allow him to adapt his grips from judo. This is an exciting time for discovery for a cross-trainer who learns what can cross-over from one sport to another, what cannot and what will need adjusting. We then moved onto low line takedowns, covering the double leg and single leg takedowns. We finished the physical section by working the Kimura arm-lock from different positions. Then, on my client’s request, we covered the triangle choke.
We discussed teaching methods again and I linked Ron Goin’s excellent article that uses jazz and classical music as analogies for traditional and progressive martial arts. Being a jazz musician, my client was able to relate to the more personal expression found in jazz that is not far off the approach I take with my training. Interestingly he enjoys a good degree of structure too, which is not something I am totally opposed. I have a willingness to dip in and out of different teaching methods as best suits the student or a specific problem. However, my personal bias is to try to get a student to find their own unique direction in training. The new 10 part programmes in self-protection and cross-training approach allows for both a degree of structure and creative development.
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