Putting the Guard Under Pressure: An MMA Personal Training Lesson
- jamie03066
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
18.11.2025
My final class of the evening was my client's eighth lesson on this particular MMA Personal Training course. These lessons are 1.5 hours in length rather than the usual one, making a total course time of 15 hours, which better suits my more advanced clients. We are currently training ground 'n pound aka MMA's ground-fighting game. Having pretty much covered all the major positions, we decided to work through a selection of guard defences. The class was made up the following rounds.
MMA Personal Training: Free-Sparring
After our usual dynamic stretch and muscle activation warm-up I decided to turn the lesson around by having the full free-sparring at the beginning. We sparred for the full five minutes, working through all three ranges plus the wall in a light, fluid manner.
MMA Personal Training: Specific Sparring
The following were 3-minute rounds looking at attacks and defences from various guard positions.
1-2: Fight to stand up top position versus move off the wall bottom position. This was something of an experiment that we both agreed wasn't the greatest of games as it gives the top position way too much of an advantage. It is extremely hard to move away from the wall whilst trying to stop someone from standing up. Still, it was a good intensive and fast-paced test for the bottom position.
3-4: Both fighters fight stand-up against the wall. Both top and bottom positions fight to stand up. The bottom position is against the wall. This was agreed upon as a possible improvement on the previous sparring game.
5-6: Asymmetrical ground-fighting. Here one fighter's objective is to get to their feet whilst the other tries to land five uninterrupted head shots or pass guard.
7-8: One fighter is restricted to trying to land five uninterrupted punches whilst the other tries to get a submission position.
Next lesson we will probably look to expand upon some of the game ideas here to better teach effective tactics in guard under MMA conditions.
The lesson finished with a dynamic, static and PNF stretching warm-down.
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