23.09.18
The second seminar of the day hosted by Kajuen ryu Ju Jutsu focused on martial arts cross training. There was no way I was going to get through everything and sadly we didn’t get to do as much sparring/pressure-testing coaching as I would have liked, but this was easily offset by the enthusiastic students in attendance. Once again, they were a credit to Peter Jones and also the now maturing subculture of progressive traditional martial artists that take a more practical approach to training. It was also great to not have to explain some basic fundamentals, such as the use of a referencing hand as standard, pre-emptive striking and proactive covering to regain the initiative.
The seminar’s objective was to make distinctions between combat dynamics, explore the useful over-lap between counter-assault training and combat sport training, to focus on transitioning and grapple-striking.
We began with a proactive, time-managed form of warm-up – sparring from cold. Here partners begin at a low intensity of give and take freestyle drilling. This builds up intensity until it becomes light/resistant sparring. The dynamic is shook up with two-on-one sparring, which takes this training into self-defence/counter-assault territory. All of this progressive sparring is trained through a series of different restrictions – striking-only, grappling-only, ground only and asymmetrical ground-fighting.
We then brought this back to looking at improving postures and transitions. Rather than focus on ranges or stances, I spread the metaphorical net wider to look at generic yet functional postures. The four postures are standing, kneeling, sitting and on the back. Each of these has degrees of flexibility for modification whilst being tested for their defence, ability to attack and to move. This is done be isolating them, training them as shadow exercises and then on the focus mitts. After training these postures in isolation we trained and tested their combative links or transitions. Eventually these were all put together. The same process was taken with the combat sports application using the standard boxing four punch combinations for all four postures and three transitions. We then layered in the cover, ensuring it was executed as a counter-offensive tool rather a negative-defensive one, before finally throwing in random isolation training. This process promoted consistent combative movement and tested weaknesses in transitioning.
The final section of the day brought us onto my recent exploration of dirty boxing/grapple-striking. Inspiration was drawn from counter-offensive fighting, Western Boxing past and present, Muay Thai and Wrestling. We covered the relationship between the pawing jab and the fence, the slap-down parry and limb clearance, the circling jab and the cover, and the clinch in general. When in the clinch we looked at hip control and head movement whilst using effective inside striking.
Sadly there was only time for a brief round-up and discussion, but I would have liked to explore my Feedback Loop Training. Perhaps we can do that on another day if there is enough interest.
The seminar was a great experience. Not only did I get a chance to share my ideas and training methods with keen martial artists in a friendly atmosphere but two of my regular private clients were able to work within a class environment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my kind and professional host, Peter Jones of the Kajuen Ryu Ju Jutsu School in Worcester.
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