Sitting out part 1 (diary entry)

13.08.12

Today we looked at the sit-through and its integration into submission and mixed martial arts fighting. This movement, which has been popularized through wrestling, Brazilian jiu jitsu and submission grappling, has found its way into functional fitness and outside the fight world. YouTube now has an abundance of videos showing various trainers incorporating the sit-through into their bodyweight-only exercise routines.

When broken down, the sit-through works as a variation of the plank, but also engages the legs a lot more. You begin in a kneeling “turtle” position, step out with one leg and then step through with the other, turning you upside-down (stomach up), before turning back to the original position facing the opposite direction. The move is best used as an escape, providing access to your opponent’s back. It is often used as a counter to a counter. You go in for a lowline takedown, your opponent sprawls and puts pressure on your back; you sit-through and take the back. We drilled this whole procedure and then incorporated it into some pad-work.

It was at this stage that I was impressed with a couple of students taking the initiative. I promote a self-coaching approach to training. There is nothing better than to see a student understanding a concept, addressing a problem and creating their own effective solution. This demonstrates the whole essence of taking charge. The passive teaching model is the easiest and yet least productive in my mind. Tonight I witnessed one student noticing that his fellow classmate was not responding fast enough to the sprawl counter. This is vital for the sit-through to work. Even when I was demonstration the manoeuvre I had to get the student I was working with to slow down in order for me to show the correct technique. You have to sit through fast if your opponent intends to take the back. This is especially true when you have just drilled students in taking the back from the sprawl, which was the case with tonight’s lesson. In order to prompt a faster response the student told his classmate to sit-through the moment he felt his back being touched. He wasn’t even sprawling, just tagging his back after his classmate went in for the lowline takedown. The lesson finished with some specific sparring starting from the sprawl/turtle.

Private Lesson

This was the first private lesson for this particular client. The objective was to introduce him to mixed martial arts based a short period of experience muay Thai. I take an individualized approach, so I like to build on what a person already knows. We began on the focus mitts, moving on the Thai pads. Next I brought in striking from different basic postures – standing, kneeling, seated and on the back – without teaching any specific position. These were thrown in with an intensive one minute round of pad-work. I do this to get the student to better appreciate the feel of combat and the conditions I expect him to be able to deliver the strategies, tactics and techniques I will be teaching.

We then moved onto the Thai clinch and used that as an introduction to the MMA clinch range. The Thai clinch is typically limited to neck wrestling and some arm control. I brought in the wrestling underhooks and arm-drag, moving on to taking the back. We then looked at basic takedown defence, including sprawling. The session finished with another round of intensive pad-work, this time with revision over some of the grappling and anti-grappling work covered.

We then had a discussion about functional fitness to help sharpen and improve the various techniques taught tonight.