Striking from Grappling Positions Part 3 (diary entry)

Image by icantcu via Flickr

12.12.11:

it's our final lesson of the year. So although I didn't want to break with the programme we have been following over the last two weeks, today's session was less technique or even tactic focused and inflused with plenty of "games".

We warmed up with the usual specific movements and shadow boxing from all ranges, and then went straight into some competitive exercises. This included a couple of chase-orientated games. Then we went straight back into our current theme - striking from grappling positions. I think this is so important within MMA - in fact, I think it is a defining tactical feature of the sport - that it will continue in the New Year. Having looked at the top position from the ground we looked at the bottom position tonight. This began with some asymmetrical ground fighting. Using 30% resistant specific sparring the person on the ground looked at various positions to fight from on the ground, using kicks in conjunction with takedowns against a standing opponent. Usually the person on the ground is trained to get to their feet as quickly as possible. This is of utmost imporance for self-defence due the dangerous nature of being on the ground. However, even in MMA the person on the ground is rarely in a great position. Modern developments and rules mean that if the person on the ground doesn't somehow get the standing opponent to engage in the guard or they somehow sweep him, the fight reaches something of an awkwards stalemate. Although kicks can be delivered with strong efficiency it is rare to see a fight being stopped by the grounded person in this manner. The Renzo Gracie kick to the jaw is the only example that currently leaps to mind. It is very rare. Nevertheless, by restricting the grounded person they got an opportunity to explore what options they did have from the ground facing a standing adversary.

We moved onto symmetrical ground fighting. Here we looked at the cutting edge ideas of striking from the guard. As I have mentioned before, many gyms just simply ignore this concept. Striking upwards from a ground position is a very restricted thing to do and areas like the kidneys are off limits to axe kicks in all mainstream competition. Royce Gracie, of course, used this technique to great effect in the early UFCs. However, we can get some leverage and strikes can still be utilized from the guard. With the hips being very free, we have a good degree of movement and provided the person underneath has a good degree of control there is a lot of damage he can still do with strikes. The Keysi Fighting Method's MMA programme instroduces some nice ideas from the scissor guard, which we explored. The position allows for knee strikes to the ribs and arms, and horizontal axe kicks to the backs of the legs. We first isolated the scissor guard and worked on some basic sweeps. Then we used the 30% specific sparring rule.

Then everyone did three two minute rounds of MMA sparring before the final section of the evening - guard passing with me!

Sparring with students is a debatable area and I never fully satisfied with the conclusions. I have seen some clubs that use it like a primitive alpha male method to ensure the teacher remains in charge. Whereas at the other end of the argument, I have seen clubs where the instructor avoids all hands on contact and never gets a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of his teaching. Spar with your students and might take away focus from the rest of the class. This can be a serious health and safety issue. Come the worse case scenario - where were you Mr. Clubb when the accident occurred? I was sparring with a student. So the lesson was unsupervised? It doesn't sound good, especially if you are teaching minors. Of course, the answer to this to make sure a responsible, experienced, qualified and insured coach is alway watching the class - with a good coach to student ratio. However, this can often be unrealistic. My club on Monday is a smallish single class. I rely a lot on trusted parents and insured/CRB-checked volunteers, and sometimes have qualified coaches in attendance.

So, as a change of pace and for a bit of fun the rest of the class watched on as each student attempted to pass my guard. They were allowed to go full-on. Striking was encouraged. I was restricted to grappling only and obviously I went at a very controlled level. I was very impressed with the vigor most of the students took in having an opportunity to batter their coach before Christmas! 

The lesson finished with some shadow-boxing, high-intensity specific exercises and some static stretches. We also did a soft skills revision test.