Takedown and Submit (diary entry)

07.11.2018   Tonight’s junior boxing lesson focused on moving in and out of the fight zone. Previous lessons have promoted footwork with upper body mobility, but we haven’t done a lot of work on tactics. This time I looked at a hit and run strategy for shorter fighters. We looked at slipping past linear punches and then moving out of the striking range only to come back in again from another angle. Forwards and backwards footwork, v-steps and circling were all utilised within their strategy.   Training was broken up into specific sparring, pad-work and shadow boxing.   The senior lesson moved my client’s training onto grappling. The previous three lessons were concerned with finding common ground between Muay Thai and Western Boxing. Tonight was a far easier blend of stand-up wrestling and submission grappling, which essentially resembles catch-as-catch-can wrestling. We began with mirror footwork, collar-tie bulling and over-hook/under-hook pummelling, moving into takedown entries, pin transitioning, turtle/guard switching and submission entries.   We then focused on two takedowns into submission finishers. First we covered the large outer reaping throw into an arm triangle or snake choke variation. Then we covered a rear waistlock takedown into Eddie Bravo’s Twister.   The lesson finished with a five minute round of grappling, starting from a standing position permitting both takedowns and submissions.