04.12.19 Wednesday evening consisted of attacking with and escaping the North-South pin for my junior client and MMA training with senior client where we expanded upon clinching against the cage as well as guard-work on the ground. We warmed up with various ground callisthenics such as crawls and snaking. Then we went straight into the North-South position and looked at its function when transitioning from scarf-hold. My junior client covered the Kimura from here as well as the reverse triangle and the reverse snake-choke. We then covered escaping. This involves bridging through and trapping a leg in one motion, moving into a sweep. Both attack and defence re-emphasised the importance of good body mechanics in the basic movement drills. That seems like a trite thing to say, but much lighter clients and particularly junior client are particularly at exposing areas that can be easily muddled past by heavier adults. Positioning on the reverse arm-triangle is crucial in order for the choke to work. Otherwise you are completely relying on compression to the face which can be withstood quite easily by a half-serious opponent. Likewise, without getting a full extension on the upa movement, retaining the structure into the turtle position and timing it with the leg grab it will have little effect against the opponent who is doing the North-South pinning. Senior training began with a warm-up of mirror footwork and pad-work. My client drilled boxing combinations into takedowns and defences against kicks. Then we brought in the belly pad to layer in teeps and spear knees. Next I brought in the Thai pads to cover the entire stand-up and clinch game. We then trained Dirty Boxing against the cage. We drilled both over-hook and under-hook dominance, bringing in both shovel hooks and overhands as well as turning the opponent. We also covered dropping the hip lower than the opponent’s for maximum control. Going to the ground I covered the defence guard and the rubber guard. We did some simple drilling and also looked at the gogoplata choke. The lesson finished with two rounds of MMA sparring.
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