Tightening up Techniques (diary entry)

27.02.19 My second lesson of the day was my regular evening double class with the nephew and uncle team. Both lessons went back over the previous lessons’ work and looked at tightening everything up. The junior class continued the nephew’s course on Muay Thai. The senior class continued to look at effective MMA tactics on the ground. The Muay Thai class began with mirror footwork. We exchanged one-for-one teeps and then round kicks. Then we went through the basic combinations bringing in knees and elbows as well as Dracula guard when needed. I focused a lot on maintaining balance, keeping technique fluid and correct uses of the guard. Moving into the clinch range we revised diagonal knees and round knees into a foot sweep. Here we spent a lot of time looking at the rhythm of the round knee and its relationship to the foot sweep. I paid particular attention to manipulating the head to break an opponent’s posture for this particular technique. The ground fighting lesson began standing up. However, we dispensed with the stick and knife training we have been doing for the past month. Instead we went straight to empty hand diagonal strikes, focusing mainly on angles one and two. These were worked on the pads and then combined with a simple jab/cross. Next the trap/grip-break was brought into the flow. This trap/grip-break was then brought back into the ground work. On the ground we went back over the scissor sweep and the pendulum sweep. The lesson finished with working a series of angled strikes in guard, attacking the cover and breaking grips whilst simultaneously striking.