Vagabond Warriors Taster Session (diary entry)

In the lead up to Vagabond Warriors 2.0 I decided to run a taster session at Kyushinkai Martial Arts Centre. The class I ran mainly consisted of MMAstudents, but there was some interest from the traditional karate. An aspect I love about Kyushinkai is that despite the fact that it has its many different lessons run by different instructors, there is a real spirit of integration going on. Everyone feels a part of the club and universal respect is shown for the different disciplines. It’s a perfect base for Vagabond Warriors and I feel very fortunate to have Sam Stewart, the centre’s founder and chief instructor, along with his dedicated instructors, Scott Stewart, Nick Bennett, Diana Vincet and Zoe Nelson, backing me on this venture.

We began the session with some shadow boxing, emphasizing visualization and increasing intensity. This was done from various ranges and constituted the whole warm-up. The argument being put across, if you are going to warm-up solo then why not do exercises that are relevant. Once this aspect was covered it was time to look at the issue at hand. We want to be better fighters. The best way to learn how to fight is to fight. We learn from the fighting experience in so many ways. What is being taught in a martial arts lesson is based off conclusions taken from fighting experiences, so why not create an activity that immediately allows the student to experience that?

Strategy One versus Strategy Two is a pressure test that typically places an individual against another who is wearing a head cage. The individual in the head cage (S2) is restricted to grappling and capturing techniques; the other individual (S1) is restricted evasion, pushing, striking and anti-grappling tactics. However, in this instance we looked at it from a combat sport/MMA perspective. S1 wears boxing gloves in this instance and S2 doesn’t wear any protective equipment aside from a gum shield and groin guard. The dynamic changes to a certain degree; it is still more intense than a standard sparring match, but both combatants engage more. Nevertheless, the exercise shares a similarity with the self-defence version, the participants are quarrying techniques.

For the purpose of today’s taster session we were looking at hand strikes. Once students had decided which strike they were using most to fend off a grappler we then brought it into some focus mitt work. This took the form of the proactive pad drills. They were divided up into flash pads, defence only pad-work and the proactive focus-mitt work. The end result was to have a type of focus mitt work that came as close to sparring as possible and, in theory, should sharpen up sparring. The coach thinks actively and by the third exercise should be offering a student a target whilst simultaneously looking for a weakness in their defence. With no vocal commands, the student just responds to the visual and physical stimuli, striking because he has to and defending as a natural response. This was done at all ranges and the student mirrored the coach’s movements.

After the pad-work we tested its efficiency in boxing sparring. This is all part of the attribute training. Although boxing has its restrictions, the students now explore another territory and find attributes. This was executed with a difference; the sparring took place at all ranges – standing, in combat base, butterfly guard and closed guard.

The session finished with a look at functional fitness with resistance bands and then some 360 coaching. The latter is when two coaches hold focus mitts for one student, as he works on a single technique. By have a coach at the front and the back any weaknesses in defence are spotted and dealt with.

The session was a success, and I was flattered by the enthusiasm of the students. Many said they were leaving with plenty to think about and I look forward to seeing them, and anyone else interested on 25th February 2012.

Videos of the taster session showing some of these exercises can be viewed here.

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