Week 65: the evolution of MMA

Clinch grappling with strikes
Clinch looking for single leg capture
Clinch with striking looking for the takedown with Lee

Lee's talk about the evolution of MMA from strong style base to strikers to several style components to MMA to the future which maybe be rule breaking in terms of fighting conventions. This was as. A reaction to UFC on FOX whe BJ Penn got mauled by Rory McDonald and Nate Diaz got taught a 5 round lesson by Benson Henderson. Both winners are strong in all areas of MMA and don't come from a traditional martial arts base or core system. They are the future for the next few years. Very impressive to see how the sport is evolving. These are serious professional athletes and thanks the Gods the days of Tank Abbott, Orlando Weit and Mark Coleman are long gone.

Closed eye grappling with Milzy, closed eye grappling with striking eye Craig,

Nate Diaz role play: heavy front foot and long stance attacking with the Stockton slap. The other fighter was moving around, angling away and attacking. I found playing the role of the Diaz style very hard as it was so fixed and prescriptive. It was easily found out last weekend by a top level fighter and strategist.

Stand up rounds with Joe- tips plus rule breaking v regular. Joe gave me some excellent tips with my stand up skills which are 'developing'. When the weight goes on the back foot attack with the front front, use the feet and long step to attack with the hands (in and out), sharper and snappier attacks. Some good pics on Facebook and some prices less tips internalised.

Free form grappling with Milzy: "hit me as hard as you can, I won't hit you too hard". So a black eye later and lots of ineffective attacks on said Iranian it was over. In all seriousness Milzy said the point was too feel the depletion through heavy striking and how quickly the body can knacker.

Conditioning- mat walks and slams, plank superman, heavy bag striking, tenacity drill. Vids on YouTube of the pain and suffering at the end of a tough session.

Week 64: sparring, sparring and sparring

Tonight was lots of rounds of sparring and all captured and uploaded to my youtube channel.

Stand up rounds, grappling rounds and free form ground rounds.

Splendid fun

Week 63: MMA striking (away the fears)

The club website and thus calendar had been down for a week or two so I had no idea what was on the menu tonight until Craig turned up and sarcastically informed me that it was my favourite; stand up. Last week I talk about my fears and insecurities about the stand up and tonight was a real breakthrough for me.

Warm up on a chilly night from Milzy.

Drill 1 was 3 rounds of striking from bottom control, no submissions but submission set ups allowed. In top position I made it my duty to use the head as a third limb and felt this opened some opportunities to strike. Enjoyed the leather of Craig, Ivan and Ptas.

3 jabs and one kick, then with the kick as part of the final punch motion, Straight v circular striking techniques, free form striking rounds, strength and conditioning (matt punches from your back, matt spins, matt static holds - 3 rounds, extra grappling sparring with Ptas.

Edited highlights on the following link: 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NTx4V5RfnI4

In the first sparring round I went with Craig who was characteristically aggressive and heavy handed and then at some point during this I had a realisation, a moment of clarity. That of it doesn't matter, whatever it is. I became more mentally relaxed and confident, less scared if you will. Not better at sparring but carrying less emotional baggage. So it only takes 63 lessons or roughly 140 hours of matt time to control the mental panic and woe. Before sparring with Mischel I got the usual dread as his techniques are circular, fast and accurate. Physically I was rubbish but mentally focused and calm therefore proud of my mental progress. I must also thank him for my limp and swollen quad for the knee he landed there. Been walking round school very street today with my limp. Rare for me to be injured on the meat of the muscle towards the inner part of the leg, normally the outside is banged up. 

I have watched the video from last night several times already and am grateful to have the chance to see myself in action and give myself tips to improve. Tip one is the hands. The punches have to have more meaning in them, far to pitter patter and not enough depth. Good to see most others doing what i should be. Tip 2 get the kicks out, retract faster and tip 3 is more lateral movement in attack and defence. This is the beauty of video, you see things hat in the moment you are unaware off as it is you and him and nothing else matters. Cue Metallica circa 1992. Hopefully now that one obstacle has been overcome I can start to be more confident physically standing up. A real milestone for me tonight.

Postscript: this club is a team who nurture. Mishel commented after class at how every MMA club he has trained at it is always about the individual or, in my experience, the favourite students. No so at Promai. All are equal and there truly is no room, need or acceptance of ego. Long may it continue.

Week 62: creativity through experiment and failure

Take down and pin to back from knees. Very good fun and gets the heart rate up very quickly. I was looking to use the arm drag and elbow control to secure position and dominance and that worked for a few rounds then I went with Lee. Straight away his posture was bigger and more dominant which put me on the back foot immediately. He also employed a variety of paces and fast messy fakes to draw motion and reaction.

The main part of the class was experimenting with creativity and failure. In my proper job I am a teacher and this is something I strive for my students to experience primarily in learning. I try to use this as a way to deliver content and curriculum. I want to build the confidence to fail and learn, to build resilience and creativity, to ask more questions than you can answer. Then true high quality learning can take place. But fear of failure and criticism of self by others is a great obstacle to people in my profession reaching their potential. I see too many people, adults, who seem to know it all already, who have an answer, who want to talk but do not want to listen. This parallels my experience in martial arts. Fear of loosing students, face or control lead to stagnation and denial. How many pictures have you seen in martial arts mags of 7th dan masters who can't see their toes for their fat belly? Who have not tested their great wisdom against an uncooperative opponent in sparring? What message is this portraying other than bullshit? I guess it is because people want to belong to a team, a group or a community and then spend the rest of their existence supporting said institution. No matter how culty and ridiculous their methods and message are.

Thankfully the creators, I should say innovators, at PROMAI are forward looking and constantly evolving.  Perhaps this is the true essence of the idea, not the style, that was labelled as Jeet Kune Do. Absorb what is useful and reject what is not. Shame it became a style but the idea still rings true 50 years on: explore, investigate, create, test, refine. And definitely not follow blindly, stagnate or kowtow down to the martial deity.

And so the ideas we explored tonight were on pieces of paper that were randomly shuffled and turned over. Some were completely alien as technique partners and others felt more comfortable and known.  That was the whole point; go slow and explore and experience lots of failure. At least then you will have a greater understanding of why something does and does not apply to certain conditions.

Side kick and side control
Bottom control outward strike
Body clinch downward shoulder rotation
Long range inner forearm choke
Neck and wrist control elbow extension

My biggest failing last night was my lack of desire to demonstrate my failure to my class mates. Too busy being concerned about being unknowingly judged on a public platform. Which what I get kids in my class to do all the time and praise for their effort. Will endeavour to attach less importance to this in the future.

Big glove MMA rounds

Small glove sparring ground with Craig. Video is up on YouTube and Facebook dated 22/11/12.
Getting slightly better at striking for submission openings. Not in terms of success but in terms of strike volume. Striking was heavier than last week and beginning to attack other large muscle areas of the body such as the lats, thighs and traps. 

Feel very old for a day or two after every session and only wish I had begun his MMA journey earlier in my life, not because I would be better than I am now but more comfortable with the experience of it all.  But it s the journey and the process that is of prime significance not the destination .

One final note, in post class chatting to Ptas and Arial we discovered how much weight Arial has lost since training at the start of the year. Something remarkable like 40kgs. A tremendous example of what hard work and sweat can do. A tough lesson for many of the lazy bastards who talk about wanting transformation but only if they can sit on their arse watching shite on their big tele. By the way my weakness is my sweet tooth kicking in post 8pm every day. That is a tough demon to control.

Strength and honour.

Week 61: GSP's front leg

Warm up: standing grappling looking for the single leg capture. Nice chance to get the neck and head warmed up by using them as another control limb. Had several rounds and fun with Sami who exchanged more faster paced and level changing work.

With the GSP v Conduit fight this weekend the theme was more off curriculum and a focus on the high quality foundational skills of GSP.

Elbow extension: GSP's first loss was this against Matt Hughes. GSP was looking for a downward shoulder rotation from half guard, Hughes put pressure on the torso, slid his leg out and spun around the head into elbow extension. This was our first drill tonight. This is one of the things I absolutely love about MMA. Everything has a counter and nothing is 100% certain to work. If only other martial arts could embrace this philosophy and honesty then there would be a ton less bullshit in the world.

I used to train with one instructor who when asked, "What happens when the fight goes to the ground?" He simply and arrogantly replied with "I have not taught you right". Clearly implying that his anti grapple-wrestle-rugby tackle methods were bullet proof. Shame he never put them to the test. In addition I used to train in Croydon on Wednesday mornings in the mid 90s (life at uni affords such time freedoms) and the space we used was owned by a huge karate teacher. Over the years his girth began to match his height. I had a casual martial arts chat with him and asked about ground fighting and also confidently said that none of his fights have ever gone there. Now either this guy is a Jedi or never been under pressure. I used to be a massive boxing fan in the 90s and in all boxing matches there is some rudimentary type of stand up grappling to punch from a better position whilst tying up your opponents hands. I guess my mini rant is the baffling nature of traditional martial artists who do not want to look out of their comfort zones yet seem to know better without practical experience.

We then looked using the jab to get in and out with sound footwork. Keep the rear arm tight and the front arm long, relaxed and moving. Feet move first followed by a fast jab then back out again either backwards or angling. As the drill round progressed the added bonus of throwing 2 punches after their jab was used to make sure they were moving their feet and thus torso back to safety. I found this simplest of actions quite hard as my legs were a little slow in retreating. However I did find that angling better suited my body/brain rather than straight back. Practise, practise, practise... This drill was also a good opportunity to be a punch bag and get hit by seeing the punch and trying not to react away or close the eyes.

Double leg takedown using jab footwork. And looked at the 3 types depending on what energy the opponent gives us.

1: the turning and lifting wheel type.

2: the straight drive type by pulling his leg between your legs as we drive with the shoulder. (This is where we spent our time practising).

3: the sweeping type.

Our target as fighters is to be aware of the angle and pressure and disrupt the base of our opponent using these attacks. Indeed there is a myriad of other attacks at this range but I think the point tonight was about what can happen in terms of fundamentals from the front leg.

A quick drill Lee had us then do was a chaining of numbers 1 and 2 in blocks of four. It helped to practise keeping the head in the right position and have them continually off balance. I was working with Ptas who gave excellent feedback; my left hand kept creeping up to the hip from the knee.

Finally we looked at the spinning side kick from the initial jab footwork. Plant and turn the heel to face the opponent and side kick! Turn to far to short then you will miss.

Ended with a really big ground free form with Craig.



Driving home Craig and I had our usual post match press conference. I came to the realisation about my fears on the feet as opposed to the ground. I am scared of stand up as I can't predict what will happen to me when hit; falling down, too much of my body to protect. I prefer fighting on the ground, with heavy contact, to the stand up as I have no where to fall and the targets are usually less. Yet when I watch the video above and see Milzy and Sami or even anyone in the class they all seem nice and relaxed, move fluidly in attack and defence. This is my target; to transfer the confidence on the ground to stand up phase fighting. And this is why I love learning because it is hard, it is a process and a journey. I hope I never get to the destination because what will I do then?

Week 60: MMA rounds

Bear hug clinch warm up

Ground defensive defending

MMA rounds with stare down into free form rounds with key words and breathing

MMA rounds with prescribed tactics at medium pace, agreesive or technical, standing or ground

MMA rounds grappling

Grappling with Ptas

Week 59: the last 10 seconds

Charlie has a fight coming up so the focus has changed slightly as he is more experienced in the fight game. The session tonight was looking at the last 10 seconds of the round with an eye to entertain the crowd and to try do something high risk in terms of success percentage rate. So tonight we look at lower leg submissions.

Ankle extension:

Starting from an open bottom control position, he has one foot one your hip so this is ankle you are going to attack. Wrap the forearm under the calf as you step up to have both feet close to his hips and as you sit your hips go close to your heels. As you lie back squeeze the knees together and allow the forearm to slide down his leg. You should feel the bridge of his foot against your lat or top of the shoulder. Make sure that forearm bone (radius) is nice and tight and the bottom of the calf muscle. Look behind and over yourself to complete the ankle extension.

We then looked at a defence to this and that is as soon as they start to lie back you need to relax the leg, shoot the foot behind him and sit up by pulling on his neck for anchorage. Maintaining the neck control you can pass to the side or either with a crushing knee on belly control.

Calf compression from side control:

Naturally they should have the cross leg defensive position to prevent your attempts to move to top control and then want to slide the knee into your centre to begin escaping from side control. This is the bait. Allow their knee to come inside, as it does insert your forearm around and behind the knee. An overhook rather than an underhook, a tight one. Now for the tough part. Step over and insert your foot between his legs and close to his hips. It is hard because it require swift dexterity. It also means his leg is tightly wrapped. From here use the forearm bone on the outside of his calf for the pain. 2 days later I still have a 50p coin sized bruise on my calf where Neil successfully closed off his submission attempts.
This is a high risk move because it is a pain only submission as not much will break or tear.

Scissor takedown into ankle extension:

From the standing clinch look to perform a hip throw. If he does not defend then complete the throw. However if he defends by straightening his posture attempt the entertaining. From the hip throw your backside should be against his thigh. Drop to the floor and scissor him down, top leg attacking high and front and the lower leg low and behind. Do not let your lower leg hit the floor. From here you can clasp his leg with your knees and perform the ankle extension as outlined earlier on.

Lots of free form rounds starting standing then to the ground if it went there. I worked with Neil, Edgar, Ptas, Ivan and Angel. Angel gave me the dead leg I still have. A rather juicy knee being the bearer of good news.

Ended the session with a few rounds of grappling with Ptas.

Week 58: downward shoulder rotation series

Been excited for a few days before this class as it is ground and sparring, seems like ages since I have been to this type of class.

Double leg shoot and lift: Great warm up drill for practising the correct head and face posture without the danger of being hit.

Side control escape. Nice drill to recover bottom control and get the hips moving. Working with Craig whose side control is getting more fluid and stable.
Side to top to side control to side. Time to be creative with passes from side to top. Tried to use knee on belly and invert side control to control the base to move through the positions. Really tough as soon as they pull half guard you are done and it was their turn

Downward shoulder rotation series

From side control, from bottom control, into elbow extension, hip facing elbow = dsr, hips facing back of the elbow = extension

Free form rounds with Craig, Ivan, Vlad and Milzy.

Conditioning: punches and kicks, bear walks, crab walks, sit up double punch and double elbow.

Week 57: clinch and takedown

Creative warm up led by Joe including some partner body work drills such as piggy back squats, calf raises and torturous squats to jumping knee repetitions.

Head control into inner forearm choke. Worked on this section with Joe who rightly chastised me on my first go as the gap between my torso and his was cavernous. So with head control (primary grip) and with the tricep (secondary grip), feet inside his base I put the wrong arm into the choke. What again Joe pulled me up on was to use the secondary grip to use as the choking arm. I assume as this maintains better control of the opponent. In securing the choke from standing we take a both palms facing the torso grip at the wrists and stack the top forearm over his shoulder and onto his back and move your shoulder, arm under neck side, towards the wrist to close the choke.

Defence against inner forearm choke: first job is to look up and get the spine positive and drive up. Failing that, turn your face towards him. As Lee put it, “Sniff his side”. This releases the neck slightly and will mean he will need to go to option B, details to follow. As the head turns to face him, drop your level and try to take side control and snake the front arm behind his knee. From here you can lift quite effortlessly and spin into a slamming takedown.

Now if you are the attacker and he defends with the above head turn then keep turning with him, release the top hand so that it comes under as if to make an isosceles triangle. Lee made reference to this is how Machida was finished on his feet by Jon Jones earlier this year. I have made reference to this in a previous post as Rogan called this a power guillotine. Getting the elbows together really closes the choke off quickly and painfully.

Small gloves clinch phase fighting. We did this for several rounds. I got Lee last as well as pummelling. His striking and control was simultaneous whereas I was too busy trying to recover a decent posture. The lesson was the striking opens up chances to clinch and control and this to land even more effective strikes. It felt like a constant barrage of knees as my head was being ragged around and punches to keep the body in defensive movement. Finally it was friggin tiring. If your partner selects the tempo and is it is a high work rate then that is mentally very tough as there is no time to settle and get your bearings. I guess this is why fighters such as Nick Diaz, Michael Bisping, Frankie Edgar and Clay Guida are so successful s they give the opponents no time to settle into their game plan. After all it is a fight not a gentlemen’s duel from eighteenth century France.

Big gloves time: One partner simply hunts the other down with the double leg takedown shoot keeping the eyes up on the opponent and the elbows in tight to the ribs. Stander simply throws leather at the head. Round 1 I was rubbish; tense in the neck, eyes all over the place, flinching. But in the following rounds I realised I was not made of glass and built in confidence. Actually enjoyed it towards the end.

Not sure what else happened at the end of the session other than some tough strength and conditioning work; utkatasana (chair pose) from standing into squat and back up, various counts in push ups, core battering etc.

Really missed training last week so came away with a heightened sense of enjoyment. 2 days later my right ear hole still looks like the Bat Cave.

Week 56. Angel fight prep

Got warmed up with the following drills: clinch and takedown; no grip clinch and takedown.

Fist main part of learning was looking for the double leg takedown inside the opponent’s guard. Head needs to go on the belly between his elbows rather than on the outside of his torso. We worked on taking a long step and getting the ear on his belly. In some ways this is an emergency technique and good for when you are under striking pressure as a go to. The hands go on the backs of the knees but should not clasp the knees together. Instead think of continuing your forward motion and sweeping the legs out of the way. If you stop, as I did repeatedly, and then try to lift, scoop or move then the technique is much less effective. Your motion is key to this working more effortlessly and effectively.

Time for the big gloves and the phone box drill. Worked with a variety of partners exchanging blows, sometimes covered and other times not. Lee emphasised the importance of relation in the neck and shoulders. Roll with the strikes but also become more desensitised to seeing and taking them. Flinch response is a hard one to fix so the more we get used to realising we are not made of glass (quote attributed to Pete Brown) then the more we can soften those muscles of the neck and shoulders and become more effective attackers and defenders.

The drill evolved into open and closed. Closed in the phone box and open at regular free form range. Lee called open and closed at we had to assume the appropriate range.
Free form with Seb: Standing and on the ground. Painful, tough and hard as usual but getting better at moving both on my feet and on the ground.

Key words and stare down into free form rounds. Mine were and are focus and movement.
Angel’s round: In prep for his fight next weekend he did 5 rounds with Pete, Sammy, Milzy, Seb then Pete again. Videos are on YouTube on his hard work.

Week 55: Kryptonite

This class was groundwork so we started in the clinch on our knees working the takedown to get our partner on their back. I really like this drill as it reminds you of the need to a positive spine and to look into the centre of their skull. Something I finally saw a pro MMA fighter do this morning. Michael Bisping in his control of Brian Stann at UFC 152 using this concept repeatedly in the standing clinch in his fight. At times Stann was grimacing and trying to work his head out of the way of Bisping’s 3rd controlling limb. In the same match it was great to see Bisping working the double leg takedown successfully. His level changes and explosion were very impressive thus resulting in solid control of his opponent’s base. On at least two occasions his managed to pick Stann up and slam him from the double leg set up. A great performance from Bisping who additionally survived a very wobbly moment at the end of round one and came back strong. Here is a link to fight highlights:

http://mmajunkie.com/news/30765/ufc-152-michael-bisping-vs-brian-stann-full-fight-video-highlights.mma

The drill then evolved to takedown but continue grappling with light striking and no submissions.

Side control focus:

Chest spin pass to other side when the opponent looks to turn in on their side to escape. Pull the shoulder and press the head down so that they look at their belly, maintain pressure through your chest and spin to opposite side for side control.

If, in defending, they get the knee in, you can switch to inverted side control. Grab and lift the tricep as you sit your hips through into his armpit. Hips off the floor and weight through his rib cage.

If they chose to defend badly by extending an arm then you can go the head and arm triangle (shoulder and bicep suppression I think). This is my kryptonite. Matt with whom I was training tonight was very patient no matter how poor I was in applying this technique. I found that simply do not have the proprioception to feel it. In the link from sparring tonight below, there was an opportunity for me to grab this technique but failed too. I know that I need to look for and practise well under pressure.

Sparring with Seb and Simon.

Seb ‘selected’ me to spar with on the ground with strikes. I tried my hardest to keep moving and defend and on occasion attack but Seb has such a formidable top game that it is most difficult to maintain constant movement and intelligent defence. Seb was far too complimentary at the call of time but I appreciate his kind words in saying that he enjoys sparring with me.

Then I free formed with Simon. The link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9iTIZPWaf7M

This morning I also watched the Jones V Belfort fight. If the head and arm triangle is my nemesis the Jones is all fighters’ nemesis. He is clearly very talented and hard to work out and thus beat. A most enjoyable fight.

Here is the link to Jones V Belfort highlights:

http://mmajunkie.com/news/30763/ufc-152-jon-jones-vs-vitor-belfort-full-fight-video-highlights.mma

Week 54: Circular movement

As Angel is in preparation for his first fight, all of our training is geared to getting him best sorted for his fight. So tonight was about movement on the feet.

Boxing: Milzy got us started with boxing rounds. Felt good to only focus on one range from a defensive point of view. That boxing lark is a piece of cake…

Kicking: We moved into kicking only and straight away the range becomes greater for obvious reasons. I tried to work the concept from last week of using the round kick to put the body in what the opponent should perceive a s a weak position then launch attacks from there.

Movement away using feet no hands: The point is Lee is showing us why moving back in straight lines is rubbish for so many reasons. When you are not allowed to defend with your hands the feet certainly work much, much harder. Apart from the clear advantages of moving to the closed side of the opponent’s stance, the learning tonight starkly reminded me about not having lazy movement in training. I guess I need to assume that I do not have my hands up protecting the range and that my first defensive movement comes from the feet not closing the arms to protect the head and torso. Obviously having rice paper instead of skin on the soles of my feet this presents some issues; every time we do stand up in class I come away with ripped toes and blistered feet. Perhaps I need to stop being a pedicurist’s nightmare and grow a pair?

Head movement = flat feet so go for the level change: At this point Lee made reference to the fact that if an opponent is moving lots, his head is still on his shoulders and if the head is bobbing and weaving continually then the feet will generally be more planted. Something to be aware of and begin attacking with this in mind too.

Low hands v walking down striker: Initially I thought this was a bonkers idea; to circle away from someone walking you down with quite wild punches and your hands are down. My mind flashed back to Prince Naseem in his glory days throwing punches from his knees. Actually having the hands down offers tremendous freedom and opportunity to attack at the end of their attack.

The following link show Michael Page who fights with great confidence in what appears to be a very dangerous to his health way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m1j7gAE5Ic

On a side note rant, it bothers me greatly that the biggest MMA group in this country is being promoted to a lad audience. UCMMA (formerly Cage Rage) is all a bit too East End for my liking. Has a sleazy feel to it. Stop promoting your fights as if they are in nightclub and develop some class. Anyway, MP, whose Dad I used to train with in the mid-90s has quite incredible movement coupled with self-belief and obvious talent. I believe he has recently signed with Bellator so hope to see him in action stateside soon. It is quite rare to see a fighter use these tactics, is this because he is being creative or silly?

You decide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0sgfp9KKUo&feature=related

Action starts at 6.50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4awSmJfuhbU&feature=relmfu

Fun and games here start at 3.00

Long step double leg shoot rounds v sprawl: This was tough as we were asked to use a long deep step to cover the distance for the double leg takedown without dropping the front knee down. First key point is changing the level; keep the spine positive, eyes on the opponent and explode.

Assessing opponents stance and tactic: By the end of the lesson my feet were a bloody, in both senses of the word, mess. I sat out whilst Lee took the troops through this drill. Too many fighters at the lower level come out fighting in a chaotic and blitzing manner. Conversely the seasoned pro will stalk, wait and observe when the fight starts. This is what the learning was on. Assess what he is doing. Yes it is a fight but it is not a street fight or a brawl. It is OK to work a strategy and to use your mind as opposed to your face.

Week 53: Back strikes

Warmed up with a nice no grip clinching drill. For 3 weeks running we have done something similar and for 3 weeks my neck, 3 days after training is still tighter than a Jock’s wallet. This is due to using the head as another controlling limb. I am still amazed at how little this is utilised in the MMA I watch on TV.

This moved into clinching from the knees with the aim of getting your partner’s shoulders to the matt. I made some decent success in the first few rounds then I met Shoib (sp?) who managed to bundle me on my back at will. I tried having a low and alive base. I know size should not matter but he is considerably bigger than me and thus more successful. Perhaps I need to work under his base and be more creative in attack.

Several of us helped to put Angel through his paces in prep for his first amateur MMA scarp in a few weeks. The final minute of the 15 can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mpZG1Yv24&feature=g-upl

The main part of the lesson focussed on attacking after you have put yourself in a vulnerable position. The round kick was our primary attack with which we had to land in front and across our centre; the side and back is now exposed for an attack from you partner.

We looked at the following attacking options from the landed round kick:

Outward strike (turn the lead foot to begin the motion, follow with the hips and then the arm)

Back elbow (shift weight from the rear to front foot as you thrust the elbow strike to the face)

Back kick (lean the head away, pick the knee up right up to the collar bone and extend out with the strike)

Spinning back strike (as it says on the tin)

Heads punches and purposely playing Sugar Ray. Lee told us of the final fight between Sugar Ray and Hagler and this strategy was employed, very successfully, several times throughout the fight. I am still too far from being good at the basics to consider this but it has planted a little seed…

Free form with Simon: Ended the session with some stand up sparring. Need to let the hands go. When I watch everyone else spar the hands attack freely. I seem incapable of a multi pinch and multi hand combo. Too defensive and cognitive. Time to be more fluid and accepting.

The Team

Week 52: Long range striking defence and attack

Tonight saw the end of my first year training at Pro Mai MMA. Gone quick and as this blog show, much has been covered and learnt.

Started off with the Greco-Roman standing clinch drill. Following this we moved into any takedowns from clinch then striking in the clinch. I was a bit naughty in that I was using my head and posture to clinch meaning my arms were free to strike. I noticed that this allowed for more attacks putting my partner on the defence more. I got the idea from Randy's dirty boxing against the fence. Use positive posture to control coupled with a high tempo work rate.

Long range striking: Round kicks to the thigh.

We worked a sequence of drills building on the last to develop sound technique and ultimately creativity:

Checking round kicks;

If they continue to check then attack the rear standing leg;

Use footwork to evade out of range as well as to step into the kick. Both mean you don't get hit where the kick is at it's most effective and powerful;

Attacking with the rear hand when the kick comes in;

Faking the low kick (use the eyes to look down too) as you throw the rear hand to the head. Found this very hard as worked hard over the past year to keep my eyes up!!;

One body action with 2 attacks; the rear punch to the head and the round kick. Need to move the head out to the side for better delivery of technique.

Striking free form sparring rounds.

So here ends my first year at Pro Mai. Looking forward to the future learning with a supreme bunch of training partners under the quality observation and tutelage of fine teachers.

Week 51: Rich Cranny

Tonight we had the privilege to be taught by Lee and Rich Cranny who is the Head instructor for Pro Mai in Australia, PLatinum Extreme.

The focus was on groundwork and instead of my usual detailing of techniques and drills I will just include the learning tips I picked up.

1. Control the head control the body. Face bars are horrible.

2. Posture in grappling: concave spine to control his posture. Side control the pressure drives into the side of the rib cage not planted on top.

3. Pyramid concept of base.

4. Control with the body is much more effective than squeezing with the arms.

Really great session to have two high quality teachers complimenting each other in taking the class. Looking forward to seeing the vids going up on the MMA121 website soon...

Week 50: clinch and takedown

Working on the crash mats:

Hip toss

Double leg and slam

Inner knee capture and slam

Fireman lift and slam

Single hip capture and slam

Free takedown play

Striking to find the clinch and takedown

Grappling with striking

Standing into grappling with striking.

Tonight ended for me by almost losing my right big toe nail. Currently it is hanging on by a thread and will be off in a few days. When I win the lottery I am going to donate a load of interlocking mats to the class to prevent nail rips.

Week 49: clinch and takedown

Greco-Roman takedown drill. Only allowed to attack from the waist up to secure the takedown.

Free form clinch and takedown.

Arm drag to get to the back from standing clinch.

Plum clinch to neck control and half nelson for the shearing takedown.

Clinch to fireman lift takedown.

Double and single hip capture, double and single leg takedown chain wrestling drill.

Zombie walk down. Striking to seeking the clinch against the walk down.

Strength and conditioning: 
Bicep wrestling - 10 s down, 10s up and 10s static hold. Partner is pushing and pulling and holding at your wrist to provide tension to work against.

Abdominal cycles plus v sit static holds

Full lotus lifts

Week 48: The hardest one yet

Clinching and striking:

Looking to obtain the body lock whilst swimming for clinch control and striking both defending and attacking. I had the pain of working with Milzy first who set a relentless pace with very accurate attacks. I tried to focus on keeping the neck strong and the eyes fixed on the centre of his head.

The drill evolved into hunting for the single leg capture too. I looked a few times but practised staying strong, fluid and employing as wide variety of attacks as possible in the clinch.

Gaining the clinch from striking range:

The attacker used striking to prevent the other person looking for the clinch. The standing grappler was not allowed to use striking but still needed to maintain a solid defense yet aggressive as needing to enter to get the clinch and then body lock.

Grappling and striking:
1. Hold down and prevent other from getting up.

2. 3 people on the mat (Me, Milzy and Charlie) assumed the positions (mounted, side control and turtle) and we were fighting to recover from the positions we found ourselves. When recovered a fresh body jumps in and it all started again. Then when all had been on the mat against each 3 of us, we swapped roles. Each of the 3 in the middle fought everyone in all 3 positions. Draining yet excellent training in terms of gas preservation and knowing when to explode out of a position. Smarter use of the body’s resources.

Training ended with freeform grappling. As I was so knackered at the end I was happy to watch the post training stand up sparring involving Charlie, Milzy, Simon, Angel and Lee.

I learned many new things tonight in how to set a pace, how to use my head better in the clinch, to be creative in my striking on the ground. Angel pounded my thighs with some excellent elbows, 24 hours later the legs still ache. Sami sunk in a very nasty Japanese neck tie to the point that I saw stars at the point of tapping, sweet grappling. It was truly exhausting tonight and truly enjoyable.

Leg suppression (triangle choke) escape

Heard Tito talking it about it on the Joe Rogan podcast. Looking forward to trying it

Week 47: clinch attacks, body shots and leg kicks

Attacking from shoulder control. As he pummels under throw the elbow. Also throw the punch by giving a little more distance. 

Neck control and using knees to thighs then the chest when he moves the legs.

Body shot from long range sparring. Looking to develop the timing and vision to find this attack.

Striking on the ground with big gloves. Limits the gripping potential so forces you to work positional striking.

Round kick then front kick drill. Only allowed to defend with footwork. Round kicks attacking the upper legs and front kicks at the torso.

Ended with conditioning: 10 count press ups, seal press ups, press up wrestling finishing with lying banana holds.

Week 46: leg locks

No Lee tonight so Pete took the class.

Despite the soaring temperatures outside we started with the no grip grappling drill.

Leg lock from the open guard position. Start is if going to pass with shin over their thigh and make sure that the foot is placed deep under their thigh. When you look to pass with the shin it will be much deeper and have an opening of the hips preventing him from escaping easily to another position. Instead of passing hold the high leg and sit back as you come under his leg with yours. You are essentially clasping his leg between yours. Now that you have his leg clasped you can begin to work on the lower part of his leg for the submission. We looked at 2:

Achilles compression: With his toes under your armpit insert your inner forearm bone against his tendon to apply pressure.



Heel hook: this is a much more devastating submission due to the potential long term injury the leg can suffer. With his toes under your armpit roll towards them lifting the far side shoulder off the floor. This will allow you to sink his heel into the elbow crease of your arm. He is now seconds away from a 2 month limp.

Free form grappling

Free form with Seb and came away with a left black eye lid.

Week 45: ground fighting

Injured wrist so spent the night taking pictures and videos.

Nice brutal warm up from Joe involving lots of level changes, lifts and stomach churning spins.

Opening drill was being out of striking range and looking to shoot in for the single knee capture. Striking was then added to mix.

Next drill which they spent a good amount of time on was grappling to the point of submission, holding the submission then giving the partner a chance to develop an escape for the submission. Lots of rounds of this.

Final drill was several rounds of free form grappling with striking. Lots of good videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTxutPWsCgI

Week 44: clinch and takedown

Opened by working the single knee tap drill. Good drill to develop discipline in posture and hands and body as there can be the tendency to become wrestlers can crouch with short arms.

This then progressed into single leg capture. This time we had to capture the single leg and pick the leg up off the floor then battle for the takedown whilst the defender has to maintain balance and recover his leg.

Next drill was no grip clinching. No grip in that the palms could not be closed.
This led nicely into the next part of the lesson focussing on clinch. Lee began by stressing the importance of footwork in the clinch when manipulating another.

Essentially the footwork is lengthen then shorten, driving from and off the back leg. You will only be effective in the clinch when applying the other correct aspects of posture; hips back, concave back, eyes to eyes and at least one primary grip. First was working no grip using footwork to move your partner. Secondly was with grip. Of course you begin to use your arms more and concentrate less on the legs. Finally it was against resistance. It became apparent here why the legs need to be used. You will be ineffective without using the legs plus run the risk of gassing the arms from the clinch battle.

Light to medium sparring free form standing. One looks to shoot for the double or single knee capture whilst the other needs to use footwork and sprawling to avoid going down.

Freeform sparring from the knees with striking and submissions. I had Milzy then Joe. I came away with a lumpy and purple forehead plus a torn wrist. How I love MMA.

Week 43: centre control

3 escapes from side control.

1: elbow to knee to creat space and get to shin in ground control. Wrap other leg around their back and manipulate your hips to recover to full ground control.
2: lower hand drives and squeezes through his armpit gap and get double shoulder control. As you hip up and drive extend the scooped arm and roll him over.
3: pin his head high knee by placing your elbow on the floor and trying to squeeze it to your own hip. Manipulate your body so to elongate and narrow his base. Bridge and roll him over into side control.

Centre control detail:

soles of the feet touching right near his arse, spine long and slightly concave, head higher than his, arms out wide as if free falling and just off the floor. This will put tremendous pressure on his torso. Feet are in tight as this prevents him from really being able to use them to escape the position. Hands out wide to counter any bridging he attempts. Chest relaxed and pressing down on his face. The hands and forearms can be used to re-centre his head under you chest.
Having all this simple detail was something of another revelation tonight. 3 years of BJJ and never was this position and how to maintain it fully explained. It was a position I used to loose as quickly as I found it. With this new learning tonight I know that I will be much more aware of the key points of staying in this position longer with more control and more attacking options. Normally I a, not a fan of hyperbole but this learning tonight has had a significant effect on me. Should one person read this blog and come to training because of it then it must be due to the high quality teaching. Being a teacher myself I have trained in the past with many questionable teachers in martial arts. All were very good at their particular skills but none as capable as Lee at imparting said knowledge. This is why I am never bored, never plateauing or never not learning. 

Next we practised simply riding in and maintaining this position. Person underneath gives plenty of pressure. Remarkable learning curve tonight.

Upward and downward shoulder rotation.

We looked at both these positions from centre control then transitioning into side control to complete the submission.
From centre control if his arms come high to the head then attack with upward shoulder rotation, if he looks to control your posture with under hooks then look for the downward shoulder rotation. The key point of learning for me tonight was the angle of the arm under. I discovered by practise and observation that it needs to be nearer the elbow than the shoulder for tight and effective results.

Small glove freedom sparring on the ground with strikes (eyes closed). First murdered by Milzy who opened with the joyful question "you have not an interview tomorrow?" meaning my face was in for a pounding. It was. 

Big glove continual striking v grappling.

Big glove to keep constant pressure through striking and grappler can position. The drill is designed to give the grappler lots of pressure and opportunities for submissions. I was working with Craig and please so say ow well his ground game is coming along.

Top quality session tonight. The centre control detail has been a tremendous revelation.

Week 42: inverted side control

No grip grappling warm up: great fun grappling this way as I found ways to use my legs and the back of my wrists to enable control without the use of the inner parts of the hands.

Main technical part of the class:

Inverted side control:

Key points: leg side leg sweeps under own hips, weight on his chest, tight bicep grip and elbow clamp, no gap between you and his armpit so he can't escape, hips off the floor and weight driving into his chest.

Knee extension: he goes to hook a leg in escaping from the inverted side control so dive for the foot and pull it into to the side of your neck. Feet on his arse, knees clamped together, one hand control his foot as the other wraps the lower leg to your chest. Extend and arch backwards with tight tight control for the sub.

Forearm with shoulder suppression: Let him escape by trying to push the face. As his arm straightens push past it and throw the head to the floor as you get your hips to the floor quickly too. Palm to palm grip and drive down with the shoulder hopefully closing the sub off.

I need much more time with both of these as I found them quite difficult to pull off swiftly and cleanly.

Reversal sweep: Keep him moving and disrupt his base, feel for the gap and roll him over (timing not strength).

Free form grappling with Neil and Milzy. Milzy was hell on earth and spent the eternity escaping and trying to prevent his numerous submissions. Thankfully he was kind and commented on my defensive grappling and improvements in addition to saying nice things about me as a teacher!!! Seriously hard work grappling him. Control and positional awareness is excellent as is his variety of attacks. In addition when he caught me in upward and downward shoulder rotation he knew how much pressure to apply to let me attempt to escape before finishing. Appreciated the consideration of his training partner's welfare.

Strength and conditioning: Range of press ups, v ups, more press ups ending with good old fashioned static mat holds.

Bizarre injury of the session is some pleasant purpling of my right big toe nail.

Week 41: striking

Bulldogs warm up. Lots of fun despite the high risk of toe nail tearing potential of our mats!!

Side control battle: pass the leg over or bottom player secure a leg

Ground offence and defence

• correct defensive posture and positioning: 2 points of contact – the hip and elbow same side of the body, soles of feet together knees splayed.

• round kick attack: grab the heel and straighten the leg to attack with round kick.

• downward heel kick: an axe kick to those who know this name. The kick that made Andy Hug famous in K-1 in the 90’s.

• knee to the hamstring.

• escape from single grab: turn the foot towards the thumb and the grip will break.

• escape from double grab on one leg: turn the foot to the outside of his forearm to apply pressure to his grip.

Free form striking rounds.

Fast hands on the lead hand: throwing 3 fast punches off one hand then the other with the aim of making each set faster, more relaxed and simply better than the last set.

Fast hand combo: body – body – head and same starting with other hand. Maintain the rhythm until an error and start again.

Phone box sparring: Toe to toe with Craig. This was a mix of covering and opening to get used to strikes coming into the face.

Week 40:: Striking

Knee grab warm up with tidy hands. Good drill to train the correct level change for takedowns aimed to the lower level.

Clinch fighting: starting from boxing range the idea was to engage and tie up the arms or do arm drags or indeed whatever to get the clinch. When a secure clinch was got, hold for 10 seconds then push him away. On pushing him away do not simply think reset, think attack with a punch as you are in balance, he is not. In addition it is good practise to attack and keep the mind and body in the moment.

Hold down or stand up: On my second round I had Seb which was a horrible experience for every second. He has relentless control and thus it is always great psychological training when paired with him.

Stare down striking sparring rounds: key word practise. Tonight my two were forward pressure. After reading an article recently in an MMA mag I worked on the focus of my stare down on the side on the neck of my opponent. Hard at first as my brain was crying out to engage in eye contact. Looking at the neck enabled me to be emotionally removed from the eye contact until we stepped away when I then chose to engage eye contact.

Round kick when going backwards: this is a useful option when under forward pressure from hands. At some point he will throw a rear hand, when he does this will expose the ribs and thus be more vulnerable for a round kick. It was surprising how much power and psychological denting this can do in terms of if done several times he will become tighter with his defense and less likely to throw that rear hand knowing a kick is viable counter. Lee talked about using the head to define which side of the body the kicks comes from, something I posted about previously in this blog on the work of Steve Morris. In addition Lee talked about how to generate speed and thus power through kicks and later elbow strikes. Essentially folding the lower part of limb tight will accelerate the larger joint to move quicker.

Heavy bag with partner impeding: Striking the heavy bag on the ground as your partner makes this very hard. In round 1 I was trying very hard as I was fighting against the pressure Craig was giving me. Lee then stopped us all and reminded us about lose heavy and relaxed hitting. Keep the shoulders and arms relaxed then contract at the point of contact. On my second round I felt much more capable of going for longer.

Heavy bag conditioning plus mirror work: This followed whereby we were working the bag individually as our partners worked in the mirrors (striking combo, sprawl, two press ups and repeat). I focussed on hitting body head left, body head right whilst hitting relaxed (delivering). Despite the awkwardness of the huge bag I felt good. I felt more tired on the mirror work.

Grappling with Ptas and Craig: First time ever grappling bare chested. Actually after Ptas caught me in 2 relatively simple submissions I joined him in bare chested combat. Rolling with a sweaty body is certainly different from a control perspective. I managed to slip out of some control points he had and managed to establish centre back control. Ptas went off for some high intensity sparring to prepare Charlie for his fight so I rolled with Craig. Developing and improving really well. Tighter defence, becoming softer and more relaxed too. A high quality 2.5 hours of learning, challenge and fun.

Week 39: single leg capture

Single leg capture: x4

1. Drive knee to head, left arm under knee, transition right hand to heel to get him hoping back.

2. Outer leg trip

3. Pulls back to escape you transition into double knee capture and the takedown is most reminiscent of a rugby tackle motion. You collapse him from his knees.

4. Both arms under his knee, keep the right elbow crease under his knee lifting high as the left hand wraps around his shoulder for a ‘steering wheel’ take down.

Of course all of these need to be practised in a random order on both sides and with pressure from an unwilling partner. Free form ground fighting (strikes and subs. Lesson learned from my the most amount of pressure I have received was not to give up, keep breathing and stay active. Granted my face and ears disagreed but I survived considerable physical and subsequently emotional self imposed pressure. Proud of over coming this small combative hurdle

Week 38

As this has been the most traumatic week of my life this post is simply a reminder of what was covered in the lesson.

Striking combos

Hands v feet sparring rounds

Securing neck clinch, 3 points of pressure. Against strong posture, counter to clinch using posture, body shots and body clinch

Cerone leg kick set up

Breaking all the rules v striking conformity

Ridge hand to thigh

Double punch

Single leg shot spinning elbow or high reverse elbow

Conditioning: press up off balancing, press ups, static leg raise hold, low and high plank plyometric style, mat throw and catch plus static hold

Week 37: syllabus; double leg plus inner forearm choke detail

Started tonight with a some nice fast paced warm up drills. The first being the knee tap. If successful the opponent needs to sprawl as sanction. This progressed into a knee grab as if doing a single leg takedown.

Second warm up drill was working from Clinch to single leg free form movement. As always the head is key, no looking down, spine must be nice and positive.

Main part of the class in terms of learning and technique work was in two parts. Firstly we drilled Double leg detail.
Milsy and Charlie broke it all down very nicely into steps:
1. Squat down
2. Lead knee down
3. Capture the back of the knees as you press the ear against hhis lower rib cage, head on the outside, elbows in tight, eyes up, positive spine then step rear leg around his lead leg.
4. Stand and lift his lead leg and drive around with your head.  Drive with the head keeping the eyes up as this will prevent the head from dropping. Ensure the drive is in a circular motion over his standing leg forcing him off balance and thus to hop to maintain balance. Worked both sides for ages which was great as it gave us time to simply drill well.

The second part of the class revolved around Inner forearm choke detail. Last weekend Nate Diaz finished Jim Miller with a variation of this. Joe Rogan called it a power guillotine.  So the learning was around the inner forearm choke and transitioning into a forearm and bicep suppression.  Lee started from knee level. Opponent was on all fours and the inner forearm detail was outlined.  Key learning points: shoulder pressure, stack other forearm perpendicular over his trapezium, scrunch over to close tighter. If you want to roll to your back for the finish here is the extra key points: leg up on his back on opposite side to arm wrapping neck to prevent him escaping that side.

'Power guillotine' this is where the Promai naming conventions comes into its own coupled with being more observant watching MMA of what is happening. I should watch fights again with out commentary to establish what is going on in terms of body specifics. Lee said that Diaz simply dived deep on the neck which for us became a forearm and bicep suppression, Diaz also lay down perpendicular as to deepen the attack on the neck. Lee had us work this plus the arm in variation which went on very quickly.

After class I talked to Lee about the naming convention and how I find it really helpful. No more do I need to remember all the different labels for moves, now it more a case of being more self aware of the 5 types of submission and which part of my body is on his and how is it affecting him?  At first the Promai naming convention was completely alien and struggled to get my head around it. Now I have a clear understanding intellectually as well as practically. A simple change of language has improved my performance in grappling.

Sparring conditioning. Small glove stand up long and clinch range,fast but light, free form grappling and striking. Big glove long distance sparring. Plus rounds of shadow fighting, sprawls and push ups. I ended the session having a most entertaining grapple with Ptas. Lots of positional change, sweeps, sub attempts. Nice and even. Physical chess.

Week 36: grappling and conditioning

Guard pass: Sitting back and sticking knee in the centre of his hips will open his guard.

Triangle from mount: sitting in a nice a high mount offering attack to the head. He should cover up this giving you the chance to gain wrist control, push it to his chest as you step over put the shin behind his neck. Fall to the side side as you close the triangle.

Knee bar from guard: As he stands to stack your guard, underhook an ankle and move your hips to allow taking him down by manipulating with your legs. As he goes down wrap his leg for the knee extension. Get the hips against his knee to act as the most powerful fulcrum.

Calf suppression from guard: Could be my new most favourite sub. From open guard, keep his mind active with your hands as your lower shin looks to 'rest' on the back of his knee. When the time is right swim under his arms, take your head towards the foot you are going for, this will help to give you more power and leverage in the compression. Put that foot back with your lower shin compressing nicely against his calf. A sweet, sweet submission.

Guillotine baiting inside guard to jumping pass into head and arm triangle. Does what it says on the tin. I was hoping for another 30 minutes to deepen the learning and understanding of these techniques. For some reason they seem still caught in my visual memory so will take the opportunity to get visualising them before bed tonight.

Free form striking round, free form clinch round, free form grappling round.

Heavy bag conditioning striking from mount, guard and clinch. 30 second rounds.

Mirror striking shadow boxing with specifics inserted: body shots, head shots, knees and elbows, sprawls, push ups, double knee whilst maintaining. Very tough towards the end as the floor became very greasy from sweaty feet and the mirrors became redundant from condensation. Great pace a nd variety to this drill.

Mat static hold rounds and talk of mental over physical strength. Lee reminded us that the body is stronger and has more stamina than the mind thinks. He used the analogy of £1000 on the floor to go for 10 more seconds. A pleasing sound was that of mats dropping to the floor before mine did, which it didn't and that most of those are bigger and stronger than me. Interestingly, my limited vision gave a me a view of Crag and Ptas both who remained strong through the mat lift also. It is the time of the smaller man!!!

Video link for the guillotine bait: http://www.mma121.com/videos/mma-submission-tip-guillotine-to-arm-triangle-choke/

Week 35. Clinch and takedown

Toes, chest and shoulder striking drill Free form clinch, eyes closed, no closed grip Single, double leg, single and double hip control. Normal then adding striking, one for one looking for the double leg and lift up. Feel like the kettlebell training is helping as felt strong in the lifts. Much more so than normal. Hold in side control and try to control and submit, other to up and escape

Week 34: stand up and sparring

Clinch domination: 
Working good positions for the lifts we looked at last week plus dragging the opponent to the mat. Initially we took it in turns offering resistance. It moved into us both fighting for dominance in the clinch and the drag down if available.

Centre attack striking verses escaping:
Feeding person below strikes and they simply have to escape. Joe had us on a numbered circle whereby number 2 would rotate every round and number 1 stays on their back at the start of each round. Very tough on the bottom as simply physically demanding. Trick is to break their posture and recover to at least half guard. 

Lead punch then rear punch attack followed by own 3rd attack:
This drill is designed I think to develop sound body timing and rhythm and fluid attacks. Joe also talked about attacking and defending against the open and closed side. The closed side is outside his lead arm and away from the power rear hand. Open side is moving towards, circularly, towards his power hand. 
We then developed into adding of our own 2 attacks after the straight lead and straight rear punch.

Ground defence rounds: 
Have to defend and get up. Use smart and appropriate ground defence posture. Person on the feet needs wing big wide shots down on the opponent

5 minute conditioning round: 
1 punch then duck, 2 punches then squat, 3 punches then sprawl, 4 punches then bob and weave against 4 round punches.. A really tough physical drill.

Rounds of MMA:
Starting standing then to the ground if needed. The big positive for me tonight was staying relaxed on the feet and finally pulling off my first compression submission; the calf compression

Week 33: Lifts from clinch

Theme was syllabus work for the session.

Joe started us off with a clinch warm up looking for primary grips then without using the hands. Without the hands is harder but requires a different set of skills. I found myself using my head and spine as a third limb. From this I can conclude that I should be doing this when allowed to use the hands. Simply makes control much more effective. Now I have a better understanding of Randy's dirty boxing where he used his head to pressure the opponent against the fence to enable striking and control at the same time.

We then moved onto positional grappling without using the hands to hold or grip. Chris knees me in the eye for a shiner. Purely accidental as happened in transition in movement. 48 hours on my right eye lid looks like a strutting peacock.

Single leg attacks: a drill we have looked at quite a lot recently. I am getting better at dropping and driving with my eyes up. Know that the knee or him at the end of the shoot so stay posture positive. Light bare hand strikes were then added to keep attack positions appropriate and not sloppy.

Lee then began his part of the lesson by teaching us a series of clinch lifts from the level 2 syllabus

Lower back lift
Double hip lift
Side hip lift
Rear hip lift

For each of the lifts it is important to keep the elbows in tight and to lift from the legs. Use the whole body and not just the arms. We then had some time to practise chaining the lifts in any order of our choosing to make the learning deeper as opposed to patterned.

The learning was then taken to the ground to employ the same methodology to side control escape. Ensure double underhooks control with your back on the floor and that the forearm is into his hip crease. This will enable more effective escapes as you will control his centre and his hips.

Grappling with Ptas for 3 rounds. Upward knee rotation for Ptas, I got an inner forearm choke from bottom control, Ptas pulled off inner forearm choke from centre control.

Week 32: submissions from mount

Free form striking from bottom control: Big gloves on for the heavy and continuous striking. Not allowed to break from the position but bottom player needs to break down the posture to prevent striking.  Person on top needs to keep posture up to allow for more effective striking. I found having my back on the food was drastically more tiring as I was using my legs to create space and control his body. Actually on the second round I was near to giving up as I was so drained. When I went into top position I was surprised at how less fatiguing this position was. Going back to having the back on the floor I found that using straight line punches, from my wing chun training proved to be effective. This is because the punch comes from the elbow in the centre of the chest as opposed to the usual elbow in line with and driving from the shoulder. This economy of motion and shortest distance between two points is a straight line is a useful tool in this particular aspect of MMA. 

On a side issue it is only now after training in MMA that most applications shown by other martial arts are crap. The applications they show usually are thrown from a static attack with no resistance, hence amazing looking skills. I used to train in tai chi (both purporting to be martial) and thought, at the time, that I was learning sound martial skills. Perhaps I was. Perhaps there were many elements of the training that would be useful. Never did we train against non compliance or static fed attacks. To this day I still in my own training continue to practise the tai chi form as I find it good for my body.  That is my to perspective through wiser eyes. Years ago Bruce Lee was promoting cross training, stepping away from the classical mess and discarding that which is 
not  useful. It is a shame that so many martial artists are not bold enough and too insecure to step into the waters of non compliance for learning and self development are greatest in them.

Back on track.
Submission from north south: Forgotten what Lee labelled this position as hence north south.  Incidentally it is the only one in MMA that regularly receives sarcastic wolf whistle from the audience. Instead of taking the inner forearm head control (guillotine) you assume a reverse version and insert a fist suppression to the front of throat for a painful and swift submission. We then looked at an elbow extension from the same position. 

From centre attack (mount) leg over sit on arm. Essentially you are sitting on the shoulder joint. This was my first experience of this position. This does require lower body dexterity as you need to essentially triangle his arm. Take a tricep control keeping the arm nice and tight. From this position we then learned a series of submissions. 
Firstly fall into an inner leg suppression. It is important to get it in very quick as if you don't they will escape or pass. 
Secondly was the  arm extension.
Thirdly was the horribly painful wrist compression. I was demo dummy for this and had to tap out early on and ask for the demo on my other wrist. A recent fall in a school football match has left me with a very tender wrist. So much so that I can't even do press ups or dips at the moment.

Finally we looked at a downward shoulder rotation. Similar to the first submission you need to allow to fall on your back giving them the feeling that they are escaping. Thankfully they are falling into a downwards shoulder rotation.  Tonight I learned that in BJJ 2 moves, the kimura and omoplata are both downward shoulder rotations.

The last part of training was Easter free form fun.

All against all free form ground fighting, tag team free form grappling and ended with rounds on Charlie who had a new partner every 60 seconds to keep him on his toes (or back!!!!).

Week 31: Straight and folded elbow extension

As Lee was runnning late Mr Aylett senior put us through our paces. Opening by looking at submissions from unusal angles and positions followed by very alive pad work rounds.

Folded elbow extension from bottom control:

Straight elbow extension = classic arm bar image. The arm is straight from the wrist to the shoulder and away from the body.

Folded elbow extension = The arm is folded across their centreline from the shoulder.

Posture breaking: underhook an arm, palm to palm grip and pull him down on to you. Compress his tricep with top forearm. A very important point from Lee was that you must use the body and the arms to apply pressure. In this position arms are pulling down as chest is squeezing up. Several options now: Attempt to create pain on the tricep, arch the chest to pass the arm over to then grab far side lat and escape out or allow him a small space to try to escape by pulling his across your chest.

Arm across escape: Scissor your arm so that one is on his tricep and the on his face, and as if opening his posture. Control the head then you control the body.

Outside leg over: As you scissor turn your head towards his knee so that you are now perpendicular. As I have attacked the right arm initially, this move now means I need to pivot to the left. As I am pivoting I need to move my hips. The outside leg, for this example it was my right leg, sweeps over his face. The hamstring needs to right on his face.

Compress yourself: To enable tight control pull the knees into your chest and squeeze his back with your calves. The idea is that you are almost making yourself into a ball. This will make the position very tight for him. It is possible even without using your hands to establish control for a good 5 seconds. To make the control even tighter reach up and pull his near side shoulder down into your legs and tighten your vice like grip.

Extend from the chest for the sub: Lift and extend the chest for a swift and sweet submission.

Free form grappling: Much more top position and sweeping from me so I feel like I am making improvements to the grappling game. Final roll of the night was with Lee. Did not spend the whole time defending, managed to escape briefly on several occasions. At one point there was a hint of side control. Good hard fun. No more training at class for 10 days as I am off to Dubai at the weekend to see my two older boys. Hopefully going to get them grappling in the parks...

Week 31: Groundwork

As Lee was running late tonight Mr Aylett senior took control of the class. We began by selecting one submission and then working it from positions not normally worked from. A very creative idea and opportunity to study positions

Week 30: clinch, takedown and sparring

Under hooks swimming: Getting warmed up by moving around and looking to get both underhooks in on partner from standing. It is surprising how warm you get from a drill that on the outside looks quite simple.

Knee tapping: A great drill to get the legs warmed up for takedown work. Active movement and each person has to simply touch the knee (inside or outside) of the partner and escape out. After several rounds I ended up with Seb who consistently sets a relentless pace

Striking and shooting in for the double leg: Rounds of shooting for the single or double leg. Again with Seb’s relentless pace. The key for me was to keep the head up all the way through the motion. When shooting the chin would drop. Thankfully Seb repeatedly reminded me of my error. This was something I was able to work on later in the session when drilling the single leg capture. Doing this drill right is hard. Getting lazy with dropping the heads, the levels incorrectly or a slow shoot will result in sloppiness.

Big glove v small glove: striker vs shooter: As previous drill but gloved up. This is something I need considerably more time practising as getting a feel for the rhythm and timing of when to change levels is still a calculated thought process and not yet instinctive.

Single leg capture plus details from primary grip then distance and with arm contact: Started working from clinch range with primary shoulder grip and secondary wrist grip. Bump his arm (shoulder control) up as you step back and drop the lead knee to the floor. Capture behind the knee with a strong cupped palm, face against his torso on the outside, rear leg straight and driving the body into him. Next stage was to add the wrist raise. When in the finished position lead arm has captured the back of his knee and you have lifted his wrist high above your head. Next we added the step around coupled with the correct grip (elbow deep behind his knee and capture your own forearm to tighten the control on the leg. The final stage was stepping away from your partner, manipulating his arms as to distract from your intentions and shoot at speed for the single leg capture.

Double leg takedown: As above but work the details to keep them tight and precise.
Solo drill work on the visualisation and the 'L' shoot. Plus gloves at elbow to ribs. Lee demo’d a way to drill the work so far in lesson on your own. Place a pair of gloves on the floor to simulate our opponent’s feet. Simply visualise and shoot. 10, 000 times.

Free form hands (small gloves) in for the takedown: Striking was added to the mix and turns. Both partners striking but one had to shoot for the takedown or capture

Free form takedown into free form small glove sparring: The progression from the previous drill except when the first contact is made *takedown) the training continued into free form sparring (striking and grappling). Lee would then call a stop and the round started again. It has been a while since I sparred using small gloves. I had forgotten how advantageous they can be on the ground in terms of striking to distract from grappling. Several times I was in sticky situations; an inner forearm choke and an elbow extension. On both occasions I was cognisant of the striking tool. This gave my partner other things to consider and I managed to escape. After last week’s grappling frustrations I managed to fight more and sweep to get my back off the floor.

Week 30: Clinch and takedown

Week 29: syllabus work

Footwork round kick drill: shin pads on and round kicking delight to our partners legs. No checking, blocking just evasive footwork combined with eyes up and tidy attack position hands. This started the night off nicely in terms of pain. I must have feet made of paper as even with swanky grappling socks on the balls of both feet became soft and felt as if containing small pockets of fluid. Gladly when I removed my socks at the end of the session there was no fluid neither clear nor red meeting my eyes.
I really enjoy this drill from the limited nature of it. I enjoy practising the opportunity to keep my eyes as as they tend to wander to the areas I am attacking. In addition pain is a great teacher and unless you want your legs smashed to bits you tend to move them quick quickly.

Free form stand up sparring

Lee then talked about strategy in the ring at the start of a fight. We looked at working on both intensity and relaxation opening rounds. We began with no engagement. Just getting our partners hopefully moving backwards from the wide range and frequency of our implied attacks and they to us.  This progressed into starting in a similar fashion but when first contact was made it changed into free form sparring whilst maintaining same relaxation and intensity.

Chest spins with hooks in: keeping pressure just between their shoulder blades as spinning and thus transitioning from top to side to centre back control. Hands kept off the floor until in centre back control. Lee gave a great time to enable swifter and more secure control. By sitting up the hooks slide in easier than with the chest down. It does need to be swift as pressure needs to be applied to the back 

Side back control ankle pick and hook in: this position was then tamed about Lee as a very advantageous position, in many ways more so than centre back control. From here with back pressure applied control the far side arm and pick up his far side ankle, nice and high. Step over whilst keeping hold you momentarily trap your own arm. Strip it out as the hook makes contact.

Side back control arm extension roll: a tricky sweep and submission needing a lot of commitment. Essentially you roll under his chest pulling him on top of you as you pass your leg over his head and he lands in a very deep arm extension. A tricky sub to pull of successfully but one that is most fun to practise.

Free form grappling with Ptas. Excuses time. He did a very good job tonight. Tight control and vicious submissions. Clearly I have spent too much time want to play as opposed to develop and learn. It is time that I worked to more advantageous positions than playing off my back. Whilst I enjoy it I am not developing. In addition I am spending too much time defending. Perhaps this means more time needs to be practising sweeping and reversing positions?

Week 28: grappling and sparring

Grappling class

No Lee tonight So Pete skilfully and dutifully stepped in.
Warm up: myriad of work down the matts to get the body ready for grappling: rolling, dragging and even the triangle pose from yoga too.

Bottom control disengage:
Person on the bottom needs to get up and away

Side control battle:
Get out of it by sweeping, reversing or regaining at least half bottom control.

Free form favourite submission denied: this was the limit placed on the drill by Pete. I selected leg suppression as my favourite but was working with a newer member so spent the time helping him to strangle me.

Eyes closed free form: worked with Ray who I have not seen for a while and through a post grappling chat discovered that he has shed 8 stones in weight! Astonishing work Ray

4 in the middle tag team for the rest. The brave souls in the middle had to grapple to submission before receiving a fresh body to work with. I enjoyed the physical chess with Sami, then Pete and finally Mischel. 

Free form with Tasio and Seb. The most memorable significant part of the free form was the double crushing Seb doled out. He excellent base, use of weight and technique. In addition he continually attacks

Week 27: Ground fighting

Half guard recovery: Top player needs to pass the legs to side control, bottom player then needs to shrimp out and recover what is almost an invisible half guard. Lower leg is through their legs whilst higher leg (hamstring) is on the far shoulder. The drill continues as a pass and recovers drill. It is a great drill to develop fluidity of the hips and awareness of your back of the floor. It is generally better to be on your side.

Side control battle: Player on top needs to maintain side control or reverse side control and ultimately go for top control. Bottom player is looking to escape side control by sweeping, getting to their knees and recovering half or full bottom control. Develops top control as holding becomes a waste of time, more useful to use the body weight to control. The visual analogy I like is that of a wet blanket.

Achieving top control from side control: Establish strong control of his torso and head. Raise the far shoulder of the ground and pass with the following methods.

• Shoot the shin on to belly and pass.

• Passing the leg over dynamically (high arc).

• If they defend the pass by crossing the leg at the knees, pull on the blade of the foot. This should start him trying to defend a lower limb submission therefore he will want to pull the foot away. As you let go the foot will open a nice gap to enable the pass.

Takedown from kneeling clinch free form: Drill stops when one players hands touch the floor or is taken down. Was a really nice drill to develop some creativity. I worked double underhooks – body lock – lever down. I also tried a judo style throw by inserting my hips below his, extending a leg and throwing over. Similar to this video Lee created from standing but kneeling. If done quickly I found success with it on at least 2 occasions.

http://www.mma121.com/videos/akiyama-trip-throw-takedown-ufc-144/

Free form grappling: My most favourite part of training…

Big glove striking v small glove ground fighting: We did this drill several weeks ago but today was slightly different in that the striker was not applying constant pressure. Choosing instead to be more measured with attacks.

Strength and conditioning: AKA hell for the shoulders.
Half speed press ups, 10 count press ups wide and triangle width, plyometric push ups, plank to push ups, zombie walking with mats.

Week 26: striking and sparring

It felt like there was so much going on last Thursday that my little brain can only remember the basics, hence the listing and no great detail.

free form sparring when one needs to look for the clinch. Craig, Neil and Angel
One using strikes other looking for single or double leg capture
Kicking sparring Craig And Tom
Boxing sparring Milsy, Hani, Peter, Ptas and one of the big Polish lads
extended arm: aggressive attack posture.  Head movement and arm comes back and attack with combo. Attacking at will from AAP. 
Defence against the shoot using the footwork and straight arm against head.  This progressed into the whizzer then into double under hooks and throw away using the rolling straight arm.
Grappling with Ptas
Grappling with Craig 

A mix or mixed martial arts?

Has everyone else got it wrong?

Been thinking recently about how most people train in MMA in terms of the disciplines they study under the MMA umbrella. For most it consists of boxing, muay thai, wrestling, jiu-jitsu. There has only been 1 website I have where these individual disciplines are not taught as individual arts or even talked about with any real significance.

What is special about Promai is that the learning is geared towards all around improvement of the individual. I looked at Bisping's training schedule recently and consisted of 2 hour slots of said arts in the first paragraph. This is the way most people train. I believe that Promai is at the cutting edge in terms of training approaches coupled with the unique yet logical naming convention.

Each class is a clear example of why Promai is positively different from other martial arts and MMA schools:

1: Techniques are taught around concepts of movement. Recently we looked at the takedowns against the lead leg then how that could be applied to passing the defending legs of a grounded opponent.

2: Movement is taught in phases of range. Standing, clinch/takedown, ground. There is no wrestling class or boxing class. The curriculum has been developed (and is always evolving) so that as students we do not need to rely on memory of hundreds of techniques and counters from each art. For me I am learning sound positional mechanics. I am not learning how to box or wrestle. I am learning MMA which we know stands for mixed martial arts. Much of what I see on the internet stating to be MMA is in fact a mix of martial arts.

3: Technique naming convention: I am becoming better as a student in all aspects of MMA because I understand what I should be doing with my body. I generally struggle to do it well but that is the joy of the journey. My ground game has improved because I am cognisant of what should be where as opposed to pulling of a Peruvian Necktie, an axe kick or a German suplex.

4: Hard work and effort. There is no place to hide in class. You put in what you get out. To my mind all work extremely hard to improve themselves.

5: No ego. When training in BJJ there were some people who I did not want to roll with as they just had something to prove and would go for fast and dangerous submissions with people below their level. I was injured several times (lower back, knees) in the jits class because of over zealous training partners. Last week I took two meaty shots to the head but understood that both times there was no malice involved, just good hard training. I have trained in less honest systems, ones where it is difficult to prove your abilities as the sparring is not full contact, and so ego can be massaged and inflated. Everyone in the class at Promai is respectful to all others, there are no cliques or students getting special attention or even a lack of attention. Years ago I used to train with my good pal Jonny under Joe Hubbard in the Scientific Fighting Congress. There were others lads in the class who were favorites and unfortunately treated as such. I have seen and continue to read of this bias practise elsewhere in the martial arts. Glad to be out of that loop.

6: High quality instruction. The ways the learning is broken down and developed in second to none. As a teacher by trade myself I have seen many examples of inadequate teaching. Being good at a skill does not equate to being able to pass on how that skill was developed and improved. Thankfully, Lee and his senior students are most capable educators.

To conclude, Promai is a true expression of mixed martial arts. I believe Bruce Lee would be proud and jealous. Efficient and effective combat at all ranges and no political bullshit.