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.