Week 76: muscle compression submissions

Week 76: muscle compressions

Nice heat inducing warm up: cycling through the 4 main takedowns in a free form constant pressure format.

6 submissions: these are all high risk and low success rate submissions.

1: bicep compression from pre elbow extension in sitting side control: top arm under (through his elbow crease) and same leg crossing over into what looks like a triangle or figure four position. This is because you are better balanced here as we'll as the arm and leg tie up works better from here. Small part of the forearm near the wrist bone will be digging in nicely to the bicep.

2: bicep compression when opponent is in turtle position. Side back control and wrist control on his outer arm. Feed the other through as you dive over and elegantly face plant. Squeeze the knees together ( your shins will now be on his torso and neck respectively) making sure his arm angle is straight from the shoulder to the wrist (whilst folded) to complete the compression.

3: side control to leg attack, as if hunting for the knee extension. They cross their legs to prevent to submission so you manipulate the heel, lever the forearms. This causes his lower shin to be compress his lower calf, if fails then the knee extension is there.

4: calf choke from back control: pass the lower leg around the neck and secure with the other hand, fold the foot onto his shoulder to secure the position. Lean forward as if rolling over his head. This will cause tremendous strain on the front and back of the neck and when released coughing and gagging might occur. This for me was the grimmest of all the submissions this session. The most pain and panic. Horrible.

5: shin choke from centre control: pass the shin onto his neck, weight towards the foot or you will get rolled. This one finishes quickly. It looks like a simplified gogoplata from mount.

6: centre back control, ankles crossed into lower calf compression. This requires some manipulation of his legs to get them in the right position. Crossing the ankles is a no no anyway so hopefully of he is doing this then he won't be too aware of the attack coming his way. I made this very foolish mistake early on training in BJJ and the guy I was fighting with, in class and 4 days before a big competition, took advantage of my position and chose to put his leg over my top ankle. This resulted in my knee being messed up very badly after an audible crack followed by an involuntary howl from me. Point is be careful with the knees. They can go quick without any pain warnings.

For the drills part of the class we did the following rounds:

Stare down into striking sparring rounds - 10 second stare downs whilst going through our key words then 30 seconds of sparring applying our words. We did about 12 rounds.

Greco clinch to takedown. No lower body attacks allowed.

Clinch and takedown using legs such as trips and sweeps.

Clinch to full takedown into submission

Week 72: One small step for man, one giant leap for me...

4 basic takedown drilling: the single hip capture, double hip capture, single and double leg. When drilling it is important to keep the pressure always on them so they are being controlled by you. Pressure does not mean always forward.

Forearm and bicep suppression (the lion killer)details. We spent a few minutes getting the mechanics down on a kneeling partner:
at least the wrapping arm to get the elbow under the chin by driving the shoulder forward,
arms are relaxed,
other arm with back of hand on the head,
head to head,
turn the muscles on from relaxed and this should enable to technique to finish.

Circling footwork. This was a very specific drill to practise attacking when the partner stops circling away from your rear hand and almost squares up, you can then attack with a crisp flurry.

Freeform grappling: A good hard couple of rounds with Craig and a big fella who likes competitive shooting (sorry for not remembering your name). Worked with Craig on how to transition from bottom and half bottom control to the knees. We also looked at how to not slide over the head when in back control with the person the floor in the turtle position.

Big glove striking: Standing and on the ground. This is the giant leap for me where my fear of receiving and giving head shots began to diminish. Seems like such an odd fear or hang up to have in this sport but it is something that has been lingering deep inside for many years. As I trust Craig I thought I could be brave and perhaps a little bit stupid and not defend all of the head shots, to see them coming and to allow them to come. It was horrible but my mindset was simply what is the worst that could happen? A broken nose? A KO? And if they do happen then what? Well I simply carry on with life, maybe with a few less brain cells but stronger psychologically for overcoming some hardship.

I must thank my caring instructor for not allowing me to nurse my bleeding nose in lieu of the conditioning end to the class. "I don't care if you are bleeding Paul, get yourself over here!" So with my little red Hitler moustache I dragged myself through some proper tough conditioning whilst leaking DNA on the mats.

Week 71: Shoulder control from the ground

Single leg, single hip, double hip and double leg takedown chain grappling. Keep the pressure on be that movement in any direction, just make sure that the head stays in contact with the torso then the chest pressure on his legs. Gaps equal opportunities to escape so give him none. As this was the first session of the class it is surprisingly tough on the legs as the quads are always turned on. When the quads are working so is the heart.

Shoulder control takedown from knees: Secondary grip on tricep and pinch down with your elbow, step your knee in front of his knee to create a barrier and pull him over that as you follow into a high angle side control.

Shoulder control in side control: Use the shoulder to pin his shoulder or face to the mat, use the head to keep the gaps tiny so there is no room for him to work an arm in for underhooks.

Escaping side control by getting to the knees using lat control: Firstly you need to create space as if his side control tight there will be none. Push the head or angle your body away to create a gap between his shoulder pressing down and yours. When the gap appears work the arm in and through for the underhook and most importantly is to turn to your knees as quickly as you can. From here wrap the arm around and grab a hold of his lat muscle. This will enable you to pull on it for 2 effects.
Number 1, if he braces against the pull then you have a solid structure to work against to get the legs out from under him. Number 2 is that he pushes back into to you so you simply roll him back over you. Your forearm will be against his hip so you are pretty much effortlessly using his structure to sweep him. Very little power is needed, just his applying his momentum against him. Morihei Ueshiba would be very proud of his concepts being applied in the real world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98yRuBkUBGQ

Put this link in for no other reason than historical purposes

Bottom control escape with shoulder control: I think (cant quite remember) it being similar to the side control escape...

Bottom control super grip shoulder control: Over the trips so the shoulder is forced down and the elbow pins the head to prevent movement. Lee referred to the rubber guard and the relation to this movement in that you can isolate and pin the shoulder here and look for transitions and submissions too. This is something I am going to explore as I do enjoy the work of Mr Bravo but my hips struggle to fully express his ideas. Having the same concept but using different tools is a great eye opener for me.

Submission hunting grappling: I worked with Ivan and the drill was to get a submission in 2 minutes. One person looking for the subs and the other simply defending. Lovely drill

Week 68: body swaying

Thankfully with a purpose and not in some drug induced metronome fashion. After a warm up from Milzy on a bloody cold night with got down to some clinch drills to increase body temperature in preparation for work to follow.

No grip clinch fighting.
Grip clinch fighting.
Fighting for the single leg. Seb was his usual relentless and effective. I got very tired very quick and managed bugger all. One day Seb, one day...
Fighting for the takedown from the clinch.

Main part of class was looking at using the body sway in striking range as a defensive manoeuvre to trigger an attack from it.
Sway (without moving the feet) out of the way of the head shot and use the returning body motion to attack with. The attacker uses any type of attack to the head.

This drill developed into the sway followed by:
3 hand strikes
Kick off the front leg then 3 strikes. Kick off the front leg as the weight is transferred to the rear leg as the sway happens meaning the leg can be lifted and used to strike with.
Movement now allowed but same idea: defend with body motion and minimal footwork then attack with a combination of up to 5 strikes using any of the 8 limbs.

Aggressive attack posture (always moving forward throwing constant attacks) v standard attack posture (lateral footwork and counter strikes). Did this for several long rounds which really taxed the stamina. Key points are stay relaxed in all motions be they defensive or attacking, control the breathing. First round I worked with Will and second round with Chris where the pressure and pace was more intense. This was the first time that I could move constantly forward and throw attacks. Chris was really good at moving and countering which meant visually my eyes kept squinting so it was good to get used to going forward and into a stream of punches

Ground and pound in bottom control: 2 very tough rounds with both fighters striking, constantly. No holding or submissions allowed.

The main. Class ended with a mad Milzy ab workout which was tremendous.

Post class I grappled with Mishel who is strong, has an excellent base and very aggressive. Then I grappled with Ptas which was nice and to and fro until something in the back of my right knee made a horrible loud pop. Thankfully not too much damage has been done. In addition it was nice to work with and old new face in Phil.

Tonight was a step forward for me to exercise some of the demons from last week. I needed to face some hardship tonight and gladly came out the other side feeling a sense of accomplishment.

Finally some exciting news on the future of promai was talked to us tonight by Lee. More to follow in a few weeks when the all gears are in motion.

PS. Thank you to all the training partners for their patience, guidance and pain

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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 25: striking plus strength and conditioning

started the session by studying combination striking. What follows are what I remember the combinations to be.

7 (lead hand hook punch) - 2 (head height rear hand punch)-round kick to the thigh

1 - 2 round kick to the thigh.

Superman punch - 2 lead round kick. Then changed the combo by altering the kick at the end of a front round kick

1 - 2 - knee then front kick, off both legs. More of a leaping front kick using the first knee to develop power and momentum in the front kick.

5 (straight lead punch to abdomen) - overhand right, clinch, round knee to the thigh followed by rising knee to the face.

Combination building:
Each partner taking it in turns to attack with a combination of shots. The following attacks were called out and they had to be used in your combination.

3 rounds using each: round kick to leg, elbow to body, outward punch.

Strength and conditioning
Leg kicking footwork drill with Milsy. Only allowed to use footwork to evade, no blocking or checking. Keep eyes up, hands disciplined, Got mashed to pieces. Picked up some movement tips from Milsy in terms of faking, twitching the hips, attacking after my attack.

6 attack drill: Again with Milsy. Round kick to each leg kick, round punch to each arm, left and right punch to the abdomen. This is a psychological drill. Lee emphasised no matter what pain we were feeling we must not show it on our face. Don't give anything away. I found this particularly tough with the legs kicks. Either my thighs are sensitive or I am a big tart when receiving leg kicks.

Press up x 8, j partner jumps over you as you press up, when done roll onto back to receive 8 belly punches. Did several rounds of this. About 9 sets.

Leg raises and belly punches as the partner pushes the legs down to hover height over the floor. Legs must be kept straight at all times. 3 set of 10.

Static holds. cross legged, back against the mirrors, elbows against the mirrors with upper arm parallel to the floor. Partner pushes for a count of 10 then pushes down hard for a count of 5. I was with Tom who is massive structurally compared to me so it was more of a workout for me than him. Did 3 sets of this.

Running laps as partner continuously jumps on safety mats. Switch on given call. This was the last conditioning exercise of the night, the jumping was particularly draining but great fun when finished. 3 sets.

Free form striking sparring. Worked with Pete. I focussed on the using the combinations taught at the start of the session. Pete commented on how predictable I was. Fair enough but I did tell him I was using the time to work. Pete then gave me some positive feedback about the progress my striking has made, more relaxed. This is all due to high quality teaching at Promai.

Week 24: ground and pound

After the usual exercise we got warmed up with a nice clinching drill. The aim was to secure double under hooks.

Then the real fun started, ground and pound training. One person in bottom control and both people are striking. Person on the top could not pass. Bottom controller was allowed to use legs in any way and set up submissions but not complete. This first several rounds were with big gloves. Was good hard training? Mishael almost managed to remove my face from my head with a left hand from hell to the right cheek bone.

We also did the same drill but with the small gloves and were more observant of contact.

Following this we looked at striker versus grappler in ground fighting. This really did limit the striker even though they had to continually strike from all angles. It did mean there had to be some creativity with parts of the body used to strike plus targets searched for. For the second time tonight I almost lost my face thanks to a meaty knee from Tom in transition of movement.

Final drill of the night was looking at options when going for the arm extension and they escape by pulling out and stacking. The end point was a the leg and shoulder suppression. The interesting details were how this transition was achieved. As the pull out and turn towards you squeeze the heels together and into his back, maintain wrist control too. This leg control is a powerful form of control. Keep the legs controlling his spine and posture, loosen the hand control a little so one can be pulled out and likely posted on the floor. As soon as posted attack with leg and shoulder suppression. With initial control you can apply an arm extension as squeezing his spine with your legs.

Strength and conditioning:
Neck: on belly with partner on your back. They push the head down for 10 as you lift it, then hands on the forehead and pull up for 10 as you look to put it back on the matt. Next they push against an ear for 10 then on the other side. Did 2 rounds of this.

Tricep burner: 10 cobra push ups with partner on your back and over the top of the head. First 9 went down with a 4 count, last one went down with a 10 count.

1 1/2 laps of hall 5 sprawls, 1 1/2 lap of hall a 10 strike combination. Did about 5 rounds of this.

Push ups

Sit ups with 2-6 punches at the apex.

Good hard and honest session as usual.

Week 17: Fun and games

As this session was the last Monday of 2011 we 'played' lots of sparring games after some initial technical work.

The session began as always with warm up followed then by some striking combination work led by Pete.

1-2-1-2-6 (6 is right body hook)

1-2-low lead round kick-2

1-2-lead uppercut-2

1-spinning back fist-4-neck clinch to knee

We then had to string them all together in one long combo but taking out all the initial attacks except from the first one. Feels like a nice flowing attack phase.

Fun and games:

Free form sparring stand up in opposite stance to our natural one.

All against all free form stand up sparring.

Paired all against all free form stand up sparring.

Boxing sparring from the knees.

Boxing from the knees all against all.

All out (strike and grapple) free form sparring on the floor with eyes closed.

Free form kicking sparring.

Team line up sparring.

Tag team free form ground sparring.

So as the year ends it is time to reflect. I started the year happily training hard with at the Workman Wing Chun Academy. That closed and my path led me to the ProMai crowd. Martin is really pleased for me and knows how much I am growing training in MMA. If Martin ever starts teaching again he will open an MMA class and my heart will really be split as I feel as if I am learning and being challenged on a session by session basis with Lee and the lads.

It feels as if I have been with ProMai for longer than the Autumn term. Before each session I get the rugular dump of adrenaline in anticipation of what awaits. I enjoy working hard and learning new ways to use my body and refine those I already know.

There is no greater martial truth than MMA. You have to work against a multidimensional non compliant human. What other martial art system offers such an honest weekly challenge?

Week 15: Compression submissions

Grappling night.

There are 5 types of submissions:

Suppression: Either side of neck stopping the blood. 10 seconds or less for a result

Choke: Front of neck on throat stopping air to lungs and brains. Harder to pull off as it is dependent on how long they can physically and mentally hold their breath for.

Extension: Looking to cause dislocation of elbow, knee and ankle joints.

Rotation: To ball and socket joints.

Compression: Using your bones against the soft tissue of their body causing lots of pain.

So tonight we looked a 3 compressions as they are the most advanced, hardest to be successful wife and simply the submission type that is least focussed on. From my perspective I have never done them before and not really done to me so they are not on my radar, until now.

Calf compression from top centre control: Heel to heel under their legs, feed one instep over their thigh, manipulate the arm to extend above their head to give them extra things to think about. Turn towards your feet and ensure your shin in tight in behind their knee and calf. Look to grab the foot and pull towards yourself. Your shin bone will compress the back quarter side of their calf causing plenty of distress. Key is keeping weight on them throughout the transition to the leg to avoid escape.

Bicep compression from top centre control: Feed an arm across his neck and put your weight on this. Already this is an unpleasant feeling from the bottom position. Secure your elbows on the floor either side of his head, palms on the mat too. Same side as arm across, feed your arm through the armpit on to the side of his face so that your palm is on his ear. Now move your elbow back onto his ribs to apply pressure to the bicep. Now grip palm to palm and turn the hands to the sky to finish the compression. If not working you can put the top hand on top of his forearm to cinch it in even tighter.

Calf suppression from sitting centre control: Sitting on his belly turn towards his legs and drive the forearm behind on of his knees. Then use your other side leg to trap your arm in position. Then use your other leg to complete the hold. It looks like a suppression (triangle) of your own arm and his leg. Fall to your shoulder and turn the forearm towards the soft tissue of the calf. Tight and nasty.

Free form grappling sparring: With Lee. His is very good at using his weight on the chest. I felt quite proud of myself tonight as I found myself in this position several times and never tapped from lung expiration. Tough times. Several times I went to turtle position to be defensive but hoping that a mistake or gap will appear for me to take advantage of. Of course non came. At one point Lee wrapped arms around my belly is suplexed me backwards. A damn horrible sensation. In the debrief he told me that it is OK to go to turtle but not for as long as I was. Instead look to explode up with positive posture, then in if need be and relax back into turtle. Then had a usually tough and fairly even grapple with Pitas.

24 hours later I am a wash with bruises and there is not a muscle that is not aching. It feels good to be alive.