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.
No comments:
Post a Comment