Class notes: striking combinations and side control work

So tonight was my first at Promai in 18 months. I had felt nervous all day in anticipation. Would the leg hold out? Would I be able to keep up with everyone? Hopefully at the end of the class the answer to both of these questions was yes. It is now the morning after and everything feels ok in the leg so thumbs up.

MMA fundamentals class.

Warm up: Variety of motions and athletics linked to MMA to get the blood and muscles ready for what was to come. Lee did some funky balance and jumping drills on the focus mitt
- single leg balancing, single leg standing extensions, jumping up and down knees high, jump with quarter, half and full turns. Press uo to forward fold and back again, slow and fast press ups, side planks.

Striking combinations with big gloves
Moving in, striking, moving out from the rear leg, aim for the chin not the hands, hands in the correct position when not striking.
1-1-2

2-1-2

2-1-1-2

1-2 round kick

On the pads

1-1-2

2-round kick-1-2-3

The head in the round kick needs to move. So if I am throwing a right round kick then the head will need to move to the left.

Pinning drill form the knees - start from the knees, takedown and wrestle for position. There was no submissions just trying to keep the partner pinned. They could try to reverse the position and pin you.

Grappling class:

Wrestling against the cage, no grip flow. Not being static and keeping the hips away and concave spine. I felt having when with my back against the cage I could use soft arms to feel and direct my partner's head without too much energy expended. I was just flowing with his movement, something that we have been working on in the other martial arts class I go to (Workman Martial Arts https://www.facebook.com/workmanmartialarts)

Side back control, with a leg on the inside Phil Davis domination from UFC 179 over Glover Texeria

We worked the basic position but we had a leg through his leg and we then hooked it behind the knee for a figure 4 control. We then looked at breaking the arm down, applying shoulder pressure, staying no more then in the centre of his back to avoid being rolled. The key was the shoulder pressure which had to be felt. It was something Georges St Pierre dominated Nick Diaz with. It was a small but vital detail that I had noticed before but will be something to watch out for in the future.

Side control far arm manipulation: getting the head up, inverted triangle, hips over the shoulder, you can face plant, go for the elbow extension, downward shoulder rotation. Tight with the inverted triangle is key.

Free form sparring with Craig and Lee. With Craig i went for a head and arm but he cheekily turned it into some type of knarly neck crank. I then managed to secure a triangle from my back which he rolled to his back and I finished from top position.

Lee got me three times with a triangle, arm extension and then a downward shoulder rotation (DWL) with me face down.

Was great to be welcomed back.

Week 80: Bye bye toe nail ripping matts

Level 1 syllabus work:

Knee wrap takedown

Hand trip takedown

From the wrestling perspective
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cupxfAoNhwA

And from the MMA perspective
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5waObMhn9-E

Cycle between the 2

I sat out the above due to a right knee made from honey.

Side control arm manipulation.

Side control battle.

Inver back control submission; inner forearm and bicep suppression, forearm choke, elbow
Extension:

Hands only sparring

Hands v feet sparring

Knock down ground and pound with Darren. Amazing how quick fatigue starts to set in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTP1WQickPo

After the above drill on this video is some freeform ground fighting.

Conditioning drills interspersed between drills tonight were all done for as many reps as possible inside the 2 minutes.

Back support ups – back support into table

Boat to butterfly pulses – sitting leaning back, straight back with legs extended tat a 45 degree angle. Pull the knees to the chest then extend the legs straight again.

Superman pulses – lying on the front, knees off the floor and legs extended, arms out to the side and pulse up and down without touching the floor until the time is up.

For me this was my last session at Feltham Community College. Next week we move to the new facility. Exciting times ahead.

Week 78: MMA basics

Primary grip clinch fighting

Takedown from knee to back pin

Side control escape and reversal

Hand position defence against slaps and using counters

Striking tactics:

Stare down in striking

Grappling freeform

Week77: throws

Week 77: throws

Front hip lift: as with the naming convention it simply refers to the part of the body being used and on occasion a direction. Start in standard shoulder control clinch and the secondary grip on the tricep. Transfer to side body clinch with head on shoulder blade, squeeze the elbow together, thrust with the hips as you look up and lift onto your arching chest. To complete the throw relax the shoulder and dump him on the floor with you in a dominant position to continue.

Back hip throw: first looking at using shoulder control and tricep grip then and underhook and overhook clinch grip as this secures their shoulders. Anyway the first one we looked at was concerning the feet. Initial step is in front of his foot, not past, get your hips lower than his then attack with your chasing foot. That one steps a little deeper between his legs and triggers a fast insert of your hips into his hip space. Lift and throw.

Double leg takedown into calf trip: starting front body clinch, drop and change the level to go for the double leg takedown. Importantly shift the stance back a little to enable you to get the front knee to the floor. From here wrap the outside leg around their front calf and drive forward, keep the calf wrapped and thus controlled when they are on their back, you then move into your next positional transition.

Sitting takedown from side body clinch: step behind his knee so that you are square in your stance. Simply, sit your arse down whilst maintaining your body clinch grip. He should go down with you. Do not turn or rotate him as you go down, trust the motion.

Here is a great video of Rhonda Rousey in an open workout. She pulls off a few of the moves we trained tonight plus some we could never imagine!!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCZ9oUfI568

How to beat Rhonda Rousey? Lee talked about how fighters try to work on escapes from her lethal and Olympic level arm extension, the truth is, as Lee stated that the focus should be before she can get you into this position. Out wrestling her in the clinch appears to be the key. Time will tell. She is technically so superior it might be a while before we see her bested.

Headhunting in big gloves v tactical small gloves: the fighter in small gloves uses smart footwork and tactical striking against wild aggression. Interestingly smart footwork enables a calmer and more focused mind and thus more effective use of the strikes.

Free form striking: as it says on the tin.

Wes' injury: Wes suffered a horrible injury tonight to his knee. I did not see what happened but only heard him in pain and prone on the floor. I did see the effect of the injury which was a patella west of where it should be. I only hope he heals quick and gets back to training soon. Accidents happen in sport and our despite the chaotic nature is relatively bereft of bad injuries. Rugby and football is far more frequently seeing nasty injuries.

The rest of went to the new facility for a Crossfit taster session. Below is what we did 2 rounds of. Matt, the owner of Crossfit Ivy kindly guided us through.

Crossfit: bad day at the fight
Burpee get ups
Kettlebell double hand swings
Dumbbell push-ups
Box jumps
Medicine ball throws
Slam ball
Plank
Thrusters

If I was 20 years younger...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ElHq13QiNA0

The new space upstairs is going to be the home of Pro Mai. Looks great and the future is very exciting.

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 75: boxing progress

Speed grappling: constant movement and flow, looking for positions, sweeps, reversals, escapes and submissions but none being applied.

Single leg takedown clasping from shoulder control: level one work so basics being empathised through repetition. I was speaking to my father in law this morning about how skills are learned in terms of time. He has been coaching gymnastics most of his life as is up to date in terms of sports science research. Latests research suggests that you need to perform an action about 300 times before the neural pathways make the action automatic. In my experience that does not mean perfect or non spasmodic.
Lewis Smith, the Olympic silver medalist on pommel, in his training history it has been calculated that he has done 800,000 double circles on the horse. My point is that for me going through the basics repeatedly is key. It is no good having a poor foundation. So to practise clinch into single leg is something I can't do enough. Getting the knee hassle, the proper grip in primary and secondary right, head control then chest pressure when changing level, correct hand placement followed by correct lift technique is crucial. Just as in most physical endeavours, MMA requires complex motions. Unlike most other sports we have to learn then apply techniques under considerable pressure with another not wanting us to. I used to hate takedown training when I was doing BJJ as it was not broken down into component parts. Now I like it as I feel like I am learning and not bumbling through whilst getting smashed to bits.

Knee trip from shoulder control: sat this out as lateral knee pressure would cause me pain. Nice to watch though. They then worked this into knee trip nudge into bowling out.

Boxing with Lee: Lee was attacking with a range of strategies such as aggressive, regular (whatever we call it...), straight arm robot style, waving arms no structure style and all with lots of pressure. I tried to keep circling as learnt last week, range of attacks and not get knackered. Hard mentally and physically, violently nurturing.

Side control sweeping from underneath, working the arm in by turning both ways. The drill for the person caught in side control was looking at the different ways of moving to create space, to work an arm through for an undertook, to then either sweep, escape or take the back. As this was a continual rolling drill, when the undertook was achieved the top position player applied forward chest pressure giving the player underneath the chance to feel when to sweep.

Side control arm manipulation and wear out: using strikes and submission attempts to get the arm tired. 1 minute on each arm then swap over.

Moving and circling: in the standup phase we need to get used to circling away from the power hand, then deciding when to attack. It can be when the aggressor steps square and across and the combinations attacks can be done.

Lead hand only, rear hand only, rear leg only, front leg only. Using single tools or sides of the body in insolation to reduce the telegraphing. Feedback was given by the person on the end of the strikes. The strikes were thrown from movement and not in static stances.

Toe to toe with Craig: working in incremental percentages, not blocking too much as getting used to getting hit is an important part of the training as is throwing attacks when strikes are coming in.

Free form standing with Phil: technical and 20%. It was nice to have an opportunity to work lots of movement, timing and striking creativity.

Tonight was a fabulous session and I only wish that I videoed it. I would like to watch back the tear up that was Joe and Mischel and we only heard it.

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 66: session 1 of 2013

Tonight was a mix of drills primarily focussed on the ground. After a good strong warm up from Joe we moved into a 4 station carousel of partner drills.

1: using the wall to escape a ground position. Start in side control and fight to get to the wall and attempt to do what Bisping does best; wall climb and escape. I personally found this incredibly tough from a technical perspective as I had never done it before. I tried to remember and visualise what I have seen happen in the cage with varying degrees of terribleness. Thankfully I enjoyed the challenge.

2: prone heavy bag striking working from all the grounded positions possible.

3: eyes closed free form grappling with no striking but submissions. I really love the eyes closed grappling as it works on feel and helps me to relax more as one stimulus is taken away from me.

4: big gloves free form grappling, no submissions and striking only. Nice to hit in the face again after such a long break.
It was nice to spend lots of time working through these drills.

There was a brief interlude when Seb, who celebrates his birthday this weekend, got a group beating. Happy birthday mate!!

The next part of the session was free form grappling with only one person attempting submissions. When the sub is on we had to tap, the sub was then slightly loosened thus giving us a chance to work out an escape with pressure. I started off with Joe with was great as I had not yet had the pleasure of grappling with him and this is week 66!! Joe was nurturing yet tough so lots to take away from him. Secondly I got Milzy which is another great way to start the new year. Typically tough task master as usual but no so much that I needed to use the Farsi swear word he taught me last year. Finally I got Charlie but we only managed 10 seconds before time was called.

The class was then split. The main group work on stand up into knock down simulation into free form (I think). Me and a few others were asked to work with 4 new lads on takedowns from the knees. The aim being to get anywhere from arse to shoulder on the mat. I began with Pete who I believe has a background in Judo. Nice strong base, aggressive in the clinch and decent balance. Kept working hard too. Next we moved into free form grappling with submissions so I partnered with Dan who has a good centre of gravity and is strong. We rolled well, he had good positional awareness, used his weight well and was tenacious. Hopefully they will continue to come to class.

The final drill was stand up free form. When Lee called ground we then used striking from the knees. This was a fast paced drill in that the length of each round was short. I teamed up with Ivan who is efficient, precise and aggressive.

After class was finished did a few rounds of extra grappling free form with Craig. He is coming on really well. His base, control, positioning, defence and attack. I can no longer take it easy as he nearly caught me several time. Very proud of my mate indeed.

Great session tonight after what feels like the proverbial eternity. My ears are burning hot, my back is sore and my face feels like I have been in the sun all day. No sporting activity can compare.

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 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 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...

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 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.