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 70: shoulder control

This session was the first split session in that part 1 is syllabus work and part 2 is drills and sparring.

The syllabus section was focussed on shoulder control from the clinch and on the ground.

We started by simply practising the correct positional mechanics for shoulder control: eyes to the centre of his head driving with the forehead, shoulder clamped tight with same arm elbow tight and down, take a secondary grip with the other arm and strong base so your legs and knee position are disrupting his.

Shoulder control with pummel escape and elbow strike: As he attempts to pummel out if provides you with an excellent opportunity, if timed well to elbow strike at close range. Elbows for one reason or another are something I am to keen on practising with, probably because of their simply destructive nature but perhaps I need to start thinking about when they can be used as a striking tool.

Shoulder control with leg trip and takedown: This works as you move him around and his stance goes long and skinny. As you sweep the leg from under his hip, pull down on the shoulder, as if you are pulling the shoulder down to his hip. Having no base or balance means he should go to the floor with you following him closely into side control.

Shoulder control with single leg capture: Change the level and literally slide your face down his torso as the eyes need to stay up to promote a positive and strong posture. Reach through and around both of his legs as your chest should now be pressing into his hip and thigh, both palms facing down as you grip hand to wrist with your elbow crease behind his knee. Lift high.

Shoulder control with bicep cricket bowl escape: Thrust your bicep into his tricep which will cause his shoulder bones to lift then bowl the arm straight. It feels like you are using your skeleton and not muscle to perform the action whilst disrupting his skeleton. Similar to the leg trip takedown talked about before, you are affecting his structure which is a much harder thing to defend as muscles don’t do anything to stop the motion is done correctly.

Side control outward arm manipulation: For me this was simply horrendous. My shoulders were ready to tap out even before the tiring of the arm happened. When in side control and working on the outward arm it is important to control it. By wrapping your arm under it so that the point of your elbow is on the ground this elevates his arm so that only the hand is on the floor. As previously stated, in itself this was not a good place for me. Lee had us simply making the arm tired, swapping our arms over to feel the wrapping on different sides. The sooner this was over the better for me. I guess the point is other people have similar shoulder tension so time to hunt for this position more in side control!

Rear heel lifted against striking and attacking on the counter:

Stance change against the leg kick and counter with strikes:

Knee attack against the double leg shoot: Can’t get my feet to move properly as I was so aware that me knee was going for a skull. It was only Craig so no worries but I can’t deform him too much…

Free form grappling with Craig

Side control striking to standing escape with Craig, Joe, Simon and Seb

Week Bill an Ted's favourite number: front body clinch

Boxing rounds. Rocked up 10 mins late and my karmic gift was a messed up nose care of a feisty Simon. This was a good pain and panic lesson for me and timely as on the way to training I was talking to Craig about fears and the worries of stand up, that of being hit in the nose. Took a heavy one tonight and over the last few days wearing glasses has disguised the mess but slowed the healing process down. I am not saying I enjoyed the experience but it was not as bad as feared. My problem is of course work and the appearance of facial markings at some point is not going to go down too well

Boxing and looking for the knee tap from squatting (as in changing levels)
Takedown from knees which evolved into takedown and pin from knees.

Lee talked about never wanting to wilfully give up your back and when it hits the floor there is a second when you can bounce back up to the knees and then standing. See UFC 156 and this was used by firstly Benevidez and then Fitch. Obviously this always goes on but only now are my eyes open to it and seeing how an effective defence it can be rather than the temptation to pull guard (bottom control). Whilst Fitch ultimately lost the fight he sustained very little damage have his back taken for the majority of the fight. Primarily as he is a master at defending from that position but also the attacks are limited. Yes he was taken down and controlled easily, in the relative sense that you have Maia on the back, but he was not on his back for long and looked to pop up to his knees quickly.

Front body clinch: elbows pressure into the sides as if squeezing the lats. Having this done turned you more into a rag doll as your posture is controlled with greater ease. So how do you get out of the double underhooked front body clinch? One way is to get the pummel in when double undercooked by stepping back and turning the shoulder into the opponent. This should create a gap for the arm to swim through, then swap sides to repeat to establish your own under hooks. The key point here was the turning or driving of the shoulder into the opponent as this disrupts their base and grip to a greater extent.

Front body clinch fighting. Simply fighting for position. It still amazes me that watching the UFC how few fighters use the head as a controlling limb in clinch and grappling. Being a smaller man I find it an invaluable asset when in close as it has the added bonus of aligning the spine in the correct way too.

Front body clinch lift from double hip capture. God damn horrid. Rag them around and when the hips get close change the level and drop down for the double hip capture and lift, looking up to the ceiling.

As above with knee sweep to avoid the inner forearm choke or some kind of monkey style guard play.

As above into double leg, head on same side as leg forward for square symmetry

Small glove free form double leg shooting practise x 2 rounds

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 67: inverted side control

Lazily I made these notes last week after training and have not made the time to add the details to the sub headings. Below is what was covered in the main class plus from my perspective as usual.
Transition from side to inverted
Downward shoulder rotation with the leg
Own leg grab with head control
Elbow extension with pushing the shoulder down
Arm trap with leg for striking opportunities
Free form grappling with Craig. Big moment for Criag as he pulled off his first sub against me; a swift and nasty inner forearm choke that I defended poorly and he deserved to get.
Free form grappling with Will plus strikes
Standing free form
Boxing only
Body shots only
Kicks only
Clinch in to takedown
Freeform grappling with Mishel
Charlie's invented submission from a triangle defence.

The main point for me tonight was that this was the first striking class since the break and I have nicely gathered up all my old fears about striking (being loose with the attacks, being tense and defensive and fearful of punches to the face) so was quite disheartened. I felt that towards the end of 2012 I was doing well to conquer my demons but how quickly self doubt can creep back. Hopefully next week I get a chance to grow through hardship.

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.