39/5/18: Syllabus work,Thai pad pad cardio and double stick

With gradings looming this session was focused on continually drilling those aspects of technique and application that need a little fine tuning (as always!), everyone split into pairs and worked on their own syllabus. I was partnered with Charlie this session and working through his Purple shirt syllabus (we do t shirts not belts),  so I am sorry if I have missed what everyone else was doing!

Warm up:

Shadow boxing - I had tweaked my leg/hip on the weekend which men standing in a orthodox stance and throwing a cross actually hurt/pulled on my left leg. So I tried shadow boxing in south paw stance and bizarrely had no pain(?)... so even if you have an injury there is usually a way to train around it without aggravating it. (until later)

Syllabus work:

Leg flow - starting in 50/50 thai clinch - lead leg knee to inside of leg, rear knee to thigh, lead foot behind their lead foot and push shin on knee to lock leg out, then use same leg to sweep/pull back. Then stamp on knee with rear foot. come back to stance and hop step to the side and use heel to of rear leg to hit back of knee. Off set shoulder and go lead hip past their hip for a hip throw (drive your lead leg between theirs). Come back to stand in front of them and off set shoulders the otherway -step across so your rear hip is past their hip and hip throw again putting leg between their legs. Come back to centre put rear foot between their legs and pivot so you are now facing same way as partner in right lead - sweep your lead leg back to take their lead leg away form them.

We also played with some hand wrestling, drilling various wrist grabs, strips/defences of these into elbow control and defences, into pummelling and looking for dumog drags and getting into the clinch. The key concept here was to drill it slowly and look for reference points. repetition of drilling it this way will allow you to "feel" when you have the right moment to change your attack, go for a clinch or defend something. I find focussing on one move (e.g. dumog drag and ONLY doing that for a while) helps me to see it everywhere. I can then add it into the flow when we are mixing up wrist/ elbow control and then into pummeling. We explored some ways of getting into a clinch, dumog drags and some defending of the clinch. This is a really nice game to play with a partner and you can gradually build the resistance one you understand how to apply a few techniques.

Thai pad rounds (Cardio improvement or death!) - all rounds 3 mins and 45 second break

1) Jab cross hook rear round kick
2) cross hook cross lead round switch kick
3) Lead round cross hook rear round

so yeah... hips were on fire at the end of that! and I think we wre all pretty gassed. Pad holder needs to keep motivating the hitter, coach any errors in technique and control the pace... we are BUILDING cardio.. not killing eachother.. so go at a good ace, push it a bit when needed but also allow partner a little recovery and to re focus... what are you learning if you are so gassed you can't even throw a kick/punch? That being said.. even if you are gassed... keep throwing!

Double stick gintings.

As a reference - the stick in your right hand is ALWAYS hitting the hand, the other stick is helping to block/pass the stick

isolating the guntings (scissor motion)

1) whether it's an A1 or A2 do a closed to open gunting stepping off line as you do. from an open position go into any 3 count odd series combo but remember to chamber your other stick under your armpit as you do the first hit.

2) off A1 open to closed giunting stepping off - follow with a Redondo with the stick you hit their hand with. Then go into odd series - as you hit (left hand) remember to chamber your other stick

we then drilled this with a left and right hand feed doing A1 and A2 off each hand and using any of these guntings

3) off A3 open to closed right hand stick hitting hand other hand passing.. as above-Redondo with the stick you hit their hand with.then go into odd series - as you hit (left hand) remember to chamber your other stick

4) Off A4 closed to open (right hand stick ON TOP of left hand stick.. then go into any odd series combo but remember to chamber your other stick under your armpit as you do the first hit

We then drilled these just of left and right hand A3 and A4 feeds

Putting it all together - from a 5 count feed we did the following

A1 - open to closed then odd series, A2 closed to open then odd series, A3 Open to closed then odd series, A4 Closed to open then odd series, A5 (stab) Open to closed then odd series.

So body taxed, brain fried.. good stuff as always! - as always thoughts and comments welcome.

22/5/18: Boxing - polishing the techniques and building cardio with Thai Pads

Simple but DEEP. A really fun session taking some "simple" strikes, tightening the technique and then applying them. The aim for this session was to work a variety of 2 hit combo's, getting range and technique right and then being able to deliver them in such a way that you opponent doesn't know what you are going to throw, and even if they manage to block or evade the first shot the second one WILL land. Like everything, this has so much depth and you could spend years just developing this skill set.

Boxing Combos:

In pairs each taking turns

1) Jab, Cross - partner catches both hits with same hand and keeps other hand out straight which forces the puncher to keep elbow down on the cross and not flair the elbow.

2) Double Jab - as above to help puncher not flair elbow on the jab

3) Jab, body cross - partner catch and elbow parry the bpdy shot, puncher bend knees and lower whole body on body shot.

4) Jab, lead hook - I find this one the most tricky as I always feel off balance on the hook after the jab. Essentially you put the jab in... don't fake it, then with hardly any pull back you lean you body forward, keep your elbow locked and throw a tight hook aimed at the jaw. This is REALLY effective when you get all the mechanics right

5) Jab, wide cross/rear hook - put  jab in then wide cross/rear hook around their lead arm guard.

6) Jab, simultaneous step off 45 with rear leg (to your right), body hook - block vision with jab (keep it in their face as you step off 45), trap arm with your jabbing hand and rip in body shot.

We then mixed these up into any order we wanted and did "turn taking sparring" one person attacks the other defends, then swap... 1 for 1.

TIP: once we started getting the feel for these we started to tighten things up further. for example after a few double jabs we then did a jab lead hook... but made the lead hook so tight it looked like a jab so partner didn't know what was coming. Also focusing on making sure the second shot landed (if not both) really helped focus the offense

Thai Pads - Cardio Killer

We all need to be "fit to fight" cause technique and skill goes to shit when you are tired plus you can't react or do anything and there really is nothing like Thai pads for helping you build the cardio and letting everything fly. When Cardio improves  the pad holder can start "sparring with you" to keep you switched on and improve cardio further. please,, please please remember to breath (I will take my own advice one day). This is  the start of a gradual progression. we are starting with 2x 3min rounds and will build up over the weeks to 5x3 min rounds.

Round 1: jab, cross hook (stepping off), rear round kick - 3mins

Round 2: cross hook cross, switch kick (lead leg round kick switching stance)

Syllabus:

we then split into groups and worked syllabus stuff. James and I worked a little on Numerada with a Knife (angles striking families and range) and double stick guntings (right hand stick hitting angles and striking families including getting brain fried trying to add the odd series into the flow!)

As also comments and suggestions welcome.

10/5/18: Thai kicks and Take downs

Tonight's session was about isolating some techniques, drilling the mechanics, working on some defences to these and applying them. Throughout this we were focusing on our stance, guard, not giving a tell before a kick and using the eyes to focus on the whole body not just the legs.

Warm up:

shadow boxing slow smooth with full rotation and body mechanics to warm up

Thai Kicks:

Teep - lead and rear -  lift leg (bent) and drive the ball of your foot forward with your hips driving like a spear NOT snapping the kick - coming back to balanced position. (partner used as  a target... aiming at stomach and thigh)

Teep defences:

1) elbow brush off - twist body and you use your forearm/elbow to deflect the teep trying to be on the outside of the kick (you need to crunch body not lower arms)

2) Knee crush - lift knee to your centre line and opposite elbow to your knee. As above you want to brush the teep off target. your knee crush will INSIDE their kicking leg

3) Shift off scoop - shift off 45 to the outside line and use your rear hand (depending on the side you shift to) to scoop they foot (catch the ankle) - try to lift the leg to off balance them. Most important part is getting out the way!


Thai round kick - hard ankle, weight on ball of foot, pivot the foot trying to make it face the opposite way, bring leg round with your hip, hit with shin and keep hands up and you kick. Come back to balanced stance

Tip: when "trading grapes" (thai bounce) use that to hid your "step" basically stamp in place instead of stepping forward before your kick. As it looks like you are just carrying on moving on the spot the step is hidden (just a thought)

Round kick defences:

1) crush - leg out 45 left or right leg. lead leg can also cover left or right side

2) evade - move your lead leg back and shift your hips/butt back

3) grab - moving in the direction of the kick grab the leg into the crook of your elbow/armpit, then pass it and reply with a kick.

Kick sparring:

Kick for kick - hands up, eyes on whole body, don't let partner set try to land kicks... do kick for kick and occasionally do defences practiced and counters... if getting too chaotic get back into a rhythm then "spar again".... only allowed to use teep, round kick, jeet tek. 1 min rounds with everyone swapping partners.

Take downs:

Off jab:

1) duck/slip and jab to body, drive forward with shoulder the get round to back of body, hip control, pivot round to their rear arm and dumog drag down. Keep hold of arm standing up, stamp on head and step through (into a lunge position) their arm between you legs their head on your rear calf. pull arm up... walk away with soggy end of snapped arm!

2) Outside parry rear hand, eye strike lead hand, use eye striking hand to lop their jabbing arm and simultaneous cross, figure 4 arm lock into take down. Keep hold of arm, knee on belly and head and lift up on wrist with both hands (wrist lock)

Off Cross:

1) Lead hand scoop into single clinch (drive oin close wrap hand round to ear, your head on their head and control free arm with your rear hand), twsit their head and drive with your head to take down. Knee on belly and hit then escape!

2) lead hand scoop, cross, same arm elbow, pivot of to side locking arm in crook of your arm and controlling their neck. soccer kick to head, twsit their head under (where you are) and hold onto arm. stp over and stamp on head, knee, knee, step over again (their arm between your leg their hand resting on hip, twist to lock arm.

(sorry about descriptions again not easy to describe)

To further develop this you could to some "controlled" sparring one person feeding jabs and crosses and other person trying to apply a take down.

8/5/18: Playing with concepts long and short range, hook defences and stick and dagger flows.

Tonight's session was all about long and short range. It is often easy to get caught in no mans land, which happens to be right on the maximum leverage point of a punch or kick. We worked on defences with the focus of either making sure you were at long range (OUT OUT) or short range (ALL IN). In this way working at dictating where you were taking the fight to and making sure you were away form their power or inside the power where the impact will be significantly less. Of course combining this with good mechanics and movement so you are not standing on the X (right in front of them)

Warm up:

Shadow boxing, smooth mechanics and full body motion.

Hook defences:

All off a jab cross hook feed:

1) Catch jab, parry cross, wing block/Thai block Hook (default if you forget everything)

2) catch jab, parry cross, shoulder/bicep stop the hooking arm (full extension of arm (stiff arm) free hand covering face, step off line away form hook (to keep AWAY) follow up with ABC

3) Catch, parry, Bob and weave (include a step off line so you are outside the hook. the step off as you bob and weave will either put you AWAY from them (outside line away form direction of their weapons) or will have you ending really close to them (ALL IN) - your shoulder on them. you can follow with ABC depending on range you are. but make sure you move as you bob and weave or you will end up popping up in front of them and getting hit!

4) catch, parry, CRASH (rear hand elbow driving forward towards their face, lead hand covering their rear hand/shoulder) it is important to go ALL IN.. drive straight at them, crash into them the high elbow and covering lead hand will give you protection as you crash in so even if you went early or they threw a different combo you would still have some cover as you close the range.

We drill each individually then mixed them up into any order

We then added one extra technique off the jab so the defender could then choose when they wanted to go. and added this to the mix

1) Off jab, outside parry with rear hand simultaneous step of fwd 45 (to change leads), lead hand eye swipe motion but reach round to back of head/neck for an outside clinch. follow up with knee to ribs with rear leg

Pad drills: CIRCLE OF DEATH

4 stations 1 min per station, don't stop high work rate pad holder coaching partner is needed:

1) Cross hook (holding pads L shape so long cross and having to rock back for a short tight hook)
2) Jab cross hook
3) Jab, body hook head hook
4) jab cross, (slip a cross/step off right), cross

Stick and Knife:

Broken up into sections to develop the flow. 2 slight variations:

1) A1, A2, step off 45, stab with knife, hit stick (stick follows round under knife hand), stab with knife (stepping fwd with rear leg as you do) your knife should be pointe at partners head and their forearm against t yours. - then stab low and back up high - from here one partner twists hand and stretched to cut face, slide knife back along their knife holding hand and using  a pinch grip lock wrist step off line and extend their arm towards you. Strip knife using back of your stick holding hand/but of your stick. AS partner tries to hit you with stick use your stick to punch through (cabiata) and hit their head, then stand your stick down to belly, wrap your knife hand round their stick and then strip (hard to describe but everyone did it really well)

2) as above and then  AS partner tries to hit you with stick use your stick to punch through (cabiata) and hit their head, then use bot h hands to drive stick down on their shoulder, then with both hands punch it at their neck, reach round the back of their head with knife hand and grab other end of stick (your arm behind their head, stick in front of their neck. Hold their stick arm and stretch out into a choke

again this flow works on ideas of crashing in or extending and being off line.

Lower grades worked on A1 and 2 being at long range and hitting hand or Crashing through using the punching through / Cabiata motion so that they have a choice of how to defend and avoiding as much as possible being at the maximum velocity part of the stick!

As always thoughts and comments welcome