25/9/18 and 27/9/18: Boxing basic and mixng thai combo's and fakes

I ran the class this week while Steve is on holiday. I found running the sessions quite challenging as there is a gap between the beginner grades and the more experienced and trying to organise a session which combines the two groups and allows me time to support each group was tricky.

That being said my thought process was to work on fundamental skills with the beginners to give them flight time (which are the building blocks of the rest of the skills they develop), while the more experienced reviewed what they already know and see how they can combine them. The Thai pad drill had mixed success but I think it is something that can be tweeked to have a better effect, However the more conditioned rounds, based off some simple patterns and adding variety, seemed more effective and with a more obvious "take away" for everyone.

Just reinforces how good Steve is at teaching, how much further I still have to go, but also that I am able to blend what I know and I am definitley getting better at observing others small errors and correcting them (and catching them in myself!)

25/9/18

Warm up:

footwork lonero style - bouncing on the spot, using that feel of motion to move forward back left and right, box pattern and pivots

Beginners:

Jab defences :

1) catch and immediate jab reply
2) slip followed by uppercut and hook
3) split entry (using slip motion, jab to head or solar plexus)

essentially building on the motion of a slip and importance of getting out the way and using the parry to support the evasions not relying on the hand to block

In pairs: one person jabbing at forehead (keep chin down and hands up) every so often slip the jab. then we added slips to cross, bob and weave hooks

Pad work:

 Jab, slip, cross, slip, jab cross, bob and weave lead and rear hook

Experienced:

The idea of this session was to blend defences and attacking first by drilling all the defences they could remember off of a jab catch drill focusing on a variety of:

jab defences, cross defences, teep and round kick defences

We then attempted to apply these in a long thai pad round. not smashing the pads but using the pads to enhance technique while finishing ready to counter/defend an attack - pad holder called combos and then responded with a  steady pace

experimental thai pad round lasted for aout 5/6 mins:

essentially the pad holder calls out combo's to hit, but also feeds attacks which the striker defends and follows up with ABC. focus on not over committing and balance and being able to use what we know.

using pads as a target not hitting hard

All:

lock flow first four - all grades supporting eachother.


27/8/18

warm up:

movement patterns (box pattern, pivot, lstep moving forward and sideways and moving 45 female triangle)

into a routine of fwd, back left right, back to middle then 45 right, 45 left back to middle pivot x 4 left (make a circle) L step x 4 right (make a circle)

Beginners:

Cross defences (off jab cross feed)

1) parry (keep hand high, rotate body don't push hand too far across or pull down almost keep your arm vertical like a pillar.
2) split entry (focus on slip motion to evade and get off line while,after catching the jab, almost following their jabbing hand back in order to hit them)
3) salute (again slip motion and then using salute to off balance and drive forward)

we then mixed these up using a cross loop drill to practice the defences (default was the parry) to get flight time and to get the defences "out of motion"

Pads: 3 min round

jab
jab cross
jab jab cross
jab cross cross

also some discussion about throwing the jab and cross from the shoulder without dropping fist first or "telling" the blow and not over reaching and off balancing. Also keeping your hands up at all times (the Bruce Lee eyebrow brush to tell you your hands are high enough!)

lock flow 1-4 - gradually putting pressure on the locks not snapping them on (and snapping partners wrists.. especially on us old folk!)

Experienced

based on the Thai 4 count

1) rear round kick hook croos lead round kick
2) lead round kick cross hook rear round kick

Then add different punches e.g. instead of lead, cross, hook, rear, could change the punches to: body cross, upper cut (defend punches let kicks land occasionally,)

Fakes

isolating the fakes to drill before adding to the 4 counts above

1) Lead kick to rear kick - fake the lead kick (knee up) then switch to a rear kick (move off line!)
2) Switch kick to lead hook (In change of stance) - sell the switch to prompt a block, use you swinging arm to move a punch or to move the arm out the way to then land the hook) - may need a slightly deeper switch to close the range (or hook to body)

3) Rear kick targeting lead leg - as they lift to check you skip through to kick back leg
4) Rear kick to teep (question mark kick?) - fake the round (keep leg bent) and swing the leg round into teep (need strong balancing leg to help drive)

We then added fakes to the combo.. eg did the 4 count with a variety of punches or did the 4 count with a variety of fakes to keep defender guessing and trying to defend all

Lock drills:

1-16

disturb and lock flow (take time if you keep doing same 2 or 3 locks that's ok but stop and think about what else you can try to add to the flow)

Basic hubud with 4 switched (wave and hack, dagger pass (on the hit) ton sau and chi sau)

20/9/18: 12 count and stick flows, ground and pound and takedowns

Tonight's session was about getting back to basics, working through various techniques and applying correct mechanics.

Single stick:

Illustrimo 12 count

A1
A4 backhand
A3 forehand
A2
Stab
back hand uppercut
forehand uppercut
stab to side of head (your left)
stab to side of head (your right)
Redondo straight down middle
low level A1
Low level A2

We also added footwork to this flow stepping forward and back and also did this with left hand

Defang on Illustrimo 6 count:

feed the following -

A1
A4 backhand
A3 forehand
A2
Stab
back hand uppercut

on each feed hit the hand and then watik the stick

Stick flow:

A1, A2, A1 umbrella to A1

A2, A1, A2, umbrella to A2

add this flow to the defang drill above after hitting hand (we put gloves on and feeder holds stick out for you to hit  - focus on speed and smooth not smashing the stick)

Ground and Pound:

feeder with focus mitts

1) feed jab, duck under jab and drive in, bear hug (there is a better name but I cant remember it) and knee pinch into take down. land in the mount on top of pad holder. 6 hits on pads (not too much energy as you don't want to over balance) then lop one arm and elbow, lop the other arm and elbow. repeat for 3 min round (and thinking about how to move off them in control with knee on belly)

2) this time pad holder takes you down with same takedown as above. they are in mount position and start to hit at you with pads. cover up and keep head off floor. after 6 or seven hits you return fire and hit the pads for 6 hits. once down you stay down for 3 mins doing this drill (this is an ab killer who needs sit ups)

Take downs:

1) Off jab, parry and eye strike with lead hand. wrap arm drive in (stepping forward) with head next to their head. free hand grabs shoulder, step back and drag down. once down hammer fist to head, step over and then branch down arm/shoulder wrench)

2) Off jab, parry and eye strike with lead hand into lop and then cross. move into figure 4 lock and throw/takedown. knee on head and ribs and the keeping elbow tight against you lift up into wrist lock

3) Off Cross, Over hand, uppercut, arm break on shoulder. keep tight grip and bob and weave under arm and pivot as you twist writ to take down. when down put one leg behind head so they can't twist away, place the palm of their hand on your hip furthers away from them (and a slight step away form their body) keeping tight grip twist body and apply wrist/arm/ shoulder lock.

4) Off cross, cut punch over cross to turn their head, lean straight over onto arm bar (try to get this on straight away) take down by falling on arm (but with parent go down slowly with bent lead leg then support with one arm. take them to where you want them.. stretch them out/pull them into position. apply arm lock on ground if arm bends can turn into wrist lock.

There were lots of little tips tonight, how to punch on the ground so you don't over balance, cutting elbows so you aren't falling over onto the floor to just hit the person, maintaining torque and pressure through the locks and takedowns.

I was also becoming more aware of my partners energy. for example with doing one of the arm bars I could feel how solid they were and that I would not have been able to lock out their arm. I used the pause while I was thinking (which you can do when you drill) to visualise going with that energy and turing it onto a figure 4 (or another lock which works on a bent arm).

I know for my personal journey I am trying to tighten up the things I know and make sure I am nailing the techniques I am learning steo by step. But I also feel that my awareness of some things is expanding and I am looking at exploring variations of technique in that, if I am trying something and the resistance is significant. I am able to switch to something else that will be more effective. again something to focus on for me in drills when I am able to (which means when I am confident I can apply something effectively and smoothly in the first place)

13/9/18: Muay Thai variations and a little stick

Tonight's session continued our focus on Thai defences. Over the last few weeks we have been building a repertoire of techniques/skills which we have gradually been challenging through uncertainty (in a build up to chaos and sparring).

In pervious sessions (see older blog entries) we have worker thai defences off the lead round kick combos and started to build some options against this, and we continue here with the rear round kick option.

I must stress that action is better than reaction, so it's always better to get the hits in first...but... your opponent is a moving target and they are not just going to let you hit them. So having some frame of reference for what you are going to do no matter what your opponent throws at you (tested under pressure of course) is going to be more effective than having no options (or too many).

Warm up:

Shadow boxing

Isolating drills

Round Kick
Jab, round kick
Jab, cross, round kick
Jab, cross, hook, round kick

Tips: twist standing leg on ball of foot with a "hard ankle" to open you hips, get the hip over when throwing the kick, use the arms to help swing the leg, step off the line with the hook.

Thai defences:

All off the jab cross hook rear round kick combo

The point of these variations is that your opponent that you don't really know how what they are going to throw or how many hits/combo. We started with variation 1 (detailed below) as default but if (when) you don't managed to pull this off (too close, too fast you miss etc) you have other options you can flow into. usual rules apply... hands up, movement, focus etc etc

1) Teep: whatever they throw (in this case the jab... throw a rear teep (and follow with rear round kick)... keep your hands up in case they move too fast and get in before your teep lands, or have a really long reach.

They jab to fast and you don't manage to pull the teep off

2) long Parry the jab and using the same hand throw a cross (step forward and off line) follow with uppercut and cross (or any ABC)

The cross comes too fast or you miss.

3) long parry jab and cross and lean back on the hook to make it miss then "bounce/shuffle" forward and follow up with cross hook and round kick

you don't manage to lean back on the hook

4) long parry jab and cross, thai cover the hook, check the round kick (block with shin), follow up with rear knee, into back sweep.

we drilled these in isolation and then applied them in any order with partner throwing the full combo without stopping and you trying to apply these and make alterations depending on if you pull them off or not

Pad rounds: circle of death!

6 stations. 5 of which had thai pads 1 had focus mitts.

Round 1: on thai pads you do jab cross hook rear round kick, on focus mitts you do jab cross hook cross. Hit pads until you are told to change to next station. we went round every station, no idea how long we did this for.

Round 2: on thai pads we did rear round kick pyramids (1,2,3,2,1), on focus mitts we did, jab/ jab cross/ jab ross hook/ jab cross/ jab... again went round every station only moving on when we were told to.

Stick work:

5 count feed (A1, A2, A3,A4, A5)

1) hit sick and then zone off throwing A1 and A2 strikes
2) hit sick and then zone off throwing upward A1 and A2 strikes
3) hit sick and then zone off throwing abenico

Stick choke/strangle

insode sweep off angle 1, check hand, throw the hand away and abenico to head, stab stick past head and slide to opposite side. reach free hand just behind head close to neck, grip stick and squeeze (like a scissor motion. when it hurst .. and it will... tap on your partner to tell them to stop... or they won't!

11/9/18:Muay Thai and Arm lock flows

This session was looking at functionality. A couple of interesting points were raised.

1) The Muay Thai square stance - is actually really practical for "the street" you have all your weapons available and  you are practically in a fence position. (plus most likely you will be in a pair of jeans so longer "stances"/bouncing around may not be as effective or practical)

2) Pads - you don't have to kill them and go a hundred miles and hour, the pad holder does not have to feed endlessly in rapid succession. The pad holder is NOT helping anyone doing that. It is FAR better to do high quality, technically sound combos at 70% max to make sure you get it right 90% of the time... 20 quality reps as opposed to 50 shit ones! then as you get more comfortable the striker can up the speed and power, but slow down a tad when the technique is going pear shaped!

Warm up:

Shadow boxing

Muay Thai:

continuing with the jab, cross hook, rear round kick combo form last week, adding extra variations to defences.

1) out of range, full extension punches and whip (spin round) with kick, stepping off line with the hook.

2) in range as above, defender using long guard to cover and let round kick hit thigh

4) as they jab throw a rear teep (knee up first and drive out through hips) and rear round kick (mentality of no matter what they do you are driving that teep through them!... just remember to keep hands up to cover just in case!)

4) Parry jab, then as cross comes use the hand that just did long parry to throw a cross with a slight move off line and stepping forward (deep), follow up with upper cut and cross

We were discussing range and making sure when you hit there is a slight bend in the arm so that you are hitting through the target in stead of being fully locked out on impact.

Pad rounds:

2x 3 mins

1) jab cross hook rear round kick
2) rear teep to push them back, step forward slightly off line and rear round kick

Note: Balance - especially important when kicking. Make sure that after you kick you land in a balanced position. Just do single kicks on pads if you need to practice. I find that if I can throw a decent cross after I have thrown a kick I have landed in a good, strong, balanced position, if I have to adjust, I have landed too narrow or wide. This is why you have to work thet pads intelligently - yes they help power and stamina, but they are for APPLYING your technique, and if the pad holder is "sparring with you" you will not be in a position to defend their reply effectively. Practice and drill for the best "effective" technique you can, so that when things speed up and become more chaotic your responses and attacks, although not technically perfect, will still be effective and allow you to move.

Arm bar flow:

1) Partner throws lead hook, drive in with elbow cover then wrap over arm into arm bar.
2) This does work, so let slip through to 2 on one (driving shoulder just above elbow)
3) They bend arm. so move into "cut the chicken" ... keep arm vertical as you put lock on to drive them down.

Then I added..

4) single arm clinch - reach round with free arm (wrapping round ead to opposite ear), fingers into neck/jaw, head on head and use head to twist and throw into the ground.

flow is then repeated on the other side

6/9/18: Making trapping work - hiding it in plain sight

Tonight's session involved taking a classical element of the martial art and making it work. AS has been well documented by now, trapping works and it is used all the time. Just look at a boxing or MMA match and you will see it. It may not look traditional but it is there. Trapping, as I have stated before, is a moment. One beat in which you remove a barrier in order to hit your opponent. That's it.

The ART of trapping is immense, with huge variations and moving from trap to trap to counter to trap again. That is a game, and a really fun game. But if you want it to really WORK then you need to get out of the game mentality and into the... get this out of my way so I can thump you mentality!

As usual, we took a concept, drilled it in isolation in order to understand the mechanics, then added some randomness to it before sparring with it.

The traps:

We looked at 4 trap variations:

1) Pak and hit - slap their lead blocking hand with your rear hand (at the elbow pushing slightly down and towards them!) - follow up with a vertical fist punch (forward pressure and you only need to move their guard slightly out of the way to get the hit in)

2) Lop and hit -  reach lead hand out and pull their lead guard forward and down. with a slight step off line throw a cross (vertical or horizontal fist)

3) Inside pak and hit - slap the inside of their lead arm out of the way with your lead hand and follow with a cross.

4) Outside pak and hit - slap outside of their lead arm with rear hand and with the same hand on the half beat throw a cross (a  bit like skimming a stone over water... bounce off their arm to punch)

We also did this against a south paw stance (we stayed in right lead) the techniques are the same you just have to switch which hand is doing the pak and which is doing the punching (this also helps you to learn to do trapping against the cross.)

Tips: forward pressure, make a gap just big enough to get a hit through, very slightly moving off line if needed

We did these individually then we mixed them all up on a static partner.

We then drilled these with the partner feeding a jab (in right and left leads)... just learning to apply.

Trapping Sparring:

Sparring let us play with timing and application of trapping in motion. Timing of the trap is REALLY important. there are 3 ways you can use the trap using timing (and some of the traps are more effective in different timings)

BEFORE partner attacks - basically crashing in with your trap (I find Pak hit and Lop hit good here)
DURING partner attack - as they attack you trap their hit and respond (I find inside and outside pak good here)
AFTER partner attack - as they withdraw their attack you follow and then trap and hit (I find Pak hit and Lop hit good here)

The traps are tools to ADD to your sparring NOT something you would always do. if both of you are "trapping" at the same time there is very little sparring and it basically ends up in a clinch/grapple.

To functionalise the trap we did BOXING SPARRING - jab only. We both boxed... With all the footwork, head movement etc. that includes, but one partner was allowed to include trapping and  focus on the timing of application (amongst the single, double, triple, fast, slow, fake and really put in jabs!) while the other person did all they could to hit you! (which also forced you to box as well, make sure your hands were up etc... after all you don't need to trap at all if their hands are down!)

Essentially, we were hiding the trapping in the boxing, keeping each other honest by both throwing jabs, not "waiting" for one.

Thai pad rounds:

Just to kill us off - thank you Ian... we owe you

3x 3 min rounds

1) jab cross hook rear round kick
2) jab cross rear elbow rear knee
3) rear round kick pyramid (1, 2, 3, 2,1 repeated)

Basic knife defences:

based off of the statistically most common types of knife attack (which for your info are: the straight stab -with or without a grab by the free hand, an angle 1 slash or and angle 1 stab in ice pick grip, and a VERY occasional back hand A2, but you need to practice all angles as you don't know what hand the knife is in!)

1) off A1 - block with blade of arm and same time hit to throat. twist knife arm across you (keeping your elbow in tight) slight pull to off balance, then use pad of hand between thumb and fore finger to strip knife and feedback.

2) If no time to put hit int....Off A1 - block with blade of arm and hubud with other arm pushing knife arm up and over.. pull back to off balance, feed back knife under arm pit. to strip the knife use the "cup the boob" (thank you Bob Breen) hand grip, twist the wrist and strip.

3) If too fast to "block" - Off A1 -  use back of lead arm (in right lead) to scoop (inside their knife arm).. scooping down and into them.. scoop round into wrist lock number one (try and pick up the knife hand before it gets too high or they will cut you).. peel out knife in ice pick grip and feed back.

Tips: MOVE, get off line, off set with slip pulls and move away from their free hand which will probably be trying to hit you.

As always LOADS to work and incorporate. thoughts and comments welcome as usual.

4/9/18: Thai boxing: Creating Order from Chaos

This session was dedicated to Thai boxing, specifically looking at certain skills sets/techniques and "making them work"

Warm up:

Shadow boxing  - we used the shadow boxing to focus on specific skills, isolating elements and then combining them all.

1) evasion (footwork and head movement)
2) jab only
3) 3 hit combos
4) constantly moving forwards (slide step, step slide, shuffle, step 45 etc)
5) defences off jab and cross
6) defences off hooks
7) 2 steps back then either pivot, L step or shuffle step
8) mix it all up against imaginary opponent

Discussed slight variation in stances if boxing (longer) and thai boxing (shorter, hips up and smaller movements)

visualise a lot in showdown boxing and use it to "spar"

Thai boxing:

Feeder always doing jab, cross, step off hook and rear round kick.

Defences:

1) long parry jab and cross, thai cover the hook, crunch the round kick and reply with a round kick

2) long parry jab and cross, Simultaneous cover hook and lead elbow hit (Driving forward), follow up with elbows.

3) Long parry jab, hard parry and salute the cross to off balance, elbow the arm and then head

4) Hard parry the jab into salute, elbow the arm and then head

We drilled these in isolation and then started to mix them up gradually adding one at a time until partner would feed the jab cross hook and rear round kick 4 times and you would use any of the defences in any order.

The key here is that the "attacker" is going to throw their combo no matter what and it puts the defender under pressure. It also shows you how "quick and direct" you need to be. e.g. we all struggled with the cross defence. however the purpose of this was to see if you can make it work, work out what is not working and the adjustments you need to make to make it work. Also to acknowledge that it might not be the most effecting technique in that situation but it may work in others in a more efficient way.

eventually we did this in a semi sparring situation 1 for 1 feed instant reply after partners defence.

It goes without saying that distance is key here.

Conditioned sparring:

why conditioned sparring?

3 reasons:

1) It isolates a technique/s so that you drill it in action
2) It helps to functionalise it - have you got distance correct, are you landing with it, are you defending accurately - you quickly notice what isn't right and so you have to adjust.
3) If forces you to think - everyone has their go to combo's, by doing this you are forced to work without your back up and to make each technique work or to think of new ways to use those techniques.

various rounds and conditions:

1) jab only
2) jab vs cross
3) jab and rear round kick only
4) jab, cross rear round kick only

(though we all ended up doing extra random stuff by accident... although if you are a certain mr Darren Black it was no accident!)

General thoughts:

I felt throughout this session I was "thinking too much"... My head is so full of footwork, combos, moving off line, driving forward, hunter not hunted, make sure hits land etc etc that I was fighting myself as much as my opponent.

It certainly highlighted to me that I have certain "favoured" responses and putting conditions on them made me have to think far harder than I should have had to. It did also highlight that each hit individually needs to be "better". For example in the Thai drill when I was feeding I was really focusing on making my hook short and land (and fight the urge to change my hook into an uppercut when I saw an early and wide hook defence!). In the sparring I felt my round kicks loose their technique and not be effective. Distancing was too far away and the bloody flinch away from everything response was coming back putting me in all sorts of rubbish balanced positions.

So the question is, how do I correct these?

Obviously, more sparring and chaos condition drills, but also the shadow boxing sparring I feel will really help to sharpen my "responses and counters"

There is also a place for pad work sparring to help build the "letting go" aspect of the striking and well as defending after throwing committed strikes.  It will also help to build conditioning too. I am not sure that you need to go "all out" when hitting the pads doing this sort of pad sparring?... but it certainly allows you to work harder... maybe incorporating 10 second bursts of full all out hits then back into pad sparring?

one final thought.. the mental aspect... sparring is an opportunity to not be compliant and test yourself... again something I am working on is the "stay the fuck away from me" mentality and making sure I am playing my game and not responding to what my opponent is doing. But it is still all done with a smile on your face! ;0)