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)