MMA clinch syllabus

I have gone back through my MMA blog and broken all the learning down into sections. I trained MMA for 18 months, 2 sessions per week. This is not chronological, simply listing. Hopefully there are no duplications.

Here is the clinch section:

Shoulder control (underhook)

Arm control (overhook)

Both sides then Switch sides

Learning points 3 points of pressure contact at all times.

Primary grip neck clinch: This is one of the 4 primary clinches. The optimum choice is 2 primary grips but we looked at a primary and secondary grip (wrist control). Key learning points with neck clinch:
• Eyes up
• Pressure through the head and strong neck posture
• Drive through his chest with your elbow
• Affect his balance with your lead leg
• Strong base and positive spine.

Double neck clinch:
• All of the above with the addition of:
• Use chest to deliver pressure.
• Chin on top of his head.
• Squeeze the elbows together.
Progression was into moving into the side @90 degrees perpendicular for single clinch, deliver 2 or 3 devastating knees then step away in stance ready for action.

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.

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.

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 lift from double hip capture. 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.

Head control into inner forearm choke.

Defence against inner forearm choke: first job is to look up and get the spine positive and drive up. Failing that, turn your face towards him. As Lee put it, “Sniff his side”. This releases the neck slightly and will mean he will need to go to option B, details to follow. As the head turns to face him, drop your level and try to take side control and snake the front arm behind his knee. From here you can lift quite effortlessly and spin into a slamming takedown.

double leg takedown inside the opponent’s guard. Head needs to go on the belly between his elbows rather than on the outside of his torso. We worked on taking a long step and getting the ear on his belly. In some ways this is an emergency technique and good for when you are under striking pressure as a go to. The hands go on the backs of the knees but should not clasp the knees together. Instead think of continuing your forward motion and sweeping the legs out of the way. If you stop, as I did repeatedly, and then try to lift, scoop or move then the technique is much less effective. Your motion is key to this working more effortlessly and effectively.