MMA striking 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 striking section:

STRIKING:

Prone heavy bag striking working from all the grounded positions possible.

Kicking: We moved into kicking only and straight away the range becomes greater for obvious reasons. I tried to work the concept from last week of using the round kick to put the body in what the opponent should perceive a s a weak position then launch attacks from there.

Landed round kick:
• Outward strike (turn the lead foot to begin the motion, follow with the hips and then the arm)
• Back elbow (shift weight from the rear to front foot as you thrust the elbow strike to the face)
• Back kick (lean the head away, pick the knee up right up to the collar bone and extend out with the strike)
• Spinning back strike

Faking the low kick (use the eyes to look down too) as you throw the rear hand to the head.

Long range striking: Round kicks to the thigh, checking round kicks; if they continue to check then attack the rear standing leg; Use footwork to evade out of range as well as to step into the kick. Both mean you don't get hit where the kick is at it's most effective and powerful;

Attacking with the rear hand when the kick comes in.

Round kick then front kick drill. Only allowed to defend with footwork. Round kicks attacking the upper legs and front kicks at the torso.

Movement away using feet no hands: The point is Lee is showing us why moving back in straight lines is rubbish for so many reasons. When you are not allowed to defend with your hands the feet certainly work much, much harder.

Head movement = flat feet so go for the level change: At this point Lee made reference to the fact that if an opponent is moving lots, his head is still on his shoulders and if the head is bobbing and weaving continually then the feet will generally be more planted.

Low hands v walking down striker: to circle away from someone walking you down with quite wild punches and your hands are down.

Ridge hand to thigh

Double punch

Single leg shot spinning elbow or high reverse elbow

Mirror striking shadow boxing with specifics inserted: body shots, head shots, knees and elbows, sprawls, push ups, double knee whilst maintaining.

Footwork round kick drill: shin pads on and round kicking delight to our partners legs. No checking, blocking just evasive footwork combined with eyes up and tidy attack position hands.

Hitting the rear side and countering with 1-2: This drill lasted for several rounds. Attacker had to attack the rear side of the opponent and the defenders job was to counter attack with a 1 – 2.

Footwork for evasion no head movement: One partner attacks with anything and the defender needs to simply evade by using footwork and keeping a disciplined guard. Head movement was also prohibited.

3 for 3, 2 for 2, 1 for 1: As it says on the tin. Each throws said amount of strikes and the idea is to limit the time between defending and attacking.

Try to throw first attack as they finish their final attack. The last drill (1 for 1) was essentially fighting in the proverbial phone booth

Bag striking whilst being grappled Tenacity drill In the fog of war.

1-2-1-2-6 (6 is right body hook)

1-2-low lead round kick-2

1-2-lead uppercut-2

1-spinning back fist-4-neck clinch to knee

Jab – jab – uppercut

Jab – jab – uppercut – rear knee

Jab – jab – uppercut – rear knee – front elbow and out

Jab - Jab - Rear cross – knee

Jab - jab- rear hook - round kick

Jab - jab - rear hook - spinning Backfist

Jab - jab - rear hook - round kick - spinning backfist

Head movement from partner feeding straight punches. Simply getting used to integrate the torso.

Head on belly from striking: A challenge of getting your face on their belly in boxing sparring. When done they need to sprawl as a punishment.