Tuesday 13 May 2014

Class notes: Punch resistance, deep forearm and controlling the centre

It appears Ayyaz had the hump with me for such a short blog post last week. I even managed to disappoint his daughter with my measly paragraph. Don't let the word count of a blog entry be a reflection of your excellent leading the class. You did a top job Bruv.

Martin is back from his Vegas trip and more importantly his running up the Rocky steps in Philly.

Punch resistance for the right cross and left hook.

Partner gives the palms up to offer resistance to test and refine the structure, alignment and balance of these punches. I find this a very useful tool as it finds gaps very quickly even though you are punching in slow motion. Tonight for me the key was the shoulder. In the right cross is the punch coming from there and am I aware of this area and not just thinking about my hand. For me, thinking of the shoulder helps to centre everything and all other checks come from this location out. I can then check my left hand, rotation and extension of the shoulders, turning of the hips, weight in the feet.

And the same self analysis happens for the hook. Martin talked about the direction or position of the elbow in relation to the punch. The best way for my mind is that the elbow is the final link in the chain of the punch. Generally the wrist is straight so depending on the height or angle of the forearm will depend on the angle of the fist. If you had a broken arm and were wearing a cast you cant bend the wrist so the elbow will always be delivering the punch at the correct angle. As always it was nice to put time in to get lots of quality reps. In addition, maintain the full motion of the punch and that is ending up in a pulling motion back towards yourself. On a final not make sure you look at your feet and check you are pivoting on the balls. Have a look at where your rear heel is on the right cross and front heel on the hook.

3 drill:

New addition of detail on the basic roll: the forearm. Shift the idea of a backfist attack to that of a forearm strike. Using the forearm with get you deeper in on them and set up more opportunities for head control and the hit through the centre. Because you are giving a deeper and more penetrating energy their defensive will have more energy and thus a chance to feel where to go from there.

Looking for the arm drag, DWL and head control from the drill.

I was working with Slippers and we thought the best or only way to find a way in was by entering with an inside gate lap. After some brief experimentation Martin showed us to get in from the forearm attack followed by a pak and punch. Using the pak hand you can enter for the DWL or the arm drag. As the centre is tight be smart in getting what you need. To get the arm drag lift his wrist and your other arm will slide to his bicep for the arm drag.

Head and arm choke come from their chop. Pull with the pak along the powerline of the chop and shoot the arm in deep. To make the choke secure reach the arm though by turning the thumb up. This will give you a few more centimetres. Before you squeeze make sure it is secure because if you tighten when it is not tight, you won't finish the technique. Take your time, be in control and get rid of any gaps. Use your free hand to pull his head to again a few more millimetres of space to close it off even more.

Control the centre to find the arm drag and the DWL.


This was a great drill whereby you have your arms inside his at the wrists. We worked on turning to dominate the centre and slip off the arm drag and DWL. Working the DWL with Martin I got some good refinement points. My apologies if these only make sense to me as I am visualising what we were doing - looking down to see he has an L arm.
If when applying the DWL his arm is straight you get it to bend by simply going for a wrist lock. This will cause the elbow to bend. I tried to fight the pain of a wrist lock by making a fist, this gives you a little more time and control of your wrist before he starts goosenecking you.

Workman Sau number 2: I think it was the following? If the DWL does not work then switch to the shoulder control then back again to DWL. Don't break your grip. Slide under his arm to get your palms on his shoulder. Keep the grip of holding your own wrist. This one definitely needs lots more repping even though Slippers was trying to tear my arm from my torso.

Head and arm on the floor - weight, squeeze after it is tight and on. L shape. Climbing over using knee slides and monkey mount.

Boxing hands - the jab and pak (perv) drill, then countering with the right hand over the left. Almost like a mini pak but it does need to be one movement and small, When throwing the jab try really hard to have the head lower at the end of the punch than at the start. When attacking use broken rhythm so the work is more alive and not predictable or mechanic.

Standing grapple sparring to get sweaty and end the evening working hard. Martin gave me the green light to use the fifth limb - the head which I was more than happy to oblige. Again it was about controlling them, dominating grip and position. It is also about being tight, relaxed and always moving. I can imagine that if I was still Ben and Ron would break me in half so I need to keep applying pressure and movement to them to avoid a mauling.

As always, a great session. Even more important is what Geoff Thompson talked about in a recent podcast. Find areas of your life where things are difficult difficult. I love the fact that I fond everything in class hard and that the only way to get better is to put time and effort in. Make mistakes and learn from them. Love it.

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