Trist has been doing some extra research and here are his tremendous insights as of late:
This whole video is really interesting to watch although a lot of its not relevant to what we are training. At 7.00mins in Billy starts talking about arm positioning for double wrist locks and arm bars, this then progresses to a few face crank positions, a standing double wrist lock takedown (bring on the mats!) and then at 8:30 he demonstrates the elbow/lever position (this is what I was focusing on transitioning to after establishing the lock and seem to work really well with both Ron and yourself)
Strangely the early part of this vid shows something not a million miles from what Ayyaz was talking about last night but Billy is immediately establishing his own wrist control, also an interesting break from two hands on one arm. The arm drag variations are around 2:00mins, the first is the variation we train and the other two seem more wrestling specific but still interesting from a grappling standpoint.
1:05mins in Billy shows an interesting idea for grapple sparring as a nice way to go for double wrist lock
This is on the ground but check out Billy at 2:05 onwards reminds me of Martin demonstrating good position.
Trist, thanks for all your insights, these videos are fantastic and help to keep us all learning
Showing posts with label billy robinson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label billy robinson. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Billy Robinson interview
Find the time to sit down and listen to this catch wrestling legend.You can download it as a podcast so listen to it in the car or on the go
http://www.sherdog.com/radio/Rewind-Dave-Meltzer-Billy-Robinson-2645
http://www.sherdog.com/radio/Rewind-Dave-Meltzer-Billy-Robinson-2645
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Class notes: Get your shirts off
We started off by discussing clothing in a street fight. In Martin's experience, getting rid of at least the coat if of great importance. If they are bigger and longer they can really mess up your movement potential and base. Martin also discovered that the classic wing chun punch does not work against this type of attack as your angles and range are all jammed. He said it took him 3 failed wing chun punches before he realised to turn the shoulders and start throwing right crosses.
Getting your shirt off: So don't be shy about bravado as this will give him nothing to hold onto. Especially the coat. It is almost one of those things that seems so obvious yet never taught or spoken about. This was the first time I had ever heard of going bare chested as a viable strategy. Last night when I got home I began to watch street fight videos on youtube. Most of them are clips of brutal KOs but when the scuffle happens, so does lots of grabbing. So it makes perfect sense to not give them that option.
Fighting with grips:
So what do we need to do if he does have hands on us?
Firstly, try to feel the strength of the grip as he can't have a tight grip and throw heavy shots with the other hand. This is mechanically very hard for the body to work in opposition like this. Conversely, if he has a loose grip then assume that heavy shots will be coming your way.
Hand under the knuckles: Get under the of fingers of the hand that is on you and bend the wrist with your free hand. We looked at going into DWL and striking with the elbow.
Striking from a gripped situation: chin down and feel.Have your palm on his chest as this will give you a gauge of his distance and movement. Hit on the counter by coming under or over the grabbing arm.
Grabbing at the centre: pull the wrist into and on your chest so that the back of his hand will be against your chest with fingers pointing up. You other hand will be controlling the head or neck in a clinch.
Here are a few fun clips of hitting and holding at the same time. Whilst our situation might end up looking like this, I do doubt it as
Hockey fight
A classic between Don Frye and Takayama
3 drill: on their chop forward, pull on the elbow along its powerline and step into head and hip control. Keep the head on the back of his scapular and weight on him.
From here backfist to his face, he covers, you snake the arm over the back of the neck for the wrist to elbow lever. Head on his ribs and throw knees to the face. Again keep heavy pressure on him, let him carry your weight whilst worrying about what is happening to him.
Striking on the break: As he starts to escape, which he inevitably will, and fight for space you need to decide when it is time to let him up and attack. It is too late when he has escaped as he will be better set to attack. As you let him out charge with HQ footwork and throw hands. This will be tremendously difficult psychologically for him because he is under constant pressure from your grappling then striking attacks. Hopefully someone under this pressure is reacting instead of pro-acting.
Breaking the hands risk: A very real fear and concern of mine is my little boy hands and inability to land sustained blows to the head of an opponent. Martin did say that there is a good chance the hands will break when hitting skull and facial bones, regardless of conditioning or hand size.
Even the former heavyweight champ of the world breaks his hands in a street fight:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson_vs._Mitch_Green
Martin said that the option is heel of the palm or punching the jaw. Jaw is the fist target. Knuckles to skull will hurt you more than his head.
Pummeling then using the 4 attacks - DWL, head and arm, arm drag, neck and shoulder clinch.
Thai clinch - defend - pull in for head and hip control
Lots of pummelling with everyone. Turning and extending to find the gap in the pummell. Rotate around the spinal axis.
Boxing sparring rounds and incremental development:
Jab catch the ball jab counter
Jabs to the body only, both sides
Throwing the punches and the other simply moves and defends but always thinking about returning fire
Attack with any punches and only defend with movement and the jab
Striking to clinch vs anti grapple and counter striking.
Really loving the sparring and how it is developing. The concept of the protective shell and being defensively minded, accurate in your movement and timing. I feel so more confident and precise since my time in MMA. All the tools I learned in that system are being refined and improved. In addition we are learning a lot more strategy and i find this helps m too. Thinking about strategy prevents me from feeling like a fish out of water. I am interested to see how the sparring will develop in terms of it becoming incrementally 'harder' and lesson to be learned in there.
On a final note, I passed on some wisdom from the class last week to my own students (8/9 years olds). We are currently getting ready for our class assembly and during practise this week I told how important it is to practise really well rather than hoping it will ok on the day. Martin mentionned this last week; in training we should always be trying to perfect our movements as that is what we are there for. Should we need this stuff, how effective can we be if our practise has been poor?
Hope you enjoyed the cartoon violence in the YouTube clips!
Getting your shirt off: So don't be shy about bravado as this will give him nothing to hold onto. Especially the coat. It is almost one of those things that seems so obvious yet never taught or spoken about. This was the first time I had ever heard of going bare chested as a viable strategy. Last night when I got home I began to watch street fight videos on youtube. Most of them are clips of brutal KOs but when the scuffle happens, so does lots of grabbing. So it makes perfect sense to not give them that option.
Fighting with grips:
So what do we need to do if he does have hands on us?
Firstly, try to feel the strength of the grip as he can't have a tight grip and throw heavy shots with the other hand. This is mechanically very hard for the body to work in opposition like this. Conversely, if he has a loose grip then assume that heavy shots will be coming your way.
Hand under the knuckles: Get under the of fingers of the hand that is on you and bend the wrist with your free hand. We looked at going into DWL and striking with the elbow.
Striking from a gripped situation: chin down and feel.Have your palm on his chest as this will give you a gauge of his distance and movement. Hit on the counter by coming under or over the grabbing arm.
Grabbing at the centre: pull the wrist into and on your chest so that the back of his hand will be against your chest with fingers pointing up. You other hand will be controlling the head or neck in a clinch.
Here are a few fun clips of hitting and holding at the same time. Whilst our situation might end up looking like this, I do doubt it as
Hockey fight
A classic between Don Frye and Takayama
3 drill: on their chop forward, pull on the elbow along its powerline and step into head and hip control. Keep the head on the back of his scapular and weight on him.
From here backfist to his face, he covers, you snake the arm over the back of the neck for the wrist to elbow lever. Head on his ribs and throw knees to the face. Again keep heavy pressure on him, let him carry your weight whilst worrying about what is happening to him.
Striking on the break: As he starts to escape, which he inevitably will, and fight for space you need to decide when it is time to let him up and attack. It is too late when he has escaped as he will be better set to attack. As you let him out charge with HQ footwork and throw hands. This will be tremendously difficult psychologically for him because he is under constant pressure from your grappling then striking attacks. Hopefully someone under this pressure is reacting instead of pro-acting.
Breaking the hands risk: A very real fear and concern of mine is my little boy hands and inability to land sustained blows to the head of an opponent. Martin did say that there is a good chance the hands will break when hitting skull and facial bones, regardless of conditioning or hand size.
Even the former heavyweight champ of the world breaks his hands in a street fight:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson_vs._Mitch_Green
Martin said that the option is heel of the palm or punching the jaw. Jaw is the fist target. Knuckles to skull will hurt you more than his head.
Pummeling then using the 4 attacks - DWL, head and arm, arm drag, neck and shoulder clinch.
Thai clinch - defend - pull in for head and hip control
Lots of pummelling with everyone. Turning and extending to find the gap in the pummell. Rotate around the spinal axis.
Boxing sparring rounds and incremental development:
Jab catch the ball jab counter
Jabs to the body only, both sides
Throwing the punches and the other simply moves and defends but always thinking about returning fire
Attack with any punches and only defend with movement and the jab
Striking to clinch vs anti grapple and counter striking.
Really loving the sparring and how it is developing. The concept of the protective shell and being defensively minded, accurate in your movement and timing. I feel so more confident and precise since my time in MMA. All the tools I learned in that system are being refined and improved. In addition we are learning a lot more strategy and i find this helps m too. Thinking about strategy prevents me from feeling like a fish out of water. I am interested to see how the sparring will develop in terms of it becoming incrementally 'harder' and lesson to be learned in there.
On a final note, I passed on some wisdom from the class last week to my own students (8/9 years olds). We are currently getting ready for our class assembly and during practise this week I told how important it is to practise really well rather than hoping it will ok on the day. Martin mentionned this last week; in training we should always be trying to perfect our movements as that is what we are there for. Should we need this stuff, how effective can we be if our practise has been poor?
Hope you enjoyed the cartoon violence in the YouTube clips!
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Class notes: Grappling from the pummel
The class was split in two tonight; grappling from the pummel and looking deeper into the jab/pak drill.
Grappling from the pummel:
The techniques we looked at tonight can be labelled loosely for memories sake, and even now only a few hours later I am struggling to remember all the variations. I think this is because it for me was about flow and not individual moments.
The individual positions were from the Thai clinch:
Headlock take down, Chicken wing, Standing Kimura, Bail out and strike, Two hand to One shoulder control. There was a few more but 2 things stick in my mind, the corrections for the Thai clinch and the concept of flow.
For the Thai clinch we were reminded about weight distribution - have weight in the back leg so the front can start to knee. Heaviness - put your weight through the top of their head, let them carry you. Squeezing forearms - clamp down as being in the Thai clinch is murder.
No technique is worth fighting for. Don't stay and fight for a technique or a position, if it is not there or working, go to something else. Be fluid and keep moving but with control. Don't resist the resister. This was something me and Tristan had time to play with. Starting from the half Thai clinch, we would take it in turns to see what we could get, always going back to the Thai clinch if it was there. Being the one being moved around is quite alarming as you have not time to get set, you are always thinking about defending, about moving away from the pressure, the pain or escaping too. What was most refreshing about this part of the class was Martin's honesty. He said that what he was teaching was messy, few people teach messy as people like crisp, neat and tidy. But rarely to thing look neat and tidy in the chaos of combat. Messy in the visual sense not in the practical sense.
Here is a video that is a stylised version of what we were doing and i can see many of the positions we trained in this drill.
The final part of the grappling tonight was countering the double wrist lock. Change levels and secure a hip capture palm to palm grip
Striking
Footwork drilling on the lines to analyse forward and backward steps, weighting, feet and stance lengthen and shorten, skimming feet.
Jab and pak drill, never forget the basics and keep being mindful of them - how to throw every single punch, regardless if you are the feeder or the responder, training time is training time, force good habits on yourself.
A jabs, B jabs and right cross, A parry left, left jab right cross (DISTANCE AND TIMING)
As above but simultaneously pak down the right hand power line and attack with your right hand.
As above but use the left hook over the right hand. Do not look to watch it land, feel it in the elbow. Big 3-d rolling with the punch motion. This left hook os the nail in the coffin for much wing chun as the chin is simply not protected. Martin also talked about having the tightness of your shell to protect the brain from having the bell rung, chin to shoulder, chin to shoulder.
Sparring starts next week so we can begin to explore our movements, timing and all that. We can also loose our ego by finding our weaknesses
Final note - Z made an appearance whilst on a visit back to the UK from the Dirhams so always great to see familiar faces. A shout out to South African Dave, teacher Dave, Slippers, Black Panther, H and even Damo. Where for art thou?
Grappling from the pummel:
The techniques we looked at tonight can be labelled loosely for memories sake, and even now only a few hours later I am struggling to remember all the variations. I think this is because it for me was about flow and not individual moments.
The individual positions were from the Thai clinch:
Headlock take down, Chicken wing, Standing Kimura, Bail out and strike, Two hand to One shoulder control. There was a few more but 2 things stick in my mind, the corrections for the Thai clinch and the concept of flow.
For the Thai clinch we were reminded about weight distribution - have weight in the back leg so the front can start to knee. Heaviness - put your weight through the top of their head, let them carry you. Squeezing forearms - clamp down as being in the Thai clinch is murder.
No technique is worth fighting for. Don't stay and fight for a technique or a position, if it is not there or working, go to something else. Be fluid and keep moving but with control. Don't resist the resister. This was something me and Tristan had time to play with. Starting from the half Thai clinch, we would take it in turns to see what we could get, always going back to the Thai clinch if it was there. Being the one being moved around is quite alarming as you have not time to get set, you are always thinking about defending, about moving away from the pressure, the pain or escaping too. What was most refreshing about this part of the class was Martin's honesty. He said that what he was teaching was messy, few people teach messy as people like crisp, neat and tidy. But rarely to thing look neat and tidy in the chaos of combat. Messy in the visual sense not in the practical sense.
Here is a video that is a stylised version of what we were doing and i can see many of the positions we trained in this drill.
The final part of the grappling tonight was countering the double wrist lock. Change levels and secure a hip capture palm to palm grip
Striking
Footwork drilling on the lines to analyse forward and backward steps, weighting, feet and stance lengthen and shorten, skimming feet.
Jab and pak drill, never forget the basics and keep being mindful of them - how to throw every single punch, regardless if you are the feeder or the responder, training time is training time, force good habits on yourself.
A jabs, B jabs and right cross, A parry left, left jab right cross (DISTANCE AND TIMING)
As above but simultaneously pak down the right hand power line and attack with your right hand.
As above but use the left hook over the right hand. Do not look to watch it land, feel it in the elbow. Big 3-d rolling with the punch motion. This left hook os the nail in the coffin for much wing chun as the chin is simply not protected. Martin also talked about having the tightness of your shell to protect the brain from having the bell rung, chin to shoulder, chin to shoulder.
Sparring starts next week so we can begin to explore our movements, timing and all that. We can also loose our ego by finding our weaknesses
Final note - Z made an appearance whilst on a visit back to the UK from the Dirhams so always great to see familiar faces. A shout out to South African Dave, teacher Dave, Slippers, Black Panther, H and even Damo. Where for art thou?
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Boxing body shot only sparring
Craig and I put the gloves on this morning and went at it in between gymnastics lessons. Helping him get ready for his Amateur MMA bouts in April. In addition I fancied the contact. Not had heavy hands thrown my way for a year now.
With 12oz gloves
With 7oz gloves At about
At the mid 3 minute point he drops me with a lovely liver shot. We need to get hit so we know how out body will react.
With 12oz gloves
With 7oz gloves At about
At the mid 3 minute point he drops me with a lovely liver shot. We need to get hit so we know how out body will react.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Class notes: Pummeling and torquing the shoulders
Tonight we essentially covered arm drags and the left hook. If only it was that simple. There was an incredible amount of detail and subtleties and I will undoubtedly make some glaring errors in recalling the learning from tonight. But that is one of my goals: to go back through this blog and make corrections. Don’t treat it as a type and forget tool but an on-going an organic document of our martial journey.
Pummelling
Started the session by getting both warmed up and re-familiarised with this drill from wrestling. Some tips were:
Keep the weight forward through the torso. It looked as if a drunk was walking forward, that kind of very heavy ponderous step. In reality you are on the balls of the feet, straight spine, hips away from theirs to avoid your partner clasping his hands. Slightly extend the arm to create space for your other hand to find the underhook.
From the pummel we looked at the following attack variations:
- Thai clinch
Taking control of the head out of the pummel plus the two restraint style manipulations – the one with the hand on the back of the head and the one where you lift the underhook and grab your own forearm. These two definitely need to be filmed. Both of these manipulations came out of taking the head in the clinch and it ending up against one of your shoulders and not in the centre. More time needs to be spent drilling these.
- Arm drags to get to the ¾ hug from the pummel
- Double wristlock, if they are low driving the elbow into their shoulder to continue the push down
Arm drags to get the head and arm trap
Two variations based off of his resistance or defence which is a push to the chin. Shoot the shoulder through. Pull him into your bicep. Key point for the head and arm are holding his head, do not let go when transitioning from his defence to passing the arm. Keep control of him, don’t let him go. Martin talked about being constrictor like. There is no rush if you have control of him, work for the right position and let it settle into place. Don’t try and dive in head first, shoot your load then he escapes. This is something that grappling in MMA taught me. When you have position take your time if you are controlling him. Let him fight you and in fighting against you he will give a gap or over extend giving you the chance for the finish. Grappling in BJJ and MMA also taught me about not panicing. If the move is not working don’t use more force. Transition to another rather than being fixed mindset about a move. For me being a smaller man I had to use position, technique and levers as I could not out strength someone. However I did enjoy outworking someone and being very tenacious. I also enjoyed putting myself in bad spots to work on defence and see how they attack. And I enjoyed learning to relax, move, breath and give him no space. I enjoyed tapping and then going right back at it.
Moving forward I am looking forward to trying my own go to move on the ground, people solving it and coming up with new ways to apply it. But also working around an on-going injury and developing a new and evolved skill set on the ground and integrating it all together. Especially the nastiness of catch. I will only respect you my training partners if you try to be nasty…
Left hook:
Mechanics of the action, weighting, direction of the power and the follow through.
Slow punching the hand with a two and then a three to further embed the mechanics of the punches.
Punching the numbers on the hands
1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-2 tight hands always protecting the head with the non punching hand.
You jab, he jabs back, you lean back but loaded and protected, then throw the right hand followed by the hook.
Time went way too quick tonight. Next session can’t come around quick enough. Lots to go and visualize, practice in a reflection and on camera. Gloves next week, woohoo. Not so long ago putting gloves on scared the shit out of me, now that once fear has become an opportunity for some physical chess, creativity and a chance to put the learning into practise.
Pummelling
Started the session by getting both warmed up and re-familiarised with this drill from wrestling. Some tips were:
Keep the weight forward through the torso. It looked as if a drunk was walking forward, that kind of very heavy ponderous step. In reality you are on the balls of the feet, straight spine, hips away from theirs to avoid your partner clasping his hands. Slightly extend the arm to create space for your other hand to find the underhook.
From the pummel we looked at the following attack variations:
- Thai clinch
Taking control of the head out of the pummel plus the two restraint style manipulations – the one with the hand on the back of the head and the one where you lift the underhook and grab your own forearm. These two definitely need to be filmed. Both of these manipulations came out of taking the head in the clinch and it ending up against one of your shoulders and not in the centre. More time needs to be spent drilling these.
- Arm drags to get to the ¾ hug from the pummel
- Double wristlock, if they are low driving the elbow into their shoulder to continue the push down
Arm drags to get the head and arm trap
Two variations based off of his resistance or defence which is a push to the chin. Shoot the shoulder through. Pull him into your bicep. Key point for the head and arm are holding his head, do not let go when transitioning from his defence to passing the arm. Keep control of him, don’t let him go. Martin talked about being constrictor like. There is no rush if you have control of him, work for the right position and let it settle into place. Don’t try and dive in head first, shoot your load then he escapes. This is something that grappling in MMA taught me. When you have position take your time if you are controlling him. Let him fight you and in fighting against you he will give a gap or over extend giving you the chance for the finish. Grappling in BJJ and MMA also taught me about not panicing. If the move is not working don’t use more force. Transition to another rather than being fixed mindset about a move. For me being a smaller man I had to use position, technique and levers as I could not out strength someone. However I did enjoy outworking someone and being very tenacious. I also enjoyed putting myself in bad spots to work on defence and see how they attack. And I enjoyed learning to relax, move, breath and give him no space. I enjoyed tapping and then going right back at it.
Moving forward I am looking forward to trying my own go to move on the ground, people solving it and coming up with new ways to apply it. But also working around an on-going injury and developing a new and evolved skill set on the ground and integrating it all together. Especially the nastiness of catch. I will only respect you my training partners if you try to be nasty…
Left hook:
Mechanics of the action, weighting, direction of the power and the follow through.
Slow punching the hand with a two and then a three to further embed the mechanics of the punches.
Punching the numbers on the hands
1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-2 tight hands always protecting the head with the non punching hand.
You jab, he jabs back, you lean back but loaded and protected, then throw the right hand followed by the hook.
Time went way too quick tonight. Next session can’t come around quick enough. Lots to go and visualize, practice in a reflection and on camera. Gloves next week, woohoo. Not so long ago putting gloves on scared the shit out of me, now that once fear has become an opportunity for some physical chess, creativity and a chance to put the learning into practise.
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