02/07/2011 – Ambush Training #1; Arm’s Length and Beyond – Distance Attacks

 The theme for last saturday's training was preparation for engagement at combat speed, or as near it as we could feasibly go.  Slow work is all very well - it refines motor patterns, deprogrammes fear-reactivity and encourages creativity - but remember always SAID - Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands.  Train for a situation in a certain way and you will always respond to that situation in certain way.  The effects of physical training on muscle fibres are specific, among other things, to the velocity at which they are trained, and the same goes for nervous system, both central and peripheral.  Once a foundation is laid, it must be optimised for the conditions under which it is expected to perform.

Tennis ball catch drills were incorporated today as a way of building the hand-eye coordination necessary for the central nervous system to orient on a fast-moving target at a moment's notice and guide the hand to it in an accurate and controlled fashion - basically, to build target acquisition and tracking software (visual reflexes) and calibrate the hardware (motor nervous system) to mesh performance with it.  These reflexes were then further weaponised with pad drills.

A note on pad drills - some purists of the Russian methodology are not fond of pads and believe solely in training strikes by doing pushups and hitting bodies.  While both are beneficial drills, I find this methodology limited for the simple reason of safety - you cannot safely practice accurate head strikes and you are forced to limit your maximum speed and power for the same reason.  Pads and the like are excellent for pushing the limits of the nervous system for both speed and precision, and ultimately, it is the nervous system that makes the fighter, or indeed any athlete.


Objectives

- Preparation for receiving, defusing and countering/initiating sudden attacks

- Training to rapidly orient on randomly-moving, transient targets with only visual and auditory cues

- Training to absorb and deliver strikes with unusually loaded structure at unexpected times and angles


Warmup

IntuFlow joint mobility routine



Preparatory Drills

- Strike absorption – stationary for first minute; second minute on - L-step moving absorption drill: tori randomly moves about the floor using L-step footwork (no two steps in the same direction), uke chases with strikes, tori must absorb strikes without changing intended trajectory

- Tennis ball drills – basic catch: catcher stands facing thrower, who throws balls to be caught by the hand verbally designated by the thrower; basic wall bounce catch: catcher stands facing away from the thrower towards a wall, off which thrower bounces the balls


Reaction Drills

- L-step placement drill – same as L-step absorption, but upon trainer-given signal, uke and tori immediately freeze and tori must reach out to place a hand on uke’s body from whatever position he is in – 1st min; for 2nd minute, this becomes a push from whatever structure tori was in at the instant of the signal

- Padwork – 1st 3 minutes warmup with basic single strikes and combinations on pads; escalate to stationary reaction drills – padman starts with pads down and intermittently presents targets in random positions for striker to strike; next escalation is same drill with footwork – padman roves about randomly and striker must chase and be in position to strike when targets are called; final escalation is with multiple padmen – 2 or more – roving around striker and presenting targets in set order and random position upon signal

- L-step absorption & counterstrike drill – same as before, but upon signal, tori and uke freeze and tori delivers one or two strikes to uke’s pads

18/06/2011: Asymmetrical Engagement – Striking vs Grappling Revisited

I have been very remiss in posting log updates over the past few weeks and I do apologise - things have been very busy.  Over the past three weeks, we have been working on increasing the number of combat multipliers or outliers we inject into our training drills - basically, introducing escalating amounts of chaos in small, controlled doses.  As Murphy's Laws of warfare say, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so it is our goal for the season to build a living, self-evolving plan that will survive not only first, but all the way to last contact.

Training on this day involved liberal amounts of dirty boxing with a very Systema twist - strike absorption!  As everyone learned today, absorption is one thing when you are standing free and able to articulate every joint in your body unimpeded to dissipate impact, and quite another thing entirely when someone is cranking your spine into a pretzel and throwing nasty stinging strikes into your sensitive and tense parts.  This works both ways - when you are working to manipulate someone's structure, expect to lose the luxury of complete and unimpeded fluidity across your entire body as both your systems of forces merge into one and you share in a portion of your opponent's tension. 

Learning to breathe through unavoidable impact while maintaining purposeful movement towards a clear goal (breaking and controlling an opponent's structure) and using structural manipulations of an opponent to degrade the power of his strikes all featured prominently today.

Objectives

- Learning the importance of controlling consent to engage in symmetrical struggle (ie. the same ‘type’ of fighting) with opponent; learning to give and remove consent

- Blunting grappling attacks with striking and defensive grappling

- Smothering and defeating strikers with offensive grappling


Warmup

Intuflow Beginner/Intermediate routine


Prep Drills

- Neck and body pummelling

- Strike absorption – free-standing reciprocal and restricted motion (use a wall or other obstruction if third parties are insufficient); absorption via movement/structure/breathing – experiment with integration and isolation of each of the triad (ball/wave/airbag)

- Marionette/Sweater-snag drill

- Hair-brush defence


Weaponised Drills

- Slipping punches to clinch – tori aims to slip past uke’s punches to secure a head clinch; drill begins at half speed and creeps up in speed according to comfort; uke may aim to actively fend off clinch attempts from time to time.

- strike absorption from clinch – tori aims to maintain clinch on uke while absorbing strikes from uke; drill begins with simple absorption and may creep up to uke attempting to break or seize control of the clinch and tori aiming to manhandle or takedown uke in the clinch to diffuse the strikes.


Symmetrical Sparring

Partners begin the fight in head-and-elbow tie. Both partners will attempt to take each other down by any means necessary, up to and including the use of strikes to achieve dominance in the clinch.

11/06/2011 – Fundamentals of Standup Grappling Revisited

A very focused and compact session today, focusing on two very important concepts - the triangle point and controlling force vectors in order to disrupt equilibrium.  As regular readers may have noticed by now, we revisit old lessons a fair bit because you can never get enough of the fundamentals, and I am all about training rock-solid fundamentals.  As Daniel, one of my students, pointed out today, although in theory we 'know' this stuff, revisiting it time and time ago results in new lessons being learned all the time as practice deepens.  Good job to all today.

The homework assignment remains the same with regard to conditioning work.  As far as skills go, revise the solo biomechanical drills today - the butterfly hands and hip figure-8 drill, and the box step triangle point drill.

Train hard and see you all next Saturday.

Objectives

- Attacking and defending the triangle point

- Dominating the clinch – neck clinch and bodylock

- Hyperfunction versus dysfunction – facilitating versus forcing takedowns


Warmup

Intuflow beginner routine


Activity-specific Preparatory exercises

- Freestyle ground engagement on hard ground

- Butterfly hands mobility drill

- Grapevine saunter/box step triangle point drill

- Floating hip figure-8 mobility drill


Partner Drills

- Neck and body mixed pummelling

- Triangle point attack drill

- Lecture and demonstration: hyperfunction versus dysfunction; quantum gripping – parallel and concurrent forces

- Practice: renovated hip throw


Sparring

Neck and body pummelling to neck clinch control or bodylock-and-lift; modified round-robin format.


Circle

My Training Log Update - Days #42-45

 Here's my next training log update.  Last week was a bit of a lost week dedicated solely to active recovery with joint mobility due to a messed sleep and recovery schedule, due in part to the WKC coaching cert over the weekend before last.  Climbed back on the bandwagon today and changed my kettlebell routine to reflect advice given by Coach Catherine Imes during the cert.  So far, I've been practicing mostly the long-cycle clean & jerk, but I've decided to switch over to the biathlon - double-bell jerk and single-bell snatch - to perfect my kettlebell handling.  Better technique leads to both greater accessible performance thresholds and training longevity.  Who wouldn't want that?

Day #42 (06/06/2011) – Push Day


Warmup

Joint mobility – IntuFlow + pushing-specific joint movements


Rings Work

1.) Inverted L-handstand pushups with foot compression against wall, hips @ 90 deg


Reps: 5
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s sets; Set #1 - KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg, 12 reps; Set #2 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/9 reps; Set #3 Jerk @ 2x16kg, 12 reps


2.) L-Sit Dip Hold

Reps: 3 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s sets; Set #1 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/11 reps; Set #2 – KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg; Set #3 KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/11 reps

3.) Tuck/Extended Legs Horizontal Bent-Arm Planche Hold

Reps: 5 holds, 5s each, graduating to 3 holds extended legs, 5s each from set 2 onwards
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s sets; Set #1 - KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg, 12 reps; Set #2 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/9 reps; Set #3 Jerk @ 2x16kg, 12 reps



4.) Ring Dips

Reps: 6
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s sets; Set #1 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/11 reps; Set #2 – KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg, 9 reps; Set #3 KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/11 reps


5.) Ring Presses


Reps: 8
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s


Cooldown

Standing back bend, shoulder hyperflexed tricep/lat stretch, laced-fingers pec-and-bicep stretch with forward bend, horizontal steeple in low squat, modified seal pose, table pose, seated pec-and-bicep stretch, downwards dog, upwards dog, plough, gunslinger shoulder bridge, figure-4 twist, seated twist, pigeon pose – all poses held for 20 seconds


Day #43 (07/06/2011) – Active Recovery


Warmup

IntuFlow master routine


Chen Taijiquan

2 forms in mirror-image format

Prasara Yoga

Tumbleweed x 3

Diving Dolphin x 3


Day #44 (08/06/2011) – Pull Day


Warmup

Joint mobility – IntuFlow + pulling-specific joint movements


Rings Work


1.) L-Sit Pullup Hold (hold at ½ pullup)


Reps: 3 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s; Set #1 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/9 reps; Set #2 – KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg, 10 reps; Set #3 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 12/11 reps

2.) Tuck Supine Row Hold (bent arm hold)


Reps: 5 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest:  90s sets; Set #1 - KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg, 10 reps; Set #2 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 11/10 reps; Set #3 Jerk @ 2x16kg, 10 reps

3.) Wide (elbow-to-elbow width) True-grip Ring Pullups


Reps: 7
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s; Set #1 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 11/9 reps; Set #2 – KB 2-bell Jerk @ 2x16kg, 9 reps; Set #3 – KB Snatch @ 16kg, 11/8 reps

4.) Straight-leg Ring rows from floor


Reps: 10
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s

Standing back bend, shoulder hyperflexed tricep/lat stretch, laced-fingers pec-and-bicep stretch with forward bend, horizontal steeple in low squat, modified seal pose, table pose, seated pec-and-bicep stretch, downwards dog, upwards dog, plough, gunslinger shoulder bridge, rabbit pose, seated twist, pigeon pose – all poses held for 20 seconds




Day #45 (09/06/2011) – Active Recovery


Warmup

IntuFlow master routine


Chen Taijiquan

2 forms in mirror-image format


Iron Palm

Tongbei arm-swinging – side-to-side swings, 2 mins

Bag-striking – 50 reps in 1 set, both hands, 6 forms per hand

Prasara Yoga

Spider Monkey x 3

05/06/2011 – Bladework: Defence, Disarm and Counter at Speed, Part 2

Last Saturday's was a very focused session, with an introduction to live blades that suddenly put everything in perspective.  Fancy flowing knife disarms suddenly don't seem so easy when adding a sharp, live blade into the mix.  Couple that with a non-compliant partner and you begin to get a rough idea of how difficult it will be do doing it for real on the street to someone who means to kill you with a live blade.  Contrariwise, while this builds the necessary caution and respect for live steel, it also deconditions unnecessary fear responses, which are the true killers versus blades.  In the Russian methodology, the blade is a tool of psychophysical conditioning as well as a weapon.

For today's work, we used small blades - roughly 3.5in/8.9cm blades with handles only slightly longer.

The reason for this is twofold - firstly, as a form of handicap training, since larger blades are easier to disarm.  You can see them coming from further away, judge their effective range better, they may* be slower and, when actually applying force to them, their length works against the wielder when using them as levers in disarms.  If you can disarm a non-compliant assailant with a small blade, a large blade should be that much easier to work against.

Secondly, small blades are far easier to conceal and therefore much more likely to be employed in ambush scenarios, which makes training with and against small blades much more specific to the self-defence needs of most people.  Choppers, machetes and the like are far less easy to conceal.  Out in our neck of the woods, the most likely way for your average civilian to encounter these weapons wielded against oneself is when a heated argument spirals out of control and the other party marches away to their vehicle to fetch a weapon, while our hero remains standing his ground out of anger and desperate fear of a loss of 'face'.  Better to lose 'face' than to lose your face, so to speak (likewise sundry other bodyparts).  In any case, my rule of thumb stands - if you are confident of intercepting and disarming a barely visible small blade wielded at speed, a chunky larger blade should be no problem.

Ground engagement has improved a lot, and I am pleased at the progress that has been made so far.  The main issue now is conditioning, and I want everyone to keep up with that part of the syllabus on your own time, now that everyone is familiar with my conditioning methods - that means joint mobility, strength/conditioning work, de-tension/decompression, all together.  Miss out one and you detract from the effectiveness of the whole.  We will revisit it from time to time during class, but class time is better spent doing partner work. 


*:  This is conditional, of course - it depends on the weight and balance of the blade in question, but definitely, a tiny 3.5in blade will be a lot harder to catch than a hefty chopper or a cheap parang with a badly designed handle.

Objectives

- Introduction to live blade work

- Blade ambush training

Warmup

- IntuFlow basic routine

- Freeform ground engagement – hard ground



Skill-Specific Biomechanical Drills

- Leverage disarm drill

- Body figure-8 to stab

- Biker flip grip change

- Figure-8 draw cut

- Rolling snap cut

- Finger-flip


Preparatory Partner Drills

- Partner push drill with live blade

- 1 and 2-step slow evasion and disarm versus live blade

Primary Skill Drills

- Warmup to standup grappling – mixed neck and body pummelling

- Submission grappling – takedown and submission beginning from neck and elbow tie

- Submission grappling – takedown and submission from neck and elbow tie with knife draw upon hand-clap signal


Objective-based Sparring

Freeform submission grappling with concealed training knives. Partners grapple as per normal until hand-clap signal to draw is given. If asymmetry of force (ie. someone achieves a successful draw well ahead of the other partner) is achieved, drill continues with unarmed partner attempting to defend against and disarm knife-wielding partner.


Tension Release and Joint Decompression Cooldown

- Sleeping Child pose

- Downwards Cat pose

- Downwards Dog pose

- Upwards Dog pose

- Plough pose

- Table pose

- Seated Twist pose

- Shinbox Switch (5x each side)

All static poses held for 20s each


Circle

My Training Log

I've decided to post the logs for my own training here so everyone can get a snapshot of my training life.  I'm currently in the middle of a cycle focusing on gymnastics-inspired work on the rings, as well as some remedial exercise for poise deficits spotted during my training trip to the US.  My right knee is experiencing some issues and I'm awaiting a trip to my specialist to schedule more treatment, so this routine is rather light on lower-body work, but I have discovered light to moderate Girevoy Sport work with the kettlebell is tolerable and have introduced that between sets on the rings as active recovery.  Here are the objectives in point form and a few days from the current 100-day cycle.

April-July Training Blueprint

Objectives

1. Gymnastic ring skills and upper-body and core strength
2. Internal martial arts power
3. Structural development and impact delivery for upper-body striking
4. Shoring up poise and movement deficiencies as indicated by movement screening and overall coaching feedback


Core Methodologies

1. Gym ring training
2. Taijiquan – forms and zhuanggong practice
3. Prasara yoga with fist stands; Iron Palm training – arm-swinging and bag-striking
4. GS kettlebell work
5. Specific corrective exercise interventions as indicated by movement screening and prior coaching


Days #27-28 (21-22/05/2011) – Active Recovery

IntuFlow Master routine x 1



Day #29 (23/05/2011) – Push Day

Warmup

Joint mobility – IntuFlow + pushing-specific joint movements



Rings Work

1.) Inverted L-handstand pushups with foot compression against wall, hips @ 90 deg

Reps: 5
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 24kg, (5/3, 5/4, 5/5) over 90s


2.) Tuck-Sit Dip Hold

Reps: 5 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 24kg, (5/4, 5/3, 5/5) over 90s


3.) Tuck Horizontal Bent-Arm Shoulder Stand Hold

Reps: 5 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 24kg, (5/5, 5/3, 5/4) over 90s


4.) Ring Dips

Reps: 5
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 16kg, (5/3, 5/5, 5/4) over 90s


5.) Ring Presses

Reps: 7
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s


Cooldown

Standing back bend, shoulder hyperflexed tricep/lat stretch, laced-fingers pec-and-bicep stretch with forward bend, horizontal steeple in low squat, modified seal pose, table pose, seated pec-and-bicep stretch, downwards dog, upwards dog, plough, gunslinger shoulder bridge, rabbit pose, figure-4 twist, seated twist, pigeon pose – all poses held for 20 seconds



Day #30 (24/05/2011) – Active Recovery

Warmup

IntuFlow master routine


Chen Taijiquan

2 forms in mirror-image format


Iron Palm

Tongbei arm-swinging – side-to-side swings, 2 mins

Bag-striking – 50 reps in sets of 35 and 15, both hands, 6 forms per hand

Prasara Yoga

Spider Monkey x 3


Day #31 (25/05/2011) – Pull Day

Warmup

Joint mobility – IntuFlow + pulling-specific joint movements


Rings Work


1.) Tuck-Sit Pullup Hold (hold at ½ pullup)

Reps: 5 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 24kg, 3/3 over 90s

2.) Tuck Row Hold (bent arm hold)

Reps: 5 holds, 5s each
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 24kg, 4/4 over 90s


3.) Wide (elbow-to-elbow width) True-grip Ring Pullups

Reps: 6
Sets: 3
Rest: Long-cycle KB C&J @ 24kg, 4/4 over 90s

4.) Straight-leg Ring rows from floor

Reps: 10
Sets: 3
Rest: 90s

Standing back bend, shoulder hyperflexed tricep/lat stretch, laced-fingers pec-and-bicep stretch with forward bend, horizontal steeple in low squat, modified seal pose, table pose, seated pec-and-bicep stretch, downwards dog, upwards dog, plough, gunslinger shoulder bridge, figure-4 twist, seated twist, pigeon pose – all poses held for 20 seconds

21/05/2011 – Bladework: Defence, Disarm and Counter at Speed, Part 1

 Last saturday's work was a continuation of the previous week's work.  Today was the day for demonstrating how all the exogenous flow-based work people seem to expect breaks down in no time at all against a non-compliant opponent with lethal intent.  On top of that, we aimed to build the ability cycle quickly from one combative option to another during blade combat, whether empty hand versus blade or blade-on-blade, so as to improve our access to endogenous flow.

Homework assignment remains the same as last week, with added emphasis on rolling and falling.  Some of you are still falling in very dangerous, uncontrolled ways and this is unacceptable as you endanger not only yourselves but your partners also.  From now on, I mandate a minimum of 15 minutes of rolling and falling a day, whether all at once or summated together.  Please do this so I don't have to make you make up for it in class.

Train hard and I'll see you next week as I will be attending a certification event this weekend.


Objectives

- Revision of bladework basics

- Inoculation to blade combat at near-full speed

Warmup

- IntuFlow basic routine



Skill-Specific Biomechanical Drills

- Leverage disarm drill

- Body figure-8 to stab

- Biker flip grip change

- Figure-8 draw cut

- Rolling snap cut

- Finger-flip


Preparatory Partner Drills

- Partner push drill with blade

- Sweater-snag drill with blade

- Partner zombie walk drill with blade – to evasion, gait-shadow and soft takedown


Primary Skill Drills

- Empty hand versus blade – attacks at combat speed; evasion, counter and takedown

- Blade versus blade – combat speed; counterslashes, control to takedown or finisher



Objective-based Sparring

Uke attacks tori with blade. Tori, working from empty hands, attempts to disarm uke and either effect a position of control, apply a finisher having gained weapon possession, or both. Drill continues until tori achieves victory objectives. Round-robin format.

Circle

14/05/2011 – Fundamentals of Bladework Revisited

 At long last, I return.  I apologise for the dearth of posts in recent weeks as my training trip to the US saw me come down with a virulent and persistent strain of pharyngitis that progressed to pneumonia.  Other things in my life have also conspired to keep me from chronicling training as frequently as I should have.  I promise I will post much more frequently from now one.  Stay tuned for further developments.  In the meantime, I bring you last Saturday's training in this post.

This week, we came back to the bladework series.  With new people in the class, there is a lot to revise and rediscover.  My old bladework fundamentals series is still a good base to build off from, but there is so, so much more to do.

Homework assignments were discussed in class, but I will reiterate them here.  For those old-timers who have not kept up with their conditioning - GET BACK ON THE WAGON.  You all know what to do by now, so hunker down and do it.  Getting a heart attack during round-robin sparring because you're seriously out of shape will not fly from now on.

For the newbies, for now, keep working on your rolling and falling.  As you have already noticed, you will fall down a lot during class and if you cannot do so safely, you will curtail a lot of your development.  I deliberately do not spend a lot of time touching on this during class time so as to leave you with more time for the partner drills.  Also, work on the joint mobility drills we cover in class.  These will build the limberness you need to move efficiently, with a minimum of wasted movement.

Specific to today's class, get a blunt steel blade (like a butter knife) and work on the solo knife drills we touched on.

Train hard, and see you all this coming Saturday.


Objectives

- Execution of and defence against sudden attacks with a concealed blade

- Retaining a blade in the face of disarm attempts

- Fighting for possession of a loose blade



Warmup

-Basic rolling and falling; progression for advanced students - targeted rolling to scoop up a loose knife en passant


Skill-Specific Biomechanical Drills

- Leverage disarm drill

- Body figure-8 to stab

- Biker flip grip change

- Figure-8 draw cut

- Rolling snap cut

- Retrieving loose blade from forward roll – solo, competitive with partner



Preparatory Partner Drills

- Partner push drill with knife – progress from one-step push to multiple continuous pushes

- Slow standup sparring to reciprocal disarm - progress from one-step to free flow according to comfort

- Plank position possession drill – slow sparring over loose knife


Primary Skill Drills

- Concealed quickdraw ambush – paired partners; uke aims to draw concealed blade and cut/stab tori at will, tori aims to evade attack and disarm uke

- Concealed quickdraw ambush – circle, round-robin


Circle

05/03/2011: Fundamentals of Standup Grappling Revisited

Revisited one of my older lessons on Saturday, with significant revamps and expansions on the theory lecture and demonstration.  Much improvement shown by all, especially Wen Hsin and Daniel, and quite a few curveballs thrown my way too (Sudhir, I'm looking at you - no more flying clotheslines during training).  Good to see that everyone is grasping the essence of attaining controls and takedowns in the chaos of a free fight.


Homework assignment is as follows:

• Physical conditioning - joint mobility (daily) and TFC syllabus (2-3 times weekly, or following the 4x7 intensity wave - check with Wen Hsin and Sylvia for sample 4x7 protocols).  Newbies focus on Mission 1, veterans can pick whichever one they want to focus on.  Get Daniel's audio timer for 20/10 protocols, or else download the free Gymboss app for smartphones.

• Fundamental skills - ground engagement (rolls and other methods of going to the ground), breathing (see my blog article on basic breathing skills; please note also that burst breathing is not hyperventilation - passive inhalation, active exhalation), structural drills (plank/pushup, squat and other callisthenics); spend 10-15 minutes per training session on these and you should be fine, or you can devote an entire training session solely to these.

Objectives

- Developing fundamental motor patterns for clinch fighting and executing takedowns

- Attacking and defending stance integrity, loading structure to disrupt equilibrium, joint hyperfunction (spine, shoulders, hips)


Warmup

- IntuFlow basic/intermediate routine


Solo Prep Drills

- Ground engagement – rolls, falls

- arm screw (shoulder figure-8), hip-and-leg figure-8

- Shinbox switch – seated, spinal rock, end-elevation, through flatfoot squat with hand assist

- hanging scorpion


Basic Skills for Standup Grappling


- Establishing the clinch – neck plumb, bodylock

- Pummelling – neck, body

- wrist tug drill – partners take turns practicing explosive wrist tugs on each other; drill sophisticates naturally to counter via grip release to counter-grip-and-tug

Biomechanics of Standup Grappling

- Stance integrity – spotting the triangle point

- Grips for takedowns – locking arm, driving arm

- Joint Centre-of-Mass (COM)

- Hyperfunction vs Dysfunction – facilitating natural movement to fool opponent into following along into takedown versus attempting to force takedown via threat of pain and injury

- Spine – S-shaped movement pattern at neck; facilitated extension/flexion at lumbar spine via force couple applied at chest and lower back (for extension)/ head or shoulder and hip (for flexion)

- Shoulder – sagittal plane circle, oblique transverse shoulder-spinal circle (fulcrum BETWEEN points of contact – usually wrist and neck)

- Hip – figure-8 movement pattern (demonstrate via single-leg, double-leg, reaping takedowns)



Sample Techniques – partners take turns drilling these techniques, moving from static to fluid as comfort allows; fluid drills to be characterised by uke using the biomechanical principles to defend the throws; examples to be shown of how to enter into these throws and variations thereof from a mixed-fight perspective.

- Renovated large outside reap (O-sotogari)

- Renovated hip toss (harai-goshi/koshi-guruma/o-goshi)

- Renovated single-leg takedown


Symmetrical Sparring

Standup symmetrical sparring from clinch to takedown. Mutual permission to engage and grapple must exist for techniques to be successfully executed.

Conditioning

TacFit Commando Mission 1 – Recruit-to-Grunt



1.) Front Lunge/Lunge Jump – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

2.) Plank Push Knee/Ball of Foot – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

3.) Sit-Through Knee/Reach – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

4.) Pushup Knee/Ball of Foot/Screwing Pushup – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

5.) Spinal Rock Basic/Pike – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

6.) Tripod Basic/Twist – 20/10 x 8


Circle

On Flow

Flow - the new buzzword in martial arts and fitness alike.  "Find your flow," "flow with your attacker."  All very profound and New Age-y.

But what does it actually mean?  And how can you use it to benefit you in your endeavours?  Is it even beneficial?

To quote from Csíkszentmihályi, flow is "the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity." [1]

This state is characterised by some ten factors, not all of which have to be present for flow to be experienced [2, 3]:

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
10. Absorption into the activity, narrowing of the focus of awareness down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

So, there we go.  According to the father of modern flow research, flow is a psychological state.  It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with this:





Or this:




...both of which illustrate the physical state of movement that most people seem to think must necessarily accompany flow.  Note that I'm not ripping on any of the performers in either video in any way - I am simply drawing attention to common preconceived notions regarding flow.

For the sake of clarity, I will refer to Csikzentmihaily's definition of flow as endogenous flow, that is, flow that occurs purely as an internal event, completely independant of interaction with others and any specific movement pattern.  Flow as the graceful biomechanical dance demonstrated above, which is what most people casually familiar with the term seem to expect, I will refer to as exogenous flow, flow which is dependant on interaction with an external system of forces to take place and define its movement patterns.

For the record, I will state that a prolonged state of exogenous flow will never take place in any arena of combat with hostile intent and absolutely no cooperation between parties.  Ever.  Those of you inclined to disagree need only watch this video and then have a good, long think about how you yourself would fare under these circumstances:




The whole point of flow training for combat application is ultimately psychological - to enable the trainee to bypass the adrenaline dump of the fight-or-flight response and fully access their skills and cycle situational observation and analysis uncluttered by the signal noise of chemically triggered primal instincts.  Exactly what shape those skills take is irrelevant, so long as they are the best possible response to the situation at hand.

Good examples of flow applied in unrestricted combat:









Note the common thread in each of the successful performances - in spite of the chaos of the situation, each of the performers had more or less full access to their skills and observational/analytical abilities and applied them in the manner most appropriate to controlling the situation with a view to ending it as swiftly and cleanly as possible.  Note especially the swift and incredibly precise placement of fight-ending shots by the turkish and russian boxers, and the very effective applications of multi-level combat and well-oiled teamwork of the russian mall guards.  These individuals, whether or not they knew it, had entered endogenous flow and, at transient key moments throughout each combat, applied instantaneous and transient exogenous flow where appropriate.

More than half the time, this came down to punching someone in the jaw just as they were moving closer - a simple but incredibly effective way of blending two biomechanical systems in order to maximise the impact of a given action.

Which brings me to my next point.  Flow drills as demonstrated in the earlier videos have their time and place - I'm not deriding them as useless.  It is important, however, to discern their true purpose.  Drills such as those are not weaponised drills - that is, they do not train skills that can be directly applied, ad exercitum, in combat.  Their purpose is to build familiarity with the state of exogenous flow and teach the practitioner to apply their endogenous flow to prolong that exogenous flow as much as possible, with the aid of a cooperative partner who feeds force and intent in a controlled fashion to facilitate the drill.

In an actual encounter, you can expect an attacker to do neither, and your weaponised drills must reflect this to a significant degree.  Transient moments of exogenous flow that you achieve under such circumstances are and should be incidental and purely the means to an end (decisively ending the encounter in your favour), not an end in themselves.

In conclusion, the state of true flow is ultimately internal, above and beyond external considerations.  Master this state and learn to hold on to it in the midst of chaos, and physical, externally observable flow will manifest spontaneously as and when it is appropriate.  Obssess over the latter, and you will gain neither.

Till next time, train well and stay safe.



References


[1]  Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990), Flow: The psychology of optimal experience


[2] Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Rathunde, K. (1993). "The measurement of flow in everyday life: Towards a theory of emergent motivation"


[3] Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1975), Beyond Boredom and Anxiety