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 

The Breath of Life (and Death)

A melodramatic title for a short article touching on something we do every minute of every day we're alive.  This one goes out primarily to my students, who have to practice this for homework, but will also serve as a useful primer to breathing as used in the Ryabko System, but with my own take on it (as with all things).

Burst Breathing

What

Rapid, active, shallow exhales and shallow passive inhales deriving from the very top of the lungs. 

When

Generally used to overcome distress and pain, such as when winded with fatigue or experiencing severe pain or other discomfort, such as after taking a particularly penetrating strike or performing a difficult exercise.

Why

Rapid active exhalations and passive inhalations appear to reset the diaphragmatic nerve, enabling relaxation of the muscles of breathing, which in turn reduces the overall state of alarm of the nervous system, restoring psychological and in turn biochemical equilibrium.

How

Activate the compression of the lungs with the muscles of breath in order to exhale, then immediately relax them while keeping the airways open, allowing the elastic recoil of the lungs to draw air in without conscious effort.  It helps to practice this in a closed, silent room so you can listen to the very quiet passive inhalation.  Enter into burst breathing with an exhale:inhale ratio of 1:1, then gradually increase the ratio to 2:1, 3:1 and so forth as you get more practiced.  It is better to emphasise the exhalation over the inhalation as overinhaling leads to hyperventilation, which will lead to increased stress levels and even dizziness or loss of consciousness.  As always, exhale through the mouth, inhale through the nose.  Practice this in conjunction with intense physical exercise and note its effect on your heart rate and breathing drive - both should come down appreciably if you do this right.


Square Breathing

What
  
A single breath divided into four discrete phases of inhalation, breath hold with full lungs, exhalation and breath hold with empty lungs, each stretched out over the same length of time, hence the name.
 

When

Used as a meditative focus to calm down the nervous system (works great to slow the heart and shut off the brain for sleep), and also a training tool to stretch the body's capacity to work under (perceived) hypoxic conditions, as well as to detrain panic responses to perceived hypoxia.



Why

This pattern of breathing appears to reduce sympathetic nervous tone (fight or flight) and increase parasympathetic tone (rest and relax/feed and breed).  From a conditioning point of view, with less panicked signal noise jangling in your nervous system and your heart beating slower and more efficiently, you learn to perform a given amount of mechanical work at a lower metabolic cost to yourself. 



How

Enter into the pattern by sitting or lying down comfortably and counting off the seconds  in your head, beginning by exhaling and holding empty lungs.  Start with 1 second each phase - empty hold (1) -> inhale (1) -> full hold (1) -> exhale (1).  Gradually increase the count to as high as you can manage with at most mild discomfort.  Variations include pyramid breathing (increasing the count by 1 every so many breaths till you reach your limit, then decreasing by 1 every so many breaths till you come back down to 1) and combining the breathing with various forms of exercise, using repetitions of the exercise to count down the intervals (eg. pushups, steps when walking/jogging).

26/02/2011: Asymmetrical Engagement – Striking vs Grappling

An interesting and educational session today, in which we explored the effect of giving and removing consent to engage symmetrically, ie. with the same methodology as an opponent.  The overall conclusion arrived at is that attempting to engage someone who does not consent to fight in the same way as oneself is a lot more difficult that it may at first appear, while giving (or appearing to give) consent to do so tends to lull an opponent into a frame of mind suited to a controlled, limited conflict - a fight with 'rules', as it were. 

From a technical perspective, the uses of fundamental standup grappling controls to facilitate close-up striking were explored, as well as to smother strikes while on the way in to execute takedowns.  For a change of pace, instead of a set of conditioning exercises after class today, we played a game of 3-on-3 Kabbadi with house rules, as detailed in the log.  I am glad to report that much fun was had by all.

Homework assignment is as follows:

1.) IntuFlow joint mobility series: I can't emphasise this enough.  Without a limber, supple body that moves exactly the way you want it to, much of the potential of Systema is lost to you.  It only takes 10-15 minutes and zero energy, so EVERY DAY, folks.  Without fail.

2.) Basic rolls, falls and other ground engagement:  As all of you have already attended at least two or more classes, you will know by now that you can expect to fall down a lot during class, whether by accident or design.  5-10 minutes each day doing slow, smooth rolls and falls, preferably on hard ground.  The more comfortable you are with the ground, the more friendly it becomes when things kick off. 

3.) Breathwork: Square breathing and burst breathing.  I will detail these in a short article immediately following this log.  Practice both these breathing methods in addition to what has already been taught in class.

4.) Specific conditioning callisthenics: Pushup/plank for upper body striking alignment (involving the whole body), squat for spinal and lower-body structure for level changing and developing a strong, supple base.  Those of you who haven't learned this yet, get the methods from your mates who have during the week, or else approach me before class next week.  These take literally 3 minutes to do each day, so they can be done completely extemporaneously.

5.)  General conditioning syllabus (TacFit Commando routines): What you get out of training depends on what you put into it.  The better your work capacity and rate, the more you can put into training, plus the greater your functional reserve of strength and endurance during actual combat.  Assuming you attend training without fail every week, do this at least once more each week on your own, preferably two (for a total of three, including weekly class).  You can either use the free Gymboss app for smart phones to time your session, or Daniel's audio timer, which can be found HERE.

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

- Pinned Limb rolling

- Neck and body pummelling

- Strike absorption – free-standing reciprocal and restricted motion (use a wall or other obstruction if third parties are insufficient)

- 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.

- takedowns from clinch – tori and uke begin in collar-and-elbow tie; tori aims to execute any takedown of choice from the clinch; drill begins with passive resistance on uke’s part and creeps up to more active resistance according to comfort level and mutual consent between partners

- 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 uke in the clinch to diffuse the strikes.


Asymmetrical Sparring

Partners begin the fight in head-and-elbow tie. Designated grappler will attempt to secure a full clinch and takedown, while the designated striker will aim to either break the clinch with strikes or else seize control of the clinch and continue to strike from superior position. If clinch is broken, drill continues with grappler attempting to close and regain the clinch and striker aiming to fend off grappler with strikes.

Circle


House Rules Kabbadi

Two teams of three lined up roughly five metres from a central boundary line. Each team takes turns sending a single raider across into the opposing team’s territory, whose goal is to carry, drag, push or otherwise manipulate an opposing team member across the boundary line into their own territory. Raider must perform all actions in a single breath, chanting, “Kabbadi,” repeatedly at all times while on the opposing team’s side. If the raider inhales while on the opposing team’s side, the round is lost and no point is scored. All members of the defending team may act in any way to prevent their members from being moved across the boundary.

18/02/2011: Plural Engagement, Part 2

This week, our focus was on building upon the lessons of the previous class.  The last session involved plural attacks in a relatively open and unimpeded environment.  This week, I turned up the pressure by introducing attackers who actively attempted to restrict the defender's movement as well as attack with strikes, which showed some interesting changes to the dynamics of the fight.  Directly introducing mechanical tension to someone's structure leads to increased psychological tension, which brings the person closer to their own panic threshold if said tension - physical and psychological - is not addressed.

The homework assignment for the week is as follows:

- conditioning syllabus, including both joint mobility and TFC syllabus: your freedom of movement, usable (functional) strength and work rate determine how much you get out of your training.  Joint mobility should be done every day without fail, and if you come to class each week, you should get in at least one more day of conditioning on top of what we do in class.

- rolling and falling: Being able to engage the ground smoothly and without coming to harm is very important in what we do as you can expect to fall a lot in training.  It is also a good way to overcome fear and train shock absorption on your own.  Spend at least 10 minutes each day practicing what you have learned of this in class.


Objectives

- Surviving plural attempts to force cessation of movement

- Maximising effective range of movement under hostile resistance

- Inoculation to fear and discomfort of physical compression and contortion


Warmup

IntuFlow intermediate routine


Drills

- Pinned limb rolling : trainee attempts to roll on the ground with one limb pinned by partner; emphasis on breathing through tension and discomfort and finding effective range when one limb is pinned

- Restricted Motion Absorption Drill, standing version : trainees work in threes; tori is bearhugged from behind by one uke and receives strikes from another, attempting to absorb impact without breaking free

- Restricted Motion Absorption Drill, prone version : tori is held down and contorted by multiple uke (3 or more) who proceed to strike to points of tension; emphasis on absorption and using torsion from one source to cancel out another

- Dogpile : tori is dogpiled by multiple uke and must attempt to get out from underneath by any means necessary short of actual attacks

- Limb torsion escape drill: tori is subjected to jointlocks, restraining holds and sundry other contortions by uke and must escape with minimal use of strength; drill escalates from one to two attackers (optional use of counterthrows and holds for advanced students)


Sparring

Tori is attacked by two uke, one of whose objectives is to immobilise tori, the other’s being to attack tori with strikes. Tori’s objective is to survive the encounter for a set duration by evading or countering attempts at immobilisation and fending off both attackers by any means necessary.

Variation for new students – uke attack with grabs and holds only; primary goal is to escape and survive.

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.) Basic/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

12/02/2011: Plural Engagement, Part 1

A heartfelt welcome to our new students, and congratulations on your initiation into this crazy thing we do ;-)  Good session had by all on Saturday with a balanced mix of hard and softwork, and I could tell that everyone left with a much better understanding of the dynamics of plural engagements.  I left out the conditioning element this time around so we would have more time to drill skills as the class was larger than usual, which demanded more coaching time to make sure everyone was on the same page.

Homework assignment is as follows:

- Freeform ground engagement:  as done in class, minus of course the people walking around you; new students simply practice your basic rolling and falling for now

- Conditioning: We will be cycling back to TFC Mission 1 soon, so I suggest you revise that one.

Objectives

- Mental/emotional inoculation to plural engagement

- Introduction to the mechanics of plural engagement in multiple modalities


Warmup

IntuFlow intermediate routine


Prep Drills

- Freeform ground engagement from Brownian walking

- Partner assisted altitude-rolling – forwards and back


Plural Engagement Drills

- plural push drill – partners work in threes, with two uke applying pushes to tori from all angles; drill progresses naturally to strikes according to comfort level

- Zombie evasion drill – three on one and zombie infection; emphasise economy of motion – no more than two-step evasions; progress from simple evasion to adhering to and following uke

- Stick evasion drill – tori evades versus swings and thrusts from uke at comfortable pace; drill progresses from simple evasions to getting close enough to touch

- belly walk shock absorption drill – progress from walk to low jump to box jump according to comfort

- grounded evasion drill – slow-speed evasion versus stepping and slow-motion kicking; two on one


Combat Drills

- two-on-one slow sparring: tori aims to survive against two simultaneously attacking uke and effect takedowns and evasions for the duration of each 1-min round


Circle

Open Mat