23/10/2010 – Aggressive Standup Engagement: Striking

This week, we took the intensity up a notch by allowing speed and continuity of strikes to creep towards combat speed, and learning how to deal with the battering and power on through to victory with a solid and aggressive defence (read: counterattack).  Survive a rain of punches with intent and power, and you're not too badly.

A closely related concept covered was that of the bridge, or the physical and conceptual meeting of two bodily structures to form a contiguous system of mechanics.  For the purposes of training, I have simplified things from my earlier experiments down to a simple catch-all defensive that is easy to learn and do and transition into any other work, namely, the 'hair-brush' defence.  RBSD aficionados may also know this by any number of other names, but I call it this for the sake of being safely non-denominational.

For homework, I want everybody to revise the solo drills covered in the lesson.

1.) Hair-brush Defence - practice keeping the movements tight and close to your body and maintaining shoulder-pack (shoulders de-shrugged, ie. pulled downwards) at all times during the movements; catching a hard hit with an elevated shoulder is asking for an injury; also practice in combination with the lower-body drills as we did during class to build coordination; work slowly and mindfully in the beginning and let the speed creep up only as far as you are comfortable doing so.

2.) Rolling and Falling - this remains the same as in previous weeks.  Very, very important part of the syllabus - those of you who have been falling behind in this will already note how insufficient ground engagement skills will severely curtail your training.

3.) Conditioning - continue to revise the TacFit Commando syllabus as we have covered to date and train with intensity at least twice a week in addition to what we do in class.  In combat, you don't rise to the level of your skill - you fall to the level of your fear and conditioning.  Challenging yourself with intensity on a regular basis will help you to overcome this hurdle and access your skills.

In addition to the above, feel free to practice any of the partner drills as often as you like when partners become available.


Objectives

- Understanding and developing pre-emptive and simultaneous (with opponent) attack as the best defence

- Developing the bridge: finding, seeking and defending the centre-of-mass, 'hair-brush' defence, strike absorption on guard while maintaining structure




Warmup

- IntuFlow basic routine

Conditioning

TacFit Commando Mission 3 – Recruit


1.) Warrior Lunge – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

2.) Swing Plank Knee – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

3.) Airborne Squat Shin – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

4.) Spiderman Pushup Knee – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

5.) Shinbox Twist – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

6.) Table Lift – 20/10 x 8



Skill-Specific Drills

- Partner fist-walking drill for strike placement

- Hair-brushing defence drill – inside-outside, outside-inside, combination with Cossack knee switch walking and gluteal tank for coordination



Preparatory Drills

- Partner push and strike drill: wave movement - dependant pushes and strikes

- Partner push and strike drill: ball movement – keeping form under heavy contact and absorbing with footwork

- Partner strikes into guard: absorbing strikes on guard surface while maintaining form


Bridging with Hair-Brush Defence

- Intercepting strikes: tori intercepts full-speed strikes from uke; drill creeps from extended (‘left out there’) single strikes to retracted single strikes to 1, 2 and 3-step combinations as partners feel comfortable doing so

- Intercept and take structure: tori intercepts strike(s) from uke and aims to enter joint COM and control uke’s structure, planting a push (slow-motion strike with structure) to demonstrate degree of control by upsetting uke’s equilibrium

- Intercept and take structure to takedown: same as above, but ending with takedown to position of control



Objective-based Sparring

Uke feeds tori upper-body strikes in any combination. Tori intercepts and is allowed to counter with strikes and takedowns. Uke may defend and recounter as sees fit. Round-robin format.

16/10/2010 – Fundamentals of Locks and Holds: Locks, Holds, Escapes and Counters, Part 2: Plural Engagements and Use of Clothing

I know I have been remiss in logging the past week and I do apologise - things have been crazy.  The last session saw a large number of newbies - complete novices in martial arts - come in, so I didn't have a chance to do a lot of what I wanted to during the session as I had to spend a lot of hands-on time with the new guys.  This week's session was a continuation and revision of last week's work.

Homework for this week follows the standard pattern:

1.) Joint mobility

2.) TFC mission 2conditioning exercises

3.)  Rolling and falling - VERY, VERY IMPORTANT

This and last week's work were all very partner-based, so there's not much else you can do to practice on your own, but if you have access to a partner, definitely run through all the drills again.


Objectives

- Understanding the use of locks and holds in a standup fight and how structure is affected by such

- Understanding the use of structure to effect, escape and counter locks and holds

- Learning to use structural perturbation from multiple sources to cancel one another out and effect escapes and counters

- Learning the role of clothing as a weapon and an obstacle in grappling

- Grappling and being grappled by multiple opponents



Warmup

- IntuFlow basic routine

Conditioning


TacFit Commando Mission 2 – Recruit


1.) Lunge Twist – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

2.) Revolving Table – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

3.) Scorpion Crucifix – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

4.) Bear Squat – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

5.) Rocca Forearm – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

6.) Bridge Clap – 20/10 x 8


Skill-Specific Drills

- Rolling and falling

- Dogpile-lock anti-tension striking drill

- Headlock escape drill

- Pinned limb ground movement drill




Technique Drills

- Wrist locks – inside-to-outside, outside-to-inside (main examples: omote/ura gyaku)

- Elbow hyperextensions – weight-down, weight-up armbars (main examples: elbow/armpit pressure armbar, arm-wrap figure-4 armbar)

- Shoulder locks – figure-4 locks (main examples: onikudaki/mushadori family, hammerlock)



Plural Source Tensional Manipulation (a.k.a. the octopus drill)

- Tori is grappled by two uke who constantly attempt to lock and twist him, and must make use of the two separate sources of force to cancel each other out – drill is allowed to creep naturally from simple survival to escape, takedown and counter