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.