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