SHADOW BOXING VARIATIONS (rounds)
Visualisation practise: recent studies have confirmed that the process of visualisation creates the same neural pathways as actually doing the skill. The brain can't distinguish between real stimulus and imagined/activity/action, you become what you think about. The work of Brain Tracy centres on this, his book No Excuses goes into this concept in much greater detail.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Excuses-Self-Discipline-Brian-Tracy/dp/1593156324/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472594593&sr=8-1&keywords=brian+tracy
At all times in the shadow boxing work, we had to imagine someone in front of us. Until a more appropriate term arises, shadow boxing will remain. Practising empty will produce empty results.
body only
jab only
jab defences
hook defences
cross defences
forward pressure
working off L-stepping
working of the lead pivot
combination punches 3-5
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER.
THAI 4 COUNT TTACK AND DEFENCE
4 count - lead kick to inside of lead leg - right cross - left hook - rear kick to outside of the thigh
DEFENCE 1: against the lead kick - crush across followed by rear round kick.
DEFENCE 2: the lead kick gets in, they throw the right cross - you cut punch then rear round kick.
DEFENCE 3: the lead kick lands, cover the cross, simultaneous cover and uppercut against the hook followed by a knee up the centre.
DEFENCE 4: the lead kick lands, cover the cross then the hook and crush the kick followed by the rear round kick.
Working the whole set in reverse order.
Working in any order. Feeder throws the 4 count 4 times. You have to select any of the counters in any order
SINGLE STICK
8 angle drilling - solo and with a partner
1: downward forehand on the #1 angle
2: upward backhand
3: upward forehand
4: downward backhand
5: stab to the belly
6: lateral backhand
7: lateral forehand
8: stab to the head (#11 on the #2 angle)
CROSS LOOP DRILL
Keep tips were keeping the left hand up when throwing the right cross, rear heel lifted to enable full rotation and extension on the cross and evasive qualities in leaning out of range.
1: shoulder roll, Nigel Benn showing how it is done above
2: short parry
3: cut punch
4: elbow destruction
5: lead uppercut
6: overhand right defence (bob and weave, shoulder stop, shoulder roll)
7: gunting (rear parry, lead bicep strike), elbow control and zone off
SYLLABUS WORK
5 angles with a partner. Focus of using body mechanics and flow.
1: angles 1-2-3-4-5
2: angles 1-4-3-2-5
3: angles 1-upper backhand-upper forehand-2-5
LOCK FLOW
1-8 tend to be focussed on the wrist and the next few focus on the fingers. The lock flow series os designed so that each one is a reaction to an escape attempt and thus leading into the next lock. It also provides a repertoire of locks. Most are breaks or wrenches, we trained for technical accuracy over ripping them on.
#9 gripping little and ring finger with one hand, middle and index with the other; fold fingers back to the forearm, something similar to below
#10 maintain hold of two outer fingers, rotate the forearm up, apply pressure to the back of the elbow as torquing the fingers, he should be up high on his toes.
#11 low line finger lock forearm brace(!)
#12 high version of above
#13 goose neck
DEFENSIVE HANDS
We did most of this back on 31st May this year.
We practised the following 3 defence structures in isolation, then with the defender looking for attacking opportunities. These are not exact sciences nor do they have all the answers and nor should they be static and passive solutions. But they are sound defensive options.
1: HALF GUARD - shoulder forward, left elbow pinned to the side guarding the lower part of the body, rear upper hand is 'windscreen wiping'. This was used to defend against the low line attacks.
2: 2 PILLARS - elbows parallel with shoulders, forearms up but forward of elbow vertical line, covering the centreline with constant lateral motion so they have to time your motion rather than you reacting to their attacks. This was used against high line attacks.
3: CRAZY MONKEY - shoulders up, chin down, protective shell. This was used against the 5 second chaotic barrage.
Putting it altogether on the pads
HUBUD
Basic drill pattern begins at 4.00
ELBOW EXTENSION 1 (SALUTE). After you block his angle 1 strike, come under the forearms with your rear hand and rotate his forearm as you out the front elbow or forearm against his elbow for the elbow extension.
ELBOW EXTENSION 2 (OVERHOOK WRAP) step in on his angle 1 attack with a covering elbow, overtook wrap his arm, step back with the rear leg for the fast elbow extension (wrench)
ELBOW EXTENSION 3 (OVERHOOK DROP AND LIFT) similar entry as the first one but this time you throw a punch to turn his face, your rear hand is gripping the thumb of the hand he just attacked with. Step over with your armpit so it is now on his elbow, swap gripping hands, drop your weight as you lever his hand up. Remember that the fulcrum is his elbow which is where the pain and damage will occur. Your weight is also on him which adds to the isolation of the arm.
Catch wrestling grips
Against the wrist - circle up and out against the thumb and control his wrist; 'chop' off and pull out and take control of his wrist.
Against the elbow - circling out and control his elbow; if the energy is forward, lap the wrist in the direction of the energy and control his elbow; inside pak sau and biu to the eyes to elbow control.
Against the bicep - thumb in and not around the bicep, push the bicep away to control. This then becomes a pummel as each person looks to dominate both biceps
Putting it all together and hating for head control whilst staying relaxed, feeling energy and pressure and not being physical at all...
Pad rounds
1: jab-jab-cross
2: cross-hook-cross
3: jab-cross-hook-cross
4: jab-cross-uppercut-hook
5: lead hook-rear hook-lead hook-cross
Takedowns into submissions
Against the jab: into #3 lock takedown - knee on head and chest control - folded arm wrist lock. Elbow into your best, his forearm is vertical, big fold and control on the wrist, lift to apply the submission. My wrists are made of paper so even thinking about this one has me tapping out. This image of Josh Barnett was similar except we were on the body behind him not over the head.
Against the jab-cross: split entry - elbow wrench (pull it into your chest, your forearms clasped tight to his, step back with the left and turn for the takedown - keep hold of the arm, it is perpendicular to his shoulder, bicep kneel and folded wrist lock (sandwich grip). Kneel right on the head of the muscle for maximum pain
Against the jab: split entry - left ear slap and right leg hook behind the knee takedown - scarf hold (get tight to the arm pit)- upward shoulder rotation using your leg. 3 possible ways to finish:
1 - extend your leg for an extending shoulder rotations.
2 - turn your hips for a crushing shoulder rotation
3 - lifting neck crank
KEEP EVERYTHING TIGHT AND STAY ON CONTROL
Two examples of death from scarf hold position.
Jack knife head and arm choke: If, when landing, his hands are linked to prevent arm attacks, pass the elbow for the head and arm choke. Turn belly down then lift the hips as you apply the squeeze for the submission
For the single stick work, the key point was body dynamics and the body leading the strikes. They don't simply come from the shoulders.
DOWNWARD FIGURE 8
Imagine the stick is a one sided blade so the motions are slicing and sweeping in their nature.
Solo drilling along the female lines, 6 strikes and change sides - step back to the centre, 'drop' the stick behind the forearm and swap to the other hand.
With a partner - as above but making contact. Keep everything relaxed, let the body and stick flow.
UPWARD FIGURE 8
Solo drilling
With a partner - as above but making contact. Keep everything relaxed, let the body and stick flow.
VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL FIGURE 8
Solo drilling - horizontal forearm into vertical backhand.
With a partner - as above but making contact. Keep everything relaxed, let the body and stick flow.
Putting all 3 figure 8s into a loop drill: forearm down, backhand down, forearm up, backhand up, forearm horizontal, backhand vertical.
STICK HUBUD
The basic roll
BACKHAND INSERT
Instead of the vertical check, use the body mechanics and turn to strike the body
FORWARD PRESSURE CHECK COUNTER
Elbow extension (cup under the elbow, move up towards him for the bracing of the arm and extending of the elbow), take the wrist (point the thumb to the floor) and punch the stick under his arm pit. Your palm holding the stick is facing you, you both face the same way; this will ensure maximum leverage. The stick will sit on the back of the upper arm and across his chest.
PUNO RIP AND STRIKE
As he covers the hand from your downward puno strike, make a small circle to take the stick out, hook the puno towards the jaw and then a backhand stab to the face.
STAB TO NECK COMPRESSION
As you cover his puno strike, push the hand away and flick the tip of your stick towards his face, your stick slides along the far side of his neck (palm up), top hand is placed so that the lower forearm is on the near side of his neck. Close and squeeze for the neck compression. It takes very little to apply this to have a significant effect
Tonight the focus was on trapping, with 2 caveats:
1) to develop sensitivity and feel of the energy the opponent is giving.
2) to clear a way for striking or grappling options.
I was fortunate to train in a system of wing chun that did not do any chi sau. We did sensitivity drills and worked trapping skills for the above reasons - to open up striking options or grappling options. My instructor, Martin Workman, also had lots of boxing experience, so when we did energy and trapping drills, the chin was down. Not up in the classical wing chun style.
Here is a brief video of his style of wing chun, the main basic principle of his system was solid punching in balance. But if you look carefully, you will see the 4 different 'hand' shapes worked tonight, at pace.
The image below is a problem because it develops a bad habit...
Chins are up. Something my old wing chun teacher was honest about was the weaknesses of the system. Primarily, the punches a boxers throws, especially hooks, tend to mess up a wing chun man. So I think the point being of trapping is, we use, modify, apply and functionalise the parts of one of Bruce's core arts, wing chun. And not be contained or defined by it.
Pak sau - slapping hand, usually used along the centre line to deflect opponent's strikes off the centreline, also can be used 'clear' arms to create gaps to strike through.
Lap sau - pulling hand, usually across their centre and downward, counters the bong sau.
Bong sau - wing arm deflection
Tan sau - palm up hand (block), can be strong forward energy or subtle yielding energy.
DRILL 1:
Right pak and left punch, right tan (comes up and under your left forearm but 'sits' on top of his forearm), left pak and right punch into left tan and right pak and punch, continue the roll.
DRILL 2:
Right pak and punch, left lap and punch (short or long) into left pak and punch, right lap and punch into right pak and punch and continue the roll.
DRILL 3:
lok sau using the lap sau and bong sau shapes. You only need to watch 10 seconds to get the drift.
We also inserted changes to get the roll on the other side using the lap hand to inside pak his punch, his then feels a gap and punches forward, you lift the bong sau and continue the drill.
APPLICATION 1:
From unattached as used as an application to trapping into striking. Right pak and punch, left combat tan sau (short and yielding with a slight body turn to create the gap for the) punch, cross pak and punch.
Steve then discussed the use of bong sau as a defence to a right cross as a reflexive flinch response. It has to be quick, it can't stay there. It is a quick barrier. Steve also explained the counter to bong sau is the lap sau.
APPLICATION 2:
Jab or cross, defend with lap and punch into #1 wrist lock. Then into takedown. If done vigorously, you will go down hard, you might even flip over your own wrist. When I did Aikido, the number 1 resembled a move called kotegaeshi, outward wrist turn. The difference is ours is hunted for out of striking, not presented as in Aikido. When he is down and you have hold of the wrist, kneel on the centre of his bicep and continue the wrist extension. I struggled to make it work, Steve added the details linked Wally Jay's Small Circle Ju-Jitsu. Not only do you fold the wrist down but pull it up and over a small fulcrum as well as folding, this will greatly accelerate the leverage and pain applied.
Steve here talked about injury by degree. Having a set of tools appropriate to the threat. It is no good kicking all the teeth out of someone who is getting moody at a family BBQ. Here, control and compliance comes into the fore. Wrecking his wrist seems reasonable if he is being most unreasonable. Many years ago I went on a Brian Jacks seminar. He was a big fan of damaging ankles. Why? If they struggle to walk then they will be great diminished as attackers. Going back to Steve's injury by degree, attacking the joints is like defanging the snake in the FMAs. Take away primary tools.
APPLICATION 3:
This time you instigate the motion with a pak and punch into #2 control (you are at his 3/4 in between behind him and at his side, your forearm is parallel to his and you wrist and hand are in the crook of his elbow. From here, you can join the hands and throw causing trauma to the shoulder. We kindly put the left thumb into the neck and levered the arm to take him down. When on the ground, put the right knee on his back for control, left leg is out and based, with your arms apply the omoplata with your arms or upward shoulder rotation. A horrible place to be.
PPARTNER SHADOW WORK
Jab only
One strike the other evade using the body and slips
3 punch combos
One punches whilst moving forward, the other moves laterally
MUAY THAI
3 count striking pattern: cross-lead hook-rear kick. Lots of drilling of the pattern. Counters:
Cut punch against the cross followed by rear thigh kick.
Cover the cross, then simultaneous high right parry and lead uppercut followed by rear thigh kick.
Cover the cross, then the hook then crush his leg kick and respond with your own.
Fixed sparring
Partner A throws the 3 count, partner B then selects one of the counters. As soon as B has countered, they throw their 3 count and the drill continues.
PAD ROUND
jab-cross, he rushes in, you use the left forearm for neck control, strike with overhand- lead uppercut-overhand
Tonight, the sole focus was knife. We did lots of partner swaps to feel different energies and simply to get lots of reps in. I am sure that errors in the following will be plenty as there was a constant refinement tonight. The main lesson was time. We can't spend enough time exploring this type of work.
Tonight, the sole focus was knife. We did lots of partner swaps to feel different energies and simply to get lots of reps in. I am sure that errors in the following will be plenty as there was a constant refinement tonight. I will endeavour to explain the techniques but these need to be felt . The main lesson was time and drill, drill, drill. We can't spend enough time exploring this type of work.
Eye jabs
Feeder give constant angle 1 and angle 2 and defender uses female footwork coupled with the intercept and eye strike brush. Wearing the safety glasses affords putting the fingers at the eye.
Eye jabs with passing and hits
As above but this time keep striking the feeder after passing each feed, control the elbow to ensure his centreline way away from yours, hit the head so it stays looking away from you. These will make it harder for him to use the blade effectively and force him to constantly reset.
Main focus of the class was the following 4 techniques.
Against angle 1: female step to the inside with left intercept and right eye jab, left hand moves in a circle and whipping action, grab the base of the wrist and the thumb of the hand. You end up off his centreline, his arm is extended so his base is high and grabbing the meat of the thumb. From Aikido, this position is similar to the set up for shiho-nage in terms of body angles and centrelines. With a flat hand against the blade, strip it.
Against angle 2: female step to the outside of the forearm, intercept right and eye jab left, crocodile (left palm facing up securing the elbow, right forearm in contact with his as you eye jab. There must be no gap). Slide the right down for thumb control, bring it to you not away from you. Several options from here were
- flat blade against the left forearm and return the blade into him by stepping in with your body. Avoid extending your arms.
- cup under your left tit with the left hand, your right hand has the knife hand gribbed and in/on the centre of your chest. To strip the blade out, cup the knife hand with your left ‘tit’ hand, turn the torso away, your shoulders and chest will enable the strip.
Against angle 1: female step to the inside with left intercept and right eye jab, then as above from crocodile.
Against angle 2: female step to the outside of the forearm, slide down to control the thumb, turn the arm over for sandwich grip or the #4 wrist lock. You hold both sides of the hand, your thumbs are pressing into the back of the palm in between the index and middle finger, his arm is straight and extended. I guess this could be labelled a wrist extension. Step into him, left arm over his elbow (keep that grip on the knife hand) and sink your weight. This then becomes an elbow extension. Strip the knife.
Free flow
Working any and all 4 of the techniques.
Here are a few videos of knife work. From my current level of understanding, I am not sure how 'effective' the work is. Some of the movement looks really interesting.
4 corners (long high arm stance)
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook-rear hook
Cover with the forearm cutting across the centreline against the jab and cross. Mirror his motion; if he throws the left you use the right.
Against the hooks cover inside of the elbow crease, the rear hand covers the centreline at head height.
Arm drag to uppercut
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook. (Use the 4 corners practise) Cover the lead hook, arm drag with left but step in and squeeze the arm with your arm, head against his shoulder to stay covered. Step out to the right and pivot (like a reverse L-step), as you land throw the uppercut under his arm followed by the shot over the top.
Shoulder brace to knee lock
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook-rear hook. Shoulder brace (long, straight arm, palm up on the shoulder and thumb included, chin tucked into your shoulder), step the rear foot out, step the front but on to his foot as you slap the head. This will isolate his knee and send him off balance, follow up with the lateral elbow strike to the head.
Elbow cover to elbow extension.
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook. On the lead hook, step in with the elbow head cover, the checking hand covers his right hand. Overhook the punching arm at the elbow tightly, turn his face away and step to wrench the arm.
Pad training
Feeder throws the 4 corners punches - jab-cross-lead hook and rear hook. You cover the 4 punches then throw the cross-hook-cross.
Power right cross drilling
Knife movement against the angle 1 and 2
Feeder attacks repeatedly with angle 1 and 2. Similar motions to the hooks - rear hand at the lower forearm, lead hand (same leg forward) to the eyes. Wearing eye protection allows proper targeting with no injury.
Elbow and head control.
More motion this time, control the elbow after the pass. Make sure the hand is palm up, this offers much greater control. Also get used to striking the head whilst passing. He will need to reset to throw the angles.
4 corners (long high arm stance)
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook-rear hook
Cover with the forearm cutting across the centreline against the jab and cross. Mirror his motion; if he throws the left you use the right.
Against the hooks cover inside of the elbow crease, the rear hand covers the centreline at head height.
Arm drag to uppercut
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook. (Use the 4 corners practise) Cover the lead hook, arm drag with left but step in and squeeze the arm with your arm, head against his shoulder to stay covered. Step out to the right and pivot (like a reverse L-step), as you land throw the uppercut under his arm followed by the shot over the top.
Shoulder brace to knee lock
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook-rear hook. Shoulder brace (long, straight arm, palm up on the shoulder and thumb included, chin tucked into your shoulder), step the rear foot out, step the front but on to his foot as you slap the head. This will isolate his knee and send him off balance, follow up with the lateral elbow strike to the head.
Elbow cover to elbow extension.
Feeder throws jab-cross-lead hook. On the lead hook, step in with the elbow head cover, the checking hand covers his right hand. Overhook the punching arm at the elbow tightly, turn his face away and step to wrench the arm.
Pad training
Feeder throws the 4 corners punches - jab-cross-lead hook and rear hook. You cover the 4 punches then throw the cross-hook-cross.
Power right cross drilling
Knife movement against the angle 1 and 2
Feeder attacks repeatedly with angle 1 and 2. Similar motions to the hooks - rear hand at the lower forearm, lead hand (same leg forward) to the eyes. Wearing eye protection allows proper targeting with no injury.
Elbow and head control.
More motion this time, control the elbow after the pass. Make sure the hand is palm up, this offers much greater control. Also get used to striking the head whilst passing. He will need to reset to throw the angles.
