The Shell – protective structure, very similar to Rodney King’s Crazy Monkey.
With gloves – fists clenched, palm toward head, finger end of the gloves on your head at the hairline.
No gloves, hands open, palms on the forehead.
Forearms held close together, elbows down so that strikes cannot slip between them. Chin tucked, shoulders hunched.
Structure must be held firm so that angled blows cannot dislodge it. It may need to withstand elbows and headbutts as well as punches.
Drills
- Stand on one foot, in front of a line. Partner stands in front of you with a swiss ball. You start hopping. partner tries to bump you off balance and push you back behind the line. You try to stay on balance and hold your ground. Change feet.
- Both partners glove up. You shell up. Hop on one foot while you partner punches your shell. Same goals as the swiss ball drill. Change feet.
- Fighting stance. Shell up. Partner attacks. First, static, then moving around.
- Shell Up. Partner punches. Crash the puncher until both forearms and head are on his chest.
Repeat.
From here we launch takedowns. Both partners have left foot forward.
Takedowns
High single leg
Crash in with the shell. Put your R ear on his chest, reach under his L leg with your R hand. Keep your L hand in place until the last moment to avoid getting hit. Reach down with the L hand to encircle his leg with both hands, gable grip, R hand on top. Knock him back with your R shoulder so his L leg comes up without you having to reef it off the ground. Trap his L shin/knee between your legs. Drop your weight so his supporting R leg bends and he is unable to hop to counter the takedown. Drive with your head and circle clockwise to take him down.
High Double leg
Crash in with the shell. Penetration step with your L between his feet. Your L ear goes to the left side of his chest/hip ans you reach down with both hands to grab behind his knees. Step up with the right foot. Drive him to your left and anticlockwise over his R foot, pushing with your head and lifting up on his L leg with your R hand. Circling anticlockwise may help.
Practice both takedowns above, so that you decide whether to follow him down to the ground or not, and it is not left to chance.
Fireman’s Carry
Crash in with the shell. Get a tight overhook on his R arm with your L. Step back with your R foot and apply wizzer pressure with your L shoulder on his R arm to give yourself a little room, erode his structure and ideally get him to step forward with his L. duck under his R armpit, going down on your R knee/shin, underhook his R leg with your R arm, squeeze you elbows together to bend him over. Fall directly to your Left side (NOT your back) and take hom over his head. Keep hold of his R arm. Turn to your L to side control or headlock control.
To increase the speed and effectiveness of the takedown, tighten the circle by shortening its circumference. Rather than dropping to your right knee and rolling over the shin and left foot, slide the R knee through so you drop to a shinbox on your left hip instead. The circle gets tighter and the throw faster.
Side body lock / bearhug takedown
Crash in with the shell. Circle your R arm around his waist and grab his R side with your R hand. Make sure the R side of your face is on his chest before reaching for you R hand with your L hand. Gable Grip and cinch. Drive you R knee sideways and inwards into the back of his L knee to break his balance (“Elvis leg”). Step your L leg over and around both of his and take him down like with a bearhug takedown. As he goes down, release the bodylock and raise your hands (“Hallelujah”) as you go to mount. You let go and raise your hands because you do not want to hang onto the body lock and drive your head into the ground as you go down with him.
This takedown is arguably safer than the standard bearhug take down from the front as it offers the guy much less opportunity to base out and foil the takedown.
The visor has advantages in that it always gets you head control (like a larp sao on the neck) and a good position for attached striking with knees, elbows, uppercuts, etc. The shell is better for sparring and sportfighting, though it will work well in the street.
MMA-related Ground Defence
John said he would have done slightly different MMA related material were you [Rick] at the seminar. But I think Anthony went through some of the other material on Monday night anyway:
Your opponent has you in the mount, and is punching. Shell up to protect the head. Bridge/buck fast, throwing him overhead, making him post. Lasso his L arm with both of yours. Block his L foot with your R foot and bridge and roll him.
Your opponent is in your closed guard. He is punching. Shell up to protect the head. If/when he rises up and forward to strike, pull him in with your legs and get tight double overhooks on his arms. Open your legs and place your feet between his. Hook your insteps under his, then use your feet to stretch his legs out (either drive his feet back or push yourself back from him). Now put your hooks in in front of his thighs. Keep the overhooks. When he raises his centre of gravity, to posture up, or to try to hit you some more, use your hooks to sweep him to mount.
You can put the two techniques together as a continuous drill.