On Saturday mornings at 10.30 we continue with our supplementary online classes. The idea of these sessions is to provide additional training where we are unable to get to our normal classes. Do remember we are now running classes on site and streaming them so you can join virtually if not in person.
The Saturday morning classes are led predominantly by Pete but other members of the instructing team also lead these sessions. The Saturday morning classes’ focus is on Power in Sparring and last week’s session worked on various guards and speed drills to pack more power into your strikes.
After the warm up the session started with practicing four types of defences:
- Defence against a fighter throwing lots of punches. Here the drills focussed on slipping, stopping and using a high guard to defend punches.
- Defence against turning and roundhouse kicks. This used the simple knee raise and side guard to block those swinging kicks.
- The assertive defence. This is useful when you feel you are stronger than your opponent; you press forward with your lead knee raised and a pee-a-boo guard so you can counter attack from close range.
- Leg Jams. Here you are against a kicker and the drill here involves stopping their kicks early in their movement by stopping their kicks with your own, stamps, spurns and jams.
So if you want to practice this session on your own. Start by spending a minute of so shadow boxing each of these defensive drills. Then perform each of the ten hand leg combinations for one minute each; perform them at pace but not rushed. After each minute practice one of the defences for twenty seconds as an active recovery. This should take you about fifteen minutes. Once you have completed a quick break and repeat it again changing which defence you deploy after each of the ten combinations.
These sort of drills are a good way to increase you power and speed; and as importantly your thinking and fight strategies. Don’t forget you can all join us on Saturdays.