SLC MMAExploring MMA and Jujitsu in Salt Lake City Utah

Changing attacks and adaptingFiled Under: Instruction

If something doesn’t work, try something else

A lot of times fighters will excel at a handful of moves, perhaps even developing “signature” moves. While this is great, you need to make sure to be aware of the situation and never get stuck in your ways. For example, a competitor will start fighting and try to assert his/her plan A. If it works, great. Logically, if it doesn’t, they should switch to plan B or plan C. However, it’s common for people to just try asserting plan A again, only this time, doing it harder. Some people even do this socially – they tell a joke that flops and instead of dropping it and moving on, they become louder to compensate, repeat the punchline with extra gusto, or worse try to explain the joke, hoping it gets funnier.

Cut your losses and do something else. The real problem, in my mind, isn’t that the technique failed. That happens all the time. The error is the lack of awareness to shift from what’s not working and adapt. We all do it to some extent, so it’s good to be on guard against it. (If you can, tape your sparring sessions and review them with this in mind)

Yin/Yang Combinations

In boxing, it’s common strategy to work the body with strikes and then send some punches upstairs. The idea is that hurting the abs will drop the hands and open up opportunities to head punches. Even if the blows don’t land, often the hands will come down and create the opening. Same thing goes if you’re working attacks that aren’t going through – do the opposite of what you’re doing.  If punches aren’t going well, try kicks.  If punches and kicks aren’t doing the job, try grappling.

Within grappling, you’ll see a lot of yin/yang setups. A jujitsu player will attempt a sweep, but the opponent posts out his arm, stuffing the technique. Anticipating this, the grappler takes the posted arm into a shoulder or arm attack.

The Zen-like philosophy is that every time someone defends strongly in one area, they simultaneously become weak some where else. Strategies like punching for the takedown fall under this kind of thinking.

Here’s one vid that illustrates the concept pretty well within one specific technique. Attempted scissor sweep gets blocked and opens up a hip sweep.

It takes time and effort to develop a broad skillset, but it’ll pay off. The mental self awareness takes just as long. The days are gone in MMA where guys can only be good at one thing alone. There are probably too examples of how to switch up your attacks to enumerate – can you think of any? Let me know what you’re favorites are.

Tags: boxing, strategy

Jujitsu Flow Drill: Mount Escape to Hip SweepFiled Under: Instruction, Uncategorized

Jujitsu flow drills are a great way to get good at grappling moves by linking techniques in a smooth sequence and repeating them over and over a bazillion times. For this particular drill -similar to mount escape to scissor sweep, one partner starts by taking mount. From there, the bottom partner escapes the mount via the bridge and roll technique and transitions into guard. Utilizing the guard position, the guy on the bottom performs the hip sweep (kimura sweep) and re-gains the mount. Each moves flows to the next, allowing the cycle to be performed for dozens of fluid repetitions.

Bridge and roll mount escape

Hip sweep/ Kimura sweep

For beginners, just focus on the hip sweep – sit up, control the arm, elevate the hips, and “bump” him over. The technicalities of the kimura shoulder lock can be added later when you’ve got a good handle on the moves.

Again, easy does it. Start slow and stay technical for the first 10-20 cycles. Only go faster when you’ve really got the finer points down pat.

Tags: drills, jujitsu

Jujitsu Flow Drill: Mount Escape to Scissor SweepFiled Under: Instruction, Uncategorized

Jujitsu flow drills are a great way to get good at grappling moves by linking techniques in a smooth sequence and repeating them over and over a bazillion times. For this particular drill, one partner starts by taking mount on top of the other partner. From there, the bottom guy now escapes via the bridge and push (“shrimping”) escape, and pulls guard. Immediately after escaping, he commences the scissor sweep and transitions into the mount – the guy on bottom now ready to start the chain over again with the shrimping escape.

Here’s two video’s giving the breakdown of the separate moves.

Just put them together and you’ve got a fine looking flow drill. Perform each technique slowly at first, taking your time to be technical with the details of the moves. Use only 10% of your power and intensity to make sure you get it right, and slowly work up to normal speed.

Tags: drills, jujitsu

Attn: University MMA and Jujitsu ClassesFiled Under: Classes

Below are a few notes and handy reminders for the University of Utah martial arts classes.

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Body Mechanics of Ukemi RollingFiled Under: Classes, Instruction

If you’ve never done it, the body mechanics of proper Ukemi (the art of falling) are a bit tricky, but learning to fall and roll correctly are vital in MMA or Jujitsu practice. Ultimately, it’s a self-preservation thing -you’re going to get tripped, thrown, and pushed to the ground. If you don’t know how to roll properly you’ll get injured when you meet the ground. Second, the body kinetics of ukemi are used in several jujitsu submission escapes and sweeps.

I present two videos showing the basic forward and backwards rolls. There are a few variations, such as starting from standing position or having an arm extended instead of tucked in … but these are great to start off with.

A few notes to look out for -notice how the back is curled, not sharply angular. The roll happens in one smooth fluid motion. The chin is slightly tucked in. The roll is over the shoulder, not the neck (like a pure somersault would be).

Tags: Ukemi