The ABC’s of MMA has been a pet project of mine for quite some time. The idea was to construct a manageable curriculum for my students up at the U to be able to quickly gain their bearing in the sea of mixed martial arts techniques. I worked with my instructors and friends to narrow down what I felt were the most basic and useful techniques in MMA. To accompany these techniques, I wanted to codify a variety of warmups and drills I used over the years that help condition the body and strengthen ability to do the moves.
Next, I wanted to systematize it in such a way that it was easy to remember, teach to and track progress on. In essence, the ABC’s of MMA are to help someone develop a workable vocabulary of fighting techniques and training drills. It’s not meant to be everything to everyone; I’m not a guru and don’t know all mastery points for the moves contained therein. However, I think you’ll find it a slick way to organize teaching and learning.
The format of the program defines the three main areas of MMA (striking, grapling and conditioning) and has 3 levels of difficultly for each area. If a coach thinks X is more important to Y, it’s easy to adapt or insert parts into the 9-cell program.
Below are two PDFs that define the curriculum and help you keep track of your personal progress. The intent of the checkoff list is for your instructor/coach/mentor to initial each block after you show proficiency.
I’m currently working on fleshing out instructions for each individual move inside the ABCs. I hope you find the approach laid out here to be useful. If you have any ideas or would like to help, let me know.
When it comes to submission defense, let me ask you a question. Do you want to be part of the countering-submission squad or the department of submission prevention?
I believe the later is the best.
I’ve been watching Josh Barnett’s Attacking the guard, and coupled with something I read from SBGi’s Matt Thornton, I’ve been made a big believer in the department of submission prevention. Its the difference between having a fence on the cliff or an ambulance in the valley. Practice shutting down submission techniques the moment the arise – it’s a good habit. Waiting till the submission is set in is the equivalent of the college all-night cram session. Yes, you need to do it sometimes, but why not study attack the problem earlier? It’s a healthier, and more successful.
In this vein, I was thinking about the kimura and how to not let it happen. Below are a few vids that touch on the “shut down as early as possible” theme.
Also check out Gene Simco’s technique (embedding was not allowed) here.
Of course the real way to stop the kimura is to nerf the basing structure of your opponent and always maintain dominant grips – which is to say, stay in control.
I’d like to know your thoughts – how do *you* like to avoid the kimura and escape it if you get caught?
Let me formally introduce you to a most righteous dude, Sir Isaac Newton. You may think of Sir Newton as the fellow who spent a lot of time chilling under apple trees pondering the nature of gravity, the inventor of calculus*, or a high-level enlightenment philosopher.
What you didn’t know, is that he was into mixed martial arts in the early days – he had Tapout bumper stickers on his carriages before it was cliche. In consequence of his love for MMA, Newton postulated three fundamental laws of fighting, which his later works – laws of physics and thermodynamics – were built from.
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(Above, Newton is chilling with “the Iceman” Chuck Liddell; insiders state that Newton’s law of cooling played a large part in Chuck’s nickname.)
#1 Law of Inertia
A fighter in motion tends to stay in motion and a fighter at rest tends to get knocked out.
This law tells us to always be moving, cutting angles, circling. It also hints at the fact that the more aggressive initiator is generally the winner in exchanges; it is easier and faster to act than to react.
When you stay up on your toes, keeping good head movement and shifting your guard hands slightly, you’re ready for anything. Starting from a dead standstill takes extra energy – when you’re dancing, you’re nimble. Much easier to adapt while you’re moving; also, you’re harder to hit.
“Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. When a fighter is in a state of perpetual motion, he can seamlessly attack and move. Once he sits upon his heels, it takes energy to re-start the motion and overcome this sloth – such a fighter is likely to get KTFO’d.” – Newton
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#2 Law of Power
Force = Mass x Acceleration
To hit hard and knock opponents out, you need to know how the classic equation F=MA. While it may have been murder in Physics class, it will be your salvation in the ring.
The most straightforward observation from this law is that bigger is better; or rather, heavier (mass-ive) is better. Bigger fighters hit harder. It behooves you to be at the top of your weight class than the bottom. You create more force just by having more mass.
The second observation is two-fold and relates to the generation of power punches and how you should train to create power punches. You want to have your body geometry down, so you can put as much “back-up mass” into punches and kicks. Many refer this as “getting your body behind your punches.” This helps out with the “mass” part of F=MA. For the acceleration part of the equation – you need to get that body mass up and moving… quick!
Please note the difference between velocity (speed) and acceleration. A distance runner might have a very fast top speed but it takes a while to achieve it; an Olympic sprinter can get to top speed in two breaths. The name of the game, when it comes to power generation, is acceleration.
Some things to check into if your interesting in developing that hard hitting power – plyometric training : jumping, medicine ball throws, sprint starts; its all about accelerating. Here are a couple of resources to get your started in that regard.
“Ladies and gentlemen – particularly the ladies – I will finally put to bed the debate if bigger is better. If one wants appropriate force, one needs to be massive. All fighters doth feel they know the root of force and power; I have only added structure and precision to their intuitive conjectures.” – Newton
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# Law of Response
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
For many, it is a natural response to push back after you’ve been pushed. If you watch fighters on the cage, clinching, one will “discover” foot stomping and the other will follow suit thereafter. Fake low, get a response, go high – fakes/feints will get opponents to drop their guard and then you capitalize on their reaction.
No matter what you do, there is a response. Typically, as mentioned above, you will try a tactic/move and your opponent will attempt to neutralize it with a counter. It is uncommon to be able to get the first move, whether in striking or grappling. The first move is the set up to the next.
If you watched UFC 130, you saw Matt Hamill’s takedowns attempts get shut down repeatedly. On thing that may have made them more successful would be to set the takedown up with a striking combination first; BJ Penn’s book calls this striking for the takedown.
“It is useful to consider how one’s actions are creating reactions in others -in fighting and in life. If you become successful, you invariably will attract haters. As thou knoweth, haters are going to hate; but it is ours to perpetrate; fist to face in the third degree. ”
* The classical scientist P4P rankings list Leonardo Da Vinci as #1, Isaac “The Force” Newton as #2 and Gottfried Leibniz as a distant #24th. Please don’t even start with that “Leibniz was the true inventor of calculus” crap. Seriously.
I’ve been playing with a few escapes from bottom side control – one in particular that ends in a darce choke.
My success with the choke has been very dependant on the level of skill of my opponent and the time when I try to execute. I spoke with Fusion assistant instructor Tony, and he told me how when you get pretty good at BJJ you don’t just catch guys out of the blue with your submissions. Its unlikely you’ll be hanging out in full guard and then slap on a triangle – you’ll find that you’re submitting guys when you are in the transitions from one move or position to another.
For this choke, I noticed that the top guy was trying to dawdling in their move into or from north/south or not really controlling my arms, I threw this on them.
Anyway, a fun move, and a decent arrow in your escape quiver. It sort of reminds me of how Bas Rutten does his “double uppercut” side control escape.
In class the other day, we played around with the Butterfly sweep/Jean Jacques sweeps. While there are a number of technical details, the one I’ve had emphasized to me is the body posture/structure. If you directly underneath a guy, its tough to lift him – but if you’re to the side a bit, you don’t have to lift his whole weight. I’ve let a chimpanzee draw what I mean.
Pretending you’re the blue dot, preparing to sweep the red triangle, you note that once you’re at the side, you can lift up the corner and topple over your opponent. Obviously there is more going on with the sweep, but we’ve reached my two-dimensional artistic limits; the video below goes over the main talking points for this sweep, including the one we stressed in class: scoot your butt to the side!
