Hopefully the last snowy one for a while! Friday’s session was split between me and Paul. Paul did some partner work involving dealing with strikes – specifically barrages of them – and I added in the importance of being proactive in your ‘defence’ rather than being merely reactive. If your partner is saying ‘I thought I was supposed to be the one attacking!’ or similar then you’re doing well!
If they’re too preoccupied to say anything then you’re doing better!
What came out in this drill was that when you’re proactive by pushing into the partner and making it difficult for them to attack instead of merely dealing with their attacks reactively, you stand a much better chance of surviving. Also through this approach it can be possible to manoeuvre your partner around the room and put them in a position of disadvantage, such as in a corner. In reality of course, this would be you putting them in a position that gave you the opportunity to complete your objective in a combative situation – run off!
Then in my half we worked on ground mobility with some standard Russian drills, groundfighting with a focus on controlling elbows, controlling legs and use of the head when fighting on the ground. After that, we did a rather enjoyable leg-locking drill inspired by an excellent British Combat Association video (the review will be appearing here soon…).
To finish, we began work with the higher grades on the long stick and how to use it with some simple stick acclimatisation drills, partner work and solo work. It’s always fun when a group gets onto a new weapon! I can’t wait to get to work with this a little more.
See you all next week!
Evolutionary Self-Protection 