Friday night training

Friday nights!!

Friday nights aren’t the most appealing night to train granted.
But they are currently my favourite.
This session was originally going to be a normal no gi session but it has become dedicated pretty much to takedowns. Being a new gym with a new time table things are bound to change, but I think this will stick around.

Anyone that’s been to my class before will know I like to show a take down as part of the warm up anyway, it’s essential to have some familiarity with throws etc.
But to get develop technique and get some skill you need to get some rounds in.
*Currently it’s no gi although some judo will probably be added at some point.

Format of the session looks a bit like this,
•brief warm up
•pummelling drills
•drill technique
•greco rounds. (Basically no leg attacks,    the priority is to get the back via armdrags etc or body lock)
•drill technique
•freestyle rounds (no submissions)
•normal sparring, starting from standing.

This isn’t set in stone but it seems to work well, every one is nice and warm for the sparring and we get to drill a tonne of technique, plus it’s fun.

I’ve often ranted about why I think some takedown skill is important.  I don’t talk about self defense a lot, but it seems pretty obvious that if your choice of martial art is primarily a ground fighting art, you should be able to have the option of taking it there.
For sport, I think there are more considerations.  You can be reasonably successful and have zero takedowns,  however if your opponent is known for guard passing you could be in trouble if you can only pull guard.  Also a last minute score off the feet could make the difference. A lot of competitions have rule sets these days which look favourably on takedowns. I have thrown a few people in competition myself, it is certainly a mental boost, can possibly unsettle your opponent and can dictate where the match continues.
The fitness gained from practising takedowns is also pretty hard to replicate in the gym, and even if it was, why would you be on the running machine instead of on the mat?

Anyway, although not true of the people I’ve trained with, a long standing criticism of BJJ has been it’s lack of standing techniques. I see this changing at the highest levels, and I’m trying to make sure we aren’t left behind.