This Week we Focused on Wrestling and Throws

This week we focused on wrestling and throws. We went through the hip throw, Uchi Mata, and Tai Otoshi first.

Then Sifu Mark demonstrated a simple San Da takedown, Basically when your going in for the clinch you aim to wrap your arm around your opponents arm, grab the back of the neck with your other hand, twist, pull your opponent towards you, then sweep the leg as your opponent is pulled forward.

Another take down involves going for the Wrestling double leg (this is usually best off a jab or a hand in the face) lifting your opponent up over your shoulder, then swivel your opponent and slam them to the ground.

The next takedown Sifu Mark demonstrated is good when your in close but not quite in the clinch. You, for instance grab your opponents right wrist with your left hand, then stepping in so your right foot goes in-between theirs, whilst thrusting your right arm (at a 45 degree angle) under your opponents right armpit. You then bring your feet together so you are standing in front of your opponent with a hold on his right arm, then drop to your knees and turn to the left pulling your opponent over your shoulder and on to the floor.

You have to be quick because, lets face it who wants to be standing with your back to your opponent for more than half a second. It is however a good and unexpected move also a way to throw an opponent too heavy to lift.

We ended with some light sparring and I managed to get this move off, it felt good, an enjoyable lesson its always good to learn something new.

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Wow!! This week's San Shou Kickboxing was intense...

Wow!! This week's San Shou Kickboxing was intense, I'll try to be brief on each subject to fit it all into a couple of hundred words, so here goes.

Sifu has definitely upped the pace in preparation for the tournament and taught us some nifty moves in this San Shou class.

We enhanced on a couple of throws, these are both effective from the clinch. The hip throw is a good move (I went into detail a couple of weeks ago) but if you can't get the hips right in there it can be done over a straight leg. The other throw again involves coming to the side of your opponent with one arm around his back, (obviously under the arm) the other monitoring his free arm, You then step in front and hook his/her leg with your leg and raise it p in the air.

When we were practising this a few weeks ago we weren't completing the throw just finding the right body mechanics and I found myself off balanced (probably more so in fact than I felt I was inflicting on my opponent) I queried Sifu Mark about this and he explained that with a slight bounce around when in this position exposes your opponents other leg for the take down.

It all made sense then, I felt like I'd only read half the book and just been told the surprise

ending.

One thing I enjoy about Sifu Mark's style of fighting is there is always another move ready if things don't quite go to plan and it all flows together like it was meant to be.

Its real as well because things rarely go to plan when two experienced fighters face off so I would like as many options as possible in my arsenal.

Sifu Mark then demonstrated one of the coolest moves I've seen for a long while, it doesn't sound like much but the options off of it are plenty.

Basically its a very quick switch of he legs (think of the Muhammed Ali shuffle) but then stepping forward with it and into an offensive, this can be a punch, kick, or take down .
The coolest of all has to be the superman punch, its basically a punch timed with the above footwork, (yes of course I'm gonna be practising it!).

It also helped me with the sanshou close quarter kick which involves finding the right angle and bending the leg so the whole length if the shin makes contact with the abdomen. Another thing which helped with this kick was when Sifu Mark explained the similarity of this to when throwing a hook as far as thrusting the hips are concerned.

From this seemingly irrelevant step there is a nice take down which puts you in a position to dip down slightly to the side of the fighter grabbing or hitting the leg with one hand and basically clotheslining him/her in the neck with the other arm. Hitting these two points simultaneously gives you a pretty good chance of flattening your opponent.

We ended with light kickboxing sparring with high kicks , I got some nice ones off, it felt good , everyone is raring to go.

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