GJ Switching Gears

Tonight Jeff and I made a strategic training adjustment. As several members of Team Solid and myself are competing at the end of month at the IKF Worlds and Jeff isn't we figured that he could coach while I could focus on training while giving him input. Tonight we implemented this plan in our training.
The fighters showed up an hour before practice and did a shuttle round. Essentially, you are either running different length shuttles (30, 60 and 90 yards) or hitting thai pads. We did a 6 minute round in which the feeders either held or sent their fighters for a set of shuttles. We then went back inside and traded combinations.
For warm-up Jeff had us do:

• Squats
  
• Calf extension squats
  
• Lunges
  
• Kick Lunges -- Swing rear leg over your head after the lunge
  
• Push-ups
  
• Handstands
  
• Planks
  
• Push-ups
  
• "Round the World" -- Lie on your back and have your partner gently push your legs one way or the other. Make a slow circle with both legs.
  
• Pushed Leg Extension -- Partner pushes legs to floor, bring them back up anteriorly
  
• Dribble the Legs -- Lay in an supine position and have your legs extended. One partner holds the shoulders down while the other "dribbles" your legs and occasionally holds pressure

We then progressed into 3 minute thai pad rounds

1. Basic thai warm-up
   

2. Reaction
   

   I tried to pick up leg cover/evasion with thai reaction, head punches with 3, and body punches with uppercut-cross/hook-hook/cross. In addition if I moved away from the reaction before it could land and was out of range for punch reaction, I threw tiip. While somewhat unrealistic it trains interceptive and exiting tiip strategies.

3. Focused four count combinations
   

   We worked on 4 counts #3 and #4, emphasizing the last head kick. The final 45 seconds were alternating head kicks.

4. Conditioning
   

   30 second intervals within the round:

   • Pitterpat
     
   • Head kick fall
     
   • Crosses n' hooks
     
   • Head kick fall
     
   • Push-ups
     
   • Knees
     
   • 1 minute high knees

Next we did 5 continuous 2 minute rounds of timing.
We then switched into ring generalship drill attributed to MMA phenom Miguel Torres. In this drill one side works off the wall/ropes trying to circle their partner. Their partner tries to keep them close and parallel to the wall with foot movement and light pushing. A continuous circuit of 1 minute rounds were worked.
We finished with closing strategies. Jeff explained how he likes to follow his jab. Thus he probes with the jab using the Starfish concept of circling while opening and closing the distance. He pops the jab quick to provoke a startle response, that is something that makes his opponent worry and react to the fast jab. If his opponent is largely non-countering, i.e. snapping back a quick jab of their own, he follows with his shorter strikes or clinching. I mentioned the concept of "shielded striking" and exiting with the open Corkscrew. We drilled this for the remainder of practice.

And Tom Iowa City to Cedar Rapids, IA is 32 miles.