Striking Classes

I’ve lost count of the amount of people at DMMA that have said I “look karate”! I didn’t know you could look “karate”. Mind you, now that I think about it Machida looks and acts distinctly karate when in the Octagon. 

Anyway, I’ve been training at DMMA for just over two months now, but I still feel very new. I’m still mostly learning the basics in wrestling and mma striking rather than sparring, but I’m so eager to get sparring! I’ve done a bit of sparring since joining DMMA and each time it’s been a real thrill, and I’m sure once the instructors feel I’m ready and let me spar that even more “karate” will instinctively come out, so DMMA members you’d better be ready! 

Haha only joking. But once I’ve got the basics down and I find my rhythm I’ll be able to incorporate some karate into my fighting game. Until then……

My first striking class was back in August. I began MMA knowing that learning new ways of striking would be a huge challenge. I’m constantly battling my karate instincts; my punches, kicks, stances, how I hold my head, where my hands are, weight distribution, feet placement etc is all ingrained in me. I’ve done things a certain way for so long I don’t even know I’m doing them. In order to combat some of this I purchased a wee notebook so I could note down some pointers from each class I attend:

(ok so it’s a bit girly, but I can be girly and badass at the same time!)

The notes I made after my first class were:

• Chin down (minimises chances of getting KO'd)

• Hands up to the temples (in point-scoring karate my hands were quite low to defend against kicks to the body as well as the head, but in full-contact my priority is to protect the head and learn to crunch/absorb body shots)

• Shoulders hunched over (build-in defence against hooks to the chin)

• Check leg-kicks with your own leg rather than gedan barai/low block (blocking kicks leaves your head WIDE open)

• Jab to close distance

In addition, some drills I noted down were:

• Jab, cross, hook, leg kick (remember weight distribution)

• Jab, cross, duck, hook

• Jab, jab, cross, step-off-to-the-side body kick

Going over these techniques a few times in class isn't sufficient in committing them to memory, but I’ve found that shadow boxing at home has been a good way of developing the muscle memory required. A bit of shadow boxing can be done quickly before starting a shift and it’s fun to do with Thin Lizzy blaring in the background. Although I’m still terribly inconsistent with keeping my hands up, shoulders hunched over etc, I’m pleased with my progress. 

Just as an amusing, self-mocking anecdote; one of the coaches has spotted a tell I do just before fighting. I quickly punch the air before getting into my stance. Sounds so stupid, right? I honestly had no idea I did this, and at first I had no clue why on earth I would do this. He was concerned that I would do this in the cage and get knocked out, and I became concerned about this too; how do you stop something you don’t even know you’re doing?! I’ve realised what it’s about; I’ve trained for a long time with a restricting gi, so I did this to loosen the gi before starting a drill. I must have been doing this for years as I still do this even though I don’t train in a gi anymore. Imagine if UFC fighters had conditioned themselves to punch the air before fighting, all we'd see is 2-second finishes! I'm working on cutting it out, but it's taking a while.

I hope some of these basic striking pointers have been useful. I'd love to hear some of the striking techniques you learnt when you first started out. My next blog will discuss the techniques I've been learning in wrestling classes.