Fun class today!

This quarter, we are in Phase 1 of Green Level, which primarily focuses on core concepts and striking. We’re now beginning to explore how a basic striking movement can evolve and branch into the more advanced vertical grappling found in Green Level 2.

Ukemi

We worked with variations of the forward sprawl. This week’s focus was the One-Hand Sprawl with Palm Up variation.

Core Concepts Review

We revisited and drilled the concept of Movement as the First Defense, along with the 5 Reasons People Grab.

If you’ve been reviewing previous training notes, you’ll notice that at Green Level we emphasize much of the same material for several weeks at a time. This repetition is intentional. Because of our rotating curriculum, you will go through the entire Green Level training twice inside a year. By the time you are a candidate for “Level Black” training, you will have been through Green Level at least 8 times! . At our school, fundamentals are everything, and depth comes through repetition.

3 Phases of Confrontation

We also covered the three phases of confrontation:

• Inception

• Development

• Completion

Understanding these phases at both the micro and macro levels helps us recognize the signs of impending violence and determine when disengagement is the smartest option.

Escaping a Double-Hand Grab

We finished by working on escapes from a double-hand grab. Remember, you can only be grabbed from a limited number of angles, and grips are generally broken using the same principles across most situations.

The two primary responses we worked on were:

• Low Pike Kick to Smash the Wrist, feeding into a Palm Heel Strike

• (For low-line grabs) Cross-Body Knee Attack to Hammer Fist

Want to see how these are applied in real time? You’ll have to come to class!

Hope to see you on the mat soon!