Sparring Class

A couple of weeks ago Sensei Dave Ossian invited me to teach today's sparring class. This was a perfect opportunity for me to work with the sparring students on pummeling drills, clinch work and takedowns. Although my focus was teaching a simple double leg and single leg takedown, many of the sparring students were already well versed in Judo throws and takedowns. Working in the clinch almost always offers opportunities for a wide range of takedowns, so I encouraged the students to work with their partners to see what types of foot sweeps and hip throws became available to them. The last part of the class was spent working on some striking on the ground, with some general concepts about positioning.

When Dave first talked to me about teaching, I wasn't quite certain how my ground fighting experience would transition to his sparring class. What I realized was that some of the students hadn't worked very much on closing distance and working from the inside. Those students who were familiar with the drills we worked on were able to hone their skills even more.

Overall I was very impressed with the level of energy everyone put forth and how receptive they were to having me there. Dave's goal is to have me come in about once a month to work on various aspects of the fight. For my next visit I plan to teach how to avoid the takedown.

Thank you to all who were there. Everyone made it really easy for me. For those of you who are not regular sparring class attendees, I highly recommend it. Anyone who is just breaking into the amateur MMA scene or those who are thinking about it, this is definitely the class for you. All of our current MMA fighters have been attending, so there's a lot of sharing of information going on.

Keep up the great work with the class, David. I'm looking forward to my next visit.