Reactive Clinch Entries - MMA Positions and Workouts

Another means of entering a clinch is to use your opponent's aggressive forward movement as the way to close distance and clinch. Whenever an opponent comes forward to strike you, the distance between you is shortened so that it becomes easier to step into the clinch. However, you will need to cover up and block the incoming strikes, then lower your level slightly and step in, finally locking your opponent up in a clinch.

One of the most common forms of reactive clinch entries arises when an opponent shoots into you with the hope and intention of taking you down. As you sprawl in reaction to his takedown attempt, you both come up into a clinch.. A particularly appropriate form of clinch here is the neck clinch.. As you sprawl out on top of your opponent, wait for him to come back up. As he rises, lock up a tight neck clinch. It becomes easy now to throw strong knee strikes into him as he tries to get up. This kind of clinch work has been responsible for many knockout victories in MMA competition. It is doubtless one of the best ways to aggressively counter takedown attempts.

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Uppercut-

The uppercut is a powerful blow when you are close to your opponent. It relies on exploding your body weight upward to generate great knowledge power.

From a fighting stance, dip a little and bring your lead shoulders and hip slightly forward. Do not drop you lean hand before the punch. In a short, snappy motion, turn your palm to face you, and rip your uppercut between your opponent's hands up to the chin. Return to a fighting stance, unless you are going to the next step of a combination.

The uppercut can also be thrown successfully with the rear hand. Utilize the rear hip and shoulder to add even more power to the blow. The uppercut is an excellent counter tot the opponent who changes level into a takedown. Time his level change, and launch the uppercut with commitment straight to the chin, catching his forward movement and generating great power.

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Top Rear Mounted Position - MMA Training and Conditioning

The top rear mount occurs when your opponent is perched on top of you riding your lower back and hips with both his legs hooked into your hips. From this position, he can stretch you out and put you under great pressure. Once possible escape is the elbow escape method.

The elbow escape is by far the most useful and important escape method in jujitsu. It enable s you to escape the pins and holds of opponents far larger than yourself with relative ease. Generally it result in you placing your opponent's back in the guard position. People usually think of the elbow escape as an escape from the regular mounted position, but there are many variants, including this one form the top-rear mount. This can seem like a complicated move, but with a little practice, you will be able to do it quickly and efficiently. Your opponent is on top of you in a full rear mount. The most important thing is to remove his "hooks":, which give him stability and control over you. To remove the hooks, kick one of your legs back and place it flat on the ground between your opponent's legs. This removes one hook immediately. Slide the knee of the leg you have just kicked across and under your opponent's remaining hook. Try to touch the knee of that leg to your opposite elbow. This prevents your opponent from getting his hook back in place. To remove the remaining hook, kick your other leg back. Now both hooks have been removed. Get up to your knees, keeping your knees and elbows tight together to prevent your opponent form getting his hook back in place. Reach up and grab his arm. Roll him over your shoulder. The fact that he is not hooked in place makes this easy. As he falls off your back, stay on your knees so that you can take a top pinning position.

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Breaking out of a Rear Clinch - MMA Training and Workouts

Skilled grapplers often work their way behind their opponent, knowing that this position affords them considerable positional advantage. They seek to lock their hands around their opponent' s waist for control, then they look for takedowns or submissions.. One useful way to get out of this potentially dangerous situation is to attack your opponent's arms in a tight lock, which goes by several names in different grappling styles. Often, it is referred to as kimura keylock, double wristlock or ude garami.

When your opponent locks his arms around your waist to control you, look down to see which hand is on top of the other. This is the arm you will attack. Begin by lowering your hips then moving out and away from your opponent. This maneuver makes your bas more solid and lessens the danger of you being picked up and slammed as you attempt the move. Grab the wrist of your opponent's uppermost arm-if you are attacking his right arm, grab the wrist with your left hand, then place the wrist of your other arm under the elbow of the arm you are attack. Push his wrist down, using your wrist under his elbow as a fulcrum. Thread your hand under his elbow and grab your own wrist. This move puts you in position to perform the lock. Break his grip around you but pausing his wrist down with both hands and lowering your hips. Turn around to face your opponent, maintaining the lock on his arm. This position puts great pressure on his trapped arm.

Having broken the lock and turned around, you now have a choice. First, you can continue holding the lock. Jump toward your opponent, placing one foot deep between his legs. Sit down and roil your opponent cleanly over you and into the same lock on the ground. Aid the move by flicking your opponent over with the foot you placed between his legs. Your second choice is if you wish to avoid fighting on the ground. In that case, you can simply let go and return to the free0-movement phase.

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Level Changing- MMA Workouts, Conditioning and Training

The ability to lower one's level as the prelude to a shot is a truly crucial skill for the jujitsu fighter to master. All the main shots, especially those to the legs, are preceded by a change in level. If you fail to change levels properly before your shot, the chances of a successful takedown are slim. By lowering your level, you drop into a stance that enable you to propel yourself forward at high speed, underneath your opponent's defenses and into his hips and legs. This makes for quick and efficient takedowns that are difficult to defend. The guiding idea is to drop into a stance that is similar to a sprinter's stance, which makes it easy to shoot forward by driving off your rear foot and penetrating into your opponent's hips and legs. You can even fake level changes to confuse an opponent and make him nervous.

A way to ensure that your are changing level correctly is to keep your lead shoulder directly over your lead knee as you lower your level. If your lead shoulder goes too far forward, it becomes easy for your opponent to snap your head down to the mat and ruin any chance of a takedown. If your posture is too upright as you change your level, you ca be knocked straight back. Keep your lead shoulder directly over your lead knee, and all will be well.

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Stance and Motion (cont)

The ability to move freely and efficiently while maintaining good balance and stance is one of the most crucial skills a fighter must master. Footwork allows a fighter to evade his opponent's attacks in an efficient manner. In addition, it carries a fighter into a range that he can enter into his own attacks. It is no exaggeration to say that without good motion skills, a fighter is little more than a punching bag. He can be struck at will and has little hope of successfully returning fire.

Fighters must be able to move quickly in any direction at a moment's notice. To do so, they must be in good stance. Therefore, you can see then that stance and motion are linked skills. If one is lacking, so will the other. Many students show a strong preference for showy techniques, and they have disturbingly little interest in practicing foundational skills such as stance and motion. This is a great pity; since it is the foundational skills that are really the most important to learn. They prove to be far more useful in a real fight than any of the more exciting-looking moves.

A general rule of thumb in basic motion drills is that a fighter should move with the foot that is in the same direction to where he wishes to move. For example, if you wish to move forward, step with your forward leg first, then your rear leg. If you want to move right, the right foot moves first, the left follows. At all times, your feet should brush the floor as you move, and your weight must be carried on the balls of your feet. Do not let your weight rock back onto your  heels because any movement then becomes difficult.

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