Online MMA Training

The scarf hold is often amongst of the first ground fighting holds learned in an MMA class. It is a relatively easy hold to get into and to get right, it is an effective way to control an opponent on the ground, and can be a good set up for a submission hold. Here are two video demonstrating how to perform the scarf hold and how to escape from it:

The Kimura Drill is a great way to combine strength and conditioning training for your abs and other core muscles with practicing some of your basic ground fighting skills. The drill is actually based on repeating the same movment, which is a set up to a submission hold, over and over again so that it becomes automatic and you can perform it faster. This video demonstrates the drill and the submission hold that it is based on:

Although the ideal thing is obvious to avoid your opponent from getting the mount position on you, no fight ever goes completely to plan and you have to be ready to defends yourself, or even better to escape and get away from this difficult position. Here is one of the most basic mount escape techniques demonstrated in a short video:

Speed, both of actual physical movements and perhaps more importantly of reactions, is easily as important as strength in an MMA fight; probably even more so because weight categories ensure at least a degree of parity between the strength of two fighters, but don’t necessarily effect speed as much.

Despite this fact speed training often doesn’t have a high priority in many people’s training programme, maybe because its not so obvious how to train it, and some fighters (and trainers!) just lack the imagination to come up with effective exercises.

With this in mind here is a nice little video demonstrating some speed training exercises, all based around a similar method, that are specifically designed for mixed martial arts fighters.

It stands to reason that if the mount is the best position in MMA ground fighting, then you don’t only have to think about gaining the mount, but also about making sure that your opponent doesn’t gain the mount on you. The ‘guard’ is what you use to prevent this from happening, and just like with the mount there are actually a few different positions and techniques, each of which is a variation on the same theme. This video looks at the basics of what you need to know to use a guard in ground-fighting:

There are a small group of techniques which are absolutely fundamental to mixed martial arts and which any would be MMA fighter must know inside out and back to front. One of these techniques is the mount.

Anyone who has ever watched and MMA fight will know that most fights go down to the mat at some point, and that many fights are won and lost through grappling in this ‘ground game’. During this phase of a fight – when both fighters are grappling on the ground – there are two primary techniques (each of which has a number of different manifestations) which almost everything else is based on. These basic and fundamental techniques are the defensive ‘guard’ positions, and the offensive ‘mount’ positions. Basically the mount is when you have your opponent on their back and you assume the most dominant possible position for either moving into a submission hold or a ‘ground and pound’ knockout. The guard, which I will deal with in another post, is used to prevent the other person from gaining an mount position.

Here’s my pick of the two best online video tutorials demonstrating the basics of the MMA mount