Elevate MMA Academy

Shifting into combos for MMA, KB, and Muay Thai. Understanding when and how to shift is a massive element in utilizing footwork. Especially in MMA where fighters consistently cover a lot of ground. Both attacking and retreating shifting can give you the ability to quickly move into dominant positions and expose new angles for attack. This is everything we worked in Dutch kickboxing class last Thursday minus all of the live games and we will be running the exact same game plan this week.

Disclaimer! Elevate MMA does not ALWAYS endorse jumping the gilly. But if you got what you need, let's get it done and go home!

Footwork, Pivots, & Stance Shifting
Whether we are talking boxing, kickboxing, Muay, Thai, or MMA, we are constantly looking to make an angle. Anytime we move laterally we create an angle relative to our opponent. Pivoting gives us a different option where we are intentionally stepping to a deeper angle and then bringing our back foot around. Pivoting is a great tool both offensively in order to create new angles of attack, or defensively when we are moving off the line of attack instead of simply retreating.
Study high-level fighters and WATCH THE FEET!
That beautiful highlight knockout came from the foundation at the feet!

Attacking Front Headlock + Using The Lat Grip + Harpoon Sweep Ideas
I got a couple great questions on why I use certain grips in certain situations. I think this ended up doing a pretty good job of laying out my thought process. We get a chance to talk about some overall principles of control and how to attach to your opponent in ways that gives you more power or more options for motion. And then some of the common counters to the Harpoon sweep depending on where you put your arm.
Study Deeply!
Chris is an A+ Uke
Dave Castro A+ film work
One Take BB

Here's a cool little moment from Yadong vs Figueiredo on the UFC this past weekend. Over time as we advance in combat Sports, we learn better and better tools for dealing with certain situations. If every time someone throws a strike, our only answer is to step away from them. We lose the ability to counter and maintain pressure. It is the same thing in all of our grappling positions. We need to have answers that don't always require giving our opponent space.
Specifically here we are looking at single leg X Guard. By turning away and fleeing the position, we are conceding a reset and while that may be the tactically correct choice in a particular fight over time, we want to develop the skill set so we can stay in the engagement and force other options.
This particular scenario let Figgy know Yadong was hip to his leg lock game. Later on in the fight he gets in another scrambling scenario and pursues a wrestle up instead which allowed yadong to sn**ch the neck and get the finish via Arm-in guillotine