shrimping till I die

[SevenStar]

what is your favorite solo grappling drill? what's your favorite partner drill?

[neito]

since i consider myself a striker, it would be "guard pass" and "guard sweep" drills. mainly so i can get the hell outta there

[Mr.Sleazy]

Sevenstar, does that mean that shrimping drills are your favourite?

We do them at my school too, but I have to say they are my least fav and sometimes I do wish I would die.

My two favourite drills are the mount escape drill (guy on top tries to stay on top, guy on bottom tries to reverse or escape) and Thai neck wrestling.

Neck wrestling drill is with a partner, just work the neck clinch, try to maintain or gain the inside position, and throw some light knees to keep things hopping. Really good for neck strength and for skill level.

[SevenStar]

I like those drills also. I like the shrimping drill because it's something I can do solo, as are breakfalls and bridge and roll drills. When I'm not in class, I don't have anyone to do drills with, so those. weightlifting and the calesthenics we do in longfist make up the majority of my solo training.

[wiz cool c]

i like exscaping the side mount back into the gaurd. Couse any time i grappeld a renzo gracie bluebelt and they got to a side mount it was big trouble.

[anerlich]

You can do a LOT of stuff with a heavy bag. Many heavy bags are bigger than humans, so work with one you can use properly (like get both knees on the floor when you mount the bag. Among MANY drills you can do are:

top circle drill (side control/mount/side control other side/northsouth/side control)

switching base in side control

knee ride hop across to knee ride other side, repeat, and circular hop around the "head" to kneeride on the other side

side control to kneeride, mount to kneeride (mix them up)

mount/side mount

practice the movements for the cross armbar from mount and the far armbar from kneeride, without the arm - ending up on your back legs across the bag, holding an imaginary arm (you could prob. use a rope tied around the bag or similar to approximate the arm)

kneeling or standing at the end of the bag, practice your sprawl, with or without moving around to take the back afterward

kneeling at the end of the bag, practice movements for various guard passes (esp. jumpover), step around leg bar, etc (need to use a bit of imagination/visulation here)

stand bag on end, practice your single leg takedowns

If the bag is not *too* heavy you can practice from underneath as well:

escape side control to closed guard

use each hook to lift the bag (say 30-50 reps)

front sweep (lifting the bag with your feet and the straps in your hands, taking it back over your head with your feet, rolling back over your shoulder and finishing in the mount)

body hug and leg lift sweep

if the bag has straps you can even practice butterfly sweeps.

You can of course do plenty of G&P (punching, elbows from mount, kneeride, knees from side control and N/S, etc.)

A grappling dummy would be more versatile, but unlikely to absorb quite the same amount of punishment. Nothing replaces a live partner, but they often tend to complain of you want to crank out 100 reps of something, punch full power to the face, or want to work out when saner people are watching TV.

[MonkeySlap Too]

I like belt cracking, bag swinging and the shin-box exercises from Sombo.

But I emphasize knife work over ground work in my personal practice, so I don't engage in a lot of passing the gaurd work, as I've found a good stabbing fixes that problem just fine. :p

[SevenStar]

shin- box exercise? what's that?

[anerlich]

If I understand MonkeySlap correctly, Russian MA have a series of drills they perform in and through a position called the "shin box":

Sit on the floor.

bend R leg and bring toes to the oposite knee. let right knee fall outwards to the ground. Bend left leg, roate the thigh inwards so left heel ends up next to your butt.

You should now be sitting on the floor with both shins at a right angle to each other, both knees on the floor. From here you can switch sides, roll over either shin to other positions, etc etc.

Actually here's a pic:

www.alliancemartialarts.com/techniques3.html

There is a tape series called "Grapplers' Toolbox" from www.ameross.com which has a few of these and lots of other grappling related solo drills. Good stuff.