the importance of pummeling

an under used tool that we train almost every class. Clinch work in my book is probably one of the most important exercises you can do.

This drill is used for fighting to hold dominance with underhooks, trying to gain upper body control.

at the beginning is a couple of my other students, at the end me and the bigger guy in grey are working pummeling and control.

We use the wall a lot for control as well in this drill.
do 2 to 3 rounds of 2 min. and you can feel your shoulders and legs burn.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...yz_9h9fW6GRHMg

That'll make for a good night's sleep. Good vids. Hard drilling ain't pretty, but it's functional.

Here's one more for you guys. Doing some clinch work with light knees. Same night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAFChvQayVY

nice work, i agree its an important drill and should be done every class, i also love cage/wall work its unique to MMA and one area you need to work on, thought the heads were a bit low sometimes and looking downwards not forward in the second clip, which might have set up a snap down but might just be tiredness,

could also be you guys come from a wrestling background some of the westlers i have trained with do the same thing and have great balance so snap downs are out, guys that come from a thai striking background tend to have the head higher

still lovely work

I come from a wrestling background myself. I'm pretty used to the snap down frost. A lot of times i use the lower pull downs to set up. Personally i like the level change it creates and many times we drill doing it with an elbow lift to shot.

Yep like I said I’ve seen wrestlers use it, personally not coming from a high school background I prefer a higher head and looking forward, difference maybe between looking for the shot and baiting the opponent to set it up and looking to set up the plum for knees, and having such a good base you can let the head come forward v being not quite as secure in the base so not breaking some basic rules (if that makes sense)

Horses for courses and its all fun

Most of the time when using the level change i'll look for some kind of opening or i'm trying to create one. Depends a lot of times on what i'm looking to set up. From someone drawing the full plum many times i like slipping the elbow and sliding like i'm going for a shot and flow to the persons backside belly to back. To me it about delivery and set up. Every little differing angle has somethiing to use.

Nice I prefer to get the hips under the head and move in close to nullify the knees so ill be a bit higher and either reach over the top and peal their head whilst pushing my shoulder into their elbow or if I want to keep grappling pop the inside elbow level change and hit the underhook on that side………. like I said I think it comes down to preference, if you were brought up looking for the shot and the level change that’s what you take into your MMA and clinch work

On a side note when we were working with one of Dan Gables guys I was surprised with how little emphasis he placed on pummelling: shooting and leg attacks were drilled a lot, head and wrist was his main entry and used to snap the head down and either go for the double as they come up or take the front head lock if they don’t resist, if you did get body to body he wanted the underhook and would do anything to stop the opponent digging there hand in….. he wanted nothing to do with swimming or pummelling that was a warm up drill, surprised me but then thinking about it a lot of the MMA clinch work comes from Greco where they do a lot more upper body pummelling so makes sense

Sounds like a preference thing he had to me. Everyone i've ever grappled with had a differing preference on body locks to shots to plum. Horses for courses as u stated.

We do cooperative pummeling working on technique, then pinch the elbows tight to make it hard, then do it focusing on speed and then open it up a little more free to fight for the double unders. Good training.

Only thing I would add about the video is that heads are looking down a bit too much. Definitely have to get the hips back against a bigger guy, but have to keep the head up or risk a slap down.

Good work though.

Funny u say that about the hips ray. I was yelling at one of the smaller guys about that. he has a tendecy to do just that. I preach all the time to him that if your hips are forward then your legs can be attacked for a takedown.

Here is an older vid of DB and the same guy doing grappling and SJ, can't remember if I posted this here before or not but I'll post it anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A2r6YRvp1o

Stealing a drill. Is it alright if I rename it "close combat no touch heart disruption gong"?

you can call it what ever you want. lol. not my drill one i borrowed so it's public domain.