Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 1

Celtic Fan · Sep 24, 2008

Here's an interesting blog collum from on of Mir's coaches

by Ken Hahn
The latest season of "The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir" debuted last week, and in anticipation of my weekly blog series (which debuts tomorrow and will run every Thursday), I've decided to take a look back at last week's season premiere.

Evaluations

The episode began with UFC officials deciding the match-ups for the preliminary fights with fighter evaluations coming next. Each of the fighter contestants was allowed to display his respective skills in front of both teams' coaching staffs.

Speaking on behalf of Team Mir, we were trying to discover which fighters had the most heart during evaluations, their respective skill levels, and whether they seemed open to being coached. Ultimately, we wanted to know which fighters were the best, but because the true test of a fighter's potential is measured inside the cage and that stage of the competition had yet to come, we had to begin our evaluations through hands-on drilling and observation.

It was fairly easy to measure each fighter's grappling ability because sparring on the ground can be accomplished with little risk to the fighters' health. Striking ability, on the other hand, was more challenging to gauge because stand-up sparring is very difficult to do without risking injuries to the fighters. We did our best to evaluate striking ability by holding mitts and pads for the fighters, which served a very important purpose because it is the closest thing to actual sparring.

We weren't allowed to pick whom we were going to corner in the preliminary fights, so we left it up to the fighters to decide whether they wanted help from our coaching squad. If they wanted my help, I would warm them up, help them with ice, give massages, and hold the pads – which is the same treatment I would give my own fighters at Striking Unlimited. Some of the guys really wanted my help, but others just wanted to go through the motions.

I enjoyed the selection process because it presented a solid challenge for me as a striking coach. Whatever I do, I want to do my best at it. If you would have told me ahead of time that I was going to hold mitts for nearly every one of the 32 contestants in such a short amount of time, I wouldn't have believed it could be done.

As a trainer I want to be respected as very knowledgeable and capable, and I felt that holding pads for the majority of the show's contestants showed that I was both.

Thoughts on the fighters

Becoming a successful professional fighter is difficult, but making your way through the rigorous training and fighting schedule of "TUF" is an even greater test. If you're not the kind of individual that can take advantage of the intense "TUF" training and soak up the environment that surrounds you there, you're going to have a tough time.

Some of the challenges for the show's contestants include living with your opponents, fighting with injuries, and potentially fighting two or three fights in a matter of weeks as opposed to months. Not many fighters can do that.

In fact, one fighter in particular had trouble making weight for his first fight and consequently was booted off the show. Every viewer of the first episode undoubtedly witnessed Jason Guida's failure to make weight. Team Mir's coaches tried our best to help Jason with his cut, and it was not pretty.

We helped him avoid cramping up to the best of our abilities. We stayed by his side, gave him ice, massaged him and walked him all the way through the process. There was a lot of stuff the viewers didn't get to see because it was graphic.

Jason's body would spasm up, he was sometimes naked, and he would throw tantrums. But we tried our best to keep him calm. You don't want a fighter who's dehydrating himself to freak out. Needless to say, Jason was not at his professional best in his "TUF 8" experience.

Other contestants such as Junie Browning and Phillipe Nover showed early signs of the effects of "TUF's" high demands.

Junie displayed good technique when I held pads for him, but I got the impression that he didn't enter the show in the best shape. During the first couple minutes of a round on the pads, he would go strong, then he would fade during the middle portion of the round, and by round's end, he would be gassed.

Of course the hot Vegas climate, his own weight cut, and the new environment could have affected him. But in the end, his abilities and his confidence were enough to smash his opponent, Jose Aguilar, and make him quit in his corner before the start of the second round of their preliminary fight.

Phillipe suffered a feinting spell before the coaches were introduced to the fighters. But that in no way affected his performance against Joe Duarte in their preliminary fight. Phillipe is the kind of guy to be scared of because he's calm and collected, and when it's time to go, he'll go. He doesn't show much facial expression, but he hits hard and he was someone we thought about picking for Team Mir.

When Jason couldn't make weight, Mike Stewart was brought in as an alternate. We didn't know much about him. He seemed like the typical guy that was pretty arrogant and thought he was going to be the next "ultimate fighter," but he had a good body on him. I didn't actually get to hold pads for him because he was an alternate.

We knew Mike's opponent, Krzysztof Soszynski, was a highly credible fighter and was someone we wanted to select for Team Mir because of his solid record heading into the show. His victory by way of pummeling was very impressive.

I also liked Dave Kaplan a lot. He has a solid kickboxing pedigree; he studied at a great school in Holland, and when I held pads for him, I was impressed. I wasn't sure what his jiu jitsu skills were prior to his fight with Fernando Bernstein, but they looked pretty good in his submission victory.

Eric Magee looked like he shouldn't have even been selected to compete on the show because he looked physically soft. I knew Jules Bruchez would be pretty good even with a limited MMA background because he had that country boy persona with strong wrestling skills. His wrestling looked legit in the warm-ups.

Vinicius Magalhaes is the resident black belt at Dan Henderson's school, so it surprised us when he didn't use any jiu jitsu in his rib-popping victory over Lance Evans. Evans probably didn't have enough conditioning to withstand a hard kick to the ribs. I don't know a lot about Lance, but I will say that MMA is a very challenging sport to become conditioned for because of the many weapons at your opponent's disposal.

Antwain Britt impressed me with his hunger for knowledge. He sought me out during evaluations and asked for help prior to his initial fight with Ryan Jimmo. He improved at least 30 percent in the time that I spent holding pads for him, which only lasted about 20 minutes. He felt what it was like to have a trainer who let him know what he really needed. I was later told that Antwain said he had a great time striking for me during evaluations.

Brandon Garner's illegal knee to his downed opponent, Brian McLaughlin, was not intentional. I was cornering him during his no-contest bout, and I called out for him to throw the knee, but the sequence happened so fast that there was little room for error.

As a trainer, I teach fighters that as soon as the hands come off of the ground and the second his knee comes off of the ground, technically you should be able to strike. Your objective is to prevent the downed opponent from taking advantage of the rules. I wanted my fighter to fire the knee as soon as the opening presented itself within the confines of the rules. But unfortunately, it didn't go Brandon's way and Brian received the pass into the fighters' house.

Tomorrow

Check back with MMAjunkie.com tomorrow for more of my insights about my experience as an assistant coach for Team Mir on "TUF8." We'll take a look at the second set of elimination fights as the cast is whittled down to 16 fighters.
Click to expand...

Celtic Fan · Sep 26, 2008

Episode 2 (the phantom menace)... oh wait wrong Episode 2

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 2
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Sep 26, 2008 at 10:15 am ET
Ken Hahn, with co-writer Jacob Regar, breaks down the second episode of "The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir."

Get an inside look at Team Mir as the team's assistant coach (and Mir's real-world head coach) takes you behind the scenes of the UFC and Spike TV's popular reality series.

A word on conditioning

In the Wesley Murch vs. John Polakowski lightweight preliminary fight, we saw a classic example of the importance of conditioning. When you throw a leg kick at an opponent and he shin-checks it, you better have spent plenty of time conditioning your bones and muscles to withstand that level of contact.

My training and fighting background is in Muay Thai and bare-knuckle Karate. In those arts, we would bang shins all the time. If you hurt your shin during a tournament fight, you may still have to fight 30 minutes later. So if you aren't properly conditioned, you aren't going to be able to walk -- let alone fight.

When you bang shins with your opponent, your lower leg muscles want to shut down because of the trauma. In my opinion, it takes approximately six to eight months of specific lower leg conditioning exercises to build up the muscles and bones to withstand shin-to-shin contact.

One thing that is missing in today's modern MMA world is the traditional Karate practice of blocking strikes by bumping forearms and shins with a training partner.

In Thailand, the most common way for the fighters to condition their legs involves kicking heavy bags. They begin their conditioning regimen by kicking soft-filled bags that progressively become harder until the bags are finally filled with sand -- and then rocks and sand. Once a fighter can kick a bag filled with that combination of rocks and sand, they can blast away at an opponent's leg with little risk of injury.

However, experienced Thai fighters do not always throw hard kicks. They set up their kicks with proper angles, and they maximize their timing skills so that their kicks land in ways that are both damaging to their opponent and safe for their own bodies.

Frank Mir and I will often spar with no shin pads. This practice forces us to respect each other's kicks. You can't always kick your opponent with full force; you have to maintain control, and you have to be precise. This skill requires lengthy kicking practice and should not be overlooked.

At Striking Unlimited, when we are conditioning for low kicks, the objective is to make the leg muscles more dense and resilient so that you can safely absorb low kicks.

As soon as one of my fighters suffers a bruise to his lower leg during training, that makes walking difficult. I make him do jump squats, no matter how painful it may be. At that point he needs to push the bad blood out of the injury site and the new blood in, and the best way to accomplish that is to contract the leg muscles surrounding the bruise.

Modernly, many MMA fighters claim to practice Muay Thai but end up injuring themselves in fights when they employ offensive or defensive kicking techniques. It's difficult for me to understand how someone with no Thai fighting experience willingly enters MMA competition and uses Thai boxing techniques. Fighters should develop their stand-up experience and conditioning through amateur competition prior to entering professional MMA.

Wesley appeared to suffer a deep bone contusion when his kick was shin-checked by John. Perhaps Wesley's leg was already injured prior to the show's preliminary fights and once John checked his kick he re-aggravated the same injury. If not, his injury was probably a consequence of not being in the proper condition to have one of his hard leg kick's checked.

Thoughts on the other fights

Shane Primm's victory over Sean O'Connell in their preliminary light heavyweight match-up displayed once again the kind of fighters that come out of B.J. Penn's school: well rounded and aggressive.

Shane was someone we looked at for "Team Mir" during the selection process. During his fight, he didn't look nervous and displayed good confidence in his techniques as he transitioned from the clinch to jumping on Sean's back and taking him to the ground. Shane represents a complete fighter that will only improve with time.

Efrain Escudero did exactly what he said he was going to do in his lightweight fight with Ido Pariente: take his opponent's back and choke him. During evaluations, Efrain looked slick on the ground. His jiu-jitsu game looked like it flowed well. He's a jiu jitsu and ground-and-pound-oriented fighter.

During evaluations, he was one of the contestants that wanted to stick to his own routine rather than seek help from the trainers. He pretty much rolled with other grapplers during that phase of the show.

At light heavyweight, Ryan Lopez looked good striking the heavy bag, but that wasn't enough to overcome his preliminary opponent, Tom Lawlor, and his solid wrestling.

Lightweight George Roop impressed Frank and me in his win over Roli Delgado because of his ability to listen to our instructions. He's humble, hungry, willing to do anything in training and doesn't ask why.

Light heavyweights Ryan Bader and Kyle Kingsbury both have good fighting qualities, but I felt that Ryan was a better guy to work with. During evaluations Kyle did alright on the Thai pads, but he didn't possess the raw power that Ryan had.

Ryan is a high-level wrestler, and I believe he would benefit a great deal by improving his boxing and kick-boxing base. He also showed good initiative during evaluations by asking me to hold pads for him. That's the kind of fighter I enjoy working with.

Kyle, on the other hand, was very picky about which pad combinations he wanted me to hold for him.

Shane Nelson comes from B.J. Penn's school in Hilo, Hawaii. He was one of our top picks that we wanted for "Team Mir." He has good clinching, good punching, knows how to bang and keeps the pressure on his opponent. And we were impressed with his win over his lightweight preliminary opponent, Charles Diaz.

Eliot Marshall was always a step ahead of his light heavyweight preliminary opponent Karn Grigoryan. The fight was never even close. The damage on Karn's face should have told the real story of how the fight went. Eliot was launching repeated submission attempts on the ground, and though Karn was escaping well, he was on the defensive for most of the fight.

Fortunately for Eliot, Antwain Britt, who was victorious in his light heavyweight fight, suffered a bad break – literally -- to his hand and was unable to continue on the show. Because Eliot caught a bad judges' decision in his preliminary fight, it was only right to allow him to replace Antwain's spot in the fighters' house.

Next week

Check back with MMAjunkie.com next week for more of my insights about my experience as an assistant coach for Team Mir on "TUF8." We'll take a look at the team selections and Team Mir's training.
Click to expand...

Celtic Fan · Oct 2, 2008

Episode 3 recap

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn's training insight for episode No. 3

"Team Mir" was very pleased with the results of the team selections, which were a big part of this latest episode. We felt like we selected a majority of the fighters that we scouted during evaluations.

We selected Krzysztof Soszynski, a Team Quest member out of Dan Henderson's school, first because he was already a seasoned fighter. If we lost the coin toss and Team Nogueira opted to select Krzysztof first, our second choice would have been Ryan Bader.

Vinny Magalhaes, also out of Henderson's school, and Shane Nelson, a student of B.J. Penn's, were also top choices in our scouting report, and we were excited to select them to our team.

Two especially important attributes for MMA fighters to possess are a positive attitude and a willingness to learn.

During training Krzysztof stood out among Team Mir's fighters with his excellent attitude. He showed a true willingness to learn, and from a coach's perspective, you couldn't want anything more from one of your fighters.

Team Mir evaluations

Owing to his solid professional fight experience, Krzysztof looked to be the most well-rounded fighter during our first training session.

Dave Kaplan came from a great Thai boxing school, and his striking looked very sharp. But his stand-up ability for MMA could use some improvement.

Junie Browning probably displayed the best all-around MMA striking skills because he incorporated some wild and unorthodox techniques. His striking ability looked more dynamic than most of the other fighters on Team Mir.

Vinny Magalhaes showcased the most complete grappling game during our first training session. He has a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and is the resident black belt at Dan Henderson's school.

Training insight

As martial artists' skills progress, a great training exercise to incorporate into their routine is light sparring. This practice tests a fighter's learned sensitivity and body control. Light sparring may not look that difficult, but it is a high-level exercise.

Viewers of the third episode of "TUF8" witnessed Team Mir's fighters practicing light sparring inside the octagon during our first training session.

Most fighters seek the instant gratification of landing hard blows on their opponents and training partners. But a true measure of a fighter's skill level is the ability to gauge the precise speed and power of his strikes and adjust those qualities to fit a specific training and fighting scenario.

It is important to learn how to land strikes on the multi-angled human body and make combinations flow naturally. Light sparring helps improve these skills.

Drilling light sparring not only helps fighters develop control, but it also helps them work on striking a moving target without getting knocked out.

When you're working on improving these skills, it is important to progress through the different developmental stages of training.

Fighters should begin stand-up training by learning how to punch at the air with proper balance and fluidity. This practice is called shadowboxing. Next, fighters should strike the heavy bag with which they can focus on developing their power. Then they should put together combinations on the Thai pads and focus mitts, and finally, they can transition into light sparring practice.

Progressing through the different stages mentioned above will help a fighter develop his "Variable Temperature Control Gauge." This control gauge will enable fighters to spar against different-sized opponents who possess different athletic attributes -- the key being the ability to adjust their pace for different fighting scenarios.

A good analogy is that you should be able to spar a fighter and then be able to immediately spar your child. Your speed, dexterity and timing should remain the same, but now you're working with two different levels; one guy can absorb your kicks and one guy can't, but you still need to throw the kicks with the same speed. In this case, your power needs adjustment.

Upon reaching a high level of martial arts expertise, you should be able to throw strikes at a high velocity and make your hands and legs feel soft upon impact. When I spar with Frank Mir at Striking Unlimited, we are able to spar at about 60 percent with no shin pads and control our level of contact so that the risk of injury is greatly diminished.

Another benefit to be gained through light sparring practice includes the increased ability to fall in sync with your opponent's movements and match his rhythm. This skill translates well into actual fighting because you will find it easier to catch your opponent off guard and land punishing strikes with precision.

Viewers of episode No. 3 likely witnessed Team Mir fighter Tom Lawlor and me working a high-knee Thai pad drill prior to his fight with Ryan Bader. I use that drill for conditioning purposes.

Rather than the fighter executing a traditional high-knee conditioning drill, I like to make the fighter raise his knees up to meet the Thai pads right above the waist level. Using the Thai pads provides the fighter with the sensation of hitting something as opposed to air.

Additionally, the fighter can simultaneously work his cardiovascular training and proper knee form. Because the fighter is kneeing upward, once his knee reaches the pads, his ankles should be tight and his toes should be pointed down and curled toward his heel, with the bottom of his foot forming a "C."

I like my conditioning drills to have a purpose that directly translate into the fight. This drill will not only condition the fighter's cardiovascular system but also will positively reinforce his kneeing techniques. I typically have my fighters perform two sets of 100 repetitions of the high-knees on the Thai pads.

Tom Lawlor vs. Ryan Bader

Tom's game plan heading into the fight was to keep the fight standing because he felt like he had better hands than Ryan. Ryan was the more accomplished wrestler and has dangerous ground-and-pound skills.

After Ryan took Tom down, Tom made the mistake of freezing up after he pushed Ryan's hips away with his feet.

He would have likely fared better if he would have jammed Ryan's hips away like it was a life and death situation because, in my opinion, if you have Ryan coming over the top on you, you'd want to kick for your life and get out of harm's way.

You can never practice enough situational drilling.

Next week

Check back with MMAjunkie.com next week for more of my insights about my experience as an assistant coach for Team Mir on "TUF8." We'll take another look at Team Mir's training sessions and my thoughts on the next fight selection.
Click to expand...

Smitty · Oct 4, 2008

Didn't read the blogs yet, but I love watching the Ultimate Fighter, one of my favs.

Celtic Fan · Oct 4, 2008

give'em both a read, they're some great stuff in both.

TUF is still great to me, it's what got me back in to MMA

Celtic Fan · Oct 12, 2008

Episode 4 blog from Ken, some more great insight to training techniques

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn's training insight for episode No. 4
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Oct 09, 2008 at 9:30 am ET
The competition format of "The Ultimate Fighter" poses some difficulties for team training. Although the contestants on the show were selected to one of two teams, the objective for the fighters is to continuously prevail through each stage of the competition. And the further a fighter makes it in the competition, the more likely he will eventually face one of his team members in a fight.

Team Mir likely had less cohesion as a team than Team Nogueira. That was probably the result of the fighters' personalities that we chose to our team. Generally speaking, many of the fighters on "Team Mir" came onto the show with very independent styles and mindsets. Junie Browning was no exception.

Coaches on "TUF" bring their training expertise onto the show to help each fighter grow in a relatively short time period. Some fighters take to the training more than others.

During Shane Nelson's fight preparation, he spent time rolling with Junie, and he repeatedly tapped him out. Shane attempted to explain to Junie why he was getting caught in the submissions, but Junie seemed reluctant to learn from his mistakes with a positive attitude. He became openly frustrated, and he would make negative comments about Team Mir's training, saying things like "this training sucks."

In contrast to Junie's close-minded training attitude, we were fortunate enough to have a true team leader among us in Krzysztof Soszynski. He is a natural leader. Not only was he one of the oldest contestants on the show, he was also the most experienced, and he came from Dan Henderson's esteemed school, which is very team oriented.

Krzysztof took very well to Team Mir's training. I was pleased to hear that he enjoyed working with me on the pads, and he definitely knows how to put his body into his strikes because he was probably the hardest striker that I worked with on Team Mir.

Training insight

The focus for Shane's fight preparation was definitely on grappling. Shane's a talented grappler, and because his fight was so early in the competition, there wasn't a lot of time to work on his striking game.

But in the ultra-competitive MMA world, it is vital to have a clear understanding of both stand-up and grappling techniques and this week we will explore some striking fundamentals that applied to Shane's match-up with Efrain Escudero.

When you train a southpaw fighter (right-hand lead) like Shane for a fight against an orthodox fighter (left-hand lead) like Efrain, you must pay special attention to the fundamental differences in each fighter's stance.

On offense, the opposite stance provides your power punch a direct path to your opponent, but on defense you stand directly in the line of fire of his power hand.

To combat the risk of his orthodox opponent's power hand, Shane must constantly work to keep his right-lead foot on the outside of Efrain's left-lead foot. Shane will "circle to the outside," which will keep him out of danger of Efrain's right power hand.

Shane should stay aware of Efrain's right uppercut, left hook combination. That is one of the best offensive methods involving the hands that Efrain can use against Shane's southpaw stance.

The reason the above combination is so effective for an orthodox fighter to use against a southpaw fighter is because the southpaw's natural reaction to the right uppercut is to step away from it toward the outside of his opponent's lead leg. That movement will bring him directly into the line of fire of the orthodox fighter's lead left hook.

The orthodox fighter can even use the right uppercut as a feint or "ghost punch" (one that is thrown with solid power at the target but intended to closely miss and sets the puncher's feet up to throw a follow-up strike with his other hand) to bait his southpaw opponent into the left hook.

Between fighters with opposite stances, the rear-uppercut, front-hook combo is an excellent technique because if the defensive fighter tries to avoid the rear uppercut by slipping toward the punch, he will likely get hit by it. If he steps to the outside like most fighters are trained to do, he will have trouble seeing the front hook that is heading his way.

A great combination for a southpaw to use against an orthodox fighter and conversely for an orthodox fighter to use against a southpaw is the "jab, front hook, cross" also called the "one, three, two." Shane could have employed this devastating combination against Efrain because of their opposite stances. This particular combination is one of Frank Mir's favorites.

Here, Shane steps forward, throws his jab and steps to the outside of Efrain's left-lead foot as he re-cocks his front shoulder in case Efrain throws his own punch. He then throws his right hook. His back foot slides out and realigns with Efrain at a 45-degree angle, and then he immediately throws his left cross down the pipe. The cross should hit Efrain at 45 degrees, making it difficult to slip or block.

The "one, three, two" can also be finished with a rear kick instead of the cross. After throwing the jab and stepping out and throwing the front hook, take one more step to the outside, which will put you even further away from your opponent's strikes, and throw the rear kick.

Combinations like the ones described above are recipes for knockouts. And drilling them religiously is the best way to ensure you can properly execute them come fight time.

Shane Nelson vs. Efrain Escudero

Training out of B.J. Penn's school, Shane obviously has a solid jiu-jitsu game. He likes to create the opening for his ground game by striking to the clinch, where he can take his opponent's back or execute a takedown. This method of closing the gap becomes increasingly important when facing a solid wrestler such as Efrain.

From the outset of his fight against Efrain, Shane didn't let his hands go as originally planned. This made closing the gap very difficult, and Shane became frustrated with his inability to get Efrain to the ground, including having his takedown attempts deflected by Efrain's superior wrestling. Before long, fatigue set in, and Shane was unable to properly defend against Efrain's slick triangle.

Of course, credit goes to Efrain for fighting a solid fight and imposing his will, but Shane never really executed his game plan. And that ultimately cost him the fight.
Click to expand...

Junie obviously needs some counseling to get help with some obvious issues, even bitching about the training going on which should be considered the chance of a lifetime.

Celtic Fan · Oct 16, 2008

Blog for Episode 5:
source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/13027/tea...n-hahns-training-insight-for-episode-no-5.mma

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn's training insight for episode No. 5
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Oct 16, 2008 at 10:50 am ET
During my tenure as an assistant coach for "Team Mir" on "The Ultimate Fighter 8," I probably worked with lightweight contestant George Roop and light heavyweight contestants Krzysztof Soszynski and Eliot Marshall the most. All three of these fighters entered the show with an open mind and a strong desire to improve their games.

Training with Eliot was a pleasure. He asked me to hold pads for him nearly every day of "Team Mir's" training. And as his first fight was approaching, I worked with him twice a day.

What stood out the most in my experience working with Eliot was his love for training, his hunger to learn. He was always asking me, "What else can I do?" And that's a great thing to have between a student and teacher – someone who is eager to learn and do whatever it takes to progress.

I noticed improvement in his striking throughout the duration of the show.

The only negative quality that I observed in him was a slight lack of confidence in his MMA game. I don't know enough about Eliot's training history outside of my experience working with him on "TUF" to know exactly where his lack of confidence stems from, but in episode No. 5, we heard Eliot say that he was kind of a nerd growing up who hung out by himself and he turned to grappling and became very good.

He has an impressive grappling resume that includes some major tournament wins, but until he wins at a high level in MMA, his confidence as a fighter may remain a step behind his actual skill level.

Training insight

The level of instruction and training on "TUF8" was world class, and Eliot definitely maximized his training time.

When I began holding pads for Eliot, we started out with some freestyle rounds. This enabled me to identify his favorite strikes in addition to areas upon which he could improve.

Next, I asked him what his favorite combinations were. I wanted to avoid instructing the fighters on methods that they didn't want to learn.

Once we established the combinations that we felt would benefit him the most, I added my own style, which is more of a reality-oriented, pad-holding style.

When you're holding pads for a fighter and he answers your strike count with the proper strikes, you should be able to hit him back while he is still in striking range. This method keeps the fighter sharp and prevents laziness.

I make sure to tell the fighter which strikes I am likely to counter with. That way he understands what the likely responses will be for his own strikes.

The focus for Eliot's pre-fight training was based more on jiu jitsu than striking. But we did cover important stand-up fundamentals that were intended to help Eliot close the distance safely against Shane Primm so he could take him down and choke him.

The accompanying training video clip displays a couple of the standing-to-takedown techniques that we covered during Eliot's fight preparation for his fight with Shane. The primary technique that we cover in the video is called the "juke move," and the two finishes are called the "T-bar" and the "hillbilly roll," respectively.

The techniques in the video are excellent moves to use when your intent is to take the fight to the ground. Eliot wanted to use his high-level jiu jitsu to dominate Shane, and we wanted to help him close the distance on his feet so he could accomplish that end.

The juke move is a great counter move that can be executed against an opponent who over-reaches one of his striking hands. You can create this scenario if you properly parry one of your opponent's strikes.

For example, if you and your opponent are standing in an orthodox stance (left foot forward) and he throws a jab at your face, you can parry his punch inward toward your left shoulder with your right hand. You simultaneously step forward and to the right with your rear foot at a forty-five degree angle to your opponent.

This sequence creates the illusion of your body remaining in the place where the punch was directed. In reality, only your parrying hand remains in its original position; your body and head move to the outside of the punch. This movement takes away your opponent's right-hand target if he chooses to follow up the jab with that hand.

Immediately after you parry and step away from the jab, you jump back in toward his extended arm and slide all the way down it until your left shoulder reaches his left armpit. You want your head to position on the upper-left side of his back as you begin applying the body lock.

From here you apply a body lock with your left hand around your opponent's waist and your right hand underneath his upper left leg ("T-bar"), and you raise your opponent into the air and take him down.

In Eliot's fight with Shane, he executed the "juke move" following Shane's missed right hand Superman punch. After Shane threw the right punch, he "mummy walked" (refers to the occasion when a fighter tries to reach and grab for the Thai clinch while outside of the proper distance and he ends up walking toward his opponent with his arms extended like a mummy – don't do this!) toward Eliot who capitalized on his mistake and countered with the "juke move" to the body-lock takedown.

The hillbilly roll demonstrated in the video is another option to finish the takedown after you execute the juke move. In this variation, if you are the fighter executing the move, you parry your opponent's jab toward your left shoulder with your right hand and rather than stepping outside of the jab like in the juke move, you step inside toward his rear hand.

You duck under his rear hand and wrap your right arm around the front of his waist as you move directly in back of him. From here, you hook your left arm underneath his left leg all the way up to his lower abdomen and twist your body clockwise and roll him backward. This will land you in side control.
Click to expand...

Celtic Fan · Oct 23, 2008

Episode 6 blog

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn's training insight for episode No. 6
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Oct 23, 2008 at 9:05 am ET
Junie Browning has probably received more attention on this season of "The Ultimate Fighter" than any of the other contestants and the extremely talented fighter-coaches, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, combined. Finally, after all of the talk and attention, it was Junie's turn to fight as a contestant on the show.

Although Team Mir's members had, in large part, independent personalities, Junie, by far was the most independent-minded contestant in our group. This week's show could have been titled, "Independent Junie."

Despite the high-level training environment on Team Mir, which included talented teammates and experienced coaches, Junie was bent on going it alone. The producers of the show even filmed him sitting by himself in the cage while our team was training, and that was because we (coaches and contestants included) didn't want to deal with his attitude.

One day Junie didn't even show up for practice. When he was at Team Mir's practices, he would often do his own shadowboxing and heavy-bag work.

Typically, when one of Team Mir's fighters had an approaching fight, he would work his stand-up with me and his grappling with fellow assistant coach Robert Drysdale. Junie chose not to take advantage of our fight preparation system, and that actually benefited his teammates because they ultimately had more individual time to spend with our coaching staff.

I will point out that Junie is a very capable fighter. Early on in the show when he was willingly listening to my instructions, he proved that he was able to block punches properly and throw crisp combinations. But because Junie is a quick learner and is so independent-minded, he wouldn't follow through with repetition in practice.

I suppose he figured that he was able to execute a newly learned technique in a fight after drilling it only once or twice. However, it takes constant repetition of a new move before muscle memory develops.

Training insight

In this week's training segment, we will cover two striking counter combinations that I wanted to practice with Junie during his fight preparation for his fight with Roli Delgado. Both fighters fight in an orthodox stance (left-foot lead). These combinations would likely have been very effective for Junie to use against his opponent.

The first combination is a counter to a left jab, thrown by your opponent. You will parry the jab and then follow-up with a left inside low kick, a right cross and a fade-away left hook.

The second combination is a counter to a left jab and right low kick thrown by your opponent. You will parry the jab and then catch your opponent's kicking foot, follow-up with a straight right hand, a left hook and finally a right middle kick.

For the first combination, your opponent fires a left jab at your head. You will parry his jab downward with your left hand, while your body is turned 45 degrees to your own right.

It is important to understand that when you parry your opponent's jab, you are not moving your head to the side; rather, you are moving it backward. This is important because with your head moving backward and your body being angled 45 degrees to the right, your head will be out of the way of any of your opponent's follow-up hand strikes.

Immediately after you parry the jab downward and you lean your head backward, you will follow up with an inside left low kick to your opponent's inner left thigh. Your body essentially acts like a fulcrum when your head moves backward and your left leg moves forward. It's a very snappy technique.

Note, when you typically throw a lead left kick at your opponent's leg, your left hand will chop down the left side of your body, away from the direction that the kick is traveling. This helps maximize the power of your hips during the kick.

Here, you will still be able to emphasize the hip movement for the kick by parrying your opponent's jab downward with your left hand. So keep in mind the importance of launching the kick almost simultaneously with the parry.

After you kick and your left leg lands, the next strike in this first combination sequence is the over-hand right or right cross, aimed at your opponent's jaw. Both strikes work well.

As soon as you recover from throwing the right hand, you will fade away, 45 degrees to your right, and throw the fade-away left hook at your opponent's face or body; this final strike is almost like a clothesline.

In the second combination, your opponent throws a jab and a right low kick. You begin by parrying the jab with your right hand toward your left shoulder, which brings your opponent closer to you.

Next, your opponent throws his right low kick at your left leg. You post (place extra weight) on your left leg to absorb the kick. The moment the kick hits your leg, you will scoop it up with your left hand, clasping underneath your opponent's right Achilles tendon. Step your left leg back a little bit so that you can clear your opponent's foot from your own leg and spin him to your right (the direction that his kick was traveling).

Once you clear his foot from your own leg and spin him, he will likely be standing square to you. You will immediately counter with a right cross and left hook to his face.

Your opponent will likely be off-balance and will reestablish his stance in an attempt to find your positioning once he feels you release his leg and land the right-left combination to his face. At that point you finish the combination by delivering a hard right kick to his midsection. You can increase the power of your kick by taking a step to your left with your left foot and then delivering the right middle kick.

These combinations should be practiced repeatedly. Only after plenty of repetition will you be able to execute these combinations without thought in an actual fight.

Junie Browning vs. Roli Delgado

Heading into the fight, we respected Roli's jiu jitsu skills. We're never going to underestimate an opponent. Jiu jitsu is Roli's strongpoint. Roli does have a jiu jitsu black belt, and he owns his own school.

In Junie's fight with Roli, he proved he could throw and take a punch. But it didn't look good when Junie ate repeated punches to the face and laughed them off rather than initiate his own counter-offense.

Junie's showboating performance against Roli made for an interesting fight to watch, but that is a dangerous way to fight against opponents that possess greater power and experience.

Had he pumped the jab or double jabbed and followed with the right, he could have knocked Roli out.

Roli's body looks frail, but he held a significant height advantage over Junie, and that seemed like it helped Roli absorb Junie's punches because he was punching from low-to-high. Punching upward reduces your power.

Analyzing Junie's offense against Roli, it was clear that he didn't throw enough combinations. He threw good body shots, but they were single punches, and he didn't follow them up with anything significant.

To Junie's advantage, when Roli threw knees at his head, they were traveling straight upward rather than outward, angled at 45 degrees. If Roli would have thrown his knees at Junie's head with better form, he may have knocked him out. Some of Roli's knees were going straight up, past Junie's forehead.

There were moments during the fight when Junie showed brilliance. An example was when Roli threw a spinning back fist, and his hands were already up, ready to block his head. When he wants to do well, he does. But he certainly didn't take advantage of all that Team Mir had to offer him during training.
Click to expand...

valo35 · Oct 23, 2008

And that right there will be the downfall of Junie on this show, unwilling to be coached or tutored by the great coach's he has in front of him. Hahn right here knows what he is talking about, and with someone that has the athletic ability and explosiveness of Junie, coaching like this can take him places. He is never going to be as good as he thinks he will be, if he doesn't start learning to be coached.

Celtic Fan · Nov 1, 2008

Episode 7 blog.. with video!

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 7
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Oct 30, 2008 at 9:25 am ET
As an MMA coach, I think one of the most important traits to possess is an understanding of human psychology. Each fighter has a unique personality, and tapping into his individual personality in order to extract his best attributes is challenging but a necessary task.

The focus of "TUF8" episode No. 7 was on Vinny Magalhaes' upcoming fight with fellow competitor Jules Bruchez. Vinny is an excellent grappler with world-class skills. As an assistant coach for Team Mir, I had plenty of time to observe him training.

Unlike other Team Mir members, such as Krzysztof Soszynski and George Roop, who were very interested in taking advantage of my professional knowledge in striking, Vinny was more interested in working on his grappling skills and ground-and-pound techniques.

As a coach on "TUF," you want to help each one of your fighters improve, but you have to find a balance between making your services available and knowing when a fighter wants to follow his own routine.

I didn't spend a lot of time training individually with Vinny. I gave him some pointers, showed him some combinations that would have been effective in his fight with Jules, and we discussed some striking theory, but I didn't want to make him feel compelled to work with me on the pads. As the episode's footage showed, he did work some mitts with Frank Mir. With Vinny spending most of his training time refining his grappling skills, I spent much of my time working with other Team Mir competitors. There is always plenty to teach and learn and with eager students, a lot can be accomplished.

Sometimes fighters that come from A-level gyms are reluctant to absorb new training approaches. Prior to entering the show, Vinny was the resident black belt at Dan Henderson's school, which is definitely an A-level gym. He may have doubted what Frank Mir and I could offer him. That is not necessarily the case, but that wouldn't exactly be an unusual scenario when dealing with professional fighters.

Personally, I feel it is beneficial to be open-minded to new training environments, including new coaches. You can always learn something new to add to your own skill set.

Training insight

Heading into the fight, we knew that Jules wanted to keep the fight standing. Vinny rightfully believed that if the fight hit the ground, he would have no problem winning. And From a strategic perspective, we figured it wise to keep Vinny's jiu-jitsu game hidden from Team Nogueira until the end.

With that in mind, Frank helped Vinny with some stand-up training. Frank's instruction represented the skills we work on at my gym, Striking Unlimited.

Vinny had certain base combinations that he felt more comfortable with. I recommended that he try to incorporate the rear-handed uppercut into his striking techniques, but he preferred the straight cross because it is a longer range punch that would effectively keep him further away from his opponent.

The accompanying video displays two striking combinations that we introduced to Vinny prior to his fight with Jules. Both fighters stand in an orthodox stance (left leg forward).

In the first combination demonstrated in the video Maurice initiates the offense by delivering a one-three-right low kick combination ("one" is a jab; "three" is a front hook). Larry returns with a one-two combination of his own. Maurice parries the "two" (right cross) with his left hand, steps out 45-degrees, long, to his right and delivers the left middle kick to Larry's ribs.

The next combination shows Maurice initiating the offense with a one-two-three combination. Larry parries the jab, shields the right cross, and catches the left hook with his right hand. Almost simultaneous to catching the left hook with his right hand, Larry latches onto the rear left side of Maurice's head with his left hand and delivers an inside left foot sweep to Maurice's left ankle. Larry will be turning Maurice in a counter-clockwise direction.

Now that Larry has spun Maurice downward and to his left, he finds himself in the perfect position to land a left knee to Maurice's face. He does this by resetting his stance while sweeping Maurice -- his left leg shifts backward so that his right leg is in front. He then fires the left knee to Maurice's face.

Larry then pushes Maurice's head slightly away with his left hand and finishes the combination with a downward slicing right elbow to Maurice's head. Larry will then push Maurice away and reset in his fighting stance.

Both techniques are very effective and like any newly learned combinations, they should be practiced often before they become automatic in an actual fight.
Click to expand...

<a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=45502972">MMAJunkie.Com - Ken Hahn "The Ultimate Fighter" Blog</a><br/><object width="425px" height="360px" ><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="movie" value="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=45502972,t=1,mt=video"/><embed src="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=45502972,t=1,mt=video" width="425" height="360" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>

Celtic Fan · Nov 6, 2008

Episode 8 blog and another training Vid.

I'm loving the insight into Muay Thai training he's giving since I have trained it before.

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 8
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Nov 06, 2008 at 10:10 am ET
Dave Kaplan joined "The Ultimate Fighter 8" to advance his professional MMA career. Unlike some of this season's contestants that sought camera time above all else, Dave set out to improve his overall MMA game.

Cut from the same mold as his resolute teammates -- Krzysztof Soszynski, George Roop and Eliot Marshall -- he was always eager to train with high intensity and he possessed a strong willingness to be coached.

Prior to joining the show's cast, he spent many months in Holland developing his Muay Thai skills. As a result, his Thai boxing is sharp. Team Mir's coaches were impressed with his striking ability; he punched hard, fast, and entered the show having never been knocked out.

In his fight against Phillipe Nover, Phillipe landed a string of unanswered punches to his face- -- owing to a sub-par defensive display -- and as a result, his run at the "TUF8" lightweight contract was cut short.

Dave entered the fight with supreme confidence in his chin's durability. He wanted to eat some punches for the camera as well as break Phillipe's spirit. Ever since Forrest Griffin battled it out with Stephan Bonnar in the TUF 1 Finale, some fighters have entered the cage or ring willing to use their faces as shields.

What these fighters overlook is the way Griffin and Bonnar were punching each other; they were not throwing their punches with the greatest form and when they were connecting with each other's faces, it was in the later part of the fight, when both competitors were becoming fatigued. Fatigue will take the sting out of even the hardest strikers.

Dave made the mistake of not properly defending Phillipe's strikes at the very beginning of the fight, when Phillipe was still fresh and had plenty of pop in his strikes. After getting caught several times, he was stunned and could not recover.

It was too bad that he didn't get a chance to really showcase his stand-up talent. I believe he has better stand-up than Phillipe, but he made a crucial mistake and got caught.

Despite the mistakes he made in his last fight, he was still a pleasure to coach. And following his loss to Phillipe, he understood that he had to refine his MMA striking fundamentals. He is now training full time at my Las Vegas gym, Striking Unlimited, where in addition to training with other elite fighters under my instruction, he teaches stand-up classes three times a week.

Training insight

In a fight, you want to inflict the most damage while receiving the least damage. On defense, you have many options to avoid getting hurt. The most basic option is not to be where the punch is directed. You can accomplish this end by slipping, ducking, side stepping, back stepping and parrying.

There are situations, however, when you want to shield a punch directed at your face. Shielding punches is one of the most important defensive techniques to add to your arsenal. Proper shielding form is often neglected with the consequence being a punch connecting with your head or face.

Executing a proper defensive shield may be ideal in situations in which you want to deflect an opponent's punch and possibly cause him to overextend. In that case, several offensive options spring up, including firing back with your own punch combinations, taking your opponents back by ducking under his extended arm, or shooting in for a takedown by securing a body lock or committing to his hips or legs.

A well-executed shield by a trained fighter can be used aggressively to attempt to break your opponent's fist. This can be accomplished by anticipating the incoming punch and aiming the point of your elbow at your opponent's clenched fist. Your elbow will sustain far less damage than your opponent's fist.

Shielding is primarily used against straight punches and hooks aimed at your head. This week we will cover proper shielding techniques to defend against a jab, a jab-cross, and a jab-cross-front hook combination. The accompanying video will help you visualize the following instructions.

We will assume you and your partner are both standing in an orthodox stance (left leg forward). When using the shield to defend against the jab, you will be doing so with your left arm. You are facing your opponent in your fighting stance—your chin is down toward your shoulder, and your shoulder is up (this posture protects your jaw-line).

When your opponent throws the jab, place your left open palm on top of your head while your elbow and triceps muscle positions horizontal to the ground. Your elbow should be pointing directly in front of your nose. And you should be able to look at your opponent with your right eye.

As you anticipate the incoming jab, very slightly twist your body clockwise to cause it to deflect. Also, and this is very important, keep your eyes open as you anticipate the punch!

When your opponent throws a jab-cross combination ("one-two") at your face, you can use the same shielding technique described above for the jab defense (shield with your left-lead arm.

A good counter combination to use after you properly shield your opponent's one-two combination with your left arm is the "right uppercut, left hook, straight cross."

Things become a little tricky when your opponent throws a one-two-three combination at you and you intend to shield his punches. In this case, you still shield the jab and cross with your left arm as described above, but you will use your right arm to shield his left hook.

To properly shield the left hook, cup your right open palm on the side of your head, making sure to keep your elbow pointed ahead of you and raised horizontal to the ground. If your opponent tries to sneak a long left hook past your guard, you will adjust your right arm shield so that your hand cups the back of the lower part of your head (almost on the neck). This will ensure that your jaw-line is protected.

A very important detail to remember when blocking a left hook with your right shield is to brace yourself as the punch impacts your arm. You want to tighten up your core (almost like when you throw a punch) so that the punch does not throw you off balance.

Breathing out sharply as you anticipate the impact can help you tighten up, but you don't have to put as much emphasis on your outward breath when you're shielding a punch on defense as you do when you're throwing a punch on offense. A short, quick outward breath will do.

A good combination to use after you shield the one-two-three combination is the left hook, right cross ("three-two").

You set up this combination as follows: After you shield the left hook at the end of your opponent's one-two-three combination, step with your left foot to your left at a 45-degree angle and throw your left hook at his face. Then move your right foot in the direction of your left foot and once its positioning recovers, fire the right cross at your opponent. The right cross will fire at 45-degrees to your opponent. The footwork will be very fast in a full-speed scenario.

As with other fundamental techniques, proper form for shielding punches cannot be overlooked. Repetition will aid your progress.
Click to expand...

<a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=45934274">The Ultimate Fighter - Ken Hahn "Striking Unlimited" Blog</a><br/><object width="425px" height="360px" ><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="movie" value="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=45934274,t=1,mt=video"/><embed src="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=45934274,t=1,mt=video" width="425" height="360" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>

Celtic Fan · Nov 13, 2008

Epsiode 9 blog... I can't get the video info while at work, I'll fix it up later.

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 9
by Ken Hahn with Jacob Regar on Nov 13, 2008 at 7:30 am ET
In this week's episode of "The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir," Team Mir's first pick, Krzysztof Soszynski, prepared for his first fight in the light heavyweight competition.

An injured thumb caused him some difficulty during his fight preparation. But he entered the show determined to succeed, and owing to his positive attitude, he tried to make the most out of every training session.

When you sustain an injury to any part of your hand, fighting becomes very tough business. The constant punching, blocking and grappling cause vibrations, which are rather unpleasant to experience throughout the injury site.

Krzysztof is a game competitor, and he avoided alerting the physicians to the extent of his injury because he wanted to remain in the competition.

I held pads for him every day, and because he was already a talented striker with a solid training background – he is one of Dan Henderson's students – we concentrated on the combinations that he preferred. It must be mentioned, however, that he was also very interested in learning new techniques.

I observed him to be a dynamic striker who likes to keep his distance from his opponents; his footwork looked pretty good. He is not a bruiser who likes to stand in the pocket and trade with his opponents.

One thing I noticed in particular about his style was his preference for throwing straight left punches to the body. (Krzysztof is a southpaw, which means he fights with a right foot lead.)

During his striking training, we wanted to avoid exacerbating the injury to his hand, so we attempted to limit combinations that required use of that hand.

Fortunately, he was much more skilled in jiu jitsu than his opponent, Kyle Kingsbury. After Kyle took him down, Kyle made the rookie mistake of leaving his arm exposed, and Krzysztof quickly took advantage and locked in the fight-ending arm-bar.

Training insight

This week, we will highlight two of the striking combinations that we worked on with Krzysztof in his fight preparation. When watching the video, pay close attention to our movements, and you will have a solid understanding of the proper body positioning necessary for executing these combinations. Notice that both Dave and I are standing in orthodox stances (left foot forward).

In the first combination, your opponent throws the "one-two" (jab-cross) at your face. Your counter is as follows: You will parry the jab with your right hand, parry the right cross with your left hand, and simultaneous to your left-hand parry, you will step to your left at a 45-degree angle and follow up with a right cross of your own at your opponent's face.

Next, you will lower your body and throw a left hook to the liver, followed by a left upper cut to the face, and finally, a right low kick to your opponent's front leg.

The theory behind the above combination involves "loading up" or "doubling up" on one side of your opponent's body. When you repeatedly attack one side of your opponent's body during a combination, you will probably find an open target on the opposite side of his body.

In this case, the right cross, left hook to the liver, and left uppercut aimed at your opponent's right side distract him into thinking you are targeting that side, which ultimately creates a target for the right low kick on his left side.

The second combination displays the effectiveness of "baiting" your opponent. As you will see, alternating your attack between high and low planes will keep your opponent guessing and on the defensive. Your objective is to cause a defensive reaction in your opponent, where you want it to be – hence, "baiting" – so that additional openings will become available.

Begin by leading off with a jab aimed at your opponent's face and then swiftly lean back and throw a left inside low kick at your opponent's front leg (this is sometimes termed a pendulum effect). Next, throw a right cross at your opponent's face and follow up with another left inside low kick.

You have initiated the "high-low" offense, and your opponent should be a step behind your next move.

Now, fire a right cross at your opponent's face and follow up with a left hook, also aimed at his face. Complete this combination with a hard rear kick to your opponent's front leg.

The key to becoming proficient at these combinations is repetition. Begin slowly as we did in the video and work up to faster speeds. Soon enough you will be able to implement these techniques into your own game.
Click to expand...

Chocolove · Nov 13, 2008

The video training tips are pretty cool. To be honest I havent been really reading this blog, mainly bader's but I think i'll keep up with this one too.

Celtic Fan · Nov 20, 2008

Episode 10 Blog.. I'll have to add the video when I get home

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn on episode No. 10 of "TUF8"

Last to be picked but certainly not least to perform was Team Mir's game-bread lightweight contestant George Roop. He was easily one of the most coach-able members of our team; he was motivated and he listened carefully to instruction.

His positive attitude toward training was complemented by his well-rounded skills; he has a blue belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, and his stand-up is pretty good.

Although he suffered a nasty broken hand during one of our training sessions, he was determined to fight his quarterfinal opponent, John Polakowski. George opted against going to the hospital to have his hand examined. Even with his potential "TUF" lightweight tournament-ending injury on his mind, he kept a good spirit during training.

Most people would have quit if they suffered that kind of hand injury, but not George. He possesses a strong heart. A lot of fighters claim to have that level of heart; at least they think they do, but in reality many fighters are weak-hearted and constantly look for a way out of training or the fight.

George fought a great fight. Everybody thought he was going to be weak because of his injured hand, but as soon as John felt his kicks rocking in – just like Jules Bruchez did in his fight against Vinny Magalhaes – he started to back pedal.

Both fighters in this week's episode traded off some. But it's important to consider that John came from a Muay Thai background and has fought a lot of Muay Thai fights and he was trading with an opponent who did not come from a Muay Thai background and had a broken hand. John's performance did not look smooth, and that probably had to do with fear – because once fear takes hold of you, technique goes out the window.

When George felt the opportunity, he secured the takedowns. And it's usually a sure bet that if you have a blue belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and your opponent has nothing, he is going to lose. Overall, his strategy was good, and he got the job done.

Some people may have felt that the fight was close and/or that John won the second round, but George was never really hurt in that round, and he controlled the majority of the fight. The decision was a good one.

Following the taping of this season's show, George came to train at my Las Vegas-based school, Striking Unlimited. Presently, he's making the transition to come train with us fulltime. In addition to training for his upcoming fights, he will help instruct some of our daily classes.

Training insight

In George's fight preparation, we focused on combinations that didn't require use of his right hand. This week's video will demonstrate some of those combinations we drilled with him. When studying the combinations, notice that I am practicing on an opponent who is standing in an orthodox stance (left foot forward).

In the video, I demonstrate the first two combinations on a heavy bag. The heavy bag is an essential piece of gym equipment. When striking the bag, pay close attention to your movements. Although the bag is a stationary target, you should still keep yourself honest when you are practicing combinations on it that you plan to use in live action.

The first combination demonstrated in the video is a "jab-left kick-right kick." The key details to notice in this technique lie in the footwork.

After I throw the jab, I switch my stance by sliding my front foot back toward my rear foot, and then I launch the left kick. As soon as my left foot retracts from the target and sets down, I launch the right kick. You want to be fluid when throwing this technique.

The second combination is a "jab-left hook-right knee to the body." The video first shows me demonstrating this technique on the heavy bag and then on a live body. The purpose behind this combination is to employ power while avoiding the use of your injured right hand.

Additionally, this technique displays another example of the "high-low" strategy that we covered in last week's blog. The jab and left hook will distract your opponent and cause him to defend his head, which leaves his torso exposed for a powerful knee.

You could also use this second combination as follows: throw the jab and follow up with a lazy left hook or a grab, or slap and cup the back of his head with your palm and pull it down to meet your knee. With this method, the knee can also be delivered to your opponent's torso.

The third combination is a "long-range" technique; the only way it works is if you remain far away from your opponent. In this combination, my partner and I begin by trading jabs. First, I throw my jab at my partner's face. My partner then returns a jab of his own at my face. I avoid his jab by leaning back and to the outside – out-of-range of his punch – and return fire with a left middle kick.

Next, I anticipate my partner's right cross, and as soon as my left foot sets down following my left middle kick, I shift my weight to that foot and lean to the outside of his cross and deliver a right middle kick.

A lot of people make the mistake of setting their left foot down after they throw the left kick and then try to follow up with a right middle kick without getting out of range of their opponent's line of attack. Regardless of whether your opponent throws his right cross, if you plan on firing a right middle kick after you throw a left middle kick, you still want to lean off-line of his power hand.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 1

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Smitty brush em off.

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

valo35 BBW VIP

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Chocolove Active Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 1

Moderators

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Smitty brush em off.

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

valo35 BBW VIP

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Chocolove Active Member

Celtic Fan Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches