This is a piece by Mick Coup explaining how he uses pads in training. You can see how from the get go he employs uncertainty and movement in his method to closer mimic the reality of a dynamic and chaotic interaction.
Taken from a thread on his forum
PAD DRILLS - By Mick Coup
"In the training that I offer there are a great deal of drills involving focus-pads - in fact to a degree these can appear to be the mainstay in some regards, and occasionally I do seem to attract some criticism based upon this.
To clarify my position concerning such a heavy reliance on such training means, I've reworked an older post that was 'lost' during a recent tantrum thrown by a big baby elsewhere...
Consider that generally speaking most - if not all - of the early phase training that someone might receive from me is based upon impactive methods of managing personal combat in a self-protection context...even cops who absolutely have a role-requirement to grab and grapple with subjects, are more than likely to first be exposed to purely impactive methods that can provide an emergency higher-force fallback-option should they lose control of a situation and need to simply survive as a priority.
As far as I'm concerned, if you are teaching impact, then 'stuff' needs to get hit...pure and simple. You cannot, in my opinion, adequately cover such skills in a 'non' or even 'semi' contact format, since all kinds of dynamics and realities get corrupted if you try to. Could you teach grappling without having a person to get hold of? Of course not, but striking is different it seems - just 'play act' it and assure yourself it'll be fine when you need it to be...
If you go through the motions of hitting someone, as part of some sequence of action or response, then you lose any real sense of what you need in order to actually produce an effect worth having - your bodyweight is going to be all wrong for starters, as is your timeframe perception - going 'tap-tap' can be real fast indeed, but going 'bang-bang' is a lot different, and you get no idea of what kind of effect you can actually generate. This leads to extremely unlikely material rising to the fore in my experience, the 'party trick' jabs and chops that would in truth be ignored by the majority of real adversaries...and probably have the same effect as slapping a tiger on the nose...
Obviously you really cannot just hit training partners - in force-on-force practice this is necessary, but such training isn't conducted to hone technique or develop power as such, but to test the tactical application of such technique and power, amongst other things.
I've long advocated the practice of slowly placing shots onto a live 'body' to get a feel for the exact target-anatomy, and to take into account the structural obstructions, and angular restrictions, that some targets might have - this in itself can make some of the 'classic' strikes that get delivered against a flat pad or heavy bag completely redundant, when the practiced delivery path would actually conflict with an elbow, or shoulder, etc. This practice of 'person-placement' should be used sparingly in my opinion, as an 'overlapping' enhancement to the 'pad-power' training, so that the best can be gained from the latter. I compare this, to a degree, to the 'dry-training' done with firearms, that adds a significant level of skill progression, and maintainence, to other, louder methods.
This leaves either the use of inert equipment to practice hitting - or to simply pretend, pulling fast-ish shots against a training partner. I'm actually extremely envious of those that teach the latter method, for two main reasons...firstly, they get to turn up at their seminars and workshops with little more than a spare t-shirt and a packed-lunch - whilst I have to lug bags, and bags, of pads and protective gear around, paying baggage excess charges routinely, not to mention having to buy the stuff in the first place! Secondly, they never have to suffer the fragile-egos, and desperate need for validation, of certain individuals that despite claiming to have 'advanced' skill and ability levels prior to the pads coming out, actually cannot deliver the goods anywhere near adequate levels...that is apparently my fault somehow when they obviously cannot perform as promised!
The methods I employ regarding using focus pads may supeficially resemble how everyone else uses them - so maybe people tend to think 'focus pads...so what?' but in actual fact I seek to get a lot more mileage out of such practice than with more 'classic' utilisation. Far from being a replacement for any form of 'alive' training, I use the pads to fulfil that all-important link to progress the individual far more accurately in the right direction. I try to make the usage as relevant as possible within the limitations that obviously exist, adhering to all the tactical doctrine expected to be used, rather than a distinctly separate activity that only ticks a few boxes...and that might actually serve to 'untick' more than a few in the process.
To this end, I employ a wealth of subtle, and not-so subtle differences - from the overall methodology and related why protocols, to more specific realisations concerning the what, when, and how issues...
One area that really needs some attention in my opinion is the initiation of such practice. I really do not think it is an especially effective method of supposedly training people to react, or act, in a realistic fashion by beginning in a completely 'I'm ready' fashion. I far prefer to factor in a likely circumstance, such as an 'engaged start' where rather than having a guy looking at the padman, who then produces a pad to be hit (which actually conditions the hitter to engage the hands of a person) the pad man points the pads at himself and crowds in on the hitter who controls the hands/arms, preventing them from touching his head and/or body briefly - a little like sticking/pushing hands in some ways, but far more fleeting and with more relevant purpose - to simulate the general manhandling of arms, people etc in a fairly abstract fashion, then suddenly a pad is turned 'target-out' and a continuous series of targets ensues, all spontaneous, all dynamic.
A preferred method of initiating a multitude of drills is the 'passive unprepared' trigger - working from a feet together, hands down, eyes-closed position, heavy impactive force is applied to a 'safe' part of the torso that physically and psychologically disturbs the individual's position, creating a 'shock' effect that serves to undo a great deal of the mental and physical 'rehersal' and preparation that generally preceeds any drill. This briefly 'spikes' the senses, and the flash overload effectively creates a feeling of very relevant surprise...the ideal state to practice overcoming - transitioning from a passive, to reactive and then active physical and mental posture. If you are never surprised in training, then you will never have any experience in dealing with surprise - no matter how 'tactical' your lifestyle, you will be surprised at some point, get used to this idea, and get used to dealing with it so you are not a novice when it happens...
Moving around with someone wearing pads, who occasionally presents them for a pre-warned strike combination, is a poor version of actual fight training in my opinion, and far from being a spontaneous realistic exercise, is actually highly prepared and formatted - and if the pads are facing the hitter the whole time, and only become targets when the hitter decides, why isn't there a barrage of blows directed at them?
In my drills, when you see a target you hit it, no decision, you don't choose when it is and isn't a target - as this doesn't exactly develop the ability to spontaneously engage fleeting opportunities does it? In reality, when you strip away the attempted bells and whistles, many demonstrated drills are little more than a very basic vehicle to fire off a round kick or overhand right against a stationary target...hardly innovative as often presented.
The stop point of any drill should not be to simply lower the pads and leave the hitter staring at the pad holder, waiting for the next opportunity - I don't teach people to stand still and wait in fights, because I know that the other guy won't be doing this unlike the mutually agreed 'give and take' that often exists in more 'symmetrical' combat. This sort of training leads to the on/off sparring model that doesn't appear in a real fight, so must not be trained if you are supposed to be training for a real fight!
I base my training - and therefore teaching - on what I need for fighting, avoiding the trap of trying to base my fighting on what I want, or am simply prepared, to do in training.
To stop any such hitting drill, I prefer that once the hitter has engaged the targets as presented - no pre-set combinations but random, though realistic, transitions instead - the pads are brought in and placed 'target-in' on the body, signifying no further target is available and the hitter immediately responds by checking his 360, starting with the 180 position, and when he again looks forward there is another target waiting, not a man wearing a set of pads that are yet to be produced, or possibly another holder would have been in waiting with an available target out of line of sight...and off the hitters goes... This conditions the hitter not to stare fixated at the adversary he just KO'd, and also gives the holder a chance to 'reset' mentally - for he truly has the hardest role, since he's making all the decisions, the hitter is just concerned with actions.
As a general protocol, I want to avoid the hitter paying any attention to the holder - he's just the piece of wood holding the target on the shooting range, but this takes a lot of effort on the holder's part to keep the targets coming on a constant basis - for only if he can maintain this pressure will the hitter pay him little attention. As I mentioned before, if the pad holder is paid attention to, and 'ranged-off' against as if sparring with him, when the pads are produced the hitter is hardly getting a relevant target and is indeed being conditioned to engage the hands and not the head.
I teach 'constant offensive pressure' as the base combative strategy, and to achieve this there must be a 'constant offensive opportunity' or else it becomes 'occasional offensive pressure' and this doesn't get you very far in a fight! Bear in mind that if I'm wearing two pads I can all too easily create a completely artificial situation where no target is available - this simply cannot happen when facing a person, there will always be something 'on offer' to hit and if I don't consider this simple realisation then I can easily create a subtle but profound 'training effect' that will definitely impact upon the desired 'fighting effect' in a negative fashion.
To assist in the 'holder doesn't exist' concept I make sure that the pads are held forward from the holder's body - this helps the hitter detach them mentally from the hitter, plus very importantly it gives the holder some real structure to present very solid targets - rather than is seen by holding them next to the head with a vertical forearm that ruins the elbow and provides little resistance. Importantly it gives the holder a significant bonus in the form of an excellent 'sub-agenda' of sorts, because they have to not only practice good positioning and movement, situational awareness, plus decision making under pressure, but a very tangible physical skill - keeping the hands out front and up, away from the body...where they should be in the middle of a fight...aside from bouncing vigorously of an adversary's head of course...
By having constant and continual targets available - only one at any one time - the person holding is effectively ignored and focus is correctly directed toward programming the optimum target-tool selection, delivered at the optimal angle. There is no waiting in a 'guard' position, no 'in and out' working in short bursts only, and definitely no calling out which shots to fire off! There is instead the required constant offensive pressure, no down-time, no decision-making, just action-taking. The targets are presented in a very specific fashion, so much so that they can only be correctly engaged with one tool, at one angle, not however the hitter decides - the tool is the answer, the target is the question, and the question comes first. The target picks the tool, you don't just fire off your favourite shot from your dominant side regardless, this might make you feel better in training - but who wants to get good at training? The idea is that the training makes you good...
This is the basic format for what I refer to as being an 'active drill' and there are many other layers to apply as required. A common one is the 'crash' element, where the pad holder, mid-engagement, simply withdraws the target and bodily crashes into the hitter, to fully displace him, who should cage/sprawl off and resume hitting a newly, immediately, produced target. Add the 'dash' element somewhere, where all of a sudden the holder just bolts and produces a target that must be hit on the move. At any time the pad that was being hit can be covered by the other pad, to represent some barrier such as the adversary's arm covering under the barrage of blows, or even a third party getting in the way, forcing the hitter to clear and control the obstruction with the support hand/arm, and keep the 'music playing' with the other.
When two holders are working together, the second holder is often at the other side of the room waiting, so when the 'no target' signal is given by the current holder, and the hitter scans 360 degrees, he identifies the next threat and has to literally sprint to engage a target that might run at him, run away, or suddenly change just as he closes in. Alternatively as the hitter begins to scan for other threats, the second holder can be real close, presenting targets at extreme close quarters that need gouging and headbutting to create opportunities for full-power primary tool striking. This is often done in rooms with obstacles, on stairs, through doorways, wearing heavily darkened eyewear to put only the active participant in darkness (therefore not compromising the safety/control staff) and all manner of spoilers such as nuisance third parties that obstruct and hinder but present no threat, and so should not be engaged.
Some 'revolutionary' training that alludes to being realistic, may certainly appear to present fleeting targets, but they are still stationary when hit, and generally the person hitting seems not to be in much of a rush to do so - personally I've never seen a stationary head in a fight - maybe before the fight but that's a different story - so it always puzzles me as to why the vast majority, including pros, only ever hit static ones? Even when they do engage movers, it's usually in a pseudo fashion where they certainly do move, but then stop long enough to be hit. Any drill you get good at is immediately too easy - like the weight that you can lift will never make you stronger.
Unfortunately most see training as being the destination, and want to get good at it, rather than the vehicle, that gets you to the destination...the fight."
To clarify my position concerning such a heavy reliance on such training means, I've reworked an older post that was 'lost' during a recent tantrum thrown by a big baby elsewhere...
Consider that generally speaking most - if not all - of the early phase training that someone might receive from me is based upon impactive methods of managing personal combat in a self-protection context...even cops who absolutely have a role-requirement to grab and grapple with subjects, are more than likely to first be exposed to purely impactive methods that can provide an emergency higher-force fallback-option should they lose control of a situation and need to simply survive as a priority.
As far as I'm concerned, if you are teaching impact, then 'stuff' needs to get hit...pure and simple. You cannot, in my opinion, adequately cover such skills in a 'non' or even 'semi' contact format, since all kinds of dynamics and realities get corrupted if you try to. Could you teach grappling without having a person to get hold of? Of course not, but striking is different it seems - just 'play act' it and assure yourself it'll be fine when you need it to be...
If you go through the motions of hitting someone, as part of some sequence of action or response, then you lose any real sense of what you need in order to actually produce an effect worth having - your bodyweight is going to be all wrong for starters, as is your timeframe perception - going 'tap-tap' can be real fast indeed, but going 'bang-bang' is a lot different, and you get no idea of what kind of effect you can actually generate. This leads to extremely unlikely material rising to the fore in my experience, the 'party trick' jabs and chops that would in truth be ignored by the majority of real adversaries...and probably have the same effect as slapping a tiger on the nose...
Obviously you really cannot just hit training partners - in force-on-force practice this is necessary, but such training isn't conducted to hone technique or develop power as such, but to test the tactical application of such technique and power, amongst other things.
I've long advocated the practice of slowly placing shots onto a live 'body' to get a feel for the exact target-anatomy, and to take into account the structural obstructions, and angular restrictions, that some targets might have - this in itself can make some of the 'classic' strikes that get delivered against a flat pad or heavy bag completely redundant, when the practiced delivery path would actually conflict with an elbow, or shoulder, etc. This practice of 'person-placement' should be used sparingly in my opinion, as an 'overlapping' enhancement to the 'pad-power' training, so that the best can be gained from the latter. I compare this, to a degree, to the 'dry-training' done with firearms, that adds a significant level of skill progression, and maintainence, to other, louder methods.
This leaves either the use of inert equipment to practice hitting - or to simply pretend, pulling fast-ish shots against a training partner. I'm actually extremely envious of those that teach the latter method, for two main reasons...firstly, they get to turn up at their seminars and workshops with little more than a spare t-shirt and a packed-lunch - whilst I have to lug bags, and bags, of pads and protective gear around, paying baggage excess charges routinely, not to mention having to buy the stuff in the first place! Secondly, they never have to suffer the fragile-egos, and desperate need for validation, of certain individuals that despite claiming to have 'advanced' skill and ability levels prior to the pads coming out, actually cannot deliver the goods anywhere near adequate levels...that is apparently my fault somehow when they obviously cannot perform as promised!
The methods I employ regarding using focus pads may supeficially resemble how everyone else uses them - so maybe people tend to think 'focus pads...so what?' but in actual fact I seek to get a lot more mileage out of such practice than with more 'classic' utilisation. Far from being a replacement for any form of 'alive' training, I use the pads to fulfil that all-important link to progress the individual far more accurately in the right direction. I try to make the usage as relevant as possible within the limitations that obviously exist, adhering to all the tactical doctrine expected to be used, rather than a distinctly separate activity that only ticks a few boxes...and that might actually serve to 'untick' more than a few in the process.
To this end, I employ a wealth of subtle, and not-so subtle differences - from the overall methodology and related why protocols, to more specific realisations concerning the what, when, and how issues...
One area that really needs some attention in my opinion is the initiation of such practice. I really do not think it is an especially effective method of supposedly training people to react, or act, in a realistic fashion by beginning in a completely 'I'm ready' fashion. I far prefer to factor in a likely circumstance, such as an 'engaged start' where rather than having a guy looking at the padman, who then produces a pad to be hit (which actually conditions the hitter to engage the hands of a person) the pad man points the pads at himself and crowds in on the hitter who controls the hands/arms, preventing them from touching his head and/or body briefly - a little like sticking/pushing hands in some ways, but far more fleeting and with more relevant purpose - to simulate the general manhandling of arms, people etc in a fairly abstract fashion, then suddenly a pad is turned 'target-out' and a continuous series of targets ensues, all spontaneous, all dynamic.
A preferred method of initiating a multitude of drills is the 'passive unprepared' trigger - working from a feet together, hands down, eyes-closed position, heavy impactive force is applied to a 'safe' part of the torso that physically and psychologically disturbs the individual's position, creating a 'shock' effect that serves to undo a great deal of the mental and physical 'rehersal' and preparation that generally preceeds any drill. This briefly 'spikes' the senses, and the flash overload effectively creates a feeling of very relevant surprise...the ideal state to practice overcoming - transitioning from a passive, to reactive and then active physical and mental posture. If you are never surprised in training, then you will never have any experience in dealing with surprise - no matter how 'tactical' your lifestyle, you will be surprised at some point, get used to this idea, and get used to dealing with it so you are not a novice when it happens...
Moving around with someone wearing pads, who occasionally presents them for a pre-warned strike combination, is a poor version of actual fight training in my opinion, and far from being a spontaneous realistic exercise, is actually highly prepared and formatted - and if the pads are facing the hitter the whole time, and only become targets when the hitter decides, why isn't there a barrage of blows directed at them?
In my drills, when you see a target you hit it, no decision, you don't choose when it is and isn't a target - as this doesn't exactly develop the ability to spontaneously engage fleeting opportunities does it? In reality, when you strip away the attempted bells and whistles, many demonstrated drills are little more than a very basic vehicle to fire off a round kick or overhand right against a stationary target...hardly innovative as often presented.
The stop point of any drill should not be to simply lower the pads and leave the hitter staring at the pad holder, waiting for the next opportunity - I don't teach people to stand still and wait in fights, because I know that the other guy won't be doing this unlike the mutually agreed 'give and take' that often exists in more 'symmetrical' combat. This sort of training leads to the on/off sparring model that doesn't appear in a real fight, so must not be trained if you are supposed to be training for a real fight!
I base my training - and therefore teaching - on what I need for fighting, avoiding the trap of trying to base my fighting on what I want, or am simply prepared, to do in training.
To stop any such hitting drill, I prefer that once the hitter has engaged the targets as presented - no pre-set combinations but random, though realistic, transitions instead - the pads are brought in and placed 'target-in' on the body, signifying no further target is available and the hitter immediately responds by checking his 360, starting with the 180 position, and when he again looks forward there is another target waiting, not a man wearing a set of pads that are yet to be produced, or possibly another holder would have been in waiting with an available target out of line of sight...and off the hitters goes... This conditions the hitter not to stare fixated at the adversary he just KO'd, and also gives the holder a chance to 'reset' mentally - for he truly has the hardest role, since he's making all the decisions, the hitter is just concerned with actions.
As a general protocol, I want to avoid the hitter paying any attention to the holder - he's just the piece of wood holding the target on the shooting range, but this takes a lot of effort on the holder's part to keep the targets coming on a constant basis - for only if he can maintain this pressure will the hitter pay him little attention. As I mentioned before, if the pad holder is paid attention to, and 'ranged-off' against as if sparring with him, when the pads are produced the hitter is hardly getting a relevant target and is indeed being conditioned to engage the hands and not the head.
I teach 'constant offensive pressure' as the base combative strategy, and to achieve this there must be a 'constant offensive opportunity' or else it becomes 'occasional offensive pressure' and this doesn't get you very far in a fight! Bear in mind that if I'm wearing two pads I can all too easily create a completely artificial situation where no target is available - this simply cannot happen when facing a person, there will always be something 'on offer' to hit and if I don't consider this simple realisation then I can easily create a subtle but profound 'training effect' that will definitely impact upon the desired 'fighting effect' in a negative fashion.
To assist in the 'holder doesn't exist' concept I make sure that the pads are held forward from the holder's body - this helps the hitter detach them mentally from the hitter, plus very importantly it gives the holder some real structure to present very solid targets - rather than is seen by holding them next to the head with a vertical forearm that ruins the elbow and provides little resistance. Importantly it gives the holder a significant bonus in the form of an excellent 'sub-agenda' of sorts, because they have to not only practice good positioning and movement, situational awareness, plus decision making under pressure, but a very tangible physical skill - keeping the hands out front and up, away from the body...where they should be in the middle of a fight...aside from bouncing vigorously of an adversary's head of course...
By having constant and continual targets available - only one at any one time - the person holding is effectively ignored and focus is correctly directed toward programming the optimum target-tool selection, delivered at the optimal angle. There is no waiting in a 'guard' position, no 'in and out' working in short bursts only, and definitely no calling out which shots to fire off! There is instead the required constant offensive pressure, no down-time, no decision-making, just action-taking. The targets are presented in a very specific fashion, so much so that they can only be correctly engaged with one tool, at one angle, not however the hitter decides - the tool is the answer, the target is the question, and the question comes first. The target picks the tool, you don't just fire off your favourite shot from your dominant side regardless, this might make you feel better in training - but who wants to get good at training? The idea is that the training makes you good...
This is the basic format for what I refer to as being an 'active drill' and there are many other layers to apply as required. A common one is the 'crash' element, where the pad holder, mid-engagement, simply withdraws the target and bodily crashes into the hitter, to fully displace him, who should cage/sprawl off and resume hitting a newly, immediately, produced target. Add the 'dash' element somewhere, where all of a sudden the holder just bolts and produces a target that must be hit on the move. At any time the pad that was being hit can be covered by the other pad, to represent some barrier such as the adversary's arm covering under the barrage of blows, or even a third party getting in the way, forcing the hitter to clear and control the obstruction with the support hand/arm, and keep the 'music playing' with the other.
When two holders are working together, the second holder is often at the other side of the room waiting, so when the 'no target' signal is given by the current holder, and the hitter scans 360 degrees, he identifies the next threat and has to literally sprint to engage a target that might run at him, run away, or suddenly change just as he closes in. Alternatively as the hitter begins to scan for other threats, the second holder can be real close, presenting targets at extreme close quarters that need gouging and headbutting to create opportunities for full-power primary tool striking. This is often done in rooms with obstacles, on stairs, through doorways, wearing heavily darkened eyewear to put only the active participant in darkness (therefore not compromising the safety/control staff) and all manner of spoilers such as nuisance third parties that obstruct and hinder but present no threat, and so should not be engaged.
Some 'revolutionary' training that alludes to being realistic, may certainly appear to present fleeting targets, but they are still stationary when hit, and generally the person hitting seems not to be in much of a rush to do so - personally I've never seen a stationary head in a fight - maybe before the fight but that's a different story - so it always puzzles me as to why the vast majority, including pros, only ever hit static ones? Even when they do engage movers, it's usually in a pseudo fashion where they certainly do move, but then stop long enough to be hit. Any drill you get good at is immediately too easy - like the weight that you can lift will never make you stronger.
Unfortunately most see training as being the destination, and want to get good at it, rather than the vehicle, that gets you to the destination...the fight."
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