Weekend with Mick Coup

Was fortunate enough to have Mike Hagan, who lives just down the road in San Jose, host Mick Coup again. Two 7 hour days this time.
I asked Mick how specific I could be in describing the drills we did, and he said he himself has described most of what he does already, so not to worry.
So here we go
Mick's C2 system is based on a simple series of strikes, broken down into High Line, Low Line, and Off Line, Primary Tools and Secondary Tools. Primary being the 'money shots', the Secondary getting you the time/space to get back to the Primary.
We worked on power generation, continuity and transitions on palm heel, elbows to front and behind, hammer fists, knees, shin kicks, head butts and eye gouges.
Mick uses these great pads that are kinda head sized to represent the opponents head, and for all the drills, that white dot in the center is your focus for targeting.
First day we also added indexing, and the so called GLF drill ...a.k.a. Go Like Fuck: 2 pad holders - one holds up a target and you keep hitting it until they put it down, at which point you look around and find the other holder who now has a target up which can be across the room, or right behind you, and you keep hitting that until they put the pad down and you go back to the first pad holder.
At it's simplest this is just right hand palm heel repeatedly between 2 targets.
2nd day we added to this drill - the pad holders now transitioning between targets, simulating an opponent reeling back, dropping down, then hitting the floor for instance, at which point they take the target away, and the 2nd holder appears, say high off line, as though their friend has shown up or something etc etc.
You go until you get gassed ... and then some, and the 'supervisor' aka Mick stops the drill - both holders pads are down.
Added having to run to the door and turn the handle at the end of the drill - Mick says he'll get people to phone their cell phones or write something down as drill enders too.
Added a 'spoiler' - a person covering your eyes, draping their arm over yours, tugging on your pant leg etc representing some hindrance in the way, not generally other opponents to be attacked, but representing tree branches, getting your clothing caught up on something, or someone pulling you back.
Same drill but wearing dark goggles you can barely see through, then same but glasses with black tape over most but not all, so you had to move your head around to find the targets.
Same drill but multiple pad holders, switching up so only one target shows at a time (directed by a supervisor) and 2 spoilers.
Then more stress was added to the drill - all drills start with your eyes shut, feet together, but then we added a pad holder shoving you hard, off balance, as the start. The switchovers happen when you feel a strike from the 2nd holder - generally a shoulder/back strike, not to the face for safety.
Then from a one knee on the ground position so the start from eyes closed, is getting knocked over and fighting up from the ground.
We also did a cool drill with only one pad holder/ one target, but 2 attackers - called it 2 pigs in a trough! The idea is to get as many strikes on the target as you can whilst keeping the other guy off. That was hilarious, exhausting and fun.
The other interesting one was again only one target holder, this time transitioning between targets, and you have to strike the targets whilst some one yanks you around from behind by a tie around your waist - left to right, letting you go so you overshoot, then pulling you back just before you contact - palm heels, knees and kicks. Very funny.
The drills are very chaotic, and the pad holders actually have the harder job, moving, thinking, co-ordinating with eachother and the supervisor. Great training in itself.
The live drill at the end only had 2 volunteers. You get a helmet, neck protector and groin guard. Each participant has a safety guy, and there is an overall supervisor. Guys start about 4 feet apart doing push ups facing away from eachother. At the whistle blow, the safety guys lean ontop of the participants so they have to fight up from the ground and then launch at eachother. 'Fight' lasts about 5 seconds or so when the whistle bows and the safety guys grab the players and yank them off eachother... the fighter are meant to ignore the whistle and keep going till they are pulled off. Then straight down to push ups and same again to a total of 3 rounds.
Great weekend.
To Mike and Suzan Hagan, thanks for hosting and assisting, and as always, to Tony Cortina for his great input.

May Workouts

The focus for this month is on hand evasion, and timing.
Used the sangot, short blade, largo and long blades for different variations on the problems, and how to solve them.

Response to Violence Seminar with Rory Miller May 9th 2010

Had an awesome weekend training with Rory Miller.
http://chirontraining.com/Site/Home.html
Excellent material for mind and body.
As martial artists, we train many 'solutions', but in reality, what are the problems that we are training FOR?
Understanding the problem, seeing a situation as it really is, dictates your best options at any moment.
Also check out his blog: http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/
And read this book - "Meditations on Violence"
Looking forward to "7" - Due for release in May 2011.

Yizong Website in English

Luo de Xiu will be here again in August 2010 - Will post the schedule as soon as I get it, until then here is the new English language version of his website:
http://www.yizong.org/

April Workouts

Last part of April we worked with cutting from the draw, tip down blocking, back grip and switching.