Once again on March 4th, I found myself heading over the hills and entering the land of the White Rose, that of Yorkshire and more specifically, the town of Dewsbury, where, tucked away on an industrial estate, away from prying eyes, lies the MMA academy Caged Steel. Four weeks have passed in what seems like a blur for the Fighting Photographer, having the arduous task of travelling the country in a bid to provide you dear reader, with news and stories from the UK’s top jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts instructors, together with blow by blow accounts on the hottest MMA events blasting their way onto the circuit – it’s a tough job I keep telling myself!
Once again on March 4th, I found myself heading over the hills and entering the land of the White Rose, that of Yorkshire and more specifically, the town of Dewsbury, where, tucked away on an industrial estate, away from prying eyes, lies the MMA academy Caged Steel.
From this state of the art MMA academy, Darren and Helen Currie take a regular monthly session for the students at the gym and deliver jiu jitsu based sessions tailor made for the no gi and MMA practitioners and competitors that train there.
Moving on from the session last month, finishing from the back, Darren and Helen centred around finishing the opponent after sprawling against a double leg attack, where the opponent is on all fours, or the turtle position.
After the obligatory warm up Darren introduced a number of ways of stopping your opponent’s attempted double leg attack by way of a number of under hooks and body locks; rather than start each double leg attack from standing and saving wear and tear on knee joints and noses and cheek bones, the students began their attacks from the kneeling position, which had the desired effect with many students quickly gaining confidence on the shoot in.
Satisfied everyone was au fait with blocking the leg attacks, Darren went through a number of finishes from various positions, including the chin strap from double underhooks, Anaconda and Brabo chokes from over under positions and crucifixes and basic wrestling turnovers from side ride position.
Teaching finished for another month, all that remained was a few rounds of rolling and another monthly session was brought to a satisfying conclusion; the next four weeks will, once again, I’m sure pass by in a whirl and I’ll be back on my laptop with news from the next seminar.
Until then, keep training and see you on the mats!
Check out www.combatsport.co.uk