I'm interested in hearing about MMA's and/or BJJ's footwork drills. either a couple specific drills or better yet, the philosophy/theme/MO with examples....or pointing to a website/clip would work too.

sorry to be vague, I realize it's probably an extensive subject to ask an overview on, but since I've only trained in OMA's, I didn't want to phrase a specific question in my art's terms.

thanks for any info...

I'm probably far from being somebody to add anything to this but I'll throw my hat into the ring.

One of the drills we do for footwork is working with a rope ladder on the floor. This can be worked in so many ways to try to get timing and speed. Other types of footwork we do is shuffling where your legs move as one as if there is a metal bar between them keeping your legs the same distance. Can be used for shuffling back, forward or to the side. Other footwork that we focus on is when punching to ensure then when throwing a power punch that your rear foot is turning like it is squishing a bug; that your whole body is incorporated to get the most out of the punch.

We do other drills such as when running to do high knees or kick our heels to our butts. Also shuffling from side to side around the gym, shooting forward with jabs, shooting backwards with jabs, etc. Also because we are Taekwondo we working on switching our stances in place without jumping up, sort of a quick transition so that we can attack or fake or set up other techniques. Plus other drills like shooting to the side while sparring or within our One-Step Self Defense Patterns; mainly used to move out of the way of an attack whether a kick or a punch.

That is my limited knowledge and what we do. There is probably other stuff as well that I'll remember later especially once I read other's contributions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jkez4CjfWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiAlWC9X49g&mode=related&search=

interesting videos andy, but you are again off-topic. footwork drills.

Dereck, thanks.

Hi ED.

Perhaps not as off topic as all that. Im being cryptic as you your good self are sometimes.

But my thinking is if your thinking of training MMA thus the request for MMA foot work drills then perhaps its better to look at the foot work used by MMA fighters?Be it good bad or none existent?

Then base your own drills around that?
The slow button is on the left of the vidio screen.

I think the first fight clinch is a good example of bad footwork from the guy who got thrown. So logicaly he didnt drill the correct foot work.
Not much point in using boxing/stand up kicks/ foot work drills in an MMA clinch if you get my point. Stand up wrestling foot work drills/partner drills might be better for the clinch?.


As you know John L is clued up on those. Im just drilling mine untill they are automatic.They are quite good when used on some one who doesnt know what they are. Lift them an inch and they are airborn!


Shall we dance da da da
shall we drill all the night time
till its right
da da da

so the song goes on

#

Ed, I thought I'd mention for grappling we will work with a partner in stand up and clinch up and move each other around from side to side and back and forth. This is to get you comfortable in the resistance and to learn good balance. As we progress we will have the one partner try for a take down or shoot for your legs thus allowing your to work further on balance and to work on shooting your legs out for the sprawl, all the while maintaining good balance. For stand up in grappling it is important to have balance and to feel your opponent and adjust quickly to avoid the take down, these are just some of the ways we work on this. Again I may think of others as we go on and WHEN others contribute.

sorry andy, do you train or have trained in mixed martial arts or BJJ or even a non-kata centric style for that matter?

I don't think you do, since you haven't posted in this forum on technical subjects til now.....and your technical input is: watch a match and extract the drills?

you were being cryptic on this topic because you don't know what you are talking about.

Ed,

This will be a bit hard to explain and nothing outside of class instruction will offer a substitue. This one-man drill was shown to me by three people: 1) Karate instructor who trained with the Machado's for three years; 2) Another purble belt formerly with the Machados who had a shoulder surgery and couldn't practice for awhile but could somewhat do this; and finally someone who studied with Quique (probably screwed that spelling up to).

In any case this is a solo drill for warm-up and movemet and reminds me of breakdancing.

You start with your belly up and arms bent behind you, legs bent, feet touching the floor. You look sort of like a coffee table, doing a crab walk and you are now going to attempt a game of Twister.

Now with this position, you are basically trying to keep your position and move your body and acquire angles.

For instance, lifting up one leg and putting it behind the other leg and then twisting the torso and moving the body around to now face the floor. Similarly, you can move the arms and twist around and do monkey rolls while trying to keep in place.

It's a nice little warm-up drill that has some basic BJJ body movements included.

-B

Here is some basic theory:

http://innovativema.ca/forum/view.php?pg=footwork

But at the end of the day it all comes down to what you are trying to do vs what they are trying to do. MMA footwork is pretty complex, due to the fact that there are many possible strategies from both sides.

Good stuff from Brad and Andrew. A lot of the footwork drills that I have done in BJJ are partner-driven, reactive drills. A big part of the deal is learning to instantly re-adjust your center to resist being pushed over. Most times in grappling, the opponent is not going to try to push you straight over. They try to get you sideways or otherwise push on an angle. Learning to place your feet properly to resist this is essential. CroCop is a master of this.