Combination Drills

Hi Tony,

As you know we train a lot of different combinations at FFMA throughout the week but being a beginner I tend to revert to jab, cross, hook, cross when shadow boxing. This is highlighted further when I watch the advanced guys sparring. Whilst my mind is trying to think about what to do next in touch sparring situations I have noticed that they carry out different punches, elbows, knees and kicks from all directions quite naturally.

Have you got any tips as to what others I could be drilling so that the movements become more natural and importantly with the right control?

Thanks,

Matt

Hi Matt,

Sorry for the late reply. Firstly I want to say that you are one of the most promising beginners I have seen, and considering the short amount of time you have been training I would not worry too much about complex combinations as you will pick them up along your journey in MMA.

There are endless combinations as it all depends on several factors such as which art they are to be used and or if they are just for martial arts purposes or self protection and which ones best suit your own bio-mechanics. Let us assume you want some basic combinations on MMA as a start point with the focus on stand up just to get some listed for you.

When working combinations initially start with working your body left to right and right to left so that you get full momentum and leverage on your techniques; here are a few examples all based on an orthodox stance (left leg forward):

 Lead jab and low right leg kick
 Lead jab, right cross, left hook and right roundhouse (low, mid or head high)
 Lead jab, right cross, left hooking elbow, right circle knee to the body
 Right cross, left hook, right cross
 Left hook, right cross, left hook
 Right cross, switch kick (that is change your stance to right leg forward) and left roundhouse kick
 Lead leg inside leg kick to the inside of your opponents left leg and do right cross
 Lead jab, right cross, left hook, right cross
 Lead jab, right cross, left hook, right cross, switch kick and left roundhouse kick
 Fake the lead left hook and spin and do spinning back fist with your right hand
 Lead leg jab kick (push kick/the Thai Teep) and right low leg kick finish with a jab/cross combo
 Lead left hooking elbow, right hooking elbow, left upward elbow and right diagonal elbow
 Overhand right cross, left uppercut, overhand right cross

You can also just work from one side for example:

 Lead left jab move in and left hooking elbow
 Right cross move in and right diagonal elbow
 Left uppercut, left hook and right cross
 Right uppercut, right hook, jab and right cross
 Lead left jab, left hook, right cross (or right hooking elbow)

You can also come of a block or from your shell cover and counter which can result in modified combos for example:

 Parry the jab and counter with a jab
 Parry the jab and cross and counter with right cross, left hook and right cross
 Body block the right body hook and counter with a right hook or right cross
 Leg check block the right leg kick and rounder with a right roundhouse.

Matt I could write many hundreds of these. In fact since starting FFMA I have documented all the drills and techniques and have several hundred different drills and combinations if you want to read them. In fact your brother Joe has them all printed in a folder as we gave them to him when became an instructor. The key point is to just start working your body left and right and right and left and shadow spar or drill on a bag and you will find what best fits you.

In fact I was showing a fellow martial artist all the drills I have documented on my computer and he suggested I put them into and eBook as ’10 drills per page’ which can be bought on line of our website in 10 drill sets (10 of my drills easily fills a 2 hour class as my drills also incorporate combat conditioning routines). I may do this at some stage as I think I may have as many as 500 already documented.

Once you have achieved the first phase of working combos that suit you - the next phase is to work on being able to adapt your combos to suit different styles and sizes of fighters. For example when I fight big and tall fighter one of my favorite techniques is what a I call "the 5ft 9” kick "– this is a roundhouse low leg kick that slices down the thigh just above the knee which usually results in the taller guy being 5’9” (my height) after the kick has landed.

As you get into clinch range the combinations need to be adapted and when you go to the ground they once again are modified by using different parts of your hands/fist to striker with.

Keep up the good work Matt
Tony. T