Hello Everyone,
We have spent countless hours over these past weeks trying to find a way to keep martial arts alive in the current environment, and post-pandemic. We are located in one of the major hot spots in the United States, and additionally, the county within the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases by almost double the 2nd place county.
It may not happen often, but when it does, it's good to have an answer for it. We're in the flank position, and our opponent is holding our wrists to shut down strikes. We're not in a good position for knees, elbows, or kicks. Many of the throws (Shuāi 摔) in our arsenal are shut down. What do we do?
Do you hate being crushed in your opponent's side control? Here's something I've been working on in my game that will hopefully help your game. Building a mountain under your opponents crushing side control can give you space and mobility for countering their attacks, and possibly bringing us to a better position.
An in-depth look at the Mantis Boxing move - Monkey Steals Peach. This is one of my favorite counters. Over the years, I've come to rely on a few follow-ups after people began countering the move, and we're including some small details to help you with the execution.
The Straight Punch - devastating and destructive! Forward and Reverse punch are a good place to start when learning to punch in Mantis Boxing, or other striking arts. They are destructive, and can easily be modified to open hand strikes if necessary.
The following video shows the in's and out's of...
Having an improper structure, leaving a finger misplaced, or snapping our elbow, can all cause lasting damage, injuring ourselves more than the object we are trying to hit.
Whether we are hitting bags, pads, mitts, makiwara boards, or sparring partners, it's important to keep these tips in mind to keep us punching without injury for years to come.
Pluck (Cǎi 採) is the third of the 12 keywords of Mantis Boxing. The keyword formula houses the principles that define the art. They have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years.
With Pluck (Cǎi 採), a short sharp pull down, or powerful snap, we can feed our adversary into a disadvantaged position. Commonly used after Mantis Catches Cicada, and White Ape Invites Guest.
The Leg Hook is a great easy to use takedown, but sometimes our opponent steps out on us on our first attempt. Here, Thomas helps demonstrate how we use a combination of Mantis principles (strike, hook, pluck, hang, lean) to execute our initial outside leg hook attempt, and then a follow-up inside leg hook if they step out.
Afterwards we tackle the ground component and what happens if they immediately try to pull guard.
Here we help you set up the round kick without getting hit, run over, or shut down. Check out our video on Advanced Footwork if you need help with some of these angles.
This is an extremely powerful kick. It's like getting lashed by the tail of a dragon. When fighting, getting hit here can be a huge game changer. Whether we take our opponents leg out from under them, or we weaken/injure the leg to get them to change sides.
Hook (Gōu 勾) is the first of the 12 keywords of Mantis Boxing. The keyword formula houses the principles that define the art. They have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years.
A Praying Mantis seizes it's opponent with it's large arms and hooks. It pulls it's prey off balance and devours it on the ground. When observing the mantis against a larger foe, one can see the mantis pounce, take the back, use it’s legs to hold on, and continually gain control of it's opponent while it bites and gains better hook positions to keep it safe.
The High Mount combined with striking is a deadly combination. This is by far, one of the worst positions you can get stuck in on the ground. The traditional BJJ escape for mount - bridge, trap, and roll doesn't work quite yet, and meanwhile our opponent is raining punches on us, and bringing the thunder like Poseidon.
All too often, we panic in this situation and end up flailing, or trying to grab arms. Here we show a technique we call - 'Shield Up / Shimmy Up' to help you deal with this problematic position. We have to work from where we are, not where we want to be.
