Drilling for conditioning

[Wiegieboard]

Hi everybody.
I've been away from mma for quite a long time now through illness. Over the last 7 months, I've been gradually increasing my strength and flexibility by returning once again to powerlifting and swimming.

Now I feel like I want to start doing some one on one drilling with a partner to get back into the way of conditioning myself for mma standup and wrestling.

Does anyone have any good Basic pad drilling and standup/wrestling drills that I could use with my partner that'd last 60 minutes to an hour and a half? The sport has come on a bit since I was training so I'm asking you guys who are still at it for some help. I had my mind set on basic footwork drills, basic thai combos/standup to wrestling transposition combos/etc. to work with the bodyshields, mitts and shinnies etc.

I have use of
MMA gloves
Boxing gloves
shinnies
Elbow pads
2x bodyshields for working bodypunches
focus mitts
thai pads
skipping ropes
a 3metre x 3 metre matter area.

Thanks guys,
Neill

[Wiegieboard]

Man, I guess that you guys keep these pad drills closely guarded secrets lol.

[elv1577]

with the equipment u have the possibilities are many, nearly endless.
warm-up with skipping ropes to raise body temp. pummeling for a few rounds, then put on mma gloves and go for a few rounds of competitive pummeling, with arm drags, entry for single legs ect. change into the boxing gloves/focus mitts or thai pads and do some rounds with those, i would go for 3 mins with partner calling out sprawl at random intervals. you could work in some ground and pound drills. have your training partner put on the body shield and focus mitts and go for some combos, standing and in guard/side control ect. add in some technical sparring and you got a good bit to be going on with. as i say the only limit would be your imagination. i hope this helps dude

[Wiegieboard]

Thats duder you're a legend :D

I'll get to working this stuff when I'm finished with work at the end of the week.

[elv1577]

let me know how you get on mate. silly question but where abouts is neilston?

[DoubleJab]

In the states they did loads of loads of drills where ones starts in a bad position (ie, back mount, mount etc) then fight for one minute, then reset and go again. Repeat five or so times.

Another one starts with one guy having a single or double leg, then trying to take the other guy down as many times as possible, always resarting in the same postion. Go for five minutes with each takedown then swap, its a killer.

The toughest drill one I did was a 'grind match'. Basically you just wrestle, no subs, no ground work aside from trying to get a dominent positon right away. As soon as one guy gets the other down you restat and keep going. Stalling is not allowed, you need to be constantly trying to get a takedown. Its a killer, we did 20 minute ones (ugh) but I'd say 10 minutes is a better lengh.

Apparently in some elite wrestling schools they someones do that 90 minute grind matches, which goes some way to show why wrestlers have got a reputations for toughness!

[Wiegieboard]

Thanks doublejab. I used to do a fair bit of the grinding in the past. It was also 10 or 20 minutes when I used to do it. It helps position so much. Will probs be doing situational sparring a bit too now.

elv. Will let you know how things are going. Neilston is a village about 12 or 13 miles from Glasgow. Biggest village in Scotland actually.