Hand positions, closing distance, and entering the clinch/takedown safely from striking

We should practice our stance and motion in “pillars guard” (hands up, elbows vertical) until we can feel a rhythm and buoyancy in our body as a whole; as an elastic system of tension, able to move in any direction and change directions with virtually the same hand positions the whole time.

This has to come from a looseness of the shoulders and hips, like the body is made of rubber bands. Tension circulates in waves to carry momentum through the body, but it comes and goes quickly, never stagnating and impeding your motion. Tension and relaxation can optimally be made to work together in balance to create smooth buoyancy and ground connection.

Just keeping the pillars-guard hand positions, not even throwing punches, but doing a whole round of just footwork, head movement, weight shifting, body-feinting, and breathing with posture in protected hand positions is enough to get that locked in, so it’s figuring out how much of that you need to do to shift your habits. Remember that you’ll need to film yourself shadowboxing and sparring to see how disciplined your hand positions are v.s. how they felt to you; it takes a measure of visual accountability. A mirror for shadowboxing is a good training method for hand positions, but filming when you can’t see yourself and correct yourself is better – ideally doing bagwork or sparring so you can see if you are still form when you’re under fatigue.

As you can see in the drill footage, learning to do your head movement and footwork in pillars-guard radically and fundamentally simplifies clinch/takedown entry from striking. By using elbows to make contact and push the opponent back, we take away the forward force that gives the opponent’s punch it’s sting, and get simple touch-reference points to change levels off of or pummel directly to clinch controls where we can knee or set up a takedown from clinch such as a foot-sweep, dump, or throw – thereby opening up ground finishing opportunities.