Today's WOD / C2 seminar review

Shoulder press
5-5-5

45kg across. Bah, should have gone heavier... But I still suck at shoulder presses.

Then 10 rounds for time

5 burpees
5 pull-ups

6.35.

Shooting pains in my arms afterwards... it sucked! But in a good way.

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CORE COMBATIVES SEMINAR, BELFAST 22ND MARCH 2009

Before I get into a rundown of what went on at the recent Belfast-based C2 seminar, I want to outline my previous experience of Mick's system.

Earlier on this year I made it over to do two days training with him in Cardiff, during which he gave me a bit of a crash course in his approach and the rationale behind it. My background in martial arts and combat sports is mainly in grappling, muay thai and mma ... heavily biased towards the grappling, really (I don't like getting punched!). Beyond that in terms of the self protection community in general I'd kind of stayed away from it because to be honest I thought that there was quite a lot of sillyness: Instructors recreating the "classical mess'' that they said they were trying to get away from, and in many cases what I saw as a lack of robust training in comparison with the combat sports gyms I'd frequented.

Mick's written articles first led me to think he could be the exception to the rule, and the more C2 material I am exposed to the more I believe it makes an excellent adjunct to the rest of my training ... I would encourage anyone involved in policing or doing the work of a first-responder to look into it.

What drew me up north from Dublin to attend this seminar was the fact that one of the seminar subjects was to be Mick's stress drills and ''live fighting''. He'd outlined some of what these entailed to me when I trained with him in Cardiff, and I was eager to see if they would turn out to be what I expected: A way of safely training against a resisting opponent while at the same time not compromising on the principles underpinning C2 as a designer approach to real fighting, not something adapted from sport or classical martial arts.

Having packed my gumshield and colossal groin guard (got to protect the legacy) I duly showed up on the day and found about twelve participants all set to go. A mixture of forumite EricF's karate club, some Kapap or Krav Maga guys and Monty Sneddon, the organiser.

Mick kicked things off with a brief introduction to using a correct push-up position or plank as a way of conditioning the body and gaining a core stability useful for fighting. This segued into a bit of a warm-up, moving around in that position. A little bit like bear-crawls except without your ass in the air.

In my mind the rest of the seminar broke down into three stages. First of all Mick reintroduced some of the primary and secondary impact tools. Principally the highline strike (I think most people were using the open hand but there were a few punchers, with Mick commenting that this was fine with him, it was an individual choice), elbow, palm hook and knee. I'm open to correction but I think that was pretty much the technical range ... And if you think that's not enough material to work on for weeks to months, let alone hours, well...

I paired off with Monty and the next hour or so involved pyramiding up, in schemes like 2 to 20, and back down again. Initially it was kept simple, just highline shots, and then we began working in transitioning to throw elbow shots and introducing knees. Aside from the conditioning element involved as the number of shots thrown began to mount up everyone was grappling with trying to take on board points from Mick about their biomechanics and keeping in mind making quick transitions between shots when called for.

The next stage of the seminar retained the padwork element of the first but we now formed a loose circle and began working some of Mick's 'stress' or 'mayhem'' drills. We did two variations of these, if I recall correctly, both involving one participant and up to four other people faciliating him: Initially two pad men actively working and a third hanging back for the end of the drill, and later on three pad men and a 'spoiler' (pretty much doing what their name suggests). My take on the basis for these drills is that they involve taking some of the tools honed in the comparatively straightforward padwork we did previously and seeing what it's like to begin to apply them in a chaotic situation with more unpredictable movement, beginning from a sudden starting point (where you get hit, did I mention that?) and sometimes with someone hanging off your back or walking in front of you.

Finally, the much-anticipated live fighting drills came around.Again, I don't want to spoil the element of surprise for anyone, but I will outline them a little. Mick has obviously been heavily influenced by the regimental use of 'milling' as a tool for building toughness in coming up with his live fighting model, but equally I think you could say that it also exemplifies the 'go like fuck' tactic that underpins C2.

Beginning from a pinned position, the two participants fighting must escape to their feet and run at each other. Techniquewise anything goes, according to Mick. We principally saw openhanded and close fist striking to the head, a few elbows and I think only one kick (me, just to see what would happen). The participants clash together, attempt to make their mark and are then pulled apart by the same two 'safety men' who pinned them at the beginning of the drill.

Mick keeps the engagements short, but they are repeated three times.Wearing Daido Juku supersafe helmets, neck protectors and groin guards ensures that no-one is going to head in to work the following day looking like they've had their face mashed up, but you do still feel the impacts through the gear. Monty caught me nicely during our fight and between rounds doing push-ups (forgot to mention those, they come before the pin) I had the beginnings of a headache.Without belabouring it, I've sparred a lot and I've also been involved in quite a few real fights in the context of my work. I must say that the 'live fights' were innovative, enjoyable and in my opinion some of the most useful preparation I think I have ever done for the quick, impactive and violent nature of real fights.

Mick is back in Ireland in a couple of months for a seminar down south, in Cork. I'll be pencilling it in for sure.

Sorry if this review is a bit disjointed, but I'm all over the place at the moment working mad shifts and also trying to retain as much of Sunday's material as possible.