Thomas Grady is, according to his BJJ/MMA/BK coach, Grant, “Such a sweet guy, so positive and eager to learn. I just want to help him advance.” Thomas has a shock of curly brown hair and a moderately thick beard that he is growing for BK defense. I can tell from experience that it helps with chin shots, takes about 20% off the BK blow and 10% of the gloved punch.
A middleweight in his thirties, and an X-Marine, Thomas show good sense and an adaptive mindset to his self-coaching efforts. In this world, we are left self-coaching most the time. Combat sports are still fringe activities; especially since spectators are up to major league ball sport level and participation is down among the criminal class. Working class men, like Thomas, “a manual laborer,” are taking up that slack that all the men of Sissydom have let fall on the feminine left, the moneyman right, and along the nevermind center.
His shoulders are rounded. The polite man thanked this old cracker much for the work, and it thanked him for not crumbling it to cracker meal. For a boxer his eyes are open. The rounded shoulders show he thinks like a puncher. I told him it would result in upper chest and front shoulder pain, and he said, “Already does.” Doorway stretches, 5 sets of 30 seconds were prescribed. Thomas takes a joy in hitting and moving, amplified when he does both in sync. We worked on the same things he asked me to work on with his partners.
-Hands are hard, an 8 over my 7.
-Face/Skull rating 7 over my squib 5.
-Bones 7 [per weight class], wing blocks, should be added.
-Punching Frame an 8 [gibbon arms, sloped Neanderthal shoulders]
-Foot Activity 8 to my 9 with 5 being normal for MMA converts
Priorities: All punches with movement: pass hook, cut off punches, vertical at pronated fist [at the hand], milling punches over pronated punches, fist/wrist measure against bobbing weaving, U-hustle, and straightening elbow while punching through the hands.
Also, added to his spinning backfist for MMA, the lateral hammer.
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Cutter is Thomas’s man, a tall lean, young buck, light middle.
-Hands only a 5, up from 4 through training, compromised with a boxer’s fracture, sunken aiming [ring] finger and enlarged middle knuckle. The kid hits too hard for his own hands.
-Face/Skull, 8, oddly wide head for light bones, great for weight class
-Bone Density, 6 [can get better with age/training]
-Punching Frame, 9, easily able to generate more force than hands can sustain against hard targets
-Foot Activity, do not know, only did static punch drills.
Cutter realized while I worked with Thomas that his gloved coaching was obviously opposite of his bare knuckle needs. We focused on shovels to the face, pronated punches to the lower ribs, spleen and liver. I highly recommend rice bucket training and a rope snake for BK punching. The bag should be used for checking and for adding a half hammer lateral pivot punch off of missed face shots.
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Barber showed me his fight with Skynard, he is a tall, beautifully formed light heavy weight muscled up to heavy, with intelligent eyes set in an angular but not narrow face, prone to cutting. His prominent knuckles will also cut. He is a meaty version of Cutter.
-Hands, look like a 6 for his weight, a 7 if he moves down
-Face/Skull, a 6 for heavy, 7 for light heavy
-Bone Density, looks like a 7 down to an 8 rated better than his fist, which has such prominent knuckles, with separation.
-Punching Frame, 8 HVY, 10 LHVY
-Foot Activity, 5, he needs to work on this, fighting tanks like Skynard and especially against some kid like Cutter who moves up.
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Skynard is a beast, a bearded battering ram whose mind is in sync with his odd frame, showing he’s been active in that body consciously for some time.
-Hands, 10, perfect meat hammers. Use vertical cut off punches to fist and arm in guard and punching orientation.
-Face/Skull, 9, that wide tick mug could be shaped more like a bowling ball, which he adjusts for with long thick hair. Head butt hands. Practice with slip bag. Learning how to avoid straight punches will teach you how to hit that fist.
-Bone Density, 9, use wing blocks, shoulder butts, forehead grind on collar bone.
-Punching Frame, 7, this can be improved with upward punches from the bent knee, shovels to the chin followed by wing block trap and cork screws to liver and spleen followed by shoulder butt.
-Foot Activity, a ponderous 3.5. The huge feet should be used as a bait platform. Always keep knees bent. Practice waist rolls and side bends. When coming in, do the Iron Mike side to side. When drawing him in, rotate that thick trunk over the hips with weight on back leg, but do not let the head go behind the rear hip, only to it. Punches slipped or eaten are paid back with a thigh powered shovel upstairs or a calf powered straight pivot punch downstairs.
Coming forward do the John L. hammer rake and straight vertical cross mixed with milling jabs to the fist and milling crosses to the arm.
Put gloves on your partner and wrap his wrist and practice punching his punches with bare knuckles.
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Panzer has a well-knit frame, looking lighter than his 165. His shoulders are not so wide, but very well knit. He should seek to power his punches with his hips, thighs and calves. I stop hits could be vicious. Sneaky jabs to the nose with corkscrews to the eyes and sinuses. I really like him for the corkscrew to the bottom rib to a same hand sneak up the middle to chin or nose.
-Hands, 5, with a badly bruised right middle knuckle. Must work on three knuckle roll and do more corkscrews to the body, with a milling cross. Rice bucket, salt brine, alcohol and snake work are a must.
-Face/Skull, 7, looks like he likes face contact, so work on drawing head shots to open the body for check punches and counters, downward corkscrews.
-Bone Density, 7, I like the hammer fist measure to the foe’s shoulder as well as the purposefully short hook to a lateral hammer pivot punch.
-Punching Frame, 7 if he arm punches, 8 if he moves with his punches. Uhustle would help a lot. I like him for threats to the outer rib cage and sneaks up the middle. He looks fast, so in BK, is best served using that to time his man’s forward step and carefully place his hands.
-Foot Activity, an 8 for BK, so I would take this to shifting counter attacks. This also gives power work for the usually rear left hand.
Panzer is probably best served in MMA or other light glove boxing. But, for men his size, if he makes the BK adjustments suggested for him and Cutter, he will be a terror in BK.
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These men should train slow roll BK flow with each other, their crew and with Professor Grant who is being left this system. If possible, gloved and light glove sparring with Sean Glass in East Tennessee, who is also inheriting this system, is highly recommended, especially with movement and pass punching.
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Thank you hard men for including me in your tough pursuit.
