Locking And Hitting Drills

Yes, once again it's time to fire up the new-fangled picture-taking machine and present another episode of Drinking Dojo Productions...
This drill is a blend of Small-Circle Jujitsu and Chinese infighting as taught by Ed Melaugh and Ron Ogi respectively.
Here, the opponent begins by presenting his hands and arms so the defender can learn to seize fingers, wrist and elbow locks. You move slowly and consistantly but don't lock hard, just flow.
Next, you begin to tap opponent's face or forehead, being careful of your training partner's eyes. This does several things: It represents a true hit or strike; it serves as a distraction to lure opponent into a finger or wristlock. Once again, flow slowly and constantly and take care not to hurt your training partner.
Finally, you add in elbows, palm slaps, leg traps - anything that fits the flow. Keep pumping your palm into the opponent's face area, keep him reacting and continue moving into him with foward pressure. Every time he tries to protect his face, something will open up as a target. Fill the void, move in, keep him on his toes.
Don't get too agressive with this drill, these things are best learned at a consistant, moderate pace.

Joint Lock Drill

This is a drill from the Small-Circle Jujitsu system, it's a lot of fun and great for hand-eye coordination. The idea is to use the hand pattern, which is originally out of the Escrima/Arnis stick fighting patterns- to help us learn to seize joint locks while actively moving. Feel free to experiment with a wide variety of techniques, usually one partner will do a move, then the other. Try to keep the pattern consistant and work moving foward, back, circling, at different heights etc.
We did this one at the start of practice, and were not quite warmed up. If you watch, you will see me screw up a couple of techniques. This is the valuable part of this lesson: keep moving if you screw up, control the distance, stay on the attack.
I believe this kind of "Live Drill" is so much more useful than all the Karate "One-Step Sparring" we did in the past.