IG: @santinodefranco
Invicta fighter, Tracy Cortez, and I are working a mitt drill.
First of all, I like to mix reactionary drills in with proactive drills. A proactive drill/combo is you punching your opponent—or doing something offensive. A reactionary drill is reacting to something your opponent does to you—this doesn’t necessarily mean defense, though, as you could easily be working offense off of your opponent’s movements. Mixing proactive and reactionary drills is key, as we have to make offensive decisions in a fight, but we also have to react to our opponent’s attacks and movements.
The first part is a warm up drill (reactionary) I like to use to get people moving, and it helps with firing punches after you have slipped or ducked your opponent’s attack. You’ll see Tracy slipping and ducking my punches, but she only fires when she feels me tap her shoulder, and then she fires the opposite punch as the shoulder I tap (which would be her only option) and a second punch afterwards. I started working this drill because it simulates slipping/ducking a punch, but being in range to fire back. We can easily slip or duck a punch and move away or off to the side, but if we feel our opponent touch our body (in this case, shoulder) we know he/she is in range to fire back.
The second part is me mixing in the “touch” drill with standard mitts. I want her to focus on her distance and her jab and cross, but, also, if I fire something at her unexpectedly, she needs to be able to react and fire something back without thinking about it.
Disclaimer! Any sort of choreographed mitt work is just a tool. Use it as such. Being able to look pretty on mitts in a choreographed manner does not mean you are a good fighter or, more importantly, a good coach! Now, using a (semi) choreographed drill for a specific purpose is fine. Just know the difference between the many different styles of mitt work. (But if you really want to get good at striking, forego the mitts altogether and jump on a heavy bag )
