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Les Bubka
Les Bubka's picture
Pummeling

Hi all

Do you use pummeling in your karate? In my club it is a very important part of program, starting with the basics (in the clip) and building up  drills to control the oponent.

Kind regards 

Les

Chris R
Chris R's picture

Nice post. It is good to see karate training done in that range, and I think this is often neglected by karate practitioners. I need to spend more time on this as well, thanks for the video.

Paul_L
Paul_L's picture

I have not seen this before. Looks like a grappling version of Sticking Hands.  

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

Recently, I started doing a type of pummeling drill with my students as warm up. I picked it up at an Abernethy seminar--students switch grips and battle for grips, and they also add in light knee strikes, elbow strikes, chokes (place hand at base of throat), eye pokes (touch forehead with thumb or fingers), and stomping the knees. It makes for a great martial warm up and efficient use of time. 

Best,

David 

Les Bubka
Les Bubka's picture

Chris R wrote:
I think this is often neglected by karate practitioners.

Yes I think so too Chris, in my visits to other Karate dojo not many done it.

Paul_L wrote:

I have not seen this before. Looks like a grappling version of Sticking Hands.  

Paul I have to say I'm surprised, this is basic drill in Wrestling, Mma some boxers do it too with gloves on.

Not sure about connection to sticky hands, perhaps.

dhogsette wrote:

students switch grips and battle for grips, and they also add in light knee strikes, elbow strikes, chokes (place hand at base of throat), eye pokes (touch forehead with thumb or fingers), and stomping the knees. It makes for a great martial warm up and efficient use of time. 

I agree it is a great warm up, if students haven't done it before it drains so much enery. If you have access to medicine ball it is even better. Drill looks like this one student holds the ball tight as possible other trys to take it away. No punches , no kicks but you can go on the floor. Super exhausting but great fun. I might record it in the future :)

Kind regards 

Les

Paul_L
Paul_L's picture

Les Bubka wrote:

Paul I have to say I'm surprised, this is basic drill in Wrestling, Mma some boxers do it too with gloves on.

Hi Les,  From what you say I’m surprised I have not seen it before. Genuinely pummeling is new to me! Naturally I am not a grappler, it is certainly one of my weak areas. Really I need to at least learn a bit more about grappling exercises.

The sticking hands parallel is in as much as pummeling looks like a bridge to sparring, like sticking hands is, not that physically they are similar.

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Great video that Les! Thanks for sharing.

All the best,

Iain

AllyWhytock
AllyWhytock's picture

An interesting drill which reminds me of Iain's "boss" position drill, which we do. This is a different pummeling to my colloquialist understanding which is to pummel (or pommel) means to rapidly beat someone down with the fists. 

We do something similar but one partner has a large strike shield to allow more robust pushes e.g. Age Uke and some striking.

As children we had a game called "British Bull Dogs" which required individuals to crash through a melee or crowd, in which the use of kicks and punches were forbidden. 

Thank you for sharing.

Kindest Regards,

Ally

Les Bubka
Les Bubka's picture

AllyWhytock wrote:

This is a different pummeling to my colloquialist understanding which is to pummel (or pommel) means to rapidly beat someone down with the fists. 

Hi Ally

As English is not my native language I use this name as is commonly used by mma and wrestlers in states. Interesting to know other meaning, directly translated from polish it would be something along, “wrenching out” but I think that wouldn’t make much sense for English speakers.

Thanks Iain I’m glad you like it. 

Kind regards 

Les

AllyWhytock
AllyWhytock's picture

Hi Les,

It's interesting how the same word can have differing meanings across diverse cultures. I like "wrenching out" as that makes sense to me.  Old Scots has "rug an rive" which means to "to pull or tug vigorously, struggle, tussle." :)

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Excellent as always. I enjoy your work immensely.

Kindest Regards,

Ally

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

AllyWhytock wrote:
Old Scots has "rug an rive" which means to "to pull or tug vigorously, struggle, tussle."

“Rive” is still used in everyday speech here in Cumbria. It’s one of those Cumbrianisms that I find it difficult to drop out of when teaching seminars. Again, it means to “to pull violently” and it’s obviously a useful word when describing many martial methods. My understanding is that “rive” has its origins in Old Norse and that’s probably why we will find it in northern part of Britain (lots of Norse settlers in both Northern England and Scotland). I believe it is also found in both modern Danish and Norwegian meaning largely the same thing.

In the modern day, “pummelling” is taken to mean “repeatedly hit” in every day speech, but in wrestling terminology “pummelling” refers to the kind of drills shown in Les’s video. My guess would be that the way the bodies turn and hit one another is why wrestlers thought “pummelling” was apt i.e. the bodies do repeatedly hit one another.

All the best,

Iain

Wastelander
Wastelander's picture

We do pummeling the way you show here in our dojo, as well as "arm pummeling," which is a similar concept, but focuses on establishing control of the opponent's biceps, rather than getting underhooks, and is a bit closer to "sticky hands" types of training, which we also do. On the other side of it, we also do "clinch pummeling," which is quite like Iain's "boss grip" drill. I find that it is very easy to flow from "sticky hands" into "arm pummeling" into "underhook pummeling" into "clinch pummeling," which is a sequence I have students work to get used to maintaining contact and still transitioning between ranges while trying to control the opponent.

Tau
Tau's picture

Interesting.

I've stolen some of Iain's grip fighting drills and indeed I have other grip-fighting dills. The pummelling that you show here I've only previously seen in BJJ, in which we used it at the start of most classes. There, it was used either purely as pummelling with no end purpose, or to set up throws. Of course there's no rule that it can't be used in Karate (or other arts.)