Most mixed martial arts fans and practitioners would say that ground and pound begins when at least one fighter is on the mat, no longer standing on their feet. However, at Precision Coach Karl teaches his students to begin the ground and pound before we ever hit the ground.
What is ground and pound? How can it be done if your opponent isn’t on the ground? The term ground and pound refers to strikes landed when one or both opponents have brought the fight to the mats. This could occur during a grappling exchange, or maybe a fighter was dropped by a strike and followed to the ground by their opponent. Regardless of how it happened, ground and pound is a vicious finishing technique. Ground strikes can be so devastating because many standard punch defenses are no longer an option when someone is on top of you with your back on the ground.
Our Poughkeepsie mixed martial arts classes frequently use these same concepts when pressing your opponent into a wall. Against a wall, they can no longer back away or make space from your strikes, and there are more opportunities to trap their limbs in grappling exchanges; rendering them defenseless to your strikes. In this video, Coach Karl demonstrates a few of his favorite wall techniques for mixed martial arts. He starts with his right hand on the head, left inside the bicep of his partner. Throwing a knee to the body, he snaps his partners head down and just on a guillotine choke. The strike set up the choke grip by getting his partner to fold down a little. From here Karl provides multiple choke set ups. Which choke to use will often be situational; based off of your opponents position and reaction.
Karl also examines a scenario where he starts with a different grip. Instead of the inside tie from before, Karl starts with an underhook on the left side and inside arm control on the right side.
This can be a great position to strikes that Karl affectionately refers to as “vertical ground and pound”. Karl proceeds to show how to wrap your underhook around their back in order to feed their free hand to your underhook hand; effectively trapping their arm by their side. This results in your opponent having no hands to defend your strikes. This also works from an overhook, where the hand will be passed across the body to the overhook side.
Want to learn to make your opponent helpless to your strikes? Come check out the best mixed martial arts classes in the Hudson Valley! Call Precision Boxing and MMA today at (845)392-8495 or click HERE to get started!
About the Author
Oliver Swanson is an avid martial arts practitioner living in the Hudson Valley. As an amateur boxer and NASM Certified Personal Trainer, he’s looking to become a well-rounded martial artist, spending time training Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He is an assistant instructor for Precisions kids classes and adult boxing classes throughout the week.
