Using The Sticks To Increase Timing And Speed With Brandon Gibson
Over the last few years, tools for developing athletes have taken over combat sports. Up until tools became a primary part of any fighter’s training program, fighters developed their skills and physical abilities mainly using the heavy bag, partners, and the road for developing endurance.
But why did this approach change? Why do we need so many tools nowadays when we used to get by using only one or two tools in our training?
The answer is - “specific training,” as sports in general developed over the years; we noticed that to improve as athletes, we must be specific in our approach to training. When you train our “energy systems” in general, we get a general result that is usually not so impactful on our performance in sports.
When we use specific tools for combat sports, we can get the specific result we want from each training. Each tool will help us develop a different attribute, and let’s look at some examples of tools that we have and what they develop.
- Slip rope - Develops balance and footwork
- Heavy bag - Develops power and endurence
- Double-end bag - Develops coordination and awarness
- Slip bag - Develops awareness in head position
- Punch shield - Develops Power and endurance on a moving target
- Sticks - Develops reaction time and looseness
As we can see, we have various tools to work with, and good coaches will find the right tool to achieve their goals with their athletes. Don’t avoid using tools in your training; they help you become a better athlete.
Brandon Gibson will show us how to work with sticks and what to look for in the following video.
Who Is Brandon Gibson?
Brandon Gibson is an American striking coach at Jackson Wink MMA. Brandon took on the coaching path at a very young age and became one of the youngest high-level coaches today. Brandon had the opportunity to work with many world champions as a part of being a coach in one of the best MMA facilities in the world. Brandon worked with the likes of Jon Jones to help them prepare for big events.
Check out more High-Level Instructionals From Brandon Gibson! Click Learn More!
Using Sticks To Improve Our Defense And Footwork
In this video, Brandon will show us how to work with the sticks as part of our training. The primary focus with the sticks is to work our defense and footwork; we can’t actually work power and speed with the sticks, so don’t bother trying.
The sticks are a very forgiving tool, and we need to remember that when we work the different strikes, we can throw them as hard and fast as we won’t, unlike the small 4oz MMA gloves, which are not forgiving at all.
Let’s look now at the different skills we can develop using the sticks:
Slipping straight punches-
When we work the slips for the straight punches, we want to constantly move our head to either side as both sides will lead to avoiding getting hit. As we get better at the drill, we can add footwork and movement into it; remember to hit quickly with the sticks to develop the reaction time.
Parrying the sticks-
The sticks can resemble a straight punch, so we can react to them by parrying and developing that type of defense with no risks.
Rolling under the sticks-
The sticks can also resemble the hooks so the athlete can see them coming and roll under with no risks to develop the correct movement.
Blocking punches-
We can block the different punches to the body and head on the sticks, using the elbows and gloves to block hooks, and cover up to block the straight punches.
Teach framing with the sticks-
The sticks are soft and allow us to get used to letting our hands fo away from the face to train the framing defenses, blocking looping punches with the hard part of our forearm.
Throw punches at the sticks-
We can also throw punches at the sticks, work our looseness and accuracy, and make sure that when we throw punches at the sticks, we don’t use power as we risk hurting our shoulders with no recoil coming back from the stick.
As we can see, the sticks have many ways we can work with and are one of the best tools for combat athletes. As you get better at the different drills, you can mix everything up, as shown at the end of the video with Brandon & Aaron Pico working together.
Learn More From Brandon Gibson
Suppose you liked this video breakdown of Brandon Gibson and would like to expand your knowledge on the different tools we can use in combat sports; check out - “Tools Of The Trade - By Bradon Gibson” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.