Defensive Drills With Jean "The Show" N'Doye
People like to think that when they see a defensive movement they will be able to replicate it in real time under pressure. While that would be nice, it is unfortunately not the case. While you might know how to defend against a hook or a kick, knowing and actually doing are two separate things.
This is why you need to drill your defense techniques, or else you aren’t going to have the muscle memory to actually use those movements when an opponent is throwing techniques at you.
This is where actually drilling defensive movements, whatever they are, against a live opponent comes into play. That doesn’t mean just sparring or having your opponent throw punches at you full force whale you just defend. No, you need to drill the technique in a controlled manner, not just attempt to use it under fire.
That’s why we’ve brought in an experienced MA fighter to show you how to properly train your defensive skills and movements.
In this video, Jean “The Show” N'doye goes over how you can drill your defense to make yourself an ironclad fighter.
Who Is Jean “The Show” N’Doye?
Jean N’Doye is a French MMA fighter who has fought in the featherweight division of various different promotions, most notably Cage Warriors and Bellator MMA. He is also an MMA instructor with a ton of experience working with top tier talent across Europe.
Realistic Defense Drills For MMA
For the drills that Jean shows in this video, you are going to need to have a partner. The drill revolves around you and your partner taking turns throwing strikes at each other. You and your partner are going to pick which one is going to be attacking and which one is going to be defending for the round.
Jean says that you want to start off slowly, especially if you or your partner is a beginner. This way they can practice their defenses in a safe and controlled manner. As you or your partner slowly start getting better at the drill, you can start to pick up the speed and the tempo.
Jean also says that the partner that is attacking is not allowed to feint or fake strikes. This isn't a drill to develop you or your partner's sense of fients. This is to simply help them to get better at defending against strikes.
You also don’t want to just stand in front of your partner for the whole round, just like in a real fight you want to be moving around with your partner. This way you can train switching from movement to defense on the fly.
You can either choose to defend yourself any way that you want each round or you can dedicate a round to a certain kind of defense. Like you can do a round of blocks, a round on parries and a round on slips. You can also do rounds of just kicks and just punches. Jean says this is good to start out with, especially for beginners to get used to defending against both in isolation, to get more reps in.
Jean ends off the video by saying not to be ashamed if you need to go slowly. You need to get the reps in and if you need to go slowly that is fine, don’t rush your own development.
Learn More From Jean “The Show” N’Doye
If you like this technique breakdown and want to learn more from Jean “The Show” N’Doye then you should check out his complete video series, “Winning The Battle For Pressure, Pace And Space by Jean Ndoye” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!