Power Through Control: Kettlebell Training for the Take Down

 

 Brandon Cabral   

The ability to quickly and effectively initiate a throw or take down is a corner stone in any MMA arsenal, but to be able to do those things and throw your opponent into the ground with maximum force is a specialty of Chinese San Shou.

San Shou (literally meaning “free fighting”) is a competitive mixed martial system that grew out of traditional Chinese martial arts in Mainland China. Cung Le is the most notable San Shou fighter in recent years, having taking out veteran Frank Shamrock in 2008. Following typical Chinese Martial Arts mentality, San Shou specializes in brutal throws, however, the fight is not followed to the ground. Instead, many systems see the throw or take down as a way to injure your opponent and take them out of the game. A well-done take down is a concert of different body actions, including pushing, pulling, and rotating energies; done correctly, it can brutalize an opponent.

Power training has been used in classical martial systems for centuries. Chinese wrestlers and martial monks favor a distant cousin of the kettlebell called the Stone Lock (Shi Suo). It is used in many similar movement patterns as the kettlebell to train grip strength and explosive power. For our purposes, we will use the modern kettlebell and heavy bag.

Alternating Kettlebell Clean with Stance Shift

1. Stand in a Horse Stance with a kettlebell racked over the lead leg and the other in a hanging position. You should be more heavily weighted on the front leg then the back leg.
2. Quickly rotate the hips switching into a horse stance, using the momentum from the turn, alternate the kettlebells so that one is racked and one is in the hanging position. When you finish the movement, your weight should be roughly distributed equally between both legs.

Side-to-Side Kettlebell Rotation in Horse Stance

1. Begin in a medium to low horse stance with the feet firmly rooted and both hands wrapped around the kettlebell handle. Your grip should be firm, yet allow for the rotation of the kettlebell handle.
2. Quickly rotate to the opposite side, allowing the kettlebell handle to rotate in the hands.
3. Slow the momentum and absorb the kettlebell on the opposite leg, begin rotation towards the opposite side.

Heavy Bag Toss

1. Begin with a Heavy Bag standing upright on the floor.
2. Quickly move in towards the bag so that you make contact with the bag with your torso while grabbing the bag with both arms.
3. Explosively jump and pull the bag off of the floor.
4. Allow the momentum to carry the bag over your shoulders.

Other Useful Kettlebell Training Techniques For Takedowns

Power Clean

1. Start with two kettlebells on the floor.
2. Explosively extend the legs, as if you were jumping off the floor.
3. Shrug the shoulders and pull the kettlebells in the vertical plane with the elbows up.
4. Bring the arms under the kettlebells and catch the kettlebells in a partial squat.
5. Stand up.

Discus Snatch

1. Begin with the kettlebell on the floor and one leg rotated in at the hip. Keep the other leg firmly planted on the floor, the back straight, and the head forward. It is very important to fold into the rotated hip here and not to bend in the spine.
2. Quickly push off the planted leg while rotating across the body.
3. Use the momentum from the rotation to propel the kettlebell over head, finishing in the lockout position.

These exercises and their variations are some examples of how to use various tools to train the explosive rotational power that is needed for effective throwing and take down applications in martial arts training. The low stance used here helps to develop strong legs and the effective power generation needed for combat. They may be used together for a power oriented workout or placed individually into your other workouts. I recommend using a medium to medium/ heavy weight and performing low rep, high set workouts to get the most out of these exercises.

An example of a workout based on the power clean might look like this:

A: Kettlebell Power Clean: 10 x 3 reps (2 x 24kg)

B: Heavy Bag Toss: 5 x 3-5 reps

C: Side-to-Side Rotation: 2-4 x 30-60 sec

D: Bag and Mitt Conditioning Drills of Choice 

 

ABOUT AUTHOR

Brandon Cabral   |   http://www.thriveathletics.com/

Coach Brendan Cabral, founder of Thrive Athletics, has been training with the kettlebell for over 6 years and is a nationally certified coach with USA Kettlebell Lifting, a Certified Kettlebell Teacher with the International Kettlebell Fitness Federation, a Certified Kettlebell Instructor with the Association of Tactical Strength Coaches and Instructors, and a Certified Fitness Trainer with the International Sports Science Association.