When I teach disarms to beginners, I teach the disarms as a stand-alone technique. I focus on the concepts of leverage and footwork. Once the student understands the proper movement and leverage, I introduce the importance of a follow-up.

To many of us, this is elementary. However, I must drill beginners on this until they do it without thought. For example, I was working with a client yesterday. She did a fantastic disarm but forgot to do the follow-up. I asked, with a smile, “And?” She responded, “Whoops,” and executed the follow-up.

As I explained in the video below, to get to the follow-up, you should be in an optimal position after the disarm. Any over-extension will expose you to a counter. See 1:07 of the video.

Typically, I encourage the students to disarm and follow up with various traditionals such as figure 8, reverse figure 8, rompida, banda y banda, double zero, abanico double action and a few others. The key is not to overwhelm them with too many options. So I’ll instruct them to do either a figure 8 or reverse figure 8 after each disarm. Just keep it simple.

Remember, disarm with good body position and always follow up!

Update On My Right Shoulder

My appointment with the shoulder doctor on Friday went well. Pending the outcome of the ultrasound (scheduled for 3:30 today), the preliminary diagnosis is severe tendonitis of the bicep tendon. The pain is in front of my shoulder, specifically where the bicep tendon ends in the shoulder. I’m relieved by this diagnosis. On two occasions (during private lessons), I had a brief two or three-second spike in pain in the shoulder. On those occasions, the pain shot up to 9 or 10. It took 48 to 60 hours before the shoulder settled down. My reaction was, “Holy crap, there is something seriously wrong with my shoulder.” Mind you, I’ve never had bicep tendonitis until now.

The doctor believes this is the combined effects of aging, wear and tear, the private lessons and the push-up challenge leading to my 60th birthday.

I had my first physiotherapy session yesterday (Saturday). I believe this will work and help me heal from this current situation. Until it’s healed, I will teach left-hand material (to avoid using my right side), do the prescribed exercises, and avoid push-ups and pull-ups for the time being (per the doctor’s and physiotherapist’s advice).

Stay tuned!

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