Greg Jackson gives a free training session for Black Belt Magazine and Combat Go's "Fight Back" virtual event, in support of COVID-19 frontline responders. To donate to the "Fight Back" campaign - where 100% of proceeds go to support front line responders with Personal Protection equipment, visit the Red Cross donation link here.

Video Transcript

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- Welcome, everybody, to active "Fight Back," our virtual martial arts training event to benefit COVID-19 first respondents. Again, before we get started, I want to remind everybody that we're here for our health care providers-- everybody out there who's putting their lives on the line every day to go and take care of the people directly affected by the pandemic. So please, if you want to make a donation, go to Blackbelt Magazine's Facebook page, click the Learn More button. That will take you to our Red Cross campaign. Any amount of money matters. So please, if you feel so, you feel the need to, go and make a donation. Everything helps.

We're up next with Greg Jackson. Everybody knows him, all the fighters that you trains. Jon Jones, Holly Holms, Michelle Waterson-- your whole crew out there in Mexico. How are you, sir?

GREG JACKSON: I'm well. How are you, boss?

- Well, doing good. Thank you so much for giving your time for everybody. We're really looking forward to talking to you. And I'm-- I'm going to let you take over with the seminar, and then everybody who wants to provice some questions, we'll do some Q&A at the end. So please fill up the chat box with everything you want ask Greg. And we'll go ahead and let you take it away, sir.

GREG JACKSON: All right, excellent. So again, yeah, thank you. Please donate to the first responders, to the Red Cross. It's super important. Helping me out today is Dan the man here with us. We're going to be doing today-- and oh, on the question side as well-- and I'm always all over the place, if you don't know me already, that's just how I go. So ask me any questions, anything you want for the Q&A afterwards.

For the lesson today, we're going to talk about mirror stance or basically, left or right or right to left. Meaning that-- son, if you can of you put that camera a little bit lower-- when we got our feet lined up-- in other words, we're not-- we both don't have our left leg forward. We either are fighting a left handed fighter or fighting a right handed fighter. So we're either here or obviously, reverse of that.

So here. So if you get a good picture of everything. We're going to talk about-- because in boxing and kickboxing in the traditional days, when everything was about fighting to get on the outside of this foot here. And the reason for that is if I'm the left handed fighter at this point, I want to get outside of that lead foot so that I can use my left cross and my right hook a little more effectively, because I'm sitting on angle. In other words, if he wants to hit me with his back right hand, he's going to have to twist all the way around. My straight line is going to get there. First.

So one of the first things dealing with combat in MMA in this style of the stance is to understand why we put our feet in different positions and what techniques are available. So just sticking with the basic kickboxing model, boxing model, once you step on the outside, you've got a nice straight shot, you're kind of sitting on this hand a little bit. So it's hard to get the jab going, it's hard to jab in this stance, anyway. But it makes it a little more difficult. And again, anytime he wants to throw a power shot, he's got to reach all the way across his body.

But I have a nice straight line here. And my hook can come right around. It's very hard to block this hook-- if we can move Dan over here-- because I can come right around this type of an angle right back here. So having those two things is very, very important.

So in a normal-- if I want to throw punches, and especially if he's a very hard hitter, I want to step to the outside-- outside of his foot-- and I want that straight line-- this access-- straight line to be here. And of course, my hook. Now there's a lot of other things that we can do here, but we're staying very basic today with just some very basic ideas.

So as I'm fighting here and I want to throw my punches, I want to make sure that I get my foot on the outside. That allows me to bring punches in. Pretty easy.

If we're even-- in other words, if my foot-- you can see the feet there-- my foot and his foot are even-- in other words, I'm not on the inside and I'm not on the outside-- we're very even-- you can always bail. Just get out and try again. Or if the feet are very even, this is usually when you start playing with the hands. So we're going to do a very, very quick and easy 2-step drill to work with when we're even.

So again, outside, I have the straight shot and this. I have the dominant angle here for punches. Not for kicks. Well, not for all kicks-- some kicks. So when we're even, we're going to do our basic repost. The basic repost means I'm going to take my lead hand, since I'm the left handed fighter in this scenario, you're going to pull down that front hand all the way down here and then immediately throw your punch right behind. Here and here. Usually, that will elicit either a head movement or him bringing this hand into block.

So once I'm even, lined up here, and we're not-- we're both jockeying for position, none of us can really get-- every time we get a dominant angle, we're stepping-- I'll reach out and do a quick and easy repost. So it goes pull and back-- pulling down and back. Obviously, the whole time, we're ready to get countered. So touching and going here on this straight line, very important.

Let's reverse it. What happens if he reaches out and touches my hand? Well, now-- if he's on top, his hand is on top of my hand, he can then-- so basically a chess game, right? He can make sure that he's got this hand out of the way, and then once that jab comes, if I have to block this, he's got basically two hands on the way, which is opening up a lot of this for his kick and maybe some other strikes.

So the second key, we play hands, if he gets on top, I just want to leave the party. Because he's going to base himself down now and throw this jab, I want to step out as soon as I feel his hand on my. So great drill for you to do to do this is to get you with your sparring partner, you go on top, and repost. Then he goes on top, and when he jabs, you step out of the way, foot on the outside, and hit.

So why is that different? Why can't we suddenly go from here, where we're both jockeying for position, and then somehow, when his hand goes on top, I can magically step out? Well, the reason why is because most people when they tip that top hand and strike, they commit to that forward angle. And they're committing to that forward angle, that allows me, because his motion is coming this way-- that allows me to take an angle just outside it.

So if I'm on top and I want to step in, of course, you can step in as well a little on the outside. But if he gets on top, if you guys are playing hands here, he gets on top, I want to immediately step out, and throw my own left. So it's a great drill to do once you start playing hands. So my hand is over the top, I repost. And again, because-- listen, if you catch him with a jab, you're going to have a great day. But most of the time, they'll either move their head back, slide, or a lot of times, they'll just bring this hand back here. Well, remember, that opens up lots of other fun and exciting options. We're sticking with basics today.

Over the top, underneath. You can even do it blindfolded. If he's-- if I feel this, I know to step. If I feel here, I know to move in a little. But it's the same idea where, again, because we're doing punches here, we want to get our foot on the outside of that foot. Very, very important.

So so far, we have our dominant angle, we have an even angle. Now let's talk about when he gets on the outside, and I'm here. So obviously, he's beating me with punches. It's going to be very hard for me to box. Not impossible, just hard. But he also has we set up pretty well for that power kick coming in as well, either to my head or to my body. So I'm in a bit of a pickle.

So every time that foot steps out, we have to look at well, what-- instead of thinking and again, if you're boxing and some kickboxers-- not all, but some kickboxers-- usually, they're saying, if he's beating me on that angle, I just leave, and there's nothing wrong with that. But it also offers you opportunities to attack. You'll notice that his line now is straight down here. It's going to be hard for me to jab him. I can't really throw my left. I can, but he's going to win.

But what I can do is you'll notice he's lined up perfectly for kicks, especially with my lead leg. So what we're going to do is-- we'll have you stand back-- we'll do a basic side check from the front side as he takes the step. So while he's stepping-- and a lot of times, when people step, they'll bomb this guy at the same time. Honk. It's hard to miss my giant nose, it's right in between the two giant ears.

So when he steps, that's a great time to fade and throw that side kick. But just doing it by itself without the timing usually is not going to lead to a nice shot. But when he takes that step, if at the same time his foot is landing, and my foot is coming up, it's a very, very straight line. So it's very hard for him to stop. So if he steps on the outside, even without the punch-- you'll see how-- he's basically squaring himself up. Even if he's bladed, he's still squaring himself up.

So you've got a nice body shots. Those of you guys that are the professional side kickers to the head-- and you're out there-- it's the same way, the same line. Can you do a front kick? Absolutely. Any type of teep, snap, Scooby-Doo kick, whatever you want to do, as long as it lasts. His foot is on the outside-- as long as it's on that line, once he steps out.

So that's your kicking options from there. So let's review again. We're going over a lot of stuff, because I don't have any feedback. So we're just going to keep going. We'll go over this a couple of times. Outside. If I can get my foot on the outside, then I can bomb my straight cross and my lead hook. Again, there's other shots there as well. Your body kick is there. It's a nice little thing that usually, if you have this angle-- obviously, not too far-- but you can sneak it right up in here. The ol' liver. Also, the head, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. Head kicks we will-- we'll discuss later.

If we go even, where I can't really get a dominant angle and he can't get a dominant angle, that's usually when the hands will start coming out, and you'll start what we call playing hands. If I'm on top for a basics, this allows me to take over the game. If he's on top, I don't want to play the game, I win by leaving.

If he steps out now, we've seen on the outside, we have, a front kick or a sidekick, either one or two, to kind of control that angle. Because remember, there's no such thing as a bad angle if you have enough tools to deal with it. So if he's got a great angle here, this, this, and that, I have a great angle, first off, with this.

So let's continue. Now understanding that humans crave predictability in combat, because combat is a thing that can get you a little bit nervous. So your mind wants to have some kind of predictability, right? Like, you want to be able to say, OK, I know he's going to go here, so I can set a trap for him, or I know what's going to happen. It's something to anchor on, it's very important.

So once you go into this mirror stance, especially if you know your fighter is a very traditional boxing style fighter or a traditional kickboxing style fighter, they're always going to be taking this angle. So we can start doing interesting stuff like timing. So as we-- as we talk about timing, when that foot comes out, that's when that shot should come up. Well, let's talk about our hands. What can we do with our hands to time that?

As he steps out, most people, because they have this dominant angle, won't keep this hand up-- let me switch the sides here. When he's outside, because it's so hard for me to get-- I mean, I can throw a hook here, but he has such a power dynamic here, that it's very hard for me to throw. So a lot of times, this lead hand, when they beat you on that angle, will come down and so you'll start honking here.

As long as he's on the outside there, he feels pretty safe. Now not every fighter will do this. Some guys are super tucked in here, in which case we wouldn't try this technique. But as you notice, if the person is trying to take this angle and throw this punch, and this hand comes down as they do it, especially doing this kind of thing, where they go boom, which happens quite a bit-- well, that means that this side of the head is open. So if I know that their style of punching, once he steps, I can time my spinning back fist to hit this open side. And he'll actually move right into it, so you get that car crash effect, right, where he's driving this way, and you're driving this way.

So once he steps here, boom, and this is down, slipping on the outside just a little bit if you need to, but bringing this guy all the way around is a very unexpected strike, because he is very used to being safe on this dominant angle. Pop, pop, kick, whatever. So once you have-- but again, it's timing. If you wait too long, obviously, you're going to get in trouble. So once you see him begin to step, that's when you begin to spin. Can it be a spitting elbow? Absolutely. Can it be a spitting ninja chop thing? Why not. As long as you follow the dictum of his foot is going on the outside, and I'm going to blast him there.

So that's our second thing. Our first one is when he was on the outside here, you have either this guy or this guy. The second one is as he steps out, you have this guy. So even though he's getting to a dominant angle, the process of him giving that angle-- or I'm sorry, getting that angle, gives you attacks as long as you have the right tools. So making sure that when you fight-- obviously, when you fight, you're always looking at the chest.

And the reason you're always looking at the chest is because of the feet. The head uses doesn't attack you like this. I'm not saying it never does, but usually not. I only check the eyes if I need to see where they are psychologically. But other than that, I keep my mind on business-- right in the middle of the chest, with the peripheries so that I can really see where their feet are. Because again, my attack patterns are going to be based on our basics. Based on the ability to either have my foot outside of here, one-two. And then what do I need to watch out for? Obviously, now the spinning back fist and obviously, that lead kick here if we're even.

And if neither of us can get a better dominant angle, then I'm going to start trying to acquire that angle by playing hands. And if he acquires that angle, then I've got the straight kick or that spinning back. So making sure that you have preset attack patterns gives us that predictability, because you know he's probably going to go this way, especially if they're not educated-- they're not tuning into the seminar, and they're not learning how to play with those angles. Then they're definitely not going-- they're always going to go that way.

So keeping that in mind, how we get foot on the outside, foot in the middle, let's talk about the strikes once we have the angles now that we know what strikes we're looking for. In other words, when I get out here-- let's spin back this way, boss-- when I step out here, once I stepp my foot on the outside-- we've talked about this straight left. Obviously, that's easy money. We talked about this hook. But let's really break down now this left leg.

The left leg, you can go inside on it, but once you get a dominant angle-- I mean, you can chop on the leg, if you want to, but for me, you have a lot more important targets than our cross kick. So what we're going to do is any time that that leg comes here and across, you want to make sure it's either liver or head. If it's liver I, try to put something in front of it-- I want it to affect this, this arm.

So if I'm hitting a liver kick, and I-- and the person's obviously a little tight, I try to get his left hand in any way, shape, or form up. Try to get it up, try to get it out. So a lot of times, if you want to get that angle with this punch in any way, shape or form, you can just get it about here, as tight as he is there. That way, when you execute that liver shot, you have kind of a wide open space.

Now there's guys that kick so hard that even if they have it here, you're still, like, ugh. And let me tell you, if you haven't been hit in the liver, it's super fun. You should try it and tell all your friends do it. So when you're here, if you can get this up even just a little bit, that's a big deal. Sometimes, the head, even if I want to head kick and I get close, out here, the head kick is pretty easy. The head kick is a head kick, right? Honk.

Well, if I get close, sometimes, you get stuffed a little bit. So I'll use this lead hook-- in this case, it's my right-- almost as a pusher. When I throw this hook, I'm trying to turn his body. So it doesn't matter if he blocks it or not. I'm just trying to turn his head this way. So even if he does like a high, heavy block and I'm hit here, I'm just trying to turn his head this way, because if he's even with me here, and I'm, stuffed it can be hard for me to get a good clean head shot. So if I'm stuffed right in here, I'll throw this, and then that lines his head right up to that shin. Even hands in front, it's going to be a night to remember-- or not remember.

So talking about then, that power kick-- and remember, this is just basics, as I'm sure a lot of you guys have little variations on coming on the outside of the body-- just on the very basic. Once you get this angle, if you want to hit the liver, try to affect this hand. Try to get something out there. Even just doing something like this-- fingers up, not out.

To get-- again, to get his hands moving up. You can throw big bombs, whatever it is, and then put that guy in. If you get stuffed-- head kicks out here, very self-explanatory-- the foot goes into the head. But if you get jammed up a little bit, head kicks are still a great, great viable option here, as long as you steer him. If you hit him and you steer him, that's great. If he blocks it and you steer him, that's great, too. You're trying to get his angle-- so you beat his angle here, but he's stuffed on you, so you want to try to push this way-- that angle-- right up into the snoot.

So already, we've got a ton of attack patterns depending on where the foot is. Having those preset attack patterns allow you to move-- those of you guys that are familiar with OODA loops-- your OODA loop's already set. It's very, very quick and easy, and it makes you very, very dangerous.

So what I'm looking for as I fight, when he's got their front foot in front and I've got my foot is foot placement. If I'm here, I'm going to start applying that formula. I can't get inside or out, because let's talk about that for a second. Just because in the old days, everybody wanted to get here, doesn't mean that's what you want to do now. If I want to set up a spinning back fist from this position, I want to step on the inside, even if he's just standing. Now look-- all of that's tempting him to hit me, but I have a nice spinning back fist ready to go once he does it. So you're stepping into-- you're stepping into his power, that's a dangerous thing. So it's a risk-reward scenario. However, it is very unexpected.

You can also step in knowing that if when he attacks, you're either hitting here or here. So you don't necessarily always have to fight for that angle. If your feet are even, you're playing hands. If you're out here, you're doing one-two, pushing the body, if you need to, to line up with that kick. Again, out here, it's super easy. You're just going bonk-- no big deal at all.

If you want to get to the liver and they're protecting the liver-- now, remember this. Let's talk about getting the hand out of the way for this. If you hit the liver once, we usually just take-- if you know what you're doing, it usually just takes once-- the head will almost always open up, even just a little. And all you have to do is ask your chin up and over that hand to get upstairs.

Same thing-- if you hit a hard head kick, a lot of times, this hand instinctively comes up here. And that's the time to come back in. Just understanding that manipulating your body-- I'm sorry, your opponent's body to elicit predictability is a big deal. So I know when I throw this head kicker the Dan is going to double block high like this, if I go here, and he goes boom, the next time I move around and do it, I might come straight down.

Same look and feel, just a different target. But again, it's manipulating that hand if I want to get to the liver. And if you hit one hard to the liver-- remember, usually, people will cover it. So when you hit somebody to the liver hard, usually, if they don't fall down-- maybe they hit like me-- very soft-- they won't fall down, they'll usually cover it. So bombing another liver shot immediately usually isn't the right answer. Sometimes, but usually, that means that you want to go to the head.

You're going to adjust, we're manipulating this arm. They'll then adjust. Once he adjusts up, then I can bring that back down to the body. When you're a young fighter especially, or you're really nervous, and you just want to get over it, when you hit to the body, boom, there's a-- you see the guy, there's a kind of you want to jump on, but that's usually the time to switch your attacks, staying calm upstairs. Manipulate this, and then come back down to it. Same thing with leg kicks and other stuff, as well But we're sticking in our just basics today.

So remember that there's two kinds of attacks. Well, OK, technically, there's three. We're going to talk about two kinds of attacks. Initiating a reaction there. So I can initiate. I can be the guy that leads by stepping out. I can be the guy that leads by stepping in. I could be the guy that leads by going here. The reactionary model is the opposite. I can be the guy that waits for him to touch this hand and go boom. I can be the guy that waits for him to step outside and either spin or kick.

The angles are the thing. So then it's up to your choice whether you want to push or go first or go second, basically. But as long as the angles are the same and you understand those two angles, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter.

Remember that once you guys get a dominant angle, you want to sit down on it. The problem that I see a lot of especially younger fighters does when you are acquiring these angles that we've just talked about, you what we call float. In other words, I'm so moving around with Daniel that I'm so excited to get this. Super tall, super-- I have this dominant angle, and that's when you want to make sure that the power has to count.

If you have a beautiful angle and you go-- it's cool, but you want to be able to do some damage. You want him to be afraid of that angle. So if you do float to this great angle you want to make sure that you're sinking down, you're doing power. If you're high for whatever reason, you probably want to transition to kicks over punches. It's very hard to punch tall.

When you get obsessed with the angles and you really start learning them, that's-- in other words, when you're just starting to spar and seeing whatever, when you really start playing with this, this, or this, people have a tendency to rise. You want to stay in an athletic stance. You don't want to-- unless, you know, some sports like taekwondo are very high. But MMA, which is what we're talking about, not so much.

So keeping a good athletic stance so that once we have that angle, you can affect your own. Because remember, even-- what's cool about today's lesson is even if I have a dominant angle, and I want to do a left head kick, we can still manipulate the body as long as I'm strong enough and balanced enough position to do so. By punching him here, I can turn him this way to line that guy up. So that all revolves around the athle-- same thing, if I'm super tall here, and he takes that step, I'm just kind of giving a glancing kick, it'll do some damage. But it's a lot better when he-- I really put my body weight and everything in body.

Now-- so that's very, very basic. Now let's start talking about not illegal-- we don't do anything illegal-- but we try to do tricks. Trick number one is step on their foot. Stepping on their foot, I use a lot with fighters that bail constantly. In other words, every time I try to get a dominant angle-- you talked about-- now let's say I want to hit him with a left hand.

Every time I get a dominant angle, he takes off running. Go away. And I'm dark. OK, so then they're trying again. I'm like, this one, I'm really going to get it. Then he goes--

OK, so people that keep moving on you every time you get an angle, at least on the outside, especially, but even on the inside, they're just-- they don't want to play until they're exactly right-- that's the person I step on their toes. So what I do is I go like this. You can see foot on foot. Now when she tries to go away, he'll still be able to pull that foot out, but it's going to take him a second to do it. That was very good. That's a very good wind up.

So when we're here, once I step on this foot, we're still kind of even angled, but now I'm going to leave my good angle out of it, and I'm just going to angle my upper body. So you'll notice now that I'm in a straight line. I'm just going to pull my body off to the side. So I'm outside of his shoulder. We're still kind of even. The most important thing is if he tries to leave, he's not going to get out before I hit him.

So I can't really get a good angle, I can't get my attacks going, he's not feeling real comfortable. He feels like maybe I'm setting something up. Just coming in and going step, and then putting my head on the outside as I throw my power shot here. It's a very, very handy tool if the angle just doesn't happen. Because sometimes, people gets squirrely even fighting. You'll start to hand fight, and he's out. He's, like, nope. And then he might even switch his stance, whatever it is.

So it's just a way to control his exit and his ability to take a dominant angle, right? Because once I go like this on the spot, he can't step outside of my foot anymore. I can step outside of his. So if I was really cool, I could do this, but not necessarily. Things happen quickly. Sometimes, you're just going to have to bail on the outside and hit here. But he can no longer-- once I step on this lead foot, he can no longer put his foot on the outside of mine.

This isn't a bad thing, but it's predictability. I know now where I can go, where he can go. So if I'm first to do it, if my loop is faster, it's because it's been preset. And it'll be a much easier time for me. So that's number one.

Two. Sometimes, I can-- you can use your front leg to kind of check his leg out a little bit, and step out into your power shot. So if I do want to get this dominant angle, and I don't want to be countered with this kick-- what I mean by that is if he gets a dominant angle on me-- if you veer this way, and I go boom, counter with that kick.

A way to stop that is to put your head on the outside of their shoulders here and just hit him. A nice little light kick this way. You step out. What that usually should do is, once you're stepping out here-- and again, you guys want to go, like, big power kick, boo-boom, and then top out, that's fine. If you want to just do it light like I like to do it, that's fine, as well. But once you kick, and you get to here, once this foot is-- your weight is rocking forward, so that your foot gets to this dominant angle, that's when this guy should be coming.

In other words, here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to use that leg kick or your check kick here, put it down, and then go bang. As that foot lands, you want to hit. So again we're playing-- it's the same idea here, playing hands, except now, we're playing feetsies.

This kick comes out here, he cannot get his leg up and over, and that gives me this angle. So it's very important to understand your attack, especially if you're fighting somebody super athletic, that if you try to get to a good angle and get a good attack, half the time, they're gone. See ya. So to stop them from running, you can do this-- just understand the angles. You can also just hook that back of that leg to make sure you're here.

So what's the danger of that one is getting caught with a backhand punch, his cross-- his right cross, in this case. If you're doing it like this, you can eat. We only eat after. So what you want to do is make sure that you've got the head kind of on the outside, then you go here. So this kick-- and again, if you want to do it very traditional, that's fine. Just make sure that we bend over. Head out here, and you've got things in the way so you don't get honked on the nose.

That leg on the outside is very, very important. But remember, that once that leg is on the outside, the inception of the punch is from his quad, of course, your core, and then you're hitting. As this foot hits, your punch or your elbow works. So here, there.

So I think now we have a very good understanding. And remember, left to right, right to left, it doesn't matter. But it's very important in MMA to switch your stance and apply all those angles. If you always fight the same way, people will begin to clock you. Like, oh, he does this, he does that. It's much harder to clock when you switch here, you do some attacks, you switch this way, you do some attacks. You switch out some attacks, wide angles, whatever. It keeps your career longer, because you have more tools to play with.

So when we're here, understanding where your foot is, what attacks you can do, and of course, conversely, what attacks they are going to do. Because let's take a look. It limits my ability to do some defensive measures, which is the second half. So we have the offense, basics, including some spinning back fists and stuff like that.

Now if he gets a dominant angle on me here and I want to defend, if he's throwing this punch at me this way, and I'm slipping to the outside, you can do that. But be aware that this guy is probably following right. So what you can't do is this, because you'll will be eating a shin. But there's no rule-- as a matter of fact, Pacquiao is a master-- Manny Pacquiao-- amazing guy-- he goes here. And then when the recoil of that punch comes back, he goes, bang.

So you can slip out to that side, but again, it's predictability. I know that if I slip out here, this kick is probably coming. And if I slip and move back in there without an attack-- in other words, if he pulls back, this hook is probably going to be coming right behind him. So even if I have a great slip, I can move right back in the center line and get hook, counter, hooked. So if I go here, one, two-- that's bad news.

Most people get knocked out if they're not getting set up to be knocked out by going back to the same space they were just in. In other words, if we're starting here, he throws this, and I slip to the outside, I was just in the space. In Dan's mind, I might even still be there. Now when I come back to look at that space, that's when I run into stuff. So just even understanding that is a big deal.

So knowing that the defense of this one-- he steps on the outside-- I have to watch-- it I'm slipping, I have to watch this. If I'm parrying, I have to watch this, right? Obviously, the next punch that's going to come or that kick, because he's got that power angle.

Conversely, if I'm on the outside like this here, I don't have to quite worry about so much this, right? I'm not going to have to worry about that as much. I'm sitting on this. I still might have to worry about-- what do I have to worry about? Well, in the protocols that we just went over, I got to worry about the spinning back fist, one. And I've got to worry about this body attack, too.

So I need to be making sure that when I'm throwing my attack, I'm not doing this kind of stuff, but that I'm tight and tucked. Once I'm tight and tucked, OK, now I can move. Understand where I'm vulnerable and where I can attack from.

So keeping that in mind-- and again, in our basics-- is that the foot position and the angle is everything. So when you're looking-- let's say you're even just watching a fight-- like, you're watching an MMA fight. You don't look at what their hands are doing as much as you look at what their legs are doing when they start. Well, even on the ground, too, but that's a whole different thing.

Here, here, here, you can tell what attacks they are going to do and what attacks they are going to defend. So what they are-- you know, within a certain probability, obviously. There's no guarantees. But I know that if he's on the outside here, it's probably going to be tap, tap, tap. Hook, cross, kick here or here. He knows the same if it's this way.

Now with our new protocols that we learned today, once he goes on the outside, he knows that it might be here, here, or again, there's nothing that says you can't go right to the head. That straight line is now open. Or again, sticking to basics, this. And basics, I mean not basics like you just walked into a martial arts school. I mean, basics, you're an MMA fighter, which means you're highly educated and very good looking. Like Dan. Look at that mug.

So understanding the predictability in the system. That's what we really want-- we want things to anchor on-- is predicated on where our feet are in our basis. And we even saw when we get to positions, we can still manipulate-- as we move into more advanced stuff, we still manipulate either by pushing or by using a strike to manipulate his body to create openings for ourselves once we have those angles. We can still do that, even if you have it all the way.

We also went over learning little tricks. Like, if he keeps running away from me or he keeps getting the dominant angle. Happens to me, because the older I get, the slower I get. I don't know what that's about, but it happens. If I try to step forward on him a lot of times, he'll just step out and, I keep losing that-- I just can't win. So instead, stepping forward, always reach for that foot.

Oh, look at that! But again-- so there you go. That's actually really good. What is that? That's a reaction. Now I know when I go to step on his foot, that he's going to pull that thing back, right? So if I go the step and he pulls that thing, back that is predictability in a system. I can then have something-- I'd do something else for a while, but I know he knows that I'm trying to step on his foot. Predictability in a system. That's what I'm talking about. Start from the beginning.

I know it's-- listen, you can be slow. I'm so slow these days. So same thing with that kick on the outside. With this guy here, that's another trick you can do to get that dominant angle-- a dominant punching. I should-- we should really not call it a dominant angle, because here, I have a lot of attacks. I mean, we're going over basics, but there's a lot more.

So understanding where the lines are as you're watching the fight, it'll educate you, and as you're fighting, it'll educate you. Where are the lines and how can I attack. Remember that if-- here's another great thing. If you're not winning the game-- in other words, if I can't it, and you can't get it, I can't get, then start playing a different game. It's the definition of insanity, right-- to do the same thing expecting different results? So if I'm up here, and I can't get on the outside of the foot, well, then start playing this game.

Because remember, this game, even-- and we're sticking with basics-- but even if he's dom-- there's no rule that says if he's going to jab me, I can't kick him, as long as the angles are right. So keep that in mind that-- swing back this way while we're here before we end up all the way to the gym. Keep in mind that these tools you have and these angles you have, you can play with, you can mess around. And there's a lot of them. Again, we're going to stick with those strong basics today. But there's a lot.

So keeping in mind today's lesson, outside, center line, hands, inside, sidekick, front kick. Front kick or especially if he's stepping, spinning back fist.

Tricks that we learned. Stepping on the foot, picking on the outside, manipulating his body by hitting. Remember, if you can hit with this right hook-- if can hit with this right hook where you hit perfectly and turn his body this way, when you're coming back up, it's very strong. But even, again, like I said, even if he blocks, you don't necessarily even have to throw a hook. You just get his shoulder.

If his hand comes up, you can just do this. So let's say I got a good dominant angle, I push this-- we're gonna move over here. We're going to go all over the place. I can literally push him into it. Push, kick. So that's very important to understand-- manipulating the body on the inside. Hopefully, that gave you guys some new tools. And there's a lot of people that already do all this stuff. I apologize if I wasted your time. Please still give to the Red Cross, anyway. But if you didn't, just understanding how to start looking at feet, what you can do within those parameters.

And keep in mind the most essential parts of today's lesson isn't necessarily the techniques. The techniques are a tool to enact predictability. I want to have some predictability. I want him to be able to have to go certain places. So that I can stop him or I can set up my path to victory. Meaning that I know what I can do here, here, here. It's very, very obvious-- that's why it's a great way to learn it when you're here. I need to have Dan doing predictable things.

And obviously, in MMA, that's a two-fold, right? You watch what they always do on video, but then you can also, through your techniques, begin to apply formulas that will give you predictability, be it striking, to the liver, and you know this hand is going to come down or vice versa. Throwing something up here, you know he's going to parry it. And then knowing that right behind that, you got a nice little liver shot. I'm going around it-- I'm not even touching it.

So all those things are very, very important. I don't know how we're doing on time, because I get excited, and I'll teach all day, so I'd better slow down.

- We're good. You still got 15 minutes.

GREG JACKSON: Oh perfect. It's a great time-- for let's do some Q&A. So let's do these last 15 minutes, some Q&A stuff. Daniel, thank you for your help. Appreciate you. So come on in here, sun, and let's do some Q&A.

- Thank you so much, Greg. You're incredible. You're an incredible strategist, so there's a little insight in there for everybody-- how you put together those game plans for each one of your brothers.

GREG JACKSON: I try to do that. Sometimes, I'm successful.

- To say the least. We do have one question from Mr. Zimbala. He's asking specifically about Jon Jones. What do you think some of his strengths are as a fighter? And how did you guys work on drilling those strengths and bringing those to life?

GREG JACKSON: I think one of his major strengths is creativity. And so creativity is a weird thing, right? Because creativity by itself doesn't really mean anything. Like, oh, I'm a creative person. I can, I don't know, make a milk carton into a cow. I don't know what you want to do with your creativity, but that's the thing. It's creativity is demonstrated by fighting fearless. And so if you are super worried about gassing out, if you're super worried about getting countered on a technique, you're super worried about stuff, you don't fight fearless, you fight very contained.

Now fearless doesn't mean reckless. But I think that one of Jon's strengths is when he's really on-- when Jon is being Jon, he's really on, he fights fearless. Meaning that he comes in and he'll do whatever stuff comes into his brain. And it's almost elastic. And he has a very high fight IQ, so it's usually the right thing to do. And then he'll be creative within those structures within the parameters.

But you can't be creative and be afraid at the same time. And obviously, you're nervous. There's a difference when you're fighting, where it's freezing you-- like, I'm not going to open up, because I know I'm going to get tired, or I'm going to get countered, or that hurt last time or whatever. And then there's a difference in saying, well, I'm just going to do some crazy stuff that I'm going to set up correctly. I'm going to be creative.

I think Jon has that combination really well of creativity-- being able to be creative, and at the same time, fighting fearless, where he's just pushing forward, he's really trying to implement some odd technique, some different strategies. And he's not concerned if they don't work. He'll just try another one.

- Got you. Thank you for that. Another one here. Whenever you are getting ready-- I mean, you really are-- you're a great strategist. Whenever you guys are preparing for a fight, you're taking somebody in their camp, without giving too much away, I mean, what is your strategy going into a fight and looking at your fighter's opponent and their weaknesses? How do you guys break that down and start identifying that?

GREG JACKSON: So that's a-- that is a very, very complicated question. So that is--

[LAUGHS]

No, no, I love it. That's-- these are really smart questions. So part of it is you have to have the right tools. First of all, you have to have statistics. What kind of jabs and how many busy jabs, how many crosses-- that's a tool. Tendencies are a tool, as well. Well, he always moves left. That's what analysts do. So analysts are a person that looks at a fight and says, here's what's happening, here's what he needs to do.

Analyzation is an important part of it. First of all, you have to know what to analyze. Then you have to be able to synthesize that information. So it's not so much looking at-- and we'll talk about that in a second-- looking at what they're doing. It's about what you can do about it. That's synthesization. That's a whole different day. God, I'll talk for two hours. But anyway. So let's-- let's talk about that.

There is a concept I like to call Teddy bears. It's, like, when you're a little kid, and you're crying, wah wah wah, and you give a kid a Teddy bear-- it's like his little snuggly thing to do-- well, every fighter has a Teddy bear. So you just have to identify it. So when I'm looking at the fights, I don't look at-- everybody is, like, well, show me his last fight, show me his last fight.

When I'm really breaking down a fighter, I want to see the earliest fights possible, because there's where they build their tendencies. And what do I mean by that? I don't mean if you move left or if he moves right or if he uses a jab 60% of time. What does he do psychologically when he's winning, what does he do psychologically when he's losing. What does he go to? So we'll do a macro easy thing.

If you're a wrestler and you learn to kickbox, but when the pressure comes on you, and you start getting whacked in the face, what happens there is that they'll shoot-- they'll try to take you down. It's a very macro version of it. Everybody had that little Teddy bear. So if you're preparing your guy, you say, OK, when you hit him, he's going to try shooting. Do what formula applies there. That gets very, very small.

Sometimes, people move a certain way. They duck right, they duck left, they turn. Sometimes, they just back up with their chin up. Sometimes, they try to drive forward. So you have to find those little tendencies over and over. And every fighter has them, because it's-- again, fighting makes you nervous. And when you're nervous, you need an anchor, something what I call a Teddy bear. So identifying their Teddy bears is really important, because then if they're winning, you know what they're looking like. And if they're losing, you know how to beat him. And that's a big deal.

And I can't always find them. Sometimes, I don't. Sometimes, I find them at the last minute. Like we always talk about Ronda Rousey, I found hers at the last minute. It's-- it's a hard-- that's really hard, because you can't watch one fight and say, this is what he does. You have to watch the career and watch the differences throughout.

- Yeah. No, I mean, as martial arts, we all try to get those little kind of go-to things we have built out of-- of what you've done as a child. Or there's the bad habits that you've developed over the years. So I can't imagine having to dig that stuff out of the archives when you're preparing for somebody.

GREG JACKSON: Sometimes, it's so obvious, you're like-- and sometimes, they're so good at hiding it, that you just don't see it. And finally, it's, like, oh, there it is.

- And another question, just following that up, when you do identify that thing, I mean, it's somewhat unnatural for one of your fighters, is to prepare to take advantage of somebody else's weakness, to work that in. How do you start integrating that into their flight strategy as they prep so it is natural, and they're not themselves kind of putting themselves out of a comfort zone to take advantage of somebody else who is doing this?

GREG JACKSON: Another good question. So that is something that you just-- it's repetition. So you have to mimic-- somebody mimic their-- what they're doing, and then you apply several formulas over and over and over. it's just repetition, repetition, so that when they do it, it's on autopilot. So you're comfortable with it already, because you've done it so many times over and over and over and over. So then it becomes about reading.

And the other thing is sometimes, you have to read it, and you only get this much. Like, they'll just go into that bad thing that they do just for this-- you have this little time. And if you're not doing it over and over and over and over and over to get to that target, when it happens, you could be, like, oh, there it is. And by the time you say, oh, there it is, it's already gone. And it might not come back-- maybe it will.

So that's why-- let's say that they do a duck, and when they get put pressure, they duck to their right, well, you need to do a left head kick or whatever you want-- just say a left head kick. So you do that over-- just drilling with somebody. Oh, they duck, you kick. And they duck, you kick. They duck, you kick. You do it so many times that when it happens in the fight, you're not even thinking about it. They duck, you kick, and it kind of plays out myself.

- Got you. Another person, Mr. Jordan Le-- Lebeau is asking, besides your fighters, who is somebody else that you look at and you say, man, they've got some really great skill sets or they're moving different ways that you kind of don't necessarily admire, but you look at them in a different light, because they're trying new things and different things? You kind of get some inspiration from.

GREG JACKSON: Yeah, I admire all the fighters. I think they're great artists. But the-- so for me, really outside of my own fighters, I loved Anderson. I remember when Ander-- I can't remember who he fought. God, maybe he was punching him in the thigh-- he was using, like, a jab or a cross, I can't remember. But he was literally punching somebody in the thighs. Like, I hadn't see seen that before. I was, like, oh, that's really cool. That's very, very creative. So stuff like that gets me going.

The obvious, you have very overt people, like style bender, that do these amazing things that's, like, wow, that's so cool. But you also have people like-- like Jorge-- like Masvidal. It's very, very calculated, and his stuff is very innovative, but it's much smaller. You have to really know what you're looking there. So there's so many people to do so many.

And that's what's cool about the martial arts and about MMA-- both. Is that everybody has such an individualistic style. And they'll bring in things that you've never thought of. Like, I couldn't imagine having-- not being able to learn something or not watching somebody and saying, oh man, I never thought of it. Like, that would be, by definition of like purgatory or hell, man. Like, there's nothing to learn, there's nothing new, cool to see. So I'm very grateful for all the fights.

Even Lyoto Machida-- no one had seen-- I mean, he had the traditional style. But The way he integrated his Brazilian jiu jitsu with that, all the different things. It was amazing. So yeah, there's so many-- I wish I had one guy, but there's so many of them.

- And then another question. When you are prepping somebody in their camp, I mean, everyone has to face condition. But how do you specifically work on with fighters conditioning and keeping to their game plan? Or being tired and still thinking and using their head in the fight? Is there any kind of different techniques you use or drills to help their memory?

GREG JACKSON: That's a mental deal. So here's the problem with fighting and one of the many reasons it's different than other sports. There's nothing like fighting except fighting. And when you're doing so-- you get a heart rate monitor on and you get all of this stuff, and you can you can very step by step, right, say here are all the steps you need to be in shape. That still doesn't mean you're going to be able to keep your cool and be able to perform effectively in fighting.

The big deal there is your mind. The big deal there is you should try to get out of your little heart rate comfort zone. That's what you should be trying to do during your workout. So people will be, you got to pull it down, you got to do all that stuff. Well, what happens in the fight when you go into the red? Are you going to say, oh, hold on, sir, while I bring that heart rate under 140.

Being able to function there, training your mind to function there is very, very important. So strengthening conditioning is super important. You have to be pragmatic about it. Here's the science. Here's how you get from A to B. And then with that, you have to do the things that I would call unscientific. In other words, push yourself into the red, and then function. Still perform. Let me know that you are tired. And that is, again, just repetition.

That's why I take these guys to the mountains, and I run them up the mountain. We don't have heart rate monitors on. I don't-- we don't do exactly seven minutes of active warm ups to make sure that our stretches are combined with our exercise and blah blah blah. I get them. I kill them up there. And then while-- and then they can't move, and they're throwing up. I make them shadowbox. I have them shadowspar. I'll wrestle with them, whatever it is, to make sure their mind is trained moving under those circumstances.

- No, I was going to say, you're known for going out in the New Mexico desert, and really making people grind out there in the heat in the sand and the mountains area.

GREG JACKSON: It's a lot of fun.

- Well, I think that's about all we have time for. Thank you so much, sir, for your time. Appreciate it. I know it's very valuable. And again, guys, everybody here in this event is giving up their own time. Nobody is getting paid for this. So please, if you feel moved, you want to help support the first responders who are rallying all the martial arts community, it's not about MMA, it's not about taekwondo. It's about all martial artists, regardless of style, we all have something to offer. And we can all rally behind our first responders who are putting their lives on the lines every day for us as this pandemic kind of unfolds.

So thank you again, Greg. We appreciate you. Best of luck, sir coming up next. And we'll be-- we'll be up next with Glover Texeira.

GREG JACKSON: Bye, guys.