MMA and me; day 70

Put in another three hours at the gym yesterday, and I definitely feel it today. The first class was MMA, and it felt mostly like a conditioning class. First, we did a round of skippies, which is just lining up against the wall, putting your forearms against it, and alternate throwing muy thai knees. This is exhausting, but it felt good to get it out of the way early. Next was a round of boxer squats, which are just squats with your hands up in your boxing stance. We did this for five minutes. Next we did a round of punch ups, and then moved on to more trying drills. The medicine ball punch out drill is rough if you don't have MMA gloves. You hold a medicine ball with one hand over it and one hand under, and your partner has three minutes to try and punch it out of your hands. If you drop it, you have to do 25 push ups, and then pick the ball back up, and try again. It was tough because I only have boxing gloves (for now) and holding on was dang tough. I only dropped it once, but that motivated me to hold on for the duration of the round. Another downside to boxing gloves is they absorb a lot of the impact, and are much bigger than MMA gloves, which makes hitting the ball very tough. My partner held on the entire round, booo! Lastly, we worked ground and pound transitions on a kick shield laid on the ground. For three minutes, then rest, then another three minutes. Despite my bandanna, I was dripping sweat, but we still had two more drills. Plank position for three minutes, and three minutes of leg raises. Now it was time for kick boxing.

It was more kick checking drills. First, the low 10/high 10/low 9/high 9, where your partner checks the kicks. Next was the outside 10/inside 9/inside 10/ outside 9, where you just eat the kicks, instead of checking them. We then worked on checking a low 9, and countering with a rear hand superman punch. As you bring the leg up to check the kick, cork your body to throw the punch, then drop the leg behind you as you throw your rear hand down the pipe. Last, we added a switch 9 to the superman punch counter, and I gotta say, I like that combo quite a bit! We ended with planks, and I had only one more class for the day.

Jiu jitsu! We began with our standard shrimping and rolling drills, and then went right into guard passing. First, we worked a drill where the opponent lays flat, and you post your arms on either side of their hips. Keeping your feet at their feet, slide your feet off to the side, and then slip your inside leg up their hip to end in high judo. Make sure to keep your hip on theirs, and keep that pressure. Walk your feet back to the starting position, and repeat on the other side. We did this for a round, and then switched. Next, was another drill we did a version of the day before. While standing, and your opponent is on their back, grab their ankles, and step your left leg up inside their right knee. Quickly step across, and slide across their left thigh, while leaning back, and sneak into high judo. Lastly, we worked the matador pass, which is similar to the previous pass, but outside, instead of inside. From holding the ankles, pretend to push the legs to the left, and shove them aggressively to the right. From there, pin their right hip down with your left knee, and slide to high judo. Remember to always grab a far side underhook when getting to high judo! That was that, and I went home to pass out.