MMA and me; day 78

Last day of tough training before my tournament, and I'm on weight, but tired. I showed up for the first hour, to work on some more cardio, and grappled for about with 45 minutes with a couple of guys both weighing over 300 pounds, it was a bit exhausting. I did get a good sweat going though, and that was what I wanted.

Boxing was more working the long combo we learned on Tuesday. Started with the 2-3-2-roll-2-3-2-catch-2-3-2-3-3-2. Then we added a roll-2-3-2-roll-2-3-2. Next we tacked on a catch-2-3-2. We finished with a block body hook-6-2-3-2. It's a long combo, and it feels like a lot to remember, but after you start to get it down, it turns into muscle memory, and feels almost automatic. It's important when practicing this combo, to not go too hard, and throw as little power as possible. First, it will tire you out early, and you'll lose any pop later on in the string. Second, it tenses your shoulders, and that will just gas you out even further. Just relax, and get into a good rhythm.

Grappling was all working from standing, specifically from the head and arm position, with one hand around your opponents neck, and the other grabbing their triceps. First we just worked holding the position, and controlling our opponent with a tight grip, and driving our head into their neck. Next we worked a snap down to a ten finger guillotine choke. You push into your opponent, making them push back, and as they do, pull down on their head, get your chest on their neck, and get an over under, or seatbelt grip. From there, swim the hand out from under their arm, and grab your hand that is positioned near their chin, keeping that hand as flat as possible, and try to bring your arms to your own chest, choking them out. Next was a D'Arce choke, where from the snap down position and seatbelt grip, you thread your arm that is under their armpit all the way under their body, until you can grab your own bicep on the other side. From here, cinch up your grip, and walk your hips towards theirs, maintaining chest pressure on their back and neck, until they tap. For both of these first two chokes, it is very important to keep their head centered in your stomach, and not off to the side. It keeps their chin down, and puts a lot of pressure on them. Lastly, we worked on a standard guillotine choke, with a little twist. From an attempted D'Arce, if they block it, slide the hand all the way under their neck, and make a fist on the far side, then simply push into the fist with your other hand, which ought to tighten the choke considerably, and it puts a lot of pressure on both sides, forcing them to tap. A lot of good stuff, and I am incredibly thankful for all my coaches help. Now I just have to get out there and put it all together. Time to bring it home, wish me luck tomorrow!