MMA and me; day 90

Another Monday in the books, and I'm slowly approaching my goal weight for the grappling tournament in two and a half weeks. We kicked off the day with MMA class, and like last Wednesday, I was asked to help run everyone through the drills, because two of our coaches were sick. This time, we worked on submissions from S-Mount. The S-Mount is where you flare one of your legs out to the side while in mount. It provides additional stability, and a plethora of offensive options. First was the arm bar. From S-Mount, pummel in your arm on the far side from the leg that is out, as you grab the wrist of your opponent on that side with your other arm. Get a rear naked choke grip, and swing your leg that is tucked under you around and over their head, and go through your arm bar checklist; knees pinched around their upper arm, boot on, pull their head in as tight as you can, and lean back pulling on their wrist until they tap.

Next was the howdy, or far side arm triangle. From S-Mount, bring the flared leg across the opponents face, bringing one of their arms with it. As their arm crosses their face, drop your hip to the mat, and keep pressure on their arm with your chest, keeping it pinned to their chest, and slip your far side arm from the S-Mount leg under their neck, trying to get their neck as deep in the crook of your elbow as possible. From there, with the arm under their neck, grab your other bicep, and get that hand over their forehead, and slowly begin to squeeze until they tap out. Remember to keep your weight over their neck, and stay up on your toes if at all possible.

Lastly, we drilled the topside triangle. This is in response to the bottom opponent trying to under hook your S-Mount leg. As they under hook the leg, quickly slip the leg under their neck, pulling up on the head if necessary. From there, wrap your other leg over the ankle of the leg under their head, and pulling their arm that is trapped across their face. The last thing you need to do, is get your boot on your underside leg, and lean forward as you pinch your legs together for the tap. Big thanks to Kyle and Irv for helping me not entirely butcher being an assistant.

In kickboxing, we worked on some similar stuff that we did last week. We started with light bump drills, going from a low 10 to a high 10, then an inside 9 to a high 9. Next, we went back and forth on the inside 9, and that left the leg a bit sore. We drilled a 1-2-mid 9 next, which I liked, because that's the perfect height for me to kick at this point in my flexibility evolution. From there we moved to a step in 2-3-step out-mid 10. For this to work, you need to step in then throw the 2, or there's nothing on it, then throw the hook, then step out, then throw the rear leg kick to the body. This one is nasty, and I can see really liking it as well. We drilled that combo for two rounds, then worked our core drills, and it was on to grappling.

Grappling, we worked the exact same drills as we did in MMA, so no need to be too redundant. :) All in all it was a great day, and I only have ten more pounds to go for my goal at the end of the month. I'm really excited!