MMA and me; day 129

A day late, but here I am with nonetheless. Boxing was another day of the same set we ran on Tuesday, and I gotta say I really like it. Broken up into three stacks, the first was comprised of a counter, slip counter, catch 2, body catch, body catch, rear uppercut, lead uppercut, hook, straight. Second was a turn right, counter, roll 7, double catch, counter. Lastly, turn left, hook, hook, straight, catch 2. I still need to work on my turns, I'm not using my hips enough, and I'm leaning a little far forward, but I'm getting the basic motions down properly. We finished with a round of flutter kicks, over unders, and planks, and it was time for jiu jitsu.

We started off by rolling to our shoulders and hanging out there for five minutes. We were keeping our knees bent and over our heads, tiptoeing our feet around the mat, and stretching our necks out. If we needed to come out of the position, we brought our knees to the mat, and slid our head out. After this, we moved to forward and backward rolling drills, followed by shoulder rolls, making sure to be nice and deliberate with our rolls, not hurrying through them. next was a drill I can only describe as hugging your partner's side, and flipping back and forth over them sideways as they sit on all fours. The biggest thing is momentum, and not doing both legs at once when you're flipping back. With your partner on all fours, you under hook across their torso with both arms, and flip to their other side, so that your arms are now across their back, and you're upside down. To flip back, pop one of your legs as high up as you can, and throw your hips into it, and the rest of your body will follow.

With the remaining time left, we worked on a couple of half guard sweeps. First, if your opponent has a narrow base, get your under hook on the same side as the leg you have trapped in half guard, and post up on the opposite elbow. Start shrimping towards your under hook, until you can reach their far side foot with the arm that has the under hook. Get your ear to their bellybutton, and with your other hand, grab their knee. Lunge your top side leg out behind you, and in one motion, suck their knee and leg into you, while popping your shoulder into them. As they fall, sit up, post your outside arm behind their back, swim your other arm to post behind them as well, and swing your outside arm around to behind their head as you C-block with the other arm to finish in side control, making sure to lay them flat. The next sweep was for an opponent with a wide base. You still have the under hook and are posted up on the elbow, but this time, as you're shrimping around, you dive your posted arm under their legs, so it's under hooked on their far leg, while the other arm is still around their back, preferably grabbing a lateral muscle. Switch the position of your legs, so the top leg is over the opponent's leg in half guard, and pulling it straight out to the side. From here roll them across your body, twisting with your core, and when they're on their back, swim your arm out from between their legs, C-block their legs, and end in side control, remembering to lay them flat. Great classes Thursday!