MMA and me; day 142/143

For Thursdays classes....umm, see day 141. Exact same boxing and jiu jitsu was covered. (How did I miss an entire day, again!?!)

Yesterday in boxing, we worked more burst drills, and focused on head movement. First was a jab, pull, straight, pull, counter, roll, left turn, triple jab. On the pull, it's important to be up on the ball of your rear foot, so you don't lean back at the waist, and get knocked off balance. Also important was what Coach referred to as "directional harmony". Simply put, when you pull, go straight back, and return straight forward. Don't go off at an angle, or you will end up dissipating a lot of the power of the return punch. Anyways, the next set was jab, pull, straight, pull, counter, slip, rear uppercut, straight, hook, straight, left turn, triple jab. Another thing that helped me with the pull, was using my lead hand to counter balance the other side of my body when I pulled back. Bringing my rear hand up to catch an incoming punch, and dropping my lead hand to the side just a bit, helped keep my shoulders square for the return punches. The following set was a jab, pull, straight, pull, counter, slip, slip, lead uppercut, hook, straight, left turn, triple jab. Another important thing for me, was remembering to set my feet after the left turn, and step into the triple jab. It's really easy to start jabbing early and flare your elbow out with your shoulders off kilter. Take a small moment to set your feet, and pump that jab. Lastly, was a jab, pull, straight, pull, counter, straight slip, roll, counter, left turn, triple jab. Here they are, broken down;
1) 1-pull-2-pull-counter-roll-left turn-1-1-1
2) 1-pull-2-pull-counter-jab slip-6-2-3-2-left turn-1-1-1
3) 1-pull-2-pull-counter-jab slip-straight slip-5-3-2-left turn-1-1-1
4) 1-pull-2-pull-counter-straight slip-roll-counter-left turn-1-1-1

We finished with 8 minutes of burnout punches on the heavy bags, and I was beat. Thanks for a great class Coach Troy!

Jiu jitsu started off with some shrimping drills, specifically building our shield. When shrimping from your butt with one hand behind you, and the other elbow posted on your knee, keep the lead leg stretched out, and the other leg curled up beneath you. Make sure the lead hand is perpendicular to the floor, and you have yourself a very difficult position for someone to attempt to reclaim guard on. As you slide the lead leg into the middle of their legs, press one of their knees to the ground, either with your rear hand that is your post, or with your knee that is off the mat. Remembering to stay shoulders back over your hips, and if they come up into you, push back with your shoulder, and pass over whichever of their legs you have nailed to the mat. Very effective, even though I need a lot of work. We worked on a couple of gi chokes. First, the clock choke. From mount use your right hand to open their gi, and slide your left hand up their left lapel, just below their ear, and firmly grip it with your palm facing up. Reach your right elbow over their head and place it on the mat, then bring it back to push their head off to the side, and grab their right lapel with your right hand, in a similar position to your other hand, but palm down, this is a cross grip. Slide your right elbow back over their throat, and try to put your head on the mat as far above their head as possible, while at the same time, pulling your elbows back until they tap out to the clock choke. Lastly we worked two varieties of loop choke. First, start in side control, switch to low judo, and open your gi, and slide back to side control. From there, grab the right corner of your gi, with a good couple inches sticking out of your hand, and bring your hand under their neck. Swim your elbow around to their chest, and then try to bring it to the near side of their neck until they tap. Also, if that's not working, swim your left hand behind your gi and onto your right bicep, and extend your right arm. That's a really tight choke, and one I'm not ashamed to say has rendered me unconscious. Great day of classes, thanks Coach Aric, and thanks to Hannah and Max for the rolls afterwards!