MMA and me; day 176

Well, another day of class in the books, but I gotta mention something before I get to class. This week was the last week for Coach Troy, who has had other things come up and is moving on to the next stage in life. I would not have developed the appreciation, and love for the sport of boxing, without his influence. Thank you braddah, and I wish you the best in all your endeavors.

So Coach Wise has assumed boxing class teaching duties, and after one day, I know I'm once again going to be working my behind off. We worked the basics, namely chin down, head up, getting the proper stance, and KEEPING THE HANDS UP! A few other details, such as throwing the punches straight out and back, turning the punches over, dropping the knee on the straight punch, and 50-50 weight distribution. We focused on all of this for the entire class, and then worked on a little bit of avoidance and foot work. Namely rolling and circling off, or rolling and stepping through when your opponent throws a big, looping punch. Big things to make sure are paid attention to are staying in contact when you roll and step, since that is a good way of cutting off angles, and power of your opponents punches. We finished off with three minutes of sit ups, and then it was on to grappling.

We worked on a couple of different sweeps from bottom side control. First, bridge up by gathering your feet as close to your bottom as you can, and flat on the ground, then as you drop your butt to the ground, drop your elbow on the same side they are on to the ground, while turning to that side hip and slipping your top side knee across their near hip. Next, extend the top leg, and bring the bottom leg across to reclaim guard, and if it gets stuck in a butterfly hook, instead of making it to full guard, that's okay. From this position, pummel in for an under hook on the same side as your butterfly hook, grab their tricep on the other side and shrimp your butt out while on your hip and sit up, letting your leg which is not in the butterfly hook to lay flat on the mat. From here, rock back, while doing four things with each limb to insure the sweep, Using your arms, which are basically in an over hook/ under hook position, turn their shoulders towards the leg that is flat on the ground, lift up with the butterfly hooking leg, and use the leg on the ground to scissor their leg out from underneath them. Doing all of these together, smoothly, will almost guarantee a sweep to mount. The other sweep from a similar position,but instead of getting a single butterfly hook, swim both legs in for double butterfly hooks. From here, shrimp your butt back, and pummel in for double under hooks. Rock back, kick them off to one side, and swing your hips in to high judo. We also worked the reversal sweep from bottom side control, where you bridge up, and under hook either the hip side arm, or both arms, and switch your hips towards the head to pull yourself out from under them, and end up in a topside position, primed to take their back. Great days of classes, and I'm excited for what the coming weeks will bring!