MMA and me; day 195

Getting close to the big two-oh-oh, and still pluggin along with a slightly less sore leg. In boxing, we worked on parrying jabs, and then firing back with a jab of our own. First we just practiced the parry. Keeping your hands high, when the jab comes towards your face simply open your rear hand to catch and with a very small motion, pop the jab downward. The strength in the punch is at its end, so if you knock it off the axis it's being thrown at, it will lose it's potency. Next, we added a jab, jab onto the parry. After the parry, immediately throw the first jab, then as you bring it back, bring step around with your back leg then lunge forward with the second jab, putting a little more sting on it. Make sure to step off and create a new angle, but don't step too far and lose the window of opportunity that the first jab opened for you. To add onto the combo again, this time we tacked on a straight, hook, straight after the second jab. After the first jab, there is a brief pause to step off and create the angle for the second jab to be effective. After that, you immediately follow with the straight, hook, straight, then roll out to avoid any counter punches. We finished with five minutes of touch sparring, and it was on to more grappling!

Following the trend of jiu jitsu classes this week, we continued to focus on pressure, and not relieving that pressure when transitioning to different positions. Since we've covered everything we did in class today this week, I'll focus on the few submissions we did cover tonight. First was the Howdy from S pass out of mount. From the mount, if and when your opponent pushes on your hips to try and get your off of them, throw one of your legs over their face, catching and pushing the arm on that side across their chest, then pinning it down with your chest, and ending in side control. From here, slide your top side arm under their head, and grab your other biceps and either place that arms hand on their forehead, or on the outside of your head. Sprawl your legs out behind you, and drive into them to push their shoulder blades flat on the mat, while shrugging your shoulders and squeezing until they tap. We also worked a Howdy from the north south position, where your chest is on their chest, and head is pointed towards their feet. With your elbows in their arm pits, walk your legs around to either side and bring the arm that is opposite the side you're walking towards over their face to trap their arm, much like you did in the S pass from mount, then go through the same checklist for finishing the howdy. Lastly we worked on a triangle/neck crank from high judo. In high judo, you sit cross body with your ribs on the bottom of their rib cage, body facing their head, top side leg posted out at a perpendicular angle, while the bottom side leg is parallel to their body up tight with your knee near their head. Make sure to break any type of grip they have between their hands to separate them, and without moving your body, swing your outside leg over their head and slide your leg under the back of their neck into the crook of the other leg for a figure four/triangle lock. If their arm is in, great, but if not, it's still fine. The arm in allows you to finish with a triangle choke, but you can still tap them with a neck crank if they have no arms in. For both, simply pinch your knees together, and drive your hips into their body, flattening them out and forcing them to tap. Man am I tired! Early bed time tonight for sure. Great day, I LOVE MY GYM!!!