MMA and me; day 196

So I made it to the gym yesterday, braving the wintry conditions outside. Despite the weather, there were a decent amount of people in the gym, and we worked on our wrestling. First we warmed up on the exercise balls, and got our cores stretched out, and then we moved on to working our shots. First from our knees, going for single shots, then doubling up on them, and then transitioning to standing up. We worked on the shot from standing next, making sure to change levels and get low on the way in. We then drilled shooting off throwing a combo by tossing out a 1-2 or something along those lines, turning on the lead foot to cut an angle, and then driving in for the shot, swinging the rear leg around and behind your opponent, and finishing in a standing position. You end up in a southpaw stance, but the cool thing about that is that you don't have to switch back to orthodox, because as soon as you pop up, your opponent will start circling to their right, and as you do the same, you naturally end up in your normal fight stance. Next, we partnered up, and drilled several different take downs. The double leg with an outside trip, where you get both arms around their thighs and swing your rear leg around to trip them over and then pop out to side control, the outside single (a couple variations on this one) where you get your head on the inside and put your ear on their stomach, and either slide your outside knee to the ground, tripping them over, or cup their inside heel with your left hand and stand up then switch your left hand to an under hook of the leg and from there you have a myriad of options; tree top (lift it up high), waist lock with your right arm, kick their other leg out from under them, or you can even combine these approaches. Lastly, we worked running the pipe. Instead of grabbing an outside single, switch your stance, and grab the lead leg tight with your arms, and pinch it between your thighs, with your ear on their belly button, there should be no space anywhere. Take several quick steps backwards, and then pivot on your left foot, whipping your right leg around behind you, and drive your head into their stomach, flinging them to the ground, but don't follow them there. Instead, cup their left heel with your right hand, bring your left hand over the top to cup the top of their left knee, then bring your left knee around in a crescent to post on their stomach, still blocking the top of their knee with your left hand, and then rain down hammer fists with your right to finish it. My wrestling needs to get better, and the things that are important to remember are pivoting hard on that lead leg to create an angle before you shoot for the take down, pass their legs when you take them to the ground, and don't follow them down when running the pipe, but go for the finish from the top instead. Great class yesterday, and I can't wait for tonight!