MMA and me; day 197/198/199

So I only made it in to the gym after Monday, twice. All we did was bump drills, and a little grappling. The snow and ice really kept people indoors, but not us brave few! Anyways, I focused on keeping my hands up, turning the knee over on the leg kicks, and staying relaxed. I found I did much better when I calmed down and kept things cool and easy.

Tonight, we started out with some stretching drills to loosen up our legs and hips, then moved right into drilling more leg kicks. First we just warmed up with back and forth leg kicks, and then got into kicks to the body, which travel at a different trajectory then kicks to the legs. Leg kicks have more of an arc to them, coming up and over to drill down into the thigh, and kicks to the body are more upward directed, coming up into the midsection with the shin. Also, we added a little hop at the end of the body kicks, just to keep things relaxed, and add a little snap to finish the kick with. Next we added a punch combo to the mix by starting off with a 2-3-step off-low 10. Coming in with the straight, then turning hard on the hook lets you step off to the left with your lead foot, then pivot on that foot to open your hips, and then bring the rear knee up and over to dig the shin into their thigh. Lastly, we worked on a kick checking and returning drill. Your partner throws a low 10, which you check, then respond by throwing a low 10, which they in turn follow up with a low 9 to the leg they just threw the 10 with. We finished off by putting it all together in some light touch sparring, and moved on to jiu jitsu.

The theme of jiu jitsu tonight was lock flow. Chaining submissions together, flowing from one to the next seamlessly to keep your opponent off balance and constantly on the defensive until you can achieve a tap. The example Coach used that we were most familiar with, was the arm bar/triangle/omoplata sequence. The one we worked on tonight, and I'll do my best to be precise, but some of them I had trouble with, was starting from side control, with a key lock. From the key lock it went to a V-1/muscle lock/arm bar/muscle lock/kimura/step over kimura/Diaz kimura.

With the key lock, you are in cross body side control with your head side, or top side hand on their far arm, and your leg side, or bottom side hand under their far arm grasping your other wrist. You want to pull their arm in tight to their body, getting their elbow down by the hip, and motorcycle gripping their arm away from you as you lift your bottom side elbow up until they tap.

From there, they may try to bring their arm up near their head to defend the key lock. If so, move your bottom side hand on to their wrist, and slip your top side hand around and under their neck, while shrugging your shoulders and getting your weight on their chest, then simultaneously pulling their arm and head away from each other for the tap. This is called a V-1.

Next is what I will call the top muscle lock. If they pull out of the V-1, drop your bottom side elbow to the mat and swim your wrist into the crook of their elbow, while grabbing their wrist with your top side hand and wrapping it around your bottom side arms wrist. Make a fist with your bottom side hand, and keeping it in tight, swim your top side arm along their arm to grab your other elbow. From here, their elbow should be pointing straight out at a perpendicular angle, and all you have to do is shrug your shoulders, and collapse inward. Rotating the fist that you made with the bottom side hand will grind your carpal and radial bones into their wrist and muscle until they tap.

Next is the arm bar, where you pull their arm straight out from their body, while sinking your bottom side arm all the way under the arm, until it is resting in the crook of your elbow, grabbing the opposite biceps, and grasping their forearm with your top side hand. Their elbow should be just in front of your elbow pit, and then you slide your top hand up to their wrist, and make sure their thumb is pointing up, then lift your elbow slightly, and push down on their wrist for the tap.

The bottom side muscle lock is next, and you extract your bottom side arm out to grab their wrist with it, then drop the top side arm as far under the arm as you can, and wrap their arm around the wrist, almost trying to pin it under their own body. From there, make a fist with the top side arm, and swim your bottom side arm along their arm to grab your elbow, and just like before, shrug your shoulders and collapse inward for the tap.

Next in the flow is the kimura, which you transition to by sliding your top side hand to grab their wrist, and with your bottom side hand, grab your own wrist, pulling their hand in tight to their body. Keeping it in tight to their body, raise your top side arm slightly for the tap, or scoot your hips out a bit, and step over their head to raise their back off the mat so you can really crank the kimura. Lastly, you can circle around their head on your knees to the far side of their neck, and post up your outside leg as they get propped up onto their side, and try to bring their arm all the way behind them for what Coach called the "Diaz" kimura, nasty stuff.

So lock flow, it's awesome, and I am going to be drilling this stuff like crazy!