MMA and me; day 214

In stand up class we worked on boxing, specifically hitting mitts. We worked a couple of rounds of hitting combinations that our partner called out, so nothing specific, just staying in a good stance with "climbing peg" hands, and circling off after landing punches. We switched to a round each of rhythm drills, just rolling the shoulders for repeated uppercuts, just barely touching the pads, and getting into a good rhythmic groove with the hands. We knocked out a couple rounds each of defense drills, slipping and rolling away from incoming punches. The key to this is leaning over and staying close to the attacker, as closer is safer, and being relaxed. If you're tight, you can't avoid anything with any amount of fluidity, and you will not flow through your defenses. We went back to another few rounds of hitting combos called by our partners. We went into a five minute round of group sit ups, and it was on to grappling.

More leg locks, but we worked a lot of new entries to the 50/50 guard, and heel hooks. First we worked on a back and forth of going from side to side in the 50/50 by rocking back and slipping our legs out, then back in to the opposite sides. Next we worked on what I will refer to as the side to side take down into heel hook drill. From your back with butterfly hooks in on your opponent standing over you, and both hands on the bottoms of the backs of their heels, straighten out one of your legs, and with the same side arm, pull yourself around to that side so you can wrap the straightened leg around their hip, maintaining the butterfly hook on the other side, then return to butterfly guard. We next did a brief drill popping the legs out for a take down from bottom butterfly guard that illustrated the importance of grabbing the bottom of the heels, and coming up as they fall to their butt so you can hop up and jump a heel hook. We then went back to the side to side drill from bottom butterfly, except instead of stopping at getting the foot to the outside of the hip, you pull on the near side heel, push on the hip with your foot (which should be contoured to their body, not sticking out waiting to get attacked) and lifting your remaining butterfly hook to drop them to their butt. From there, kick free the butterfly hook, to get to the 50/50 guard triangled, and move their leg from the inside to the outside, scoot your butt into their body, and wrap your arm around to finish the heel hook.

We worked on thr more entries to the 50/50, and I REALLY liked them. First, from having your back taken, peel off one of their legs, for this example the right, and reach under to grab the foot with your other side hand. Lift up the foot and reach back with your other hand to push the knee through as you pull with your other hand, and rotate on your hip to end up in the 50/50. Second, was the "Imanari" named after Masakazu Imanari. Look him up, trust me. From your back, with your opponent stand at your head, raise up to your shoulders and get your feet on their hips. Reach your right hand to the outside of their left leg and pull yourself around to that side, scissoring your legs around theirs, and as they fall, swing your outside leg over their near side leg, and triangle your legs behind their far leg, further defending from a leg lock, or them breaking the triangle, while you look to apply a heel hook of your own on their near side leg. Lastly, if your opponent has you in their X guard (you standing over them, they have one butterfly hook in your knee pit, and one in your groin) and you shove the hook in your knee pit through your legs, and simply drop back, throw your outside leg over their other leg, pulling it tight between your thighs, and if your quick enough, you can slide the foot across your body as you fall, and land in the heel hook! All three of these entries were SUPER slick, and I am going to be drilling them in my head for quite some time. AMAZING day at the gym for me! Great teammates, awesome coaching, what more could you want?

MMA and me; day 213

Wow, did I really not write about last Thursday? Looks like it. Man, have I been out of it or what? This will be brief, as we worked on mostly techniques that we have been drilling for the past week or so. Started with light bump drills, went to defending push kicks and then worked on defenses that didn't involve blocking, but instead we were switching stances to avoid strikes. When your opponent throws a push kick with their lead leg, the defense is to circle parry down and out with your right hand, and slide off to the left at a diagonal. As they bring the leg down, this is the perfect chance to attack. You are almost in a switch stance, so all you have to do is step across with your right leg, and throw a low 9.The same is true if they throw a rear leg push kick. Circle parry with your left hand, slide diagonally back to the right, and since you are still in your orthodox stance, step over and throw a low 10.

If someone comes at you with a low 10, instead of checking it, pivot on your rear leg to a switch stance, but instead of staying there, as they come around to put the leg down, step forward to throw a 1, even though from the stance in would be considered a 2, and end back in your normal fighting stance. Again, when they throw the 10, step back, but instead return with a low 9, and as they turn to get squared up with you, step hard around and load up a straight that you bring right down the middle! Fun class, and it was on to grappling.

We mostly worked on the things we have been working lately, but focused mostly on defending the leg lock. On to those defenses we talked about. When it comes to leg locks, there are really two main tenets you want to stick to, either bend your leg, or straighten it out. For a knee bar, if you bend your leg, you cannot be knee barred, period. You also want to turn your knee away from their belly button, slide your other leg over to get your foot behind their butt, put your foot in their hiney, belly down and kick out of there! For an Achilles lock, when you straighten your leg, it engages your calf and Achilles tendon, making it very hard to get the requisite pressure and leverage to get the submission. For a toe hold, you straighten the leg, and push on their hands with the other foot, because like Coach said, if the toe hold is on properly, it's barely on, so kicking and pushing at it should slide it off, no problem. Muscle locks are a no brainer; when the leg is straight, there is no muscle to lock or compress. Lastly, for a heel hook, you do want to straighten your leg, but that is only a part of it. You want to take your other foot, and pummel it into his arm pit, and push with both legs, because trying to heel hook two legs is really freaking tough.

I kinda cheated and went word for word on a lot of the defense stuff from last week, but it's my blog and I get to do things like that from time to time!!! Back in the gym tonight, needed time to let my bumps and bruises get better, and away we go!!

UFC 144

Seven fights on the main card! Wow, thats a lot of fights, so no in depth previews, due to a kind of nutty week.

Anthony "Showtime" Pettis vs. Joe "J-Lau" Lauzon
lightweight

The winner of this fight is maybe a win or two away from title contention, and a victory for either is a big step in the right direction. Lauzon is coming off a huge upset over Melvin Guillard, and Pettis is not far removed from being the last WEC lightweight title holder. Both are strong in areas where the other does not excel, Pettis on the feet, and Lauzon on the ground, but neither is truly weak in anything. Expect Lauzon to stand early, but eventually look to get the fight to the ground and work his ground wizardry. If Pettis can keep it standing, he has an excellent chance to win, as Lauzon has show sub par conditioning in the past. Tough to call, but I'll take Pettis by close decision.

Pettis via Split Decision

Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart "Bartimus" Palaswewski
featherweight

Palaswewski has been rolling as of late, winning four of his last five fights, only losing a very close split decision to Kamal Shalorus. Hioki was successful in his UFC debut winning a razor thin split decision over George Roop, and is looking to prove that he should be the next man to face champion Jose Aldo. Hioki is tough on the feet, but his strength is on the mat, where his submission game is outstanding. Palaswewski is very well rounded, and tough, to boot! I see his conditioning and striking being the difference, as he just out works Hioki and upsets his homecoming by getting the nod from the judges.

Palaswewski via Unanimous Decision

Tim "The Barbarian" Boetsch vs. Yushin "Thunder" Okami
middleweight

Hmm, these two fight in almost the exact same style, and are big, strong, top control oriented fighters. Boetsch is the bigger man, having cut down from light heavyweight recently, but Okami is very difficult to out muscle. Their boxing is solid, if unspectacular, and they excel at grinding their opponents over the course of three rounds. Okami has better conditioning, but at 185 pounds, Boetsch has shown improvement there. This may not be a very flashy fight, but it will be a war of two men trying to impose their will upon the other, and try to break them mentally. Okami is the slightly better stand up fighter, so I'm guessing that will give him the edge, and the win via decision.

Okami vis Unanimous Decision.

Yoshihiro "Sexyama" Akiyama vs. Jake Shields
welterweight

Akiyama makes his UFC debut at 170 pounds, and does so in his homeland against the very dangerous Shields who is coming off his first two fight losing streak in his career. Akiyama has had a somewhat disappointing UFC career thus far, and is looking to right the ship by dropping down to welterweight. There will likely be no size disparity here, as Shields has fought many fights at 185 himself, so strength should be even, though Shields is likely to be the better conditioned fighter. Striking, Akiyama is the more powerful, and effective of the two, but if Shields can get the fight to the ground, look out for his grappling acumen to pose problems for Akiyama, who was submitted by an exhausted Chris Leben after thoroughly dominating him. This should be a hell of a fight, with both fighters looking to prove they belong, but I see Shields being hungrier, and getting the TKO via ground and pound midway through the second.

Shields via TKO, Rd. 2

Cheick Kongo vs. Mark "The Super Samoan" Hunt
heavyweight

This is going to be a war. Short and sweet, I don't see this getting out of the first round. Kongo is taller, and a more accurate striker, but Hunt is thicker, has a much better chin, and will likely use his 30+ pound weight advantage to bully Kongo around the cage. If he can get in close, Hunt will utilize his strength and mass to wear Kongo out, but if the kiwi can get inside range, Kongo will pick him apart. Going with the heart, and not the head here, Hunt lands something nasty from the clinch, and finishes him off with ground and pound.

Hunt via TKO, Rd. 1

Quentin "Rampage" Jackson vs. Ryan "Darth" Bader
light heavyweight

Jackson missed weight by five pounds due to an injury suffered in training camp, and that could be a huge factor in this fight. Bader is not as technically proficient on the feet as Jackson, but is incredibly powerful, and is very good at imposing his wrestling game, which is where he may want to take this fight. Jackson is a solid boxer, utilizing good head movement and footwork, but is not particularly good off his back, though his take down defense is better than most might think. If Jackson tires, he may be in for a long night, though Bader has hardly been a cardio machine himself. If Bader can withstand an early "Rampage" barrage, he may get a chance to impose his game. The mystery injury could be the X factor, and may turn what was expected to be a chance for Jackson to get back to his winning ways, into a hotly contested barn burner. Jackson gets the nod as he feeds off the Japanese crowd, and ekes out a close decision.

Jackson via Split Decision

LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT
Champion: Frankie "The Answer" Edgar vs. Ben "Smooth" Henderson

I'm calling this as Fight of the Night early, but it's hardly a stretch to think that these two fighters are capable of such an event. Edgar looks to be the first 155 pound champ since BJ Penn to successfully defend the title three times (I don't count the draw with Grey Maynard a defense, though he did walk out with the strap), but he has a tough opponent in Henderson. Much has been made about Edgar's size, but at this point, it's a non issue. Henderson is a massive lightweight, but so was Maynard, who Edgar fought THREE TIMES! Edgar has tremendous boxing, wrestling, and conditioning. What he has more so than any fighter that comes to mind, is heart and determination. He cannot be deterred, and uses every skill he has to batter his opponents physically and mentally. Henderson is an adept striker, but his bread and butter is his excellent ground skills. Wrestling, submission offense and defense, scrambles, transitions, he does it all, but the real key is, can he outwork the hardest worker in the lightweight division? This is likely to go the distance, and will be fought at a furious pace, with both men pushing themselves to the limit. Though I like Henderson and the skills he brings to the table, I see no reason to see why Edgar can't do what he has been doing for two years now. Edgar out strikes, out grapples, and just out works Henderson, on his way to a fantastic decision.

Edgar via Unanimous Decision

MMA and me; day 212

In kickboxing, we started things off with some stretching drills after jump rope. We got our hamstrings and hips all stretched out, and then moved on to some drills involving holding the lead leg in place, as we brought the rear leg around with the knee bent, to drive the knee over the hip with the boot on to catch and hold, then pushed off to return to our fighting stance. Next we worked on throwing a switch 9, stepping out with the lead leg, across with the rear leg, and then bring your lead leg up and around as though you were winding up to throw a pitch, and instead of slinging your arm through, you bring your leg around to drive it into their thigh. The next several combos we worked on, were variations of this spinning low 10. First, a jab, to switch stance, into the spinning low 10, and the key to this is switching your stance as the jab is still out there. It telegraphs less, and does a good job of keeping your opponent off balance. We also tried out simply stepping across to initiate the spin right off the bat, making sure to finish off at an angle so you don't leave yourself in the pocket and get tagged, and to further set up more offense from range. We practiced this by going back and forth from side to side kicking our partners outstretched glove, staying off to the sides after each kick. We finished off with a few minutes of light touch sparring, and I need to get better about keeping my hands up, and not backing up. I have a hard as hell head, but that should NOT be my first line of defense. Good class, and it was on to grappling!

We worked on a lot of defense to leg locks, which I was glad for, since we've been working on them a lot lately. First, we just worked on our entries into the leg locks, standing over them to a straight Achilles lock, turning to the hip, and then looking back over the shoulder. Stepping through the legs to drop for a knee bar, hipping through to transition to a calf slicer. We also added a new entry off the step through. Instead of leaning over for the knee bar, swim both hands under the inside of the outside leg, bring it over your leg and roll towards your near side hip to end up in a 50/50 guard, with their leg just begging to get heel hooked.

On to those defenses we talked about. When it comes to leg locks, there are really two main tenets you want to stick to, either bend your leg, or straighten it out. For a knee bar, if you bend your leg, you cannot be knee barred, period. You also want to turn your knee away from their belly button, slide your other leg over to get your foot behind their butt, put your foot in their hiney, belly down and kick out of there! For an Achilles lock, when you straighten your leg, it engages your calf and Achilles tendon, making it very hard to get the requisite pressure and leverage to get the submission. For a toe hold, you straighten the leg, and push on their hands with the other foot, because like Coach said, if the toe hold is on properly, it's barely on, so kicking and pushing at it should slide it off, no problem. Muscle locks are a no brainer; when the leg is straight, there is no muscle to lock or compress. Lastly, for a heel hook, you do want to straighten your leg, but that is only a part of it. You want to take your other foot, and pummel it into his arm pit, and push with both legs, because trying to heel hook two legs is really freaking tough. Lots of good stuff, taking Wednesdays off for a while, but back in tomorrow night, and I can't wait!

MMA and me; day 210/211

So last Thursday was pretty much a full day of grappling. For almost the entire two hours, I rolled with three of my teammates, and my coach, with the small addition of only being able to go for leg locks. It was tough, and I was incredibly sweaty by the end of the day, but I learned a greater appreciation for the art of the leg lock, and it made me realize that it is mentally exhausting to focus on one specific set of moves, and when you add that to something that is physically exhausting, well dang!

Last night, we worked some simple combos in stand up. We began by doing 100 punches worth of the 1-2 combo, and then the rhythm drill with 100 uppercuts. Next was three rounds of punch ups, with one 3 minute round, then two 2 minutes rounds, dropping down for pushups after the last two rounds, then we got to the combos.First, a round each with our partner of 1-2-3-low 10. Making sure to rotate on the heel as we stepped across for the 10, and circling off after finishing the combo. For the next two rounds each, we eliminated the 1, and added a feint. We also changed up our rhythm and speed on each combo, trying to keep the other person off balance. Fun class, and it was time to grapple.

More leg locks last night, focusing mainly on flowing, listening to coach, and the 50/50 guard. A lot of what we worked on, we've been doing so for the past couple of weeks, but the new thing, the 505/ guard, is pretty solid. With both legs around one of theirs, you'd think you're in danger of being heel hooked, or Achilles locked, but since you have both legs on one side of your body, you can use the leg that they are not attacking to push off the lock and defend yourself. If you can fend off the leg lock attempts, and frustrate them enough, their focus will not be on defending their own legs, leaving them wide open for you to get a submission of your own. We also worked on transitioning grips. The grip for a kimura, is exactly the same as a toe hold on the same side, and we drilled just going from kimura to toe hold, back and forth on both sides. Starting from a toe hold, as they sit up to defend, you can just lean back into a kimura, not changing your grip, just switching what you are grabbing onto, and shifting into a high judo position. From there, if they sit up into you, there is a knee bar you can hop into, and roll over their body to finish, or you can transition to a calf slicer, toe hold, or almost any of the locks we worked on last week! Leg locks are so fricking cool, it's ridiculous. Great classes!

MMA and me; day 209

Working the low 10 was the order of the day in kickboxing yesterday. First, we worked on stepping across and driving the leg into the kick shield. Bending at the waist, and bringing the knee up and around to drive it into the pad. With leg kicks, you don't want to throw them too hard, because if you really lean into one, and your opponent checks it, well, you will not want to throw any more, and that's the best case scenario! Also, instead of pivoting on the ball of your foot as you step across, pivot on your heel, as it helps you open your hips more, and that translates to a more fluid, and powerful kick.

Next, we worked from a lead leg push kick, directly into a low 10. Holding the foot against their stomach, you throw the 10 as soon as you bring the lead leg back to the floor, using your momentum to really snap the kick off. The nice thing about this transition, is that your opponent is usually so focused on the push kick, that their leg is just waiting to get blasted, and they won't even think about checking it.

Next was a follow up to a missed low 10. As the kick goes past them, bring that leg through, then lift up the other knee like a pitcher going into his wind up, bring it all the way around, and almost leap into throwing the leg across to drive the low 10 into the pad. This is sneaky, because you could also throw a spinning backfist, and then follow that with a low 10.

Lastly, we worked on throwing a low 10 to an opponent who switches stances. As they switch to southpaw, you also switch, and then much like in the previous scenario, bring the now rear leg up and swing it around, plant it right across your body and leap into digging the kick into the leg.

We finished with two rounds of skippies into a pad held by our partner, sit ups for a minute and a half or so, and then it was on to grappling. Great striking class, it really helped that we stretched beforehand, since I am NOT a flexible person.

So once again, the order of the day was leg locks, and we worked on a few new entries to familiar submissions. Buckmount to knee bar from low judo was one of my favorites. From low judo, simply pop your hips over their near side knee to sit on their hips, go elbow pit deep with your near side arm on their knee pit, pinch the knee between your thighs, and roll across their body. Slide your rear naked grip up to the heel, cup the heel, put your head on the foot, and arch your hips. From sitting on their hips, if they defend the knee bar by triangling their legs, you can throw your own triangle around their legs and get a muscle lock, or before you even go for the knee bar, you can initiate your own muscle lock.

We also worked a few new entries from the back. With an opponent standing over you, get your butterfly hooks in, boots on, pop your legs out to knock them off balance, and straighten one of your legs out in between their legs. With the straightened leg, shrimp to the other hip, and throw that leg up around to get your heel on their hip, and from there you have all sorts of options. You immediately have a heel hook, or can transition to an Achilles lock, or you can shrimp around to a knee bar. It's just filthy nasty!

Lastly, I'll cover the heel hook from being mounted. Bump your hips up to knock them forward, so they have their hands on the mat, and as they lean forward, walk their hips further forward with your hands, and bring one of your knees up to your chest, directly between their legs, and immediately shrimp to that side hip to throw your other leg over theirs, landing right into a heel hook, very similar to the previous position with them standing over you.

Leg locks are so wonderful, and they are everywhere. There are essentially only five, Achilles or straight ankle lock, knee bar, heel hook, toe hold, and calf slicer or calf crusher. You could argue that the electric chair is another, but I haven't covered that one too much, so that's for another day. Awesome class yesterday, I'm loving this lock flow stuff!!!

MMA and me; day 208

Another day of leg locks in the books, and boy are my knees sore! We didn't really work on all that much new stuff, but we did cover a lot of new entries to submissions that we already knew. Coach Aric likes to mention that while a lot of people brag that they know 30+ different arm bars, he simply replies that he knows only one, but he knows 30+ entries to the arm bar. In leg locks, there are not that many total submissions, but there are a ton of ways to approach them. From standing over a downed opponent, on your back with your opponent standing, from half guard, from low judo, from back mount, etc.. We also continued to fine tune the chains of submission transitions, or lock flows. We began by stretching out, and then hopped right into a multitude of knee bars, and how to transition to muscle locks when the knee bar is defended. If they triangle their legs, throw your outside leg over their top side leg, and then triangle your legs with your wrist in their knee pit that is between your own legs. Bring your heel in towards your butt and pull your wrist up until they tap. Another good entry to a knee bar, is the buck mount from low judo. Hop to sit on their belly, pinch their thigh between your legs, and roll across their body to get into primo knee bar position. From sitting on their belly, you can initiate the muscle lock without them defending the knee bar, just by wrapping your inside leg over the top of the shin you have between your legs (made easier by leaning forward, and scooting your hips over theirs) triangling your legs, and leaning back, pulling up on your wrist in their knee pit. These are just a few of the plethora of transitions and entries into the world of leg locks, and I'm looking forward to working on these for quite some time!

MMA and me; day 207

With a small group in the gym on Thursday, Coach changed things up on us, and we worked on grappling for most of the two hours I was there. First, we worked on a knee bar drill with our partner standing up, and us on our butts, sitting with one leg on either side of one of their legs. From this position, we rolled over our shoulder while reaching for their inside leg, spinning our hips around to the front of their thigh and pinching our knees together. By extending our hips, we went for the trip and landed in a knee bar position. We went back and forth from side to side, minus the trip part, for a minute or so, then switched. Next, we worked on several different entries to the knee bar, buck mount from low judo, step through from standing over, rolling knee bar from being back mounted, all focusing on the basic checklist of the knee bar; knees pinched, butt in on their belly, balled up with knees to your chest, cup the heel with both hands, separate the knee, and extend the hips. We also worked on what to do if someone defends the knee bar by triangling their legs. Scoot your hips out to the side, and throw your outside leg over their exposed foot, swim your outside arm under their near knee pit, and then triangle your legs, pulling your heel in toward your butt, while pulling up with the arm under their knee pit until they tap to the muscle lock. We also worked on the knee pinch defense to an ankle lock, which is very uncomfortable (painful!) As your opponent goes for an ankle lock, get your hips up underneath them on top of their foot, but before you do any of this, make sure you get your arm underneath the knee of theirs that is between your legs. As you get in tight to them, you compress their calf around your radial bone, and from there you just need to make your arm parallel to the ground, and push and pull your elbow back and forth, keeping it on that same flat plane. This is so awful, you feel like tapping before it even gets really tight, just from the pressure you get from scooting your hips in tight over their foot.

We closed out with some grappling for about half an hour, then some silly boxing with giant foam rollers. It's hard to describe, but suffice to say, it was fairly tiring, and a lot of fun! Great day of classes, can't wait for tonight!

MMA and me; day 206

Worked on knees in kickboxing, and to kick things off, we rocked out two, two minute rounds of skippies up against the wall. We then went for a round of throwing a rear leg knee. The foot work is much like throwing a low 10, as far as the set up goes, but instead of stepping across, you step forward, and bring your right hand around to your side to help get the swinging motion of your hips forward, while bringing your left arm across your face to prevent any counters to your face. Extending your hips helps increase the distance, and can improve the impact of the knee as well. Raising up onto the ball of the front foot helps force you to extend your hips as well. We next worked on the lead knee, which you throw by stepping forward with the rear leg, then bringing up the lead leg and making a similar, but mirrored motion with your arms. We then did some shadow boxing ending with knees, and use little things to help close distance like adding a little hop with the plant leg to get closer, switching to the other knee when the initial knee is not going to get you to your target, or shuffling your feet so you don't have to worry about getting wrong footed when you throw the knee. We then partnered up and grabbed a kick shield. First we threw knees from in range for a round, then switched. Then threw knees from range as our partner varied how near or far out they were and forced us to close the distance. We then moved on to Muay Thai drills, which involved getting a Thai clinch, and then throwing knees as we dragged them around the mat for a round, and then switched. We finished with a cardio relay race (my team won!) and then moved on to grappling!

We worked on sweeps from half guard in grappling, and these were fun! First, while on the bottom, with your opponent in your half guard, get a same side under hook, post up on your other arm, and then dive with your post hand under their far side leg. From there, swim your under hook to the other side of their body, and frame up their torso to create space so you can bring your top side knee up to their arm pit, creating more space. Extend your leg to pop yourself out to the side, and slip your bottom side hand all the way under their outside leg and grab it with your other hand, pulling it in tight while switching your hips and driving into them with your shoulder. Kick pass their legs, switch hands to keep controlling their now bottom side leg, and finish in side control. Next is what is affectionately known as the "old school' sweep. From bottom half guard, get your same side under hook, and post up on the other arm, much life before. Again dive for the other leg, but this time go just into their knee pit with your hand, instead of all the way under their leg with your whole arm. With the under hook, grab around their back, trying to get the lat muscle on the far side, and push into them. As they push back into you, roll them across your own body, ending up on top of them. Kick past their guard, C block the near side, and finish in side control. Lastly, we went back to a variation of the fist sweep, but instead of popping out to the side and driving into them, we kicked out and created even more space, popped our head out, and from there you can look for a rear naked choke, a number of different muscle locks, all sorts of fun stuff! We also briefly touched on a deep half guard sweep, but I need to practice that one under supervision a bit more before I can transcribe it. Great classes last night, thanks to Reagan and Riley for excellent instruction!

MMA and me; day 205

Day two at the new Shoreline yesterday, and with no set classes, but lots of people that wanted to grapple, I just got my no-gi jiu jitsu on! Rolled open mats for quite some time, going from a neutral position, from my back, from being mounted, from being face down on the mat. I had to take a couple of breaks when I jammed my thumb, then re aggravated it again half an hour later. After a solid hour and a half of grappling or so, we switched up and worked on some leg and muscle locks. We worked on so many, that I'll just try to focus on the ones that stuck out the most to me. First, from the four corners position (on hands and knees, opponent has one knee behind you, between your legs), run and roll and tuck your head as you do so, reaching between your own legs and grabbing with your outside leg around their knee pit, bucking up with your legs to flip them over you, and landing in a knee bar. Scoot your but back towards their stomach, pinch your knees, ball up to bring their knee towards your chest, slide your hands down to cup the heel, and then arch your back until they tap. Move their leg to the other side of your head and pin it between your head and shoulder to get a little better leverage, or swim it behind the bottom side arm to make it REALLY tight. You can also switch your legs to a triangle grip to secure the leg a little more. The upside of triangling your legs is that you can transition to a calf slicer. With the outside or bottom side leg wrapped around the ankle of the other, relieve the triangle, and slip that leg out behind you, and scoot your butt back as you sink the bottom of your shin of the other leg into their knee pit, and sit forward over them, leaning forward for the tap. You can either use your body to get the pressure, or bring your hand over the top of their toes, either way, the real pressure is on their calf from your shin, and it is terrible!

A quick one we learned, was from having your opponents back, with both hooks in. Relieve one of the hooks, and as you do so, sink the other hook deeper in, swimming your foot over their same side calf, and sitting out on that side. From there, reach forward and pull back on their foot for another calf slicer. You can push your shin forward, push on that leg with your other leg, do anything really to drive your shin into their calf, and this also feels just awful!

Lastly, was the knee pinch. As your opponent goes for an Achilles lock, get your hips up underneath them on top of their foot, but before you do any of this, make sure you get your arm underneath the knee of theirs that is between your legs. As you get in tight to them, you compress their calf around your radial bone, and from there you just need to make your arm parallel to the ground, and push and pull your elbow back and forth, keeping it on that same flat plane. This is so awful, you feel like tapping before it even gets really tight, just from the pressure you get from scooting your hips in tight over their foot.

Lots of fun, and pain (muscle locks hurt!), the new Shoreline gym is beautiful!

MMA and me; day 204

Short recap of last Thursday, and then I will get into what we did tonight tomorrow morning. No class for me yesterday. dinner with the fam. So we did a cardio class, which was awesome and terrible all at the same time. Lots of medicine ball drills, and three man jump rope drills. Some light running, some sprints, all in all a very fun, and taxing class.

In grappling, I ran the class! We went through the key lock flow again, and then just grappled for the rest of it. Nothing fancy, but it was as important for me to be able to teach the flow, as it was for the rest of the guys to go over it again.

Added bonus; on Friday, I went in for the first night of the newly reopened Shoreline MMA, and got a good hour and a half of grappling in. The gym is beautiful, and I highly recommend coming to check it out!

UFC 143

Very tired, as I've had a long week. I'll still make my customary stab at my picks, and I definitely need to redeem myself after last week. *shudder*

Ed "Short Fuse" Herman vs. Clifford Starks
middleweight

Starks sports an undefeated record, but he's hardly fought any fighters of note. Where Herman has fought a lot of very tough guys, and has come out on top with a bit of regularity. Starks is a very good wrestler, but has yet to round out his skill set, and against Herman, that is a decided weakness. The Team Quest product has solid ability in every aspect of mma, and this fight is his to lose. Starks may put Hermans take down defense early, but when he finds himself stuffed there, he will likely resort to wild power punches, and get picked apart on the feet. Even if Starks does get the fight to the ground, Herman is more than capable of working off his back for subs or sweeps. I don't know if Herman will be able to stop Starks, but if he does, it will likely come via strikes late in the fight, though I expect this to go the distance, and see Herman get his hand raised after a thorough one sided beating.

Herman, via Unanimous Decision

Renan "Barao" Pegado vs. Scott "Young Guns" Jorgensen
bantamweight

Two surging bantamweights collide as Pegado looks to leap closer to a title shot with a win over Jorgensen, as Jorgensen tries to get another chance to prove he can beat division champion, Dominic Cruz. Pegado looked fantastic as he demolished Brad Pickett in the first round, and employs crisp, stinging stand up, with lethal killer instinct on the ground. Jorgensen is definitely the less dynamic of the two, possessing a more grinding style, intent on using his superior wrestling and top control to ground and pound opponents. Jorgensen will look to close the distance, and work from the clinch with knees and dirty boxing, while Pegado is definitely going to try and stay to the outside and chop away with leg kicks and punching combinations. Jorgensen has never been knocked out, and has only been subbed once, but he simply will not have the speed, or striking acumen to hang with Pegado on the feet. Unless the Brazilian has a less than stellar gas tank, expect "Barao" to win an exciting, if not decisive fight.

Pegado via Unanimous Decision.

Okay, so I started this last night with the intentions of finishing it this morning, but between then and now, I got sick as hell. So no more analysis, just picks

Josh "Kos" Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce
welterweight

Koscheck via Unanimous Decision

Roy "Big Country" Nelson vs Fabrico "Vai Cavalo" Werdum
heavyweight

Nelson via TKO, Rd. 2

Welterweight interim Championship
Nick Diaz vs. Carlos "The Natural Born Killer" Condit

Condit via Unanimous Decision

MMA and me; day 203

Kickboxing was another day of getting stretched out, and then working on our leg kicks, specifically opening our hips, and turning the knee over to drive the shin down into the thigh. Since this is something we've been working for a while now, I'm just going to touch on a few things I picked up that seemed particularly helpful. When throwing the leg kick, keeping the leg more bent than straightened really helps whip the kick around quicker, and makes it easier to bring out and around to drive down and roll the knee over. Also, and I know we've been covering this concept in all classes, but STRETCHING IS IMPORTANT!! It helps warm you up before class, it helps cool you you down slowly after class. It makes kicks more fluid and grappling more relaxed. It's incredibly important, and you should be devoting large portions of your day to it! We finished off with some awesome core exercises, and then it was back to grappling.

We once again covered the key lock flow, and the leg lock flow, except I was the one teaching the flows! Pretty exciting, and I didn't do too terrible. Again, this is something we have gone over for a couple weeks now, but there were a few new details that jumped out at me. For the muscle locks, do your best to wrap their arm around your arm just above where your forearm muscle tapers into your wrist, and make a fist. When you bring their hand back into the body, keep it as close to the mat as possible, and cup the outside of their wrist with your elbow pit, and when you implode, do so with your entire body, and try to bring your elbows together. It's TERRIBLE!!! For the straight arm lock, pinch your arm and biceps together before pressing their arm down towards your elbow, and you can create a ton more space to leverage the arm lock. For the leg locks, your best friend is keeping your knees pinched together, and hiding your bottom side foot under their body, or flat against their chest pushing. If you don't, you will get a toe hold slapped on you, and they hurt like crazy! Here's to leg lock flows, key lock flows, and as always STRETCH YOU FOOLS, STRETCH!!!