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!