MMA and me; day 223

Got to Gi Club late because of work *grumble grumble*, but hopped right into stretching and rolling. The whole class we worked on submission defense. Regan and I would apply a sub, and Coach would tell us the proper defense. Since we went over so many, I'll do the cliff notes version

arm bar from bottom side control - clasp your hands together, shrimp your hips out and roll into them, pulling your arm free to drop the defending elbow to the mat.

triangle from inside guard - with arm on the outside, press down on their bicep with your hand, and with the arm on the inside, frame up on their hip to create a wedge, and drop the wedge elbow to the mat and turn away from it.

omoplata - if they don't cover your back, roll through, if they do cover your back, posture up, but make sure to pull back with urgency!

standing guillotine - grab the choking hand with the same side hand, and reach the other under their crotch, pick them up and drop them on their head. Make sure to do this so you land on the opposite side of their choking arm, and not the same, or you will be unconscious...

rear naked choke - shrug your shoulders up, and fight to get one of their hooks off, preferably with one of your own feet, and slide your hips to the mat while turning into them.

kimura - Keep your back as flat as you can, and bridge to create space so you can slide your other hand through and grasp your hands together. You then want to turn in to your opponent, and get a knee in between you to reclaim guard. If you can't clasp your hands, grab a hunk of gi, or your own shorts. You can grab their gi, but in no gi, you can only grab your own shorts.

keylock - raise your arm above your head, clasp your hands together, and straighten them out, as you turn into your opponent

arm triangle - answer the phone, and then rub your own nose off trying to turn into them and pop your head and arm free.

howdy - bridge and push off of their hip with your trapped arm, and slide it under them to the other side of their body.

D'Arce - arch your back and turn to all fours. If you do give up your back, scramble to get out of there, run and roll, turn to reclaim guard, SOMETHING!!

anaconda - umm, all I really remember Coach saying, is DO NOT GET STUCK HERE!!! Seriously, once this is in, it's tough to get out. It's like a D'Arce, but applied much tighter, so arching will help, as will bridging, but don't get here.

arm bar from in the guard - clasp your hands together, stack over them, and drive the point of your elbow into their chest, and just hang out there. As soon as you go to pull your arm out, do it QUICKLY, and without hesitation, or you will get hurt.

peruvian necktie - with your outside hand, make a C, and push off their top side leg, quickly passing with an inside knee pass

knee bar - shrimp out while pushing on the butt to create space, stick the blade of your top side foot in their crack, belly down and push hard to escape and turn to face them

heel hook - lean forward and under hook their arm that is over the top of your foot, and lean forward

toe hold - use your other foot to push their hands apart, and pull your foot free

achilles lock - boot on, straighten your leg, and pass over their guard

I know that's not everything we went over, but I am very much hoping this is something we go over more in the future, and I can fill in the many, MANY gaps I have. It was then time to move on to fighter training.

Instead of medicine balls, we worked with resistance bands, hooray!! We ran laps, did push ups, worked the jab, worked the jab, did punch ups, worked the jab some more, did more push ups, ran some more, did bear crawls (oy!), and then sparred for the last half hour. I was tired, I had a headache, but I didn't stop. I got pummeled, but I kept coming back for more. There's an off chance that I might actually be Solomon Grundy...... Great class, I LOVE MY TEAMMATES!!!

MMA and me; day 222

Gotta make this quick, lots on my plate today. In grappling, after we got warmed up we worked on some circuit drills. We covered position transitions, shadow grappling, arm bars, triangles, side control flow (key lock flow), S mount arm bar, snap arm bar, kimura, take downs, and went through each station for three minutes each. I think we're going to be doing this for a while, and I'm glad to be having a chance to focus on the fundamentals. Gotta tournament to win in a few months, gotta make sure my game is tight! Then it was fighter training.

As always, we started with the medicine ball walk for ten minutes, , then knocked out squat jumps, sprawls, piggy back drills (had Seth on my back, that was fun) and some running with short bursts of sprinting. Sparred the last half hour, and some highlights from that were checking a kick from Seth that felt like getting hit with a 4x4, trying to hit Hannah and having no luck because she's too damn elusive, and Coach kicking me in the head with an axe kick so hard that I forgot where I was for a second, and proceeded to nearly enter berzerker/tard mode and walk him down while getting my body and legs lit up. Limped out of class with sore legs, and a big ass smile on my face. Who knew I was tough? Loved it!

MMA and me; day 221

Another Tuesday means gi club grappling, and FIGHTERS TRAINING!!!! In grappling, after we went through our warm ups, we drilled a simple D'Arce/pressure transition technique. From side control, as you apply a D'Arce, your opponent will defend by arching, and turning away. To counter this, pressure into them, and walk around their head, and as soon as you pass the head, simply switch your arms (staying under the top side arm) and transition back to the D'Arce. I had some difficulty with this, but going back over it just now, I realized I was doing too much with my arms. You just need to keep the pressure on them with your chest, and switch your grip as you shift around them. The things we learn just by going back and retracing your steps. We then we worked on some simple subs we haven't touched on in a while.

First, the S mount arm bar. From mount, pressure one of their arms, until they push back, and using that momentum, push the arm across their own chest, pinning it in place with your own chest, and sliding your knee on that same side up to just past their head, while straightening out your opposite leg perpendicular to their body, sitting heavy on their chest with your thigh. Under hook their near side arm with your head side arm (make sure to get elbow pit deep) and lean over and towards their legs just a bit to windshield wiper your bent leg over their head, and lean back into the arm bar as you reach under their near side leg with your leg side arm to control their leg and prevent them from basing up or kicking out. We then moved onto a "thread the needle" triangle, which started from that arm bar. Slide your inside leg up from across their chest, and then extend it back across, under their far side arm (but over the shoulder). Relieve your outside leg off their face, and this motion should induce them into thinking sitting up is safe. As they do so, keep the arm trapped, and they roll right up into a triangle. Put your boots on, and THEN swing your outside leg over and cut your angle to get the submission.

Next we worked the S pass to howdy. From mount, swing one of your legs across your opponents chest, and as you do this, they will turn to their side, and this allows you to trap their top side arm with your leg as it passes over them, and pin it to their chest. As you turn to side control, quickly reach under their head with your far side arm, and switch your chest to continue keeping their arm pinned in place. With your arm that is under their head, grab your far side bicep, and reach your near side hand behind your own head, and squeeze inwardly until they tap.

Lastly, we drilled the arm bar from back control, and transitioned that into the threading the needle triangle we had worked earlier. From back control (with hooks in, boots on, and seat belt grip) reach your under hooked arm straight up to your ear, and come around their head with your over hooked arm, cup their head, and separate them, as you swing your leg on the side opposite your under hook out and around their head, over their face, into a arm bar, pull yourself back to back mount, while switching your seat belt grip to the other side, and then repeat on the other side. From that arm bar, you can transition to the "threading the needle" triangle, OR, you can relieve the head side leg, and pull yourself up to S mount, and then quickly S pass to howdy! It's fricking awesome! Then, it was fighter training.

This is what we did: ten minutes of walking with medicine balls extended over our heads, five minutes of walking with a partner having jumped guard on us, five minutes of squat jumps, five minutes of bear crawls, five minutes of medicine ball chest passes (me and Dante beating the crap out of each other!) and we finished off with a half hour of three minute kickboxing sparring rounds! Sweaty, sore, and smiling like a sonofabitch!!! I love my team!!!

MMA and me; day 219/220

So last Thursday in gi club, after working our shrimping, shoulder rolls, front and back rolls, we shadow grappled for a bit, then went right into working on jumping guard again. We went right into the flying arm bar and flying triangle this time. For the arm bar, from the 50/50 collar tie up, bring your right shin up int their right arm pit, and swing your left leg over their head in front of their face, using the grip you have on the back of their neck as a point of leverage. Keeping their right arm pinned to your chest, break down their posture like we did on Tuesday, and if you can't flip them over, under hook their nearest leg, and press both your legs to knock them to their back, and then finish the arm bar. For the triangle You have a collar grip with your left hand, and wrist control on their left side with your right hand. As you jump guard, shove their arm in between your legs, and throw your right leg over the back of their neck, and cross your feet behind their back. As soon as you have your feet crossed, under hook their left leg to help cut the angle needed to lock your left leg over your right shin, get your boot on, and finish the triangle!! An excellent class, and then it was on to fighter training....


So once again, more cardio, and I was busting my ass. Ten minutes of walking with a medicine ball held above our heads with arms outstretched, ten minutes of jogging around the room, interspersed with push ups, sit ups, squat jumps, sprawls, sprinting, and some other things I am sure I forgot. Then it was onto bunny hops over the fifteen pads laid out in three columns, then running back to the first one and doing them all over again, for ten minutes. Next we all took a pad, took the mount, and worked on ground and pound while transitioning to all the other positions. Side control, cross body, high judo, low judo, knee ride, V knee ride, sit through butt drop, all while driving nasty ground and pound by bringing our elbows straight to the ceiling while raising our hips up, and then dropping our hips while driving our fists straight down at the same time. We finished with ten minutes of grappling with various partners, and then it was time to head home.

Another beautiful evening at Shoreline MMA, and I can't wait for tomorrow, but I had to get through tonight at Alderwood first. In kickboxing, we did a round of skippies on the wall first, and then a round of muay thai knees from the clinch with a partner holding a kick pad, and then it was time for the fun stuff. So first we worked on a spinning side kick. Where from an orthodox stance, you step across with your lead leg, and then with your rear leg bring the knee up and around to finish the revolution, and drive your lead leg into their side, with all the momentum from the spin adding to the power. It's a somewhat fancy entry into a low outside 9, but the spin adds a lot more power, and it sets up so many other things. For example, a spinning back heel kick. As you step across with your lead leg, instead of spinning through with your rear leg, setting up the low outside 9, flatten out your spin, and extend your rear leg to drive the heel into their thigh. When done properly, and accurately, this can be devastating! Unfortunately, a couple of the younger kids in class were not focusing, and dicking around a bit, so we didn't get to focus on much more technique, and had to do some push ups because they were not listening. We did one more round of alternating the spinning side kick, and spinning back heel, and then finished up with our ab work, and it was on to grappling.

I don't mean to be lazy, but I'm really tired, and everything we did tonight in gi club, was everything we did last Thursday in gi club, which is a paragraph or two above all this that I'm currently writing. Anyways, I had a great day in class, and I can't wait for tomorrow!

MMA and me; day 218

So there has been a change in the schedule for Tuesdays, now I'll be doing gi club at 7, and then fighter training at 8. Gi club was great, and we worked on our stretching, rolls, shrimping, and shadow grappling for the first bit of class. We then partnered up, and drilled on jumping guard. With your left hand grabbing the right wrist, and your right hand in a collar tie around the back of their neck, you jump up while simultaneously pulling down on their neck, and scissor their body with your legs to put them in your guard. Now if you don't immediately break their posture and drag them to the mat, you slide you hand from the back of their neck to the crown of the head, and pull, while at the same time shimmying your hips and legs to gradually break down their posture, and get the position to the ground. From a slightly different entry, if they're still standing over you, there is an excellent opportunity for an arm bar. Instead of grabbing their wrist from standing, start in a 50/50 collar tie up, and with your left forearm, pinch their right arm tight against your chest. As you pull guard, keep their arm pinned tight, and as you get it to the mat, as they stand over you, push off their right hip with your left leg, and spin around to the arm bar. You can even try for the finish before flipping them to their back, but if you can't get it from there, reach to the outside of their right leg and extend your legs, and they will get tripped to their back. Lastly, if you can't break their posture by going through the full gamut of things we went through, you can try the super guard. Super guard is where you walk your thighs up their rib cage, and extend your legs straight out, compressing their rib cage, forcing them to relieve the pressure by lowering you to the ground, or in some cases,tap. A very fun class, but my day had only just begun.

Fighters training, was simply a different monster than any class I had taken before. All conditioning, no technique. Here's what we did; 5 minutes of walking with medicine balls held above our heads, 5 minutes of walking with a partner on our back, intermittently doing squats, 5 minutes of sprawls, 5 minutes of take down defense against the wall, and then 5 minutes of taking other people down, 5 minutes of ten knees into a pad and then running down to hit ten low 10s. We finished with kickboxing sparring for 3 minute rounds for the last 25 minutes of class or so. I was tired, sore, and a sweaty mess when I was done, but I loved every minute of it. It's going to completely change my mental approach, but that's something I need, and I cannot wait to see where I'm at after six months of this stuff!! LOVED IT!!!

MMA and me; day 217

Thursday was a day full of conditioning drills, so you can imagine how sore I was the following day. For the first hour, we started with jumping rope for ten minutes, then we grabbed some medicine balls, and headed up to "the conditioning room". I don't know if it's actually called that, but with the temperature in the high 90s, it sure got the sweat flowing. First we just held the medicine balls over our heads for five minutes, which is MUCH harder than it sounds. Next, half of us knocked out 25 ab rolls while the other half did 25 knee push ups, then we swapped. We then proceeded to do squats while holding the ball, alternating medicine ball push ups, and then two rounds of punching the ball while our partner held it. Five minutes of back and forth chest passes with the balls, then we finished off by circling up, and doing sit ups for five minutes. A very exhausting hour, and then it was on to grappling.

Grappling was more of a conditioning class than normal, but with all the sweat we had just worked up, it felt awesome! After warming up with shrimping forward and backward, front and back rolls, and cartwheel passes, we got into the nitty gritty. We began by shadow grappling for a bit, working shoulder rolls, shooting in for take downs, pulling guard, rolls and re rolls, it was great! Everything we did over the course of class was focused around honing basic skills. Bag hangs, inverted bag hangs, climbing around your partner as they stood like a tree, koala bear crawls, flattening out your opponent from their back (key to defending, is angry cat!) A thoroughly draining day, but I felt great after, and though sore, I loved every minute of it. Back to it this week, and hopefully more conditioning, because I need it!

MMA and me; day 216

So yesterday I was only able to go to grappling, but I put a good amount of work. After our shrimping drills, we worked on our rolls, and focused on shrimping on your backside. When on your butt, keep your feet together, moving them forward or backward in unison. Separating your legs is a good way to have your guard passed, so keep the feet together, and flare your knees out to ride up on your hip bone, which makes it much easier to spin, and prevent them from circling around you, and taking your back.

We next began working on entries to the 50/50 guard, and also the X guard. From being on your back with your opponent standing over you, slide your hips forward, and get your butterfly hooks in. Straighten your right leg, and slip that foot to the front side of their right leg, keeping both of your boots on, pinched tightly around their leg. Swiveling on your hips, bring your right arm under and around their left leg, to grab behind your head, pinning their leg between your head and shoulder. Extend your legs to stretch them out, and you can get an entry to the 50/50. You can use your hand that is propped up behind you to reach over and cup their kneecap, and as you stretch them out peel their leg backwards as they fall to their butt. From there, it is a simple action to pull their right leg in tight between your legs, scoot your hips in, and slide the 50/50 guard around their right leg. Our next drill was transitioning around the legs, keeping the hooks in tight and spring loaded, , and going from front butterfly guard, to X guard, to taking the back, to X guard on the other side, back to front butterfly guard. As long as you keep your boots on, and spring loaded into their knees, it makes things very difficult for them.

Lastly, we worked a sweep from the butterfly hooks. Pull your left leg free, and get the blade of the foot just above their belt line. Lay your right leg flat, and cup the outside of their left heel with your right hand. Bring your right leg as far into their left leg as you can, and in one motion, sweep it towards the right leg, while pulling with your hand on the heel, and pushing with your left foot, to launch them down. From here, slide your right leg under their left leg, and you can transition to 50/50 guard. Super slick!! Okay, I'm tired from today's classes, but more on that tomorrow. Sweet work in grappling, WHEEEE!!!!! I'm a nerd.

MMA and me; day 215

So in boxing we worked on footwork and movement. When stepping, its important to lift the foot that you step with, then push off with the other foot and drag it as you slide over. We next drilled turning left. First, step over your center line with your lead leg, in this case the left, and turn on it, spinning your other leg behind you, keeping your hands up of course. Next we worked on a pivot from a forward step. As you step in, staying low and leaning forward, execute the pivot much like you did before, and finish by snapping out a double jab. We then worked an up and down drill, where we held our hands up and walked backwards as our partner walked down and threw 1-2 combinations. After we both went, we did the same thing but threw a 1-2-3 instead. When backing up, it is as important to dip back when you step, as it is to do so when stepping in. We finished with two rounds of punch ups, and quite a few different core exercises, and it was time for grappling!

The main focus was on working leg locks from bottom half guard. First, as you wrap up the leg lace (outside leg over, inside leg over that leg, then under their outside leg, boots on), get a same side under hook, post up on the other elbow lean back and extend your legs until they tap. This is a modified toe hold, and is very difficult to defend against, sindee most people will simply allow you to get half guard. Second, we worked a similar entry to a different submission, the electric chair. Starting from bottom half guard, smoothly switch from an under/over, to an over/under, get the same side under hook again, and post on the other elbow. Much like the old school sweep dive under their far side leg, but instead of ruling them over you, sideways, use your legs and hips to roll them diagonally up over your shoulder that it is opposite them, and as you roll, pull your bottom side arm out, and bring their leg up to your shoulder, digging your radial bone into their knee, right above the joint, and as you pull in, extend your hips to put a tremendous amount of strain on the groin and hips until they tap. We had a great class, thanks to Coach and all my classmates!

UFC on FX 2

Crap, forgot that these fights were tonight! No time for previews, just predictions. Maybe tomorrow I'll do a recap instead. Anyways, here goes nothing.

Court "The Crusher" McGee vs. Constantinos Philippou
middleweight

Philippou via TKO, Rd. 2

Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson vs. Ian "Uncle Creepy" McCall
flyweight

McCall via Unanimous Decision

Joseph Benevidez vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani
flyweight

Benevidez via submission (guillotine), Rd. 1

Thiago "Pitbull" Alves vs. Martin "Hitman" Kampmann
welterweight

Kampmann via Unanimous Decision