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!!!