MMA and me; day 224/225

Space cadet that I am, forgot to write about last Thursday. Well, in gi club, we worked on reclaiming guard with the step over/pull hips through drill, worked on our arm bar drill. For the last portion of class of class, we went over several of the defenses that we covered on Tuesday, and then moved on to fighter training. In fighter training, we did the medicine ball drill opening to class, medicine ball sprawls, jogging, bear crawls, medicine ball push ups, sit ups, squat jumps, medicine ball balancing drills, and then finished with 30-40 minutes of sparring.

Last night in grappling, we covered about a bajillion arm triangles. First, from mount, C block their arm across their chest, and with your other arm, reach inside that arm, and underneath their head, trapping their arm in place with your head and/or chest. Monkey grip your hands together, flick your foot opposite your grip across their belly to dismount, and tip toe your feet out wide, then lay your hips flat. After 5-10 seconds, lift your feet up so that your knees are on the mat, and shrug your shoulders to pull yourself over them, eliciting a tap.

Next we worked a howdy from north south. With your elbows on the mat, inside their arm pits, walk around to either side, keeping your elbow opposite the side you're walking towards, on the mat, so that it traps their arm on that side, forcing it over their chest and neck. As this happens, swim that same hand under their head into a rear naked choke grip on your opposite bicep, which will turn them up on their side a bit. From here, the goal is to flatten them out by pushing into them with your hips, and compressing their arm across their neck by shrugging and squeezing, for the tap.

Next we worked on the cobra, which reminded me a lot of the ezekiel choke with a gi on. From mount, grab a gift wrap by pushing their arm across their chest with a C block, grabbing it with your right hand and pinning it to the mat, and then reaching under their head with the first hand (in this case left) to hold it in place across their own chest. From here, swim your right hand across their throat, and almost get a rear naked choke grip, but instead of grabbing your bicep with your right hand, flare you hand out. Even out your elbows, and drive them straight to the mat for the tap. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the wind pipe, and is very painful.

The next one was kind of a plan B, if the cobra didn't work. Switch your grip from the arm across their neck, to grabbing their other hand with your left, in kind of a key lock position, then swim your right hand across like before, and pull with the left while you shove your forearm into their throat with the right until they tap. This is called the wizzle, and it freaking sucks.

We also worked a lot of positional transitions, grabbing arm triangles in the middle of scrambles, because let me tell you, they are everywhere!

In fighter training, after the medicine ball walk, we lined up with one of us having their back to the wall, and they had to defend us taking them down for three minutes. Each of us got a turn, and I learned the importance of head pressure, and wrist control. We finished off with several rounds of pancrase style sparring. Shin pads, no gloves, all kicks, punches to the body, but only open handed slaps to the head. At first I felt silly, like beating up on my little brother by smacking him in the head. After a few rounds though, I realized that taking this lightly, would be a bad idea. We did a couple rounds as a class, and then everyone sat down and watched individual pairs throw down. I got some good shots in, but took way too many kicks. I need to work on my movement, letting my hands go, and getting mean in the ring. When I let out the inner beast, I did much better. A very good class, and though sore, and likely not back until next week (this week is BUSY!!!) I was very, very happy leaving the gym last night.