MMA and me; day 250/251

So Wednesday was a little different. Instead of having a grappling based class, we did a modified fighters training. We worked a little bit on some grappling, but it was mostly cardio based. We did some neck wrestling, which is basically pummeling in to a clinch and trying to stay there, worked some ground and pound, and interestingly enough, worked on some of the psychological aspects of fighting and competing. Great day of work, and an excellent lead in to Thursday.

The following day we continued to drill on defending the triangle. We worked on the wedge/hook pass again. You take your arm that is in, and drop the elbow to the mat while framing up that same hand against their rib cage. This helps buy you some time to escape, but also prevents them from cutting an angle to lock in the choke. From here, walk your hand down their body, forcing your elbow up their knee until their legs pop open. Next, you spin and throw your other arm straight over them, to an imaginary spot somewhere to the mat on the other side of their body, escaping from the sub and landing in side control, making sure to come under their head with the top side arm, and C blocking their legs with the bottom side arm. We then moved onto the stack pass. When they lock up the triangle, pop up to your feet nice and wide, and hop towards their head in heavy, almost exaggerated hops, sinking your hips low with each bounce. As you get close to their head, and their triangle opens, take one more hop over their hips, so you are sitting on the back of their legs with their neck on the mat, facing away from them. From here, throw a leg over, and back spin around the head to land in side control. It's important to emphasize the constant pressure at all times! I know that's redundant, but that's how important it is! Lastly we drilled the sprawl and turn. Lock both hands behind the backside, and sprawl your hips out, creating space around your neck. Start tiptoeing around to the same side of your arm that is outside the choke until you are close enough to throw your legs over their body and spin into side control. You have to make sure you lock your hands behind them before you sprawl out, or you will go to sleep. Getting your hips back as far as you can, and getting as flat to the mat as you can is only a small pit stop, that lets you get to the next part of the defense, which is actually escaping. Great grappling class again, and it was time for fighters training.

A lot more cardio was on tap for fighters training. We worked medicine balls, jogging, muay thai drills, LOTS of neck exercises, more neck wrestling, and we finished the day with some light MMA sparring! That was fun, and at the same time terrifying! Awesome day, and we're coming down to the last few weeks before the tournament, so the work is going to get intense!