MMA and me; day 272 & 273

So last week it was just me and Andy in gi club. We covered a TON of arm bars, and after a crazy .busy work week, I am going to do a little something different, I am adding a link to a fantastic youtube video by Jason Scully. It is simply astounding how many arm bar entries there are. We covered. a small fraction of these, but I intend to watch this video once a day until I have landed each one at least once. Going to take a while...



Pulled double duty today getting in some rolling with Coach Riley at Alderwood MMA. Worked on some guard passing as well, which was awesome, since I need to work on that big time. First was the cartwheel pass. After opening your opponents guard, keep your hands on the chest, and drop your head to the mat on either side (here we will use the left) using your feet to kick yourself up to nearly a headstand, and while up on your head, twist to the side and land in side control on the side opposite of your head, finishing with under hooking their head with your right arm, and C blocking their legs with your left.

Next was a two arm in pressure pass. I don't know the exact term, so I am using this. You pop their guard open again, using whatever technique you prefer. Swim both your hands inside their legs, clasp them together, and either pull their hips in tight, or run up on them, and stack their hips on top of them, using your chest to create pressure. From here, it is a simple matter of pressing them down, and turning your shoulder until both of their legs are to the side, and you land in side control. From there, all you do is under hook the head and C block the legs and you are past the guard.

Last we worked on something called the combat position. From the opened guard, slide one of your knees up in between theirs, and then slide it across to either side, getting the knee all the way to the mat, while keeping the foot on the inside of the leg, trapping it to the mat. From here you have what is technically called, a shit load of options. To keep it simple, if you bring your knee (right for this explanation) to the outside, you can crawl up to mount, or windshield wiper your legs and slip to high judo or side control. If you go to the inside, you can go right to side control, or flip to low judo. So many options its scary!!

Thank you Riley for a great class, and then it was time for a short trip to Shoreline MMA.

I took part in the tail end of boxing, which involved some bag work, some abs, and many rounds of sparring. With some good sweat going, it was time for grappling.

We began with our usual rolling, shrimping, cartwheels, and other warm ups before getting down to business. We worked a lot on the far side arm bar from knee on belly, which starts from, wait for it.....KNEE ON BELLY! When you are in this position, you have a far side under hook, and it is very uncomfortable for the bottom man, so he shrimps to push your knee off. keeping the far side under hook, cup their head with your free arm, and bring your other leg around to keep the head tucked into their chest. From here, all you have to do, is grab the elbow with your under hooking arm, and spin around to the far side, keeping your foot of the leg that was trapping their head under their body, scoot your hips in tight, and go through your arm bar checklist.

Next we switched to the arm bar from back mount. With a seat belt grip (one over one under) get the under arm hooked deep, use your other arm to cup and push their head away, creating separation of the head and shoulder. Next, release your leg opposite the under hook, and take a couple of little hop steps around towards the under hook, and then lean back, swinging your leg around their head for the arm bar.

We finished with a little rolling, and then some MMA sparring to help Corby get ready for his fight on Saturday. Great (exhausting!) day, and I can't wait for tomorrow!