Training Log: Entnry 249

BJJ and MT tonight

Summary of BJJ:
Drills

Double leg takedowns for warm-up.  Remember to keep the back straight on the shot.

Getting head out from other guy's guard-1 hand on chin, one hand pushes elbow up.  From here, hop up on both feet, knee in but, other leg steps back, twist hips, work elbows into inner thighs while hands push down on waist.  From here, jump and put them into side control with underhook under shoulder and own shoulder into chin.

Worked a lot from side control.  Swim the arm that is under the head over to figure four the arm.  Use the head to push their arm to the floor.  From here, 3 subs to work with

Keylock-Bread and butter sub.  Love it.  Need to switch up figure 4.

Straight armlock-Great technique to use when they straighten out the arm to defend armlock or kimura.  Remember to trap their elbow in yours for leverage.

Kimura-Hand goes into mat, sprawl hips down so that pressure goes into their shoulder. 
-Remember to sprawl out hips.  Can also step over their head and place their face against hamstring.  Makes a break easy.

Defense against kimura: Remember to plant nonattacked hand's elbow point into ground, turn, and put knee between their figure 4 to break it.  Work for hand posistion.  Other tactic is to turn like before and rock them into a sweep.

Special note: Lesson was taught by Dean Lister. 

MT

Summary of class:
Drills
Conditioning

Note: Ugh, my partner was a total weenie today.  Some lanky kid that had to be like 16.  He was afraid to get hit, didn't want to throw any attacks at me during sparring, didn't keep his hands up, in general made all of the following drills pretty worthless.  I did my best though, and kept telling him what he needed to do.

1 partner teeps, the other takes.  Learning how to flex abs and breathe out on teep. 

From here, we worked our sweep blocks of teeps
Coaches note: Sweep the ankle, not the toes of the feet. 
Personal notes: Back hand better at this than front hand

Same as above, but counter with either lowkick or highkick
Note: Only drilled lowkicks for this one.  Wanted to work these more today. 

Sparring with limitations.  1 partner is boxing and teeps, the other is boxing and roundhoues.

Note: My partner literally did NOT attack for the first 2 minutes...so I basically had a moving countering punching bag while I was teeping.  I did my best to shove past his defense with my teeps, and kept clocking him when he would drop his hands for the roundhouse.  Everyone has this bad habit.  I need to invest in a heavy overhand right.  Could end a ton of fights that way.

On the second round, when we switches roles, my teep defense sucked.  Even though I knew the only thing he could throw was teeps, I kept trying to shin check him.  I rarely get to fight people that throw teeps, need to work on this.  Did a decent job of keeping my hands up, just need to work on my parry's

Overall note: I think my anger at the weeniness of my training partner finally allowed me to throw punches in combinations rather than just a bunch of jabs.  Now I just need to work my kicks into my combos

Conditioning: Nothing too tough.

 

Training Log: Entry 248

MT class:
Warm-up
Drilling
Conditioning

Warmup was just some straight punches and kicks, then 50 right and 50 left kicks.  Decent shin conditioning.

Drills:
Simple boxing and low kicks.  Defender parrys and checks low kick
Notes: Once again messing around with stance due to flaws pointed out to me at the throwdown.  More relaxed and hands further away from face.  Made parrying require less effort, yet more attacks have an opportunity to get in.  Need to work.

Sparring under these rules.  Noticed my chin was untucked and I was looking for shots.  Quickly fixed this.

Simple boxing and rib kick.  Defender parries and catches.
Note: Remember not to stretch arm out for kick catch.  With my love of catching kicks, I need to learn this lesson.

Sparring under these rules.  Dropped hands a little.

Simple boxing and head kick.  Defender parries and evades head kick.

Sparring with all three kicks.  Goddamn it's hard to know what defense to use in particular for some reason.  I don't typically have trouble in normal sparring, but when the pressure is on the react a specific way, it gets bad.

Conditioning: Just some bag work.  This guy doesn't work us as hard as the other guy.  The heat was still killer though.

Training Log: Entry 247

BJJ:
Rolling
Drills
Conditioning

Summary of rolling:
Posistioning was great today.  Managed to upa and roll people from bottom mount into their guard.  Got complimented on that a lot.  Pull of some weird one where from bottom half guard I reached and hooked someone's arm and then upaed him for a tap...don't know how that worked.

Pulled a kimura from guard on someone in slow motion.  Had no idea what I was doing, and alluva sudden tap.  He asked me to teach it to him.  Just totally dumbfounded.

Pulled off a triangle twice on someone trying to use "the Gracie Gift".  Never done that before.

Move from a triangle into armbar as like I was taught in a previous class.  Like that transition.

Worked a kimura from top mount into being rolled into my guard.  Love that transition. 

Really need to work on bottom of sidemount.  Had nothing.

Fought off a RNC and managed to eventually swing around into their guard.  It was epic...need to learn how to do it faster.

New techniques: Drilling neck crank from turtle
Right knee into ribs, right arm holds down their right tricep.  Cross face with left arm, crank face to the side and join left arm.  Pull them back, shoudler places pressure on head forcing neck down while sinking down and to the back.  Tap.

Roll from side of turtle
Right knee behind butt (referee posistion), go for RNC, when they go to defend, take right arm and yank left arm, put on the meaty side of the ribs, shuffle back and roll over into side mount.

Conditioning: The only thing making this noteworthy is that today was 100 degrees in a cramped room with no AC.  Awesome feeling.

 

Did standing behind the back shoulder presses as my ME upperbody lift today.  I'm hooked.  Sadly only put up 165 for 2 reps, but I figure once I adjust to the motion it'll help.

Training Log: Entry 246

Came back from another throwdown.  Had to have been one of my best performances.  Coming in without any ring rust really improved my game.

Didn't do any pure rolling.  Finally learned how to be aggressive when it matters, rather than all out. 

Did some San Da with a really tall dude (6'5) without too much striking experience.  Usually, I would rush into this guy and he'd pull guard.  This time, I spent my time stalking him, looking for openings and striking.  I sprawled out of all of his takedowns, and landed a few knees to the stomach before breaking away.  He eventually gassed.

Did some San Da with another grappler.  He was much closer to my height, so my striking really came into play.  I kept stalking him, and came out better from every exchange.  He eventually became too timid to come in, so I started to iniate the striking.  I sprawled out of almost all of his takedown attempts, and when I got taken down, I at least put him in my guard.  I even worked my defense pretty well.  Cardio was dying a little at first, but eventually caught my second wind.

Did some kickboxing with a guy who had 80lbs on me and good height advantage.  This time I got to be timid.  Still, I managed a lot of shots to his body (didn't want to reach up for headshots) and a few leg kicks here and there.  He got me with a great double leg kick (need to work my defense for those), and a combo of two head hooks and one roundhouse to lead leg that just killed me.  He got some good punches landed on me too.  I broke his defense occasionally with a roundhouse followed by two punch combo.  He helped me with my stance and defense.  Great guy.

Did some pankration rules fights.  They're ok, but the "no closed handed strikes to head" rule is pretty bad.  First guy I went up against, I kept catching his kicks and taking him down.  From there, he would put me in his guard and work for subs while I had nothing really to do but lay and pray.  Eventually, I just started disengaging and letting him stand up so we could bang some more.

Second guy totally owned me.  He caught on to my kick catching, and actually managed to take me down from it.  He put me in a quick guillitine and it was over.  Second time, similar thing, but it too longer and was a Kimura.  I fought back from the clinch though with one really strong knee and a bodyblow.  The third time, I managed to get his back against the cage and did my best to hold out.  At least managed to not get tapped.

So, what have I learned?

Still need to retool my stance for standup.
Sprawl is still doing alright.
Combos are my friend.
Need to work my MMA ground game (although I was happy that I finally started standing up during ground fighting)
Don't be timid
Stalking works for me in standup and MMA.  All out aggression gets me killed.

Vids soon hopefully.
 

Training Log: Entry 245

BJJ and MT

BJJ:
Warm-up
New tech
Roll

Warm-up: Did some pummeling drills for about 10 minutes.  Was right at home, just like wrestling.  40% resistance until whistle blown, then 100% trying to acheive underhooks.  Went about 50/50 on my W/L on this drill.

New techs:

Armbar from guard:
Notes-Remember to post same side heel on their hip and get the right angle.

Triangle:
Notes-Here is where I always mess up.  Just like the armbar, same side leg posts on hip, meaning the opposite leg pumps up and locks around.  Really use that leg posted on hip to get that other leg up and around.

Armbar from triangle:
If triangle fails, kick other leg over for armbar.  Note: This is the only time you cross ankles on armbar for force placed on head.

If unable to get any of this, take arm opposite of posted leg, snake underneath nearest leg, then kick out your opposite leg in a "L" to generate momentum and roll them to under your mount.

Rolling: I was in top guard with the goal of passing and working for subs.  Guy on bottom attempts to apply everything learned today.  Still couldn't pass guard.  Need to work on that.

MT:
Warm-up
Drills
Conditioning

Note: Like yesterday, focus on keeping hands up no matter what.

Warm-up: Straight punches and low kicks on heavy bag.  I focused on throwing no isolated shots
50 leg kicks with each leg on heavybag
10 sets of triplet high kicks on each leg

Drills: Focus on the day on teep (push-kick)
Drill 1: Attacker throws straight shots, defender uses teep to keep them out of range
Note: Partner was a total loser today, so as the aggressor I kept landing and as the defender he never got in.  However, he was a southpaw, so it was a learning experience.

Drill 2: Same as above, except the attacker uses a sweep block to deflect the teep and counter with a low kick.  Since I was going against a southpaw, my sweeps were reversed.  Did a good job of keeping hands up.

Drill 3: Same as above, but now rear leg teep instead of front leg teep.

Drill 4: Same as above, but any teep may be used.
Notes: I do an alright job using lead hand deflect, but rear hand needs work.

Drill 5: Basically same as above, but sparring instead of drilling
Notes: Partner couldn't keep his hands up, gave up after every exchange, dropped his hands to defelect low kicks, just bad.  I did my best to take this time to capitalize on every mistake he made to make this productive.  My hands did a good job of staying up.

Conditioning: Meh.

Training Log: Entry 244

MT class tonight

Note: Today I made a goal to focus solely on keeping my hands up.

Drills
Sparring
Conditioning

Drills:
Start out with light boxing sparring.  Partner was a bigger stockier guy.
-Straight shots were getting the job done.  My defense was doing pretty good in regards to parrying and patting.  Still awful at head movement.
-Worked on moving at angles rather than just straight in.  Move to side and circle left hook.

Drill 1: Straight shot boxing with goal of defending partner to time the jab or cross of the attacker and hit them with a same side bodykick
-Can get the rear leg off the jab alright, but leadleg off the cross needs more work.  Too timid about blocking the powershot rather than executing the counter.

Drill 2: Same as before, except this time we're alloted a leadleg inside along with outside body kicks.
-Always a fan on the inside leg kick.  Same issue in regards to countering the powershot as before, but at least I never let it get through my defense.

Sparring with all  boxing techniques, and all manner of roundhouse kicks allowed.
-Focus on keeping my hands up payed off.  I never once got punched directly in the face.  However, I'm patting too far out, and ended up having my gloved punched into my face like a rookie.
-Clowned a lot of people with staight punches.  I don't know why most MT folks don't know how to keep their elbows in to avoid it, but I won't complain.  Boxing training was paying off.
-Need to have better control of right cross so that I can start throwing it into combinations during lighter contact sparring. 
-Need to stop throwing isolated kicks.  Work them into combinations.
-Doing good on counter kicks.  Most people don't know how to recover well after throwing a kick.  They also leave themselves open to punches because once they throw the kick, they drop their hands way down low.
-Defense was doing good tonight.
-Did something stupid and ended up getting kicked in the back. 
-Throw a combo, then move out.  Once I landed a good punch to the face, I would follow it up with 3 and be ok, but by 5 they woudl start throwing counter leg kicks.
-Fought from a "hitman stance" (lead hand down by waist, rear hand on cheek) at one point and was baiting straight shots to evade and parry.  Worked pretty well.  Wouldn't use it in a match, but a good way to work defense.

Overall Note of interest: Stance has shifted back to peek-a-boo style.  Really comfortable with it.  Affords great defense.

Training Log: Entry 243

Felt my shoulder slip and pop when walking down a flight of stairs too hard.  Amazingly, all my pain went away.  Perhaps my shoulder was slightly out of line this entire time.  Hopefully this means I won't have to worry anymore.

Leg training.  Form was incredible on all lifts.  Numbers are up.  Deadlift is approaching squat numbers.  Stiff legged deadlift up to 225 for 7 or so reps.

Unlike fighting, keep your head up in lifting.

Training Log: Entry 242

Woke up and shoudler was about 95% better, so decided to go to class.

BJJ:
Warm-up
Techniques
Rolling

Warm-up: Some PT.  Bleh.

Techniques:
Working basic hip escapes.  From bottom mount, umpa to get him off balance, then push off his leg while using a heavy leg shrimp/hip escape, put into half guard, do the same for other side for full guard.

Note: Make sure to bridge on umpa to really get the torque in

Second escape from under side mount.  Work arm posistioning so that one arm traps the hip with the blade of the forearm while the other snakes in under the elbow.  Push up, kick the legs out from under and to the side, then bring elbows to knees.

Third escape: Hookshot-from under side mount, work arm posistioning, and then move the arm under their armpit and leg on the same side up and over head while escaping out and to the side to take their back.

Note: Up, not over.

Rolling: Start out one guy on sidemount, one guy on top

Was on top of some huge guy.  Got bucked over and over again.  Shame we had to start over everytime that happened, but I eventually somehow got him in a standing RNC.  Was pretty cool.

When it was my turn to be under, the rules changed to keep going even if the guy on bottom reverses.  Spent two rounds in some guy's lazy ass guard where he wasn't trying to sub.  Dick.

From there, rolling from the knees.  Went up against a huge guy (had to have been about 280 of mostly fat).  I knew I didn't want to be under him, so I reverted back to wrestling and shoved him down and went into his guard, work to half guard, work to mount.  Then he did something really annoying and stopped the roll so he could "teach" me something I already knew, afterwards starting us over in halfguard instead of mount.  Cheap move.

Pulled a guy into my guard and slapped on a kimura.  He was dumbfounded.  I did the whole move in slow motion and he didn't even bother to stop it.  Guess he didn't know you could do that.

 

Muay Thai:
Drilling
Conidtioning

Drill: Slip the jab
Notes: I need to work on circling instead of just moving back when I slip

Drill: Slip the jab and counter punch
Notes: When slip with right, counter left.  Vise versa

Drill: Slip the jab and counter kick

Sparring with only straights and roundhouse
Notes: Hands are dropping a bit, but at least chin is staying tucked, so I get punched in the eye and forehead instead of throat and chin

One guy kept circling to my powerside, so I kept roundhouse kicking his lead leg.  This wasn't enough, so I started double kicking it.  That wasn't enough, so instead of triple kicking I said "Dude, circle AWAY from my power, not towards it".  He nodded and kept doing the same damn thing, so I ended up punching him in the eye and he lost a contact lense.

Worked the inside leg kicks well tonight.

Went up against a guy with good head movement.  I love and hate these guys.  I wanna move like them, they're annoying.  However, whenever he did his headmovement, he dropped his weight way low, so I'd always just kick his leg.

Conditioning: meh

Training Log: Entry 241

Shoulder has been bugging me for a week.  Upped my glutamine intake, and it helped a little.  Minor annoying pain.  Hopefully nothing major.

Was doing ME upperbody day.  Found myself focusing more on using my back rather than my arms for certain movements and certain angles.  Great improvement.

Deadlift form is impoving greatly.  My back doesn't bother me anymore, and my legs are killing me.

 

Training Log: Entry 240

Went to a grappling class yesterday.  It was pretty bad, so I didn't bother writing a log entry on it.  Real bad rolling, my partners were jerks, etc. 

Am cutting about 500 calories out of my diet as of now.  Only 1 cup of oatmeal in the morning, and one less uncrustable a day should cover it.  Should get rid of some extra fat I've put on.

Training Log: Entry 239

BJJ and MT tonight.

Summary of BJJ:
Free rolling
Conditioning
Drilling

Summary of free roll:
Tapped out the biggest guy in class.  Furthermore, tapped him out with a kimura from guard.  I was applying the kimura from mount, he somehow rolled me, ended up in my guard, I still had the kimura, kept cranking, got a tap.  First time I ever used that move.

Posisitioning was excellent today.  I was flowing, never in a bad place for too long.  Took a guy's back from guard throw some posisitioning, flipped him to mount, tapped.  Managed to use a far leg cradle from bottom of sidemount to reverse and have side control.  Cardio held up well.

Went up against some kid with something to prove.  Mighta been a wrestler.  Didn't want to actually grapple, just wanted to keep moving away from me on his knees.  Don't know what the hell that was about.  He'd lock up, I'd lock up, he'd get frustrated and throw away.  Eventually he just lay on his back hoping to suck me into his guard.  I moved in for side control, slipped into full mount, put on a kimura for a tap.  Idiot.

Conditioning was fine.

Learned the omoplata.  From guard, plant a leg, push head towards planted leg, take non-planted leg and slip it over the shoulder.  Scoot out while rolling him forward.  From here, kick the non-locked leg out, keep scooting away until you break down his base.  Crank forward for tap.  Shoulder lock.

Note: Focus on kicking leg out more.

New sweep.  Motion for omoplata, when he moves his head back, lock the head and arm, break them down, slip leg inside for sweep.

 

Muay Thai Class:
Warm-up
Drill
Conditioning

Warm-up: Bag work.  No pain in shins.

Drill:
Straight punches to face, low kick to outside front leg.  Defender blocks punches and eats kick.

Same as above but shin check kick.

Same as above, but attacker uses front leg roundhouse.  Defender defends with front leg.

Coaches notes: Need to cross my front leg over more.  I do well enough to cover an inside front leg kick but not an outside rear leg kick.

Sparring with only the above techniques

Notes: Defense is doing good.  Focus on keeping chin tucked.  Partner dropped hands for kicks, so I launched jabs at his face.

Conditioning: Lots of kicks and knees on the bags.

Notes: My left knee hurts.  Might have pulled it playing soccer.  Will be taking tomorrow off with some ice.
Drills

Training Log: Entry 238

Took one week off while visiting my girlfriend in Maui.  Fun in the sun with some minor swimming/bodyweight workouts while eating some of the best food on earth.  The rest paid off.  Came back into the gym stronger than ever.  This week I'll be doing 3 back to back to back training days in MT and BJJ.  Should be an enjoyable schedule.