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.