Training Log: Entry 331

Tried out the new MMA club, BrikHaus Poway.  Did boxing and BJJ.

Holy crap what an awesome club.  Leaps and bounds over my old place.  No fitness bunnies, no fatasses trying to get in shape, no 13 year old girls, no posers, no bullcrap, no excuses.  Just a ton of athletic people that wanna fight.  I have reached Valhalla.

Boxing class:
Did some PT, lower body work mainly (wow, novel concept, power coming from the legs).

Did some drilling, one partner on offense, one partner on defense.

Note: My partner was the only jackoff in the club.  Came in late, didn't have wraps, didn't warm up, forgot his gloves, had an attitude, etc etc.  Needless to say, I ended up shadow boxing for one round and then defending for another.  All this time training my no strike sparring really paid off.  I barely got hit.  However, I need to keep my head up when I bob and weave.  Got demolished by a couple of uppercuts.  Of course, my partner being a jackoff was going way too hard and claiming it was only 30%, so I got pretty messed up, but oh well.  Pain is a good teacher.  My slips were going well, and my blocks were doing decent.  Need to work on blocking hooks, too used to straight shots.

We then sparred for I have no idea how many rounds.  Once again, supposed to be light, was way too heavy.  My defense held together better than usual, but still need to work on integrating defense and offense.  Was able to block and defend some shots, slip and bob and weave, but because my partner was trying to take my head off, fear kept me from really committing to anything.  Still, this was the first time in my life I landed shots on someone significantly taller than me.  Counter punching FTW. 

Gassed horribly.

Traded partners.  New guy much more skilled, much more professional, almost my exact height.  We were going much lighter, working on exchanging, and my game got smoother as a result.  He had that mixed guard of one hand up, one hand down, and it mucked me up at first.  Good footwork kept me chasing after him and getting tagged, until I learned to calm down, bait a little, and counter punch.  I caught him with a few jabs to the face, and one great left hook when he went in for one of the same.  I actually managed to block and strike, totally new concept.  Still, i need to keep my chin tucked and breathe out of my nose.  My jaw took a viscious pounding.  Towards the end, I was finally shaking off my ring rust and fnding my rythym.  I finally stopped throwing isolated shots and started throwing combos.  My partner got tired, and I would treat his head like a double end bag, 5 straight fast jabs. 

My striking needs some serious work, but it's leaps and bounds over where it was last time I did this.  Specific drills have really helped.  Now I need to work on keeping the jaw tucked, breathing through my nose, throwing combos, and moving.

BJJ

My memory is pretty shot from being so gassed when this happened.  We did some PT to warm up, then some rolling.

Rolled with a guy prolly my weight.  Pulled guard right away and he couldn't break out, then realized I had absolutely no strength left and just spent my time defending subs.  Kept trying for the kimura, but no dice, dude had flexible shoulders.  I eventually tapped to a straight armbar from sidemount, but did a decent job of defending.  After that, I pulled my typical cattle catcher to get side control and basically stalled until the drill was over.  No strength left.

We drilled way too many things at once, but the main gist was guard passes.  The knee in the butt, then sliding the knee over their hips, then the falling down footlock and then the fall back kneebar.  Not enough time to comit to memory, but maybe I'll do them one day.

Did takedowns.  Somehow, 3 years of rusty wrestling cameback out of nowhere.  My sprawl was there, I was getting position, etc etc.  Still couldn't tap out crap, but couldn't be takendown.  Managed to pull an armbar from guard on one dude, no idea how. 

Not really sure what to work on with grappling.  Was so dead.  At least takedowns are still there.

 

This club rocks.  I am home.