Thai Boxing Thursday.

Due to a personal financial crisis, I have been unable to train recently, but I was finally able to return tonight. I really felt that pain of being out and then training again for the first time.

I actually survived the skipping pretty decently, but after the skipping was done, I was already 'well knackered' to use a colloquialism. After the warm up punch and kicking across the mat (in pairs with thai pads) we started on our combo drills. Tonights drills were: jab, cross, hook, shin kick to body - switch front leg round kick to body, cross, uppercut - then switch front knee to grabbing (clinch) right thrusting knee to body.

Soon as we were done with this, we did a two step random striking/blocking drill and then right into sparring.
Sparring was done in three minute rounds with two people in front of everyone else, with one person staying in, and then effectively doing two rounds in a row two people at a time.

Altogether we did about six rounds each. I got pained on.
Now I'm relaxing at home, planning on going tomorrow night. Perhaps I'll go along to the fundamentals course, and decide after that whether I'm feeling up to the gi jujutsu.

More later.

Update soon

Thai Boxing Tuesday

Often my favourite session of the week, Tuesday is the biggest night for Muay Thai. In addition to the regular guys, Tuesday is the day that we have a few extra casuals and often beginners, too (meaning TONS of sparring partners) but alas, we didn't get to do any sparring last night! FML.

Instead, we spent about forty minutes working on nerve deadening/conditioning. All around the edges of the mat, pairs of people were engaged in one of the following exercises for 2 minutes or so, and then moving on to the next station/next exercise, having fun with such movements as these:

Elbows angled down onto the top of the thigh, crunching the thigh.
Copping inside and outside leg kicks to the thigh.
Back against the wall, copping both straigh and looping punches to the stomach (the hooks to the oblique abs really hurt)
Taking turns kicking the post at the corner of the cage
Elbowing the post at the corner of the cage
Laying flat on your back, someone standing on/jumping up and down on your stomach

None of these exercises were fun, and I'm still in pain. I think I'm going to curl up into a ball and die. Later.

MMA Fundamentals (1hr) Gi BJJ (1.5 hrs)

Much slower paced than Friday's session, with the large bulk of the lesson focused on using hip escapes and shrimping to escape side control.

Had some mild success during rolling in Fundamentals. The class is largely made up from people who are interested in getting into MMA, and has a mix of those with little to no MA history, and a sprinkling of people like myself who have a history, but are taking the extra classes for the sake of fitness.

This means, as you might have guessed - that there are quite a few people in this class who have had basically no significant experience with groundfighting. Therefore, when we roll, I have to pick my opponents kind of carefully, because I don't want to ONLY be rolling against beginners (sure it's fun to get every 'tap' but I don't learn too much) but because of my size, there are only a couple of people there I can get a pretty good roll with.

This of course is not a problem at all during Gi BJJ. I think there are less than 5 people who are newer than me (six weeks back in the gym) which also means of course, that I'm in the bottom 5/6 of the class, and therefore no matter who I roll with, there is every chance I get crushed. Which I do, regularly.

BJJ With Gi Training Report

I'm finally winding down after what can probably be described as my most intense session ever. We started right after our warmup with a quick Q&A on how to bust defenses from side control. The two options presented, were to 2-on-1 the gi sleeve (perhaps a little sneaky d^_^b ) and stand up, posting our rear foot in front, to literally 'rip' the arm up into position. The other method offered was to post your front leg outside a little, more on their shoulder, and using your rear arm, take their lapel, and bring them in close to your chest, rolling to your own back, to take their back. At this point, you can lock in your opposite hook.

We drilled this for 3 minutes swapping side control with our partner, to find the way we were most comfortable doing it. I found that the 2-on-1 sleeve grab was probably the easiest to work, even though it's not really allowed in competition. After this, we rolled for about 20-25 minutes.

We then congregated for another Q&A and then, we were drilling a scenario. We are in competition. We are 10 points down. There is 45 seconds left in the match, we have to (from top) make something happen, ie: submit, or we 'lose', whereas the guy on the bottom simply had to survive to 'win'; after all, he was up 10 points in this scenario.

After this, we straight rolled for another 30 minutes. This was broken up into 3 minute sessions with 15-30 second rest periods, just enough to quickly grab a new partner; we were to start once everyone was in position.

The last thing we did, was something called the "Shark Attack". One of the competitive BJJ players at the gym had to undergo a gruelling test of endurance. One fresh man every minute for 16 minutes. Even submissions gave him no rest, and no positional reset, he had to work for it again.

I took the third and the eleventh periods against him. In the third period, I simply survived. (My coach in the background yelling 'DONT YOU DARE TAP OUT! at me while I was under what could be explained fairly accurately as mild duress in a position where I was turtling against a fairly forceful arm choke for 10 seconds or more). The GI really made my job much easier, as I'm far more accustomed to the groundfighting of Judo (which is exclusively Gi) than the No-Gi Jujutsu training that I normally do.
In the eleventh period, I was submitted by lapel choke, but then took a solid position for an extended armbar using what I now know to be the 'bananarama'. (Another trick I learned from Omega). I didn't cause a submission, for lack of the arm being fully locked out, but I was reasonably primed to make one. This was the closest anyone had come to submitting him so far. The timer ended, and he got a fresh man.

When the ordeal was finally over, the Jujutsuka was hailed as a hero by the rest of the guys in the gym, me included, as it is definitely the most gruelling physical punisment I have ever witnessed.

Afterward, I asked him if it was the hardest thing that he ever had to do. He said that it would be close.

Weekend is up, No Gi on monday. Peace out.

Muay Thai report (sorry no MMA tonight)

Another good night.

I actually made it to class a little late, and as a result I missed out on the skipping rounds. No matter :P I'll make up for it at home tomorrow with some dance dance revolution or something.

We started with a basic kick drill. 10 kicks on right leg, then 10 on left leg, then 9 and 9, down to 1. This really got the abs caning! I'm starting to get better with my kicking technique, being able to throw much looser (and therefore faster) kicks, with the nice heavy pendulum swinging type kick. If you can keep your leg loose when it connects, it actually results in a better power strike too, as it becomes much easier to 'push off' after the kick, and reload into a position where you can deliver another strike.

The first drill was the basic one-two-four. This is a jab, cross, then right kick to the body. Next up was jab-cross-hook into either knee or kick, depending where you ended up after the hook. (we are encouraged to move around alot while drilling, with the intention of getting better at finding our range.) Next was a low left leg kick, followed by a switch left kick/knee to the body, and finally a round elbow or cross. (we just went with whatever felt right). The last drill was a freestyle type scenario, where the guy holding the focus pads would call out the combo, and then we would do the combo, then pad guy calls another one out.

Finally, sparring.

I took it pretty easy sparring tonight, doing my best to focus on a nice loose posture and nice fast, technical kicking. (improving my round kick technique was my personal goal for the evening).
I sparred first with my drilling partner (pretty standard practice for me, I like sparring with the person I've just been drilling with) and then one by one made my way around the gym ~12 people at 3 minute rounds each.
My brother Ken came with me tonight too, for his first Muay Thai class. He did great! (he has a history with western boxing also, we trained together as teenagers at a local boxing club)

Fundamentals and Jits tomorrow, report at that time.

No-gi BJJ report

Had a great night. We started off our warmups with hip-escape laps, and then shrimping, followed by 'wiggles' across the mat. 'Wiggles' are an absurdly uncomfortable movement, where you (from your back) rock your shoulders and hips back and forth alternately, resulting in a sideways shuffle. I suppose it won't be so bad when I am better at it.

We then started with a cyclic submission drill.
Starting from open guard, first thing to do was to set up an Extended arm-bar (Tornado) from this position, the guy on top removes one of his arms, and at this point, we swivel around into a Triangle. When they press their elbow on the inside to escape, swiveling at the hips, and threatening a sweep under one arm with shin on bicep, to solicit a reaction, ie: post. When they post, we utilize this momentum, to lock the opposite leg over their other arm on the outside, above the elbow, tucking the instep under the chin, and rocking up on our inside hip edge, to flick the outside leg around, and take control of their waist, to prevent a roll, taking our final position, the Omoplata. If they escaped the Omoplata by rolling, because we didn't take the waist early enough, we needed to roll forward also, and when we 'catch up' with their rolling defense (sometimes took 2 or 3 rolls) taking the opposite underhook, resulting in a Double omo.

After we drilled this for about 15 minutes, we started rolling.

The first guy I rolled with was my best mate at the gym, Adam. (He's the guy in the photo holding me from behind) He caught me in an early triangle (20-30 seconds) and after that, I was more careful. We then rolled for perhaps another 6-8 minutes, neither of us landing a submission. I concentrated on working my defensive game, with a specific focus on keeping my all my 'external' muscles firm enough to facilitate a basic level of control/defensive control - but trying to keep the muscles around my neck and chest relaxed where possible, taking controlled, deep breaths, to give myself the maximum time to attempt an escape before I was gassing and gasping for air.

The next guy I rolled with was my evil twin, Nick. Familiar with my inexperience, he generally lets me get pretty far with transition attempts/submission attempts until the last moment he is able to mount a reasonable defense, and then we struggle for position until either I can submit him, which I can do about 30% of the time (he goes pretty easy on me).

After Nick, I got to roll with Connor. Connor is a purple belt, and a badass! I've spent the last 3 days watching, rewatching, slow motioning, rewatching, watching in reverse, in fast motion, upside down and every which way an outstanding arm-bar montage video made by Omega of Bullshido.net fame, an ex-pro fighter. http://www.facebook.com/video/?oid=206249487538&s=15

At one moment, I had a brief spark of confidence and clarity, and I attempted the roll over arm-bar from Omega's video, and I nearly landed it! Sadly, my confidence wasn't matched by my experience, and Connor shrugged it off at the last moment, passing at the same time into side control. I said: "Noooo.. I was robbed!" and he says, "Yeah that'll happen sometimes." :)

After a few more Omoplata drills (it was the theme of the lesson) We rolled for the rest of the lesson. I rolled with Adam again for the rest of the class (15 minutes) and then it was time for the advanced class, so I headed home. (this class is invitation only)

Tomorrow night, is Full Contact MMA night. can't wait.