Mizblog

Christian finished a private lesson for Arlene and Franco before the 10am Tuesday class.

We lined up, got the clean white belt dissertation, and went into shoulder tag. Then knee tag. No injuries.

Then we did calisthenics. HEAVY ab work today. Not bad, but ended in a butt walk that I sucked at.

Straight punches with MMA gloves, a la KMW level 1 classes. 1-2 and then bursting punch. Also we did front kick to the groin. Finally we did a combat circuit interrupted with squats, sprawls, push ups and sit ups. Got me breathing heavy and sweating profusely.

After that we went out back for gun-from-the-front defense. Paired with Thomas, and it went well. :)

TJ’s Saturday morning class. I went in feeling pretty good after 3 straight days of very very VERY sore thighs from medicine ball squats.

Started with shadow boxing, then added small hand weights and continued shadow boxing. Good shoulder workout I guess. Mixed in calisthenics, then stretching.

Partnered up with Ray and went back and forth with level 1 chokes. I forgot the “shoot the arm up, bicep to ear” bit from the push from behind, and I couldn’t get the basket action right because Ray kept pulling his hands back. Other than that, I felt I did a pretty good job.

Then we gloved up, got thai pads, and went outside to the back alley to do some combinations on rough terrain under the sun. Ray was all about staying in the shade (Thanks Ray!) but he was very inventive about the terrain and the combinations. I like Ray. :) After the first round of combos, we added kicks in as finishing moves.

Then we geared up fully for some one minute sparring. I sparred with Ray, Mike, Scott, Ronnie, and Rick. Rick was in sandals, and he was still a monster. Very scary.

Then it was back into the cool classroom to get back on the mat and go over some ground defense. One guy on top with boxing gloves would mount the defender and rain down strikes, while the guy on bottom would defend by moving and blocking. I did pretty good. Ray took a few blows more, but he was also decent. Then we added the buck/trap/roll defense and practiced that. Then we switched partners for the mounted rape choke defense, so Mike and I practiced that a bit. That’s a move I don’t ever anticipate having to put into practice.

Christian showed up 8 minutes before class on this Tuesday morning after a long 4th of July weekend. Wrapped up my hands, grabbed a 15 lb medicine ball, pulled out a bag, and we lined up and got going.

We did a circuit. 30 seconds each exercise.

1. Medicine ball squats
2. Knees to heavy bag
3. Medicine ball squats
4. Front kicks to heavy bag
5. Medicine ball squats
6. Groin kicks to partner’s tombstone pad
7. Medicine ball squats
8. Holding pad for partner’s groin kicks
9. Medicine ball squats
10. Knees to heavy bag
11. Medicine ball squats
12. Front kicks to heavy bag
13. Medicine ball squats
14. Groin kicks to partner’s tombstone pad
15. Medicine ball squats
16. Holding pad for partner’s groin kicks
17. Medicine ball squats

Then some abbreviated stretching before we went into… leg kicks. Great. But it went well. Teamed up with Thomas. Starting with easy, controlled kicks to the thighs. Then we held the tombstone to the thigh to receive harder kicks. I thought the downward round kick would tweak my knee too, but not so much. Finally, we did a drill where we did leg kick + 2 punch combo all the way across the mat and back. Thomas was gassing pretty hard. I was alright.

Then we did elbow, hammer fist, elbow-or-punch, clinch, and 2 knees. This was very good practice for me, focusing on efficiency and on footwork + balance.

After that, we did wrist release drills and then stress drill with level 1 chokes. I survived without further injury, but my legs are so tired!

TJ’s Saturday KM All class was packed with 3 black belts and 7 intermediate students. Started with shadow boxing and shoulder tag, mixing in calisthenics, and then we stretched. My knee held up okay.

Next we put on focus mitts and boxing gloves, and we practiced bobbing and weaving, covering, body blocks, inside defenses, with combos. Then we did combos with kicks and checking, moving on to body and head kick defenses. Very nervous time about the knee, but everybody went light on me (unlike BJJ blue belt Eric, who got me in this predicament in the first place!)

We ended with sparring, and I survived. Gave as well as I got, I guess. Didn’t get injured.

I went hiking with my family and Rob and his kids on Sunday. Afterward, we ate at Sharky’s, and after that, my left big toe became too painful to walk on. I also noticed that my groin muscles were still sore from 9 days before, my left MCL (inner knee) was still very sore and getting worse. Then on Monday I could only limp around UCLA, but by the time I got home I had strained my soleus (calf) from all the limping, and my toe hurt worse than ever. Ouch!

That ruled out training on Tuesday. I rested, and I hurt.

Wednesday was more pain and limping, but minimizing the ambulation seemed to help.

Thursday morning was a work meeting during class time, so no training again, but the pain would have precluded that possibility anyway. The foot still hurts. If it isn’t better by Saturday morning, I’m going to schedule a doctor appointment come Monday morning.

Mark’s Saturday class was essentially a review of mount and how to escape it back to guard. No submissions, just this. Mount isn’t just sitting on someone – it’s squeezing the knees together and making an A-frame above the opponent. Guard recovery when you’re mounted involves three hip bumps to get the knees to slide and collapse the A-frame before shrimping, wrapping a leg in a loose half guard, then turning the other way to secure the underhook, possibly coming to the elbow and getting back to the knees.

Then we rolled for a half hour before everybody got tired and Mark got a little disappointed in our conditioning.

I started rolling with Cosmo. He’s figured out to slam me back down when I try to sit-up sweep him, but I was able to overbalance him from half guard. That’ll be a theme for the day.

Next I rolled with Sean. He’s really slick, and we had a pretty flowy roll. I thought he was going easy on me until he tried to land that mounted triangle on me (I slipped out the back as soon as he moved to set it up, so I was proud of that) and then I thought maybe not. But neither of us were going nuts trying to submit the other. I managed to stay calm and focus on techniques, and everything was over too soon.

After that was Jen. She basically sat back and worked open guard. I was able to pass a couple times but she always recovered. I probably need to be heavier on her after I pass, but that somehow doesn’t seem very nice. Plus, Mark was coaching her through the whole thing. So I essentially worked to maintain good base as she tried to separate my arm from my body.

After that was TJ. He’s becoming a beast. Solid guard passing, heavy side control. I was able to reverse him from kesa-gatame once, which garnered applause from Mark. He ended up sweeping me and arm barring me once. Good stuff.

Next was an optional roll, which devolved into TJ showing me his triangle setup. Mark was a little dissatisfied by our lack of conditioning, but hey that was my 2nd hour of martial arts training for the day. I think I did great!

TJ’s Saturday morning class. Warm up by Eric (“Thor”) which went 10 minutes and was pretty effective. Then TJ was done with his administrative duties or whatever and took up teaching the class.

We started with Thai pads, combos with kicks. I partnered with Eric, and he taught me a little bit. It’s nice partnering with a black belt. :)

Next was a little bit of overhand punch practice into the tombstone pads. I kind of hurt my hand a little bit, but not too bad. After that, we learned that the counter to an overhand right is an overhand left while tucking the chin into the left shoulder.

Then we learned and practiced headbutts. Front headbutts, either with a grab or without. A front headbutt without grabbing the target is really a brute power move, but if you grab the target and line it up (like driving their head back first to get a straight shot at their face) it felt like I wasn’t able to generate nearly as much force. Anyway, we did side headbutts (turn while tucking your chin and then headbutt with the forehead) and back headbutts (keep chin tucked and thrust hips forward as the head smacks backward) and upward headbutts (bent over, whip the head up into the chin).

At the end, we did long gun defenses. Two techniques moving to live side, and one while moving to dead side.

The first live side defense involves first a redirection, moving the barrel to the side with your palm while blading your shoulders. From this initial redirection, drop to a lower level so the barrel is above your shoulder, so you can burst in under the gun level, sliding your redirecting hand up to the back part of the gun while the other arm underhooks the gun. From here, put weight down on the gun while sending combatives, mainly headbutts and kicks to the groin. Your hands are occupied so you can’t really throw punches or elbows. From there, re-grip the barrel toward the end (for best leverage) and torque the weapon by pulling down on the butt end while attempting to drive the barrel overhand into the face of the gunman. This should let you get the gun away.

The second live side defense starts the same (redirection and blading) but then the other hand traces down the redirecting hand to control the barrel. Then the redirecting hand is free to move down the weapon and grip it toward the butt end and put weight on the gun. Combatives are then deployed to distract the gunman and loosen the grip, and then the take-away is very similar to the first technique.

The dead side approach involves moving toward the attacker’s back after redirecting the gun the opposite way (towards their live side). After the redirect, grip the weapon and land a punch to the face with the off hand. Use the resulting reaction and/or disorientation to grab the butt end with the punching hand. Headbutt to further loosen and distract, because there’s no soft target for the knees at this angle. Then “paddle” the gun out, pushing it down and out under the attacker’s elbow to break the grip, then bringing it up and out to take it away.

I was in a gym, looking for light weight plates. I found a 15lb and a 25lb plate, a curl bar, and a single wooden collar. Good enough. I can’t remember what exercise I was doing. Shrugs? Anyway, next to me was Benson Henderson. He’s doing dips while his body is bent 90 degrees at the hips, toes pointing toward the ceiling, and 2 people hanging from his ankles. He’s really working hard and cranking out reps while his coach is encouraging him, and I’m lifting this curl bar while trying to keep the un-collared weight from slipping off the end.

After the workout, we went back to someone’s hotel room. Robbie Lawler wanted to go to Guitar Center and get a guitar so he could start learning to play. Benson Henderson confused my wallet with his cellphone, and when I stopped him and traded items, he apologized and explained with a rather vacant expression that he’d just had major dental work done that morning and he was kind of “out of it”.

Warm up for Christian’s Thursday BJJ class was just guard passing drills. Torreando pass was grabbing the pants legs, pulling the feet to the mat, pulling them out, and scooting around them to the back side for the pass. We then went over the bread and butter pass with the leg staple, and I solidified a few details I was foggy on. The knee that comes up is the one by the hand that’s holding the belt or the pants fabric.

We went over kesa-gatame again, and the arm locks from there, with a hint at the arm triangle.

Then we rolled, each time starting in kesa-gatame. I paired up with Eric first. I started on top, but he sneaked out and took my back.

Next was TJ, who triangle choked me. Then Phil, who I dominated from top position the whole time. Then Daniel at the end. I just couldn’t pass his feet!

TJ’s Thursday morning class. I hurried out after searching vainly for my hand wraps, got gas at Costco (I was very low) and made it early enough to have an emergency bathroom trip. I came into class with a left MCL sprain from 2 weeks ago.

TJ opened the class with requests. I asked to be shown the overhand punch. Thomas wanted to see covering.

We started with shadow boxing, emphasizing head movement. Then we went to shoulder tag. Then back and forth, with calisthenics mixed in. Stretching, etc.

We started with the overhand punch. You throw it by dropping your weight and winging your fist over your head, thumb down toward the ground, into the target. Holding focus mitts for overhand punches is painful! We had a group of 3 people so it was crappy.

We went over covering and countering with the same hand. That was awkward. I didn’t get a chance to practice that, because of the 3 people.

At the end we did sparring. I got a bruise in the center of my forehead from Jeff. At least I didn’t bloody his nose this time.