Love At First Strike

Woke up and raced down to meet up with Tony to do a few rounds of sparring.  I did about 15 minutes of jump rope to warm up and then we rolled to warm up as well.  After that we did about 4 rounds of 4 minutes sparring.  Good work, way to start the day.  If I could do that all day everyday I would be in heaven.

My next workout was at Next Step Conditioning with Coach James.  Myself and about 10 other Bainbridge Island Fire Department members worked for an hour doing lots of kettlebell work, snatches, cleans, swings, wood chops, and combination of all of those together.  We also did some wind sprints with resistance bands and an ab workout using the kettlebells.  Lots of sweat.  I will go heavier next time.  I used 20KG kettlebells for 90% of the workout.

I ended my training day with a great MMA workout at my adult class at Bainbridge MMA.  We worked pummeling, pummeling for position and then shooting for the double underhooks and takedown into mount and side control.  We also drilled 4 out of the 5 moves we drilled last week from the guard.  Guillotine Choke, Triangle Choke, Kimura and Hip Bump Reversal.  We first just went through the motions.  Then added some resistance and finally tried to attack them live.  I played in my training partners guard most of the night because I am trying to get better in the guard.  I did really well.

Today I did things a little different in regards to my daily workout before MMA training everyday.  I joined some fellow Fire Fighters for a workout with a local company called Next Step Conditioning.  The trainers James and Izzy are pretty hard core.  We split up into three groups based on size.  I was in the middle group.  We worked on several Olympic weight lifting drills.  Snatch, Cleans, Squats, Overhead Presses, Presses, Clean/Jerks, etc… We worked middle weights and pretty low reps.  I went heavier then my group in a few of the exercises.  I had a great time and even though I didn’t feel totally spent after the workout I knew I had put in some good work.

Next was MMA.  Adult class.  I had missed the last Adult MMA class because of the Yankees winning the World Series that night.  If you know me you know there is little that will throw me off my MMA training schedule but I had to make an exception that night and I am glad I did.

We worked some great ground and pound drills today.  Mainly staying in guard but working both top and bottom we were able to get a great workout in and learn some good skills.  We also spent time drilling 5 basic moves from bottom guard.  They are as follows:

Guillotine Choke
Hip Bump Reversal
Triangle Choke
Kimura
Straight Arm Bar

It was a good night.  I felt good and refreshed.  Good night for MMA and a great day overall.

Tony

Sal

Come and join the fun. Plus, we need training partners…

Today was a light workout.  No CrossFit, no Killsport Kettlebells.  I went down to Bainbridge Family MMA at 10 and hit the bags for 20 minutes with Tony.  After that we had 3, 4 minute rounds of ground and pound defense.  I was on bottom.  I wanted to train this so that I could better work my jiu jitsu during a real mma match, not just jiu jitsu.  It is a lot different when you have someone on top of you actively hitting you pretty damn hard.

The first round I took some good shots to the head.  I was able to use my legs, knees and wrap up his arms a bit but he was able to get me good with some shots.

The second round was a bit better.  I wrapped his arm a bit and was able to break down his posture.  He still hit me a few good times but I was able to apply a move we learned in class.  I loved to my left when he threw a big right at me and wrapped his head and arm together.  I held on super tight so he could not get his arm free.  I got so excited that I got on the side of him so I eventually had to work my way back under him.  After doing that I was able to get my feet on the inside of his legs and while holding on I swept/turned him over.  When I was on top I held the arm and head which was not set up perfectly for an arm triangle.  I moved out to the side and applied the choke.  It worked great.  I was 100 times more happy then usual because it was in a live drill and not just practicing reps.  I really had to concentrate when I was on bottom just to clear my mind enough to remember to apply the move.  Once I was able to do that it was great.  So much of this sport is just being able to remain composed, remember what you learned and have the balls to attempt it in a more live situation.

The third round was pretty good too.  I was able to get on top for a bit, scramble and also work my bottom guard.  All in all it was a good workout.  Made me want to work more and more.  I need more training partners so we can all get better with more sparring and training.  Come on peeps, come out and play. I will come to your park or you can come to mine.  Doesn’t matter to me…

Thanks to everyone who helps me on this journey.  I love it and continue to work hard.

Today I did 3 workouts and I felt great the entire time.  Met up at Station 23 around 4:30pm and we did the following WODs:

First WOD from CrossfitFootball.com

12 right arm KB/DB Power Snatch 1.5 pood/55 lbs
12 left arm KB/DB Power Snatch 1.5 pood/55 lbs
12 Push Ups
25 Double Unders

Second WOD from KillSportKettlebells.com

15 minutes of pain and misery!!
Do as many rounds as you can in 15 minutes of the following:
1. kettlebell swings x 10
2. double kettlebell clean/squat/press x 5

Third workout was my regular MMA training.  We worked hard today but it was very technical.  We were tested on the moves we had learned the past 2 weeks which inlcuded:

Takedowns 1,2,3 – These are all start as single leg takedowns but end up as 3 different moves. I will shoot video Thursday of them and post to this blog entry so you can see the three types.

Far Arm Attack 1,2 – These two moves start in side control. Pin opponents near arm and then attack far arm with either an Americana or Straight Arm Bar.

Total Control Arm Bar and Total Control Arm Triangle were the other two moves we were tested on.  Again I will film on Thursday and post that night.

After regular training I rolled with Tony and then with Rick.  I felt that I really did well with Rick.  He got me in an ankle lock but I defended against his guard and a Triangle very well.

Another really good Adult MMA class in the books.  We worked mostly standup tonight and with that, mostly kicks.  We focused on low and mid right and left kicks AKA 9s and 10s.  We first worked the cut kick or low 9 or 10 to the inside of the opponents leg.  The kick usually lands somewhere on the inside of their thigh/knee or calf.  After that we worked mid 9s and 10.

When class was over Brian and I rolled for a few rounds.  It was a great session.  He is a tough guy and he keeps getting better and better so I have to do the same if I want to be able to “keep up with the Jones’s.”  I was able to pull off the straight arm bar from the pitstop/triangle choke position.  I was psyched!

Met up with the boys again at Station 23 for out WOD.  We rocked HELEN today from the CrossFit archives.  This is what she entails…

Warm up:
1000m row
50 double-unders (200 singles)
(start with double-unders if rowers are in use)

WOD:
“Helen”
400m
21 KB swings*
12 pull-ups
3 rounds for time

My time was 10 minutes.  It is not exact because we haven’t mapped out an exact 400M run. We also added on 100 situps for good measure.  I did a mixture of using the decline bench, normal situp and also used a stability ball.  100 is a lot with no breaks.

For MMA we had a great session.  We worked 3 simple moves from guard.  Conventional arm bar, transition to triangle choke and then back to an arm bar but from the “pitstop” position.  It is applied by turning the wrist the opposite way and moving arm to other side (opposite of how you would have it in a triangle choke) of body.  I will tape the moves tonight along with the moves I learned in NY and post them. We also did some conditioning.  Tabata round of situps attached to partners hips.  So we jumped up on partners hips, they balanced out and we rocked situps from there.  I couldn’t believe this young guy Ray could actually keep me up but he did.  We alternated between those situps and wheelbarrel pushups.  Partner grabbed out ankles and we did pushups while moving in a circular motion.

We finished up with 2 tabata (20 seconds on 10 seconds active rest for 8 rounds)  of  bottom and top position.  So for 1 round (8 rounds of 20/10 split) we were on bottom trying to sweep, submit or pull guard and 1 round of top position trying to submit, hold position and move from position to position (mount, side control, knee in belly, north/south.  Great workout, loved the drill work on arm bar/triangle/arm bar.  Learned something new and can’t wait to try it live.

Below are some videos from this weekends open mat.