Aching..

I had to find a new mouse before I started typing, I've been using a portable laptop mouse and they are so tiny it was starting to hurt my hand. I popped 4 asprin at 8 AM this morning and they have done nothing to ease that pain.

Anywho, I did some boxing last night. In practice, hitting the pads, I'm can be fast and do the right footwork but when I get out there with someone who is throwing counter punches and is better than I am I look like a rag doll. I have a nice big red mark on my cheek from taking one to the face. Also got a beat up lip and a scrap or two on my chin from where the gloves hit. Nothing serious at all, but I love all the bruises and bumps I get after rolling. It just means that I was actually trying.

Lol, the picture make it look like I scratched my face with my hand and have a litttle mark. I swear, it looks worse in person!

My hands are getting better, but they are not anywhere near where they need to be. I figure I can use what I know now just to close the distance and let the wrestling take over. We worked on Jab -> Right Hook Body Punch. Jab -> Right hook to head combo. That'll work great for me as I can knock them off and land one to the body. Knock them again and make them think I'll hit the body and watch their face get rocked, thats the theory anyway. Also worked on some basic 1,2,3, nothing impressive. Just trying to learn how to box, again, so I can close the distance.

I'm going to spend some time this week watching some beginning boxing videos on YouTube and some kicking videos. I really like the idea of the inside leg kick to square my opponent up, because a square opponent is the best to shoot a double leg on. Harder to sprawl because one of your legs isn't already back.

Time for some more work, until Monday...

The Wednesday After

Update coming tomorrow

Another day another bruise

Got to roll in Lexington last night with 3 new guys, I learned a few defenses to triangles and arm bars but what I really took home is that I have natural talent. The first guy I rolled with weighed 145 lbs, the same as me, and I tossed him around like a rag doll. 3 rounds later, I lost his arm due to sweat (and the only reason he had my back was because I was in scarf hold and let him hook my leg...) and he RNCd me. After we got done all he could say is "man, you are damn strong for you weight." That put this huge bout of confidence in me because I realized that I can toss around someone at my weight in an MMA fight no problem. Take them down, mount them, and beat them senseless. Apparently I have a new game plan!

Guy #2 pretty much mopped the floor with me, but he is a stout 180 lbs of muscle. I was able to stop some of his attacks but about every 30 - 45 seconds I was tapping due to a hold. This was inevitable as I am rolling with guys who have 3 years of experience on my 3 weeks.

Guy #3, the instructor, obviously kicked my ass. But after we got done he told me that I had a great jiu jitsu base, that I had the explosive power needed for MMA and that I've got a TON of natual talent. I laughed and tried to explain it's not natural, but he went on and told me try and make it up to the gym as much as I can, even though it's an hour and a half away. He wants to see my hands before he makes his final decision on when I should fight, but if my hands were even moderate enough to set up for a take down he said mid summer, which is about April or June. Not to bad considering I wanted to fight in March.

Reflecting

Weight: 148.8
Goal: 144

Got some more training in last night, rolled around for about an hour before stopping to work on somee technique. Feeling better about myself as I was able to continuously roll without getting caught, much. Was able to work rubber-guard and Kesa-gatame quite a bit, but after rolling around for about an hour and getting my leg caught in various positions I realized that I still don't fully grasp the fundamentals off Jiu Jitsu. During the ride home I realized that alot of the positions I fell in could have been used to sweep my opponent and/or setup for other moves. I'm still very much stuck on a few set flow moves, and when I go for something out of the ordinary I don't have the correct angle or hold to secure the lock.

During the ride home I drifted off and started thinking about all the different variations of guard that I could have pulled that night. I started second guessing my core learnings, but thats when I was snapped out of it by Latitia and was told not to worry about it. The only reason I was second guessing anything is because I am headed to Lexington today to roll with a group of new guys, all which are still 40 lbs heavier than me.

On that note.....it makes it difficult to train properly when a guy 40 lbs heavier than you sits on your chest. That 40 lbs makes a huge difference when trying to buck someone off but on the same accord if I try to buck him off and I am able to move him then I figure that I can move a 145 lbs guy without a problem. I also find that anyone who is 40 lbs heavier than me is more than likely stronger than I am and thus it is easier for them to defend any move that I try but AGAIN if I am able to roll into it with a guy who is bigger AND more talented than I am, then taking on a 0-0-0 guy in my first fight should be that much easier.

I'm going over what I need to do in my head. What I should do is try and create a flow chart....I'm going to go fire up Visio and try that out.



I decided to pen it all, but thats what I've come up with so far. The top are the  most common moves I use form Guard, Middle is transitions and the bottom are the steps of rubber guard. Sorry it's small....I took the PIC using my phone.

And we're off..

Current Weight: 151.4
Weight Goal: 144

I've decided it was time to start yet another blog, but this time to track my results, hopefully, daily to the day of my first Amateur MMA fight.

I've been training for almost 6 months, my off nights have been strength training nights (push-ups, sit-ups, dips, pull-ups, chin-ups. The list goes on and on). Up until just after Christmas I've only been able to train 2 nights a week because of personal restrictions in regards to where I work out at and where my house is located, but I've been able to push that to 3 days a week now that Christmas is over and I've got a little for money in the bank.

I started out not knowing a thing about Jiu Jitsu, I had no idea what an Arm-Bar was and no idea how to incorporate it into what I already knew about Wrestling. Mind you, I wasn't some ub3r awesome wrestler in High School; I was on Varsity for 2 years but didn't go further than our local tournaments. No states, no nationals. Nadda. I'll look back on how I feel about Jiu Jitsu now and compare it to how I felt about Wrestling 4 years ago. 4 years ago I just did it because I enjoyed it, didn't take any time to learn anything beyond what was taught in class, just got by with whatever I knew and left all my cards on the table when I left. Now, 4 years later, I'm engaged and with the engagement came meeting her family, this is when I met Aaron. When he was able to roll (he has since been in an accident and is unable to work out or roll because of it) he started to teach me how the ins and outs of Jiu Jitsu. I quickly took to it because I missed the sense of pride that came with rolling around the mat and winning a match in front of a crowd. 

Where was I going with this? Oh yea.

Once Aaron got me hooked on MMA and Jiu Jitsu I started training. Watching videos. Reading books. Downloading manuals. Anything I can do to better myself I am doing; thus it brings us to today. Tonight, after work, I am off to the gym to roll around for the first time this week and continue to improve myself. All I can think about is what I to transition into, what I want to throw, how I can make it work better. I have 5 GB of JJ videos on my iPod and I continue to scour YouTube daily for more and more instructional.

I'll leave it there.