ouch - man-handled again

I went to our traditional class last night.  It's not really that traditional really but we do a lot of judo.  I can't seem to get to the gym before 6:30 so I was about 35 minutes late for class.  When I got there John had the guys working on a guillotine.  The guys that are training at the gym right now are from a different gym, which is transitioning to a new space now, and they all fight.  So the class was no-gi, even though on Tues. it is usually a gi class.

Anyway, when I got there I initially worked with this guy who is really good at judo and that was fun.  Then I worked with another fighter, which was alright but I was learning a new technique and he was giving a lot of resistance even though we were supposed to just be drilling.  It was pretty frustrating.  We were doing a throw off a failed guillotine.  It was pretty sweet, although I almost never end up in this position.

We rolled for about 3 rounds.  The first couple of rounds went alright.  I rolled with some pretty inexperienced guys so I got to work on a few things, like sweeps.  Then I ended up rolling with a guy that was definitely more experienced than me and of course a lot stronger.  My shoulder still hurts.  I would have thought that because the guy had some experience and could clearly tell that he was more advanced than I was that he wouldn't feel the need to crank every submission like it was going out of style.  I don't understand why guys feel like that have to get all fucking hard core I mean I tapped almost immediately and he still basically ripped my arm off.  It's just frustrating.

Then I went over to brazil academy and did jiujitsu.  The regular instructor is in brazil right now so a brown belt taught class.  It was cool because we got to drill a bunch of armbars and no one likes drilling armbars more than me.  I think armbars will end up being my go to move.

We rolled 3 rounds in that class also.  I got to roll with another female blue belt, which is nice because we are similar sized and experience.  Then I rolled with Ninja, he's a purple belt and he's really technical.  Finally, I rolled with a new guy, which I was really nervous about.  He wasn't all spastic, I was so relieved.

OMG Travel and Work

It's hard to believe but I haven't gone to jiujitsu class since my fight.  I was out of town for a few days during the week after my fight.  I have been traveling way too much for work lately.  I suppose my trip to Vegas recently was not for work and I did stay in Albuquerque for fun over the weekend, after a conference.  But that's beside the point.  Work is taking away all my training time.

I knew what I was getting myself into when I took a job at a big law firm though.  I suppose they pay me a good amount to be at their beck and call for these first couple of years.  I have been training long enough to know that I am not going to stop training, which I think is what most people worry about when they don't get to train for a while. 

I got to roll for a few rounds tonight.  It was fun.  I find it hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago I was in fight shape.  Anyway, I didn't make it up to the studio until close to the end of class.  I got to drill two techniques and then I rolled 3 - 3 min. rounds.  The first guy I rolled with had a little bit of a smell, I really wish the guys would pay a little more attention to hygiene, although I'm sure they don't care as much about rolling with someone who smells all sweaty.  There wasn't anything particularly memorable about any of my rolls tonight :-T.  Anyway, I plan to go up to the studio and do some training with Shawn and his guys.  I am really looking forward to it.

I hope that I can get in some kind of groove now that I am done traveling for a while.  I just had a couple of conferences to attend.  I'm kind of racking up the frequent flyer miles, maybe I'll get upgraded next time. :-) haha not likely.  I can hope though.

3 - 1

I have an MMA record of 3 - 1 now.  I had a fight on April 1, 2010.  It was amazing.  The woman I fought was so tough and she had good clean technique.  The fight lasted all three rounds.  I am not going to lie, I was surprised.  I gave my opponent everything I had and she just hung in there.

One thing that I was disappointed about was my ground game.  I got in dominant position a few times and was unable to capitalize on it.  I took her back at least twice and I got the mount.  When I had the back I just couldn't finish the rear naked.  I really need to work on my subs with the MMA gloves on next time. 

That's all I have for now.  I just pulled an all nighter to get some research out to my new supervisor and I have to hurry and get my sh*t ready for work, oh yeah and go running. 

Oh Geez

I think I pulled my groin muscle.  I didn't realize I had done anything until I took a break for a bit to drive from my judo class to my jiujitsu class.  As soon as I got out of the car I knew something was amiss.

Aside from the groin thing classes tonight were really good.  In judo we worked on a failed osoto to a harai goshi.  It was pretty cool.  I really like working on these throws.  I just wonder how long it will be before I can actually get a throw on someone in sparring.  I have yet to get someone but I know one of these days I will get it.  The cool thing is that every time I train I get a little closer.

I rolled with my friend Nick for a couple of rounds.  He has a big fight coming up so hopefully I'll get to train with him a bunch because he should be at the gym a lot over the next couple of months.  I almost got him in an inverted triangle.  I was on his back and managed to get my legs locked when he tried to go out the back door.  It feels pretty good to get stuff like that, even though Nick's skill level is so much higher than mine that I know I only get the sub attempts that he lets me get haha.

I rolled with a couple of other guys for a few minutes.  One of them took a heel to the face while we were rolling and there was blood all over the place.  I felt kind of bad.  It was not intentional and that sort of thing happens but I still felt bad.

We worked on butterfly sweep and passing the butterfly guard off the sweep attempt.  I was really glad we worked on the butterfly sweep today.  I really want to have good sweeps and I never work on them enough.  Also I noticed at least one detail of the sweep that I knew but I am pretty sure I don't do usually.  I think I almost always pull the person over me instead of falling more to the side.  I love when I leave class and see a mistake I have been making.

Ahhhh my groin muscle is so sore.  I'm taking some motrin and hitting the hay.

Finally Signed Back Up

I finally signed up for jiujitsu classes again at Brazil Academy.  I am really going to enjoy taking classes up there.

I went to class on Thursday night and it was awesome.  We did one throw, I thought it was called Morote Seoinage but the instructor said that it was called something else because of the starting grip.  The way I had initially learned this throw a little while back was by grabbing the collar straight across but this was a cross collar grip.  I'm not very knowledgeable about judo so I'm not really sure.  Anyway, this type of throw is one of the ones I really like and I want to get good at it.

The second thing we did was a De La Riva guard sweep.  I know absolutely nothing about De La Riva guard so it will be awesome to start to expand my knowledge base of the various guards.  I have been trying to work on X-guard but so far I haven't had much success with it.

We finished off class with a fun tournament style game.  We separated into teams and there were four of us in each bracket.  We just did 3 min rounds because of the number of people there.  I ended up rolling with two white belt guys.  The first guy was really strong and had pretty good technique and the second was more squirly than the first so we were moving a lot more.

Bottom Line - I'm really glad I signed back up for jiujitsu classes.  I'm only going two days a week but I think it will make a big difference.

Fight in April

I told my instructor that I want to fight in April.  I am hoping that they can find me an opponent who puts in as much time training as I do.  Although I haven't been training as much lately as I would like to.  I'm getting back into it though.

I went to 1 5:45 a.m. class last week.  I think I will start going at least 3 times a week while training for the fight.  I haven't been as busy at work lately so I am fairly positive I can make it to most evening classes.

There is a black belt BJJ guy that is teaching in KC for the next 6 weeks.  I am pretty excited, I am going to sign back up for the classes at the Brazil Academy, in Olathe, again.  So I'll continue to train BJJ up there even after the black belt leaves.  I really like the atmosphere up there, the people are nice and no one is trying to kill anyone when we roll.

I just tried out my first class with the black belt this past Thursday.  It was pretty cool we worked on a take down off an ipon seonage (sp?) attempt.  I will definitely have a lot more time to train now, which I'm pretty excited about.

Winter Wonderland

Last night was the first time this week we had regular class.  Mon. and Tues. we got snowed out.  It was a dosey.  I only made it up to the gym for X-Camp, which is like a boot camp class but it's usually a bit more intense.  Anyway, it looked simple enough on the whiteboard but it was sooo hard and I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder haha.  Here's what we did -

1 - 20
Start with one and one then go to two and two and then three and three, so on and so forth until you get 20 reps of each exercise.  After you hit 20 reps of each exercise set you move on to the next exercise set.

Dumbells ( I used 10 pounds for this workout)
Squats / push-ups
Sumo high pull / push press
Bent rows / bicep curls
Narrow squat jumps / tricep extensions
sit ups / leg lifts

It doesn't really look that bad but trust me it will give you that wabbly (I don't know how to spell that) feeling in your arms.  My legs didn't really feel it that much.

I'm hoping to hit up traditional judo/tkd class tonight and then do at least some of the jiujitsu class.  We will see if it's in the stars.