blog of the one armed bandit

[stricker]

Tues
===

MMA.
warm up
boxing drills into underhooks, then thai clinch, mixing up clinch work, wrestling for position etc
rolled a few rounds at the end.

feelin ****e, sore all over, poor recovery from last night, bit of a sleepless night as well as not stretching or eating properly after training. sort it out mate!

[stricker]

Wed
===

MMA
warm up
2 rnds shadow
5x3 min rounds on thai pads
5x3 min rounds holding pads

thai neck pummelling
slip/duckunder to take back from thai clinch, then added a throw, drilled.
thai neck sparring with knees.

neck sparring was hell, badly outweighed by everyone yet again

[stricker]

Thurs
====

wing chun.

didnt do much in the end, i think ive pulled a muscle somewhere in my back, had a spasmy pain stacking up judo mats last night and its been hurting since, must have been after all the neck wrestling.

anyway no weights tonight, and im gonna take a few days off...

[stricker]

just a quick upate : think the pain was a tear in right side of lat dorsi near spine/lower ribs, pretty much cleared up now, only hurts a little in wierd movements. skipped training tonight as well to be safe, back to it tomorrow, cant wait

[stricker]

Tues
===

MMA. warm up, footwork drills with level change+spralws, rounds of pummelling, intervals of jumping switch lunge squats (not like usual lunges, drop the rear knee right down and keep torso vertical hands behind head).

big load of clinch work, pummelling, wrestling for underhooks, arm drags, duckunders, thai pummelling, techniques from the plumm, lots of clinch wrestling.

groundwork. drilled different entries to triangle, and another quite advanced technique.

then a couple of rounds rolling.

dunno why but i was feelin weak going into training, bit of a lack of sleep and eating rich foods in my weekend off, instead of my usual diet of a ton of complex carbs, veggies and protein sources. legs feelin sore from jumpin lunges

[stricker]

Wed
===

MMA. warm up, shadow boxing with sprawls and intervals of pummelling and **** lunge jump things, quads killin.

?x5 min rounds holding thai pads
?x5 min rounds on the pads

then did some groundwork

[stricker]

Thurs
====

pt 1 : wing chun

pt 2 : judo with mma club. warm up, breakfalls, drilled a few throws, then stand up randori then rolling.

im away a few days next week with work so switched around my weights day. always a bit nuts when i do wing chun then judo, no break between work and wing chun then i got half an hour to bust to judo...

[stricker]

Fri
==

a new muay thai sparring night just started up this week

5x3min rounds holding the pads
5x3min rounds working the pads

then sparring...

went out afterwards, on my way out to mma training now

[stricker]

Sat
===

MMA.
warm up. shadow boxing, with sprawls and intervals of pummelling and jumping switch lunges
5x5 min rounds holding thai pads, 1 round on ground
5x5 min rounds on thai pads, 1 out on ground, 1 out lifting and gnping heavy bag

groundwork. went over a bunch of techniques for achilles lock, heel hooks, knee bars etc inc defenses. bruised up legs from thai sparring last night suck.
then rolled a few rounds.

going for a soak in the bath then a siesta zzzzzzzz

[stricker]

Mon
===

weights.
quick warm up
sumo DL :
10 @ 30kg +bar (small plates so greater ROM)
5 @ 50kg +bar
5 @ 70kg +bar
2 sets of 3 @ 90kg +bar

had to stop at 3 reps both sets then called it a day cos :

technique felt really good but i felt weak as hell. woke up this morning with the early stages of a head cold. after 2nd set i could feel some pain again around my mid back (think i had a tear at bottom of latissumus dorsi) so packed it in.

did a few pistols, but my knee was feelin dodgy from takin too many kicks sparring followed by working leglocks the mornin after, so then did some bw step ups onto picnic table, wasnt so bad.

then a few sets of tricep press ups on fists and band rows then some pendulums

****ed off. got a 5am start tomorrow and a long day

[stricker]

tues work was 5am start, finished late in the evening, then wed was work xmas party, so out late... feeling ****ed but anway :

Thurs
====

wing chun 1 and a bit hours

then frantic rush to

mma/judo session. warm up, drilled single leg takedown variation. then some groundwork technique, looked at half guard.

then rolling the rest of the session.

[stricker]

Sat
==

MMA. warm up, couple of round shadow boxing + sprawls

extended groundwork session, technique then rolling.

[stricker]

Sun
===

Early morning MMA seminar with Vitor Ribeiro aka Shaolin, one of the worlds best submission fighters in mma right now, won his fight on Cage Rage last night and is off back to brazil this afternoon.

Some really good ground agility drills eg armbar switch from side to side, moving about after sprawling. really good that one, gonna spend some time on it. another really nice standup balance/footwork drill thats gonna get done.

then some stand up stuff, few different takedowns, timing them off punching combos and punch defense etc. some clinch stuff (eg duckunders from pummelling)

then back on the ground for a more technique stuff.

quite a few bits he showed i'd seen before, even defenses to some of his submissions, but the way the guy moves is just awesome. the gym was literally freezing, gi pants, hoodie and a beanie for most of it, most people were wearing socks which made things tricky with the lack of friction, i ditched them and my toes felt like they were gonna fall off...

[stricker]

another 8 weeks later :

the bits in quotes include first summary post, and the feedback 8 weeks later, then now how things are another 8 weeks again, check im following up on failures/sucesses.

+ training mma 3x per week again + wing chun 1x per week gonna add 1-2x s&c sessions and another 1-2 mma sessions before long
> all this training just hasnt happened.

definitely stepped up. I'm theoretically (ie barring exceptions due to work/minor injury etc) training mma/thai/judo 6 days a week, which is good. Not exceptional, but good. Next level would be 2x a day, not up for that yet...

stuck to my current s&c program nicely but it badly needs expanding, especially a circuits/plyo/running session.

few schedule **** ups and now this minor back injury have screwed up my lifting, and im missing it big time. still sort of making progress though with Sumo DLs, still braindead about expanding program. im addressing lower\whole body max strength, but need to look at upper body max strength (without giving shoulders grief), whole body muscular endurance, and explosiveness\speed strength. gonna add sledgehammer training, a friend is dropping a tractor tyre round some time this week, and i found out an ole buddy of mine was a bawla-certified oly lifting coach, so when time permits im gonna go see him and get some coaching to do cleans, or do some med-ball throw type stuff. now its winter we've been doing circuits on tues nights at mma anyway so i'll give myself a little leeway here...

+ groundwork : surviving well and getting a few good triangles (to be fair we have been drilling them a lot but still where the hells the armbar guillotine kimura etc gone?)
no real change here.
- ground work : overall strategy off, getting lost/stuck in places. also been working off my back way too much, did get mount tonight once tho. also somehow lost all my subs except the triangle. this just needs me sorting my head out and drilling a few techniques and positional stuff again. second thoughts maybe its cos my arms are so weak im liking using my legs?
big improvement here, mma wrestling game improved a fair bit. still bit of a tendency to work off back, but thats tightened up too. subs still could do with getting back on but this is lower priority than other stuff.

actually similar to last progress, but more so. my groundwork attributes are shooting ahead. during my time off i did a lot of watching good ground guys and figured out a bit about how they move, the flexibilty/strength work and my training approach to groundwork are paying off big time. the coaches have all given me some nice compliments about my feeling, sensitivity, position, some funny comments about stickiness etc especially guard game. wing chun and wing chun people have definitely given me a big head start thinking about these higher-level attributes. still need to tighten up strategy, go for dominant position instead of gettin subs off back, still holes in the game, still lots of details to learn to get submissions. but, im addressing those too, doing my homework going over ground strategy in the various positions etc with some videos, my notes, writing up better notes etc...

- shoulders : need to improve strength, power, speed, endurance
not stepped up on the s&c front. physio program has gone stale for me dont think its doing much. still lacking strength speed endurance, still getting sore after training, left shoulder still clunks, right still giving me grief especially in wing chun.

i read the siff article talking about "functional neromuscular conditioning"/pnf and a few other arguments talking about isolation vs movements so ive pretty much sacked off external rotations etc and been looking at more circular and diagonal stuff, which did me a WORLD of good. i had a little soreness and actually havent been doing ANY upper body work apart from hitting the pads, pummelling, rolling etc, but have still been putting on bulk on my shoulders, must be the DLs. i think the thing is addressing the balance and mechanics etc still not really addressing strenght, power, speed endurance etc. adding sledgehammer work is gonna be really good i suspect.

- hip pain feels like its coming back which im ****ed off at cos of the stretching ive been doing
flexibility and mobility work really paying off on the ground but thai kicks still not good. really need to get back kicking the heavy bag or some leisure time on the pads.

made a lot of progress here, finally kicking hard again, getting a good thwack out the pads left kick still has a way to go before im happy. been concentrating on a few more yoga stretches, pidgeons and a few other hip openers. i played about with scorpions a while back and didnt get much from them but now they've clicked with me. i need to be consistent with this, when i dont do it, things suck.

- got to sort my lead arm punches out - jab and L hook have gone to **** and i worked them hard before
slight improvement i guess, still need work

this is no longer a glaring weak point. got a few padwork sessions in with some of the boxers at the club which have helped with technique and body mechanics. actually i do have problems keeping my hands up late on, add some bicep curls to s&c, or maybe just tired from groundwork etc ??

- stand up : got bashed about in sparring tonight
little progress. still badly need to put the hours in with the boxing gloves...

im doing the the new fri night muay thai sparring sessions so things are looking good funny my 2 main sparring partners are now gonna be the thai guy i took down in mma and another guy who's my weight but a bit shorter and had very good powerlifting numbers, now had 2 thai fights, and a very serious rep on the streets

+ kept up wing chun 1x per week too.
- wing chun : aint done any serious chi sao in so long im sure its just gone out the window. been keeping up form practice just need to step it up
actually feeling happy about this for no real reason. gonna be doing some more wing chun too...

wing chuns ticking over. hopefully 2007 will see some more sunday sessions...

To sum up, Yes, im back to training mma 3x per week absolute minimum, done 6x one week! aint been back to yoga but picked up some more info and upped my practice along with bodyflow bits etc wing chun sunday happened, but only once, see what 2007 has in store... weights program still aint done **** on, other conditioning still sucking. but... i have been putting the work in, and its paying off

[stricker]

Now looking forward :

right at this moment im really only doing mma training, but for a few weeks the thing that payed off the most for me was sort of body structure work. the combo of weights and yoga/bodyflow/stretching and other exercises like that do me the WORLD of good, and pay off in everything, wing chun, thai kicks, groundwork, my ****ty slumped over posture at work, recovery/injury prevention, the whole lot. vitor ribeiro had just amazing agility on the ground, thats a big thing i notice in the better ground people is they move fast through perfect positions and alighment that requires speed and strength through a range of motion, especially in the hips, so its not just static stretching needed.

in ma/fighting the attribute approach ive had in mind is also paying off, ive been making the most progress on the ground/wrestling but my wing chun is changing too. i still need to address the no-contact part of this more

So, my dual focus is :
1. fighting training, with a fighting attribute focus (sensitivity, timing, position, etc) regardless of style ie in thai/boxing stand up, mma clinch work, wrestling, groundwork, different flavours of wing chun, ... and
2. body structure work (not like wing chun body structure i mean physical) which means weight training (im STILL digesting various t-nation articles on this, sonnons stuff, looking at janda approach etc) more yoga (found the good **** for my hips), just need to crack what to do for upper body s&c with crappy shoulders...

funny my wing chun coach has been on for years about weight training to address structural problems and body mechanics. i gotta punch myself in the face

my plan for the next little while is a bit up in the air but the obvious things are :

keep up training level (doing something 6x per week, barring exceptions)
keep up and do even more yoga/bodyflow/stretching with strength training, address strutural balance even MORE, dig deeper into that side of things
groundwork : work more for top position, fill in strategy\holes in game, tighten submission details (lower priority)
stand up : thai boxing sparring friday nights from now on!

now im a little confused as to what my exact plan is going to be, as i had lowered the priority of weights thursdays and doing judo instead as there was a sub wrestling tourney i wanted to do that's now been cancelled. I wanted to compete somehow before my op, which is still down for Jan 2nd, but the last mma fights were a few weeks ago and no way i was ready for that...
im really enjoying training mma/thai 6x a week, doing the judo and thai seperately means i can improve much more, but the mixed sessions are still the best. problem is it leaves me a bit stuck for when to do s&c, and i suspect doing it on sundays will **** me up if i never have a day off. dont know how im gonna fit it all in...

as for the shoulders well theyre actually feeling pretty good the last few weeks. I have an option of postponeing/cancelling, but i have to decide... If i postpone it till some time 3-4 months into next year can i achieve something in that time, maybe even fight mma, depending on timing etc? or should i get it out the way and done? do i do more weights or more mma?

xmas is coming up anyway so its a **** time of year for non-training obligations...

so what i need to do if i concentrate on s&c is :
keep up (/get back on/improve) program, but address upper body strength, muscular endurance and explosiveness. all with an eye to structural balance.
specifically, add sledgehammer training and maybe some cleans (if i can sort the coaching out) or med ball throws, plyos etc

but, dont know how im gonna fit it in with trainin mma nearly every day... or which sessions to drop, when i need rest day etc...

**** that was a long post, ive been writing it up over the last few days.

anyway im probably now gonna pack the blog in. I've found it very helpful for keeping me going back when i felt like not training/being lazy and this post and the few like it before where i address my training plans/weaknesses etc pretty helpful for me. but now im over the worst of not training, i've gone from one arm to no arms and back to two arms, so i think im done with this. it takes time and apart from a few pm's im not seeing the value too much, and i dont think i post much thats interesting to read.

if i get the shoulder op done, i'll probably be back with another blog...