Back at it in the 'Peg

[WinterPalm]

I haven't made any new posts on my last blog on here and since my training all around hasn't been what it should be, plus work has been so time consuming...I'm now back in school and returning to my usual training frequency. I'm hoping to learn from some mistakes from my last blog and overall quality of life to improve both that and my training.

Things to change:

Previously I was doing too many two a days, and that is fine in competition season but otherwise, too draining to be doing constantly.
Therefore I'm going to be doing six days a week with two of those days having a BJJ session in the morning and then a strength and conditioning session in the evening.
The split will be:
Mon: BJJ + Strength and Conditioning
Tues:San Da
Wed: BJJ
Thurs: San Da Sparring/Wrestling
Fri: BJJ/Extra Pad session + Strength and Conditioning
Sat: San Da

I'm going to split my strength and conditioning work with a quick warmup of Turkish getups and windmills, then a strength component, and then finish with a few intense cardio circuits mixing kettlebells, sandbags, and bodyweight stuff.

Two of the three days I train BJJ are no-gi so I will most likely be aiming at competing in no-gi this coming October but I might do gi as well depending on how things go.

Things that are good:
The past month my BJJ training has been sporadic at best but my San Da has been very consistent and I'm getting more and more comfortable and improving all areas of the game. I've actually drastically increased my striking conditioning and now do 3 5min rounds of Thai pads after a long class of drilling and conditioning.

Goals:
Although I have things I am working for in regards to strength and conditioning I've decided that my way of measuring has always been just to get better at fighting so numbers and time amounts don't really appeal to me at this point.
That said, I'd like to press the 55pd kettlebell for 3 reps a side as this still eludes me!
For San Da it is just to get my clinch game and throwing off of striking up to par.

Competition goals: I'm going to do a submission wrestling tourney. May do MMA around New Years, and then fight San Da sometime in the new year in Vancouver.

[WinterPalm]

13 Sept 2008

San Da

Warmed up with jogging and footwork, rolls, breakfalls, and tumbling drills. Then did 2 2min rounds of 30sec each of: 1 Jab-Shoot, Jab-Cross, Sprawl, 2 Bear crawl, 3 penetration stepping, 4 crab walks.

Then did uch komi with shoot in and lift, seoi nage with lift, hip toss with lift. Ten each.
Then worked on entering off the 50/50 clinch into a fireman's carry/dump. Then worked the fireman's carry throw off of a right overhand.
Then did some Thai clinching off of hooks and some defense in the form of a body lock.
Did 3x5min Thai pads. One of the bigger guys has been holding the pads for me and I'm loving his style. We added counters kicks in the form of catching and going into position, every now and then he'd shoot on me and make me sprawl, off of his right overhand I'd block and do a fireman's carry lift. Plus he'd yell at me to shoot and I'd lift him. Being 180 and him being 210, I'm getting much stronger at these lifts and his weight is not really a problem anymore.

Then I stayed and did about 7-8 rounds of heavybag on the new Thai bag I bought for the gym.
I've also stopped using 14oz gloves on the bag and only use small bag gloves in a desire to improve my striking power and alignment.

All together a good hard workout much needed after many weeks of work and minimal workouts.

[WinterPalm]

14 Sept 2008

Sunday is still a day off.
Sat through 8 hrs of First Aid/CPR training...whoopee.

Tomorrow is BJJ in the morning and then I have to finish painting a house so I might not be able to do my strength and conditioning. But I am going to give er hard on sparring and get some solid work in. I need to get ready to compete in 5 weeks.

[WinterPalm]

15 Sept 2008

BJJ
Worked on a choke counter to seoi nage throw. Then worked extensively on passing the guard with one guy on his back and the other guy standing.
Then rolled with the instructor twice and a blue belt for a long time. Hit some good stuff but got caught in the end with an odd arm bar variation I've never seen before.
Tweaked my kimura a bit and learned an interesting way to defend the Americana.

Managed to do some kettlebell in the evening...not nearly as much as I'd like but beetter than nothing:
TGU
40X2
55X2
75X2X2
55X5

Did three single presses with the 55 and a set of rows with the 75.

[WinterPalm]

16 Sept 2008

San Da

Only one guy today who's very green so we did some basic stuff.

Warmed up with 3X3:30 min skipping. Did some mobility stuff, and then straight into mechanics drills for lead straight and rear straight. Worked on his footwork and showed him front and rear push kicks...two basic skills to get started on.
Then we did a circuit 3X with 20 sec intervals and a 20 sec rest period after 2min of:
Jab-Shoot(penetration step), pushups, 1-2 sprawl, jumping squats, skip knees, and bear crawl sprints. This felt good!

Then 5X3min on the heavy bag. 1rd punches, 1rd kicks, 3rds both.
Short but sweet.

[WinterPalm]

17 Sept 2008
BJJ

No instructor so we warmed up and then worked on guard passing. I was with a female and a male blue belt so I had the pleasure of learning some great things from them and then we sparred.
In between bouts I would get advice and learned a bunch of new stuff and made improvements on my technique. All in all we sparred for about an hour.
Felt good and actively went for things like triangles that I don't normally do. It was good!

Now off to wrestle for two hours!

[WinterPalm]

17 Sept 2008 cont.

Wrestling

Worked on a double shoot off of an underhook with wrist control. Then worked a duck under from the same position.
Then worked on a pinning manuever with the dude on his stomach and you roll him over you, you bridge on your head, and land on him to score points or something.

Good fun. No sparring yet but probably a good thing as I'm still learning drills and at once a week my learning curve is going to be long!

[WinterPalm]

18 Sept 2008

No sparring. Main sparring partner bailed and I was tired. Probably should have gone anyway.

19 Sept 2008

BJJ
No Gi today. Worked on a bit of armbar stuff and then a plethora of sparring. A 205er that hasn't been around was here and I was hoping he'd be around. Dude has an incredible top game and will not give up his position so we had some fun rounds.
Then him and I worked on some techniques from a book he just picked up on Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Then we worked on some no-gi judo throws and shared info. Learned a couple of modified grips that may or may not work for san shou but were otherwise good to learn.

Stayed after and did about 7-8 3min rounds on the Thai bag.

Kettlebell
TGU
40X2
55X2
70X2X2

4 Rounds of a strength couplet with 30 sec rests between sets
Front Squat 105pds, and pullups
Reps: 6,5,4,4,3,2
Not bad.

3min of 55pd clean and jerk alternating every 5 reps. Good metabolic conditioning.

Ended with 5min of sandbag play. Sandbag weighs 100 but I'm going to up that weight soon. Did zercher walks, shoulder walks, shouldering, cleaning, etc.

That's all.

__________________________________________________ _______________

I've been thinking that I'm going to make my conditioning workouts way more intense and way more brief. That whole kettlebell workout took 20-30 min and I think I could make it shorter if not for the strength work.

[WinterPalm]

20 Sept 2008

San Da
Warmed up with a quick mobility dynamic movement routine. Then went on to throwing practice focusing on technique and a mantis type of hook to the front leg into a plow...more or less.
Then worked extensively on four kicks and counter drill courtesy of NY San Da. Then we worked on some Thai clinching off of hooks and then some defenses and strategies from there.

Ended with a conditioning routine I made up:
5 quick fireman lifts off of a hook, on the fifth one, carry the guy across the mat, then do the other side and carry him back, then 5 quick shoot lifts with the last one lifting him all the way up and carrying him across the mat, then the other side.
I did this at a bodyweight of 180 with a 210 training partner in just under 1:30. He did it at 2:20.

Do your conditioning kiddies and you won't be sucking wind in an alley some day!

[WinterPalm]

No training on Sunday and Monday...had to work all day and didn't feel too good. A wee bit tired.

23 Sept 2008
BJJ
Went to the evening class with a different instructor. Did some good conditioning and some drills as everyone is getting ready for the coming up competition.
Rolled with the instructor. Got a heel into the temple when he rolled over as I went for his back. Head is mushy two days later...
Had some fun rolling with a couple of guys. One was a little more of a beginner than me so I let him get positions and attempt subs while I defended. He seemed to think it was a stalemate until I decided to submit him various ways. Sometimes it's just fun to roll fast and keep the scrambles going hard...probably why I prefer no-gi...much faster paced and favors the more atheltic guy.

[WinterPalm]

24 Sept 2008

BJJ
Worked on a bunch of takedowns off the headlock...Gracie self-defense stuff I suppose.
Then had a fun roll with the instructor...******* kept spinning above me and toying with me but it was fun and then I got choked out. The End.
Then I rolled with a blue belt I have 40pds on. Sometimes I last 15 min or even tap him. Today he tapped me about 30sec into each match. We had about 10 I think.

San Da
Warmed up with a mobility thing I got from a NYSanDa vid.
Worked on defending and countering push kicks.
Drilled Thai clinching off of hooks with some counters.
Worked four kicks and counter drill.
Then did a bit of footwork the guys wanted to work on.

Then 6 3min rounds of shadowboxing and then heavybag back and forth.
Then we kicked the suitcase pad each holding for a minute while the rest circled using footwork and delivered one kick. There was only four of us but that meant 3min each of right leg kick, left leg kick, lead sidekick, and southpaw sidekick.

Then we did a Tabata finisher of three exercises three times through for a total of 4.5min:
Bodyweight row
Pushup (I did half moon and Hindu)
Squat thrust with a 20pd medicine ball.

A **** good class and some good old fashioned hard work to top it off!



On a side note, it's no wonder I'm sore from painting, go train, painting, go train all day yesterday.

[WinterPalm]

Took a couple days off to chill and get some work done.

27 Sept 2008

BJJ
A very intense conditioning class with piles and piles of drills including takedowns. Good stuff!

San Da
Had a relaxed workout and just worked with a new guy on techniques and put him through 5 rounds of pads.

[WinterPalm]

29 Sept 2008

BJJ

Good workout. Worked lots of throws and counters to standing grabs...kind of traditional training I guess but fun stuff.

Then rolled and had some really good back and forth matches. Only tapped to the blue belt once.
Had a fun roll with the instructor...showed me some collar chokes using one lapel grab and using their gi for the other side.

Conditioning
Warmed up with turkish getups doing:
50X2
55X2
75X2X2 I think next time I'll add a set of these.

Then did the following with a 50pd kettlebell:
5 Clean and Press
5 Snatch
5 Row
Switch hands and repeat immeditately then do 10 hindu pushups. Rest 45 and repeat 4 times. The weight wasn't enough for the rows but I wanted to do a strength/endurance thing with this workout and really bring out the lactic acid in the pulling and gripping muscles...it WORKED.

Then I decided to do more of a lower body circuit as the first one was mostly upper body so I did a couplet of 75pd 2hand Swings and squat jumps descending from 10 for the swings and ascending from 1 for the jumps. I took just deep breathes and little rest. Took less than five minutes.

These two little circuits worked every muscle in the body in a way that is conducive to addressing the energy and muscular demands of grappling and provided a great metabolic blast. My whole system was taxed but I felt great.

[WinterPalm]

30 Sept 2008
Evening class of BJJ
Worked a bunch of guard passing drills. It was fun.
Had two sparring matches. Both went about 10-15 min. One with an almost blue belt and another with a blue belt. Good fun!

[WinterPalm]

31 Sept 2008 (Also known as 1 Oct 2008...but has October already come!?)

BJJ
Rolled. That was it. Had an insane 20 min match with the blue belt before he submitted me from a beautiful throw...I'll find out the name soon.
However, later when rolling with him I managed to make him tap off of a choke so that made my day.
Then he sub'd me several times.

San Da
Skipping and pummeling.
Kick countering and working on getting into and defending the clinch. Good stuff.
Did 3X5min on the pads. Felt great.

Got offered a pro MMA fight for November but turned it down. I still want to compete amateur in San Shou and hopefully amateur MMA so this is not the time in my life for that kind of commitment...or death wish!