Tacticool Father 12/2/12

Man, lots has been happening over the last few weeks. I'll start with the fitness and diet stuff and work into the baby stuff.

I'm finishing my first month of 5/3/1 this week. It's the deload week. In my first month back, I went from the calculated 1RMs of:
Press: 130
Squat: 231
Bench: 203
Deadlift: 315

To a New estimated 1RM (based on liftsxreps in the program)
Press 132
Squat 233
Bench 203
Deadlift 338.5

That is actual, quantifiable progress. That excites me so much. I really forgot how much I like lifting. I have been doing 1 day of LSD a week since starting weights. One of the days I did LSD with shadow boxing and jump rope to try to remember how moving and boxing feels. It's amazing how quickly you start to feel rusty. I'm going to try to go next saturday for a NO GI class and some MMA sparring. That should be fun. Getting it once in a while will be a change of pace from having to grind every day at MT or Jits. I love them both, but feeling that I HAD to go was wearing on me, as I've mentioned.

The 'diet' is going well. Really limiting my wheat and sugars does so much for my performance and overall sense of well being. I'm still getting through wheat belly, and reading the section on lymphoma gave me chills. My mom's blood pressure has dropped 20 points and shes off her BP meds after 2.5 weeks of going paleo. I'm trying to balance paleo with sanity as I'm surrounded by a pregnant wife who I don't want to get in the way of. Some of her digestive ailments can be attributed to gluten sensitivity, and since being pregnant and cutting beer out of the mix, she has shown significant improvement in her digestive health. I think this might be the ammo I need to give full paleo/ gluten free a try with her post-pregnancy. I legitimately think it might help us both. I'll keep leveraging that angle.

I've been going pretty heavy into the crock pot cooking, since it's easy and turns out great meals. I was using www.paleopot.com and did the stuffed peppers and the kielbasa and krout recipe. Both winners.

My weight was 187 earlier last week. I don't have a recent measurement. I'm pleased with that. Under 190 and I'm good. I'm reasonably confident I can dial it in even more and get to see legit abs. I might just keep it under 190 and see the 'mono-ab' (another first for me). I feel like I have more energy when I'm above 185. It's a cool thing to have such detailed knowledge of your energy levels at different levels of food and weight. It's something that can only be had with experimentation and attention. I love this game.

In the 1/3 life crisis game: I got a tattoo. Or at least the beginning. It's a samurai meditating under a cherry blossom tree. The warrior philosopher is something that has resonated with me for a long time. Meditating on his mortality, on the battle to come, on his fallen brothers (the cherry blossoms). It's going to end up cool. Plus the art is dope.

www.memorialtattooatl.com Gary is the guy working on it. I will post photos as it becomes more complete. I have 2.5 hours in already.

Tacticool Father 11/16/12

We're 8 weeks out of the arrival of Mark III. He's in the 99% percentile of body size. He's going to be a big boy. There's no explanation for him being so large, other than genetics, since mama-bear tested that she doesn't have gestational diabetes.

I've been cooking 'paleo-ish' for us. She had put on a significant amount of weight during the first portion of the pregnancy. Enough that to docs were telling her to watch how much more weight she put on. Part of me stopping the MT/BJJ was so I could cook for her and make sure she was getting a healthier meal composition. Of course I can't control what she eats at work, but she says she's been pretty good about keeping away from wheats and breads.

I've been doing lots of fats and proteins, lots of veggies, and carbs from tubers and squashes and so forth. After implementing this, she didn't gain any more weight. She hasn't felt hungry, and she certainly isn't not getting enough nutrition. I'm pleased.

She mentioned to the doctor that we were cooking 'paleo', and looked at her sideways and said "ok, just make sure you're only eating lean cuts of meat'. It's pretty obvious that the medical community is still not tracking. I just told her to tell the docs that she is eating healthy and that we've got it under control.

Nesting instincts in full swing. I've been assembling furniture and cleaning clothes and toys to prep for baby.

Today, 11/16, I weighed 184.6. I think that's like 6 lbs since I started doing the daily 18/6 fasts. Also, my meal composition has cleaned up quite a bit. The biggest thing has been having a hunk of protein, some veggies, and a piece of a baked sweet potato or something. Maybe a piece of fruit if I get peckish. I really do feel better when I limit my wheat. Admittedly, I'm still eating some legumes and some cheese. I have loads of energy, so I'm going to continue on this deal and see where it leads.

My first week of 5/3/1 will wrap up this week. It's awesome. My calculated 1 rep maxes look like an infant's scores, but I'm ok with that. Some of the hilarious stuff I see at Georgia Tech's gym is priceless. I saw a guy doing behind the head shoulder press, then letting the bar fall onto his shoulders. I think he must have been trying to chip his cervical spine.

My calculated maxes:
Squats: 231
Deadlift: 315
Press: 130
Bench: 203.5

I'm all about starting lighter than heavier, perfecting form, and sticking to a program. The guys I lift with are still ego-tied to their numbers, form is mostly horrendous, and they're basically asking for an injury or doing half reps and not getting full R.O.M.. I am trying to drop subtle hints, but since they're engineers, they're confident they know the proper way and there's NO WAY they could be doing it wrong. I'm going to get film of my lifts, to confirm that my body is doing what I think it should when I do a movement. I've been reading a LOT on the lifts, and the kinesthetic memory is coming back to me from when I used to lift all the time about 5 years ago.

TactiCool Father: Starting 5/3/1 and a shift in my training focus

I'm gearing up for the baby and some things are changing. I'm reading books like crazy, assembling cribs, cleaning  baby clothes, and on and on...

I'm working on transitioning out of my bjj and mt gym. It was a hard choice to make but duty calls. My wife is needing more and more help around the house, and I simply can't be away for 2.5 hours every night after work when I should be prepping the house for the baby and cooking meals. So, in order to keep up my pace, not get fat, and get stronger, I'm going to transition into a weight training program. Everything else will get put into maintenance mode.

My S&C guru and friend, Larry L. recommend I start a linear progression weight training program (stronglifts 5x5, 5/3/1 or similar) months ago to augment my jits and MT. I was doing 1 day of dead lifts a week in an attempt to just do something. I tried to be consistent, but only had the energy to train it maybe twice a month.  That will change now.

In parallel, I'm building my basement gym, which will allow me to do the 5/3/1 program in my basement (and several of my friends showed interest in training with me),  and also I joined GaTech's gym as an alumnus. I'll use that to train with my coworkers, and get access to the pool and other cool stuff they have there.

Anyway, I talked with Larry again today, and ran my plan past him. He said go for it, and get started.
I'm doing 4x a week 5/3/1 linear progression. If you don't know what that is, do some googling, but basically it's a linear program based on 4 main lifts (shoulder press, bench press, squat, deadlift) mixed with some support work.

My new goal is to get strong.

Here's the plan (weekly):
Monday: 5/3/1 Press
Tuesday: 5/3/1 Squat
Wednesday: Long Slow Distance work. Some Sprints since my Jits is going to be lacking
Thursday: 5/3/1 Bench
Friday: 5/3/1 DeadLift
Saturday or Sunday: Either MT rounds on the heavy bag, or BJJ drills with heavy bag, or when possible attend an open mat at a gym around town.

When Possible: Dry Fire, using Claude's dryfire cds.


Diet:
As you might have seen in the last few posts, I've started delving more deeply into diet and optimising food composition. I have been doing 24 hours Intermittent Fasting for the last 8 months or so, with great results both achieving my goal weight (180) and maintaining around it. I want to see, just as an experiment, if I can get a little leaner. I have been feverishly listening to 'the paleo podcast' with Robb Wolf and am pretty sold on the 'give it 30 days and see' type thing. I've been eating this way for the last 2 weeks. I'll take before photos, and we'll see what happens after a couple of months. OH and when I fail to keep a super strict Paleo diet, Larry promised not to say he told me so. So I got that going for me.

I'm very excited for a new challenge and a change of pace.

I gotta keep my mind active, lest I stagnate and put on sympathy weight... :D

Later Gs,
Mark

IF Bulletproof coffee update 10/29/12

Monday AM weight 187.4

The coffee experiment has been pretty good. I haven't been nearly as ravenous at 2pm as I would have been without the fat in the coffee. I know this because I have been skipping breakfast for a long while, and usually just have some coffee with half/half. I would feel intense hunger by noon in the past.

My flu is on the tail end. Still coughing a lot, though. Being sick is a motherfucker.

Did a lot of reading and listening to IF and paleo stuff over the weekend.

Some of the podcasts are super informative.
The Paleo Solution, and the Bulletproof Exec are the ones I've spent the most time on, recently.

I learned about more MCT (coconut oil) science, including it's high percentage in breast milk and commercial baby formula, it's ability to negate the effects of Alzheimer's disease, and loads of other stuff.

It was a diet-sciencey weekend, to be sure.

Experiment with 18/6 IF and 'bulletproof coffee'

So I'm not training this week. I'm fighting a wicked little head cold and on some meds. So I can't report on the training I'm doing. However, I'm when I'm not training, my mind is still mulling over how to become better. I don't seem to be able to help it. Probably a personal problem.

Instead, I'm going to try a month long experiment. I've been reading this guy's blog. www.bulletproofexec.com He basically is a body-hacker guy who is ripping off paleo dieting, leangains IF, and some other biofeedback stuff to try to squeeze more performance out of his body. I have no issue with the ripping off other than he's trying really hard to monetize it. He has some pretty far-out hippy shit that he talks about too. 'Earthing Mats' and stuff... Not sure what to think about that stuff.

One of the most captivating things is his 'bulletproof coffee' which basically amounts to butter, coconut oil, and 16 oz of coffee in the A.M. His logic is that the short/medium chain triglycerides are brain fuel, filling, and allow you to make it through to your first meal more easily and with more energy. He talks about how sluggish you can feel doing an IF and grumpy, etc. I have experienced this with my 2x a week 24 hour fasts that I've been doing for several months. I'm intrigued enough to try this method.

In conjunction with this, he uses a 18 hours fasted, 6 hours fed IF protocol. This is done daily. So you just don't eat till 2pm, then you eat the foods on this diagram in the 'green section' until 8pm. I don't expect that I'll be eating only grass-fed beef/butter/ and broccoli, but I will comply to the feeding window.

Another weird thing he recommends is taking salt immediately upon waking. 1/2 Tsp with 16oz of water. He argues that it helps in the AM when your body needs sodium to help 'wake you up'. I haven't dug into this at all, but salt is good so I'll try it.

He also talks about myotoxins and fungi on coffee beans. I'm going to go ahead and disregard that as well. The crux is that you feel fed and energized during those crucial waking hours when you feel like having a bite.

I am a little concerned with the extra calories that 2 Tbl of butter and 1 Tbl of coco oil adds. I'll see how it affects me. I'm going to attempt to not change anything else to see if the daily fasts mixed with calories from butter change anything for the better.

The greatest reason I expect it to work is that my fasted state goes PAST my jobs standard lunch hour. I'll miss out on a LOT of lunches at restaurants. More savings, less crap food, more fat loss. If the coffee keeps me sated for those first hours until 2pm, then even better.

His main gripe with non grassfed butter is that it has lower amounts of D, CLA, and assorted other vitamins. I supplement Vitamin D, take a multi, and have Conjugated linoleic acid, so I'm not sweating that too much. Also... come at me myotoxins.

My current weight is 190.4lbs.

Daily supplements (when I remember):

multi, D3, fish oil, ZMA before bed

Will report back.

week of 10/15/12

Monday: feeling sick rest

Tuesday: not too back, jumped rope for 30:00

Wednesday: MT, ropes, leg check to knees
sparring was legit. I sparred Will. He made me feel like a little kid. "glad you're feeling better, spar will" jesus.
It was great

Thursday:
Armbars from mount:
go to S mount. If you can trap both arms, attack the main arm by posting off hand, and swing leg around. Try to finish without falling from top position. If he breaks free, swing around and attack the other arm.

Kimura stomp thing.
Usually comes from guy w/ hands on hips trying to break guard. Pry elbow away and lift that side foot onto hop to keep arm away from body. Get kimura grip. Sling that leg across back once grip is established. Finish if possible. If he posts his leg, grabs pants and traps his hand, you can use that top leg to stomp away while you rip the grip on the pants. Must have explosive movement.

KesaGatame and side control and N/S:
Side. Really sink hips, knee by his hips, other leg sprawled trying to bury that hip on the ground. preventing him from getting his near arm under your sprawled leg to make space. arm near head should try to cradle the head. other arm should be either by his far hip, under his arm, cradling the shoulder. If the near arm exposes itself, push it across, and work for an arm triangle. use body weight to keep that arm trapped while the grips change around.

switching to kesa:
over hook near arm and yank up. step lowest leg under. Try to keep butt on ground. now that switched hips, keep lowest leg bent and on foot, other leg sprawled high above his head, try to tuck your head against his chest to pin. The overhooked arm and hips are the primary method of control. Your other hand can either scoop the far arm or the head.

going N/S. keeping chest contact, use bottom arm to weave under near arm and to opposite side of his head, pinning the arm and amking him look away. your weight will sometimes trap that arm on his face or chest. This can be used to set up the arm triangle, so you can either mount to finish, or go all the way around and start walking around.

Transitioning side/kesa/NS/KoB drilling. on a heavy bag (mma drill). Side, Kesa, side, reverse Kesa, mount, reverse Kesa, side, Kob, mount, Kob etc etc.

Guillotine drill: head on same side, practice hopping to other side to relieve pressure.

standing Guillotine defense: reach arm that is inside up and over his far shoulder. reach outside arm inside his outside leg, get hips in, posture up, slam and land in side control, out of danger.

Then you can work your escape by using shoulder to pressure and post up on his neck.

Week of 10/8/12

Monday: "flow yoga". I continue to be humbled and made tired by yoga. This was the last class of my 4class package. I had different instructors each time for this short yoga experiment. It was good to get varied approaches to teaching and to how to describe the positions. I'm going to visit paul soon and take a hot yoga class.

Tuesday: Gi:
arm bar practice.

Sweep off of this attempt:
flower sweep. The key is pulling his weight on top of you. If he's lighter, use your leg underhook to pull him on top. If he's heavier, bring yourself to him, and get under him to break his base. The leg that's across his back is used to off balance him. Attack for the arm bar a few times, if he defends or locks his arms up, then use the leg that would pass over to kick out, and go out and under with that free leg. Chopping his base while lifting his base on the underhook side. End up in mount. If you keep the arm, then go straight to the mounted arm bar.

Good rolls. I just got done listening to a Gracie talking about having fun and it really helped my mindset during the rolls. I'm debating doing NAGA, but it's coming December 1. Not sure if I'm going to sign up or not. That's $100 I don't have to spend.

Jamal did an awesome job coaching us tonight. Great details and explanation of WHY we were doing stuff. Framework stuff. This is a welcome refresher. Raph is in Brazil for 2 weeks. I'm stoked that Jamal is teaching.

I pulled off a few cool sweeps that I've been studying (tripod sweep), and a choke from the mount (sort of a neck crank front naked choke thing). As usual, G was aggressive and kept ending up on top. He was yanking his arms out of my attacks. I need to keep tighter when I'm attacking. I survived pretty well against Ron and Jamal, stalling their submissions. The arm bar stall works really well. basically you hide your arm behind your arm as if you were doing a RNC.

Wednesday: MT
Good workout, good sparring. evade technique

Thursday:
armbars from mount
variation 1: cross hands around arm, post on chest, swipe leg around head while falling back into arm bar.
variation 2: get high mount, trap arm, use other hand to post off of face, go to S-Mount, swing leg round
variation 3: get high mount, trap arm, post off face, shift weight back onto his ribs, swing leg around, then fall back into arm bar.

Friday:
Deadlifts 5x5
kb warmup, jump rope 3:00, dl 120x12
220,270,270,270,300 x 5 3 minutes rest minimum between sets

week of 10/3/12

monday:
10 mins of jump rope 40/40 pushups squats
50 left / rt kicks. low/high kicks
pads: 1,2,lk, check, evade teep, rk and opposite
mitts: 1,2,body block rt, rt uppercut, 3,2 step 2
1,2,3,body,bodylft, lt up, 2,3,2 step 2
1-10 bodybody,lt up, 2,3,2,step 2 step 2

tuesday:
bjj
double under pass: both arms in, open lapel, thumb in, pressure and pass

double under to back take, as you apply the pressure, grab the pants, left and start to take back, establish hooks and over/under grips. begin working chokes

if he weights his hips, and tightens up, just back away and pin one leg to the ground, get a knee through and pin that leg as you swing the other leg around behind and back to establish side control

Wednesday:
Yoga.
Good instructor there today. Very detailed. I guessed he was an engineer or a programmer. He is a programmer.

Thursday:
BJJ
working side control positions.
Practiced circling sides as the guy on bottom starts to shrimp out. Put head on side you're on, pin his top knee down, then swing legs around head and reestablish control on other side. You can either face his legs or his head for this, though the  legs seem easier.

You can also take full mount in this transition.

Guy on bottom's goal is to grip and make space to recompose. so guy on top must work to clear his knees and establish.

If guy get's 1/2 guard as you swing around, try to establish 1/2 mount, then take back, work chokes and arm locks.

Friday:
2 miles run

Saturday:
Gi: Simple sweeps and more of what we did thursday
No  Gi: good grappling day. Landed some good moves against people that used to tool me up. He took about 3 months off, and I caught him in a head and arm choke from guard.

week of 9/24/12

monday: Heavy bag workout, filmed it.

tuesday: jits, dont remember what we did

wednesday: yoga

Thursday: went on a run

Friday: off

Saturday: Jr and I rolled a bit.

Week of 9/17/12

Monday:
MT: Anthony worked us pretty hard.
3 jump rope rounds
some running
50 kicks, left and right
pads: 1,2,2xlkcheck evade, 2x rt kick
mitts: 1,2, roll 2,3, rt low, rt high
1,2, roll roll, 3, 2 lt low, lt high
sparring, 3 rounds or so
bicycle crunches 60
about 2 minutes of legs around bag, arms overhead, reach up and slap bag.

Tuesday:
BJJ:
Felt so much disdain from Raph today. probably all in my head. I didn't feel like training today at all.
We worked 1/2 guard stuff (SURPRISE!). I appreciate this since this is what failed me during the competition, but I also felt embarrassed since I knew it was for me.
1/2 guard, technical stand to takedown, switch the 1/2 guard to outside leg over his leg to free up inside leg, technical stand.
1/2 guard, sweep: underhook, and dive under, hiding the head.
1/2 guard, using under hook, bump and take back

Some tips for this. Don't be flat. Always have the underhook, and fight for it. Try to post on bottom arm.
when going for the sweep, once the leg is captured, and head is hidden, escape hips the OTHER way to bring his weight fully on top of you. If he is able to get your head from his chest, abandon the leg grip, and fight the crossface.

Wednesday:
3 sets of 3:00 jumprope, 20pushups, 20 bodyweight squats

about 20 kb swings to wake my hips up (this made a huge difference, by the way)
deadlifts
w/u sets
220 x 5, 270 x 3, 270 x 5

Superset:
overhead 35lb kb shoulder press and pullups
6, 10pu, 6, 6pu, 6, 6pu

Superset:
75lb T-bar swings w/ suspended rows
3 sets of 10swing, 8 rows

Thursday: Rest

Friday: run 3 miles w/ dogs. LSD training. 120-140 bpm for about 45 minutes. Also threw in some pushups and abs for fun

Saturday: No Gi, Gino and I just drilled a few Gi chokes, and rolled a few rounds. It was a low key day and one that I needed. No pressure, just play. I was able to pull off the sweeps I missed during my competition. One thing I realize I didn't do is hip escape BACK UNDER him once I dove under to grab the opposite leg. To life his weight on top of me. Then I could drive and push him over. No Gi is fun.

Sunday: All Level Yoga at Atlanta Yoga. This was a sore-maker last time I did it. I have to use up my coupon book that I purchased. Even though I don't really want to go, I should. I know I'll be more pliable and sore afterwards. Yoga is the truth.

IBJJF and my match, Sept. 15

I haven't posted for the last couple of weeks because I was concentrating so intently on my upcoming IBJJF match on the 15th. I wasn't doing MT during the week preceding and was only concentrating on bjj. Watching video, drilling, thinking about it, losing sleep.

My prep consisted primarily of some stand-up work, guard passes, and sweeps from open guard.

The IBJJF was a very cool event. They actually sold it out 2 days before the registration deadline. Weigh-ins are IN the gi, so I had to be at least 3-4 lbs lighter than 195. I am usually 183-186 so that was no big deal. I'm glad I read the rule book before registering, because it would have been nearly impossible to get under 181 with the gi in 2 weeks. Next year, I'll probably compete in the sub 181 class. This will require some more diet tweaking, which I have room to do.

A few of my teammates, my best good friend, and my wife came out. I was the only one from Madhouse that was able to enter. So everyone who came out was looking to me for a win. Well, I lost.



Here's how the fight went, as I remember it. I haven't watched the footage yet, but it's uploading now.
EDIT: Video below.

My cauliflower eared opponent (white belt, ehh?) snatched a single, I sprawled. He was able to turn the corner and finished the takedown.
I was able to get 1/2 guard, and in good posture. Underhook and posted on right arm, head against his chest.
I tried to use the underhook to take the back, but he settled his base, and whizzered that arm. I must have telegraphed it. I went under for a sweep, which he nullified with a sprawl. He used that time to get a crossface on me and flatten me out.
From there, he laid on me, combining choke and arm attacks with incrementally sneaking his knee past my 1/2 guard. I did my best to grab his lapel and used my forearm across his throat to keep him away. He eventually passed and continued from side to Knee-on-belly, then an easy mount. It was text book on his part. I could NOT move him. Time ran out, and that's that.

Discussions with my main man Cecil helped me with a game plan, as well as helping me re-frame my loss in my head to make it a learning experience.
Some things he recommended:
Make sure to get the collar grip first. This will help unbalance a wrestler, and it comes down to an attribute game. He was able to dictate range, and just took me down at will.

I had great position for a sweep in the first minute, but I relented and he was able to flatten me.

I'm really disappointed in my performance. I can either quit or keep going. I'll keep going.

Mountain Pistol Training AAR - Instructor Perspective

Last weekend I had the opportunity to teach the biggest class I've taught to date. I taught my family (on my wives side) and my coworkers/friends from work. There were a total of 13 shooters. I'm going to write this little AAR about my feelings as a new instructor and what I failed at, and what I thought I did well.

It was held on their land in the north Georgia Mountains. The weather went from sunny, to downpour, back to full sun. It was good training weather.

The Mountain:

The shooters skill levels varied from literally the first time shooting a handgun, to seasoned hunters (which does NOT make them combative pistol shooters btw). I knew this going in, and designed the course accordingly.

They had assorted pistols and gear carry methods. There wasn't a lot of support gear or anything, so we worked out of pockets and off the ground. No big deal.

First was the first aid, evacuation, and firearms safety rules, as always. This was a special one since I got some GPS coordinates in case an injury was so severe that it required a helicopter evacuation. But I handled that portion.

I started out with basic marksmanship on 6" circles with aiming points. I took my friend Claude Werner's tip and used cd's to make targets on cardboard. I added a Popsicle stick so I could quickly apply the spray paint onto the targets and not get my hands painted up.

We started with building the grip, sight picture, the shot cycle, good base and basic marksmanship on the targets. I also went over loading/unloading. I could clean up the progression of drills a little next time. I felt jumbled on the orders of some of the drills. I went from draw stroke and one shot, to an extension to 1 shot, and then extension to multiple shots. I realize it's probably in the wrong order, thinking back. However, they all brought holsters, so I wanted to make sure they knew how to get their guns out. I think the progression next time would be draw stroke to single shots, then multiple, then maybe a movement element to a shot. I'll think on this more.

They wanted a combative pistol type class, so I wanted to be sure to give them dynamic stuff once they proved they could handle the basics a few times. There wasn't much issue with them pointing guns at themselves, and most all of them had great trigger finger discipline.

I introduced the Wyatt protocol and the movement off line with the draw stroke, verbalization, explained the ooda loop and effects of adrenaline to them. Just as predicted, as the number of parallel tasks builds, the stress level rises, and people start feeling the pressure. My Uncle Steve mentioned that.

We did malfunction clearing, turns, and movement, strong hand/weak hand only shooting, and retention drills. We talked about picking small aiming points on the shirt or body to target, instead of 'center of mass'.

The biggest gap in logical progression that I felt was between the stationary marksmanship stuff to the dynamic movement stuff. I need to figure out a transition set of drills to bridge this gap better.

I love the 100% accountable for hits idea, and used it for the first half of the day. Then when we stapled paper plates to the chest, and worked the more dynamic drills, I reminded them that while we weren't counting holes, we SHOULD still consider that we need to make our hits. I went into the nuns and orphans and lawyers reminder on missed shots.

I think a way to keep them more accountable is to interject a drill in the middle of the this portion that holds them 100% accountable for A zone hits. Maybe a box drill or some thing.

We didn't break for lunch at all during this, so this amount of material was stretching their patience and ability to concentrate. A more defined and scheduled meal in the middle would have been better, I think. Pacing is not easy, and it is something I'll have to work on. I also need to be more accurate with my range commands, to help avoid confusion. I was conscious of this when I was issuing commands, as in "the range commands will be as follows...". But when I forgot to be deliberate, people would do something that I didn't anticipate. No big deal, but I'll work on it.

I'm already thinking of ideas for the next class. I think it will have more barricade drills, as well as seated draw stroke, and shooting left or right from seated. It will also have positional shooting.

All in all, it went very well. Everyone was safe, no one got hurt. They seemed to like it very much.

On Sunday, I did a very basic primer and familiarization with some of the wives, girlfriends, and a few guys who didn't get to shoot Saturday. I wasn't expecting this class, so I sort of winged it. I think it went well. It was probably a 40 round course of fire. I had them load only 5-6 rounds per magazine, and held them accountable for each shot. I had them work off of the ground, since none of them carry a gun, and any work would be out of a drawer or table. We did simple sight alignment, surprise break drills. I worked them through multiple shots, follow through, and recoil control. We moved into strong and weak hand shooting (limited round count), and finally a failure drill of 2body/1head a few times. They all did great, and gained some confidence.

Week of 9/3/12

Monday: Holiday, gym closed, I relaxed and pigged out on chinese food and beer. Retained probably 6 lbs of water... :)

Tuesday: BJJ
Noone else showed up to jits, mostly due to some lingering injuries, holiday travel, etc.

So I got a private with Raph. We quickly drilled some armbars, both traditional and sneakier ones. Drilled a straight arm bar transition when the primary arm is pulled out.

We did a cool choke where you get a cross collar grip, then you drive off of his hips, sitting yourself up, and pulling his head forward and down, the cross grip should be under his chin. Your off hand can help make him look down. the off hand will then be used to go behind his neck and weaving inside of the cross collar grip arm's elbow. A scissoring motion makes a tight ass choke.

We also went over the straight ankle lock. Usually comes out of open guard, have to overwrap the foot/ankle, almost in a guillotine grip, while falling to the side that the ankle is trapped. make sure the wrist is behind the ankle, not the Achilles tendon, extend hips to finish lock. A solid tip is to hide the foot that's between his legs, so he doesn't lock you. Use that leg to get a hook on the attacked leg, or use your feet as hands to keep him off of your ankle while you set the lock up.

To defend this lock, pop up and stand on the attacked ankle, then sit and spin through to free up the leg. Usually is sort of a scramble.

If you're attack and the guy stands up, abandon the ankle lock and get an underhook on his outside foot. Push his other leg away, and lift w/ the underhook for a sweep as you stand up.

Raph had me working a conditioning circuit. dumbbell pushups w/ rows at the top, medicine ball situps, and swiss ball hip exercises, 1:00 each, w/ 3:00 of jump rope between. This circuit 3x.

Jamal was nice enough to roll with me after all of this. I was getting rolled up, but I was able to defend some arm bars and chokes pretty well.

Week of 8/27/12

Monday; MT
3 rounds of jumprope, 20/20
pads: 1,2, switch 2xlk, block and step to 2 rknees
1,2,3, 2xrk, block step, 2 lknees
mitts: 1,2,1,2,slip,4,3,2, 2 l knees
1,2,1,2, slip slap 5,2,3, 2 rknees

drilling: check kick to knee, or counter kick w/ sweep, targeting lower calf/ankle, also requires a step out.
counter a straight knee w/ a body shot, must sink weight down and target solar plexus. Stops forward motion as well as is painful.
Sparring was good. I caught Randy once pretty good with a switch to a left cross. That move is going to be high percentage. Setting it up with anyone will be easy. Throw a few hard left kicks off of switches, then just switch left cross. Also, Jamal told me that I should be using my left kick to target people circling away from my right kicks. Throw right kick, and as they circle out, throw the left with a switch or a step through. Also, Anthony invited me to come check out his gym in Douglasville. It was a huge honor to get that invite from him. He's a good dude. I'm lucky to be able to train with these guys. Enjoying every minute.

BJJ:
1/2 guard work. regardless of where you are, always fight for the near underhook.
pass 1: get cross face w/ shoulder, apply all the pressure, keep base wide, hide the free leg so there is no sweep. Post up and shake hips and bound to get guard under knee. then try to slice knee across his hip, rotating his hips onto the ground, keep the pressure and secure the position, then use free leg to kick ankle/foot out of guard. Also it is crucial to stretch the guy out using the far arm, under his far arm. By awkwardly bending him away from the stuck foot, he can't recompose easily.
pass 2: same as before but cut to the OTHER side, rotating his hips away, same as before, apply pressure and stretch him out.
sweep 1: prevent cross face, post on his neck, hide elbows, go 4 on 1 on his trapped leg, hip bump, then continue to roll him over, end in 1/2 guard top.
sweep 2: same as above, except underhook free leg, and overhook trapped leg, hip bump, and roll to 1/2
can also get out back door here.

MT:
same combos as monday. Good conditioning day. Lots of hard work. There is no way I could push myself this hard if it were just up to me.

Writing a letter to my unborn son

I've started writing a letter (more of a guide) to my son. I want it to have my take on certain things, as well as guidance about how I did things wrong, and how he should try to do them better. It's sort of a 'book of the five rings' without the poetic feeling. I don't know exactly what will be in it,  I'm just sort of typing it when I feel motivated. It's very stream of consciousness.

I know these sorts of things are done when the parent is terminal w/ some disease and they want to leave a record for their child. I'm not planning on checking out any time soon. This is a 'just in case'. Plus, it's a great exercise for myself. It's a real challenge to think about how you think. Why you think it.

It's also hard to not sound self-righteous when writing something like this. I'll try to make it as true and honest as possible.

week of 8/20/12

pads: 1, 2, 2lk, cross block, 2lk
1,2,3, 2rk, cross block, 2rk



mitts: 1,2,slip,4,3,2, lft body shot

1,2,slip, slap, 5, 2, 3, rt body, left body




good sparring. Marcell likes to make it an mma fight without telling me... We clinched and he tripped me and followed me down and kept punching. It was good fun.




From D.G. from a class taught about 2 months ago w/ a guest instructor:

"-Taking the Back (1st Variation)

Starting Position: Place the right leg adjacent to the already turtled opponents right leg and then putting your left foot on the other side of his left ankle, basically resting on your right leg




Beginning Steps: Move your left arm around the back and grab the left lapel low enough to keep your elbow tight to your own body and pull back to lock the grip. Also grip the opponents right elbow with your right hand.




Crucial Move: Move your right knee next to their right ankle cocking your right foot outwards at the 3 o'clock position. Pull your opponent back towards you at a diagonal angle and release the elbow to go for their neck, they will defend the neck and at that point it allows you to put in your left foot hook.




Finishing Move: Roll to your left and put in your other hook all the while holding on the over under neck position. Finally rotate your right knee out and go back to the other side to finish the traditional collar choke from the back.




Very technical




-Taking the back (2nd Variation)

Same Starting Position




Beginning Steps: Move left arm around the back and grab the RIGHT lapel. If the person is turtled well you will need to open up yours and their right knee making a space between their tricep and ribs.




Crucial Move: Now you must target that hole made and reach into it with your hand followed by your head rolling forward




Finishing Move: Achieve side control by using your right hand to grab their left hand sleeve so that they cannot shrimp or escape and take side control.




Extremely technical, I found it easier to accomplish after practice but it is a move I would never have thought of at all. "




Tuesday: BJJ: worked on open guard passing, torreando and some other one. Mostly it was about rolling to recover guard. If you get juked out on a leg pass, and he's behind you pinning your legs, hip escape towards the side hes coming to, making space so you can duck your head where your hips are and roll, inverting and resetting the guard. Or you can do a 1/2 roll where you roll away to post, then swing your legs WIDE and high to re-engage him."

Tuesday/Thursday: BJJ worked the lasso hook and a few sweeps from there, as well as some transitions into omaplatas and triangles and armbars. The granby roll was taught as well. As the guy goes to pass, if he starts to get to your back, hip escape, and roll under yourself to recompose. This is a super useful skill for me. Lots of drilling. Scissor sweeps, defense of scissor sweep, attacking the posted arm w/ kimuras, omaplatas. Omaplata sweeps and transitions to mount from the position. Lots of good movement transitions. 

Good rolling.

Saturday; NOGI: Worked open guard. Rolling was good. I stayed in the center for quite a while. My open guard is getting  better. I did the granby roll, finished a choke or 2, took the back... I'm seeing my improvements. I'm in one of those improvement cycles. I hope it lasts a long time before I go back into a plateau.

week of 8/13/12

Monday: MT

Manu led class, went for 2 hours and 15 minutes or so.

First hour was warmups: jump rope 3x rounds, run and stuff. jumping jacks, burpies, stretching. Then we drilled the evasion. did combos along mat (1,2, switch lknees; 1,2,3,rtknees), practiced slip/slap/body/body/bob/weave/evade uppercut.
Thai Bag: 10 and 10 kicks, knees, combos
This was the first hour.
Next was 1 round of just boxing, working technical aspects and counters.
Then thai pads: 1,2,switch lkicks, check evade right kicks
1,2,3 rk, check evade lks
then mitts:
1,2,slip,uppercut, 3,2, switch knees
1,2,3,slip,slap, uppercut, 2,3, rknees
sparring 3 rounds
partner assisted abs, and pushups on ball
50 squats in a circle, jumping jacks, and done.
I was super smoked after this one.

Sparring went well. Since I'm aware of it, I'm flinching less and less, able to keep composure more, and counter strike when struck. I'm trusting my technique and it's paying off. I'm starting to think in combinations more. I need to think in combos coming off of body and head movement though. I think of when my initial attack angle is straight in, but when I do rapid side to side movement, I have to reorient and then go straight in. I need to try to move angles and attack off of that angle. Or start slipping and bobbing and fire out of that. I think this will give me a better chance of landing.

Tues: Rest. Too dead from Monday. I'm weak. :)

Wed: MT
Anthony was back. same combos as monday. Did a round of boxing, and then 3x rounds of MT sparring. Jeff told me my jabs were getting sloppy with my elbow flying out before I would jab. My kicks are getting sharper. I'm trying to get better at countering and throwing when my opponent throws. Jeff also mentioned he saw my eyes flutter when someone would start punching at me. I have to keep on the track of not bitching up and throwing back. I have been using my arms as bracers to jam up straight punches, and kicking under that to counter. It's working pretty good. I tried Anthony's combo today. right kick, left kick, right kick, switch... left cross. People are looking at the leg on that switch. I always find myself at the very edge of punching distance. If  I want to get better at boxing, I need to continue to work my footwork and bobs to get angles. footwork footwork footwork.

Thursday:BJJ
Worked closed guard. Great review. We worked both the technical arm bar, and the more explosive one, relying on hip movement. We also worked an omaplata off of an arm that gets out.
3 kinds of cross collar chokes, all starting off of the cross collar grip
1- reach other hand to opposite shoulder, make grip, and choke
2- reach other hand UNDER cross grip, grab lapel, choke
3- don't get as deep a cross collar hold, break posture, on that same side as cross collar, leave about 4-5" of space, use other hand, thumb in collar, circle opposite hand around the neck, finish choke. This one comes on SUPER fast.
drilled closed guard. Got 2 sweeps. One de la riva back take, and one scissor sweep. I also suck and keep giving up mid pass. I think once I stop quitting once I lose some position, I'll be many steps closer to blue belt. I think Raph respects aggression and no-quit attitude. I don't think he likes the way I get frustrated and just relent. Neither do I, and I'm sure it bothers me more. Gutting it out is hard for me. It's easier to rest while getting put into a worse spot, and then trying to fight out of it. That doesn't make any sense when I write it out, but that's what I do. DURRR.

Week of 8/7/12

Monday:

MT: 1,2,switch 2 lk, check, evade teep, 2x right kick
123, 2rk, chk, evade, 2xlk

mitts: 1,2,slip, 4,3,2 switch 2x left knees
1,2, slip slap 5,2,3, 2x right knees

sparring

Tuesday: 185lbs
BJJ:
spider guard to triangle. Worked on getting the angle. Align body to the arm that's pulled across.

tips for not getting stuck in triangle. Both arms in, both arms out. Got a few good sweeps off in drilling. Need to work on some spider guard sweeps. And transitioning into DLR.

Wednesday: 187lbs
MT:
same combos as Monday.
Brutal cardio today. I was worn out from Tuesdays circuit at the end of class.
The notable thing was the pre-sparring conditioning. 1minute of each. 1,2,3,2rks, 1,2, 2lks ; l and r kicks, no switch, just hip rotation, feet not staggered ; teeps ; side knees

Sparring went really well. I felt like I had more time to see and react to punches. I concentrated on not doing the 'you go, I go' method I have been doing. I if I saw an opening, i would attack. Lots of teeps and jabs. I am having good luck with a rear leg teep, then as soon as it plants back, throw a low rear kick. Terry is still giving me good pressure. He doesn't let me get my punches off, likes throwing hooks. I am trying to do touch-and-go when he comes in and not get stuck in cement when I catch a flurry. circle, jab and teep. Either people are going easier on me, or I'm getting better. I need a beefier mouthguard for MT. I got caught on the chin w/ a glancing cross, and my jaw is a bit sore today. Will order one soon.

Thursday: BJJ

Drilled open guard sweeps. Spider guard, leg lasso. Several pushing sweeps from here. As well as passing open guard. grips on knees, tug to pull hooks out, drive knees aside, get weight down.

Saturday: 3 mile run 100 pushups

week of 7/31/12

Skipped MT on monday. My lower back was sore from Saturday's No Gi.

Tuesday: BJJ

Jamal was teaching us. Jr. and I rolled a bit before class. My 'rolling' goal today was to be frustrating and if I ended up in turtle or side control, I wanted to go for single legs. I think I reached my goal.

We drilled some knee on belly ride stuff on a heavy bag before class.

We worked arm bars, and sweeps from the arm bar, and if the guy pulls the arm out, go for an omaplata.
We also worked the turtle position, the clock choke, and a variation of the clock choke when you can't get the other hand in. You just use the forearm of that arm and pivot around it while applying pressure.

We worked a setup for a clockchoke that went like this:
from top of the turtle position, get a hook in, take his back, wait for the points, get the clock choke grips, switch the top hook to an outside hook, let go of the bottom hook, use top hook to encourage him to roll over back into turtle, then complete the clock choke.

We did a 1/2 guard sweep before class too. It was a 10th planet sweep using a lockdown, an overhook on the leg with your top arm around back of his thigh. Swim bottom hand under his bottom thigh, pull weight on top, extend and swipe lockdown across floor to put pressure on his knee to encourage the sweep.

Kimura sweep: when in side control, grab kimura grip on his trailing arm (where his legs are), finish the kimura if possible, or just use it to apply pressure and roll away w/ his arm, forcing a sweep.

To defend that move. try to grab your pants and move your legs around to his head, trying to walk around the top, as you circle, eventually you'll pull his arm out of a strong grip, and you can arm bar him.

Hill People Gear - Recon Kit Bag

I just received my HPG kit bag. I was debating whether or not to pick it up, but I justified it because I'll be spending a lot of time training around my house, and want to be able to comfortably carry a gun while running. I have the pistol wear 2 for under the t-shirt carry. But quite honestly, I am starting to run out of reasons NOT to be more overt when I run in my neighborhood. I can also carry a bigger gun, and it doesn't sit over my belly, which needs to move for me to breath. The PW-2 will be used for when discretion is more important, like during a race.

Unfortunately, I haven't been for a run with it yet, since I've been at the gym quite a lot. I'll try to make time this week to actually get some miles in it.

It's designed to be worn under a pack, and even docked to a pack in lieu of straps in the front. It's got a rather wide space envelope as a result.

The flat profile does two things. It keeps everything nice and tight against your chest, so it doesn't bounce too much, and it prevents me from putting too much crap in it. If there's space, I'll fill it with stuff. Also, pardon my slouch.

The back mesh is comfy and distributes the load well. You can see the shock cord stabilizer (an add on accessory) at the bottom to prevent it from flopping up and down as you run. 

I wove a punch dagger between the shingle and the bag.... just 'cause.

The drawstroke. I'm not totally stoked about how the bag opens, since you're ripping zippers open 90 degrees from their designed path. We'll see how it holds up. Regardless, you have to get a grip inside the panel where the pistol is held.

You rip it open until it stops. The vertical path stops the horizontal path from opening the whole kit bag like a taco. There is no 'retention' in the bag. The gun just uses gravity to stay put. I plan to carry a J-Frame in it, so hopefully it won't be an issue. There's a strip of vertical velcro that I might be able to use to keep the pistol still if it's a problem. Test runs will help me figure it out.

Avoid flagging yourself when drawing by keeping the angle of the muzzle down, and your off-hand elbow splayed out. I realize this isn't a perfect, efficient, AIWB draw stroke, but sacrifices have to be made.

The press out.

There is a flat admin pouch in front of the pistol pouch. You can see my ITS EDC trauma kit, phone, and keys fit nicely.

Having the mag shingle on there allows me to quickly outfit it for a range session or for teaching. The elastic pouches could also easily be used for snacks, phone, other gear that needs to be on hand.

This is smart kit. I'll make it dirty with  few months worth of use and will report back, or update this.

week of 7/23/12

Monday:

MT: Pads: 1,2, switch, 2x lk, check, step rt knee
1,2,3, 2x rk, check, step lk

pads: 1,2,1,2,slip, 4, 3, 2, switch, 2x left knees
1,2,1,2, slip, slap, 5, 2, 3 , 2x rt knees
10 punch, slip, sliap, 5,2,3,2, step, 2
6punch slip, 6punch slap

Clinch work: went over some cool ways to regain dominant position:
elbow bump, bump elbow above while ducking under, take back
cross face, swim outside hand back in
'always be close'
'grip at the crown of the head'
as soon as you get a grip, off balance him or throw a knee'
'never duck out of the clinch, because of North-South Knee'


'running man knees, kick leg back bring up and around, impacting on floating ribs'

'tall guys, work plum, shorter guys, work body lock w/ head pressure, aim knees at thighs'




Tuesday:

BJJ

guard opening: same as before

arm bar: break posture, use attacking side leg to trap ops same side leg, use opposite leg to fling across the back while escaping hips, trying to get perpendicular. leg on attacking side then goes up and over head, finishing arm bar.




- don't keep hands in bad position, stay tight, explode out. I got caught in 3 triangles. none were finished, but I was still in a bad spot. My arm positions are as they are when we are drilling, and I'm not getting my head in the game. I need to be more mindful of elbows and arms. I successfully did an arm bar, though I was super stacked when it happened. also got a few good sweeps. If Jr. doesn't get his blue belt months before me, then something is broken. Dude is just flowing so well. I need to study more closed guard attacks and hold positions. For instance, the overhook that reaches back under and grabs the opposite lapel. I know there's several chokes and sweeps from here, but I couldn't pull any off.




Wednesday:

MT:

same combos as monday.

The interesting thing was sparring. Anthony sparred a round with me. It is eye opening to realize just how bad you are. His ability to read my intentions, and abuse me at will was just awesome. He swept me 4x or so. He head kicked me at will. I was in awe. It's an honor to be able to spar with someone as good as him, even though he was probably going at 10%, it was still great.




Thursday:

off




Friday:

KB work alternate 1:00 KB, 1: jump rope

pass the kb around the body, 2 arm swings, left arm swing right arm swing, l arm clean press, r a c p, 1arm snatch, r arm snatch, l high pull, r high pull

then some abs and mobility work.




dry fire.

1. 20 reps of Wall Drill from extension, 2H

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from extension, SHO

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from extension, WHO

1. 20 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, 2H

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, SHO

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, WHO

http://pistol-training.com/archives/5185

Saturday: No Gi
Wrestling:
double leg takedowns, all about angle. These guys are doing it how we did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVi2pzMgt6U&feature=share
the drills are smokers, walking while shooting, alternating legs, taking turns getting the penetration step. Wrestling practice is brutal, but I need to keep it up. The constant pressure is something I'm missing.

My gripes on the new Batman movie *spoilers*

Overall it wasn't terrible. However, there were some key points that really took me out of the experience. I can suspend disbelief for a lot of things, but there were some that made me shake my head. I'll list them.

• Bain's voice. Did anyone else hear Sean Connery talking through a voice changer?
• Bruce Wayne had no cartilage in his knees, then he's put into a hole in the ground, and is able to climb out of it. I know that Bain didn't let him keep his ninja knee brace in the prison.
• The random characters showing up, un-introduced. Like those special forces guys who were disguised as supply delivery dudes. What was the point of bringing them in (the movie), to get them shot in 3 seconds. Why didn't they have rifles?
• The crazy way time slowed and sped along. When they got the core, to Bruce being taken to damn Uzbekistan, thrown in a hole, then he can go from herniated disc to rock climbing within 3 months? Then he can get out and get BACK to Gotham in a few days? C'mon
• The way that Bain could be literally in every building in Gotham, seemingly at will sort of bothered me. OH HE'S RIGHT BEHIND US AGAIN!
• I didn't like the way the city was supposed to be under control, yet there were citizens openly walking around wayne enterprises and all sorts of other key buildings. How was robin able to communicate with the trapped police, and noone else saw him? They were allowed super close to the transport trucks also.
• So the guy with the rope in prison. It was tied off at least 100 feet up the walls of the prison. Why the hell wouldn't they lift you up to the top of THAT rope, then let you climb from there. Everyone in there wanted out. They were chanting "rise". It's not like they rooted for him to fall. Save the dude some energy, and lift him as high up as you can.
• I hate being 'that guy', but the gun play was so silly. No need to go into detail, since it was so obvious. I thought they did much better with it in the previous movie.
• If 16 million people were going to die from that bomb, why the hell didn't he use the missiles of the BAT on the crowd. He literally got out of an attack helicopter, and fist fought someone who kicked his spine out of his back earlier. wat.

Week of 7/16/12

Monday: 192 (this will get under control starting now). Did some KB work in the basement. probably 150 swings, 3 sets of 8 shoulder presses, 3 sets of 15 bent over rows, and some one arm cleans.

Tuesday: Boxed for 1/2 an hour, then realized I didn't have an hour of that in me before BJJ. I keep hitting some wall in boxing. I can't do it, it's too exhausting for me.

BJJ:
worked a forced turtle position.
get the same '2 inside' arm position like you would be going for a pass, but instead of putting his knees to his chest, get onto a knee and lift and force him to roll into turtle position. You can end w/ a knee in his ribs, w/ over under grips.

do the same, but  if he resists rolling, you can go for a keylock, he'll probably roll toward that arm to defend, quickly take the space away by scooting the knees into his back, you can mount or take back as needed.

Counter:
from turtle, protect your neck on the side the opponent is on. lift the far knee up into your chest, and insert it across as you fall to your back. You can pull guard or 1/2 guard this way.

Did some good drills from here. I was having pretty good success both pulling guard, AND preventing others from pulling guard when they were on bottom.

MT:
combos:
1,2,switch,lk, cross block, evade teep, 2xright
1,2,3, rk, cross block, evade teep, 2xleft

mitts: 1,2,1,2 block rt body, rtuppercut, 3,2, step, 2 switch left knee
1,2,1,2, block rt then left body, lft uppercut, 2, 3, 2, left body shot, 3, rt knee

Sparring- I did well enough in sparring with everyone but Thomas. He takes a lot of boxing classes and can out strike and out aggress me easily. I'm still bitching up when I get hit hard. He hits with lots of flurries and can land punches at will. This is frustrating to me, and the more I get hit, the more frustrated I get. I need to work on circling and hitting back. I think maybe wearing my headgear will help this for me. I need to get over being hit. I'm still too scared.

Burnout: Battling a Crisis

I have been having a crisis with my training and fitness lately. I have had a shit-load of stuff playing on my mind in the last 4 months. Chief of which is my wife being pregnant. That happening is seriously something that I didn't expect due to my medical history and being told I would likely be sterile. This was a big OODA loop interrupter for how I thought the next 5 years would go. None of that is worrisome at all, it's just been on my mind a lot. Then I got a cold last week and was out of training for 5 days.

In that time, I remembered something... Sitting on the couch is easy and fun! I'd go home from work, and not have to run around getting ready and walking dogs and then run out of the door to get punched or choked. I'd just watch TV and drink a beer or something. This allowed me to get further into my own head.

Over-training is another contributing element to this. After finding out my wife was pregnant, I made it a point to train as hard as possible, as much as I was able to. I was driven a little harder than my body could handle, which I think is part of the reason I got that cold.

Lastly, I have been having bad days at MT and BJJ. Days when I can't finish a technique, or I can't get in to punch someone or land a kick to save my life. It's as if I've never done the techniques before. This really gets to me, as the only thing I've got is technique. So, when I can't pull it off, it enrages me. I almost walked out of BJJ yesterday.

Anyway, I'm saying all that to say this. I've been having sort of a crisis of training recently. I am constantly having to remind myself why I'm going to martial arts training. Sometimes I have trouble thinking of a reason.

I initially started doing MT and BJJ because it plugged into ECQC so well. It allows footwork and positioning and control to access weapons and get out of trouble. Plus a MT round kick to the leg is a near perfect street kick. After a year or so of making myself go to class, I started falling in love with the art. I wanted to compete, fight, and win. I went a few more months and was improving and on the upward swing. I am currently in a slump where I feel like I can't get out of my own way. I'm sure this is a mental game and I know lots of people go through the same thing. Many of them quit. There are a lot more near blue belts, than blue belts. A lot of people stagnate and lose interest. I didn't want to be one of those people.

I also have sort of a reputation to uphold. I initially started training and put my 'journey' under public scrutiny (damn you FB) to help motivate me off of the couch. Well, since then, I have had at least 5 people tell me thanks for motivating them and how much I've helped them. I also have guys on FB and some forums who message me and update me on their progress. This means more to me than I can write on here. So I feel an obligation to them to keep going. I feel like I'm a poser if I don't.

On the other hand, I really only have to answer to myself at the end of this life, so who cares what anyone thinks.

I'm a list maker. Here's a list.

Reasons to remain in MT and BJJ as much as possible until baby comes and after:
-The skill set is still the most applicable thing to 0 feet gun fighting that exists (as far as I can tell)
- I am more confident now than I have ever been in my life
- I don't want to be a quitter. I HATE being a quitter.
- I am motivating people to do new things, and change their lives (maybe overstated, but give me a break)
- I am in better shape than I have ever been in my life.
- To earn higher rankings (I don't want to be a belt chaser, but I'd be lying if this wasn't part of my motivation)
- Being in martial arts helps me remain disciplined and gives me goals (Can't be overstated, I need goals in my training or I stagnate and eventually quit)
- They help me remain compliant to my diet and other aspects of health (lifting weights does this too)
- It's hard, and most people don't want to do hard thing. I can be different and do hard things.
- I want to be able to tell good stories to my kids. No good stories come from sitting on a couch.

Reasons to quit:
- Quitting is easy
- I'm frustrated with my progress, and suck at this crap
- I'll never be a fighter, and I'm not even good against people who are new in our gym.
- I have a strong enough base in this to keep practicing on my own, and be serviceable
- It's hard. Both on my body, and my ego.
- I don't owe anything to anyone, and I can be a slob if I want.
- I'll save money every month ( more money for beer)
- I'll have more time for other sports (the only really legit reason I can see)

I guess when I'm logical, I need to continue. Overtraining is something I will cure when the baby comes. I'll be on a forced hiatus. Actually, I'm pretty glad I'll have to take time off. I'll be able to get strong and lift weights, maybe do some races, trail running, and other stuff that I can do at home. The trick there will be finding motivation. But maybe wanting to get away from a screaming baby will be enough.

Staying the course,
M

Week of 7/9/12

I took last week off due to a summer chest/head cold. I was feeling better and probably could have worked out last friday, but decided to force myself to rest. On saturday, I took J. to run at Juhan Road park. after a 40 minute trail run, we did 100 pushups, 100 body weight squats, and 100 vertical scissors.

Monday: AM WEIGHT 192.4! This is the heaviest I've been in probably a year. This is to be blamed on my knack for power eating when I can't train and am kept from working out. My biggest problem is that I have an 'all or nothing' attitude when I'm training. When I can train, my diet adherence is very good. but a day I'm not training, and watch out. Booze, Fried foods, lots of volumes of both. It's pretty bad.

I'm going to change my diet starting this week to more of a 4 hour body (slow carb) diet, with the only simple carbs being consumed after training. I also will do 2-3 fasts a week, lunch to lunch.

MT: Drilled basic combos with a kick evasion at the end.
1,2,2x lk, check, evade, 2x rk
same on other side

mitts: 1, 2, slip 2, 3, 2, step 2.
mirror for other side.

Drilling: I'm stoked Anthony is letting us work some 'positional drilling'
round 1, one guy offense, other guy teeps and jabs

round 2 boxing and clinch(knees)

round 3 free spar

Tuesday:
BJJ
started w/ judo basics! W00t! We practiced sleeve and collar control and popping the sleeve and collar away while penetrating with the body and kicking the sleeve controlling side's leg across (setting up a trip)

foot work for hip throw: right leg lead, step right leg forward and cant it slightly inward, step left leg to the right of that leg while rotating hips, end up with feet square, level changed and facing the other way. This works off of an underhook on the same side as the forward leg.

we also tried a fancy hop back, then enter the same footwork as above. It's like dancing, and I need a lot of practice

omaplatas

Then we worked kimura, hip bump, and back take from the closed guard.

I almost quit bjj last night for good. I'm inside my own head about getting better and not being able to submit people who I think I should be able to submit. My guillotine sucks. my setups for arm bars suck. I'm not very good at this.

Wednesday:
MT More of the same stuff we did monday, as well as Clinch work.
game is to get inside control, throw light knees, and break while throwing a strike. Control at the crown of the head.

Thursday: rest

Friday: did the Stanley workout. 100 burpies, flutter kicks, squats, pushups. completed in 19m:53s

Saturday: 45 minute trail run w/ kuo.

Week of 6/26/12

Monday: I have been fighting a serious case of burnout. I don't know if it's from too much drinking on weekends, too much food, or maybe too much training, but I just felt like sitting on the couch.

Tuesday: Despite Mike's (and my own) recommendations, I decided to do both boxing and bjj today.

BOXING:
We jogged to warm up, maybe a round. Then we did circuits consisting of the double end bag (timing bag), jump rope, shadow box w/ weights, hitting the heavy bag, uppercut bag, and a round of mitts w/ Jamal. Each have their own 'goal'. timing bag is good for timing head motion, moving, attacking quickly and from different angles, heavy is for big body shots, heavy combos. And the uppercut bag is awesome because it spins and swings in big arcs, forcing you to use jabs and hooks and movement to get around it and control it. Mitts with Jamal is always difficult, because he pushes me to the limit of my concentration, doing combos I've never done before. Lots of double body shots, double jabs, jabs to hooks, long strings of 1-2's with head movement. A note about my jabs... I have the bad habit (I think always trying to do a 'falling jab' is to blame) of lifting my front foot and stepping with the jab, to make it stiff and heavy. Jamal kept swinging his right arm over the top, and slapping my head. He said that the jab is for range and once you're in range, it doesn't have to be used in a hard manner, just a space keeper.

BJJ:
more closed guard passing: open guard the same way as last week. as soon as guard breaks, put weight on the bottom leg, and try to get an upright 1/2 guard on that leg. As the guy tries to get his foot back in for a hook, UNDERHOOK his thigh, reaching for his belt. This nullifies that outside leg and hip. Sprawl and control to pass to the same side.

if he stops you by pressuring down w/ his thigh, reach deeper under his thigh to get the lapel, sprawl, trying to put his knee to his face, and go to other side of above pass.

if he stops you by putting a knee across your belly (I'm extremely guilty of this, and will fix it), just jam it down and hop over to the side.

if he stops you mid pass w/ a butterfly hook, using non belt grabbing hand - pop his knee, and therefor the hook out, and hop over to same side.

Raph talked about getting a competition team together. I'm obligated to be on it, I think. Both for myself, and for the gym. It's going to be good, and something to look forward to.

Wednesday: No juice to train, feeling pretty burned out. 187lbs AM weight

Thursday: BJJ
Keylock from mount; 2 on 1 grip, elbow bracing between hand and their head, other hand under, spread base out to stay stable, tuck elbow back in towards body (tightens it up big time), paint the floor with their fist, while lifting their elbow.

Kimura from guard: break grip (along lapel), 2 on 1, push arm away, grip wrist w/ same side hand, reach up and over (armpit to his shoulder), build grip, escape hips to the side that you control, pass that same leg over his back to control posture, pull arm taut, try to hide his arm behind his back.

if he defends Kimura by grabbing pants, drop that leg to trap him on that side, use that side arm to post on the mat, lift hips, and step over w/ far leg, sweeping to full mount

Guillotine from kimura/sweep: work the kimura, then if he commits to defending, release grip and pull guillotine.

Week of 6/18/12

Monday: 189 lbs

MT: Knees and parry drills
combos: 1, 2, lk lk block step, rknee rknee
1,2,3 rk rk block lknee lknee
1,2,3, bob, weave, 2, 3 rk rk
1,2,3, bob, weave, 2,3,2, lk, lk
drilling: off jab, use right hand to parry, 'climb hands' left hand behind shoulder while stepping w/ right hand, and left knees to body
off cross, use left hand to parry, rt knees to body

Sparring was good today. Big Mike mentioned that my footwork gets me introuble quite a bit. So more shadow boxing w/ an eye for footwork and positioning. I'll also keep concentrating on that in sparring, as well as entering the clinch, and offbalancing/knees

Tuesday: 183lbs

BJJ:
arm drag:
cross collar, same side sleeve grip, open guard, trap legs to ground using opened guard. get 2on1 grip on sleeve, and opposite foot on hip. drive off that hip and escape hips to 2on1 side, as he pressures back, slip that foot off hip while pushing 2on1 away and post on that arm, keeping it on the mat. come to seatbelt grip, work the back.

collar choke from back:
from 2on1, reach around w/ near arm to under opposite arm, use close arm to open lapel, and grab w/ near arm, then grab w/ far arm the opposite lapel, pull to rear mount and finish, or work clock choke.

rolling:
We drilled open guard, I rolled like a bag of dicks. Very disappointed in my performance. Constantly getting swept from open guard. I think it's my shitty combat base or something. I need to watch some videos and figure out what I'm doing wrong. I got scissor swept like 5 times. fuck.

Wednesday: rested due to burnout feeling. Drank a lot of Gin and Tonics. Feltgoodman.

Thursday: BJJ
Opening guard: lapel hold, belt hold, elbows tight and in, knee in butt, other leg sprawled back and down, side w/ knee in butt should be side that has lapel hold, keep downward outward pressure on that hip/leg, turn hips away to increase pressure, pop guard open, keep good pressure on that bottom leg, pass a knee over, and get to 1/2 guard or side control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_fcJi04vYk this isn't what we did, but I need to study it.


1/2 guard pass: from gable grip behind head w/ underhook on far side: pass near arm over body, under his far armpit, switch hips to face away, drive his legs down as you shimmy your knee out. if possible, get ankle out and get full mount. If you get stuck, turn hips back towards his face while scooping far elbow up, and gable grip around his head and arm, sticking yourself to him and nullifying his arm. Use free leg to help pry ankle free.

nogi:
opening guard: staggered arms, keep hips on ground, knee in butt, other leg open like a door, pry that leg down on the side of 'open' leg, get center leg up

pass: if he goes to butterfly hooks, push hook in, and step around to foot up in middle, use that center knee to cut either across or to same side. get underhook on leg where it helps, keep peeled knee down and use that to step other leg over.

if he gets knee in: shove knee out of the way., go for underhook on far side to retain control.

The fight comes in from gaining the underhook, if bottom guy gets it, he can get to the back, if top guy gets it, he can flatten out bottom guy. That's the fight. Also, I can't be stalling in scrambles, I have to keep moving.

Fusion MMA - Saturday No Gi.

I had the pleasure to go train with my buddy Sean B. at his home gym, Fusion Fitness and MMA in Marietta. http://fusionfitnessandmma.com/

It was a good time. The grappling class worked sweeps. I'll write more about the head instructor later, since I was really impressed with his teaching style and his patience with me and his ability to monitor the whole class and give pointers. He deals in frameworks and themes rather than a 'random moves of the day'. The teaching method is very much counter to the Brazilian way I'm accustomed to.

We worked sweeps this class:
Scissor sweep, wrist control, off balance forward (swim hands through and make him base out), get knee across belly, pull wrists away while scissoring, end up on top.

Bottom guy gets elbows in, and recomposes guard, then he sweeps.

If he bases, you can quickly switch the direction of the sweep by getting other knee in, etc., also can run subs off of this transition phase, triangles, arm bars, etc.

Stuffing this sweep: You have to kill the knee and hook that across your belly, sprawling and pinning that leg to the ground helps this. You can then walk around.

Sweep from open guard: feet on hips, shins on inside of biceps, if he bases, get a butterfly hook under that leg, bring weight on top, use hook to sweep to 1/2 guard.

Bump sweep- base off arm, attach other arm pit to his shoulder, lift hips, step over and sweep.

Did some shoots and double/singles, no knee stomp, but instead a good level change, and back of knee grab to finish. Good street safe takedown.

SITOUTS! off of a failed shot, if he sprawls, IMMEDIATELY base leg on side that your head is trapped, then step other leg under, sit out, apply head/ear pressure, get to top/back. Hook always goes on bottom side. I need to make this a standard part of my game. I can see this being super powerful and take away some of the fear of attempting take-downs.

Rolling with the instructor:
arm bar defense, grab own bicep w/ attacked arm, then use non attacked arm to hide behind the thigh to further lock it up.
Did wrong: putting leg up in his guard, where he could attack my legs (lack of leg locks bums me out in our school), didn't stagger arms when in his guard.
elbows tighter, keep knees tighter, think of it as guard on top, don't let elbows splay out, stagger hands in  his guard.
Needed to keep hips lower, follow his movement more, make a 'cross' sign out of myself. no space between hips and floor, nor between his body and my body.

Noted I was relaxed on the bottom and tensed up on the top. He recommended that I work a lot of sweeps and escapes to improve my top game.

week of 6/11/12

I'm going to try to do more 'writing' this week, rather than just record keeping. It's been an emotional month. First I found out that my wife was pregnant, then two weeks later, we thought she miscarried, then two weeks after that, we found out that she didn't miscarry, and was(is) still pregnant. Then my mentor and friend Paul Gomez passed away unexpectedly. On top of that all, it was also my friend's birthday, then my wives parents birthday, mothers day, soon father's day. So my (selfish) excuses have been piling up. It's hard to keep motivated, but I know the day is coming when I can't train regularly, so I keep pushing.


 So all that led to celebratory eating, emotional eating, drinking, staying up too late, and all sorts of dampers on my mental game. There were days that I wanted to just quit everything. I find myself losing interest in shooting in recent weeks. I don't know why I'm losing interest in that, I think it's just because I haven't gone to shoot for fun in so long. I need to go do an IDPA match soon. Relight that fire a bit.

AM weight - 189 (!!!)
Post MT weight 185 My diet has been shit for the last two months. It was a slow gain back to 185ish, but I know there's a few lbs of fat in there. I'm going to do some subtle meal composition tweaks in addition to IF to try to bring it back in range.

MT: jump rope 3 rounds 20pushups/squats between, check to knees around the gym
1,2, lk, lk, block w/ left, step, 2x right knees
1,2,3, rk, rk, block w/ right, step 2x lft knees
mitts:
1, 2, slip, 6,7,3, 6, 7
sparring: positional sparring, boxing and clinch range only. AWESOME. I suck at this, and need tons of work on the entry, and on the clinch itself. I asked Anthony if we could work it, and he said he would work us in.

BJJ: Bump sweep- bump, trap arm/ trap same leg, bump again.

armbar from mount (Rickson armbar) - put pressure, as guy pushes off, plant one hand around arm and other hand inside. put weight into hands and lift hips. swing leg around and finish

variation - go inside w/ throat pressure, as he resists and reaches for the defense, plant other hand, spin, and finish.

choke from side control - as he pressures w/ hand on your throat, get lapel out, feed to headhold hand, pop to knee on belly, reach w/ other hand inside (palm up), turn hand over and down, while lifting w/ headhold hand, and go to N/S to finish.

Rolling was good, the guys who have recently arrived are easy to sweep and choke. B. and JR. are my only skilled opponents now, but luckily, I think they're both better than me. That's my gain.

MT:
Warmup was beast. 3m round rope, 20/20, x3 rounds. Combos for one round, yellow sash 1 and 2, second Combos, block, knee, block step knee.
Same combos as monday. on pads and mitts
sparring
abs; vertical scissors, out and up, situps, crunches, squat hop thingies.

BJJ:
cross collar chokes. small finger sleeve grips. trap arm between leg and with a tight grip, then reach across with other arm for deep cross lapel hold, switch hips, use same leg as the arm that's gripping to climb back and offbalance to get angle for other grip. Can grab a bunch of fabric, and finish. OR you can slide thumb under lapel, and finish.

scissor sweep. same grips as before, cross collar and sleeve, escape hips, and either use shin across belly, or swing leg over while chopping base on far side. or the stomp the knee variation.

Week of 6/4/12

Monday:
MT: muay khaw (sp?). The forward driving style. Lots of forward checks to knees. A forward pressure.
combos:
1,2,3, rt kicks, block, step through, 2x left kicks
1,2 lt kicks, block, step, 2x rt kicks

Tuesday:
BJJ: Raph is back. Douglas is gone to teach at his own gym.
We worked arm bar setups and variations.
Standard arm bar: control sleeve, cross grip at elbow. foot on hip, trapping the attacked arm. use other leg to off set balance and pull over opponent. use foot on hip to pass over and attack arm.

Sneakier setup:
cuff control, put foot down to block base on trapped arm side,  and knee control on other side (either gi or knee). Use pant control to help get hips out and swing leg over head while pulling sleeve controlled arm across body.

Sweep from same grips:
instead of pulling the sleeve across body, or if it slips out, you can pull the sleeve up and away, and use the off-balancing leg to sweep, end up on top.

If you lose control of that sleeve, and he bases using that arm. use whatever grips you can get to push him off balance in that direction of travel. There are omaplatas, escapes, back takes, arm bars and lots of stuff available.

Wednesday: 183#
no MT for me. Rested and relaxed w/ mom to be.

Thursday: BJJ
side control escape: put elbow across throat and on shoulder, and bridge to make space, shrimp, get hook in, recompose.

Side control top, when guy does above move, sneak his lapel out of his belt, and pass it under his neck. grab bottom of lapel w/ bottom arm, shift weight forward, roll arm over, elbow down. then take a big step over his head, baseball bat choke (can grab own hand).

Some other choke from the same grip... I can't remember it, though.


No GI:
double/ single leg take downs- penetration step, put other foot BEHIND nearest leg to block base, head inside, grab both legs behind knees, lift legs and drive to side, take down.
single - same steup, head inside, grab leg, suck leg between your legs, apply Shoulder pressure to hip/leg, walk back and spin
escape from guard to guillotine, clinch head, escape hips, use outside arm to drive head to mat, until stiff armed, get up on other elbow then hand, escape hips, pass far leg back through to base, suck down into over under (arm in guillotine) grip, play top or suck back in for a guillotine.

escape from guard to sweep to mount - if leg gets stuck trying to get back through to base, just hip bump sweep and end in mount

escape from guard to ompalata. if guy tries to keep you in by hugging your hips, escape bottom leg and work the omaplata.

Week of 5/28/12

No Gi on 5/26/12

Back techniques.
How to maintain back mount if guy tries to put his back on the ground, get underhook on bottom side and pull him back on top.

arm bar to recompose back mount drilling
Control arm that is nearest your underhook side, can go for armbar on that arm using kimura grip. Pass overhook side overhead and block head while getting kimura grip. get legs out and pass over for arm bar. If that fails, you can pull him back to center from that setup.

Sunday:
ran 4.7 miles

Monday: dead inside, rest day

Tuesday: 190!!!lbs in the AM

Boxing: warmed up and drilled for 1/2 an hour until my arms felt like they were going to fall off. Lots of jabbing. I clearly had too much alcohol and rich food over the last 2 weeks. I felt it tonight.

BJJ: LOTS of new guys, probably 15 in the class. We worked arm bars for technique. both the "arm trap, posture control, swing leg" variant, as well as the leg underhook more explosive variant.

Also we drilled for about 30 minutes, open guard, and I won 85% of the time or so. Lots of sweeps, and guard  passes. I felt good about this. I bonked during the rolls, but I blame all the wine I had yesterday on that.

MT: beast warmup, then 6 rounds of sparring. Emphasis on recovery of heart rate. I also got outboxed by a few guys, but was proud that a few of the times I was getting flurried, I punched back. And the result was good, as guy ran into my jab and his flurry stopped. Lesson learned on that.

Learned how to throw a jab without stepping forward. Just lift front foot, and pop w/ rear foot. Also, a note on movement and being ready to strike back... keep rear foot toes pointed at opponent, and keep rear leg stiff. You can pop back off that stiff leg very quickly. Concentrated on rolling shoulder and pulilng it away. Anthony really stresses this.

BJJ: duck under from guard. same side sleeve grab, use legs and grip to tug back and and across your body, while swimming loose hand under that arm, and grab that belt or back, escape hips while keeping the underbody hook behind leg, swing over and get other hook

arm drag from closed or open guard. same side sleeve, reach across and grab bi/tri and pull w/ that arm across body and scoot out and take back.

rolling was good. Pulled off some moves I've been thinking about a lot. After reading the TPI thread about 'street smart' bjj stuff, the blood chokes were my goal, as were improving positions, and sweeps. Jr and I got our green belts tonight. 18 months. I didn't think I'd stick with it this long. I must be falling in love with the art.

Roufus' Gym in Milwaukee

I was visiting my grandmother in Milwaukee this week, and decided to pay a visit to Duke Roufus' gym and get a workout in. So I took the short drive up 76th street and found the spot.

The guy I talked to on the phone (can't recall his name), was super nice and accommodating. The front desk girl also was very professional and helped get me checked in.

I took their no-gi class. It was structured similarly to ours. Their warmups were the same for ALL classes. Run circles, shuffle in and out, leg cross side shuffle thing, and then 10 pushups/20 crunches/10 squats. This was much less conditioning work then I was used to. It was mostly just a warmup, I guess.

The no-gi class techniques were 1/2 guard passes.

recomposing guard from mount. Keep elbows in and tight, upa and get elbows between his legs, try to get on side, elbows as frame, hip escape, frame, hip escape, until you can trap an ankle and get him into 1/2 guard, or full.

first was a top position pass.
get bottom arm over torso, under armpit, switch hips so they're facing his feet, pop up, and insert bottom knee inside, use that knee to pry the trapped leg out. go to scarf hold, then switch back to proper side control.

kickboxing.

switch kick, check, switch kick, 3, 2, 3, rt kick was the final sequence we worked up to. It was definitely focused more on techniques than on perfect form. Roufus is clearly an awesome coach and has very good experience to share. The idea of this combo was play at outside range, quick kick to bait a counter kick so you can check and switch to kick again, then hop in for the hook, cross, hook, which sets up the rt kick nicely. He kept correcting that I was putting my left foot all the way back in preparation for another kick. He showed me that a good kicker would just kick my inside right leg constantly. I'm going to try it sparring on Monday and Wednesday and see how it works. I'm not a fan of tricky combos or anything, I prefer my attributes and ability to 'see' combos as a more valuable skill. But baiting a kick so you can counter kick is certainly a valid technique. He also mentioned that after throwing a hook, I am bringing my left arm all the way back to my chest before throwing my right leg. I think this is a training scar from waiting for pad holders to set for the kick. I am diffusing my power by unwinding myself after the hook. These two tips were worth the trip, imo. It would be fun to train a few months here, for sure.

The makeup of the students was certainly younger than Madhouse. My guess is most of those kids were 18-25 probably. It was quite full. Probably 30 people in the combined kickboxing classes. I loved seeing another approach to coaching and how the classes were structured. It was a good experience, for sure.