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.