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.

 

week of 5/14/12

Monday: AM weight 186.4, PM weight 182.0
Lots of pooping today. Had a weekend of eating and drinking, which I need to get under control.

MT: Same combos as last week. Totally smoked. The warmups are what I should be noting, as I'll have to get my work in when I'm training in the basement.
Warmup: 3- 3min rounds of jump rope, last 30 seconds high knees. 20 pushups/squats in between
50 kicks each leg
2-3 x 200 punches (high, med, low depending on day)
Jamal mentioned working punches for a round, kicks for a round, then combine them for the last round (5 min rounds) vary cadence, power, footwork, so on.
Worked combos - check, sidestep a teep variations

Tuesday:
BJJ:
sweeps from spider guard:
get spider guard hook, use other leg to butterfly hook same side as spider hook. Swim other arm under opponents bottom leg, pull his weight on top. sweep to side.

same as above, if he posts leg to base, switch grip from spider guard sleeve hold, to the posted ankle, drive forward, and end up on top.

same as above, but instead of getting butterfly hook, slide shin across (similar to reverse scissor sweep, shin on belly), and sweep as usual.

Wednesday:
AM weight 182.0

MT:
Same combos as Monday. Good workout.

Thursday: Took Off ( I can't be skipping BJJ, but just couldn't go)

Friday:
Weights.
Deadlift 295 3,2,2 w/ jumps in between
Pullups 4sets of 8ish
Shoulder press - 60lb dumbbells, seated, 4,4,4 (amazing how weak this is for me)
weighted carry - 60 lbs in front of squash courts, waiters carry, suitcase carry
quick abs
jog back to Verco.

Saturday:
No Gi
1/2 guard sweep - underhook on 1/2 guard side, on side, get underhook on leg, bring weight on top of you. get outside leg along side of inside leg, grab ankle, sweep towards your feet.

sweep from 'scissor' position pass. If you have your knee across their belly, and they reach BETWEEN you legs to try to step around, grab that wrist, and sweep them.

to pass correctly if someone is in scissor position. reach under BOTH legs, pin them together, sprawl and walk around to side.

Loved training no gi. Much faster and slicker. submissions seem to be mostly chokes and triangles. Saw fewe arm bars. I got caught in a darce choke about 3 times by the blue belt that came to train. He would get it from side control every time. I need to learn that choke so I know what I'm doing to feed it to him. I was reading aesopians blog about it.

Packing to go to WI for the week. Yee haw!

Well, I'm going to be a (tactical) father. part 1

On a strong hunch, my wife decided to get a pregnancy test over the weekend. She is pregnant! I'll be a dad in about 8 months. That's mind blowing to me. I'm still in shock, to be sure. My oncologist told me the stem cell transplant would leave me sterile for the rest of my life and to have kids would cost $20,000 in in-utero fertilization, and drugs, etc. To quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic park, "Nature finds a way".

My goal with this entry is to try to lay a framework of how I *THINK* it will work, how I plan to do it, my priorities during the pregnancy, my expectations, and generally working things out. I realize that to all the current fathers, this will probably be laughable, and that my expectations and goals will be unrealistic, and that you'll be able to say "I told you so". But either way, this should be a cool thing to look back at in a year.

Upon hearing the news, I was in disbelief. I was impossible for me to have viable sperm after getting nuked 4 years ago during the stem cell transplant. My wife and I had had many discussions about how "if it happened, it happened", but I wasn't holding out hope for that. I assumed I would continue to live the life of a DINK (dual income no kid) with Sarah until we were in our early 30's. Drop the cash on the procedure, and get her preggo. All very technical and planned. In this case, I'm very glad everything didn't go according to plan. This is going to be good.

I realize my priorities will have to change. I was just getting used to having the health and freedom to train heavily in my hobbies and improve at a pretty rapid pace. I know it's greedy, but I'm going to miss being selfish with my time and disposable income. I have been called selfish and uncaring with how much time I spend on my hobbies and on cultivating friendships. I'm going to try my best to continue my path, while still giving my wife and kid as much support as they could need or want. I'm prepared to be spread thin. I've been through harder times.

I'm feeling scared, and nervous about everything, but I know we'll be ok. I have fears about my health degrading unexpectedly or losing my job or something, but it's all wasted energy. I have to remind myself to focus on the present, and be mindful of the things I want to come to pass. Also, if people can have babies in mud huts and keep them alive, I should be able to figure it out.

My usual obsessive learning phase is kicking in, and I'm going to start reading all the books. This is written before I've read anything about child raising or caring for a mom-to-be, so I'm sure this list will change in the next few weeks as I read.

As far as my list of important things to have happen before the baby comes...

• keep wife healthy
• keep wife happy
• keep baby healthy
• save money and pay off as much debt as possible
• continue to train MT and BJJ
• Don't allow myself to put on baby weight.

The first three I am reading about. I won't speak about them.

The money issue seems like it was divinely planned. Sarah and I will have all of our CC debt paid off in about 1 month. My car will be paid off in 3 months. The only debt we will have when the baby arrives will be student loan payments and mortgage payments. This will help HUGELY. A year ago, we had about $10,000 in CC debt. Tightening my belt, and not being frivolous with money, and having my wife get a raise all helped us power down our debt.

Continue to train. I know this one will be hard. I really hope I can get my blue belt before I have my kid. I'd that will put me at 2 solid years of BJJ. If I'm ready, I'll get it. I know taking a significant amount of time off will really hurt my conditioning and technique. I guess it's just how it is. My long term goal is to continue these sports into the distant future. If in the short term, I can't continue, I'll set up a rad home gym on my side of the garage and run and lift as much as possible. We shall see.

I'll make subsequent entries every few weeks as new things arise. Wish me luck.

week of 5/7/12

Monday:
MT:
same combos as last week.
 Sparring went a lot better. I feel like I did better at counter punching, and keeping my eyes open. I saw LOTS of opportunities for counterpunches. Now my job will be to capitalize on them. I need to work the accuracy of my punching, so I'll get the double ended bag out again. Work on speed and accuracy.

Tuesday:
A.M. Wt 180.6#
BJJ:
1/2 guard sweeps:
begins w/ deep underhook on guard side, deep underhook (shoulder behind knee) on other leg. Body perpendicular to his body, and on your side.
variant 1: pull his weight on top of you, if he posts out, use leg underhook to scoot out of back door.
variant 2: pull weight on top, if he drops weight and prevents back door escape, underhook posting arm, and continue to roll on top 1/2 or side
variant 3: from beginning, escape hips, outside leg gets butterfly hook, pull weight on top w/ underhook, use butterfly hook, extend leg to the angle w/ no base. Get on top.

Drill: from butterfly guard, get underhook on side you're siting near, underhook leg as get sideways, bring guy on top and sweep. Switch sides, partners.

Rolling has been going well. I only got tapped by Douglas 2 times in a 6 minute round (the 4th of 6 rounds). I also nearly passed his guard two times that I can think of. I count that as a huge victory. I'd love to earn my blue belt by the time I have my kid. We'll see if it's possible. I was 179.8# after training.

Wednesday: MT Same as Monday. Smoked.

Thursday: way too tired to go to BJJ.

Friday:
Did Larry's recommended 'maintenance strength' program.
Deadlift: 270# 3, 2, 2
then within 1 min of each set, a jump pyramid (1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5 jumps); a 100 yd sprint, then jumps after the last one.
Push Press 115lbs 3, 3, 3
ring pullups 8,8,7

The Perpetuation of Bro-Science in gyms

Bro Science: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Broscience

Broscience is a derogatory term for misconceptions and ideas of questionable scientific credibility, passed around among laymen by word-of-mouth as if factually true.

I have to post about this, because it is getting to the point that I have to vent a little. I have been going to a MMA gym for about 1.3 years at this point, and lifting weights for about 10 years before that, barring a few breaks. In that time, I have heard the constant spreading and perpetuation of bro-science. Some advice I've heard is bad, some is misguided, and some is dangerous. I'll list a few of the choice ones here, and just write about it for a bit.

If you asked me two years ago how to lose weight, before I started digging deeper than surface level about new-findings and published medical studies, I would have said some of the following:

• eat 6 small meals to stoke the metabolic fire
• eat chicken to lose weight, beef to gain
• no more than 30g of protein at each meal
• take up running if you want to lose weight
• avoid eating fats to avoid getting fat
• egg yolks will increase your blood cholesterol levels...

I really need to stop there, I'm making myself angry at myself...Not that everything I said above was totally wrong, but it was a bit misguided and misinformed mostly. Ignorance is bliss, and I had everything figured out. But, my results were non-congruent with my knowledge. The problem is, I never had the defined goals I needed to force myself to stick with the diet plans or weight lifting plans that I knew were supposed to work. I floated in a place where I had no defined goal, and therefore no drive to stick with a given 'common knowledge' method, and then prove or disprove it. I was in limbo.

However, thanks to guidance from my mentors, as well as doing a lot of reading by myself, I feel like I've got a handle on the crux of fat loss and conditioning, and I've implemented it for myself with good results over the last 1.75 years or so.

I said the previous stuff to say the next bit. I've heard some of these things passed to others as gospel. Some of them are old bro-science, and some are dangerous advice that could possibly cause health problems. I'll also just blab about them.

• Recommending crossfit style workouts to people trying to build strength. 

Building strength builds strength. The basic lifts. Maximal effort type stuff. Powerlifting stuff. See Dan John, 5/3/1 program, Starting Strength, and so forth. Sometimes I wonder if it's a confusion of terminology, or just that some elite athletes can do all different sorts of things, often wrong, but their drive and work ethic can give them satisfactory results. The common fight workout engages the same energy systems as crossfit does. Or it could be that some of them never realized their potential in a given area of conditioning, but who am I to say. For more info on these things, see http://www.8weeksout.com/

• mysticism in gaining 30 lbs after a weigh-in.

Cutting 'weight' and dieting down 8 weeks out from a fight can cause someone to lose massive amounts of weight. 30-40 lbs is pretty common it seems. Some guys walk around at 210, and fight at 170, for instance.   My bjj coach was shaking his head at how he gained 30-40 lbs 5 days after his fight. The combination of water depletion, carb depletion, and caloric restriction can easily yield these kinds of losses. I swing 5-8 lbs from sunday to tuesday because of weekend beer/pizza indulgence. Water depletion can lose you 15 lbs if done properly. Also, eating chicken and broccoli for 3 weeks leading up can cause you to drop some serious fat, given the amount of training these guys do. Then after a fight, you figure they gorge on sushi, pizza, sodium, whatever, and they bloat back up. The math is there.

• coming in bloated monday, having to work it off every week, and calling it fat.

Guys who come in 6 lbs heavier on Monday (like me) shouldn't be mystified if they had pizza and beer friday, and a hamburger on saturday. Carbohydrates and sodium cause you to retain water, period. You can't eat enough calories in 2 days to put on 6 lbs of fat. That's something like 24,000 Calories. Impossible. It's water, and limiting simple carbohydrate intake will shed this.

• running to lose weight

It is just 'common knowledge' that you have to run to lose weight. Except that's not true. Sure, you burn calories running (say 300 calories in an HOUR on top of your basal metabolic rate). But I, for instance, burn about 75 calories EVERY HOUR I'M ALIVE. Sleeping, pooping, watching TV. It just simply isn't worth trying to run to lose fat. Diet for fat loss, RUN for conditioning. You sort of need to convince yourself of that truth. People who run tend to have a calorically dense shake or meal after a run, often negating any caloric deficit they put themselves in during the run. It's just not worth it. It also helps when counting calories to not count the calories burned during exercise, lest you over estimate your total caloric expenditure for the day. It can cause frustration, "why the hell am I not losing weight, the elliptical machine said I burned 800 Calories..."

• meal composition for fat loss

Not that there isn't an ideal combination of carbohydrate/fat/protein for optimal performance (admittedly I'm  still escaping my bro-science phase of this topic), but for the most part, the fat loss problem should be one of Cals in vs Cals out. Period. Again, I use intermittent fasting for this, but caloric restriction is caloric restriction. My friend Larry L. uses IF, as well as a paleo-ish diet, and is super lean year round. I have yet to jump on a super strict diet plan, as I'm still getting results with simple IF. I intend to eat clean starting soon with my goal being sub 10% body fat for a period of my life.

• 6 meals a day, don't skip breakfast, other diet stuff.

I can't say any of this better or with more accuracy than leangains. http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

• A 14 year old kid saying he was going to use a sauna suit to 'cut weight'.

First of all, this is dangerous. Second, without a competition about 3-5 days out, there is NO NEED to try to sweat out weight (water). It will simply come back when you drink a glass of water tonight. It can cause organ failure, and should only be done with a good knowledge of what you're putting yourself through. The way this advice of "sweat it off" is thrown around makes me a bit angry. The best diuretic is water, so keep drinking water. Your body knows it's going to keep getting fluids, so it doesn't try to retain what it's got. This is why the starting phase of a big water cut is to drink 2-3 gallons of water a day. To wear a plastic bag for any other purpose but to meet a strict weight class is folly.

I know there's tons more, but that's all I could think of when I sat down to write. Any you have heard recently? Please share em.

Cheers guys,
M

Week of 4/30/12

Monday:
PM weight: 180.6lbs

Lunch Run - 1.2 miles

MT: 1,1, 1,2 switch, 2 l kicks, check, evade, 2 r kicks, teep
1,1, 1,2,3,2 r kicks, check evade, 2 l kicks, teep

pads - 1,2, bob, 2, 3, low rt kick, high rt kick
1,2,3,weave, 3,2, switch, low lt, high lt
10 punch, bob, weave, 2,3 step 2

sparring was a mixed bag. I felt sort of slow tonight. I fasted today, so that probably has something to do with it. Ben is back. He hasn't been there for 6 months, and he immediately made me feel silly when we sparred. He's a talented dude, for sure. It's fantastic to have a fighter as a coach. Anthony Nieves seems like a super nice dude, and obviously speaks with experience. I like how he walked around and gave pointers during the spar. I teeped someone while he was bringing his knee up for a check, bruised the bottom of my foot. Icing it now. HURRRTTTSS like a mother.

Tuesday:
AM weight: 183.6lbs
No jits, foot too messed up.

Wednesday: 186.8lbs (had a HUGE dinner, lots of carbs, sue me)
MT: Same combos as monday.
Sparring went a bit better. I still bitch up. I need to try to make it a point to not back up, trust my MT, and just bang a bit. My goal for next monday is to not back up. I will try this in earnest. Instead of covering up, I will punch back.

Thursday: 180.2lbs
BJJ:
I got to the gym early, hit the heavy bag for about 10 minutes, then Jr. wanted to do some light rolls before class. They were probably 6-10 minutes each. So I was thoroughly tired when we started. Then two of Marcel's blue belt buddies came, and I was like "I'm gonna have a bad time". I rolled weak. But I am surviving longer and longer.
De La Riva sweep. DLR hook, grab that side ankle. Shoot hook DEEP across onto opposite thigh. Roll guy forward using the deep hook and sleeve control. come to top or side control
crazy DLR sweep. DLR hook, control same side sleeves. Swim DLR side arm between self and his shin, try to touch shoulder to his foot. Swing non DLR hook out and around. can grab cloth with other non-swimming hand. Get under him and use legs to push him over. You end up in a strange tangle of legs, but mostly on top. Get position.