Wolverine's MMA/BJJ Log

[WolverineGuy]

Ok, so I've been out of martial arts in general for about two years, pretty much since I dislocated my shoulder in a stupid backyard grappling match which was essentially a d*ck swinging contest. Just recently I found the Ultimate Fighting Academy in Flint, which has a couple of great instructors (one of which I went to high school with). One of them is a purple belt under Saul Ribeiro. I don't know about the other one, but he is also a purple belt.

I've been hitting the gym hardcore for about two months now. Trying to lean down to 185, and get my lean muscle mass up. I've been working on cardio, doing intense five minute runs with two minutes rest. I usually try to hit at least three five minute runs at 7mph, then do a few 10 mph sprints for a minute each. I work out with weights four days per week, and do cardio six days per week. Abs are every other day, and I hit them hard once per week.

MMA class is brand new to me. First day was Tuesday. We worked some combos

-Jab Cross Jab
-Cross Jab Cross
-Jab Elbow
-Jab Elbow Knee

Did some grappling work

-upa
-transitioning from under the mount to guard using upa

Did Thai situps 2x30 (for those of you that don't know, you do a situp, then your partner slams a focus mit or something similar into your abs. Fun stuff).

Then it was open rolling time. Let me tell you something, I am no stranger to grappling whatsoever. I did some intensive training with my judo instructor, who specializes in newaza, and I was hanging with BJJ blue belts at that time. But being out of the game for so long, its almost ridiculous the amount of sloppiness in my game. Mind you, I've never really done no-gi seriously, so I wasn't expecting a miracle, but I got absolutely schooled. And the whole time, of course I was winded, which meant I was relying on my faded instincts which are riddled with rust and sloppy technique. The whole time I kept thinking "if he had a gi on I could choke him right now," or "wouldn't have missed that armbar with a gi." Its VERY frustrating.

Wednesday was straight BJJ class. While I was certainly more comfortable, and knew the majority of the techniques taught, again, I'm so rusty. We worked the scissor sweep and the knee tap sweep (I learned it as the push sweep, same thing), and then the flower sweep. The flower sweep I've never seen before, and was a bit awkward at first. The other two are my bread and butter when I'm on my back...but I couldn't set them up for crap yesterday. Rolling...oy veh. Rust plus partners that either outweigh you by 50 lbs or have purple belts does not equal confidence boosting.

Let me finish this by saying I'm not discouraged in the least. More disappointed in myself because I KNOW I can do better than this.

Positive things to come out of the past few days:

-I've always been a scrawny kid through high school. Got picked on a lot, ass beat a lot. Hence why I started Martial Arts in the first place. I've bulked up, but never really from serious working out until recently. Two times this week I've been told "damn, you're strong as hell", including my buddy from high school. Two...I know that part of my problem is, in fact, my endurance. Its not all of it, but when I go to the arnold's to compete, I'm going to be fresh, and at the top of my weight class. I still wish I'd found this place a few weeks ago, because I think I need a solid month to really shake all the rust off, but that's neither here nor there. I know where I'm at physically and technique wise. I just need to step up my game.

Things that I need to keep in mind:

Keep my damn guard closed. I have a bad tendency to go to open guard and attempt sweeps without really setting them up. This didn't used to be a problem, since I was proficient enough to chain a few techniques together pretty quickly with the ultimate goal of getting the sweep, but I need to stick to fundamentals:

-break the posture, create openings without opening myself up for a sub or a pass, and either finish or sweep.
-keep everything tight. I'm really looping out my limbs a lot, which I never used to do. Opponents are having a real easy time escaping, and its setting me up for subs left and right.
-Finally, my half guard game and escapes from under sidemount are absolutely atrocious. They were really never GOOD, but last night was just a horrid showing from the bottom on my part.

Believe it or not, I'm absolutely geeked to go to class and roll, and I really am looking forward to tightening my game, but I feel I need an honest self assessment to really move forward.

Thanks for reading.

[Clark_Kent]

Good work. Keep it up Weapon X.

[WolverineGuy]

Thanks, Superman.

[DONJUANPIMPIN]

Nice Log. SUBBED

[p0fell0w]

lol for some reason i thought you meant wolverine as the comic book guy

[WolverineGuy]

lol for some reason i thought you meant wolverine as the comic book guy

Yes. I'm reading the Xmen comic where Wolverine decides to join an MMA gym, and gets his ass handed to him on an adamentium plate. But he heals the next day and goes right back to it.

[WolverineGuy]

This entire week I'm concentrating on my BJJ game due to the Arnold's being Saturday. Won't be too many updates. I'm more concerned with cardio and game plan going into the arnold's than upping my mma game.

[WolverineGuy]

So, I got a night job for a while, and went back for the first time in over a month to BJJ. Worked on some escapes from the rear mount with the seatbelt locked in. A few that went directly into armbars (fulcrum being the shoulder, and one that was inside the arm). Then worked on a few chokes: rear naked and gable grip. Most of this was review. Then open rolling. I'm basically matched up with a very good wrestler that is not wearing a gi for the entire time. Needless to say, I got schooled. Mounted him once, but for the most part he had me where he wanted me. Plus, I'm just not that damn fast any more. Was fun, but I'm beat.

[YesThatGuy]

Dude, you don't even really train yet you decided to get a bootleg TAPOUT tattoo permanently inked into your shoulder.



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