Training Log: MMA

(during this period, I also began to try out the Heathrow meeting of a few guys from Tung-Fu, but the distance was considerable, leading me to continue with more convenient options...)

Elite Fighting Systems, (MMA), Dave O'Donnell, London, UK -27/08/2004

Started off with stand-up this time round, doing some light sparring with various partners - as usual, the seniors gave me a lot of tips on improving my punching. We then moved on to shooting in from that stand-up position, though not straight through to takedown.

The session then moved on to the usual grappling. First section was taking it in turns to go into sidemount (I think? Teminology still hazy...), and the guy on the bottom would try to pull guard while the guy on top would try and stop him. Proved to be very knackering!

After that, it was onto more specific techniques. At first, Dave showed us something called a crucifix, which looked especially nasty (apparently banned from most amateur shows), but decided that for the beginners, that was a bit tough. So instead, we tried out some neck cranks, and from the same position, an arm bar (to be used if the bloke tried to get his arm through).

The class finished up with more rolling, although this time we started from our knees. The big Indian guy who joined at the same time I did (whose name I later found out is Milan; nice bloke) dominated our little trio of beginners, beating one guy twice and me once (only sparred me once, though). Fortunately I slightly redeemed myself by getting an arm bar on the other guy, although we did have one of the seniors, Tom, commentating and showing us positions all the way through! So I don't think I can quite count that as a grappling success on my part, but still good to get the sub.

My neck isn't killing me today like I thought it would, but my upper back is - good thing I only type and make calls most of the day!