Daily Submission

So Monday was a pretty informal class. A lot of guys were nursing injuries from the competition on the weekend. One guy wanted to go over defenses to collar chokes and sleeve chokes so we did that for about 15 minutes. The defenses are very simple. The defense of a sleeve choke is simply to over hook the arm that is not under your head. One of the defenses to collar chokes, I like a lot. It is incredibly simple and effective. Your opponent has you in his guard and applies a collar choke with his left arm over his right arm. You take your right hand, bring it under his left arm and up trough the middle of his two arms. Then you simply "run your fingers through your hair" on the right side of your head and grab the back of your neck. The choke is defeated and you can start to work your regular guard passing game.

We rolled for about 45 minutes, which was great as it allowed me some time to work on my personal list of thing that need work. I rolled with a really new guy, I so I give him good positions and forced myself to work out of them. I also continued to improve my half guard, rubber guard and butterfly guard games. In one of the video clips I saw of Eddie Bravo, he talks about incrementally working your game up to a high level. Rather than trying something new against a guy that is your level (or better), failing and the giving up. Start by trying to run a clinic on a 3 week white belt and work from there.

Here is an article that talks about training to improve rather than using the same old game over and over which I really liked and ties in with Monday's practicce:
Zhoozhitzu do Graugardo: A-game Camping vs. making a decision to improve.

Daily Submission

I had dental surgery yesterday, so I didn't get up to much. I spent most of the day sleeping of the anesthetic. One thing I should note, is just how much pain my hips were in yesterday. I have been posting a lot about the rubber guard and I have been pretty aggressive with it. All I can say is, take it slow. I really over did it and I paid for it. Luckily I have a few days to rest up. If you are like me and coming off and extended break from training or training for the first time, take it slow.

Daily Submission

Went pretty light tonight at BJJ. I wanted to stay technical... and I am just tired. I haven't work this hard in years and the past couple of weeks have been rough. Adam taught the flower sweep and three methods of defending a guard pass tonight. One thing I have learned over the past little while is the Brazilian Jiu jitsu player love to name everything. We have rubber guard, z guard, x guard, de la riva guard, octopus, turtle and sea bass guard. Well I made the last one up (I think). The flower pass is not new. I learned it in Judo years ago but it wasn't a specific sweep. It was taught as a counter to someone defending an armbar from the guard. It went like this:
Control the wrist of the arm you are going to attack, hook the opposite side leg with your other arm (or grab the hem of the pants) and spin into an armbar. When the guy defends, throw the leg that is over his head to the side (away from the body) and lift the leg as you situp. Throw your leg back over is head and you are in the classic armbar position.
Adam also taught this as a setup to a triangle. I found that hard, which isn't surprising because I am not good with triangles. I tended to get to much space too easily transition to a triangle. I did however end up with a couple of omaplatas.

The guard pass defenses ranged from simple to slightly complex. The first one was in defense of the basic underhook pass. All you do is push under his arm pit as he circles around and use it to keep him out of side control as you sit up. The second was a little hard for me. It started in a shrimp position with your far knee on his chest, foot under the armpit. The idea was that you use the other leg to roll over and spin back into guard. I can't really explain it so I will try to find video and post that. The last one was pretty simple as well. It starts in the shrimp position again but this time the near knee is against his chest. All you simply do is take the far leg over his arm and place it on his opposite hip ( ie your left foot on his left hip). You push off to create space and shift your hips back to regain guard.

As I said earlier, I rolled pretty technical today. I really wanted to concentrate on technique rather than using my strength or scrambling a lot. Half guard is starting to come easier. I can normally get the underhook and whip up to my side pretty easily now. From there you can get up to your knees and just bull the other guy over or slip out and take his back, so that alone is a good milestone. However, the old school sweep needs some work. Tonight I couldn't quit get the foot so I let go and posted the knee. It worked and I will remember that for later but I need to get at that foot a little earlier. I still have some trouble going the other way. When I hook under his leg, I sometimes get stuck with him sitting on me. Normally, I just muscle him over and scoot out the back but today (at 50%) it wasn't working. I think I need to work rolling into him and sweeping him that way.
I managed a little rubber guard today. Still aways to go but I managed to get into mission control and new york a few times. Now I just need to go from there.
My scissor sweep is still one of my go to sweeps, I think I landed it twice tonight. I tried it a third time but that was one too many. And my guard passing is solid. I have been really focusing in on the basics: Control the biceps, staple hips to ground, posture, knee in butt, open guard, pass. It is working well. Thanks Cecil. My top positional game in general is come back nicely.

Things that are not going well? I am not finishing. Last class and tonight I let my partner out of too many subs. I missed like three armbars, two chokes, two knee bars and a heel hook tonight. Setup was nice on all of them but I just didn't finish. Granted I wasn't going full strength and I could have probably powered them in but that was not the goal tonight. I am bigger than my training partner and if that is the only reason I tap him then things are not going well. I am also giving my back up to much. That is the judoka in me. If I end up on bottom of side control, especially after a scramble, I tend to roll to my back and turtle. I get away with it most of the time but it is a bad habit to get into. I tapped once tonight because I gave my partner my back and he managed to neck crank me while attempting a rear naked choke.

Daily Technique

Two videos on the teepee, as promised. The first is a video of a MMA fight with a fighter using rubber guard to attempt a triangle transition to the teepee and back to a triangle. He explains what he is doing in a voice over. The second is the only clip I could find that attempts to teach the teepee. The instructor is actually an acquaintance of my Ari Bolden. He is a Black Belt in Japanese Jujutsu who has been training with Eddie Bravo.

Daily Technique

"No Gi BJJ 101" from BJ Penn. You could get pretty far if you master nothing but what he shows in the 10 minute video. Real solid info by one of the best grapplers in MMA.

Daily Submission

Last night's class was basically a carbon copy of the one I posted here. Butterfly guard has been the theme since I got there. It seems to be having an effect on me as I noticed myself using a few times while rolling last night. I still don't prefer it but I am becoming more comfortable with it. Adam seems to like taking the back from guard. This is a really hard game for me to play with my short legs. I am trying to adapt what he is showing us to my body type and I will post any solutions I come up with.

Last night was not my best night rolling. I was really tired, probably the front squats and back work I did earlier. I also wasn't very sharp in my techniques. My partner escaped a sleeve choke, 2 kneebars and a triangle. My partner managed to lock in 2 triangles and almost lock in rear naked choke. He didn't finish me but that was more because my build makes me hard to triangle and I managed to keep good wrist control even though he had my back with hooks in. I managed to tap him twice once with a sleeve choke and an arm bar if I remember correctly.

The high points would probably have to be my sweeps. They are really coming back and some of them are better then they were the last time I practiced regularly. The half guard sweeps are coming along particularly well. The focus I have putting there is paying off. The goals is to work that position to the point that it becomes a true offensive position.

I also tried out a new technique last night which may be the answer to my triangle troubles. I have a very hard time triangling people due to my thick, short legs. Eddie bravo shows a move called the Teepee in Mastering the Rubber Guard which works great when you can't quit get the foot under the knee. I will post a video of it later.

GSP,GSP, GSP

Awesome UFC tonight. Only one fight was a disappointment, the Quarry/Starnes fight. Starnes is a BC boy like me but the guy is just not a fighter. He is a talented athlete but doesn't like to fight. Give me a guy like Chris Leben with limited talent and a warrior's heart any day. Loved Quarry clowning him though.

GSP was dominant against Serra. He came in with a great game plan and executed it perfectly. He passed Serra's guard numerous times, which isn't easily done. Over the past week, it was pointed out to me that he passes guard the same way everytime. He presses down on the right leg, with his right hand, and he just pops the leg over. Very effective. The guys over at fightmetric.com have done the math and he improves his position 1.66 times for every takedown he scores. That is impressive. The only problem I had with the fight was the stoppage. It was just a matter of time until Serra was finished but in my opinion you should never stop a fight for knees to the body unless the fighter is in obvious distress. Matt Serra didn't complain so I think he accepted the fact that he lost but a lot of guys would.

Also respect to both those guys for the class they showed after the fight. There was no real animosity between those two. I have always wondered why people have to act like they hate each other to hype a fight. What is wrong with, "We get along fine but we are proffessionals and I would not disrespect my opponent by doing anything less then trying to kill him." Also respect to the Montreal crowd for cheering Serra after the fight.

The fight of the night for me was probably the Danzig/Bocek fight. Danzig showed very good BJJ against a tough BJJ black belt. Bocek showed he is no joke, great wrestling, great BJJ and pretty good hands too. He was just couldn't match Danzig's experience.

Workout Submission

This is kind of long.
From Josh Barnett's MYSPACE page:

Some work and then some.

The work in question here is not 9 to 5, clerical, labor, busy or normally classified as work in general. The work I'll ramble about today is work in the gym or lifting weights. Oh, so because you do BJJ, Kickboxing or some other "Martial Art" you have now put-off or even perhaps shunned weight lifting or strength training? What's that? Your Sensei/Professor/Sifu/Guro/Swami has you do ancient martial breathing and a few body weight exercises so you don't need to lift weights? Same "Amazing Kresskin" says, "Lifting weights will make you big and inflexible and less able to deflect chi attacks"? All of that is shit and when push comes to shove being bigger, stronger and faster always means something. Always.

I here so much talk about technique conquering all and to practically sacrifice athleticism for technique in sparring. While I can certainly agree that technique is a very crucial and vital aspect in martial arts, I always preach: "Technique within strength." This means that if you lack the strength or athletic ability to make said techniques work, then you are bound to fail. I have witnessed and been subject to countless times when the more skilled technically athlete is unable to execute simply because they were not strong enough or fast enough or both.

This is were strength training becomes vital and by strength training I don't just mean hopping into your local iron works, doing some bodybuilding and thinking you're building the foundation for success. I mean building raw, usable, explosive power that you can execute over and over again throughout a match without tiring. It also means gaining size in lean mass and dropping excess fat…well as much as some of our genetics allow sometimes. This kind of training is not the sort of thing you will find on the shelves in muscle mags or in books on bodybuilding; which is why I am here to throw some light on this.

First off I'd like to say that bodybuilding training is not useless to the combat athlete. Why? Because bodybuilding builds strength, size, looks (Don't kid yourself, it's important.) and most importantly because in our sport often we end up in positions where limbs become isolated and we are unable to recruit a lot of other muscle groups to help. Where bodybuilding training can help is in strengthening muscle groups in isolated exercises and certain small muscles that may be bypassed by larger, stronger movers in more power/explosive movements. For example, the rotator cuff muscles. Bodybuilders spend time working these muscles to give their shoulders the perfect symmetry and shape but because they are a small muscle group, exercises like overhead pressing will recruit more from the delts, triceps, pecs, and other big movers leaving the rotator cuff underdeveloped. When I trashed my shoulder, all the time I spent working my rotator cuff helped me from tearing them to and having even more surgery done.

As combat athletes thought the most beneficial work will be gained from explosive full body movements, heavy power work, endurance circuit training and above all: Always working with intensity. Without intensity you will not even come close to pushing your body to the limits and over. When you compete your opponent will do all they can to stop you from doing what you want to do and work as hard as they can to force their strategy on you. This is not a waltz or even lindy hop, this is muscle against muscle and at high intensity. Training should mimic this and with intensity you will be able to break through what you think are your limits. Intensity is "attacking" the weights, not just hoping to lift them. Intensity is using the same force to accelerate 40lb dumbbells as you would to move 80lbers. Intensity is going for one more rep then you think you can, one more set or more than your partner.

For combat athletes I can't stress enough that grip training is crucial in this. I don't let the people I train nor do I use straps 95% of the time. You want a grip that can crush and hold like a vice. Nothing says manhandled like having someone with a monster grip grab you and jerk you around the mat.

Another important aspect is speed. Get in and get out. Don't waste all day between sets as your opponents won't give you that much time to rest. Plus, the more work you do over a length of time the more work you will have accomplished. If you lift 400lbs once in 5 minutes you will have done less work than if you had lifted 200lbs 10 times in that same time span. I take about 20-45 seconds rest between sets usually. Rest between circuits is a different animal though. At Lou's, I will get 2 minutes to rest but I spend 11-14 minutes working…and that's going balls-to-the-wall, at the top of my anaerobic threshold. Didn't I say something about intensity?


Some of my favorite movements for this kind of training are:

-Deadlifting and squatting because nothing builds raw power like these two exercises.

-Olympic lifting such as cleaning, snatch, high pulls, clean and jerk push presses. These can be done with a barbell or with dumbbells which can add a lot of diversity to your training.

-Pull-ups and dips. I know when I am strong by how many pull-ups I can knock out. Dips are another great power builder and both can be done with weight by simply using a belt harness or even by crossing your ankles and having your partner put a dumbbell between your legs.

-Dumbbell pressing. Flat bench, incline, overhead you name it.

-Strongman (Thanks Tim) and unorthodox lifting. Log pressing, stones, sandbags, sleds, bands, tires, axels, ropes, Indian clubs, the Macebell, hammers. Moving weight in multiple planes, dead weight, and full body work. These are true tests of power and are a great way to make lifting fun.

Ok, so you have some exercises in mind now what do you do with them? Therein lies the fun and some of the most difficult part of the equation. How you put together your training is crucial. Opinions most certainly vary and even mine could take more pages than I am willing write. But we'll keep it simple, point you in the right directions and give you a place to start from.

-Variety. Not just in movements but in changing your routines on a regular basis. I usually won't do the same exercises from week to week and focus more on what muscle groups or concepts I want to work and just make it up when I get there. Variety can also be creating cycles of specific training, for example: Doing a power lifting program for 4 weeks, then an endurance/speed program for 2 weeks and then back to power lifting again.

-Supersetting. I love to superset. Not just like movements or exercises that hit the same areas but opposites as well. One of my absolute favorites is Westside Barbell Club's "Push and Pull" method (Nod to Tim Nagy for showing me this). I will do pull-ups with dips or push-ups. Or maybe bent-over rows with overhead presses. Of course your classic superset like barbell curls with preacher curls is still valid and can be great for building endurance and over taxing the muscle groups. I include drop sets in this kind of thinking although not something I do much of.

-Circuits. Non-stop movement from one exercise to the next is a great way to build endurance, power and increase your anaerobic capacity. You can design your circuits around specific groups or say to simulate rounds for competition. If you can blitz throw circuits of 5 minutes pushing towards your limits then when on the mat or in the ring fatigue should at least be something to not be concerned about.

-Splits. I like a 3 day a week split, my brother-in-law Pat who was a competitive power lifter used to have us do 4 day splits. I have some fighters doing only 2. The main thing is you need to have rest in between your training and there is still time to be put in on the mats. Sometimes you may dial back mat time to improve strength and therefore use some of the time you would have been at the dojo resting. Other times you need just the opposite. For some it's about time management but either way you can't not go at all or go everyday.

And to address stretching this is so simple: Just do it. Who said lift but don't stretch? I have heard so much ignorance from folks saying oh I can't lift weights because I will get stiff and lose flexiblility. Yeah, because your dumb ass stopped working on flexibility. Flexibility allows you to be stronger and faster, period. Extreme examples that counter that stupid notion of weight lifting decreasing flexibility is many of the pro bodybuilders who are way bigger than any of us will likely ever be who can do the splits and more. When Bob Sapp was 370lbs with abs he was more limber than I was. And on a side note (this mostly applies to women) I hear the "I don't want to get big". Guess what? You won't. Unless you have the genetics or are really putting in the effort to do so it won't be a real problem. Trust me.

Last thing to say is that in the end this training is designed to augment and help your combat training. Nothing can take the place of that. Your technique is key but with the added strength and power behind it now you have increased you success rate several fold. Also, when all things are equal whoever is stronger or gets it first wins. Now go throw some iron and rip an arm off or two!

Daily Submission

Spent last night working on guard passing again. Nothing revolutionary. In fact they were both fairly basic guard passes except we worked them from inside feet on hips/spider guard.

When it came to rolling I had a good night. My conditioning is really starting to get where I need it to be. A few more weeks and maybe my arms won't shake by the end of practice. My half guard is really starting to come along. Yesterday, I managed to secure lockdown fairly easily as well as get my underhooks and whip up. I also managed to flow into the roll over sweep from a Old School attempt. This flow is what is missing right now. All the moves are in my head but they are not coming out on there own like they should. It looks like it is starting to change.

Here is the sweep I landed last night.

PS. That is not me, just a video I found on youtube.com

Daily Technique

I have said before that I love the Arm Triangle. It has been my go to submission for more than a decade. I use it from a lot of positions but side control is a great place to get it. Here is a video that shows pretty much the method I use to secure the arm triangle from side control.

Daily Submission

Today we worked guard passes. This first one was an open guard pass. It is essentially the same pass Mario Sperry teaches here:
http://tonyssubmissions.blogspot.com/2008/04/daily-technique.html

The next pass was a butterfly guard pass. The technique starts with getting your opponents head off you chest, creating space then getting your head under his. From there you push him to his back, and scoot your hips up tight to him. Place your head to the side, maintain shoulder pressure and reach back as you grab his pants at the ankle and press down to staple his feet to the ground. This prevents him from using the hooks to sweep you. Next you jump over his legs, rolling on the shoulder that is in his chest. In other words, if your right shoulder is in his chest, you would roll over that shoulder to his left side. This leaves you in a bridge position with your back to his chest, bad place to stay. To gain cross side position, you reach with the hand that is by his head over your chest and grab his pants where your other hand is grabbing. Release the other hand and pull it under you as you spin into him. Remember to maintain pressure at all times.

I find it important to enter each class with a goal. Last class it was work on Half Guard. This class it was work on controlling my opponents posture in the guard. Being a wrestler and have MMA experience, I like to create space, push off and scramble to my knees for a reversal. While that is good in one way, it is not BJJ. So today's goal was breaking posture. To do this I used a couple of methods. One was under hooks, I really fought for the under hook in the guard today and I had some succes with it. I think I will play that game more often because it fits so well into the Half Guard and Butterfly guard games I am playing right now. Another was something, I saw in Eddie Bravo's Mastering the Rubber Guard book. It involves an arm triangle but only around his head. I tried that a few times but I also used a true arm triangle. I like the latter better because it can lead right to a sweep or submission but I can see how it would be harder against a good player. I even tried a little bit of rubber guard to help keep his posture broken. It needs alot of work but I will say one thing: You don't need to be as flexible as Eddie Bravo to work a basic rubber guard. I am one of the least flexible guys on the planet and I was able to achieve Mission Control a few times and even New York once.

One of my favorite things about grappling is helping others learn and teaching. The guy I have been rolling with the last few days is a true white belt. Like most of Adam's students he is better that one would think a White Belt should be but clearly less experienced than me. Today when we rolled, since I really want to work on position and controlling posture in the guard, I needed him to reverse me a few times. I refuse to give someone a technique, I don't think it is helpful at all. However, I do believe in not countering the things I am telling him to do. I managed to coach him through a nice hip escape from mount to half guard and through a bow and arrow choke. It is really rewarding watching your training partner advance from working with you just as you advance from working with them.

I had posted earlier that Adam was a Brown Belt under Marcus Soares. It turns out I was wrong. I had seen him wearing a black belt but I thought maybe it was from one of the many instructor ranks in other arts he had. But it turns out he was awarded his Black Belt like 3 weeks ago. Congrats to Adam as Soares does not give out a lot of black belts. It is a very hard earned rank.

Daily Technique

Continuing with the half guard theme. Here is a really great Half guard video by Indrek Reiland and Jorgen Matsi at Straight Blast gym Estonia. It is an hour and a half long, so be prepared to sit for awhile.

Workout Submission

Today's workout: A rucksack march.

I have been in the military for the past 12 years. I spent 7 years in the Infantry followed by a 5 year experiment with the Navy and have recently been offered my Commission as an Artillery Officer. Since I haven't done a serious forced march since I joined the navy, I needed to get back into it. Today, I loaded a backpack with about 30-40 pounds and did a 6 km march in 1 hour. The standard is 13 KM in 2 hrs and 26 minutes, so that pace was well above the standard.

Daily Technique

Eddie Bravo showing a half guard sweep and a submission.

Daily Submission

Emailed Eddie Bravo last night. His books all concentrate on no gi and since the Jui Jitsu class I go to is a gi class, I had some questions regarding Eddie's half guard game. I knew from reading "Mastering the Rubber guard" that he developed it before he started to concentrate on No gi, so I was hoping for some tips on what would be different. He replied this morning. His answer: be careful of collar chokes and stay as tight as possible. I love it when big name instructors are not to cool to answer and email question. Respect.

Workout Submission

No Jui Jitsu today so it was off to the gym. Time was short so I had to skip the cardio. I did my exercises pretty fast paced in order to induce some anaerobic conditioning. Today's workout consisted of

Pulls ups (do them every time I enter a gym)
Snatch X 3
Military Press x 10
Cleans x 10
Around the worlds x 10 per side
5 min ab workout
5 min cool down and stretch

I am really big into Olympic lifts lately. The gain here is the explosiveness in my hips that really lends itself to grappling. I really started to explore this after I found out that O lifts are a big part of the conditioning at Xtreme Couture. www.danjohn.org is a great resource if you want to explore O lifting. His e-book is excellent for power development.

Here is a link that will explain and around the work for you if you have never seen it. It is a staple of the Miltech camp's Strength and Conditioning program.

Daily Technique

Mario Sperry on Passing the Open Guard

Daily Submission

Second day at ZUMA and more butterfly work. As I said in my previous post, my butterfly guard isn't that great so more work is a good thing. Adam seems to like transitioning to the back from the guard. This isn't a game that I think will suit me. I am 5'8" with about a 29" inseam. To say I have short legs is a bit of an understatement. But if I only worked on things that suited me, I would be doing myself a disservice. If nothing else I can prepare for those lanky bastards.

On aspect that I did like was a move that starts off the cross lapel grab with the feet on the hip and knee. Basically, from a stalemated position, you post the opposite arm, push off with that leg and bring the leg back until you transition to a knee. You then pull the lapel toward you until you get the opponents head under you arm. At this point you have a front headlock with a grip on his opposite side collar. The finish is essentially a reverse kata ha jime for those of you that know judo. Adam finished with a roll similar to an anaconda choke but a strong wrestler could also just power the opponent to his back.

When it came time to roll, I decided to work my half guard game. Previously, my half guard was a defensive gesture at best. In Judo, I would just stall and wait for the restart. In MMA, enough things are happening that I could normally get room and scramble to a single or back to guard. Lately, I have been looking at Eddie Bravo's half guard material as well as Saulo Riberio's. Both have very offensive Half guards. Eddie's especially calls to me because it is so wrestler friendly. To his end, I gave my rolling partner my half guard, secured lockdown and started to work. First, I managed Old School. Next, I managed an Electric chair sweep. The third time, I attempted to sweep him in a manner more like what Saulo shows on his Freestyle Revolution series. It was a little harder and although I managed to sweep him, it was a power move and all I did was throw him off me and we ended up in a neutral position with both of us on our knees. I plan to dedicate some serious time to my half guard game.

I also had the chance to roll with one of Adam's Blue belts. He was pretty solid. He passed my guard like a bad case of herpes. Now, my guard isn't amazing or anything but I have a fairly solid defensive guard. He just slowly took it apart using patience, control and solid positioning. I managed to scramble a bit and regain guard a few times but not for long. He tapped me about 4 times in the 10 minutes we rolled. I have heard that Marcus Soares' Blue Belts are very solid and I can say I agree.

On a positive note, I made it all the way through practice today although those last ten minutes were brutal. There were a few times when I was rolling with the blue that I felt that a good explosive bridge or turn would have saved me but I had nothing. Well it is a good time to concentrate of technique then.

More later.

Daily Submission

Last night, I went to a new gym to try out some BJJ. I have grappled for years and even did some informal BJJ with a Gracie JJ Blue belt back around 97. However, this would mark the first time I went to a dedicated, formal BJJ class. Having never formally trained in BJJ and not trained in it at all in about 10 years, I grabbed my trusty white belt and headed out.

The gym I went to is Zugec Ultimate Martial Art (www. zuma.tv) and the instructor was Adam Zugec, a Brown Belt under Marcus Soares as well as a Combat Submission Wrestling instructor under Erik Paulson. The gym was large but packed. He has a lot of students. I only noticed 2 blue belts and they were the highest belts I saw next to Adam's. Soares is notoriously stingy with his belts and his blues seem to be very advanced blues.

Class started quickly with hook sweeps from the butterfly guard. The theme for the day seemed to be Butterfly guard. This was good because it is probably one of my weakest guards. Next we moved on to transitioning from butterfly, to half guard and taking the back. After drilling that for awhile, we moved to a clock choke and a few variations.

The pace of the class is very fast. I had worked up a very good sweat. After this we went straight into rolling. I started rolling with a white belt (there were a lot of them). As usual my wrestling and judo background helped me. I was tired as hell but my ability to scramble and my control allowed me to remain competitive. I also tapped him with an arm triangle, which is my go to submission.

I would have loved to roll more, but over an hour of grappling without a break took it toll on me. As usual, I neglected my cardio over the winter so, I gassed.

Lessons learned:
Time to hit the treadmill.
Position, position, position. If I wasn't a position over submission grappler, I would have been tapped a lot.

Hopefully, I will get back this thursday and last a little longer this time.

First Submission

Well, here is the first submission. This Blog will mainly be a log of my training as I re-enter the world of submission grappling. I will post techniques that I learn, training lessons, personal successes and failures and generally just comment on my training. I will also use it as a general place to rant about MMA, Martial Arts and Combative training in general.

I will post the second submission later on tonight.