Class 74…

A beginners class taught by the MMA pro at the gym, who’s a purple belt, very dynamic and makes everything look pretty effortless.

He also kept to the theme of the past few weeks with the armbar, omoplata and triangle drill.

Beforehand, though, we did a series of basic exercises designed to improve passing the opponent’s guard. These involved the opponent with his back on the floor and his knees up and you grabbing his gi at the knees to pin his legs and moving to the side, then returning to the centre and moving to the other side. There were a few variation on this, with placing one hand on the floor, then diving over one of the opponent’s flat legs while diving under his raised leg. It sounds simple but it was pretty tough work.

The bulk of the class, however, was spent drilling the trinity of armbar, opponent escapes by pulling his arm out, omoplata on the other arm, opponent postures up, rise hips and chop leg down for leg triangle choke.

I could quite happily spend a lot of time doing this. It’s strong basics I need and these are pretty basic and pretty necessary.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Same as before: practise basic drills and ensure you keep good grips.

Class 73...

A relatively light warm-up of squats, press-ups, hip swivels and triangles today, and it was only when I got to about the 25 press-ups mark that I realised I wasn't quite as bad at them as I was a year ago. A small victory.

We then did a similar drill to the one we'd done a week before, where the person on the bottom has the man on top in full guard, then opens his guard and attacks for an armbar, a leg triangle and an omaplata.

Key points I'd missed on this in the previous session were:
* Maintain keeping strong grips on the attacked arms at all times.
* Using the knee from open guard to move inside the opponent's chest then sweeping it out to remove one arm so the trapped arm is isolated for the triangle.
* Using the free leg from North-South like a pendulum to help raise yourself to finalise position an upright position to complete the omaplata.

A good class doing the type of basic drills I need to repeat and keep repeating.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Same as before: practise basic movement drills and ensure you keep good grips.

Class 72...

My first class back after two weeks away and a tough-ish warm-up of belt jumps and squats for ten minutes.

We then went into a drill where the person on the bottom has the man on top in full guard then attacks for an armbar; the opponent pulls his arm out of danger so the man on the bottom rolls to north-south and attacks the opponent's other arm with an omoplata; the opponent postures up with one arm still in and the man on the bottom attacks for a leg triangle; the man on top then puts both his arms in and the sequence begins again.

Key points from this involved keeping strong grips on the attacked arms and the opponent to prevent him from escaping or rolling out; and collapsing the opponent's posture to aid attacking and moving around him.

A good class and good to be back.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Practise basic movement drills and ensure you keep good grips.

Class 71...

My final class before a two-week holiday was a beginners class working on securing leg control and avoiding the opponent's legs.

It was also a chance to take stock: I'm enjoying these classes and slowly learning a few bits and pieces. My teachers and fellow students are also encouraging, but I need to start making serious progress so I'm thinking about grading. Even if it's only getting a stripe or two on my white belt, it will give me an impetus to train and a goal and I tend to better organised and driven if I'm goal-orientated.

There's a grading in October so I'm going to aim to train for and attend that. So here goes. Time to attend more classes and train harder...

LESSON FROM TODAY: Work out a training routine for the next few months and stick to it.