So what's this all about?

I turn forty at the end of the year. Before I get there I want to have another amateur MMA fight. This blog is a record of how, and if, I manage to achieve this.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Neil Adams No Gi Seminar - A Review



Nathan and Rob who run Leicester MMA Academy (Leicester Shootfighters) have made a habit of bringing in some excellent fighters to run seminars.  To date the gym has hosted Dean Lister, Kenny Johnson, Paul Daley, Ryan Hall and Wanderlei Silva amongst others.  Having not been able to attend any of the previous seminars I was pleased to find out that, following his return to Britain, Neil Adams would be delivering a seminar on no gi grappling that I could definitely be at.

I'd had a nudge from Nathan on Facebook that Adams would be at the gym sometime in the future, and as soon as the seminar was anounced I booked my place without further ado.  Having trained in Kano Jiu Jitsu years ago, very similar to Judo in it's emphasis on throws & submissions, and being involved with a Judo club through my daughter, I was very much looking forward to training with a top of the tree Judoka and learning what he could bring to the world of no gi grappling and/or MMA.

Neil took the class through an initial warm up focusing on foot movement and balance.  Re-balancing would be a theme that we would repeatedly return to throughout the session, emphasising the importance that balance and getting your opponent off balance play in Judo and it's throws.  The second part of the warm up was a series of games in which the object was to prevent others from being able to touch your shoulder or back, utilising movement.

Once warm we moved in to clinch range with Neil spending time getting the class to understand the necessity of controlling the head - where the head goes, the body follows, yours and your opponent's.  We worked from a head and arm tie, cinching the head tight in to the crook of the arm.  From here we worked on breaking balance using movement, particularly foot movement. Neil drew the parallel between the boxer's jab and the foot movement of the Judoka, an interesting way of thinking.  We moved from breaking balance to throws, Osoto Gari & Tai Otoshi-type throws.  As with all good coaches, it was the details that Neil taught that made the difference between getting a technique and not getting it although some of us - me definitely included - had to be shown more than once before successfully drilling.

Moving from standing through the transition to the ground we began to work to defeat the turtle position from the back.  Again, Neil returned to the importance of maintaining balance but this time to ensure you maintain position and don't slip off.  Anyone who is aware of his competitive career will know that Neil is famous for his armbar - Juji Gatame, and this is what we worked for from the back.  As you'd expect from such a decorated and experienced coach and competitor Neil has so many variations of technique to get from the back to the Juji that it was sometimes difficult to remember what he'd shown, my training partner and I settled on one technique to drill and try to get down.  On top of the armbar we learnt some choke variations.  Neil ended the session by answering questions on the techniques shown followed by the obligatory photos.

So, what did I take away from this session?
  • The oft forgotten importance of Kuzushi - unbalancing the opponent - and the importance of adjusting to correct your own balance.
  • Control the head of your opponent as his body will follow.
  • Point your head in the direct in which you want your opponent to go (in a throw, obviously!)
  • Transition from standing/clinch to ground is where fights can be won or lost - make sure you've got a game for this aspect.
  • If you're going for the arm, go for it, hunt it, persist.
  • During Juji attempts leg pressure on the head of your opponent will do more to make them release them arm than just trying to pull it free with your upper body.
  • Don't forget the brutality, you need to be a little bit brutal (Great quote/piece of advice at the end of the seminar, incongruous coming from such a nice fella).
  • You can't learn feel from books, you got to do it.
In al a great couple of hours training with lots to hold on to, think about and apply next time on the mats.  Judo's often overlooked as an effective martial art and it was great to get a fresh perspective on how its techniques can add to the arsenal of the submission grappler or MMA fighter.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Cauliflower Chronicles - A Review



I've been wanting to write a review of Marshall D Carper's book 'The Cauliflower Chronicles' since finishing it earlier this year, following a recent re-reading I'm finally getting round to it.

I've heard it said before that what makes a good travelogue is that the author puts as much of themselves in to it as they do the place that they're writing about. Norman Mailer wrote that a good memoir allows the reader to put themselves in the shoes of the writer even though they may never have been in similar circumstances. With 'The Cauliflower Chronicles' Carper does both these things and more.

The book begins with Carper having broken up with a serious girlfriend and moving to Hawaii to study, heal his heartbreak and most importantly, for the book and for me, to train with Jiu Jitsu/MMA legend BJ Penn and earn his Blue Belt from the man himself.

Joined by a colourful cast of supporting characters – fellow students, grapplers, locals and others – Carper falls in love with the island rather than a girl and by the end of the book it's difficult to imagine a Hawaii that's anything other than the one he describes. Visiting some of the most notable spots on The Big Island, lava flows, waterfalls, cliffs, beaches Carper takes us to the idyllic side of Hawaii. In the background, however, Carper is always cognisant of the tension that exists, with good reason, between indigenous Hawaiians and 'Haoles' or White people, giving the reader a useful potted history of Hawaii and it's exploitation/colonisation/oppression by the USA that nicely contextualises some of the sentiments that he encounters.

It's Carper's personal journey that makes this book though – his quest for the Blue Belt, falling in love with the Big Island and it's people, struggling (with himself as much as with others) for acceptance at BJ's gym and trying to get to roll with the man himself. All told with good pace and in self deprecating entertaining language that stops the right side of maudlin and betrays the insight that the author has in to himself and his own life.

For the Jits player or MMA fighter there's plenty of training insights. Particularly nice are the descriptions and appreciations of how the others in the gym fight, their style, strengths or how they teach. This is especially interesting when Carper talks about rolling with Charuto or Gunnar Nelson or any of the Penn brothers (this makes a particularly intriguing comparison). 

Best of all for me it gave me the kick up the backside I needed to get back on to the mat after an absence of over two years. Did it re-ignite my love of grappling? Let's just say that the first session in nearly three years back at the gym was a submission grappling class.......


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Circuitry

Last week I arranged things so that I could get to a grappling session followed by striking training (Good training economy) at Leicester Shootfighters. True to form I got stuck in traffic on my way from work to the gym with no chance of arriving in time for the grappling session. I really wanted to get to the grappling class as I'd been re-reading Marshall D Carper's excellent 'Cauliflower Chronicles' and realised that the violent allure of MMA often distracts me from my Jits. Rather than let my frustration get the better of me and become anger (see last post for details!) I decided to just get to the gym and make the most of the session that I could get to.

Following a good session on kicking, Mark, a training partner asked me if I was staying on for the fitness/conditioning session. To be honest, I told him, I didn't think that I'd last the course....however I watched part of the warm up and decided to go for it.

We spent some time moving down the mat in various ways, chosen ourselves – cartwheels, bearcrawls, boxing footwork, lunges, etc. Then moved on to the meat of the session, circuits. The circuit consists of six stations each with two exercises. Each exercise is done for one minute, rest thirty seconds, then perform the second exercise for one minute before moving on to the next station. This week's circuits consisted of:
Bagwork + pressups with one hand on a floor bag.
Medball slams + bobbing and weaving along a length of elastic at head height.
Partner crunch medball passes + plank.
Burpees + Mountain-climbers (This hurt)
Dumbell shadow boxing + sit-through/hip heist drill.
Powerbag squats + calf raises.

When I look at this now it seems fairly benign but when I was in it, it was painful. I found that it was a lot more difficult than the circuits I've set for myself and maybe this is due to a few things – familiarity of exercises and order of exercises, going for a minute as opposed to 30 – 45 seconds and being in a group/partner environment in which I'm bound to push myself harder than if I'm training on my own. We finished with a nice stretching & relaxation session led by JD Hylton. As it stands I think I'll be going back to the fitness sessions, apparently the circuits can get much, much harder.....