Fighter's Journey Jun 3rd. 5 HOURS of Training

Today I met Kru Dan at Punch Kick Grapple.  We worked in their ring for 3 hours.  We started off with basic footwork drills using angling using all four angles.  Then added in round kicks and teeps to the footwork.  Then he had me deal with a fighters coming in with a barrage of punches.  Next we went on to 3 rounds of pad work, really working on my power and proper distancing for both my punches and kicks.  We then went to 3 rounds of light sparring.  He made me really push the pace since my fight will only be 2 minutes rounds.  He also demonstraded to me when I was dropping my lead by either punching or kicking me in the head.  by round three I was exausted.  He then had me perform 100 push-ups, 100 crunches and 50 squats.  I though great finally done, but no.... He thne had me do 2 rounds of shadow boxing.  This was a tough workout but It was really, really useful and think it will help me out for my fight.

My arms were dead I was sweating a pig and there was only  2-hours to Judo. 

I decided to watch the kids class at Osugi Sensei's dojo.  I always enjoy watching a good teacher at work.  I usually pick up at least a cool drill or 2.  Watching him I definitely did.  Fifteen minutes before the adult Judo class I decided I better strech out more than usual.  Class then started and we went right into warm-ups.  I realized that I might have bitten off more than I can chew, when after the first 2 sets of jumping jacks and lunges, I was alreay sweating like crazy.  I made it through the warm-up and then we went on to moving uchi komi (Movement, set-up the throw off balance but do not complete the throw).  We worked on leg sweeps both from pushing on the arm grabbing your sleave and then the one grabbing the lapel.  The next uchi komi was for hari goshi, sweeping hip throw.  Both techniques were a lot of fun and I several points in my movement and distancing that I need to work on.  The kids class ended so we could use the whole mat. So we started doing newaza (ground work) and we did about 5 rounds.  We then proceeded to do free uchi komi, where you practice what ever waza (technique) you want.  This showed how tired I still was.  A few of the lower ranks I did get mount or kami sho gatame, bu could not get off a submission.  When rolling with the higher ranks I was not able to escape anything.  A high light for the night, was i was bucking a brown belt off of me and during that he set up a cross choke so I ended up in his guard and choked at the same time.   I did one round of randori and twisted my ankle and though oh no this was a bad idea.  it was a slight twist with no swelling.  I decided to sit out the rest of the randori. 
This was a great endurance test training like that but, I don't think I will do it again.

Fighter's Journey May 28 Judo Workshop

Osugi Sense came in Again and worked on some moving uchikomi with us.  Today  we worked on tai otoshi (body drop).  He reviewed with us that in Judo there are 2 step throws and 3 step throws and we went over the 2 step throw footwork.  Since Tai Otoshi is a three step throw we went over this more.  The moving uchi komi was a lot of fun.  We ended the day with randori (Sparring).

Fighter's Journey May 27th 3.5 hours With Ajarn Nelson

Jai Noah and I met at L.A. Budo around 9 Am to carpool to Elite MMA to Meet Ajarn Nelson to work on our ring craft and clean up our techniques.  It only took 30 minutes even with some missteps on the freeway.  so we waited for Ajarn in the car.  He arrived promptly at 11 AM and told us we could have waited in the gym.

We were originally going to train for 2 hours but we were there for 3.5 hours.  He really is a giving instructor.  We started with using the ring to help us stretch and warm-up.  We then went right to work on workin on our teeps specifically being able to pinpoint where we wanted to teep.  We utilized the ring and turnbuckle to help us with this.  We next worked on Escapes from the corner against hands, feet and round kicks.  We spent a good deal of time on this, which we ALL needed.  We then worked on escaping both in the center of the ring and on the ropes if someone catches your round kick.

We then worked counter clinching techniques that we could use instead of fighting for the plum (Thai clinch).  this was AWESOME!!! It was so effective set so simple.  It will take some practice to use though.  He also said he was not happy with the state of fighting exchanges he sees in the ring for Muay Thai.  Was like you are saying "Hi Honey, I am home.  She replies, "Yes dear."  It is too much I attach you defend, now switch.  He said good Muay Thai combos should annoy and overwhelm your opponent's defenses, then you go in for the kill. combos should be fives and sixes not twos and threes.

He said that for Muay Thai you first need to learn defense, attacking is easy.  That is why we spent almost 2 hours on defense.  We then proceeded to practice our 3 kinds of teeps on the heavy bag.  Doing several rounds of it.  We then stretched out a little and then did several round of teep skip step Round kick on both sides.

We finished with stretching and Ajarn Nelson telling us about the philosophy of Muay Thai.  You must turn hard things soft and soft things hard.  A fighter must always treat not only his fellow fighters in his camp with respect but also his opponent.  if you cannot find any opponents you could not fight and you would be out of work.  So he said that Muay Thai is much more than kicking and punching it is about becoming a better person.  He said many successful fighters go on to become successful business men, doctors layers, because of what they learned in the ring.  We then went to lunch (more like Linner; lunch + dinner)

We had an engaging 2-hour conversation about a host of topics including religion, specifically Buddhism, his time in the Thai Military, how Thai's love their king and bout Isan. The Isan* (Isan/Thai: อีสาน [ʔiːsǎːn]; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issan, or Esarn;^[1]) is the northeast region of Thailand. It is located on the Khorat Plateau, bordered by the Mekong River (along the border with Laos) to the north and east, by Cambodia to the southeast and the Prachinburi mountains south of Nakhon Ratchasima. To the west it is separated from Northern and Central Thailand by the Phetchabun mountain range.  The people of the region are also called isan and are of Lao decent.  He said that the Isan are the ones in Thailand that do most of the menial jobs, and also serve in the military.  Most importantly most Nak Muay (Muay Thai fighters) are Isan.

After finishing our food we carpooled back to the dojo.  We learned so much today that information was leaking out our ears.

*from wikipedia