Winning and Losing. Mainly Losing.

Today, I had my first cage fight, at Gods of War‘s Berserker Brawl V – Valhalla Rising!

I also lost my first cage fight…along with my general confidence in my ability to grapple. To be honest, this is probably for the best. If I can’t fight, it’s good to at least know that I can’t fight – rather than be semi-convinced that I am capable of something I am not.

You see, my opponent today was at least two, if not three weight classes lighter than me. As skilful and talented as he was – and he was – I really shouldn’t have lost with that kind of weight advantage. Not if I was any good. However, as annoyed as I am about my own terrible performance, I’m more frustrated by the fact that I never really feel I could have won…

Boxing in High Wycombe

Just a quick post today to say that I went back to High Wycombe Amateur Boxing Club last week with my brother, and went again tonight. An absolutely killer combination of fitness and technique work, the class has improved even further for 2013 and is now one of my absolute favourite places to train.

You can find their class times and opening hours here: Boxing Club in High Wycombe (adult sessions at Monday and Wednesday from 20:00 – 21:30 and Saturday mornings from 11:00- – 12:30). If you do go down, mention that you found them on here. They won’t know what my blog is, but they did me a huge favour in letting me train for free for my Gold Challenge, so I’d love to help them out in return.

It’s about £5 a session or £4 if you buy an annual membership for just £35, which they understandably like you to do. The coaches are brilliant, and the classes are tough and geared equally towards those looking to get fit and those looking to learn to box.

Also, in case you’re interested, they also have an excellent Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class there every Tuesday and Thursday night. I would attend both that and boxing more regularly, but my body is starting to fall apart!

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast

At wrestling this evening, we worked on shooting for a double leg (a classic) and shooting a high crotch.

A high crotch essentially involves going for a double leg takedown, with your head on your opponent’s hip, but shooting your arm high between their legs instead of to the far side. This secures a single leg and allows you to lift more powerful opponents with relative ease.

Once you’ve lifted them, you can switch to a double leg and BOOM! Game over.

Old Habits Die Hard

Last Monday and tonight make it three weeks back at boxing training for me, and I’m starting to get my eye in a little. There are a few old habits, however, that refuse to die. I blame them on wrestling.

In wrestling, I stay low and circle my opponent, looking for a moment to catch him off guard and with his weight on the wrong foot. When I shoot, I don’t reach far out with my hands, but keep them close in as much as possible, to prevent them getting caught and increase my power when I grab my opponent.

Boxing involves me doing practically the opposite. I have to stand much higher, throw my hands as far forwards as possible, and bob and weave forwards instead of circling. The problem is that wrestling is what I do naturally..boxing isn’t.

When I throw a punch, therefore, I don’t extend my arms. I keep them close by and throw short punches, which are of little use. Bizarrely, instead of stepping in, punching and stepping out, I circle my opponent as if we are wrestling! The result is that, when I throw a punch, I have no range and end up off balance and in bad positions.

It may be entirely the same but, to me, the footwork feels completely different. I know it will come with time, but it is frustrating at the moment.

Still, it’s all good fun, I’m learning a lot and getting fitter…I hope.

Basics of Jiu Jitsu

The day after boxing, Simon and I returned to the same club for Jiu Jitsu.

Not having Gis, our training was slightly different from the rest of the class.  Luckily, however, it involved learning a basic escape from a full mount, which will prove very useful in lots of types of combat.  We call it the “shunt”.

Essentially, when caught in full mount, you arch upwards to push your opponent off your hips.  You then trap an arm, pull it towards you and roll over it, to reverse your positions.  Of course, to actually catch somebody out with it, you need to do it quickly and with a degree of cunning.

We also learned an arm bar from full mount, which is somewhat typical to all Jiu Jitsu classes I’ve ever been to. Sooner or later, you’re going to practise doing arm bars. I’m not complaining though – they’re pretty much the best.

After technique work, we sparred with the regulars. Given that neither of us knew what we were doing, we didn’t do too badly. I managed to get a couple of submissions and hold out from being tapped out too often, and we both discovered that general aptitude in combat combined with brute strength got us further than we would have expected.

Still, however, there is no alternative to pure skill and technical prowess, when it comes to combat sports.

Naturally, Simon and I reached a point where neither could beat the other. Soon though. Soon.

MMA Training: Back To It…At Last

After a hellacious, but wonderfully enjoyable eleven days of chaos, I have finally managed to get back to training.

Having left my job in favour of performing feats and enjoying every moment of life, I now have more time available to train and perform. That’s the theory, anyway. So far, however, I haven’t stopped working long enough to lift a barbell!

That’s why, come Monday night, I made a considered decision to close my notebook, turn off my laptop and head back to Genesis MMA gym in Marlow, for a fitness circuit. And what a circuit it was… It is known, by those who are strong and wise, as Insanity training…and for good reason.

So exhausting was it, in fact, that I haven’t got the energy to write anything about it. You’ll have to wait until next week to find out about insanity training…or Google it, whatever 🙂

Why Fight?

Although there is a certain confidence that comes from knowing you can hold your own in a fight, that isn’t the point of combat training – not for me, anyway.

Recently, whilst training, I was struck by how odd what I was doing must seem to people who have never trained in combat. I thought it would be interesting to express my own opinion on the matter and explain why combat training is, by a long way, my favourite type of physical exercise.

I don’t expect anybody to care. I am, however, interested to see my own thoughts in writing. Perhaps I’m full of shit…who knows!

Ne-Waza: Ju-Don’t Know What You’re In For…

Judging by the bruises, welts and patches of raw skin covering my arms today, it’s fairly obvious that I did judo last night.  Don’t get me wrong though – it was a massive amount of fun!

The aim of judo is to throw, take down or immobilise your opponent, or make them submit using joint locks and strangle holds.  The class I attended was ground work (ne-waza) at Wycombe Judo Centre, so we focused on holding people down on their backs or making them tap out.

We started by learning  a few moves; a couple of ways to spin somebody onto their back from their hands and knees (for all those lovers out there) and an armbar from full guard (for those wannabe lovers out there, who could benefit from a little more persuasive power).

The Art of the Guillotine

Last night, I returned to London Shootfighters for three hours of combat training. For the first hour and a half, I was taught Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by a three-time world champion (everybody at London Shootfighters is pretty much the best at what they do).

Step by step, Simon and I were taught how to escape from positions of weakness and turn them into positions of strength, concluding with a type of armbar capable of tearing a limb right off. Although it wasn’t as exhausting as wrestling sparring (nothing in the world is), it was a valuable lesson and one that we could put to good use immediately afterwards – in the MMA class.

Not being exhausted from 90 mins of hard wrestling beforehand, this week’s MMA class was far more bearable. In fact, I managed to submit every sparring opponent I was given, though they also managed to make me submit more than once each. This is a huge improvement, however. As a wrestler, I have no trouble grappling with these people, but simply don’t know enough submission moves to actually win anything!

This time around, the hour of learning different types of guillotine-choke paid off, as did the BJJ class. In fact, I was awarded a free protein shake, for successfully winning via use of a guillotine!

As ever, training against Simon (who is 6′ 6″ and 90+ kg) was an exhausting endeavour, but one that prepared me well for fighting men my own size.

Soon, SOON, we shall be lords of combat!!