tallgeese

How can one not?

10/29 Drilled taking back from guard. 30 min free roll. Still a bit light after Saturday.

This weekend I got to go try out the Chicago S7, the new tournament production from Herb Dean and company of UFC fame. It's a new set of rules, or at least modified, and is in its inception year. A couple of things. First up, its new and has some kinks to work out and wasn't as heavily attended as a comparable NAGA event. However, I liked the heavy focus on submission effort over playing points and any promotion that isn't a NAGA is a bonus in my book. As for the venue, they went all out for the Sears Center here in the Chicago-land area. Worlds better than any NAGA or IBJJF has done in the past. If you get the chance, give one of them a go. I'd like to see them make a go of it. The club I'm out of had a real good showing, and I had a good day as well walking away with a gold in my division and the absolute. Big thanks to my club an and coach who also had my corner. Here's my matches from the weekend: http://youtu.be/UaUeWymSrMQ Good run this time thru. Very happy with the results, now it's time to get back to work.

10/27 Chicago S7 today. 4 total matches. Brought home gold in my division and absolute. Video forthcoming.

10/26 Drilled kimura from top again, and variants. 10 min pulling guard work 20 min light free roll. Trying to stay healthy and rest my perpetually thrashed shoulder before S7 tournament tomorrow. One more good lunch now and major restriction until weigh in tomorrow am.

10/25 60 min free roll.

10/21-10/23 CQB training each day. 10/22 Add a run after day of training. 10/24 Back at home and gym. Drilled kimura from side mount and two variants. 10 min stand up working on pulling guard 40 min free roll. Focus on leg attacks.

10/19 Drilled maintaining mount. Lots of work. 30 min hard free roll.

Hope your B-day went well, Bob!

It's the scent. Remember when the crew lathered themselves in zombie guts to get from point A to point B in Atlanta? Same concept. No arms and no lower jaws makes them a non threat and let's her carry the scent around with her. I'm with you on wanting the specifics of how the makeshift silencers work, GS. However, I'm going to give them a pass since I like the fact that the group is actually think this thing through a bit more.

10/17 Drilled side mount to mount transition. Arm bar from mount via americana trap. Chained everything together from side. 4, 2 min rounds of mount v. escape 30 min free roll. Focus on leg locks.

10/16 Rounds of bag work for 40 min. Hands, hands and elbow, add knees, focus on kicks, all together. Rotated with abs and hip drills on the mat. Cooled down with hip work and balance for top game on the Swiss ball.

I thought it stood up with some of the best episodes to date. The group was smart enough. The action was great. Characterization was spot on and the zombie surprises were excellent. I agree that the relationship is strained. But after all the stuff that Lori put Rick thru I'm not surprised. It gives it more of a real feel to it. I have no doubt that humanity will still be acting just like that during the zombie apocalypse.

An Isoceles or variant where you just keep the dominate hand foot back JUST a touch. I like arms pretty much locked out. One eye squinted down to bring the front sight into sharp focus. Don't get consumed with point shooting even at close range. That's the realm of an experienced shooter with tons of indexing over his front sight already. The frontal posture needs to have knees bent and be athletic. It's aggressive, like a fighting posture. It should let you work pistol, rifle, knife and about anything else you want to pick up and go to work with. Justice is right about the movement. It's easier from a squared up stance. But don't shuffle. Turret at the hips and move like a normal walking or running pattern. Also, don't get enthralled by shooting on the move. While you want to have an idea of what it's like, you're WAY more accurate stationary. When you shoot you shoot, when you move you move (and usually fast as possible to the next piece of cover). I know there are other schools of thought out there, but that's the one I've come to after being at several different schools. Get good shooting position, get used to staying off it and using the angles, when it's time to go. GO! Then shoot again when you can get posture and cover. There might be instances where you won't but this should be your bread and butter. Good luck. We'll get some range time when I get down that way.

I might disagree a bit, Justice. A well trained MMA fighter brings a lot to conflict very quickly. Much more quickly in most cases than traditionally trained artist. For instance, with no kata, one steps, weapons, ect. the new MMA student within 6 months of training will be able to: jab, cross, and move pretty well from a basic stance do a take down or two okay defend them even better and finally know a couple of basic grappling positions. Now, because all their training has been live and not theoritical in nature, and because they can do all of the above for real on mitts, and each other, at pretty high levels of speed and contact, they are much more prepared for an unexpected situation because they can REACT as they've trained without any "what if" factor about other tactics that can't be used real time (eye gouges, ect.) It's potent. Now, I admit that there are things that they aren't prepared as well for. Weapons, ect. come to mind. Multiple attackers is another. However, their mindset is usually more aggressive leading them to have certain advantages as well. No art is without blind spots. These sorts of things are the blind spots for MMA fighters using their skills for sd. But it is still a good combative base. In a lot of cases, maybe better than some systems of Asian arts as they are often taught.

10/14 Range afternoon. Work on marksmanship and trigger control.

Interesting topic. I have a couple of thoughts on the matter. Bearing in mind that I came out of a karate based system myself and competed early on in MMA type events, starting with shootfighting and moving into various independent events. Also bear in mind, this was a long time ago when MMA was in it's infancy and we didn't even really know what to call it yet, it was prior to today's standardization and amateur level only. That's just in the interest of full disclosure. Several people have hit it on the head, it would (and does) mean a radical change from "traditional" training. There's a need for total commitment to training within the rules of the venue. That will mean dropping off what does not fit. Weapons, tactics disallowed, kata (I will disagree, respectfully with sensei8 here, I think there are plenty of ways karateka can exist without kata but that's another debate ). I would stop working outside the ruleset for a given fight (yes, they changed back then) a couple of months out. The debate if kata teaches you x or y skill that would be useful is moot. To train situationally, and live, for a fight that is going to happen in 6 weeks, you need to actually be training the moves. Not sorting thru a moving textbook of kata of decode them. It's a difference in the prep. At a deeper level, there are things that karate guys do that are bad news given the reality of the rules. Stance work is different, more mobile and not as deep. Additionally, it's more frontal to be able to account for the takedowns. These are the kinds of things that are so engrained in karate guys that it's hard to break. Some guys (Machida) can make it work. I submit to you that no everyone prepping for their first fight is as good as Machida. This brings us to another point, brought up already but a must to mention. No karate system I have ever seen will prepare an MMA fighter to work on the ground. I came out of joint lock heavy system and thought in my young exuberance that this would prove helpful. It didn't. You'll need to learn to wrestle and do BJJ, maybe do some judo as well. Judo alone won't cover you're ground need largely due to the ruleset that they've used for the last few decades which has steadily grown more restrictive. There are a lot of attribute developed by karate that would be useful. But be prepared to change your training and conditioning patterns and seek out some different arts (MT and BJJ and some wrestling) which have been shown for a decade to be very effective under the modern rules of MMA. Karate people can probably be encouraged to become invovled more by being allowed to expolore these things. Or have instructors start to model normal karate training after MMA training. The second has, as been pointed out, started to occur. And this is a good thing. It brings "aliveness" to training and a higher level of combat conditioning. It can even be used with "traditional" things like weapons and restricted tactics if done right. It can produce a better fighter, more capable of defending himself on the street, faster.

10/12 Drilled straight ankle lock, standing to ground. Covered toe hold from ground and then from a guard pass. 40 min free roll. Focused on getting leg attacks into the roll. Worked with one of the fighters.

10/10 Drilled ankle lock variants and knee bar. 30 min free roll. 30 min work on guard with fighters 15 min cool down drilling ankle lock and toe hold.

Lori....crap, I had tried to erase her from my memory. You're probably right. I can't wait to see how many times she loses track of her current kid in a zombie filled landscape while being self absorbed and negligent. However, since you already called it, I'll go with the "seed" of conflict being planted between Rick's group and the Governor.

It's about matching weapons to targets. As shinobi points out, distance is one factor that effects this. So will angles between you and the target, the dynamics of your movement and his. Relative heights and stances. All sorts of things. Whatever fits best that will allow me to deliver damage.

I agree, it depends on the student, the situation, and what one means by being let out of from under an instructors wing. I was a brown belt when I went to college and joined a club there to cross train. I ended up coaching there and competing out of another club while still training with my original instructor. I also started seriously studying a second art while I was around 1st kyu during this time. So was I out from under my instructor's wing? Kind of, I guess, kind of like college as a whole I guess. I'm not entirely sure I'm full on out from under his wing to this day. Everything I do in a martial sense is somehow influenced by what I learned from him.

10/09 2 mile run abs legs

10/8 Drilled straight ankle lock, toe hold. 45 min free roll. A few rounds with a couple of the fighters. Got some time working last weeks chokes and tonight's leg work.

Good response, sensei8. I've not had an instructor pass away. However, I have moved in and out of their spheres of influence. In my experience, there are no shortage of people better than me in some aspect of the arts to learn from. Sometimes it's as easy as finding something that fits your response pattern, but hasn't been a focus, and learning that. That said, I luckily still have the occasional access to my instructors of the past and I still learn from then any chance I can.