Jeremiah Blatz (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jeremiahblatz) wrote,@ 2008-06-13 22:24:00 |
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Martial Arts Walkabout #6: Premier Martial Arts: MMA
Due to, well, mostly laziness on my part, this week hasn't been great for trial classes. On Tuesday, I attended the MMA class at Premier Martial Arts. The instructor (Julio Rivera) told me to bring all my gear when they invited me to attend, so except for some sparring, I didn't know what to expect.
Class was very small, only myself and two other students (one of whom arrived late). We started out with jogging around the mat with variants (knees up, heels up, face inside, face outside). Then we did some wheelbarrows and pushups then shadowboxing with periodic sprawls and shoots.
After the warmup, we practiced knees from the muay thai clinch. One person would hold a lightweight suitcase pad to their chest while the other person would knee the hell out of them. My partner apparently thought my knees were pretty good, because he kept holding the pad away from my chest to soften the blow. The Mr. Rivera chided him. When we switched, I thought his knees were pretty good, too, but I just took it. I thought the drill was very good. First of all, it trained you a little bit on taking a knee — learning to use your muscles to protect yourself. Also, it was good at teaching you to keep a good clinch. I noticed that my partner's clinch was far more secure than mine, and that mine improved during the drill.
Next we learned a couple groundfighting techniques — an arm bar from side control and a guard escape to a side control choke. The instructor would demonstrate a technique then we'd each try it twice on a partner. It may just be how new I am at groundfighting, but I thought that went by quite quickly, and I didn't really retain the second technique. Perhaps if I were more familiar with the basics, I would've gotten more out of it. That said, one of the other students didn't really seem to get the guard escape down either.
We then put on grappling gloves and mouthguards and did a little light sparring starting on our knees. The student who arrived late and I started, and he was much better than me. I think the best I can say is that he had for fight for 2/3 of his submissions, and I didn't give him my back. Still, he submitted me 3 times in 3 minutes. The most embarrassing was the time he was mounted and applying a forearm choke, and I didn't really notice. I was actually helping him apply the choke by trying to pull him down! Doh. That said, I would've gotten him in a guillotine choke, if I actually knew how to apply one. I was definitely in deep enough. I was laughing my ass off — the instructors and the other student were all saying "pull guard!" and I didn't know how.
After the 3 minutes I was pretty well gassed, so the other two students went at it. Then another gear change and myself and the student I rolled with did a couple rounds of standup while the other student took his purple belt test. Sad to say, I didn't do much better. He was way, way taller than me, and it had been maybe 9 months since I'd sparred. He knew how to jab, and I wasn't able to properly cover up and turtle in. Seriously, though, his jabs has as much reach as my kicks. Anyway, after 1.5 rounds, he was tired enough that I was finally able to rush in, clinch, throw some knees, then get the double-leg. That was after he tagged me on the chin like 20 times, of course.
Finally, we congratulated the other student on his successful belt test and cooled down with some stretches, led by the assistant instructor, Mr. Bellot.
(The score: bruises: check. sweating: check. gassing out: check! minor injuries that prevented me from training the next day: check (note to self, tap sooner!))
All in all, the class was good, but very rushed. I felt like more time could've been spent on any of the things we did, but mostly drills. The class was good, in that it covers the MMA range and complements the "adult basic" classes. However, I felt like spending more time on the drills, progressing from compliant to resistant, would really help students apply them in the free rolling.
After class, I chatted with Misters Bellot and Rivera about the school. Apparently it was started as a pure TKD school, but has since moved to more stereotypical MMA style, with muay thai and BJJ and the like. There's still a lot of TKD, as evidenced by the belt test (I was more focused on not getting punched in the face, but I did notice some board breaking going on). They both seemed really nice and had broad martial arts experience. The instruction was definitely good, and they gave helpful and observant feedback. While I did notice some things I'd want to improve about the school, I had a very good impression.
One thing to not is that the three branches seem to be largely independent from each other, with somewhat different curriculums and instructors.
Due to, well, mostly laziness on my part, this week hasn't been great for trial classes. On Tuesday, I attended the MMA class at Premier Martial Arts. The instructor (Julio Rivera) told me to bring all my gear when they invited me to attend, so except for some sparring, I didn't know what to expect.
Class was very small, only myself and two other students (one of whom arrived late). We started out with jogging around the mat with variants (knees up, heels up, face inside, face outside). Then we did some wheelbarrows and pushups then shadowboxing with periodic sprawls and shoots.
After the warmup, we practiced knees from the muay thai clinch. One person would hold a lightweight suitcase pad to their chest while the other person would knee the hell out of them. My partner apparently thought my knees were pretty good, because he kept holding the pad away from my chest to soften the blow. The Mr. Rivera chided him. When we switched, I thought his knees were pretty good, too, but I just took it. I thought the drill was very good. First of all, it trained you a little bit on taking a knee — learning to use your muscles to protect yourself. Also, it was good at teaching you to keep a good clinch. I noticed that my partner's clinch was far more secure than mine, and that mine improved during the drill.
Next we learned a couple groundfighting techniques — an arm bar from side control and a guard escape to a side control choke. The instructor would demonstrate a technique then we'd each try it twice on a partner. It may just be how new I am at groundfighting, but I thought that went by quite quickly, and I didn't really retain the second technique. Perhaps if I were more familiar with the basics, I would've gotten more out of it. That said, one of the other students didn't really seem to get the guard escape down either.
We then put on grappling gloves and mouthguards and did a little light sparring starting on our knees. The student who arrived late and I started, and he was much better than me. I think the best I can say is that he had for fight for 2/3 of his submissions, and I didn't give him my back. Still, he submitted me 3 times in 3 minutes. The most embarrassing was the time he was mounted and applying a forearm choke, and I didn't really notice. I was actually helping him apply the choke by trying to pull him down! Doh. That said, I would've gotten him in a guillotine choke, if I actually knew how to apply one. I was definitely in deep enough. I was laughing my ass off — the instructors and the other student were all saying "pull guard!" and I didn't know how.
After the 3 minutes I was pretty well gassed, so the other two students went at it. Then another gear change and myself and the student I rolled with did a couple rounds of standup while the other student took his purple belt test. Sad to say, I didn't do much better. He was way, way taller than me, and it had been maybe 9 months since I'd sparred. He knew how to jab, and I wasn't able to properly cover up and turtle in. Seriously, though, his jabs has as much reach as my kicks. Anyway, after 1.5 rounds, he was tired enough that I was finally able to rush in, clinch, throw some knees, then get the double-leg. That was after he tagged me on the chin like 20 times, of course.
Finally, we congratulated the other student on his successful belt test and cooled down with some stretches, led by the assistant instructor, Mr. Bellot.
(The score: bruises: check. sweating: check. gassing out: check! minor injuries that prevented me from training the next day: check (note to self, tap sooner!))
All in all, the class was good, but very rushed. I felt like more time could've been spent on any of the things we did, but mostly drills. The class was good, in that it covers the MMA range and complements the "adult basic" classes. However, I felt like spending more time on the drills, progressing from compliant to resistant, would really help students apply them in the free rolling.
After class, I chatted with Misters Bellot and Rivera about the school. Apparently it was started as a pure TKD school, but has since moved to more stereotypical MMA style, with muay thai and BJJ and the like. There's still a lot of TKD, as evidenced by the belt test (I was more focused on not getting punched in the face, but I did notice some board breaking going on). They both seemed really nice and had broad martial arts experience. The instruction was definitely good, and they gave helpful and observant feedback. While I did notice some things I'd want to improve about the school, I had a very good impression.
One thing to not is that the three branches seem to be largely independent from each other, with somewhat different curriculums and instructors.
