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Breaking into M.M.A. Training Log

154K views 2K replies 38 participants last post by  KevinD 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello all, I've been mostly lurking these forums for awhile now. A little introduction: I'm 20 years old, just wrapping up doing a little world travel. While I was in Thailand I got involved with a Muay Thai training camp called Tiger Muay Thai, and trained pretty hard for a month and loved it. I decided to see where this passion can take me, and have decided to aim to fight in my first M.M.A. fight at a local amateur venue in my town called Valley Fight this coming December. This means I have a lot of work to do.

I will be training at a local M.M.A. gym called Revolution Chilliwack, as well as training with my friend who also wants to fight within the year.

I'm 20 years old, Southpaw, 6'4 about 195lbs, muscular build from years of weightlifting (I've got an enormous journal on a bodybuilding website but alas, there's no point talking M.M.A. on a bodybuilding forum, so here I am) but relatively weak cardio, other weaknesses include an occassional occurence of shin splints and contact lenses. I've only trained Muay Thai for a month and that's basically all my training besides a bit of self taught boxing.

I'm wrapping up my travels now, sitting in Bangkok for a few more days. I checked out a nearby Muay Thai gym but it was a hole in the ground with some mats and wasn't cheap, so **** it. I'm doing bodyweight exercises and shadowboxing in my room to help maintain what I can.

I go home soon so training resumes on August 1st as I enroll in the MMA gym back home and in addition begin my own training with a partner to keep the total training time to about 3.5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Training is 4 weeks on followed by 1 week rest, each week is 5 days training, alternating between 2 days set out like this:

Day 1 - Technique
Stretch
Shadowboxing
Hit Pads
Standup Sparring
Rolling
Stretch
Go to class

Day 2 - Conditioning
Stretch
Skipping
Weight Training (Divided into Push/Pull/Leg days focusing on functional strength, explosive power, and endurance.)
Heavy Bag
Speed Bag
Stretch
Go to class

Classes are as follows:
Mon - Beginner Jiu-Jitsu
Tue - M.M.A.
Wed - Beginner Jiu-Jitsu
Thur - Boxing + Muay Thai
Fri - Boxing + Muay Thai + M.M.A
Sat - Rest
Sun - Rest

Going to ease myself into it and build momentum; first week just go to the classes, second week go to the classes and do training every second day, then by the third I'm doing the full routine. Also going to start light on my weights and build momentum over the weeks as powerlifters do.

I've also wrote up a flexible diet that I believe I can maintain pretty easily. I'll add the details once I've gone through with it for awhile in case any changes need to be made. What's important is the 6000 mostly healthy calories to exceed my maintenance level for a gradual weight gain.

Supplements are Protein/Creatine Monohydrate/Multivitamin/Fish Oil, considering a pre-workout supp like N.O. Xplode but don't really need the extra hit to the wallet or a caffeine dependency, so we'll see on that one.

I picked up all my gear to train out here in Thailand for nice and cheap. Got 16oz gloves, shin guards, wraps, mouth guard, and headgear. My friend has bought all of these things as well as some Thai kicking pads and a round timer, so we're all equipped and ready to go.

I'm aiming for December for my premier amateur M.M.A. bout. Wish me luck and feel free to pass on advice. I'm gonna tear a hole into this guy. :thumb02:

Some relevant links
Tiger Muay Thai, Phuket, Thailand:http://www.tigermuaythai.com
Revolution Chilliwack, Chilliwack, Canada:http://www.revolutionfightteam.com
Valley Fight, Chilliwack, Canada:http://www.valleyfight.com
 
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#597 ·
I missed today's ****** class, I went for a walk to find an ATM to pay my gym fees and it ended up taking a little longer than I anticipated.

Did my first Brazilian class. Gerbil lead the warm up which was typical of most BJJ classes, a variety of types of movement in a circle, then some shrimping and other related stuff, then a bit of abs.

Then we did some warm up takedowns. I wasn't sure what the **** was going on at first and looked like an idiot. We were just doing 20 reps of starting whatever take down. I looked like a dumbass because my takedowns never involve throws. Oh well.

So that was pretty much the extent of the class, the rest was all rolling. As I understand it that's pretty typical of the Brazilian classes- warmup, very small amount of technique, and then all rolling.

My first roll was with a purple belt my size that, I swear to god, looked like Jacare. He was extremely good and was very dominant, finishing me with two armbars. He was a friendly dominant though, which I was happy to see, I wasn't sure how gringos were going to be treated out here. Anyways, after trying to survive for 5 minutes I got in with a blue belt that was smaller than me. I swept him at least twice and held mount for much of the round, fighting for an ezekiel, americana, or arm triangle while trying to keep position. I eventually switched to...what's it called...s-mount? I forget. Anyways I switched my mount style and went for the armbar, he rolled with me and stacked me, I swept at the leg and rolled him down and finished the armbar. The rest of the round went the same with me just sinking in an armbar by the end of the round. Third round I had another blue who was a stalemate for much of the match, we spent alot of time with me in half guard trying to get through to little avail. He ended up catching me with an armbar but both hands were trapped, so I stomped my foot to tap. Haha. I didn't know how to say tap in portugese. Anyways he let it go luckily. I spent a second trying to get him to tell me how to say 'tap' in portugese. He looked apologetic like I was mad or something but I totally wasn't. Anyways, it's pado or pao, or something along those lines.

The Brazilian class is real cool. I met Gordo today. He's a very stoic and slightly intimidating fellow who watches quietly from the side of class. He kind of reminds me of the bad guy in the Mummy. Sometimes you don't know what the **** Gordo is saying but you figure it out as you go and sort of keep your head down and do what everyone else is doing. Anyways, something different about the classes out here - the highest belt chooses the matchups for every roll. So your opponents are literally handpicked for you every time. I like this method because it makes you feel like he's paying attention to what you're doing, it gives you decent matchups, and it avoids the whole awkward 30 seconds between rounds where you have to look around the room and find eye contact with a guy and do the whole "You? Me? Yeah."

My ear is starting to get sore again so I got some headgear to wear from now on. God, headgear is dorky. Oh well.

The house is real cool and a fun group of people. As usual from what I've seen in my travels, the UK guys are the funniest and most outrageous guys. Gerbil is kind of like the unspoken leader of the house and is a real charismatic, fun guy around. In case you don't know who Gerbil is, this his blog that lead me to exactly where I am today. Everyone's out to go get a late night snack at one of the local bakerys where there's a delicious variety of breads that you pick meat and cheese for them to melt together. I'm sticking to my groceries tonight, so here I am with you guys. I bought some acai concentrate to add to my water. This stuff is delicious, I'll have to try some fresh stuff though. One thing that's kind of went haywire today is our water isn't working on one side of the house. My gi is beyond stinky and there's little hope that it's going to get cleaned today. I'll probably be picking up another one tomorrow, or doing the no-gi until Dennis brings it for me.
 
#598 ·
Wash that nasty stanky gi, or go get another swank new one with the Brazilian flag on it.

You are south of the equator; therefore, headgear magically becomes cool, like the toilet flushes in the opposite direction in Australia.

Glad to hear you're liking Brazil. Be extremely careful wherever you go, and whoever you go with, however, in the crime-ridden city of Rio.
 
#601 ·
****** class

Warmed up going over the half guard passes we did two days ago.

Then we worked on some new half guard passes...The hip switch pass was something I knew already but the new detail is to get both underhooks, then grab at their collar and lift their arms up and out, basically removing their arms from the equation. Then you lift your ass and dry hump that leg free, switch the hips and kick free.

Going to be hard to explain the next. Jeremy called it a dragon tail pass. From half guard your far hand goes over their body and under their armpit, hand flat on the mat. Then you kick your legs over to the other side, facing their legs. The hand flat on the mat goes to their belt and your elbow pushes back to keep their arms up and out. Your butt scoots back to do the same on the other side. Then you use your free leg and arm to slowly pry out into side control.

The other thing works off the last pass, when you screw up the dragontail pass and get underhooked, you basically sprawl and do a superman spin back, with both your arms on the other side of his head, so you're perpendicular to his body but still in half guard. Yeah, hard to explain. Then we put it altogether in a combo of 4 half guard passes and drilled.

We did some guard passes just working to pass eachother's half guards, then Jeremy pulled out some tennis balls which we basically use as a handicap, so one person has to hold one or two tennis balls which really limits what you can do with your hands.

My shoulder got tweaked a bit today and my ear has filled up again so I'm going to drain it and take the rest of the day of. Today was the first day with headgear which seems to feel pretty good, probably something I should have started with earlier.
 
#602 ·
Today we all went for dinner at this all you can eat pizza thing where the waiters walk around with trays of pizza and you say yes please or no thanks in Portuguese as they try to make you eat their pizza. The types of pizza were crazy. There was the standard pizzas you'd expect, then there was like an omelette pizza, taco pizza, etc. Then for dessert, they had like banana cinnamon pizzas, crepes stuffed with chocolate and strawberries or marshmellows and white chocolate, white chocolate m&m pizza, raspberry puree pizza, banana chocolate cinnamon, etc. I starved myself most of the day so that I could make the most of it. ******* insanity. I forgot that you were supposed to eat the food with a fork and knife there so I looked like a bit of a caveman and got these weird looks from tables around me when I picked up my first slice and dove into it. I'm taking pictures next time. We're going to a Brazilian all you can eat BBQ tomorrow, then I think I'm going to my first Brazilian night club tomorrow to send a dude off. Apparently we get 5 new people on sunday so this house is going to be packed.
 
#603 ·
Burpees (5x3 minute rounds, 1 min rest)
1 - 31
2 - 25
3 - 23
4 - 22
5 - 22
Total - 123

Don't think I posted these other pics from my fight 3 weeks ago...looks like this is all that might turn up, I've had some communication and technical difficulties with the news site I'm trying to get them from. But here's a few good ones!



 
#606 ·
Okay. So my epic day yesterday. I gotta do this fast because I need to get to the beach for the soccer game party today. I rolled out of bed at like noon (I personally love doing this) and some guys were heading to the beach. We walk down there and the bodies on this beach were incredible... the whole Brazilian-awesome-ass stereotype is very accurate... I never knew where to look. I was a little distracted though because every ******* guy was in speedo briefs. It was really ******* gay, I felt overdressed in board shorts. I might need to pick up a more "local" bathing suit out here =). Another funny thing I noticed at the beach is there's little workout stations for everyone to get their muscles all jacked up before hitting the beach. I was really amused at how douchebaggy this is... but to tell you the truth, I'm going to start using these.

The beach was so nice. It was like 33 degrees, busy but plenty of space, you rent a chair and dudes come and serve you beers or coconuts that they hack the top out of with a machete and stick a straw in. The water was really nice and blue and the most perfect temperature...To be honest I was this ultra tall ultra pale foreigner frolicking like a little girl in the ocean for like 2 hours, stopping only to survey the women walking along the beach, never losing my shit eating grin. Amazing.

Then we went to the Brazilian BBQ thing, which was the most incredible ******* meal EVER. I'm putting pics up. They had a full buffet that I loaded up on, then little brazilian men in waiter outfits walk around with two foot long slabs of meat and a big knife that he shaves on to your plate. One of them came out with a cart of the most massive slab of meat with ribs, it reminded me of the Flintstones. The meat was AMAZING. I ate my face off of course until I thought I was going to have a hernia, then I farted and felt better.

So then a few of the people were going to the club, but I wasn't too down for paying over 50$ to get in. So me and some of the guys took a bus across town to a bar. It was super packed, even the street outside. We got in and grab some beers and stood around for a bit being awkward and not having anywhere to sit. I noticed this table of 3 girls sitting alone with a bunch of chairs and caught eyes with one of the girls. "Okay guys, here's the gameplan: I'm going to go over there and ask if they speak English, and if they don't, I'm going to be very embarrassed and awkward." Turns out they did speak english really well and were super friendly and awesome. So we had more than a few beers and it turned out to be a real good night. =) A funny moment happened when one of the girls left for a smoke and brought this...person...she just met outside back with her. We were introduced and then they kind of sat their awkwardly for awhile for 20 minutes and made very little conversation before leaving. The girl hadn't realized that she had actually brought back a prostitute to hang out with us. Not only that, but I noticed when she arrived that she looked a little....masculine. When I shook...it's....hand I kind of glanced at hers (I've learned this is how you check) and sure enough, those hands looked pretty manly. Weird moment. It's socially polite to kiss girls on the cheek when saying hello or goodbye so I totally kissed a tranny on the cheek last night.

One of the girls I met seemed to take a liking to me, I believe she's going to show me a bit of Rio next weekend ;)

Gerbil's going to make a blog post about these recent happenings, and he's a better writer, so I'll have to link his post when he does it today.
 
#607 ·

This is the view from the backyard of our house. Apparently this mountain is a good hike, I'll be attempting it at some point in skate shoes...pics will come.


Brazilian BBQ. You grab a variety of amazing shit from the buffet then....


Then these guys walk around with massive slabs of meet that they slice on to your plate


All you can eat.


I felt like I was a Flintstone. This looked like a slab of dinosaur meat.


Having a few beers at the local bar....tranny is not in this picture. ;)
 
#608 · (Edited)
Whew. Another day down in Rio de Janerio. Gym was closed on sunday... I feel like I've been slacking off, but I've forgotten how ******* awesome travelling is, and underestimated how ******* awesome Brazil was going to be. I can get back into training and boring journal entries tomorrow.

Today was another step in Brazil's quest for the FIFA World Cup. I personally don't care about soccer at all, but the amount of excitement it generates out here is insane. I went to Rio's big beach (I don't even remember the name) where FIFA had set up huge screens right by the water for everyone to watch. As I was walking along the beach to the party there was tons of vendors selling random soccer or tourist related things...one of the guys yells "Hey Amigo, you want flag?" I shake my head and as I'm walking by he whispers "You want cocaina? Cocaina?" Haha.

The game was alot of fun to watch out there. Brazil has such crazy energy. I'm a little tired, so I can't really do this story justice, but alas, I took pictures.



FIFA sets up big screens on the beach in Rio for showing Brazilian Games in the World Cup.




Aww, Jesse likes walks to walk on the beach during sunset =)



So this was my first outing past the grocery store without a more experienced housemate to lead the way. It worked out well getting out there, and I never felt alone for a second...however getting home wasn't the same story. I completely forgot which bus number was mine. I only had enough money for a couple bus fares, because I don't like to walk around dangerous places with my wallet. So not enough money for a cab, and to be honest I can't even give directions to where I'm staying in Portuguese if I tried. With no wallet, I also had no phone card or phone number of any of the guys at the gym. So I did what any idiot would do and rolled the dice, I guessed on which bus to take. Rio is a big city, with alot of buses. I ended up on the other side of town really fast. I walked around for a bit being frustrated, and spent a couple hours finding a bus back to the beach...I actually never found that bus back to the beach. Just the general vicinity. At that point I just walked around aimlessly looking for people that looked like they might speak english and could point me in the right direction after having a little laugh. I got pointed in the general direction of the original beach I was on but they said it was really far. They looked at me like I was a dead ****** when I explained my situation. I walked and found a diffrent beach, and decided I'd just follow the coast because it felt less helpless than random city streets. This lead me to a windy road with tunnels along a rocky that I followed for half an hour or so. Finally I stumbled upon a Sheraton Hotel, which was the ******* oasis in the desert today. Being a little stubborn, I walked past my glorious saviour just to see what was going to be around the corner, you know, in case I could save myself. It started to turn into a really shady area and the houses were starting to look like ghettos. Or 'favelas'. Eventually there were people hanging out, drinking, and blasting Lil Wayne. Knowing what kind of people listen to rap that terrible, I turned around and went back to the Sheraton. I explained my situation, got really lucky, spent my last 4$ to get on the internet, found the number for Dennis, called him, and he gave the hotel directions back to my place. Second time Dennis has been my 911.
 
#609 ·
1) These pictures rock. Even if you do like to walk on the beach at sunset like a little girl. A tall, pale ****** little girl.

2) Brazilians are such meat fanatics, my vegan brother had to go ovo-lacto when he was there so he didn't starve, that's why their BBQ is so phenomenal.

3) LOL @ your expression in the club.

4) More Brazilian ass pics, please.
 
#611 ·
****** class

Warm up with the half guard passes from last day. Technique today was side control escapes. Number one is positioning. Nearest hand to them is cupping at their waist, other hand is flat against your stomach. This is different than what my instructor teaches, who prefers the cross face. Saulo likes the former position, so I have no issues giving it a try. Once in the defensive position, first escape is to shrimp out multiple times to create space, and dive in head first to their stomach, trap a leg, hands flat on the mat, legs extended and ass up, pivot around the trapped leg and drive with your shoulder. Second escape is to bridge in the direction of the cupping hand, and drive under like the first time, except this time with your hands flat on the mat and not trapping a leg. Commonly people will have their arms wrapped around your torso, this is where you pick a side, and do a big step out with the far foot, driving your elbow behind their neck and your head into their back. So you step through and drive them forwards, then pivot to get behind them from the turtle position.

Gerbil had us drills these alot. His classes have a very simple but solid format. Just a couple techniques on a common theme or position, then chain them together and drill them. Everything gets absorbed by the end of class. Awesome.

Then we did positional drills from side control. I got to get on top of Dennis, the black belt that organizes all of us international travellers. I kept good control but wasn't able to advance position, I got reversed every time I tried. Did some more of those. Then Gerbil had us do groups of three, with one guy being the pivot, meaning the other two are alternating picking on one guy who is in a bad position. If the pivot gets tapped he does 25 pushups. We switch off every minute or two, and inbetween switches the pivot does 10 burpees. Brutal stuff. I tapped a purple once when he was getting pivoted with an americana. When I was getting pivotted I got tapped I think twice, one was a bow and arrow choke and I don't remember the other.

Then I got an 8 minute round with a white belt. I got a tennis ball to hold, which as I mentioned earlier is how Gerbil handicaps the higher belts. I tapped him the first time, then had to hold two tennis balls. I did very well with the tennis balls. I think it affects me less because I use less grips than most Gi guys because I'm often not in a Gi. I pulled off a very nice move that I invented while I was daydreaming about MMA. I locked in an arm triangle from mount, then jumped to side control to threaten it and tighten it a bit, then knee on belly, then I crept up with the knee to his armpit and somewhat awkwardly but somewhat looking like I knew what I was doing, threw my other leg over his head and took the trapped arm with an armbar. Sexy move.

I hurt my shoulder again today. It feels like not a big deal most of the time but I do one wrong thing and it gets painful real fast.
 
#612 ·
For anyone that doesn't know who I'm talking about when I say Gerbil, it's a nick name of one of my instructors here in Brazil. He has a very long running and heavily followed blog on Sherdogs Jiu jitsu forum. I get a guest appearance in his latest entry here.

He's quite a bit more entertaining so I'd recommend giving it a look.

I could write better, but to be honest, I don't want this journal to be a chore. It's first and foremost me keeping track of my own training and progress. When I write something for entertainment, I don't want to have to proofread or put a huge effort in.

Anyways, some of you won't click through to that log to read that very entertaining entry, so I'll steal Gerbil's pic of all of us at the all you can eat pizza earlier this week.

 
#615 ·
****** class.

Warm up with our side control escapes. Technique today was more side control escapes.

From the bottom defensive position. They have the far underhook, hands clasped, shoulder pressure in your neck or face. Inside hand is cupped on their hip, far hand reaches across their face, grabs at the collar for a crossface, elbow drives their head up, hand swims for underhook. Once underhooked grab at their back or at their belt and pull yourself down, sliding your elbow out to base as you come out and around. End at them turtled with your hip flat against their butt, hands controlling at the belt and inside hips.

That's the basic escape, then from there we learned some techniques when they do a wizzer from this position. First technique as they wizzer you shuffle walk around their back side and keep going, their own wizzer forces them to roll over into side control. Easy. Second technique, again with the wizzer, grab tight at their belt and clamp your arm against their back tight, because this is going to be a point of leverage. Next, your leg nearest their but is standing while the other knee drives flat against their knee, pulling with the clamped hand, and swinging you body under. This technique Gerbil calls "Jumping under the bus" because you're essentially driving yourself under them and throwing them over. You end up in side control. Sexy move.

Then we drilled these positions from side control for like 20 minutes. I did pretty good but tweaked my shoulder yet again. It's weird, it'll be fine but a little sketchy, then all of a sudden I'll do one thing a little too far and it'll be an extremely sharp pain basically rendering it useless for like 10 seconds, then it fades away pretty fast.

Then at the end we did a ten minute roll. The rules were, if you get tapped you have to do 25 pushups at the end of the round, the guy who taps you has to hold a tennis ball for the rest of the roll. If you don't get a submission, you have to do 100 pushups. I got a blue who I have some size on, he caught a simple collar choke on me and tapped me out. I got him in a triangle but he defended it well, I rolled him into a mounted arm triangle then transitioned to an armbar, he tried to roll out but I followed through and tapped him with that. Rest of the match was pretty even. That's class

I got the last of the pics of my last fight sent to me from BC MMA Fan. I was glad to see they got a pic of the armbar.





Ive got more good news. The house just got a new addition, our gym has shipped in a Muay Thai instructor to help prepare Raphael Dos Anjos for his upcoming UFC fight with Clay Guida. I met this guy yesterday and he was telling us a bit about himself. He used to train Kenny Florian, among other names. I cant wait to get some more legitimate muay thai training. Brazil just became the best of both worlds, striking and grappling. Im aiming to work up to do a BJJ gi class and a muay thai class everyday, and maybe substitute one or the other for a no gi class...then some burpees on saturday. This is going to get my technical skills soaring for when I get back.
 
#616 · (Edited)
That interview from a couple weeks ago went up today. I've edited my name out of it so that this log isn't easily attainable to future opponents.

Chilliwack Progress - Gentle Giant makes mark in MMA

J*** W******** swears he can do it.

The 22-year-old Chilliwack native swears he can go to Brazil, hang out near the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, and the women who frequent them, and still remain focused on his mixed martial arts training.

We wish him well.

If he can pull it off, and become a better mixed martial artist in the process, he will have taken one big step towards realizing his ultimate goal, a career in Ultimate Fighting.

In Brazil, W******** will train at Gordo Jiu-Jitsu, under the guidance of renowned instructor and third-degree black-belt Roberto ‘Gordo’ Correo.

“They have an international fighter program where they bring in fighters from all over the world,” W******* said. “It’s kind of an all-in moment for me. You can’t be serious about mixed martial arts and do it at anything less than 100 per cent. After two years, I love doing it and I want to throw myself into it while I’m still young. If I’m going to do it, now’s the time.”

W******* graduated from Sardis secondary school in 2006, winning the Sardis Strongman competition as a senior. After graduation, he spent some time travelling through Australia and southeast Asia.

In Thailand, he enrolled spur-of-the-moment in a Mui Thai kick-boxing camp.

“It was just a month and it was brutal, brutal training, but it was the most satisfying feeling when you made it through to the end of the day,” he said. “Those little Thai guys are small, but they’re intimidating and they’ve been training their entire life. When they tell you to do something, you do it. And if you don’t think you can do it, you do it anyways. They push you to levels you’d never get to on your own.”

Surviving the experience inspired W*******.

He already knew he loved mixed martial arts, but until Thailand he was hedging his bets about making it a careeer. He left Thailand with an unshakable feeling that he was now capable of hanging with the big boys.

“I’m so much more focused and I’m pushing myself so much farther than I did before Thailand,” he said. “I’ve been improving ever since I got back, and it’s addictive. As you reap the rewards, you just want more.”

Utilizing the expertise and contacts of Chilliwack’s Revolution Martial Arts and the Revolution Fight Team, W******* has trained hard and fought twice, winning both in convincing fashion.

“The first one (in Vernon) was pretty quick,” he said. “It took 44 seconds to beat the guy. We exchanged some punches, and then I dropped him with a couple knees to the body. I pounded on him until the referee pulled me off.”

That fight was last October, and it took until May 29 for the next one, when he travelled to Prince George for another one-sided bout.

“This one was a little bit longer, one minute and 44 seconds,” W****** recalled. “Once again, we exchanged some punches, and then I caught him with a head kick that stunned him. He took me to the ground, and I eventually caught him in an arm-bar to finish him.”

Finding fights has been challenging.

W******’s trainers try to match him up against fighters of similar weight and experience, but the supply is short in a sport that is still struggling to gain acceptance at the grass-roots level.

“It’s already mainstream on a national scale, especially in Canada where we’ve got the highest pay-per-view sales per capita for UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship),” he said. “The sport is here to stay, no matter what, but the trick at my level is being able to fight sanctioned fights in safe circumstances. We don’t want shady organizations that don’t take care of their fighters. If I can’t fight in B.C., I’ll go to the United States or Alberta or whatever. It’s going to happen anyways, so might as well give people what they want.”

It took one-and-a-half years of training and sparring for W******’s trainers to green-light him for live action, a testament to the cautious approach legitimate organizations take. By the time he finally stepped into the ring, W***** couldn’t have been more prepared.

“In heavy sparring they dress you up in shin pads, heavy gloves and head gear and you really go,” W******* said. “But even there, when you stun a guy you back off instead of trying to hurt him, and that’s the difference. In a real fight, you see them hurt and you need that killer instinct to jump on them right away. It’s totally different mentally between fighting a teammate and fighting some guy who’s legitimately trying to hurt you.”

With that in mind, W******* admitted to being nervous before his debut bout. But he wasn’t about to let some butterflies get in the way.

“It’s normal to be nervous, but you can’t let it get in your head,” he explained. “A lot of people let it get in their heads, and they end up super intense. They lose focus on what they’ve trained to do, and they get exhausted real fast. It’s better if you can push the nerves aside and relax before a fight.”

W******* brings a more measured and cerebral approach to the sport than many of his competitors.

He struggles to harness that mean streak that many fighters consider so integral to their success, and his calm demeanor has led his coach at Revolution, Kajan Johnson, to dub him the ‘Gentle Giant.’

“I’m not a violent person in real life and I like the mental challenge of mixed martial arts more than hurting someone,” W******* said. “But if a guy hits you, it’s instinctive behaviour to be aggressive back to him. I can turn it on when I need to, but only at the appropriate time.”

W******* has taken inspiration from some of the top competitors in UFC, guys who are stone-cold calm no matter what the situation.

“There are guys who are extremely emotional, but generally you see them being reckless, wasting energy and getting caught in a mistake,” W******* said. “You can get far as an aggressive, mean tough guy. But if you want to get the furthest, just be a blank slate. That’s what I try to do.”

Tall and lanky at six-foot-three, W******** is at his best using his reach to rain down punches and kicks from a distance. He’s at his worst when an opponent gets inside and he has to engage in wrestling.

How successful he is at maximizing his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses will determine how far he goes.

“My trainers want me to win five fights at the amateur level,” W****** said. “I’ve got two, and if I keep winning in the first round, or come back from Brazil looking a lot better, maybe they’ll accelerate things a bit. From there, it’s on to pro and it’s all about who you beat. In this sport, it’s really about who you know and who sees you. It could be a long haul or it could be quick. A lot can happen.”

Get more information on the Revolution Fight Team online at Revolution Martial Arts | MMA | Brazilian Jiu Jitsu | Muay Thai Kickboxing | Boxing | Judo.
 
#617 ·


This is the ****** class with all the international travellers. We focus alot more on technique and drill pretty hard. To be honest the brazilians seem alot more laid back about their training. The Brazilian class is pretty much all rolling, and it can be the worst class ever, or a breeze depending on who you get. In this pic you can see there's only 3-4 white belts in the class, this is much different than any gym you'll run into in N. America. The Brazilian class is much more experience heavy, with black belts often outnumbering all the other belts combined. Often there's more black belts in one room out here than there is in all of Canada.
 
#618 ·
****** Class

Warmup with side control escapes from yesterday. Technique today was more side control escapes, this time from the scarf hold.

Numero um - when they are doing the scarf hold but they are leaning back towards your legs...reach your outside hand around the inside of your outside leg, swing your body for some momentum, and bring the leg over the guys head, the hand inside your knee is cupping at their chin, drive to reverse them into their side control. Sexy move.

Numero dois - when they are doing the scarf hold but leaning chest to chest, grab at the collar and crossface, other hand grabs the belt. Shrimp out, probably multiple times, until you can sit up and essentially put all your weight into driving your forearms to reverse the position.

Numero tres - when they are doing the scarf hold but instead of taking the far underhook, they are reaching under your head, grabbing their own pant leg and basically headlocking you - gable grip behind their back, walk your legs towards them you're essentially spooning, bridge slightly that way for momentum before bridging the opposite way to drive them over.

We drilled the position, then did the pivot thing for a hardcore workout, with lots of bodyweight exercises inbetween. Then I had a ten minute round with a white belt and tapped him with an armbar.

My instructors seem to want me to compete in the Rio Open in 3 weeks or so. I'm strongly considering it, just for the experience.
 
#619 ·
****** Class

Warmup with side control escapes from the other day. Then we worked the three side control escapes into a turtle facing opponent, then the kick through and around. Then from the kick through we learned to take the back...nearest hand grips their nearest tricep, other hand on the inside of their far thigh, arm straightens to create a temporary gap, stick your leg in, far hand reaches for an underhook and grips their forearm. Tip them to the side of the the leg that isn't hooked, lifting their body with that knee to get the final hook in. Both arms underhook and grip high at their collar, turning at the wrists so the collar drives their neck forwards. Now we're in seated mount.

We learned three finishes from seated mount, but there's one thing unique about Gerbil's seated mount. He wants you to have a gap between yourself and your opponent, whereas most will teach to be tight to their back. He explains that this is to keep them from bridging back and making life difficult for you. You scoot back pushing off with your legs and pin your head to their back. Anyways, the chokes:

1. one arm reaches over their shoulder, back of hand curves against their face for a deep collar grip. Other arm reaches for their lapel. The real power in the choke is in the elbow of the choking grip. Rip that elbow over the back of their shoulder and they'll tap fast.

2. With a more shallow grip but of the same set up, other arm traps their free forearm, they'll fall to the side to try to escape. Once again rip at the elbow and twist with your shoulder forwards and your body back, it's like a bow and arrow choke without the legs.

3. Bow and arrow choke, same set up, hand that isn't choking grabs their nearest leg on the outside, lift your legs out of the hooks and off to the far side, driving with the legs while lifting his and pulling at the collar.

We drilled these as combos starting from the side control. Then we rolled just a couple rounds. I got a white belt near my sized and dominated positionally. But the americana I did was sloppy and I fucked up an armbar transition from the arm triangle that Gerbil scolded me on later. I need to go slower and focus on doing it technically perfect while I'm with the white belts, so less rushing it, and more controlled. Otherwise did well. Then I got another white belt that we scrambled around in alot of positions with no subs either way. Got to roll Gerbil for the second time, he seemed to sweep me at will, but I managed to find my balance and fight off one or two. Regardless, I got positionally dominated and tapped 2-3 times. I don't even remember what I got tapped with, but at least one was an armbar.

I feel alright. Body was a bit sore today and my knee made a really loud popping sound, during rolling. It feels alright now though. We'll get through tomorrow and then get some rest. I gotta talk to this Muay Thai guy and see when he starts running muay thai classes so I can start getting the two a days going.
 
#620 ·
****** class

Warmed up with side control escapes. Technique today was defending the baseball slide pass. First defense if they don't under hook is to deflect the sliding knee to the outside with both hands, go belly down and tackle a leg. Second defense when they do underhook, deflect the knee with the underhooked hand, free hand shoots under their body, spinning underneath them and coming out the other side, then you can move to back control. Third escape was when they have side control and are working in a knee across the belly to take mount. Get a grip on the leg that isn't trying to slide across, then block the knee that is coming across with other hand. As they force the knee on belly across, lift at the other one and shrimp your body to take half guard on the other side. If you shrimp in one direction, then the other, you can take half guard with plenty of space between the two of you, so you can move around to take back.

Then we rolled. I got 2 white belts that I beat but didn't do anything amazing with. I keep trying to force the armbar out of an arm triangle but it's too haphazard. I might want to toss that silly transition aside. Then I rolled a purple and a smaller blue and had some back and forth but overall got dominated by both. Good class. Good week. Shoulder hurts but it'll be fine.
 
#621 · (Edited)
Had a good weekend. Missed burpees. More tourism. =)

Yesterday we went up to check out Christ the Redeemer. It's pretty much a must visit in Rio. It was cool. A long winding taxi ride up and a spectacular view. We snapped a few pictures, took the view in, then went back down to catch the American's losing to Ghana in soccer.


Christ's view




The Redeemer himself.


Goofy ****** grin =)


Fighting for Jesus.



Me and Danielle, a girl at the house from Holland. She has a ton of kickboxing fights back home and has trained with the likes of Overeem.



Beers afterwards, of course.

Today I met up with Isabel from last weekend to follow her up on the promise of showing me around a bit. She took me up this mountainside that we got lost in for awhile. Then we finally found a semi-treacherous path leading to a nice little pool under a waterfall.





My camera is shitty.

A few other random pics.


Apparently it's totally normal to have monkeys hanging around in parks



Lots of cool graffiti around town.



Three monkeys. "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"



Back to training tomorrow. I'm competing in the Rio Open near the end of next month so I'll try to get a couple two a days in this week. Maybe every other day? We'll see as we go. My shoulder still feels tweaked.
 
#622 ·
Awesome, awesome pics. I had no idea that the view from the Jesus statue was so speechless-rendering. I want to go to Brazil even more now, which is saying a lot.

The picture in the pool below the waterfall with the chick looks like a "visit beautiful Rio" travelogue picture. And you almost got side boob.

Would you say Brazilians are like Australians, as in "work to live" rather than the "live to work" that Americans are notorious for?
 
#624 · (Edited)
This girl is awesome. I don't know many hot girls that will take their shoes off and treacherously climb a mountain side. She thought it might be too cold, but when I said I was going in she tosses her dress off without hesitation. You should have seen the view from behind. =)

Yes, it's even more laid back than Australia. Brazilians are notoriously late for things, and seem to do alot of sitting/standing around. Even in training the Brazilians do almost no technique or drilling. Just straight to rolling and sitting around.
 
#623 ·
****** Class

Technique was half guard sweeps. First was a simple but effective technique to get the underhooked. When they have the underhook, bridge diagonally and extend your hand straight out, tucking your head to your arm. Then drop your hips low, while bring the extended hand underneath, elbow first, to take the underhook.

First sweep while curled in with the underhook, free hand reaches under and grabs his far foot. Then reach around the legs with the underhooked arm and pass the foot to this hand. The bottom elbow slides out for base, and the bottom hand now goes to cup at the knee. At this point you can drive them over, keeping control of the foot, and sprawling your hips low, walking the once trapped foot around to side control. Now that they're tipped over, pass the foot off to the other hand again, underhooking their legs and using your now free hand to creep up behind their neck.

Second sweep works off the failure of the first. Curled in with the underhook, reach under and trap the foot. Reach around with underhooked arm and pass the foot to this hand once again. Now we're assuming they've twisted their hips against tipping them over, so we go in the other direction. The free hand on the bottom scoops under their shin, pushing your arm deep through and wrapping around their thigh, then throw your body underneath, spinning them around to end up on top. At this point you can once again sprawl hips, and shimmy into side control.
 
#625 ·
****** Class

Warmup was half guard sweeps from yesterday. Today's class was more half guard sweeps, this time using the gi. For all the techniques, you start off getting that underhook, pushing out their far knee. Pull out the far side of their lapel and pass it around back to the underhooking arm. Keep a very tight grip, pinching at their armpit.

For the first technique from here, get a palm up grip on their far knee. Normally you could at this point use the punching motion of this palm up grip and the pulling motion of the gi trapped at the armpit, moving out hips underneath them to sweep them. We assume that they're going to post their free arm and prevent the sweep, so once that free hand posts and your hips are underneath them, you change the angle, sitting up towards their leg. Since their other leg is trapped in your half guard, they have nothing to post here so you roll into their half guard and an easy transition to side control.

Second technique, with the lapel hold once again. Bring your half guard inside of their leg, your foot flat on the mat is pulling on the back of their calf as your body essentially bananas backwards, straightening your arm with the gi grip, twisting your body and stretching them out. At this point if you need to you can kick out their far knee to flatten them out further. Then use that gi grip to heave yourself up, since you're in half guard you already have one hook in, so you're just putting in the other to take back.

Third technique. Once again half guard inside their legs and banana out to stretch them. Then you trap their bottom arm with your free hand, releasing the lapel grip as you bring your top knee over their neck. Tucking the arm in tight, you want to turn so your knees are pointing towards his hips, with an armbar extended. They have nowhere to go but tap to the armbar or roll further into it.

Drilled from half guard and had a tough but patient grinding session with a purple. Then rolled normally but starting from half guard against a couple whites. Decent positional battles and I got an armbar or two.

Tonight I'll either try a muay thai class with Jack, a fighter from our house, or go to the Brazilian class. I'm leaning towards muay thai because with only two gi's and at least 24 hour drying time, I'm stretched pretty thin.
 
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