Keep Rolling

 Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from

The fight is 10 days away.

What more is there to say?

In case you were wondering, the nice little training plan that you see in the right column was thrown out about three weeks ago in favor of “train as much as possible, whenever possible.”  Today, Mike and I rolled with the local high school wrestling coach for about an hour, then spent the next hour working on striking. Up to this point, almost all of my striking has been against a heavy bag or focus mitts, so we put on some boxing gloves and went balls-out against each other. I’ve got to say, it felt pretty good to be back in my element after spending the last few months being thrown around by great wrestlers.

Mike decided that he can’t strike well enough, and said, “Win or lose, this fight is going to the ground.  I don’t care if he’s a 5-foot-tall blackbelt in jiu-jitsu with a 24 inch reach, I am not going to be standing.”

He’s got a point.  When our sparring developed into a full-on MMA match with boxing gloves, he moved extremely well on the ground and had good striking when he wasn’t on his feet.  Personally, ground and pound seems pretty intuitive: hold the guy down, punch him in the face, repeat until stopped by referee.  Good stuff.

As a personal recommendation, don’t try to pull off armbars with 16 ounce gloves on your hands.  Your grip will slip, then Mike will climb on your back and pummel your head against the mat until he realizes you’re barely conscious.

Trust me on this one.

10 Days Until the Cage