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Compliments and improvements
25 Jun 2009 10:09PM
“Oi lazy, do another blog”... this was the message that greeted me on Facebook a few days ago from David George. Dave...id is a sometime coach and cornerman for me and Grindhouse Fight Team. I say ‘sometime’ as he is currently residing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and to be fair it’s a lengthy, not to mention expensive, round trip back to Blighty to shout at me while I roll around sweating and bleeding on people. I am taking his comment as a compliment and that he enjoys reading them... either that or he must be really bored between his bouts of being terrorized by muscled, pyjama clad jiu jitsu-ists. It has if nothing else prompted this first paragraph.... now what else can I tell you about? Hmmm.....
Matt complimented me as well tonight!... there you go... consistency! See how I linked that? Journalistic brilliance, I should be getting paid for this I tell you. Yes, Matt complimented me J. I don’t say this in shock as Matt is a genuinely nice guy and he often says nice things to me. Such as how much he likes my Welshness and his shared interest in the hillside fauna of the valleys. To be fair he only ever says these things after I have spent 5 minutes punching him in the head... it’s what seems to prompt him to be so pleasant. Anyway, I digress. Tonight Matt commented on how tight my guard game was getting and that it was becoming more and more dangerous as the weeks passed. Pep too seemed to be in a flush of flattery when he pointed out how well suited to MMA my guard game is becoming. Essentially I read these things to mean one thing – I am improving.... oh and that despite pretending to dislike me they don’t really.
I have been conscious for a long time that my guard game... nay, my submission game when MMA-ing has been somewhat limited and I end up resorting to caveman tactics in the ring. So, rather conscientiously I have concentrated much more on working subs from my back. I haven’t really felt that dangerous if I’m honest, but I never will until I tap someone every 30 seconds. I was, however, much more aware of how much harder people were finding it to break and pass my guard (Jon says it’s ‘cos I have women’s thighs... rather like a Bond Villain... allegedly). Indeed tonight I managed a full round with Matt, Pep and Jon, each of whom slip-slided around and were unable to pass... apart from Matt... once.... when I nearly triangled him, but he eeled his way out somehow. The best bit about this was that for each of the rounds I was actively working for subs, especially triangles, the odd teepee and even a brief dabble with some rubber guard/omoplata skullduggery. I also had a few moments of inspiration with some BJ Penn influenced half guard sweeps (attempted, but failed)... but I never got the chance to try the arm bar from back L.... next week maybe.
So what have I learned? What has changed? In truth, not a huge amount. But it is nice to get a compliment every now and again and it’s even nicer to realize that I am improving and that those improvements are getting results. In this case, submissions.
Now if I could just make the same amount of improvement in my boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and fitness I’d be well on the way to that belt.... but that’s the challenge of MMA isn’t it?
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