January 21st 2017 - Open Mat & Sparring

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Romero, Henry, Justin, Mo, David

Had some tough rolls today and felt exhausted after the first roll with Jerad.  We had some good back and forth and I was happy with my performance even though he eventually got me.

Romero was one of a few guys visiting that I hadn't met before.  He's a very good wrestler and I had trouble dealing with him.  I had some sweeps from deep half but never felt like I had a good position. He had me in back mount for a while and I eventually escaped but it took it's toll. I eventually gassed and had to call it good.

Henry was a step ahead of me with guillotines and kimuras.  I'll have to get him to show me how he maintains his guillotines and sinks them in. I want to be able to do that.

Haven't rolled with Justin in a long time. He did a good job of attacking me in turtle. After we rolled I showed him some attacks I liked from knee on belly.

Made a mistake of trying to do the rolling back take on Mo and he turned it into back mount for himself. I eventually got out of it but I don't think I'll try that on him anymore.

David and I both had our moments and only quit because he had to go. I was a little gassed too.

MMA Sparring
Trained with: Richard, Mike

Knocked some rust off today and did some standup punchy kicky sparring.  It's been at least 5 years since I sparred like this and I've been wanting to jump in since they started to prepare for Mike's fight. Henry gave me a quick tutorial on putting on hand wraps and he and Will were nice enough to lone me some gear.

It was as tough as I thought it would be. 3 minute rounds are exhausting after 2 hours of open mat.  I felt like a lot of my timing and distance control were still right on but my flexibility was not as good as it used to be.

I took a solid shot to the face and some leg kicks from Richard who just recently came to us with some MMA experience. Mike kept his distance out of kicking range. He would move in and out and I felt like had to chase him every time.

I had some good leg kicks and some decent side and front kicks to the body.  The gloves felt unnatural and heavy and everyone kept reminding me to keep my hands up.  I think some pad work would help me out.