C.Beeby's MMA Log (MT/Wrestling/Luta Livre/Conditioning/Diet)

12/29/10:

Conditioning: 30 minutes
Partner carries, wrestling, pushing and GHRs. Light warmup to hard wrestling after spending time out of the gym in Arkansas drinking and eating awful food. Bad idea.

Grappling: 1 hour
Rolling: Just bottom, working transitions from spider to butterfly, sweeps and passing from sweeps.
 
12/30/10:

Feeling pretty down on my training. Must have been the break, but I need to figure out how to get my confidence back up because I'm fighting soon.

Grappling: 2 hours
Bit of rolling, drilling, shadow fighting and wrestling.
 
12/31/10:

Grappling: 2 hours
"Survival"
Rolling and fighting. Conditioning didn't feel great and getting kicked sure didn't help. Ice, hot bath, contrast showers and relaxation.
 
1/01/11:

Good start to a new year.

Rolling: 1 hour
Warmed up with some shadow fighting and did about 7-8 rounds. Good guard retention and defense. Decent top control, could have been better but its difficult to base with so many little injuries.
 
Will be following.

Just read everything, really good log man, keep up the good work.
 
Thanks Tomcca.

1/02/11:

Grappling Circuit: ~1 hour
Rolling, shoulder muscle endurance drills, ground and pound and jumping side to side.

Sparring: ~10 minutes
One 2.5 minute round and one 5 minute round with coach. Got my face pounded in :).

Second round stance was better, shoulder rolled up with my rear hand higher.

Realized something about Leopoldo's game (my coach). He uses extremely diverse weapons on the ground (elbows to the biceps, legs, thigh, shoulder,covering the mouth, knees to the side) to force reactions which allows him to pass and move. I had noticed it before but it was even more pronounced being under him for 5 minutes. It's like being smothered by a cement blanket held to you with superglue.

Weight before: 171.6 with clothes and Leo's scale is heavy. Safe to say I don't have to diet to make 170.
 
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1/03/11:

Felt better confidence wise today after making it through with the pace I had before the holidays.

Conditioning: 1 hour
Stability ball warmup.
Pullup bar exercises: Feet over the bar x 20
Windshield wipers (full) x 20
Side to side pullups at top x 50
Side to side pullups full ROM x 20 (had a lot of trouble with these)
Mixed grip chins to one side x 20
Chins x 25 (could only do about 3-4 without resting at this point)
TRX 40-40 challenge (40 pushup/crunches/40 rows - totally burnt out at this point, mostly grip)

Muay Thai: 1 hour
1123232, cover, lead uppercut, 3232
12, rear knee, check, rear knee x2, slip kick, 2, lead knee x2

Grappling: 1 hour
Still have nagging little injuries making it hard to base/triangle/use butterfly. Went fairly light and worked on setting up punches. Made some mistakes giving up position for submission/punches but didn't set expectations too high as I absolutely gave it my all in MT/Cond.
 
1/04/11:

Grappling: 2 hours
Hand fighting/pummeling for about 10 mins, after 5 adding in footwork and basic setups, no finishes or TDs.
Skipping, sprawls, penetration steps, double leg, wall drills, carioca.
Straight ankle lock from side control.
Heelhook from bottom half guard.
Rolling: feet/shin feels a bit better, but my flow doesn't.
 
1/05/11:

Conditioning: 20 minutes walking, skipping, sidestepping and jogging

Muay Thai: 1 hour
11 rear hook, skip knee, check kick, 2, rear knee x 2
can't remember the other one

Grappling: 1 hour
Just maintaining base, position, and working punches.
 
1/06/11:

Last day of training.

Wrestling: 45 minutes
Pretty light, just setups, footwork and penetration steps.

Grappling: 2 hours
Really light, just movement, punching and passing while staying on top.

Weight before: ~168
 
1/07/11:

Preparation:
Shadow fighting/boxing/drilling some shots.
Talking game plan, etc.
 
1/08/11:

Weighed in 167.5, opponent weighed in at 171.3.

Implimented the game plan okay, but didn't set up my takedowns.

Lost decision 30-27.

Video
Welcome to Facebook
 
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#1 - HUMILITY: The victory from last fight, quite simply, got to my head. Constant praise about my performance allowed me to believe too much in my skill on the ground. Subsequentally, I built myself up in my head and began spoon-feeding myself humble pie whenever a roll didn't go the way my ego wanted it to. Instead of asking myself "Why am I not doing well/better?" I need to ask myself "What do I need to do IN ORDER to do well/better?" The fight after mine was for the belt in my weight class and the fighter on our side spoke as a humble person spoke. His ability to work through adversity got him an armbar in the transition from back to mount with 30 seconds left in a fight he was losing. Afterwards, he proved his humility by showing respect to his opponent. Impressive considering an hour before he almost was not cleared to fight due to his heart rate being too high. (A small side note: the NLP mind-shaping exercise which I will talk about later was a large factor in what got him calmed down and cleared by the doctor after I lent him my iPod.)

#2 - Improve my conditioning: We work hard in our conditioning classes at my gym, but leading up to this fight we were doing a strength cycle. I did feel strong, but felt that I didn't have the peaked conditioning to apply that strength. The strength cycle helped me get my weight closer to where it needed to be, but I still wasn't heavy enough which I will discuss later.

#3 - Boxing, boxing, boxing: My footwork, head movement, and combinations were limited to walking straight inside, throwing a punch or a kick, getting tagged, and running straight back with my guard lower than it should have been. My teammates from our brother gym regularly go to a boxing gym, and one of my best friends boxes ~4 days a week, so I have no excuse to not work my boxing.

#4 - ESCAPES!!!: I need to work on my white and blue belt skills. My survival positions were loose and my escapes just wouldn't come to me. I ended up in too many positions where I went to my last line of defense escape when I should have used my primary. This falls into conditioning as well, but as tired as I was I should've been conscious of the fact that shrimping is almost always the easiest option energy-wise.

#5 - Wrestling: While I am confident my wrestling is good enough for the level I am competing at at the moment, I was too tired and not mentally tough enough to impliment it. Both boxing gyms available to me have/will have wrestling classes which is good technique/visualization/conditioning wise, but I should really find a place where I can drill takedowns with serious intensity.

#6 - Sparring: Without making an excuse and hopefully coming off as merely an explanation, I simply did not spar enough for this fight. I need to push myself and really spar hard when I do to get used to what fighting hard feels like. I have good fighters at my disposal and need to do my best to use them. This also falls into the area of mental conditioning.

#7 - Weight: Around October (my first fight) we renovated the kitchen in the area of the house that I live in (the downstairs), and I used my mom's kitchen area for a while. There was little space to include the foods I eat (see: Grappler's Guide to Sport's Nutrition) and I ate too many of her foods (see: Jenny Craig, Weight Watcher's, BS "healthy" food). I weighed 170 before the renovation, 165 after, and decided it was best to fight 155. Afterward, I got back to 165 and around 173 after Christmas, too light to fight at 170. Again, without making excuses, the guy I fought was overweight and cut down to 170 from his weight class of 175. There is no reason why I should not utilize that advantage myself.

#8 - Recovery: My work capacity feels good, my technique feels good, my mental state feels good, but the first thing to go for me is always my body. After about 6 months of training 4-5 days a week, I start to fall apart. I need to take more contrast showers, use A LOT more ice, stretch daily, do some quick GPP in the mornings, improve my sleep schedule, use more liniment, condition my shins and do prehab/rehab.

#9 - Preparation: As well as using my NLP, recovering better, getting my weight higher, being better conditioned, etc. I need to prepare better. My first fight was prepared for very well and I would do well to try and repeat it. Much of what happened this time was inevitable due to the Holidays but being with family does not mean that I can't spend 20 minutes a day game-planning what I need to do next to be ready.

#10 - Mental conditioning: I have a great neuro linguistic programming self-hypnosis audio track that really centers me and prepares me for everything (not just training) and I should use it more. Using it allows me to deal with difficult memories and program behaviors that I do not have into myself.
 
Release from outcome.
Humility.

This is a difficult one to "work" on, as it is the most mental of all the things I need to improve. MMA, quite frankly, is a "hard" art and this is a topic best discussed and improved upon, in my opinion, in "soft" arts.

Don't get me wrong, Jiu Jitsu is great at breaking you when you start to get cocky, but if the time cycle of how that happens isn't right, I would imagine it could greatly effect how you fight.

Too often, at least in my gym, I tell people to "leave the ego at the door" but find myself becoming too mental in my Jiu Jitsu.

I need to flow with the go.

Plans for the future:
-Improve my skills at avoiding conversation topics I don't want to talk about. I am an open book, most of the time and try and speak my mind as much as possible, but I do not enjoy talking about combat sports in the personal sense. I RELISH discussing technique, strategy, other fighters/fights, etc. but I really do not feel I deserve to praise myself. I am a baby in this sport and if I can improve my abilities at avoiding such topics maybe other people can help me realize it too.
 
A tired fighter is a scared fighter.
Conditioning.

I have gotten stronger. There is no doubt about that. I want to continue to get stronger, but I also need to improve my gas tank. The way my conditioning didn't work for me was indicative of the fact that we have been doing a strength cycle in our S&C classes, and I plan on working more conditioning leading up to my next fight.

Plans for the future:
-I fight every ~3 months or so (or at least plan to) and this might work: one month strength and aerobic base, 2 months anaerobic/muscle endurance with a taper off ~1 week before the fight.

This is something I need to look into.
 
Nice fight, for no hands and underweight. (this was said to me by my cut man afterwards, I really like it.)
Boxing.

I have no boxing. My footwork in this fight was just wading in, getting hit, and running back out. My hands were limited to 1 or 2 punches and a kick. I need to learn angles.

At 6' 1" I am tall for my weight class and would really like to develop a dangerous jab of multiple types, good footwork and angles for my kicks/knees, and defensive boxing/head movement.
 
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Get to your fucking knees. (this was said by my corner/friend/teammate as I was working up from side control.)
Escapes/Grappling.

After reading the white and blue belt sections of Jiu Jitsu University, I realized that if I want to get my blue belt AND deserve it (Luta Livre, a blue belt is roughly equivalent to a 3 stripe blue/purple), I need to improve my skills in the belts I have already earned.

I have been playing a LOT of open guard lately, and a lot of guard retension, but when it came to preparing for a fight, I should have gone back to my stronger points which is a distance closed guard emphasizing sweep/submission combos, instead of open guards like spider and DLR.

More importantly than that though, I was in positions in the fight that I have fought out of hundreds, maybe thousands of times and I didn't stick to the basics. My shrimping was no good, and I went to my last resort a few times.

When he had me in KOB I turned in but didn't hip away and proceeded to go for the heel hook, where I immediately realized they were illegal and thus wasted time and got punched for it.

In mount I didn't believe in my shrimping and was too concerned with getting hit to commit, which in turn caused me to get hit MORE. I did the ultimate beginner move which was to throw my legs up. It stopped the punches momentarily but certainly didn't get me out of position.

All of that said, I did a good job handling his rubber guard. Didn't do a great job preventing him getting mission control (not sure what I did wrong yet) but I'm guessing he cleared my arm. I walked him 2 steps into the cage (good cage awareness), where I stacked and backed out safely. HOWEVER, once I was out I realized I need to work my entrances to open guard passes better.

Plans for the future:
-Spend the time healing my ear working shrimping and survival positions.
-Like I have done in the past, start every roll from a bad position and work away from it.
-One month open guard, one month submissions, one month sweeps leading up to my fight (bottom game only) and although it didn't REALLY come up in the fight, I should work more half guard, if at least using it to transition to full.
-One month open guard passes, two months attacking training partner's in their game's strongest areas.
 
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What are you gonna do if he takes your lunch money?
Ask my mom for some more, it's not even really my money.
WELL WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO IF HE TALKS SHIT ABOUT YOUR MOM?
He doesn't know my mom.
(A conversation between me and my old wrestling coach years ago. He was trying to get me pumped for a match.)
Wrestling.

A few months ago, my gym lost it's wrestling teacher. A good friend, mentor and teammate, it's a very big bummer for me because he was the first person to talk to me outside of the gym, and really made me feel welcome and at home. Combined with the fact that he is a good teacher who understands me and is a very experienced wrestler (20+ years) it is a big loss to my training/psyche not to have him at the gym.

He took the drilling I did back when I wrestled in high school, shaped it and showed me how to use it. I need to find people to wrestle with that have good technique, know when I need to be pushed, and most importantly, aren't cocky. Training with people who learn a double leg and think they can wrestle make me cry inside.

Plans for the future:
-Pursue a wrestling program.
-After realizing boxing is not going to fit my schedule, my grappling coach has said we can do takedowns/wrestling as part of the class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
 
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Today... we do survival. My coach a week before my fight.
Sparring.

Sparring is the best way to get used to a fight. Period. I need to spar more with the tough guys we have and apply and combine the knowledge and techniques I work on every day.

I will eat leg kicks and punches and know that I can handle whatever an opponent gives me.

Plans for the future:
-Figure out when the best guys spar
-Work 2 days of the week sparring into my schedule
-One month putting things together, one month hard sparring, one month tweaking things and game planning
 
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You need to gain weight for 170. My coach to me.
Weight.

This one is pretty simple. I should be dieting down to 170, instead of barely making 170.

I have Berardi's grappler's guide and need to apply more of it. Although I get at least 4 good meals a day the amount of time I am in the gym doesn't lend itself to having 2 other good ones.

Plans for the future:
-Weigh 175 for the next fight, 180 for the following
-Work on my work capacity so in the future (next fight?) I can lift a 2 day split (this may be too much, but I DO need to increase my work capacity to get some intensity out of my longer training days)
 
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