Finnegan's Wake

Firetending

Friday night:
I arrive on sight to an unlit fire at 9 PM. The build was very stable, so I didn't have a whole lot to do on Friday.

Saturday:
Woodbusting
3 hours.
I used my newly purchased winch strap to great effect during this session. Lots and lots of dragging, flipping, etc; most on hills or in ditches. We filled a dump truck twice. The overhead pressing I did earlier the week came back to haunt me as we were pressing logs up and over the sidewalls of the dump truck's bed. Center piece for the night was a 7 1/2 half foot tall chimney log. It was light enough that 4 of us stood it without a tractor.
When we had it all lit and going, we realized that something was wrong with the chimney. Some of the crud inside had fallen down and blocked the hole, so it wasn't burning all the way up the center. We ended up backing all the dancers and drummers up, pulling the thing down, and ramming the center out with a metal pole. We then stood it back up, but some of the bottom had burned out. I had to hold it up as other people through bracing logs under and around it. Talk about hot! I would guess that at that point, the fire was about 1400 degrees in the coal bed. I got slow roasted, but it was fun.
Finished the weekend off with plenty of booze in the morning and crashing around 10 AM.
 
Ankle picks piss me off.
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How are they teaching them?

As strong as you are, I'd think these would be easy for you. They get rediculously easy when you learn to control your opponent. You can shuck him towards you or circle and time the step. When your opponent steps into you to keep from falling forwards, you change levels while pulling his head down, and pick the ankle of the leg he just stepped with. It's very effective against lanky guys.
 
My problem with them is currently just a speed issue. I'm really slow changing levels while maintaining whatever it was I was just doing, and can't get to the ankle quickly enough. It will just have to be something else to drill. If pattern holds, next class will be about an hour focusing on double legs and ankle picks, so I'll get some practice with these in.
 
Making your opponent step forward is half the battle. Circle and pull him toward you quick and hard. Try to get him to stomp in the space between you. Timing is everything, but it all comes with repetition. Perfection through repetition.
 
Where do you train at? Core Louisville or somewhere in Indiana?
 
Full Moon Martial Arts in Jeffersonville. Its literally 5 minutes from my house, and I would have never known it was there if it weren't for a friend enrolling her kid in karate. She knew I was looking to start training, so she passed the info along.
 
one of my largest changes that I made to my shot that helped was clearing their hands out of the way and making sure I can UP into them instead of diving at their legs. made a huge difference
 
one of my largest changes that I made to my shot that helped was clearing their hands out of the way and making sure I can UP into them instead of diving at their legs. made a huge difference
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Proximity will usually fix most people's shot problems. Most people think a shot is something that originates at a distance. This is wrong. If you can't reach out and touch your opponent's shoulder with a bent arm, then you are way too far away to shoot. Most shots aren't even shots, their head-first dives.

I'm not saying your shot sucks. I've never seen it. But when people tell me they're having trouble finishing a shot or getting good penetration, it's usually because they're shooting from a mile out.
 
They emphasized that the distance should absolutely be no further than jabbing range, preferably inside this. The swooping down and up motion was also emphasized. I'll be practicing this tonight, along with sprawl drills and GnP.
 
Intervals

Tabata Stair Sprints
20 steps sprint up, 20 jog down x 10, 3 sets with one minute rest between sets.

MMA

Heavy Bag:
30 minutes.
Worked on jab-cross, jab-jab-cross, and jab-jab-cross-left hook for first 15 minutes.
Worked on shooting in after faking a jab for last 15 minutes.

Ground Work:
45 minutes
Sprawling x 30
Put the heavy bag in gaurd, and moved it around with legs only, walked the legs up it, butterfly lifting, etc.
Practiced striking from the gaurd while maintaining pressure with the legs, striking from mount.

Heavy Bag Getups
75 lbs heavy bag x 10 (5 each side)

Impressions:
I'll be doing the stair sprints more often than road sprints, I feel. Running full blast in a dark alley is not something I want to do too often. When the temperature gets back under control, I'll start running in the morning.
Ground work was challenging after the sprints, but I guess that's the point. Strangly enough, I found it harder to keep my mouthpiece in (I've been training with it in since I got it during skill/ bag work) on the ground than standing.
The Heavybag getup was inspired by the Turkish Getup. I started with the bag in guard, butterflyed it up so it fell in "side mount", grabbed it however I could with one arm, and got up however I could. This was easier than I thought it would be at first, but caught up to me very, very quickly around rep 4. Good stuff.
 
finnegan said:
Heavy Bag:
30 minutes.
Worked on jab-cross, jab-jab-cross, and jab-jab-cross-left hook for first 15 minutes.
Worked on shooting in after faking a jab for last 15 minutes.
Click to expand...


having spent the majority of my time sparring with people who are vastly better than me at standup, i always shoot when I spar mma.

as for the jab, I've found it best not to fake it at all. brandon vera made a great point about making sure your opponent respects your hands before you try to take them down. if I don't hit them in the face at least once with the jab, I don't even consider shooting. once they know they 'have' to block the jab, it's much easier to get their hands up and away from defending the shot.
 
Dumbell Snatch
45 x 5
70 x 3
90 x 3
100 x 3
115 x 3 right, 1 left (4 failures)

Deadlift
135 x 5
225 x 10 (fast)
315 x 5 (fast)
385 x 3
435 x 1 *straps*
450 x 1
485 x 1
525 x 1, 25 lbs PR

Anvil Horn lift and row
1 left, 3 right
0 left, 3 right
1 left, 3 right

One Arm Dumbell Bench Press
80 x 3
90 x 3
100 x 3

Finishing Circuit x 5
Flag x 10
Standing plate (45 lbs) twist x 10
V-ups x 12
Isometric Pushups (30 seconds)
Pullups (5, 7, 10, 7, 5)

Impressions:
Hitting 525 after a month off of heavy deadlifts was fucking awesome. Slight pause off the ground, but the rest was smooth and easy. The funny thing about this workout is that I'm all banged up from last night's grappling practice. My left shoulder is tweeked, my mid back is sore when I bend over, etc. Nice to know that strength is there when I need it, despite little aches and pains.
The dumbell bench press was harder than I thought. My left shoulder really let me know it was sore during this, but it still performed.
Dumbell snatch at 100 lbs was really easy tonight. I was pleased. I feel that, again, if my left had been fresh, 115 x 3 could have been had on both arms.
As a side note, I weighed myself before and after my workout, My workout pants alone held 3 and a half lbs of water, with a total of 5 lbs sweated out into my clothes. Its good to know this, as I only brought out 32 oz of water.
 
Current Maxs:
Deadlift: 525
Zercher Squat: 425
Bench Press: 315 ( motherfucker...)
Hack Squat: 425+
Dumbell Snatch: 115 x 1 left, 3 right
Zercher Deadlift: 400
Push Press: 205 ( grumble, kick dirt)
Strict Overhead Press: 175
Weighted Dips: 155+

Impressions:
Although my goals have shifted from max weight to MMA, I've still made good progress over the last couple of months. My overhead and bench are still stale though. Oh well. Z-squats and Deadlift both increased nicely, so I'll let my pressing slide, yet again.
I'm hoping that the increased explosive movements with legs and shoulders I've been doing lately will improve my presses.
 
so the max DL was with straps?

I havent really figured out how to benefit from my straps...ah well.

good job on the PR!
 
Yeah, it was with straps. I don't know what to tell you with them other than I start to pull, and where I usually have to stop due to grip issues, I just keep pulling. Eventually, the weights give up and I lift it. If you've got a good grip, they probably don't benefit you as much as they do me.
That being said, I've got a feat of grip strength that I'm working toward: an Anvil Snatch by the Horn. It'll be a while before I can do this one.
 
good grip? me?

uhhh my feat of grip strength will be closing the trainer CoC with my left hand and CoC#1 with my right one of these days...hah.
 
Beats me then. I'll wait for a more experienced DLer to chime in.
 
im not sure but i think its the kind of straps i got. i got some from APT and its kinda of....thicker? than other ones ive seen. i think this the reason they might not help me as much but i guess i wont be able to find out until i try out another pair.

i pretty much just got them though for free wrist wraps! the wrist wraps are sweet...lol
 
I can't DL with straps personally, i find that it throws off my set up way too much. I just walk up, dip, grip and rip. I find there is benefit if you are doing multiple reps where that you are holding the weight longer but for maxes, not for me anyways. I've never had a grip issue lifting though, i think my grip maxes at 650+ at the moment.

Grip challenge i just did a little while ago, double plate flip with the same hand. Piched 2 10's together and did a half flip, a full flip seems to make the plates seperate too much.
 
Standard said:
I can't DL with straps personally, i find that it throws off my set up way too much. I just walk up, dip, grip and rip. I find there is benefit if you are doing multiple reps where that you are holding the weight longer but for maxes, not for me anyways. I've never had a grip issue lifting though, i think my grip maxes at 650+ at the moment.

Grip challenge i just did a little while ago, double plate flip with the same hand. Piched 2 10's together and did a half flip, a full flip seems to make the plates seperate too much.
Click to expand...

Plate flipping is as cool as a witches brass bra. I'm up to 25's full flip, 35's half flip.
 
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