Blandy's training log for weight loss ( BJJ and conditioning)

[blandy]

Saturday 12th January

Open Mat

Started with Steve, a new guy, he has fought around 5-10 times pro mma but has never really trained any where full time instead just doing bits and pieces at different places. I don’t think he had done much grappling by the sounds of it and you could tell. I Switched between working from on top so I could get him to work his escapes, to working from guard so I could get him working some sub defence. Rolled for about an hour with a few short breaks and then finished the session with a bout 30 minutes rolling with Jimmy letting him have top so I could working on sweeping him or escaping since jimmy has good top control and base.

[blandy]

Sunday 13th

Conditioning

My idea of cutting out conditioning didn’t really last long, my instructor called me to see if I wanted to come do some hill sprints and I couldn’t say no

Hill sprints x10

Hill is probably 150 metres long, incline is maybe 20-30 degrees, jogged/walked down between reps. I was just finishing my 9th when my instructor and Neil, another lad that had joined us, were finishing their 10th so not too bad. Hard on the lungs but more than any thing very hard on the legs, from about the 5th repeat I had to slow down to walk for a few steps half way up because my legs wouldn’t move any more.

[blandy]

Monday 14th January

BJJ Class

There was an odd number of people preparing for mma fights in so I said I would join them for their circuit training to even up the number. We did 5x5 minute rounds with 1 minute rest in between, exercises were the normal rope climbs, flying armbars, sprints, bear crawls, medicine ball exercises, etc. Was a hard session, 4th round was mainly leg exercises which killed me after yesterdays hill sprint session.

Sparred 2x6 minute rounds at the end, nothing fancy was partnered with a couple of white belts so let them do what ever and worked with what they give me. Need to make sure I get some harder sparring in towards the end of the week.

[blandy]

Wednesday 16th January

Started with Half an hour of guard passing, I think we are going for more of a mixture of what we are doing for a warm up now. In the three taught classes that include a warm up my instructor mentioned he was thinking of one circuit (tabata’s quite often), one technique (guard passing) and one more strength based (when I was doing the fighter circuits on Monday the rest of the class was alternating pulls ups and hand stand press ups)

In the technique portion we covered basic non hands pass from half guard (cross face and under hook then the free instep goes on the their thigh to free your leg), a second pass where you turn and face their legs and lay across their body, old school sweep from half guard.

Rolled 2x6 minute rounds at the end.

[blandy]

Thursday 17th

Open Mat

Rolled for about two hours, nothing particularly special or memorable about the session. There was a new guy, fairly tall, that was a bit spazzy with the smaller people he rolled with, worked on my “game plan” so to speak for the Europeans, not going particular hard with him but I knew he would put a lot of effort into defending.

[blandy]

Friday 18th

BJJ class

Started the class with lots of drills for the warm up. Worked on a double ankle grab sweep if your opponent stands in your guard, establishing mount, Americana and then an armbar if they start to turn on to their side to try and grab their own wrist to defend.

[blandy]

Saturday 19th

Open Mat

Rolled with Steve, my instructor’s first student. Steve started training with Dave about 8 years ago, the only problem was he stopped about 6 years ago any way he is trying to get back to training and this was his first session. Let him do what ever to see what he remembered and helped to filling in a few missing details here and there.


Called into town on the afternoon and decided to weigh myself while I was there as I am starting to clean my diet up so going to have to track it to to see how I am doing. Weighed in at 123.8 KG (272lbs).

[blandy]

Monday 21st

Bjj Class

Started with positional sparring, 3 minutes each round, guard, side control, mount and rear mount on top and bottom.

Covered a number of armbars from side control. Started with a basic near side armbar, sit through to modified scarf hold, maintain control of their elbow to your ribs, step over their head, sit back and apply pressure. The second set up involved hopping up from side control, similar to if you were trying for knee on stomach. The difference was instead of sliding the knee across their stomach you slide the knee right up under their armpit, step the other leg over their head and sit back to apply pressure. The third armbar attacked the far side arm. As you switched to modified scarf hold they tucked their elbow to defend, while maintaining control of their arm you switch your hips any way and then pivot to north south. Control the leg and sit back for the arm bar same.

There was 25 people into night, the class has expanded massively even in the 18 months or so I have been training here and the club is starting to out grow the building we are based in. Some of the mats are up at the moment due to water damage so unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of space to roll. To maximise the time and space for every one we did some guard passing for the last 30 minutes. We have a new place to move that should offer significantly more floor space to mat, however that is closing soon for refurbishment so it wont be till around June we can move so will just have to put up with it for now.

[blandy]

Wednesday 23rd

BJJ Class

My instructor asked me to cover guard passing for about 20 minutes before the class started with a new guy. Showed him good starting posture in guard, a few ways to break open closed guard and then a double under pass and knee slide pass.

The class started with positional rolling again to warm up. Guard, side control, mount and back mount on top and bottom. I worked with the same guy again and just explained basic concepts for each position and a basic escape. For the technique portion we cover some techniques from quarter guard, spinning to an omaplatta and a couple of different variations on a pivot sweep.

Sat out the sparring at instructor’s request, don’t want any stupid injuries this close to Portugal. This will be my last training session before the weekend, will just take it easy for the next few days.

[blandy]

European championships 26-27th January

Over all was a good weekend, got to see lots of good quality Ju Jitsu. Lost my first fight in my weight class 2-0 from a take down. Ended up on top and working to pass and then he turtled, could get my hooks in to score points. Pretty disappointed over all with my performance, didn’t display enough control. After losing the early take down basically think I was a bit too nervous about needed to score. The blue belt adult absolute was cancelled as it was over subscribed, why they they can’t just cap it the first X amount of people to register I’ll never know.

Had a second match on the Sunday for the Great Britain blue belt heavy weight 76kg+ team. I won my match 12-0, similar to my match in my weight class really only after he turtled I was actually able to get my hooks in. The team lost 3-2 over all though so that was it for my first European competition! Hoping I’ll be able to video of both matches, will try and upload them later in the week.