[woogie12]

Random, but are you more of a striker or a grappler?

[Andy Rickert]

Im primarily a grappler but I really am working on my striking, my schedule has been hectic lately though. My theory is, lately I have noticed the guy with good grappling but superior standup is going to have a nice advantage. It seems too many of the smaller show fighters focus on getting the guy down more than effectively striking

[woogie12]

Absolutely. I plan on making my mma debut sometime next year, and I need to work my ground game more cause most of the fights I've seen end up on the ground.

All the am striking I've seen is awful.

[Andy Rickert]

Ya Im taking plenty of time, Im quite young so Im not worried. Ya unfortunately they do almost always end up on the ground, at least for a bit. You'd be surprised the levels of striking even for alot of the pro shows

[woogie12]

Do you guys have pro mma in georgia? We don't even have am mma in PA, I just been fighting am muay thai.

[Andy Rickert]

ya we have pro mma in ga but Im only there for a few months out of the year. I have a good connection to the promoter of one of the bigger pro promotions in KC, just going to wait. The amateur promotions around here are sketchy. I plan on doing some am muay thai or international rules kickboxing (similar to thai) and several more grappling tourneys before doing mma again. Stuff to get me used to competition where the guy is trying to knock me out

[woogie12]

I feel ya. How many fights have you had/how'd they go?

[Andy Rickert]

lol as an amateur, only one and I took it on a weeks notice. It was last year, and I planned on fighting this year. I guess some guy had to pull out and my trainer gave me a call, decided to take it.
Guy was alot more prepared and had been wrestling all his life so as soon as the fight started I was just nervous as hell. I got a few punches in, got taken down, worked from my guard for the first round.
Second round, same story but made the mistake of leaving my hands down when shrimping from half guard. Took a few hard hits then got rnc'd. I was just out of my element the whole time. I really just forgot what to do on the stand up, I really think your taking the right route doing striking first.
Iv done several judo tourney's and been training for quite some time. My amateur fighter tag is misleading but I guess its nice to have anyways

[woogie12]

I gotcha. And yea, don't sweat it, it's all about experience.

Good thing you took the fight either way.

[Andy Rickert]

definitely a learning experience, Iv improved 10 fold since then. My training routine back then was crappy as hell strength wise, and hadnt trained striking nearly enough