[finnegan]

Just as an FWI, this was my third sparring session. He is an instructor. I went home unscathed and he went home with a black eye. If you noticed, he did some "monkey" stuff, and I put him in a Thai clinch. I need to work on my lateral movement. .

[mschatz]

Seriously Finn, Please kill him so that I can go backto making fun of TMA's in the stand up forum

[jk3004]

It's weird watching Finn not lifting heavy things in all black with some gnarly chin whiskers going on.

Anyways looks like your getting it together quickly Finn! I'd expect you'll do great things shortly in the MMA world.

Chin check that mother with a thai clinch knee for me.

[finnegan]

Originally Posted by jk3004

It's weird watching Finn not lifting heavy things in all black with some gnarly chin whiskers going on.

Anyways looks like your getting it together quickly Finn! I'd expect you'll do great things shortly in the MMA world.

Chin check that mother with a thai clinch knee for me.

I've got another one on the way. Sandbag get ups.

Density Day:

Sledgehammer Swings:
See how many times I could hit the tire in 10 minutes w/ a 10 lbs hammer.
Previous best: 500 even
Goal: 550

Sledgehammer Swings: 529 swings, +29 swing PR

Sandbag Get Ups: 150 lbs sandbag

1
1
1
3 (with laying back down, +2 rep PR) *videoed, but battery died on last rep)

[finnegan]

Push Press vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGKhDd6J6Bs

[finnegan]

Did some Turkish Get Ups as well to make a Get Up vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuEyfRVXb_4

[finnegan]

From Brandon:

First, some technical rough edges to smooth out:
-Careful not to flare your elbows too much. Glue that right elbow to your side, and keep your left tucked nicely too. Otherwise, you are robbing your straight punches of power and telegraphing them a bit, as well as being a little open for straight punches/kicks to the body.

-You generally keep your hands up well, but there ere a couple instances where you dragged your right down almost to waist-height when jabbing (especially to the body). Standard does the same thing, and it opens him up big for a left hook and of course a stinging jab, too. To practice this, hold your chin between your thumb and first finger when throwing the jab to keep it there.

-Don't bend at the waist with your head forward when you're defending and he's flurrying/rushing you. If you play on standing your ground and not moving (more on that later), instead keep your guard up and play off of your back foot. What I mean by this is load your weight onto your back foot, probably a good 70-80% of it. This moves your head/torso back a few vital inches to work slips, bobbing and weaving much better, and also puts you in a unique range, where your feet are set to hit him if you choose (again, more on this in a sec), but he will have trouble reaching you. If you’re looking to counter from here, it’s easy. You can block and roll with punches well because your opponent will often have to over-extend to reach you, which takes a lot of pop off of his strikes. In addition, since you’re loaded on your back leg, a counter right hand is devastating from here to close that tiny distance again: simply shift all of your weight VIOLENTLY to your front foot while throwing a right hand/right uppercut. It’s a huge punch with that much weight tossed behind it. You can continue with a combination, say 2(the initial right hand)-3-4-3(finishing with the hook to push your weight back onto your back foot to play off of again. Since slips are much easier to work from here, you will find many opportunities to counter, or to slip and spin off to get out of there back to a more comfortable range

-Get your left hand off of your head in your neutral stance. You’re a little too tight with it at times, and that can hamper your vision, and also isn’t really an effective block, as your own hand will bang off of your head. You want it a little further out, still nice and high (around eyebrow level), but open it up, say at 80 degrees or so with your elbow up sitting below your nipple. From here, you will faze your opponent with that hand that’s now looms a good 5-6 inches closer; what this means is your jab travels a shorter distance, will get their faster and use less energy expenditure. This hand position also allows for much easier parries, and in MMA especially you’ll see a LOT of right hands, right hand leads, right hand potshots, etc, and if you can pick them off with your left hand and counter hard, you’re golden.

-A lot of guys don’t want you backing straight up. That’s not necessarily a problem, but you have to do it properly. Don’t be playing off your back foot when you’re back up, shove off of your lead foot instead, and make sure you never lean back at the waist when you’re backing up. If you’re going to move straight forward or straight back, you ALWAYS need to do it under the “cover” of straight punches. This is why jabbing your way out of range is important, it puts him on the defensive at worst and can stop him outright, scoring and hurting him, at best. Either way, he’s not throwing, and that means he’s not scoring or doing damage, which is why we’re backing up in the first place. Jabbing your way backwards also sets up a nice counter you can walk your opponent into; I just recently addressed this in my log, where I’d dance with the jab then when rushed or bullied, plant and walk them into an uppercut-lefthook or straight right-left hook, then back to my jab. If you are getting punched while backing up, it looks awful to the judges, and your balance is compromised, so the canvas might be closing on you fast

-Try and ensure a full rotation on your right hand. If you look in my avatar you can see what I mean – that’s no arm punch! Sometimes your feet are out of place and your right hand isn’t being thrown by the hips/legs like it should be. The bob/weave rope drill I mentioned will help this, using that advancing 1-2 where you slide your left foot with your jab and your right foot is dragged when you throw the cross. What it comes down to is closing the distance and creating angles, and THEN throwing your power shots without rushing it. Jab your way inside, keeping him on the defensive while you set your feet, then rotate and unleash the cross. A quick way to close the gap and keep your opponent on his toes is to “leap” with a jab; drive hard off of the rear foot as you snap out a jab with a lead foot step, then as the jab lands, slide your right foot forward to regain your stance. From here, throw your cross. This happens in a heartbeat. Another way to close the distance with the right hand while ensuring full extension is to lead with it, drive hard off of the back foot while throwing the right hand, but stepping with the lead foot as your weight is driven forward rather than keeping it on the ground. As soon as the lead foot hits the ground (should happen as the right hand connects), drag your right foot forward.

Some stuff to practice would be slipping straights, weaving under hooking punches, and countering off of parries/step-offs/etc.

On footwork, getting your feet set and advancing while punching are tough, and padwork and mobile heavybag work help this a lot (only hit the bag when it is a hair past vertical heading backwards, when it moves towards you, back up with straight punches, circle off, or step out laterally).

[finnegan]

Sprints:

800 meter x 2, 3 minute rest between sprints.
50 meter x 10, rest was walk back to start line

Core Circuit:

Circuit repeated 3 times, no rest between exercises, 1 minute rest between circuits
Ab Wheel rollouts x 10
V-ups x 15
Standing Plate Twists x 10 each side
Weighted Hypers (45) x 10

Finisher: Plank hold for time (2:16)

MMA:

Footwork Cicuit:
Circuit done as 3 minute rounds with 1 minute rest. Gloves were Century MMA gloves.

Round 1: Rope work (1-2-duck-2)-duck-2
Round 2: Double End bag circiling (1-1-2's)
Round 3: Tire agility drills
Round 4: Rope Work (1-2-duck-2-duck-1's)
Round 5: Double end bag circling (1-1-1-1-2)
Round 6: 4 square jump rope

Impressions:
I worked a lot on my stance tonight. It will take some time for a more squared up stance to feel natural to me. I'm sure a few low kicks and takedowns will speed that up. Lost some power in the jab having it 6 inches forward. I'll have to work on this in the 100s of punches type of bagwork.
On the sprints, I made a rather blaring miscalculation. I thought I was running approx. 30 meters, but I didn't take into acoount that the alley I run in has a hill. I walked it out, and its closer to 54 meters from the start line to what I thought was the quarter marker. So yeah. Basically, double all distances I've posted so far. I was wandering why my times sucked so bad.

[finnegan]

Vid of some sledge work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eRocfGPeds

[mschatz]

Hey Finn, good work as always. Whats your work schedule like? It seems like you train at odd hours...

Also, whats your basic training split like over a week?