[Brandon MacRea]

Monday, August 11th

Still easing my way into things.. Hand is a bit tender.

MMA Sparring Day

light jogging warm-up. Bounced around and shook things out, threw in some shadowboxing.

3 x 5 minute rounds boxing sparring (1)

3 x 5 minute rounds boxing with takedowns (2)

1 x 5 minute round full MMA sparring (3)

(1) Felt fine. Working on sitting in the pocket and countering in the middle of their combinations. Wasn't snapping the jab or straight right off of the right handed parry as quickly as I would have liked. Worked a nice 1-3-3b pretty often, and the 1-2b was scoring nicely, too. Jab felt flat. New focus will be trying to milk all the range from my straight punches now.

(2) Able to set up some single legs nicely despite shoddy technique because I'm more than happy to sit in or just a hair outside of punching range. Got caught with a harai-goshi (spelling?) which was cool. Worked on stringing punches and drop steps together. O-goshi and my limited foot sweeps weren't working... not surprising, considering my judo experience is next to nil.. fun to try, though, and I would love to train up some passable judo throws. Sprawl + head control was on.

(3) Awkward in spots because opponent was content to throw a lot of front kicks. I can comfortably counter a roundhouse or leg kick with punches but front kicks give me trouble. 1-2-3-2 to an inside reap, then tried to work for a pass out of his half guard for most of the round. Made my way to mount and rode out the bucks to hold position, half turn back and plant a big right hand into opponents heaving midsection. Why don't people do this more often? Am I opening myself up hugely for a sweep and just not seeing it/paying for it just yet?

25 pull-ups (15/10)

[mschatz]

Nice work Brandon. Whats your weekly schedule going to be looking like as you get back into the swing of things?

[Brandon MacRea]

I'm going to write one out tomorrow, marty, basically as much skill work as I can handle, 2x squat-heavy lifting per week, 1-3 warrior challenges, and as much roadwork as I can fit in on top of it.

August 12th, 2008

7km run + 150m hill sprint finisher

floorwork:
random pull-ups + 100 leg lifts

[Brandon MacRea]

13 + 14th... trained both days, just big long runs. Trying to shed some weight because I'm such a fatass right now. Lots of moving furniture and other school stuff into res.

Friday, August 15th, 2008

75-minutes gi judo:

4 x 3 minute rounds newaza
- Very active, lots of transitions, highlights were a good scissor sweep and that I sunk an omoplata (!!!)

drilling technique (sorry to all judoka if I butcher any spelling):

- osoto gari; still a little hesitant to really slam that back shoulder/high chest in to off balance their upper body, but it's improving and I'm actually in that exciting stage where I'm still garbage but I feel myself improving and don't see myself slowing down any time soon. The leg sweep seems powerful, but it may just be because my brown belt partner has awesome and loud breakfalls ha..

- sume gaeshi; I love sacrifice throws and often in no-gi I'll use a reach-over kimura to sacrifice from standing with good effect... this one is a little tricky for me because it relies heavily on grips, which I'm not great with strength or technique-wise.

- drop saenagi; felt pretty good actually. Jumping straight into the throwing position from the knees, between the opponents legs and with back to them seemed daunting but it just clicked for me. No major troubles here (on an unresisting opponent, that is), just need to drill, practice and tweak...

Drilled each for roughly 5-minutes, then went into a freestyle flow where I would choose which throw to use. Favored osoto gari to practice.

3 x 5 minute rounds grappling
- Started from standing. No time limit on the ground. Restarted from the feet after a submission or successful hold down. Very gruelling, fast paced. Tried the sume gaeshi twice, caught it once but ended up in guard off the scramble, and just failed miserably and had to pull guard the second time. Was THISCLOSE to a flying triangle... ended up sinking a kimura on the trapped arm when I realized it wasn't tight enough.

break falls + cool down