DNC Worldwide

Earlier today, my Uncle Mike took me out to see some batcaves out on Samal. It was insane. Thousands among thousands of bats in a cavernous hole in the ground. I got as close as the entrance into the cave, and I would have went it, had it not been for the humongous amount of shit on the ground and the disgusting smell. I took plenty of pictures which are the most awe inspiring of this trip yet. I will definately post them as soon as they become available.

I actually also just got done training with Bam and the guys at Python’s Pit for some good submission grappling training. I took a very rewarding nap after afternoon merienda with the family… Just like back home, I showed up to the gym about 20 minutes late, and yet the class began just as late so I didn’t miss warmups. Damn.

Subject matter of the day was 1. Competing heelhooks from open guard. 2. Anaconda Choke 3. Toehold after breaking closed guard.

Details:
1. Competing heelhooks: When getting into a leglock battle and going for the heelhook, its important to pinch the knees and keep opp. from straightening his leg. If he is able to do that, he can try to roll out and it also relieves the pressure of the move. Pinch the knees, keep his toes tight into your armpits, and use a palm-palm grip and torque the move from your trunk, and not just with your hands.

2. Anaconda Choke: The roll isn’t the important thing, its the positioning of your hands to really sink the move on his carrotid. The arm-on-neck is easy enough, but its important to cross opp. arm on the other side and really grab as high on your own bicep as you can to secure the hold, Only then can you roll and finish the move succesfully.

3. Toehold from open guard: Really needs to be a surprise move, as the danger of getting your back taken is always present. After you break his closed guard, or before you go for the hold, remember the detail of moving your inside knee out and keeping your posture down so he doesn’t take your back. At the same time as you’re paying attention to this detail, you have to go right into the move, grabbing around the foot with your palm and hooking underneath the foot and then completing the toehold. I used to roll when I did this move. Its not so neccesary, for I think it can be countered from there. My feeling is that as long as you keep posture, you can finish this move from sitting on your ass.

Rolling, I got a good round in with this guy about my weight. I swept him with an elevator initially and transitioned into mount. Though he kept his arms up, I had a hard time positioning for the armbar. I should have stayed tighter and move to high guard for the armbar but I got rolled. I swept him again with a scissor sweep and got rolled again. From here, I played half guard, using the leg lace foe leverage and managed to get his back once but he defended well. Stayed in my half guard for like 10 mins, fighting for the underhook and constantly feeling out his posture with the leglace but it was harder to sweep without a belt to hold onto. He eventually worked a kimura and tap. The end.

I trained last night with the Python’s Pit team here in Davao. The main instructor is Bam Posada, a local Digmaan MMA champion and a pretty good Judo player. Louie Abucayan is the other main trainer but I won’t get to meet him until tommorow.

No Gi training, mostly vale tudo with some straight grappling mixed in later on was on the menu, and since I haven’t trained in a few weeks, my wind was brutal. It took a few rounds for me to get acquainted. The way they train here is vastly different than at home. For one, the quality of the grappling is far less superior than that of the guys back at Elite. The only thing is that they employ so many damn leglocks and heelhooks that I was a little taken aback by it. For example, some of my training partners clearly hadn’t been training for no more than a few months, yet was going for heel hooks with reckless abandon. Regardless, it was interesting to train with a new style, no matter how much I pine for the comfort of my team back home.

Subject matter for 8/24 training

Heel Hook from Jello Guard
– Attack opp. standing from open guard, transitioning into Jello Guard.
Work the Heel hook.

Defense for Heel Hook from Jello Guard
– Don’t let heel leave the ground, and sit your base so that you’re almost like sitting in a chair.
– Attack with your own heel hook or work breaking his grip or leg position.

Retaining guard and defending punches from within
– the drill was starting out in closed guard with opp. on top raining punches with the 8oz. gloves. Goal is to defend punches and work to sweep or submit.
– What worked for me here was defending the punches from opp. elbow while keeping constant pressure on his posture. Ex. he sits back, work the kimura/k. sweep or if he tries to control the hip, work the scissor sweep or the heel strikes to his back.

Kneebar from half guard
– Use the crossface or elbow to break opp. over/under grip and allow self to posture.
– Use punches/elbows to distract while allowing near hand to snake under opp. knee for position.
– Transition into knee bar, using hand/to chest pressure to torque, using entire body and not just the arm for the lever.

Good hard training last night! Threw up the banana split I had before training right after the Vale Tudo guard rounds.Mats dusty and dirty as fuck. Will be back tommorow.