I'll start these post with a reminder of how I train. I spar to learn and not win. This is important because Iearn from mistakes which means I take risk until I can get a better understanding of the techniques I use and how to apply the techniques.
Goal for Day 1:
I just wanted to get back into getting used to seeing incoming punches, kicks, and take downs and things turned out just like I expect it would after not sparring for more than 6 years.
Things that didn't work
There's a lot of stuff that got in that normally wouldn't. I'm not seeing the strikes like and take downs like I used. I'm missing the level changes. Cardio was horrible. He out lasted me. He had an advantage with grappling endurance. In short I was a hot mess of 6 years of no sparring. So enough about things that didn't work.
Things that did work:
Timing of my front kick was still really good. He was getting caught with a bunch kicks that shouldn't have gone in. Side kicks landed. Crescent and Half moon kicks definitely not the best but I was still able to throw them. So I was happy about that. I was able to get a good throw, but was gassed out. The guy has a strong core so wringing that core like a towel too some effort. I was gassed after two successful throws. but over all those were better than I thought after two years. My Jow Ga strikes puzzled him. He said he had to try to figure it out and decode it. He thinks he has a good grasp but I told him I will stop "baby feeding" him the punches once I see he is able to defend the punches. For the most part the little kung fu that I applied work, but the conditioning wasn't there there to sustain it. Standing foot hooks.
Things that I didn't try to defend until it was too late.
Part of learning to see movement and weight shift is that you have to watch and see everything up to the movement of impact. Then you stop watching and start grappling or punching. When I'm watching things going in I'm trying to see the whole body and not just a small section. It takes training before it becomes natural and it takes continuous training to keep the skill set. So what does that mean. I probably would have tried to defend some of these things if my legs were stronger. I have to get back into my stance training and my leg training.
I ate a lot of punches that would have been bad if we were sparring hard
I took some rides on the Single leg take down bus
I sparred from over hooks, under hooks, over unders.
I worked some defenses against the mount (cardio and muscular endurance killed me. I need to get some static training in on the arms.)
I stuck my legs out to invite low kicks and discover that I'm reaching down to block kicks. It was never an issue in the past so not sure where I picked problem up from.
I had the air squeezed out of me when defending the mount.
I had to get within the grappling range to try a difficult Shuai Jiao technique. That one is going to take a long time. I need someone to do some of these techniques on me so I can feel what I should be doing and where I need to grab and set up the technique. I'm going to tray some smaller stuff.
Things that surprised me.
My shadowless kicks (oblique kicks) were on point tonight. My hip injury from my car accident sometimes causes pain when I do these kicks. Tonight I was able land a high percentage with ease. I wasn't expecting that. I was almost ready to say good by to those kicks and only have a memory of pre-accident of when I could use them. Tonight I was able to do them without issue. I landed them on the shins and on his ribs. So I'm happy about things that I can still do. I think I just have to do an exercise that increases flexibility in my hips. There's a tendon or muscle that gets wrapped around something and it pulls tight. Tight as in if I try to stretch it, then it will tear. I'll have to show this exercise so you can see the before and after.
I got slack on my stance training and paid a heavy price. Legs gassing out. I didn't realize that I lost that much leg endurance. Oh I landed 2 toe kicks with "perfection" one to the ribs and one to the shine. "Perfection" to me is great timing, landed on solid on target, and kicked with the correct part of my foot.
Things I tried for @Kung Fu Wang
So I tried the circular arm movement to knock down punches. These had limited use, I could get away with 2 circular movements but my 3rd movement has to be different. As I was trying the technique I came to the same conclusion that Wang had Championed for as long as I've been a member here on MT and probably longer than that. The conclusion is to use the circular arms to move into grappling position. Some other guys came in and I think they were recording. So it might end up as another MMA vs Kung Fu thing "Watch Kung Fu get dogged." which is far from the truth of what was really going on. Far from it. Just 2 guys working their techniques. We both tried to use the same Shuai Jiao technique and had a good laugh about that. We had a coupe of good laugh in between me gasping for air just from being as out of shape as I was.
But back to Wang's technique. I think I can pull it off with success. I just need a few more sparring sessions to play with the technique some more. I engaged in more grappling than usual. I really got out of my safety zone and comfort zone. I don't have any choice if I hope to learn to apply some Shuai Jiao. I can't learn Chinese Wrestling without wrestling. The technique feels possible. I don't have a lot of concern for failure when trying to use it. I just need more time with it.
What I learned.
I learned every part of where I need to improve. No guessing. Sparring made it clear cut. Some areas will take longer for me to improve. I think 3 or 4 more sparring sessions will get me back to where I can see things coming and pick up body shift.
I had fun a good experience. I figured I get my sparring in before the flew season starts up Once that comes around then I'll cut back on the sparring since the health experts are worried about an much bigger outbreak of Covid. I trained with my mask on tonight but the grappling is so close, that infection can happen easily. I'll try not to push my luck too much with Covid. Sparring is great but not worth being sick. I'm kind of rolling the dice as it is. He did show me a
Injuries:
I have a scratch on my arm, probably from finger nails. I'll wear a long sleeve shirt next time. Back, hip, Jammed Finger seems to be fine. I just knew I was going to re-injure my thumb tonight but I didn't. The MMA guy may have hurt his hips. He kept trying to adjust them after we finished. Maybe they were just tight?
Things I hate:
Not sparring in shoes. The grip is different so I have to power my movement a little different by driving the force downward into my feet. I'll live with it. It's not the end of the world. It's not a game stopper.
Things I didn't do:
I didn't fight in a low horse stance. 1. my legs are no longer strong enough (gotta fix that) and 2. I didn't try to defend the shoot attempts. I don't have any video this time around. I will take some video once I get into better shape.
What next?
Train, analyze, train. Sleep, and take care of some scratches on my arm and eat dinner.
Goal for Day 1:
I just wanted to get back into getting used to seeing incoming punches, kicks, and take downs and things turned out just like I expect it would after not sparring for more than 6 years.
Things that didn't work
There's a lot of stuff that got in that normally wouldn't. I'm not seeing the strikes like and take downs like I used. I'm missing the level changes. Cardio was horrible. He out lasted me. He had an advantage with grappling endurance. In short I was a hot mess of 6 years of no sparring. So enough about things that didn't work.
Things that did work:
Timing of my front kick was still really good. He was getting caught with a bunch kicks that shouldn't have gone in. Side kicks landed. Crescent and Half moon kicks definitely not the best but I was still able to throw them. So I was happy about that. I was able to get a good throw, but was gassed out. The guy has a strong core so wringing that core like a towel too some effort. I was gassed after two successful throws. but over all those were better than I thought after two years. My Jow Ga strikes puzzled him. He said he had to try to figure it out and decode it. He thinks he has a good grasp but I told him I will stop "baby feeding" him the punches once I see he is able to defend the punches. For the most part the little kung fu that I applied work, but the conditioning wasn't there there to sustain it. Standing foot hooks.
Things that I didn't try to defend until it was too late.
Part of learning to see movement and weight shift is that you have to watch and see everything up to the movement of impact. Then you stop watching and start grappling or punching. When I'm watching things going in I'm trying to see the whole body and not just a small section. It takes training before it becomes natural and it takes continuous training to keep the skill set. So what does that mean. I probably would have tried to defend some of these things if my legs were stronger. I have to get back into my stance training and my leg training.
I ate a lot of punches that would have been bad if we were sparring hard
I took some rides on the Single leg take down bus
I sparred from over hooks, under hooks, over unders.
I worked some defenses against the mount (cardio and muscular endurance killed me. I need to get some static training in on the arms.)
I stuck my legs out to invite low kicks and discover that I'm reaching down to block kicks. It was never an issue in the past so not sure where I picked problem up from.
I had the air squeezed out of me when defending the mount.
I had to get within the grappling range to try a difficult Shuai Jiao technique. That one is going to take a long time. I need someone to do some of these techniques on me so I can feel what I should be doing and where I need to grab and set up the technique. I'm going to tray some smaller stuff.
Things that surprised me.
My shadowless kicks (oblique kicks) were on point tonight. My hip injury from my car accident sometimes causes pain when I do these kicks. Tonight I was able land a high percentage with ease. I wasn't expecting that. I was almost ready to say good by to those kicks and only have a memory of pre-accident of when I could use them. Tonight I was able to do them without issue. I landed them on the shins and on his ribs. So I'm happy about things that I can still do. I think I just have to do an exercise that increases flexibility in my hips. There's a tendon or muscle that gets wrapped around something and it pulls tight. Tight as in if I try to stretch it, then it will tear. I'll have to show this exercise so you can see the before and after.
I got slack on my stance training and paid a heavy price. Legs gassing out. I didn't realize that I lost that much leg endurance. Oh I landed 2 toe kicks with "perfection" one to the ribs and one to the shine. "Perfection" to me is great timing, landed on solid on target, and kicked with the correct part of my foot.
Things I tried for @Kung Fu Wang
So I tried the circular arm movement to knock down punches. These had limited use, I could get away with 2 circular movements but my 3rd movement has to be different. As I was trying the technique I came to the same conclusion that Wang had Championed for as long as I've been a member here on MT and probably longer than that. The conclusion is to use the circular arms to move into grappling position. Some other guys came in and I think they were recording. So it might end up as another MMA vs Kung Fu thing "Watch Kung Fu get dogged." which is far from the truth of what was really going on. Far from it. Just 2 guys working their techniques. We both tried to use the same Shuai Jiao technique and had a good laugh about that. We had a coupe of good laugh in between me gasping for air just from being as out of shape as I was.
But back to Wang's technique. I think I can pull it off with success. I just need a few more sparring sessions to play with the technique some more. I engaged in more grappling than usual. I really got out of my safety zone and comfort zone. I don't have any choice if I hope to learn to apply some Shuai Jiao. I can't learn Chinese Wrestling without wrestling. The technique feels possible. I don't have a lot of concern for failure when trying to use it. I just need more time with it.
What I learned.
I learned every part of where I need to improve. No guessing. Sparring made it clear cut. Some areas will take longer for me to improve. I think 3 or 4 more sparring sessions will get me back to where I can see things coming and pick up body shift.
I had fun a good experience. I figured I get my sparring in before the flew season starts up Once that comes around then I'll cut back on the sparring since the health experts are worried about an much bigger outbreak of Covid. I trained with my mask on tonight but the grappling is so close, that infection can happen easily. I'll try not to push my luck too much with Covid. Sparring is great but not worth being sick. I'm kind of rolling the dice as it is. He did show me a
Injuries:
I have a scratch on my arm, probably from finger nails. I'll wear a long sleeve shirt next time. Back, hip, Jammed Finger seems to be fine. I just knew I was going to re-injure my thumb tonight but I didn't. The MMA guy may have hurt his hips. He kept trying to adjust them after we finished. Maybe they were just tight?
Things I hate:
Not sparring in shoes. The grip is different so I have to power my movement a little different by driving the force downward into my feet. I'll live with it. It's not the end of the world. It's not a game stopper.
Things I didn't do:
I didn't fight in a low horse stance. 1. my legs are no longer strong enough (gotta fix that) and 2. I didn't try to defend the shoot attempts. I don't have any video this time around. I will take some video once I get into better shape.
What next?
Train, analyze, train. Sleep, and take care of some scratches on my arm and eat dinner.
