Ahoym8e

Hey everybody!

I had my first class yesterday in Houston with Tim Mousel. It was en enlightening experience, to say the least. For one I didn't realize how pathetically out of shape I am. I was looking forward to lots of punching drills (delivering and blocking), but we started out with 2 very basic floor positions, or submission positions: the side hold, and the "knee on stomach" submission hold (good call on doing those first, Tim, before I was all sweaty!!). He also showed me the "guard" position, and a possible way to get out of trouble if caught in it (it involved transitioning to a choke + spine stretch). Very cool.

We went on to do basic kicks on a heavy bag, aiming about thigh level. I had a little trouble pivoting on my plant foot, but think I can work that out with practice for sure. That also made my kicks land a little short, and I kicked the bag several times with the flat of my foot or even back of toes which torqued my ankle unpleasantly.

After that we moved on to some grappling, I guess one would call it: planting elbows on the front of the opponents shoulders while forcing the opponents neck down by forcing the back of the head forward. Tim Showed me the proper tchnique for "knees 1" and "knees 2," (striking the body with the knees whilst holding the opponent as described above) and I proceeded to practive on a dummy. Holy shnikes, I hope I never get caught like that!!! I have the feeling it would lead to quick submission. I had real trouble with the timing of things, but I can work on it. I tried to kick too hard as well, and have a nice bruise on my left knee.

Finally we got to punching. I had little bag gloves on, and practiced left jabs to the chin of a BOB type target (the mean looking rubber dude). That went pretty well, but once we started stepping up, one-two combination punch and stepping back out, I again had timing problems and couldn't coordinate hands and feet too well. Seems to be a pattern here, huh? I can't dance worth a lick either, so I really need to practice my timing and coordination between feet and upper body.

After about 15 minutes of jabs, right crosses and practicing tapping Tim's VERY VERY slow punches out of my face (punch blocking) my arms were so tired that I could no longer keep them up by my face. Good thing we didn't start punching right out of the box!!!!!

I am sore as can be today, but it feels good. Havent been sore in a long time, need to be so more often.


CLIFFS NOTES: Went to Tim Mousels for the first time yesterday. Had lots of fun, learned a lot, am VERY sore, can't wait to go back.


Thank you Tim!!!

Tom Yum

Ahoym8e, daarrrrrrrr, welcome to the world of MMA

Interesting coorelation between dancing, mobility and coordination. Its not uncommon to see boxers, especially latino fighters, to be good dancers as well as fighters. I've been told that fundamentals of dancing, somewhat like boxing/kickboxing, requires good body control, spacial awareness (distancing) and timing.

An interesting example of the crossover with female fighters might be former ice skater turned 'bad girl' boxer Tonya Harding. Other examples might be formally trained dancers whom get into Tang soo do or muay thai - they can learn to kick really hard in a very short amount of time since they have the flexibility, timing and understanding of body mechanics.

Anyhow, Good luck with your training!!

sirmattu

what art you taking?

m.artist

don't you read?
it's jkd concepts and everything mma
go to the site
www.defend.net

__________________
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improvement upon the silence."

Ahoym8e

You know, I am not exactly sure if "an art" would describe what I'm learning. I'm being tought boxing, Muay Thai round kicks, knees and elbow strikes, plus groundfighting (although up to now it has been mostly defensive, how to get in and out of both "sides" of the guard, mount, side control, "knee on belly" etc.), and some ofensive stuff as well: armbars and such. I guess I'm learning the "Tim Mousel Art."

I'm guessing some of the ground work is BJJ tainted.

It's sort of an amalgamation of a wide variety of self defense techniques, with the thought in mind that sometimes a strong offense is the best defense.

Hope that helped,