USMMA

So, tonight I went to Universal Solutions Martial Arts Academy, USMMA for short. I thought it was really intresting. I went because the website said that there will be some women kickboxing and grappling. I wasn't that nervous about visiting a MMA place which I've only seen on the web. It's housed in an empty "warehouse". When I first walked in, I saw a ring which was elevated with two guys were sparring with head gear and boxing gloves on. I went to where the girls were doing the kickboxing. I was 15 minutes late because Mom forgot the directions and had to go back to look at them to see where the place was located. I think it took about seven minutes to get to the place.

Anyways, I waited for the teacher whose name as Sifu Gonzalez. That was my first time actually meeting a Sifu. I like those types of titles like Sifu or Sensei. Professor is alright. Paul Tom wants me to call him Professor on the mat so he's reminded to talk only about BJJ and not about other things. :) Sifu said I came too late. I mentioned that I wanted to do the women grappling class. However, he said the instructor was in California. So, he said that I can watch instead. It was so cool. He had the music playing which Roberto played all the time in his dojo. I felt much more comfortable there because of the music. I realized that Sifu must have had the same CD as Roberto because it kept on playing the same songs that I've trained with.

It seems like the kickboxing class was just for exercise because the girls were just punching bags. A little time afterwards, Sifu asked me if I was going to stay for the Muay Thai class. I said that I would. So, Sifu wrapped my hands for me. I thought that was interesting. Actually, the wraps were pretty loose where I had lots of movement. I don't know how they actually protect hands. Then, I met Coach T who knew a lot about fighting. He was watching two beginner Koreans fight. He explained things which I never hear before about fighting. Like Micky Mouse, which means to put your gloves a little above your head to protect it. He said to have one guys shoulders high and his chin down, so the guy won't get clocked and knocked out. I was happy that he said a guy should punch straight instead of hooking or doing haymakers. He said that jabs were for trying to find where the other person is when sparring. He said that most of them should be light. However, some can be hard too to vary it up a bit. Then, the said that the cross should always be heavy. It was refreshing to hear a person that knows a lot about standup. He was humble about it because he said that he only knew what others have said and his experience from being hit all the time.

He asked me if I had a mouth guard. I said I had one; however, it was back at home. So, he asked me to put a paper towel in my mouth to line my teeth so none of them will get chipped if I get bumped. It was intresting having a paper towel in my mouth. It felt like a flimsy mouth guard which didn't impede on my breathing. I don't want to describe the drills which we did because that would be really boring. I just worked with a guy on checking and countering kicks. I was pretty bad at it. Then, we all went into the ring. I worked with a girl who looks like that she's fought before. Her hair was all in braids which were bundled up in a bun. I like that idea because my hair always likes being pulled. However, I only had it in a high pony tail today. She said that she redoes the braids every week.

We worked in the clinch position. We work on trying to reverse the attacker by throwing her into the ropes. It was intresting. At first, I let her do the move without much resistance because that's what I've been taught to do. However, Coach T said that I really should be really resisting. I felt bad for the girl because she was five feet tall. She was pretty athletic though. I know that it was much harder for her to throw me than me to throw her. At the end of it, we were working on pummeling and trying to throw each other onto the ropes. Afterwards, she said I improved a whole bunch at from the beginning of class. I said that my BJJ training took over. I was just keeping my base while pummeling. I learned how to pummel in the fighting class in Spokane. It was weird to pummel with giant boxing gloves on. They kept on getting in the way. If I had it my way, I would only train with MMA gloves on. However, I haven't trained with those before. I just want to be able to grab things.