Aikidoka finds his weakness through MMA training

**Bill Danosky** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 1:44pm

Some of you may have noticed I have a masochistic streak when it comes to my research projects. Who else would title their maiden thread on Bullshido "Aikidoka alone in the wild"?

I'm constantly putting myself in situations where I'm completely over my head and trying to fight or figure my way out of them. So when I went to test my MA mettle, I was really looking to find out what my weaknesses are in the interest of training out of them.

So I enrolled in a local MMA gym and have also been taking a submission grappling class. Nothing like jumping into the deep end of the pool, I figure. My expectation of the MMA class was that I'd go in, do some warm ups, learn and drill some techniques and do some light randori to land them. What I got was a lot of, "Okay, warm up by running laps and maybe shrimping up and down the mat room, then get in guard and do three 3-minute rounds of ground and pound against the instructors.

I found out trying to do joint locks from the bottom position in boxing gloves is pretty frustrating. Even under full mount I can get hijishime but it's impossible to go anywhere with it with those pillows on your hands. (I know I should probably put the quote tags around that sentence for you guys to save you some time.)

I winded up being fairly happy, though. I found out I have a better game than I thought I had, that I'm not helpless on the ground and that I can even hold my own by employing some unconventional techniques. Because the way they construct their exercises is just, well, masochistic!

But my major weakness is not at all what I suspected- My Achilles heel winded up being cardio and conditioning! I can do great in round one by giving it everything I have and even up to the end of round two I'm hanging in there pretty well. But by round three I'm limp and sloppy, and spitting out my mouthpiece. Then I'm pretty much out of gas.

At my advanced age, I'm not looking for a UFC career. And quick finishes are more aligned with my goals, but it's crazy to have a known weakness and not have a contingency plan.

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:05pm

Yea, respect for getting in there to test yourself.

You said that you found your game was better than you thought, but remember that they were going HELLA easy on you, so whatever you thought you had over them was likely just a result of that.

**MrBadGuy** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:08pm

Word, congrats on testing yourself.

**Kentucky Fried Chokin** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:28pm

I'm not sure what you were going for under mount, but trying submissions from underneath dominate postitions is usually a bad idea. If you were going for a wrist lock, using both hands to control one of the opponent's hands is a great way to punched in the face.

**cyrijl** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:34pm

And they might have been going easy on you....

**RaiNnyX4** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:36pm

How do Hijishime from under mount?

**Tenebrous** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:36pm

Gloves or not, you're not going to be doing a whole lot of anything from under mount. Focus on escaping.

Lollerskates at aikido giving you a ground game.

Originally Posted by BudoMonkey

Yea, respect for getting in there to test yourself.

You said that you found your game was better than you thought, but remember that they were going HELLA easy on you, so whatever you thought you had over them was likely just a result of that.

And this. Most people go absurdly easy on the newbs until they improve or get too aggressive. It's the difference between submitting a guy once and then showing him some things, or setting him up to use the move he just learned... And submitting him every 30 seconds because you can. There's usually no point in ruling the new guy.

**Red512S** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:38pm

Rock on for getting out there and trying it. But listen to Razamataz, it's not a very good idea to go for submissions from under mount in hard sparring.

Dave

**Holy Moment** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:42pm

You said that you found your game was better than you thought, but remember that they were going HELLA easy on you, so whatever you thought you had over them was likely just a result of that.

Yeah. I thought I was the **** doing light grappling until I went hard. The kid was 30 lbs. lighter than me and about a foot shorter, but he whoop my ass.

**theotherserge** · Posted On: 7/18/2008 2:58pm

nice work Bill. Physicology is about 90% of the game, the other half is conditioning.

If someone can punch you, I think you're going to find wrist locks pretty much useless.