Numbered Five

The first thing is my weight. I'm ten pounds heavier than I need to be. It's not a massive amount. But given where I am and what I'm trying to accomplish, I need my walking around range to be 150-155, not 160-165.

Second is building a better cardio base. Here, I'm starting with the basics from Joel Jamison's Ultimate MMA Conditioning: Cardiac Output/High Intensity Continuous Training/Tempo Training. Output 3x/week, and once each for HICT and Tempo training.

Third? C-I-L-L my half-guard in order to save it. I've been debating whether or not to abandon the half guard for the past few months. I've concluded, fortunately, that would be an insane thing to do. What I need to do - what I will do - is increase the transitions from half to butterfly half to deep half to X to single X to tripod and so on.

This is also about passing. Develop strategies to draw out the guard you want to pass and then pass it. Ideally, for me, this means forcing guys to play half guard against me, where I should have an edge.

For the training portion, the goal isn't to sweep so much as it is to be able to transition to different guards as a way of dealing with the threat of pass. Attack just enough to illicit a response, and then use a guard transition rather than a "recounter" per se, to set up another attack.

The fourth goal is simply to be faster. Each of the first three goals will contribute to this, but it is worth making a conscious effort to increase the pace. I don't need - or want - to be moving at breakneck speed. But keeping the aerobic/alactic rhythm will go a long way toward helping my jiu jitsu become more effective.

The fifth and final goal is to train more. That doesn't mean training five days a week. It doesn't mean training full class and Live Training every time I go to the academy. What it does mean is developing a training program that allows me to focus on areas that I want to work on as frequently as possible. More often than not, this will mean only two classes a week, with two Live Training sessions - and maybe only one of those sessions being especially rigorous. Hell, it might mean driving over to the academy, putting on my gi and rolling around on the side mats by myself doing matwork drills. Whatever.

On the health front, what was a very sore back a few days ago has revealed itself to be a continuation of the groin injury I'd been working around for several weeks. I'm sitting on ice and not-stretching with the hope that Memorial Day will see me back on the mat.