Class Journel – June 16-20, 2008

Since this is my first journal I would like to introduce myself. My name is Zachary Brautigam and I’m a student in Mong Phu’s Fusion MMA Class. Participating in the class is the best decision I’ve made and I never regret coming to class and learning what Mong teaches. That being said, last week we focused on mainly Judo because Mong is going to get his official black belt from Mohammad Khorrami in Judo and thought it would be a good time to teach the basic mechanics. Judo is known for it’s throws so the class learned how to execute a proper basic hip throw with Mong critiquing us as we performed them.

Example of a basic hip throw
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBQ1HwL83M]

There is many different drills you can do to practice the hip throw so we went over a few of them in class. We also went over what to do if someone slides to the side of your body during a hip throw. If anyone slides to the side, you perform the counter by extending your leg, aim for above or below the knee, and in a quick motion, sweep their leg and throw.

Example of Harai Goshi
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WlbxYEAfb8]

We also practiced break falls because without breakfalls someone could get seriously injuried and many people would no longer want to practice Judo. We also went over some self defense moves and a very effective ground submission that we learned on Friday. The self-defense moves include a knife block to hip throw and disarming the knife after the hip throw.

With the ground submission move, we started out in side mount with the opponents hands on your back. You basically pivot your body around his head keeping their arm over their throat (almost like north-south position). Then when your on the other side of his body you are going to get him into a forearm choke and they’ll have to submit or be choked out.

This is a short explanation and there is many more aspects to each move as far as feet/hand postion, sitting-out, etc.

We learned many other things like Mong’s extreme Russian 2 on 1 move set where you head butt and subdue an attacker with a couple different moves but coming to class is the only way you can learn this proficently as well as many other moves.

In class we also practice Muay Thai/Thai Boxing, Brazillian Ju-Jitsu, Judo, and many other different styles to make us a well-rounded fighters.