Hey Damage Control brothers, Today I had a day off, my wife was working a 13 hour shift and for once it was a dry, and at times, sunny day in Glasgow. My Kids played out in the garden or their bedroom for most of the day and it gave me a while to do whatever I wanted to do so I decided to head on over to http://WWW.DAMAGECONTROLMMA.COM and I managed to catch up on a whole load of video's from the members section.

I had a real hard MMA sparring session last night at the Griphouse and I thought I'd have a look and see what Dr.Sick and Coach Kiser's video tuition could teach me to improve my game. I focused on all the situations that gave me trouble last night and then checked the technique library to see if they had solutions to the obstacles that were in my way. Of course there wasn't a solution, there were many solutions!! 

I highly recommend all DCMMA members to try this out. It's given me a real great inspiration to go and train the situations so I can be confident when I get in these situations again. 

A huge Thank You to Dr.Sick and Coach Kiser. Some amazing information on those video's, they are enlightening to say the least. I really love this site!!!!!!!!!!!!

everything they did gave me trouble haha! 

I went over the whole short vs tall series because everyone I sparred with was far bigger than me. I usually try to hit and run and I have a lot of success with that but some of the guys were stuffing me with their jabs. I never used the stutter step or even moving to the 45 degree angles, I never used the the charging in after a kick method either. I basically tried to do what I was trying to do with more speed which didn't get me much further = FAIL hahaha. Watching the video's really helped to jog my memory and showed me some alternatives I could have used to close the distance. I'll know for next time.

When I did manage to close the distance it was a classic case of short vs tall clinch. When I watched that video I was embarrassed at all the mistakes I was making. The beautiful sweep that Dr.Sick does on Coach Kiser could definitely have came in handy at one point when I was in the clinch with another fighter. 

The next part I will be looking at is the side control escapes. I got caught once and americana'd from there I managed to throw my opponent with an o'goshi but soon after he sweeped me and got me in side control. I weigh 8 and a half stone and he weigh's 14 stone and he's a very good wrestler so I had real trouble in getting him off me or transitioning to guard. He trapped one of my arms between his legs and put my free arm in an americana.

It wasn't all bad though, I caught my first opponent with an armbar and then a rear naked choke. My second opponent I tapped with an americana from the mount. I was extremely happy because a week ago he had came in 4th in the Ground Control no-gi tournament which is one of the biggest in the UK. He was in the intermediate section at 63kilo's and I weigh in at 55 at my heaviest. he's also 8-0 semi pro and has his first pro fight coming up later this month. 

Next I got the bigger guy that caught me in the Kimura and thats where it went downhill, he had the reach that gave me bother then the weight. The only thing that went in my favour was the O'Goshi because my centre of gravity was lower than his.

The next opponent was a very technical striker with great timing. Again he had height and reach advantage which gave me fits. I was exausted after my previous fight and he managed to get me down and kept his weight on me too. I exerted so much energy I felt sick so I sat out for two rounds then I fought my Thai Coach Guy who had height, reach and is amazing standing. Again I really struggled to close the distance but eventually managed to get a scrappy takedown and tapped him out to a guillotine. soon as I did it I felt sick again and had to stop. I was quite disheartened and said to Guy that I was really struggling with the bigger fighters but he said to me that I was supposed to struggle with the bigger guys but it was impressive that I managed to hold my own with them and that against fighters my own size I would destroy them so that gave my confidence a huge boost because I really respect Guy. He's a great coach and a brilliant person. 

Thanks again for sharing such great knowledge with us Dr.Sick!!!! It really is appreciated.

No I had him flat on his back and hit him with a few punches to the head first then I can't remember how but I ended up on my back underneath him.