Gracie Worlds Prep Week

[Brandon Mccaghren]

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Fancy Feet drills. Boa to Half Plex and Electric Chair.

Dead Zone Drills.

Free Roll.

I got to work in a bit with Phil Schwartz tonight during the Fancy Feet and Half Guard Drills. Big thank you to David Lo Pan for the hat, and to RW Pegau for taping me up all paramedic style so that I could at least get out there for a bit. Eddie pulled me off the mat during the Dead Zone drills. At least I know he is watching out for my best interest. So while everyone else was doing Dead Zone, I just grabbed the grappling dummy and squeezed him as hard as I could from the different Dead Zone positions. It was actually a pretty intense workout.

Gonna go down to the hotel gym in a little bit and put in some hard cardio.

[bobby rivers]

There is no way to not grind the fuck out of that part of your head and grapple at a high level. In case this hasn't crossed your mind..

[Brandon Mccaghren]

There is no way to not grind the fuck out of that part of your head and grapple at a high level. In case this hasn't crossed your mind..

Behind me, naysayer!

[Brandon Woolsey]

Behind me, naysayer!

LMFAO you tha man B Mc!!!!

[bobby rivers]

All I'm sayin is prepare to bleed. Will they let you compete in your cap?

[Kyle Spalla]

i-aint-got-time-to-bleed.jpg

All I'm sayin is prepare to bleed. Will they let you compete in your cap?

Brandon Mccaghren ain't got time to bleed.

[Brandon Mccaghren]

So I jumped back on the mats tonight equipped with my fancy Lo Pan Hat and a sore noggin.

Both the morning class and evening class were taught by Eddie and were identical. Except that tonight's class had close to 50 people on the mat. Insane crowd from New Zealand, Australia, Alabama, Missouri, Washington and several other places. Amazing family reunion of sorts. It was so much fun.

As far as content is concerned, both classes focused on The Boa to Dogfight to Halfplex and the Electric Underhooks and Electric Chair. There are some changes here that were really pretty subtle but are gonna make an enormous difference in how I think about bottom half guard. I'm anxious to get home and get started actually.

We also worked on passing the Z-Guard with the Z1 and Z2 passes, both of which are knee cut passes. Lot of good drilling on this. Excellent structure to the class.

I hand picked some guys to roll with tonight who I knew would be sympathetic to my plight and allow me to work without trying to rip my head open again. RW Pegau from Spokane gave me some great work in that regard, as did Blake the Aussie. I also got to work with the magnificent Renato Laranja this evening. Very good passing; I can see how he won the Worlds 27 times.

[Brandon Mccaghren]

Morning class with Jared Carlsten. It was virtual cornucopia of Darce Chokes and counters, including a Darce setup from when your opponent has your back with both hooks in.

Then I actually tried to roll some. Went 5 rounds with Jared of course he destroyed me. But it felt good to get on the mat and really try to break a sweat. My cardio still felt good even though I'm in the middle of this weight cut, so that gave me quite a bit of confidence. Jared was really good about making small adjustments for me as we went, and I definitely appreciated that.

Now I'm headed out to Long Beach for some 1 on 1 time with Brent Littell and a stop by the OTM shop out there. May even swing by the Gracie Academy to pay homage to Helio.

[Will Thaxton]

B Mc living the dream! Happy for ya.

[Slick Rick]

Awesome man! Doing it big Brandon!!
Great finally meeting you all last night!