The training was comprised of four stations: striking, grappling, jiu jitsu, and combat. The striking, grappling, and Jiu Jitsu stations were taught by fighters with subject matter expertise and focused on foundational skills with practical application for the war fighter. While the Marines seemed to enjoy all of the training, Tim Credeur's "White Trash" guillotine was a huge hit with the troops. For those of you not familiar with Tim's "White Trash" guillotine, think regular guillotine combined with a neck crank but about ten times nastier and a hell of a lot more painful, just ask his training partner, Tim Burrill who spent most of the week rubbing Ben Gay on his neck!

Matt Lindland taught grappling with Damacio Page and Gray Maynard, when I caught up with Matt after the training session he told me: "It was an honor to have the opportunity to give back to the service men and women of the United States. Every day they are protecting this great country and our freedoms and liberties, I don't take this for granted and had a wonderful time being able to give something back to them. All the fighters and sponsors that were involved were quality guys to be associated with as well".

One of the highlights of the grappling training was when a big ass country fed Marine who weighed 260lbs got absolutely crushed by 135lb Damacio Page who shot a perfect double leg takedown that sent the Sasquatch of a Marine soaring to the heavens before he came crashing to the ground with Damacio in full mount.

Jorge Rivera who taught striking with Matt Phinney and Seb Zewdie commented about the training in the following manner: "Awesome wisdom is useless unless you have someone to share it with and who better to share it with, than the people who defend our freedom."

The combat station was taught by the rough and tumble badass brothers, Tim Kennedy and John Walsh. The combat training focused on taking the information taught at the other stations and integrating those skills in practical combat related moves. The key lessons learned were weapon retention, getting back to base, distance management, and the patented Tim Kennedy knife attack and subsequent blade lick!

Part of my inspiration for Train The Troops MMA is my friend and brother Marine GySgt Cesar Espinoza who is preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in a few weeks. Prior to the training I asked Jiu Jitsu super guru Tim "Panda" Burrill to give Cesar some "special" instruction - the Panda did not disappoint. Every time I looked over to where Cesar was training the Panda had Cesar...