I had classes on Sat/Sun/Mon. My mood was somewhat improved on Sunday and then went right off the cliff again on Monday. Decided to take the rest of the week off. Possibly I'm over-training and am mentally fatigued. I probably did 15-16 classes in November/December. In January I logged 22 classes in 28 days.
Will try to do a fair amount of mobility work and keep loose during the week. Also reducing calories a bit since I'm closer than I should be for my weight class. I'm not too worried about it though b/c I should be able to easily hit it even with a gi (weight for this tournament is without a gi).
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Hmpf
1/24 - Valley
North/south escapes.
1/25 - Downtown
Double-under pass and passing inverted guard.
I'm in a bit of a slump today, not sure why. My Valley instructor did his best to just hand me my ass yesterday, and then got up and didn't even so much as say "Thanks for the roll" or anything to that effect. Meh.
Today, the downtown class was going well though my body was a little funky from a morning espresso. In between rolls at the end of class, I looked around and had the realization that I was the worst student there. Out of the ten people in class, I'm the one who is going to get dominated by everyone else. After pursuing this art for over 3yrs, that's pretty humbling. Most days it's not a thing, but sometimes it makes my ego and confidence go right down the toilet. Out of all the regulars that attend classes throughout the week (~20 or so), I can impose my game on about two of them. Bah.
I was talking with some friends this morning about how I enjoy BJJ and I'm looking forward to competing against people my size and skill level. But dude...do I have to drive (or fly) at least 4hrs away just to roll with people that are in my realm? FFS. And if I do lay an egg during competition, am I going to start questioning the value of getting crushed on a daily basis (more so than I am now)?
It's character building to be the underdog, to work hard on things that don't come easy to you...that is all very well and good...but dammit, I want to be GOOD at something at some point in my life. Constantly striving just to meet the tiniest goals (Oh boy, I had a successful upa!) is just frustrating as hell. Getting choked and triangled and kimura'd and crushed in side-control all the f'n time just gets old. Having a completely defensive game sucks. It's like I've been doing this for a piece of time and nothing is coming of it, other than I'm a grappling dummy for my teammates. I like the guys I train with, but maybe there are other pursuits out there where I can feel like I'm making some damned progress.
I'm probably just having a bad day, and I'm sure this will pass. If I didn't have the tournament coming up next week I'd take a week off from BJJ. I've been going pretty hard at it for the past 3mos and maybe my mind just needs a break.
North/south escapes.
1/25 - Downtown
Double-under pass and passing inverted guard.
I'm in a bit of a slump today, not sure why. My Valley instructor did his best to just hand me my ass yesterday, and then got up and didn't even so much as say "Thanks for the roll" or anything to that effect. Meh.
Today, the downtown class was going well though my body was a little funky from a morning espresso. In between rolls at the end of class, I looked around and had the realization that I was the worst student there. Out of the ten people in class, I'm the one who is going to get dominated by everyone else. After pursuing this art for over 3yrs, that's pretty humbling. Most days it's not a thing, but sometimes it makes my ego and confidence go right down the toilet. Out of all the regulars that attend classes throughout the week (~20 or so), I can impose my game on about two of them. Bah.
I was talking with some friends this morning about how I enjoy BJJ and I'm looking forward to competing against people my size and skill level. But dude...do I have to drive (or fly) at least 4hrs away just to roll with people that are in my realm? FFS. And if I do lay an egg during competition, am I going to start questioning the value of getting crushed on a daily basis (more so than I am now)?
It's character building to be the underdog, to work hard on things that don't come easy to you...that is all very well and good...but dammit, I want to be GOOD at something at some point in my life. Constantly striving just to meet the tiniest goals (Oh boy, I had a successful upa!) is just frustrating as hell. Getting choked and triangled and kimura'd and crushed in side-control all the f'n time just gets old. Having a completely defensive game sucks. It's like I've been doing this for a piece of time and nothing is coming of it, other than I'm a grappling dummy for my teammates. I like the guys I train with, but maybe there are other pursuits out there where I can feel like I'm making some damned progress.
I'm probably just having a bad day, and I'm sure this will pass. If I didn't have the tournament coming up next week I'd take a week off from BJJ. I've been going pretty hard at it for the past 3mos and maybe my mind just needs a break.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Maintaining Seated Guard & Loop Choke
1/23 - Downtown
Weird title but wasn't sure what to call it.
Technique
Worked on breaking sleeve, lapel and leg (near hem of pants) grips from seated guard.
If opponent gets hand/leg grips on same side (i.e. your R arm and R leg), grip their pants around the knee with your R hand to prevent them standing and dumping you over for the pass.
If you have lapel grip with your R hand on their R lapel and they stand with both legs near you, pull down on the grip and as they posture up, hook your feet behind their ankles and push on their knees to dump them.
If you have lapel grip with your R hand on their R lapel and they stand and move to your L, cup their R leg with your L hand, get feet into stand-in-base type position, make fist of the R hand that is on their lapel and drive their shoulder back as you pick their ankle with your L hand and stand up.
If they move to your R, put your L foot down, bring entire R leg up, swing a bit to the R and then fall to your R hip as you pull down on their lapel. This should drive them to all fours. Instead of moving in for turtle, secure a wrap around their lower R leg (closest to you) and maintain lapel grip. If they try to roll or run away they'll pull you into side-control.
Also worked on the same loop choke as the day before.
Rolls
Rolled with Sara, Manny, Antone, Dennis and Saul. Did ok for the most part. Tried to impose my game plan more, but every time I was in bottom side-control or bottom kesa gatame I got a little frustrated when I couldn't get out. Had some really interesting transitions with Antone where he was obviously going for something diabolical and I did just enough to escape whatever it was. Manny and I had interesting transitions too...at one point I was inverted and somewhat lengthened out and he came back over the top of me...didn't feel so hot on my back/neck, but he let up right away and I was fine.
Weird title but wasn't sure what to call it.
Technique
Worked on breaking sleeve, lapel and leg (near hem of pants) grips from seated guard.
If opponent gets hand/leg grips on same side (i.e. your R arm and R leg), grip their pants around the knee with your R hand to prevent them standing and dumping you over for the pass.
If you have lapel grip with your R hand on their R lapel and they stand with both legs near you, pull down on the grip and as they posture up, hook your feet behind their ankles and push on their knees to dump them.
If you have lapel grip with your R hand on their R lapel and they stand and move to your L, cup their R leg with your L hand, get feet into stand-in-base type position, make fist of the R hand that is on their lapel and drive their shoulder back as you pick their ankle with your L hand and stand up.
If they move to your R, put your L foot down, bring entire R leg up, swing a bit to the R and then fall to your R hip as you pull down on their lapel. This should drive them to all fours. Instead of moving in for turtle, secure a wrap around their lower R leg (closest to you) and maintain lapel grip. If they try to roll or run away they'll pull you into side-control.
Also worked on the same loop choke as the day before.
Rolls
Rolled with Sara, Manny, Antone, Dennis and Saul. Did ok for the most part. Tried to impose my game plan more, but every time I was in bottom side-control or bottom kesa gatame I got a little frustrated when I couldn't get out. Had some really interesting transitions with Antone where he was obviously going for something diabolical and I did just enough to escape whatever it was. Manny and I had interesting transitions too...at one point I was inverted and somewhat lengthened out and he came back over the top of me...didn't feel so hot on my back/neck, but he let up right away and I was fine.
Desire to Win
It occurred to me this morning that I want to win. As simplistic and as obvious as it sounds, up until now that idea wasn't in the front of my consciousness. Of course if you compete, the goal is to win. But there's a distinction between wanting to win b/c it happens to be the desired end result of competing and really wanting to win for victory's sake. I'm not sure the reason for the turnaround, other than maybe I'm tired of being crushed in class with the exception of a few bright spots. Truly, I'm ready to take on some people that are my size and skill level and see if my training (in and out of class) has paid off.
I've never really been afraid of losing, but I don't think I've ever really wanted (or expected) to win either. It's a philosophical shift for me, and I think it's good as long as I keep my emotions and expectations in check should I come up short. At that point, BJJ will cease to be fun, and it's important to me to enjoy it whether I win or lose or never compete again.
My desired performance: (probably) pull guard, sweep, side-control, mount, submission. Move efficiently and quickly. I want to be the strongest and quickest one on the mat. Deliberate movements, controlling the matches at my pace.
I'm really glad that I have a warm-up tournament next weekend to get the jitters out of the way for Pans. The guys have been complimentary and they expect me to do well...although I can't tell if they are sincere or just trying to give me confidence.
I've never really been afraid of losing, but I don't think I've ever really wanted (or expected) to win either. It's a philosophical shift for me, and I think it's good as long as I keep my emotions and expectations in check should I come up short. At that point, BJJ will cease to be fun, and it's important to me to enjoy it whether I win or lose or never compete again.
My desired performance: (probably) pull guard, sweep, side-control, mount, submission. Move efficiently and quickly. I want to be the strongest and quickest one on the mat. Deliberate movements, controlling the matches at my pace.
I'm really glad that I have a warm-up tournament next weekend to get the jitters out of the way for Pans. The guys have been complimentary and they expect me to do well...although I can't tell if they are sincere or just trying to give me confidence.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Side Control Escapes
1/20 - Downtown
Small class today, which is odd considering it's a holiday. Worked side-control escapes, which is very beneficial for me since I'm in side-control all the time. Had good rolls at the end, got a sub for the first time in what seems like a couple of months. Subs aren't everything, but it is nice to get one from time to time, especially as a tournament nears. Would be nice to have some confidence on being able to finish.
Technique
Set-up: Opponent is trying to pass to your R side to obtain cross-face position.
1. Escape pre-crossface: Grip their L sleeve at the hem and push across their body. Put your L hand down on the mat a foot or so out from your L hip and then hip out to that hand. Maintain the sleeve grip and keep hipping your way around until you're able to face your opponent.
2. Escape pre-crossface: Block their L arm with both hands and then when you start to lose it or when momentum dictates, guide their L arm across your body. Push on the back of their L tricep with your R hand while your L hand goes down to the mat. Hip out until you're facing them.
3. Escape to guard: Assuming they are already cross-faced, make sure your R elbow is tucked in between you and them and your hand is on their hip. Bring L forearm across their throat and grip the back of their shoulder, just above the arm. Pull their shoulder down to you as you drive your elbow up and your L leg up to hip into them. Can drive knee in to regain guard or may have possibilities of arm-bar/omoplata etc with your R hand.
4. Escape to d'arce: Bump R hand under them and get it on their L hip. Push off of their hip to get yourself sideways. Cup the back of their head with your L hand and pull it down. Once you get into a N/S type position (but off to the side and heads about even, push down on the back of their head with your R hand while you adjust your L arm to get your elbow further around the L side of their head. Get R hand down (back of their head or on their back) and cup either your L elbow or get fingers in your L sleeve like an ezekiel and bring your L hand down their back toward you. You should be either on your side toward them or hips up. Should be crowding them either way so they can't shoot their arm through.
5. Escape d'arce: Assume you are getting d'arced, try to get your R arm (assuming opponent is on your R side) behind their back, your L hand on their opposite hip and shoot your head forward (parallel to the floor).
Rolled with James, did better than Saturday. Julio pretty much demolished me. Did well against Tien, first time I've rolled with him. Matt got me with a choke from the back...I'm not pleased that I let him get my back. Ugh. Rolled with Chris once or twice who was, shocker, in side-control the entire time. Overall more pleased with my rolls today than a couple days ago.
Small class today, which is odd considering it's a holiday. Worked side-control escapes, which is very beneficial for me since I'm in side-control all the time. Had good rolls at the end, got a sub for the first time in what seems like a couple of months. Subs aren't everything, but it is nice to get one from time to time, especially as a tournament nears. Would be nice to have some confidence on being able to finish.
Technique
Set-up: Opponent is trying to pass to your R side to obtain cross-face position.
1. Escape pre-crossface: Grip their L sleeve at the hem and push across their body. Put your L hand down on the mat a foot or so out from your L hip and then hip out to that hand. Maintain the sleeve grip and keep hipping your way around until you're able to face your opponent.
2. Escape pre-crossface: Block their L arm with both hands and then when you start to lose it or when momentum dictates, guide their L arm across your body. Push on the back of their L tricep with your R hand while your L hand goes down to the mat. Hip out until you're facing them.
3. Escape to guard: Assuming they are already cross-faced, make sure your R elbow is tucked in between you and them and your hand is on their hip. Bring L forearm across their throat and grip the back of their shoulder, just above the arm. Pull their shoulder down to you as you drive your elbow up and your L leg up to hip into them. Can drive knee in to regain guard or may have possibilities of arm-bar/omoplata etc with your R hand.
4. Escape to d'arce: Bump R hand under them and get it on their L hip. Push off of their hip to get yourself sideways. Cup the back of their head with your L hand and pull it down. Once you get into a N/S type position (but off to the side and heads about even, push down on the back of their head with your R hand while you adjust your L arm to get your elbow further around the L side of their head. Get R hand down (back of their head or on their back) and cup either your L elbow or get fingers in your L sleeve like an ezekiel and bring your L hand down their back toward you. You should be either on your side toward them or hips up. Should be crowding them either way so they can't shoot their arm through.
5. Escape d'arce: Assume you are getting d'arced, try to get your R arm (assuming opponent is on your R side) behind their back, your L hand on their opposite hip and shoot your head forward (parallel to the floor).
Rolled with James, did better than Saturday. Julio pretty much demolished me. Did well against Tien, first time I've rolled with him. Matt got me with a choke from the back...I'm not pleased that I let him get my back. Ugh. Rolled with Chris once or twice who was, shocker, in side-control the entire time. Overall more pleased with my rolls today than a couple days ago.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Butterfly Sweeps
1/19 - Downtown
So it's almost two days later, not sure what I'm going to remember. What is most prominent in my thoughts now is the fact that my back does not feel right. It's not doing the spasm thing, which is probably good. Lower back is just sore, feels like a pretty wide swath is effected. Hope it settles down soon.
Technique
Set-up: You are in butterfly guard, with L knee close to the mat.
1. Sweep: Get an underhook on the R side, and get R arm on their back by their belt. If they have a grip on your pants or elsewhere with their R hand, break it with your hands and get it under your L armpit. Fall to the side on your L and kick your R leg as you go, which will help rotate them over. Should end up in side-control.
2. Sweep: You start attempting the sweep above, but they counter by diving their L arm on the outside of your R leg and gripping the bottom hem of your L pants. I don't remember what you do...something magical and you pull them up onto you and then over to your R.
3. Sweep to Standing: Grip the L lapel high with your R hand. Pull down as you stand up and step back with R foot. They should be on all fours. Grip their R sleeve with your L hand, and ensure your forearm is under their chin. Spin your R hand away from you as you pull your L hand toward you. Should flip them on their back.
4. Loop Choke: Same set-up as above, but lower your grip on their lapel so it isn't so high...about the upper chest, and loop your R arm around their head. Dive around the outside of their R arm (assuming it is posted out in front of them) toward their center. You'll pull them over the top of you. Keep your head up, and snake your L arm under their R arm and then behind their head. Switch hips and flatten out. Goal is to get L hand on the mat and be fairly perpendicular.
Rolls
Didn't have good mojo on the rolls. Think I rolled with Colt, Antone, Sam, James and Manny. Antone had me a nasty almost choke for quite some time. I came close to tapping several times but not quite. Sam was dominating and tapped me a bunch. I don't remember my roll with James much except that I forgot the basic technique for breaking a collar choke (two-handed gable grip in front). D'oh. Not pleased with my rolls. Such ups and downs.
So it's almost two days later, not sure what I'm going to remember. What is most prominent in my thoughts now is the fact that my back does not feel right. It's not doing the spasm thing, which is probably good. Lower back is just sore, feels like a pretty wide swath is effected. Hope it settles down soon.
Technique
Set-up: You are in butterfly guard, with L knee close to the mat.
1. Sweep: Get an underhook on the R side, and get R arm on their back by their belt. If they have a grip on your pants or elsewhere with their R hand, break it with your hands and get it under your L armpit. Fall to the side on your L and kick your R leg as you go, which will help rotate them over. Should end up in side-control.
2. Sweep: You start attempting the sweep above, but they counter by diving their L arm on the outside of your R leg and gripping the bottom hem of your L pants. I don't remember what you do...something magical and you pull them up onto you and then over to your R.
3. Sweep to Standing: Grip the L lapel high with your R hand. Pull down as you stand up and step back with R foot. They should be on all fours. Grip their R sleeve with your L hand, and ensure your forearm is under their chin. Spin your R hand away from you as you pull your L hand toward you. Should flip them on their back.
4. Loop Choke: Same set-up as above, but lower your grip on their lapel so it isn't so high...about the upper chest, and loop your R arm around their head. Dive around the outside of their R arm (assuming it is posted out in front of them) toward their center. You'll pull them over the top of you. Keep your head up, and snake your L arm under their R arm and then behind their head. Switch hips and flatten out. Goal is to get L hand on the mat and be fairly perpendicular.
Rolls
Didn't have good mojo on the rolls. Think I rolled with Colt, Antone, Sam, James and Manny. Antone had me a nasty almost choke for quite some time. I came close to tapping several times but not quite. Sam was dominating and tapped me a bunch. I don't remember my roll with James much except that I forgot the basic technique for breaking a collar choke (two-handed gable grip in front). D'oh. Not pleased with my rolls. Such ups and downs.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Turtle Top Position
1/18 - Downtown
Very similar to what we did on 12/15/12. For whatever reason, my partner and I didn't seem to be getting a ton of reps in. As a result, when we started rolling I felt like I was waaaaaay behind as far as energy level was concerned and got just crushed on my first roll.
Going to focus notes on basic top turtle position.
Very similar to what we did on 12/15/12. For whatever reason, my partner and I didn't seem to be getting a ton of reps in. As a result, when we started rolling I felt like I was waaaaaay behind as far as energy level was concerned and got just crushed on my first roll.
Going to focus notes on basic top turtle position.
- Don't sit next to them on your knees. Have one knee up and use it drive into them.
- When putting pressure on them, don't do it from the top down. You want to be low, almost as low as they are. Hunker down.
- Don't have one knee down behind their butt. If you are going to have a leg behind them, either straighten it out completely or get it between their legs and then get one of your shins over the top of their shin (this will prevent them from rolling).
- When gripping them with an arm over their back, keep your hand as close to their hips as possible. Do NOT reach through by their ribcage. You are begging for them to get a hold of it from there and reverse you.
- When pulling them into back-mount, hip out a bit to give yourself some space to get both hooks through and so they don't end up right on top you (which would make it easier for them to escape before you have your hooks in).
Thursday, January 17, 2013
North/South Escapes
1/17 - Valley
Just realized my dates for the past couple of posts are off by a day. Oops...
Today was more of the same techniques as last week. I'm pretty pysched on these b/c I've been trying them during rolls and actually got the foot-in-belt one during a live roll on Saturday. Boooooom. The new techniques from today that we didn't cover last week...
1. N/S Escape Choke: Hands on their hips, hip up and away from them to create space. Swing legs around to get to get on your side facing them. Leg over their body, far side hand over their head and gripping lapel closest to you, other hand feeding it.
2. N/S Escape Arm-bar: Same set-up as above but instead of going for the choke, push their face away and swing the leg that was on their back to in front of their face.
No rolling, though we did have four to play. Really wanted to roll with Scott b/c it's been so long!
Just realized my dates for the past couple of posts are off by a day. Oops...
Today was more of the same techniques as last week. I'm pretty pysched on these b/c I've been trying them during rolls and actually got the foot-in-belt one during a live roll on Saturday. Boooooom. The new techniques from today that we didn't cover last week...
1. N/S Escape Choke: Hands on their hips, hip up and away from them to create space. Swing legs around to get to get on your side facing them. Leg over their body, far side hand over their head and gripping lapel closest to you, other hand feeding it.
2. N/S Escape Arm-bar: Same set-up as above but instead of going for the choke, push their face away and swing the leg that was on their back to in front of their face.
No rolling, though we did have four to play. Really wanted to roll with Scott b/c it's been so long!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Mount Transitions
1/15 - Downtown
Ugh...my right ear has been irritated lately and today during technique it started bleeding a little bit. Many sads. It's the same one that I had surgery on a couple of years ago to address swelling. Doesn't appear to be any fluid build-up, but now I've got cauliflower on my mind.
Big class today, I think we ended up with 12 plus James. Did pummeling for a bit to start, then into mount transitions. Side-control to mount, mount to S-mount, mount to seated mount. I think we only rolled for 20-25 minutes today. Anything less than an hour seems so light now.
Technique
1. Side-control to Mount: Get to kesa gatame on opponent's R side. Your R arm should have an underhook on their L arm, NOT under their head. Too easy for them to take your back from there. Step over their head with your L leg, taking their R arm with it and guiding with your L hand so it's triangled in front of their face (teabag). Switch the hold on their wrist from your L hand to your R hand. Feed your L forearm under their head and switch grips on wrist from R to L. Switch hips back to side-control. Use R hand on their upper L arm just above the elbow and walk fingers up on the mat to drive their arm up. Once you have enough space, slide your L knee up to their head and step R leg over into S-mount. Try to capture their L arm on the R side of your neck for straight arm-bar. Can leg go of the teabagged arm once you have some control of the other. Can move into kimura if straight arm-bar isn't working.
2. Mount to cross-choke: From a loose mount (low on their hips), get your hands under their elbows so that when you start walking your fingers up towards their head their elbows collapse toward each other. Keep fingers on the mat and be deliberate. Once their elbows are above the level of their head, put both hands on the mat in a CPR-like position and move your feet tight to the front of their hips. If they move to protect from the choke (i.e. hands crossed under their neck), feed a hand under their hands and get a grip on the lapel. Feed your R hand up up up until it's near the back of their neck. Bring L hand to the L side of their head and scrape their head to the R until you can get your thumb in their collar or on the fabric of their shoulder for the cross-choke.
3. Cross-choke to Seated Mount Choke: Assume when you go for a deep lapel grip with your R hand that they trap your wrist, get a grip on your upper R arm and hip up and shrimp to their L. Move immediately to seated mount, with R foot tight to their hip and sliding L hand under their head. Grip their L shoulder and pull them toward you, which should turn them a bit more on their side. Feed grip from R hand to L hand. Can choke from there, or feed R arm under their left arm and then behind their head.
Rolls
Rolled with Antone, Dennis, Sara, Felicia and Manny. I felt like I did well with everyone today, although I couldn't capitalize on superior positions when I had them. I don't remember what happened with Antone but I seemed to fend off bad positions better. Transitions felt really good. Dennis got mount or side-control and I left an arm flapping out for him to kimura. Dumb mistake. Manny and I rolled after class and after pulling him into guard I took his back and was threatening him when I--for reasons I still cannot comprehend--decided to go for a body triangle. I think I did it because I was off to the side a bit and it seemed like the right thing to do. He immediately foot locked me. Even as I was trying to lock it up, I was thinking, WTF am I doing this? It's ok though, I did as well as I've ever done with him.
Ugh...my right ear has been irritated lately and today during technique it started bleeding a little bit. Many sads. It's the same one that I had surgery on a couple of years ago to address swelling. Doesn't appear to be any fluid build-up, but now I've got cauliflower on my mind.
Big class today, I think we ended up with 12 plus James. Did pummeling for a bit to start, then into mount transitions. Side-control to mount, mount to S-mount, mount to seated mount. I think we only rolled for 20-25 minutes today. Anything less than an hour seems so light now.
Technique
1. Side-control to Mount: Get to kesa gatame on opponent's R side. Your R arm should have an underhook on their L arm, NOT under their head. Too easy for them to take your back from there. Step over their head with your L leg, taking their R arm with it and guiding with your L hand so it's triangled in front of their face (teabag). Switch the hold on their wrist from your L hand to your R hand. Feed your L forearm under their head and switch grips on wrist from R to L. Switch hips back to side-control. Use R hand on their upper L arm just above the elbow and walk fingers up on the mat to drive their arm up. Once you have enough space, slide your L knee up to their head and step R leg over into S-mount. Try to capture their L arm on the R side of your neck for straight arm-bar. Can leg go of the teabagged arm once you have some control of the other. Can move into kimura if straight arm-bar isn't working.
2. Mount to cross-choke: From a loose mount (low on their hips), get your hands under their elbows so that when you start walking your fingers up towards their head their elbows collapse toward each other. Keep fingers on the mat and be deliberate. Once their elbows are above the level of their head, put both hands on the mat in a CPR-like position and move your feet tight to the front of their hips. If they move to protect from the choke (i.e. hands crossed under their neck), feed a hand under their hands and get a grip on the lapel. Feed your R hand up up up until it's near the back of their neck. Bring L hand to the L side of their head and scrape their head to the R until you can get your thumb in their collar or on the fabric of their shoulder for the cross-choke.
3. Cross-choke to Seated Mount Choke: Assume when you go for a deep lapel grip with your R hand that they trap your wrist, get a grip on your upper R arm and hip up and shrimp to their L. Move immediately to seated mount, with R foot tight to their hip and sliding L hand under their head. Grip their L shoulder and pull them toward you, which should turn them a bit more on their side. Feed grip from R hand to L hand. Can choke from there, or feed R arm under their left arm and then behind their head.
Rolls
Rolled with Antone, Dennis, Sara, Felicia and Manny. I felt like I did well with everyone today, although I couldn't capitalize on superior positions when I had them. I don't remember what happened with Antone but I seemed to fend off bad positions better. Transitions felt really good. Dennis got mount or side-control and I left an arm flapping out for him to kimura. Dumb mistake. Manny and I rolled after class and after pulling him into guard I took his back and was threatening him when I--for reasons I still cannot comprehend--decided to go for a body triangle. I think I did it because I was off to the side a bit and it seemed like the right thing to do. He immediately foot locked me. Even as I was trying to lock it up, I was thinking, WTF am I doing this? It's ok though, I did as well as I've ever done with him.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Takedowns
1/14 - Downtown
Didn't do squat on 1/13 to let my body recover, but really, I should have taken this day off as well. Body not completely rehydrated, but oh well.
Come into class and James says "circuit training!" with a gleam in his eye. Awesome. We did three or four rounds of battling ropes, sit-ups with a ball, zercher squats and sit-outs.
After that it was takedowns, my least favorite. This time it was a judo type takedown...basically get opponent's arm behind your head in fireman's type carry, get into their grill, lay down to the side and over the top they go. We did this quite a few times, with a variation of wrapping their wrist with your gi if they have a hold of your lapel. High potential for injury though so not something I'm likely to try.
Moved into a flow from the takedown to kesa gatame to trapping their arm by stepping over their head and using your hips to move their near side arm to the other side of their head. Their arm is now wrapped around the front of their face, almost as if they are choking themselves. Keeping ahold of that with one of your hands, you can move into a variety of positions/submissions. Head/arm choke, move to s-mount and choke or arm-bar, or back-mount and RNC.
My body was feeling fatigued, but the 30min roll still felt like cake, comparatively. Rolled with Matt, Dennis, Kyle x 2 and Julio. Had a really great back and forth roll with Dennis. Lots of transitions and I felt like I was keeping my hips where they needed to be and was staying tight when it was appropriate. Julio was interested in catch and release and at one point showed me a nice transition from pulling guard to armbar BUT was using the leg opposite of where I had sleeve control. James made it very clear that in order to not allow your opponent to get points for a takedown, the side where you have sleeve control is where your leg goes. So I'm not sure I want to buck that advice on the off chance that I'll get an arm-bar on the takedown. Something to keep in mind though.
Didn't do squat on 1/13 to let my body recover, but really, I should have taken this day off as well. Body not completely rehydrated, but oh well.
Come into class and James says "circuit training!" with a gleam in his eye. Awesome. We did three or four rounds of battling ropes, sit-ups with a ball, zercher squats and sit-outs.
After that it was takedowns, my least favorite. This time it was a judo type takedown...basically get opponent's arm behind your head in fireman's type carry, get into their grill, lay down to the side and over the top they go. We did this quite a few times, with a variation of wrapping their wrist with your gi if they have a hold of your lapel. High potential for injury though so not something I'm likely to try.
Moved into a flow from the takedown to kesa gatame to trapping their arm by stepping over their head and using your hips to move their near side arm to the other side of their head. Their arm is now wrapped around the front of their face, almost as if they are choking themselves. Keeping ahold of that with one of your hands, you can move into a variety of positions/submissions. Head/arm choke, move to s-mount and choke or arm-bar, or back-mount and RNC.
My body was feeling fatigued, but the 30min roll still felt like cake, comparatively. Rolled with Matt, Dennis, Kyle x 2 and Julio. Had a really great back and forth roll with Dennis. Lots of transitions and I felt like I was keeping my hips where they needed to be and was staying tight when it was appropriate. Julio was interested in catch and release and at one point showed me a nice transition from pulling guard to armbar BUT was using the leg opposite of where I had sleeve control. James made it very clear that in order to not allow your opponent to get points for a takedown, the side where you have sleeve control is where your leg goes. So I'm not sure I want to buck that advice on the off chance that I'll get an arm-bar on the takedown. Something to keep in mind though.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Marathon Roll
1/12 - Downtown
All of the affiliate schools did a 2hr marathon roll today. Five minute rounds with 20 seconds of rest between. I wasn't sure how I would do, but figured I'd make it and be pretty tired. I wasn't wrong. Everyone paced themselves well, though of course some matches were more intense than others. I think there were about 8 or 10 of us that went the entire time with a couple of drop-ins midway through.
I was concerned about injury, especially toward the end as technique starting going off the cliff, but fortunately I think the worst of it was cramping and black eyes (both happened to me). There was one instance in which I felt like I was in danger of being injured when a guy transitioned to a kimura quite a bit faster than was necessary, but he let it go immediately so no harm done. I hydrated well the day before and was drinking gatorade throughout, but I don't think any amount of fluids could have prepared my body for that onslaught of activity. My gi was soaked completely through. Really wish I would have done a before-and-after weight.
I think this was good for camaraderie, at least in the manner of shared suffering and survival. It's also a good benchmark of endurance, making 30min of rolling seem like child's play. This should help in both the short term (classes) and long-term (competition).
The remainder of the day I just wanted to curl up into a ball but I had commitments so had to keep moving. Was soooo tired and had a headache for most of the rest of the day. Drank water like it was going out of style and finally started to feel better late at night.
It was a unique experience...will be interesting to see if it's something that they incorporate more often.
All of the affiliate schools did a 2hr marathon roll today. Five minute rounds with 20 seconds of rest between. I wasn't sure how I would do, but figured I'd make it and be pretty tired. I wasn't wrong. Everyone paced themselves well, though of course some matches were more intense than others. I think there were about 8 or 10 of us that went the entire time with a couple of drop-ins midway through.
I was concerned about injury, especially toward the end as technique starting going off the cliff, but fortunately I think the worst of it was cramping and black eyes (both happened to me). There was one instance in which I felt like I was in danger of being injured when a guy transitioned to a kimura quite a bit faster than was necessary, but he let it go immediately so no harm done. I hydrated well the day before and was drinking gatorade throughout, but I don't think any amount of fluids could have prepared my body for that onslaught of activity. My gi was soaked completely through. Really wish I would have done a before-and-after weight.
I think this was good for camaraderie, at least in the manner of shared suffering and survival. It's also a good benchmark of endurance, making 30min of rolling seem like child's play. This should help in both the short term (classes) and long-term (competition).
The remainder of the day I just wanted to curl up into a ball but I had commitments so had to keep moving. Was soooo tired and had a headache for most of the rest of the day. Drank water like it was going out of style and finally started to feel better late at night.
It was a unique experience...will be interesting to see if it's something that they incorporate more often.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Transition from Half Guard to Mount
1/11 - Downtown
We did a little (very little) technique work on improve mount position, mainly on how to get the last remnant of your leg free as they are clinging to half guard. Lots of rolling. At the end of class, James talked about being controlled during your rolls and not spazzing out. He used me as an example of someone that is very controlled and doesn't spaz. He also mentioned that downside of that which is you tend to give up positions instead of substituting a physical attribute when technique fails (i.e. strength/speed).
Set-up: You are transitioning to mount. L knee and foot is mounted and R knee is on floor next to opponent's L side but they have your R foot trapped.
1. Free Knee and Move to Cross-Body: Get underhooks and walk your fingers up until their elbows are past their head. Flare your elbows out but keep your chest on their face so they can't swim their arms under yours. Get your hands out toward their elbows. If you're trying to walk your fingers while your hands are under their armpits or top part of their bicep you're going to fail. Bring L knee up to their butt and kick your R leg out to the R. You're moving your leg into the gap between theirs.
2. Free Knee and Move to Mount: Same as above except keep walking your hands up until you can get them to overlap each other, like you're doing CPR on someone. Roll your torso down and forward, and use your L foot on their R hip to help free your R leg.
3. Trap Shin and Roll to Back Mount: Turn entire torso to the left so you're facing their butt. Cross your L shin over their R shin (your feet don't have to be crossed). Roll as tight as you can toward their tailbone. Should end up near back-mount with R hook in. Block their L thigh from coming up with your L hand and straighten your R leg so they can't bring their R leg around. Reach behind their neck and around with your R hand and get L hook in.
We started with flow rolls and I just felt lame b/c I froze on sweeps and could only execute the scissor sweep. For heaven's sakes. I think we were going for about 5 minutes a round and switched partners 3-4 times. Then we rolled for real. Competitors on the mats at all times, fresh opponent if mount or submission is obtained. There were 5 competitors and 6 others, so pretty much everyone was going without rest.
I had a long roll with Kyle. He had dominant position the entire time, but I was defending adequately. I think he finally finished me with a kimura. In fact, I think I got finished by a kimura a lot. Rolled with James 2-3 times, Manny once (quick finish by him), Chris and Matt.
Matt and I rolled at the end class...might have been about 10 minutes. Lots of transitions on both sides. He finally got me with something, arm-bar maybe?
Quite a bit of rolling but felt good...more on deck for tomorrow, as we are planning on doing 2hrs straight rolling. Mama mia.
We did a little (very little) technique work on improve mount position, mainly on how to get the last remnant of your leg free as they are clinging to half guard. Lots of rolling. At the end of class, James talked about being controlled during your rolls and not spazzing out. He used me as an example of someone that is very controlled and doesn't spaz. He also mentioned that downside of that which is you tend to give up positions instead of substituting a physical attribute when technique fails (i.e. strength/speed).
Set-up: You are transitioning to mount. L knee and foot is mounted and R knee is on floor next to opponent's L side but they have your R foot trapped.
1. Free Knee and Move to Cross-Body: Get underhooks and walk your fingers up until their elbows are past their head. Flare your elbows out but keep your chest on their face so they can't swim their arms under yours. Get your hands out toward their elbows. If you're trying to walk your fingers while your hands are under their armpits or top part of their bicep you're going to fail. Bring L knee up to their butt and kick your R leg out to the R. You're moving your leg into the gap between theirs.
2. Free Knee and Move to Mount: Same as above except keep walking your hands up until you can get them to overlap each other, like you're doing CPR on someone. Roll your torso down and forward, and use your L foot on their R hip to help free your R leg.
3. Trap Shin and Roll to Back Mount: Turn entire torso to the left so you're facing their butt. Cross your L shin over their R shin (your feet don't have to be crossed). Roll as tight as you can toward their tailbone. Should end up near back-mount with R hook in. Block their L thigh from coming up with your L hand and straighten your R leg so they can't bring their R leg around. Reach behind their neck and around with your R hand and get L hook in.
We started with flow rolls and I just felt lame b/c I froze on sweeps and could only execute the scissor sweep. For heaven's sakes. I think we were going for about 5 minutes a round and switched partners 3-4 times. Then we rolled for real. Competitors on the mats at all times, fresh opponent if mount or submission is obtained. There were 5 competitors and 6 others, so pretty much everyone was going without rest.
I had a long roll with Kyle. He had dominant position the entire time, but I was defending adequately. I think he finally finished me with a kimura. In fact, I think I got finished by a kimura a lot. Rolled with James 2-3 times, Manny once (quick finish by him), Chris and Matt.
Matt and I rolled at the end class...might have been about 10 minutes. Lots of transitions on both sides. He finally got me with something, arm-bar maybe?
Quite a bit of rolling but felt good...more on deck for tomorrow, as we are planning on doing 2hrs straight rolling. Mama mia.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
North/South Escapes
1/10 - Valley
Today we worked north/south escapes, and I absolutely loved the techniques. It seems likely that I'll be able to apply them during rolling, or at least try. No rolling at the end of the class.
Setup: Opponent has you in north/south. You have your hands clenched into fists on either side of their hips.
1. Fish to Half Guard: Bring R arm across their upper chest and fist to their L shoulder, perpendicular and touching your L fist. Pop your head out to the L, and swing both legs up in the air to the L and then sweep down and to the right. Should be able to slide R knee across their R hip and perhaps deeper, while the L leg comes over the top of their back R leg to trap it. You can get to full guard, attack the back or possibly go for arm-bars or chokes from here.
2. Roll to Take the Back: With both hands on both of their hips, bridge up and then scoot away from them, creating space. The more space the better. Roll over your R shoulder and get your R hook in. Straighten your left leg and turn your hips into them to get your L hook in. This makes it a little bit easier than the scoot, scoot, scoot that is normally necessary to get both hooks in.
3. Roll to Arm-bar: Same as above to the point where you get your R hook in. You have their R arm/shoulder trapped at this point, so push their head away (toward their L), and bring your L leg over their face. Bridge into their arm. One thing to note here is that you do NOT need or want to bring your legs together to finish the arm-bar. It's perfectly ok and probably desirable for your R hook to stay in and your L to stay across their face. I loved this move.
4. Foot in Belt: Good trick for starting this is when you have both hands on their belt, get your fingers in between the two loops while you are gripping instead of letting go, reaching around their back and then trying to separate the two loops. Put your L knee against the R side of their head and push it to their L. Roll over your R shoulder, get your foot into the top loop, grip the inside of their gi pants at the knees and roll them over the top of you. Foot should remain at their back in the belt, R hand should remain on their R pant leg and their R arm/shoulder will be trapped under your R arm. Bring L leg over their head, squeeze knees toward each other, bridge up into their elbow. Note on this one...do NOT try to create space on the bottom before rolling and hooking your foot. This works better with less space. Also, keep elbows tight together during the entirety of this, as it will result in a tighter grip on their shoulder.
Today we worked north/south escapes, and I absolutely loved the techniques. It seems likely that I'll be able to apply them during rolling, or at least try. No rolling at the end of the class.
Setup: Opponent has you in north/south. You have your hands clenched into fists on either side of their hips.
1. Fish to Half Guard: Bring R arm across their upper chest and fist to their L shoulder, perpendicular and touching your L fist. Pop your head out to the L, and swing both legs up in the air to the L and then sweep down and to the right. Should be able to slide R knee across their R hip and perhaps deeper, while the L leg comes over the top of their back R leg to trap it. You can get to full guard, attack the back or possibly go for arm-bars or chokes from here.
2. Roll to Take the Back: With both hands on both of their hips, bridge up and then scoot away from them, creating space. The more space the better. Roll over your R shoulder and get your R hook in. Straighten your left leg and turn your hips into them to get your L hook in. This makes it a little bit easier than the scoot, scoot, scoot that is normally necessary to get both hooks in.
3. Roll to Arm-bar: Same as above to the point where you get your R hook in. You have their R arm/shoulder trapped at this point, so push their head away (toward their L), and bring your L leg over their face. Bridge into their arm. One thing to note here is that you do NOT need or want to bring your legs together to finish the arm-bar. It's perfectly ok and probably desirable for your R hook to stay in and your L to stay across their face. I loved this move.
4. Foot in Belt: Good trick for starting this is when you have both hands on their belt, get your fingers in between the two loops while you are gripping instead of letting go, reaching around their back and then trying to separate the two loops. Put your L knee against the R side of their head and push it to their L. Roll over your R shoulder, get your foot into the top loop, grip the inside of their gi pants at the knees and roll them over the top of you. Foot should remain at their back in the belt, R hand should remain on their R pant leg and their R arm/shoulder will be trapped under your R arm. Bring L leg over their head, squeeze knees toward each other, bridge up into their elbow. Note on this one...do NOT try to create space on the bottom before rolling and hooking your foot. This works better with less space. Also, keep elbows tight together during the entirety of this, as it will result in a tighter grip on their shoulder.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
93 Guard
1/9 - Downtown
My first experience with 93 guard. I like it, and it might be worth my while to try to work to that position as I'm escaping or defending bad positions.
1. Basic set-up: You're leaning slightly the R, with your R foot in the back of opponent's R knee (they are or more less kneeling on your foot). Left knee is on their R shoulder, and foot can be on their hip or next to their side. L arm is across their neck, with elbow touching your L knee and hand cupping (NOT gripping) the outside of their L upper arm. R hand is also cupping outside of their L upper arm.
Some tricks to this are to bring yourself in close to them. If you're farther away, it's easier for them to underhook your arm and/or get under your head. The forearm across their neck (upper chest) must have the elbow in contact with the knee that is up. You do NOT want them to pass their L knee over your R knee, b/c then they can just sit-out and pass to the side. Try to keep your knee next to theirs.
2. Sweep: Keep L hand blocking their L arm, take your R hand and cup under their R arm. Take L hand and push their R hand back as you slide to the side and arm drag to the back. I might have the hands mixed up.
3. Transition to arm-bar: From the set-up above, assume they slide their L arm under your head. Bring your R hand from the inside of their upper arm to the outside to their elbow or just above the elbow. Bring L knee up as you push their head to their R so that your knee is on the left side of their head. Roll (rotate) their arm toward you, gable grip hands together and armbar.
4. Transition to kimura: Same as #3, but they rotate their forearm in before you can finish. Bring your L leg over their L shoulder and onto their hip. If their arm is buried deep, get up on your R shoulder (you are getting close to being inverted at this point), switch your grips on their arm (slide your left forearm into their elbow crease) and as you drop back down off your shoulder, yank their arm out (carefully) and finish kimura. It didn't seem to matter where the R knee was, but I preferred to have it across their hips.
5. Transition to kimura then arm-bar: Same as #4, except they posture tall when you go for the kimura. Get pretty inverted (if you aren't already), slide R leg out from under them (if it isn't already out) and slide L leg across their chest (under their arms). Hip into them, and R leg will magically come across their face (by "magically" I mean I'm missing a step) and you roll into an arm-bar with them flat on their back. Viola.
Rolls
Before rolling, we did a two minute drill of whatever half-guard sweeps we could remember. I could remember exactly one half-guard sweeps (drive the bus). Seriously, someone take away my blue belt. I remember seminars with Mr. Owen in which we did quite a few, but couldn't remember the details. Embarrassing.
Rolled with Matt (AF), Blaine, Dennis, Antone, Chris. I did a fairly good job of attacking from guard today, mostly triangles, omoplatas and arm-bars. Tried hard to keep guys from passing my guard, and if I was about to give up a bad position at least put some thought into how I could set myself up to not give it up entirely. I ended up in an almost inverted guard quite a few times. I say "almost" b/c I had very little control of their limbs.
There were several times when I felt like my feet were in danger, mostly b/c they seemed to be getting caught under guys or weird transitions. Lucky I didn't get hurt today, but it was a near thing. Not sure what the deal was...might be that guys are upping intensity for tournament prep or I just wasn't as aware of my positioning as I usually am.
My first experience with 93 guard. I like it, and it might be worth my while to try to work to that position as I'm escaping or defending bad positions.
1. Basic set-up: You're leaning slightly the R, with your R foot in the back of opponent's R knee (they are or more less kneeling on your foot). Left knee is on their R shoulder, and foot can be on their hip or next to their side. L arm is across their neck, with elbow touching your L knee and hand cupping (NOT gripping) the outside of their L upper arm. R hand is also cupping outside of their L upper arm.
Some tricks to this are to bring yourself in close to them. If you're farther away, it's easier for them to underhook your arm and/or get under your head. The forearm across their neck (upper chest) must have the elbow in contact with the knee that is up. You do NOT want them to pass their L knee over your R knee, b/c then they can just sit-out and pass to the side. Try to keep your knee next to theirs.
2. Sweep: Keep L hand blocking their L arm, take your R hand and cup under their R arm. Take L hand and push their R hand back as you slide to the side and arm drag to the back. I might have the hands mixed up.
3. Transition to arm-bar: From the set-up above, assume they slide their L arm under your head. Bring your R hand from the inside of their upper arm to the outside to their elbow or just above the elbow. Bring L knee up as you push their head to their R so that your knee is on the left side of their head. Roll (rotate) their arm toward you, gable grip hands together and armbar.
4. Transition to kimura: Same as #3, but they rotate their forearm in before you can finish. Bring your L leg over their L shoulder and onto their hip. If their arm is buried deep, get up on your R shoulder (you are getting close to being inverted at this point), switch your grips on their arm (slide your left forearm into their elbow crease) and as you drop back down off your shoulder, yank their arm out (carefully) and finish kimura. It didn't seem to matter where the R knee was, but I preferred to have it across their hips.
5. Transition to kimura then arm-bar: Same as #4, except they posture tall when you go for the kimura. Get pretty inverted (if you aren't already), slide R leg out from under them (if it isn't already out) and slide L leg across their chest (under their arms). Hip into them, and R leg will magically come across their face (by "magically" I mean I'm missing a step) and you roll into an arm-bar with them flat on their back. Viola.
Rolls
Before rolling, we did a two minute drill of whatever half-guard sweeps we could remember. I could remember exactly one half-guard sweeps (drive the bus). Seriously, someone take away my blue belt. I remember seminars with Mr. Owen in which we did quite a few, but couldn't remember the details. Embarrassing.
Rolled with Matt (AF), Blaine, Dennis, Antone, Chris. I did a fairly good job of attacking from guard today, mostly triangles, omoplatas and arm-bars. Tried hard to keep guys from passing my guard, and if I was about to give up a bad position at least put some thought into how I could set myself up to not give it up entirely. I ended up in an almost inverted guard quite a few times. I say "almost" b/c I had very little control of their limbs.
There were several times when I felt like my feet were in danger, mostly b/c they seemed to be getting caught under guys or weird transitions. Lucky I didn't get hurt today, but it was a near thing. Not sure what the deal was...might be that guys are upping intensity for tournament prep or I just wasn't as aware of my positioning as I usually am.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Side-Control Subs & Escapes
1/8 - Valley
First class back in the Valley in several weeks. Just Gary and I. Went over side-control submissions and escapes.
Set-up: Side-control to bottom player's right side.
Transitions
If opponent turns into you and gets the underhook with their far side arm (L), get your R arm under their L and around their neck. You can use your L hand to push their head down and/or towards you to help feed your R hand behind the L side of their neck. You'll want to be as far up their arm as possible. Sprawl back, then move to their other side while keeping as much weight on them as possible.
Submissions
1. From the transition above, instead of sprawling and moving to other side, keep your L leg out to their L side, rotate around and bring your R knee up to their upper back. Slide L leg snug against their face/neck. Maintain grip on arm, but slide toward the hand a bit so that you can get the americana. Gable grip your L hand to your R.
2. Similar to above, but if they turn or straighten their arm, take the arm bar by sitting up a bit to position your R knee against their torso and pinch legs together to finish.
3. Instead of sliding your arm under the L side of their neck, get the underhook and slide it under the R side of their neck. Grab your L bicep with R hand. Little fuzzy on this one.
Escapes
1. R elbow is in tight, turn into them and get knee on their hip. L arm past the near side of their neck (their L) and grab the belt. Hip into them, and as they push back, kick R leg out and bring them across your body to the L.
2. Same as above, but they aren't hip-to-hip, but higher up on your torso. This time they roll more or less over your head.
3. Set-up is that both of their arms are across your body and below your L elbow. Slide L arm across their face, around their neck and back towards you. Gable grip your hands together, squeeze tight and walk into them. You'll a feel a point where you have momentum and they're going to roll over. Kick up and you'll end up in side-control with head-arm control. Can immediately move into arm triangle choke by grabbing your elbows and squeezing.
Rolling
One brief 5min roll with Gary. Right off the bat I went for the guard pull that I learned at James'. Did a little open guard, then closed guard, somehow took the back and did a berimbolo type choke. Awesome. Reset, pull guard again, think I got passed, then he got to side-control and choked me with I'm not sure what.
First class back in the Valley in several weeks. Just Gary and I. Went over side-control submissions and escapes.
Set-up: Side-control to bottom player's right side.
Transitions
If opponent turns into you and gets the underhook with their far side arm (L), get your R arm under their L and around their neck. You can use your L hand to push their head down and/or towards you to help feed your R hand behind the L side of their neck. You'll want to be as far up their arm as possible. Sprawl back, then move to their other side while keeping as much weight on them as possible.
Submissions
1. From the transition above, instead of sprawling and moving to other side, keep your L leg out to their L side, rotate around and bring your R knee up to their upper back. Slide L leg snug against their face/neck. Maintain grip on arm, but slide toward the hand a bit so that you can get the americana. Gable grip your L hand to your R.
2. Similar to above, but if they turn or straighten their arm, take the arm bar by sitting up a bit to position your R knee against their torso and pinch legs together to finish.
3. Instead of sliding your arm under the L side of their neck, get the underhook and slide it under the R side of their neck. Grab your L bicep with R hand. Little fuzzy on this one.
Escapes
1. R elbow is in tight, turn into them and get knee on their hip. L arm past the near side of their neck (their L) and grab the belt. Hip into them, and as they push back, kick R leg out and bring them across your body to the L.
2. Same as above, but they aren't hip-to-hip, but higher up on your torso. This time they roll more or less over your head.
3. Set-up is that both of their arms are across your body and below your L elbow. Slide L arm across their face, around their neck and back towards you. Gable grip your hands together, squeeze tight and walk into them. You'll a feel a point where you have momentum and they're going to roll over. Kick up and you'll end up in side-control with head-arm control. Can immediately move into arm triangle choke by grabbing your elbows and squeezing.
Rolling
One brief 5min roll with Gary. Right off the bat I went for the guard pull that I learned at James'. Did a little open guard, then closed guard, somehow took the back and did a berimbolo type choke. Awesome. Reset, pull guard again, think I got passed, then he got to side-control and choked me with I'm not sure what.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Pulling Guard
1/7 - Downtown
Class started late b/c guys were trickling in, then we took a group picture in the snow. Probably started a half hour late, so we did warm-ups, drilled the guard pulls and then rolled. We must have rolled for close to 40min, b/c I counted 7 rolls.
First was with Sarah, and she got to side-control on me a couple of times. She's gotten quite a bit better at passing my guard. Then Matt, which I did pretty well with. Tried to stay tight and close during scrambles. Then James, who let me work a bit, including getting out of an arm-bar. Then Nando, who really controlled the distance with his open guard. Couldn't kill his legs or do much of anything. I think he finally swept me, then we ended up in a bit of scramble. Chris, who again is so solid with his side-control and keeping his knees tight to the hips. Julio and I went, and he ended up helping me with arm-bar from guard, and switching to the other arm if they pull out the first one you go for. I was tired enough that I forgot how to do a very basic arm-bar from guard. Embarrassing. Last roll was with Nate, a blue I haven't seen before. Seems a bit like a wrestler type, although he allowed a fair amount of space that I was able to use to stay out of really bad positions.
Overall, I was very pleased with the rolls today. I didn't do anything exceptionally well, but my hip movement was much better than it has been. I still gave up my back a couple of times. I used one of the basic back-mount escapes successfully and ended up in top side-control, which was awesome.
I was happy to be done rolling at the end, but I felt fine. I think my rolling cardio at least has improved over the past couple of months. It feels like I've been training here for a long time, but I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been two months. Need to manage expectations accordingly.
Class started late b/c guys were trickling in, then we took a group picture in the snow. Probably started a half hour late, so we did warm-ups, drilled the guard pulls and then rolled. We must have rolled for close to 40min, b/c I counted 7 rolls.
First was with Sarah, and she got to side-control on me a couple of times. She's gotten quite a bit better at passing my guard. Then Matt, which I did pretty well with. Tried to stay tight and close during scrambles. Then James, who let me work a bit, including getting out of an arm-bar. Then Nando, who really controlled the distance with his open guard. Couldn't kill his legs or do much of anything. I think he finally swept me, then we ended up in a bit of scramble. Chris, who again is so solid with his side-control and keeping his knees tight to the hips. Julio and I went, and he ended up helping me with arm-bar from guard, and switching to the other arm if they pull out the first one you go for. I was tired enough that I forgot how to do a very basic arm-bar from guard. Embarrassing. Last roll was with Nate, a blue I haven't seen before. Seems a bit like a wrestler type, although he allowed a fair amount of space that I was able to use to stay out of really bad positions.
Overall, I was very pleased with the rolls today. I didn't do anything exceptionally well, but my hip movement was much better than it has been. I still gave up my back a couple of times. I used one of the basic back-mount escapes successfully and ended up in top side-control, which was awesome.
I was happy to be done rolling at the end, but I felt fine. I think my rolling cardio at least has improved over the past couple of months. It feels like I've been training here for a long time, but I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been two months. Need to manage expectations accordingly.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Week in Review
Sooo...no classes at the Valley for a couple of weeks. Had 4 classes this week, and generally felt pretty good about all of them. I've really been working on getting my hips to face my opponents. I think I'm doing better at that, although there are times when my guard (usually open) is still ridiculously easy for some of these guys to pass. Need to keep working on that.
Since most everyone works open guard here, I've been incorporating it into my game. Not sure how this is going to translate at tournaments, since it's still relatively new and I don't have much confidence in it. For example, I can't execute a sweep or submission from spider (or any open guard for that manner). All I can do is control. Doesn't seem to make much sense to incorporate it into my tournament game unless I get at least one or two go-to moves. 'Nando showed me last week a sweep from spider but I've since forgotten it.
I didn't do any strength training last week, but will be ramping it back up this week. Will be interesting to see how it effects my rolling stamina. So far it's been really good, but I know that adding 3-4 lifting days back in is going to have an impact.
My emotional state has been pretty good this week, although I've noticed during rolls in which I'm getting dominated that I stop caring that I'm getting dominated. I don't give up on the roll, but I stop caring about how many points I'm behind b/c it seems impossible that I'd ever be able to catch up. Seems like a lousy attitude, but not sure what to do about that.
In addition to the hips, next week I want to focus on not sitting back on my butt when I end up in a neutral-type position with my opponent. This happens to me when I attempt to pass guard and they push me back, or they resist my attempt to establish side-control. That's a loss of points that is relatively easy to prevent. I'm so used to trying to create as much space as possible the second that I feel threatened that I revert to this when my passes are being rebuffed. Need to get in there and keep butt off of ground.
Since most everyone works open guard here, I've been incorporating it into my game. Not sure how this is going to translate at tournaments, since it's still relatively new and I don't have much confidence in it. For example, I can't execute a sweep or submission from spider (or any open guard for that manner). All I can do is control. Doesn't seem to make much sense to incorporate it into my tournament game unless I get at least one or two go-to moves. 'Nando showed me last week a sweep from spider but I've since forgotten it.
I didn't do any strength training last week, but will be ramping it back up this week. Will be interesting to see how it effects my rolling stamina. So far it's been really good, but I know that adding 3-4 lifting days back in is going to have an impact.
My emotional state has been pretty good this week, although I've noticed during rolls in which I'm getting dominated that I stop caring that I'm getting dominated. I don't give up on the roll, but I stop caring about how many points I'm behind b/c it seems impossible that I'd ever be able to catch up. Seems like a lousy attitude, but not sure what to do about that.
In addition to the hips, next week I want to focus on not sitting back on my butt when I end up in a neutral-type position with my opponent. This happens to me when I attempt to pass guard and they push me back, or they resist my attempt to establish side-control. That's a loss of points that is relatively easy to prevent. I'm so used to trying to create as much space as possible the second that I feel threatened that I revert to this when my passes are being rebuffed. Need to get in there and keep butt off of ground.
Pulling Guard
1/5 - Downtown
Seriously, between yesterday and today, nothing but pulling guard. Best classes ever.
Same technique as yesterday. One addition is that we worked in a sweep after the guard pull. Assuming you are doing the foot on hip guard pull, switch hands to control their sleeve (so if you start off with your L hand on their R sleeve, switch it to your R hand), use your R hand to cup behind their L ankle, and drop your R leg behind their R knee. Pull the sleeve, keep their R ankle in place, pull your R foot toward you and push with your L foot on their R hip. Down they go.
Rolled with Matt (Purple), Antone, Russ, Opal and Jake. The first three gave me plenty of fits, though Matt was fairly gassed by the time I rolled with him. Antone had me knots and I didn't seem to be protecting well. Didn't feel like I did much better with Russ, though he told me I was tough. Opal and Jake are both newbies, so I walked them through some basics as we rolled.
In addition, I had the school patches affixed to my Koral gi today and it looks pretty sharp. :)
Seriously, between yesterday and today, nothing but pulling guard. Best classes ever.
Same technique as yesterday. One addition is that we worked in a sweep after the guard pull. Assuming you are doing the foot on hip guard pull, switch hands to control their sleeve (so if you start off with your L hand on their R sleeve, switch it to your R hand), use your R hand to cup behind their L ankle, and drop your R leg behind their R knee. Pull the sleeve, keep their R ankle in place, pull your R foot toward you and push with your L foot on their R hip. Down they go.
Rolled with Matt (Purple), Antone, Russ, Opal and Jake. The first three gave me plenty of fits, though Matt was fairly gassed by the time I rolled with him. Antone had me knots and I didn't seem to be protecting well. Didn't feel like I did much better with Russ, though he told me I was tough. Opal and Jake are both newbies, so I walked them through some basics as we rolled.
In addition, I had the school patches affixed to my Koral gi today and it looks pretty sharp. :)
Takedowns and Bloody Noses
1/4 - Downtown
So, in an ironic twist, I got caught in a triangle today. I thought I could stave it off for awhile, but I finally tapped. When I did, I came up with nice nose bleed. Had to sit out the next couple of rounds. Bah!
Went over take-downs, or as I like to call it: Pulling Guard More Intelligently
Technique
1. Jump Guard -- Never actually did this b/c I'm a wuss.
2. Foot on hip -- Assuming you have the R sleeve control with your L hand and control of their L lapel with your R hand, you can tap their R leg with your R leg to draw you in, then put your L foot on their R hip and pull them down or sweep. Very, very important if you are going to pull guard that the foot on the hip is on the same side that you have sleeve control. If you have sleeve control of their L arm, your R foot goes on their left hip. If you have sleeve control of their R arm, your L foot goes on their R hip. However you get there is fine.
3. Fake foot on hip and ankle pick -- If their R foot is forward and you have same sleeve/lapel control as above, fake putting your R foot on their hip, drop down and let go of the sleeve to ankle pick their R foot. If they pull it back, switch to picking their L foot. I kept dropping my hand that was on the lapel to do the pick and not the hand on the sleeve. NO. Drop the hand that was on the sleeve and keep the lapel grip. This will help pull them to the side and down if you have to go for the other foot. It's just better control all around.
Rolls
Rolled with Chris, Blaine, Derek, Kyle and Grit. Grit is "new" in that I haven't seen him before. He is not "new" to BJJ. He's the one who applied the triangle which left me with a bloody nose. Chris was going fairly light, but still so good at maintaining side control. I did best against Derek and Blaine, staying out of bad positions and trying to threaten from guard, mount or back mount. Didn't do well against Kyle, his athleticism is great and technique isn't bad either.
After class Matt and I rolled for what seemed like 15min...dunno how long it was, but he ended up getting an ezekiel from mount.
So, in an ironic twist, I got caught in a triangle today. I thought I could stave it off for awhile, but I finally tapped. When I did, I came up with nice nose bleed. Had to sit out the next couple of rounds. Bah!
Went over take-downs, or as I like to call it: Pulling Guard More Intelligently
Technique
1. Jump Guard -- Never actually did this b/c I'm a wuss.
2. Foot on hip -- Assuming you have the R sleeve control with your L hand and control of their L lapel with your R hand, you can tap their R leg with your R leg to draw you in, then put your L foot on their R hip and pull them down or sweep. Very, very important if you are going to pull guard that the foot on the hip is on the same side that you have sleeve control. If you have sleeve control of their L arm, your R foot goes on their left hip. If you have sleeve control of their R arm, your L foot goes on their R hip. However you get there is fine.
3. Fake foot on hip and ankle pick -- If their R foot is forward and you have same sleeve/lapel control as above, fake putting your R foot on their hip, drop down and let go of the sleeve to ankle pick their R foot. If they pull it back, switch to picking their L foot. I kept dropping my hand that was on the lapel to do the pick and not the hand on the sleeve. NO. Drop the hand that was on the sleeve and keep the lapel grip. This will help pull them to the side and down if you have to go for the other foot. It's just better control all around.
Rolls
Rolled with Chris, Blaine, Derek, Kyle and Grit. Grit is "new" in that I haven't seen him before. He is not "new" to BJJ. He's the one who applied the triangle which left me with a bloody nose. Chris was going fairly light, but still so good at maintaining side control. I did best against Derek and Blaine, staying out of bad positions and trying to threaten from guard, mount or back mount. Didn't do well against Kyle, his athleticism is great and technique isn't bad either.
After class Matt and I rolled for what seemed like 15min...dunno how long it was, but he ended up getting an ezekiel from mount.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Guard Passing
1/3 - Downtown
Did the evening class tonight. We've definitely moved into tournament mode. Pummel drills after the warm-up, then technique, then competitors on the mat rolling non-stop with fresh opponents. Pure awesome (no sarcasm!).
1. Standing Guard Pass -- Grip their L lapel with your R hand, put L hand on the mat or on their chest, roll forward and up to your feet. As soon as opponent opens their guard, sweep L hand behind you to swing their R leg past your body. As you're passing their leg across, crowd them with your hips. Hips forward and weight down. Keep ahold of their L leg as you stack and pass.
Set-up: Opponent has you in spider guard, with both of their feet on the inside of your elbows.
2. Spider Guard Pass (Hips In) -- Get same side grips on their pants below the knee. Push your elbows together to negate their ability to use their feet on your elbows. Step back to create space, then move forward into opponent, hips low, posture up. Crowd the back of their legs with your hips. Their legs should be close to straight up and down. As you pass to your L side, slide R knee between their thighs, slide R arm under their L arm, under their chin and behind their head. Grip L sleeve with R hand and sit to your R side.
3. Spider Guard Pass (Toranado) -- Same start as #2, except that as you step back, you yank down on their legs and plant them to the mat. Step to the side, plant your head in their chest and get to side-control.
Rolls
Competitors stay on the mat, fresh opponents come if mount or submission is achieved. Long first roll with Sara, good back and forth. Long roll with Jayson too, I tried to stay out of trouble with the leg locks. He ended with mount. Rolled with James twice. Relatively happy with both, but he got a crazy knee bar on the first roll that I absolutely did not see coming. Sick. Rolled with a bunch of new kids, happy with my control there. Felt bad attempting to tap them quick, but such is the way of tournament prep.
Overall, really happy I went. I was on the fence since I had a bit of a headache and wasn't feeling 100%, but it turned out very well.
Did the evening class tonight. We've definitely moved into tournament mode. Pummel drills after the warm-up, then technique, then competitors on the mat rolling non-stop with fresh opponents. Pure awesome (no sarcasm!).
1. Standing Guard Pass -- Grip their L lapel with your R hand, put L hand on the mat or on their chest, roll forward and up to your feet. As soon as opponent opens their guard, sweep L hand behind you to swing their R leg past your body. As you're passing their leg across, crowd them with your hips. Hips forward and weight down. Keep ahold of their L leg as you stack and pass.
Set-up: Opponent has you in spider guard, with both of their feet on the inside of your elbows.
2. Spider Guard Pass (Hips In) -- Get same side grips on their pants below the knee. Push your elbows together to negate their ability to use their feet on your elbows. Step back to create space, then move forward into opponent, hips low, posture up. Crowd the back of their legs with your hips. Their legs should be close to straight up and down. As you pass to your L side, slide R knee between their thighs, slide R arm under their L arm, under their chin and behind their head. Grip L sleeve with R hand and sit to your R side.
3. Spider Guard Pass (Toranado) -- Same start as #2, except that as you step back, you yank down on their legs and plant them to the mat. Step to the side, plant your head in their chest and get to side-control.
Rolls
Competitors stay on the mat, fresh opponents come if mount or submission is achieved. Long first roll with Sara, good back and forth. Long roll with Jayson too, I tried to stay out of trouble with the leg locks. He ended with mount. Rolled with James twice. Relatively happy with both, but he got a crazy knee bar on the first roll that I absolutely did not see coming. Sick. Rolled with a bunch of new kids, happy with my control there. Felt bad attempting to tap them quick, but such is the way of tournament prep.
Overall, really happy I went. I was on the fence since I had a bit of a headache and wasn't feeling 100%, but it turned out very well.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Grip Fighting & Takedowns
1/2 - Downtown
First class of the new year, and I get the vibe that we are well into comp mode. Was good to have three days off from training, especially after the double-header on Saturday. Went over grip fighting from standing and transitioning into take-downs from there. I couldn't more awkward at this.
Lapel Grip Breaks
1. Grip on either side of their sleeve, and snap their arm down and away from you as your round your back.
2. One hand under theirs, blade of your wrist pushing against bottom of their wrist. Grip other hand, and snap both hands up as you drop your weight and keeping good posture.
Sleeve Wrist Breaks
1. Come to the outside of their wrist with your hand, make a C with your hand to grip around their wrist and punch their arm across their body. This is the preferred method b/c I found that a) it was more effective at actually breaking the grip and b) you can immediately take your own grip.
2. Same as above, but instead of making the C and gripping their wrist, just punch their arm across. I found this to be not as effective.
From these, you can move into the following (assuming you are controlling their arm across your body):
1. T up on them, with an underhook and hand on their waist.
2. Grip the back of their gi right around their shoulder blade of their opposite shoulder.
And now you can move into take-downs:
1. Block the back of their far side foot, sit down to the side and work for head-and-arm control/choke.
2. Move all the way to their back. Get underhooks and take small, quick steps backwards. Pull them back and down. Come down on your knees behind them, not your butt.
3. With control of their arm and the grip on their far shoulder, you can move them around to set up an ankle pick on their far side ankle.
Rolls
Rolled with Sara, did fairly well at controlling and keeping my body facing hers while working to improve position. Rolled with Antone, almost got subbed a couple of times but managed to work out of it. Again worked on facing in and trying to keep knee-to-elbow when I was in a bad position. Which was all the time. Dennis and I had a good back and forth roll. Chris rolled for the first time in awhile, but he was very good at getting and maintaining side-control. Jayson crushed me as usual, and did a bunch of leg locks. I tapped at least 4-5 times during our 5min roll. Had no answer for his guard pass. He was pushing down on my knees so well that I couldn't begin to break the grip.
First class of the new year, and I get the vibe that we are well into comp mode. Was good to have three days off from training, especially after the double-header on Saturday. Went over grip fighting from standing and transitioning into take-downs from there. I couldn't more awkward at this.
Lapel Grip Breaks
1. Grip on either side of their sleeve, and snap their arm down and away from you as your round your back.
2. One hand under theirs, blade of your wrist pushing against bottom of their wrist. Grip other hand, and snap both hands up as you drop your weight and keeping good posture.
Sleeve Wrist Breaks
1. Come to the outside of their wrist with your hand, make a C with your hand to grip around their wrist and punch their arm across their body. This is the preferred method b/c I found that a) it was more effective at actually breaking the grip and b) you can immediately take your own grip.
2. Same as above, but instead of making the C and gripping their wrist, just punch their arm across. I found this to be not as effective.
From these, you can move into the following (assuming you are controlling their arm across your body):
1. T up on them, with an underhook and hand on their waist.
2. Grip the back of their gi right around their shoulder blade of their opposite shoulder.
And now you can move into take-downs:
1. Block the back of their far side foot, sit down to the side and work for head-and-arm control/choke.
2. Move all the way to their back. Get underhooks and take small, quick steps backwards. Pull them back and down. Come down on your knees behind them, not your butt.
3. With control of their arm and the grip on their far shoulder, you can move them around to set up an ankle pick on their far side ankle.
Rolls
Rolled with Sara, did fairly well at controlling and keeping my body facing hers while working to improve position. Rolled with Antone, almost got subbed a couple of times but managed to work out of it. Again worked on facing in and trying to keep knee-to-elbow when I was in a bad position. Which was all the time. Dennis and I had a good back and forth roll. Chris rolled for the first time in awhile, but he was very good at getting and maintaining side-control. Jayson crushed me as usual, and did a bunch of leg locks. I tapped at least 4-5 times during our 5min roll. Had no answer for his guard pass. He was pushing down on my knees so well that I couldn't begin to break the grip.
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