Friday, January 31, 2014

Friday Morning

Today was a dose of double-under passes. The typically stack and stretch their groin from here to infinity. Other option is to turtle them up and take the back, or turtle them up and dive under for side-control as they try to regain guard. Or, if they are blocking your knees, pull up on the arm and slide in for an arm-bar. The last one was a little dicey, but an interesting approach.

Drilled with Antone and Nate. It never fails to amaze me how easy it is to screw up a simple thing like a three person drill rotation. Good at jiu jitsu, bad at math. 

Rolls with Nate, Jason (b), Tyrone and Ryan. The downside of rolling with Nate first is that he isn't tired out yet. I tried to initiate more passes instead of going right to guard. I worked and worked and couldn't quite get past his guard. We reversed positions at some point and he was able to get past my guard, but I regained. It was more of a chess match than usual. Good roll.

Jason (b) didn't completely demolish me, but he came close. I took a risk when he was setting up for a gi d'arce from KOB and tried to get underneath him. It almost got me arm-barred and then triangled, but I was able to finish the escape and get to a neutral position. I had zero luck passing his guard. James commented midway through that I was leaning forward during my standing guard pass instead of keeping my posture up.

I didn't want to submit Tyrone, but he keeps breaking the both-arms-in-or-both-arms-out rule so I couldn't help but triangle him. I did let him work mount escapes, and generally did a lot of open guard.

First time I've rolled with Ryan. He's very new, only a couple of classes in. He tried the move of the day with the double-unders, and I trapped his arms and collar choked him for his troubles. I'm such a jerk. I should have let him complete the pass, or at least get further through it. After that I did catch and release, and again worked a lot of open guard. After class he asked me about defending the collar choke, and I obliged by teaching him about how to break a deep collar grip and to never, ever let someone have that grip.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Risk vs Reward

Yesterday I felt very low energy, so I skipped lifting and went to bed early. Woke up feeling much better today. Good thing, b/c there's about 6" of snow that needs shoveling when I get home.

Submissions from top side-control. All of them involved moving to N/S, trapping one of their arms under your pit, and then transitioning back for a sprawled-away-from-them kimura, lying-next-to-them kimura, or a choke. I was working with Sarah, which is always a welcome relief to drill with someone that doesn't outweigh me by 50lb. 

Rolls with Sarah, Antone, Tyrone, Jason (b) and Nate. I was happy with how I rolled with Sarah, as I felt that the majority of my movements were smooth and controlled. Felt like I was flowing around, using momentum and staying a step or so ahead.

Antone was tying me up in knots, but I could tell that he was also sitting back at times so that I could regain guard or escape. It was kindof a weird roll, in that he was clearly working to get to a position, securing it, letting me out and then moving on to something else. He subbed me at the end of the round with something, but don't remember what it was. He mentioned after the roll that I wasn't falling for the stuff that I used to, so at least there's that.

I worked guard with Tyrone and went for several submissions. In hindsight I should have worked sweeps instead, but he's been there long enough and pressuring me to the point where I couldn't help it. I was so proud when he executed an excellent upa escape from bottom mount. I snagged a couple arm-bars, one from guard and one from mount. I had a difficult time passing his guard but was eventually able to get around a couple of times. 

Jason did his usual wrecking job on me today. He got a very clean N/S choke, which I didn't quite see coming b/c I thought he was going for one of the techniques that we had drilled in class. When I realized it was a N/S choke it was too late to do anything. Not that I know how to defend them anyway (turn in?). 

Last roll with Nate, hooray. I love getting the super scrambly guy at the end. I was able to slow him down to an extent with my guard. At one point I was set up beautifully for a triangle but I could not keep his posture down. I was actively working to keep his head down and he was having none of it. He eventually postured up enough that I was losing it, and then he stood up. I kept a hold of his arm and was attempting an arm-bar while he was standing. I looked down and realized that I was in a hell of a precarious position, b/c I had all of my limbs on his arm and nothing except my head to break my fall if I fell. I considered risk vs. reward and decided to bail on the arm-bar. Bummer to let it go, but I'm happy with the choice. He wouldn't have tried to deliberately spike me, but it was entirely possible that he'd try to shake me off.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Going Out On a Limb

I've had a notion for awhile that new people starting at our school jump right into the fire. We don't have a curriculum or a basics/fundamentals class, which can lead to new people learning complex techniques before the basics. I have an idea of what constitutes the basics, but it's certainly up for debate (even in my own head).

In any case, we've had an influx of new people over the past several months. The class sizes are growing, and it has struck me repeatedly that our new folks can be adept at N/S chokes, but have no clue how to escape mount. Escapes definitely aren't sexy, and as such not many people want to focus on them. James rarely covers basic escapes, and I think he's relying on upper belts to help lower belts with the fundamental escapes during rolls. I feel a deep empathy with folks who are relatively new, as the first school I attended was run in a similar manner. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to teach jiu jitsu. They guys who came to James with little to no prior experience in jiu jitsu and have been with him several years are very good. However, having dedicated time to cover fundamentals can't be anything but a benefit. I was thinking not just basic movements, but even a discourse on the various positions (mount, guard, etc) and transitions (sweep vs. pass vs. escape).

I messaged James about this last night, and volunteered to do an hour-long basics class once a week. I indicated that this was dependent on whether he saw the same need/benefit, if there enough people to merit a class and if he thought I would be competent to instruct. He responded that he was very interested, and we'll chat about it in person. He already teaches upwards of 12 classes week. When he introduced the Sunday advanced class earlier this month, someone had to step up to teach the Fri night no gi class b/c he was maxed out.

So....we'll see what happens.


Monday, January 27, 2014

Go to Class, You Won't Regret It

I was considering not going to class today, as I was wiped after yesterday's 2.5hrs. I really don't want to start the week worn down, but figured I could just go for technique and not roll if I wasn't feeling it. Sometimes not going to class is the right answer, but sometimes it works out ok.

Rolling today was flat out awesome. I'm not even to going to bother with the technique portion. I want to bask in the glow of a really, really good day of rolling for awhile.

One funny note is that I couldn't pay someone to put a DLR hook in today so that I could practice the passes that I learned in my private lesson yesterday. I even overtly used my leg as bait but no one would take it. Seriously???

First roll was with Sarah. Desperately tried to stay out of 50/50 and mostly succeeded. I had a very difficult time passing her guard, but eventually got a top position. Wasn't able to do anything with it though.

Next roll with a new guy, Ryan. It was his very first class, so I told him to just get on top using any means necessary. For (purportedly) never having rolled before, he did very well. Was just shy of being spazzy.  Did a good job of controlling limbs, and only grabbed for fingers a few times (which might have been by mistake). I did a few catch-and-release subs, but primarily worked from guard and let him play with trying to get around me.

Van was next. It's her b-day, and I had teased her earlier that she was going to get choked 20 times today in celebration. I didn't get her once, although I had mount and was doing a fog choke that was pretty tight. She was absolutely determined not to tap, and she didn't and was able to survive. We were backed up against a wall at that point, so we reset from a neutral position in the middle.

After that it was Dennis, who it seems like I haven't rolled with for weeks. He had top side control and was fishing for a wrist lock and damn near got it. I had to work and work to finally get my arm free. Once I did though, I slapped on the inverted triangle that doesn't work, but this time I started going for a kimura on his near-side. He defended both of those well, and I finally gave it up. I don't know if it was a transition from there or somewhere else, but I somehow got to his back and attempted to work chokes from there. He tried repeatedly to shake me off, but I think we ended the round with me still harassing him with a bow and arrow. After the roll he said he felt like my game has gone up a notch. Nothing feels better than getting feedback like that from respected peers. That was the last roll during class.

After class, Jason (b) plopped down next to me and wanted to roll. This is where I really went to town. I've never dominated him in a roll, but I put a clinic on him today. He wasn't giving me positions either. I was just in the zone. It felt amazing! I passed his guard, got back-mount, transitioned to mount and worked on sub after sub. Kimura, americana, ezekiel, fog choke, back to americana, ezekiel...just moving from one to the other based on what he gave me. He was defending the submissions well and trying to escape, but I was having none of that. Finally I think I got him with the fog choke. We reset and I worked guard this time. I ended up in deep half guard, worked a sweep from there, and then we were done. A bunch of people were sitting around after class watching, which gave me extra motivation to implement my game.

I was spent after that roll, as I was going pretty close to competition pace with Jason. Julio wanted to roll for a bit though, so we rolled for a few minutes. He showed me a really nifty transition if you go for a hip bump sweep and they try to push your opposite side leg down. Reach your arm over like you're going for the kimura (i.e. getting the reverse underhook (?)), but then feed your hand across their chest. It's bizarre, but it locks down their arm and shoulder and you can take the back.

I'm going to savor this feeling, and try to remember it the next time I'm feeling down about my game and that I don't belong in my rank.

Advanced Class

Before the advanced class yesterday, I had a private with James. Private lessons are one of the best Christmas presents ever. Following it up with the advanced class where I could drill the hell out of the techniques was perfect.

For the lesson, I asked him for help with open guard passes. We started with DLR, since I have a terrible time doing anything once they establish a hook. He showed me a relatively simple way to pop the hook and pass to side-control or take the back. He also showed me a pass where you dive under their non-hooking leg and are laying perpendicular to them while keeping their legs elevated. It was an odd position, but effective.

After that I we did a couple where they don't have the DLR hook. You grab behind their back, put your head to their shoulder and spin them down. Foot outside, foot inside and then windshield wipering it outside, if it gets stuck inside, and what to do if they have the bottom of your jacket trapped.

At the very end I asked about avoiding foot locks, as I seem to fall for those fairly often. He gave me some pointers when lassoing a leg, which is where I commonly get trapped.

We rolled for a bit at the end, and near the end I found myself in bottom half and was able to execute my current favorite bottom half sweep. We rolled for over 5min, but once I got that sweep I had to take a break. I think I'm conditioned to 5min rounds, and anything longer than that and my body starts to notice. I might ask James if we can do some longer rounds during class every now and again just to mix things up.

Had about a half hour break between the lesson and class. During class I drilled all of the above, and then rolled with Jason (b), Keith, Russ, Kelly, and Jason (p). My defense felt really on point with everyone. I was in bad situations, but I think Jason (p) was the only one that got a submission. I was all over Keith, and wasn't sure if he was specifically trying to work back-mount defense or if I just had his number. I had a bow and arrow but didn't finish it correctly and he was able to escape.

At one point during drilling, Jason (p) wanted to work on breaking grips. So no problem, we start from the knees and I start gripping his lapel and sleeves. At one point I had his lapel, and he broke the grip so violently that even my short nails were bent back. At least three of them, all at once. I had to take a moment and compose myself by doing a bunch of forward and backwards rolls while holding my fingers to my chest. I keep pretty short nails, but apparently not short enough.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Open Mat

There's a local tournament in which we have kids competing, so James wasn't leading class today. Instead, we had an open mat, courtesy of Antone. Before class, I watched Xande's berimbolo defense over and over so that I would have at least some answer for it. There's enough people doing it and I'm so bad at allowing the DLR hook that I'm basically begging to be bolo'd. Anyway, I asked Antone to bolo me a couple of times so that I could work on it. Watching a video and putting it into practice are two waaaaaaay different things, but I got the gist of it.

Had one roll with Aaron, a couple with Antone and Jay, and a bunch with Ian and Jason (p). No warm-ups, just right into flow rolling and then gradually full-speed rolling. My flow roll with Jason was nice, as he was allowing me to work a bit and he wasn't going non-stop for submissions. During one of our non-flow rolls I had an inverted triangle on him and he ended up choking me with a gi choke while he was turned away from me. Sad panda. Our last roll consisted of him in top side control, putting unbelievable pressure on my sternum. He's a big guy, probably close to 200lb. He usually feels heavy, but this was especially heavy pressure. He asked me mid-way through "Is the pressure good?" and I managed to choke out "Yes, it sucks". He mentioned it after class too, so clearly it's some new fangled thing he's working on. Meh. After he finally tapped me with something, we restarted with less than a minute left in the round. I tried to get him in open guard, but he shrugged it off like he usually does and right back to top side-control. He made a comment like "what are you doing?"...which is exactly what I was thinking. I did kindof just give up on that guard b/c after being under his side-control for most of the round my will to fight had been pretty well squelched.

One of my rolls with Antone was really pretty fun, as I was trying to not get caught in the same mistakes that I often make against him. Either he was letting me work or I did especially well in that roll. He didn't bolo me during any of our rolls, so I couldn't try my shiny new defense.

My rolls with Jay were frustrating as he was moving like a glacier during his passes, but they were all successful. I don't think I got top position on him once.

Ian and I had a feisty rolls. I was proud of my arm-bar defense. He had top position and went for the arm-bar, but I was able to sidle up next him and escape. I did better in our first couple of rolls, as I had his back and was dominating position. The latter half of the rolls he came right at me and I struggled to keep him from passing.

I tried to roll smooth with Aaron and let him work a bit. I didn't go for any submissions and focused on using my legs more than my arms.

Mid-way through class, a woman came in, Patience, who is interested in doing jiu jitsu. She made an interesting comment as I was chatting with her after class (no one else seemed to know what to do with a new person). I initially asked her if she was interesting in trying jiu jitsu, and she said that she wasn't going to try jiu jitsu, but that she was going to do jiu jitsu. Regardless of what the future holds for her, I applaud her bravado.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Arm-Wrap to Victory

Today was getting an arm-wrap, both for gi and no gi. From there, transitioning to an omoplata or triangle. Or, create some space and do a modified butterfly sweep or hit another triangle. Triangles....triangles everywhere!

Relatively small class today. I was working with Van, and her flexibility slays me. We did a couple of extra scenarios with the triangle, one of them being an americana if they try to keep your hips down with their trapped arm. I could not finish the americana to save my life. James came over to fix my angles, and he could barely finish it on her. He had to hip up as high as he could go and rotate her forearm in a nauseating amount. I've never been able to finish an omoplata on her. It's absurd.

Rolls with Van, Jason, Wayne and James. Van's knee slice pass is good, but my defense was just a touch better today. I was able to get my arm under the leg she was trying to pass and use that to keep her from getting through. At one point, I trapped one of her sleeves next to her opposite leg (her left wrist to her right leg) and swept her to the side. I've never executed that sweep before, even though we've drilled it a few times. I was pretty pleased with that...not so much that I executed a sweep, but that there was something in the back of my head that I never use that I attempted at the right opportunity.

Jason and I had another really good roll. He had a suffocating top side-control. I kept trying to weasel out and weasel out, and finally I got his far arm trapped and went for my high-frequency-zero-success inverted triangle. This one was apparently pretty close, as he rolled and I had him mount. But I was facing away from him at this point, and once again had no idea how to get the angle I needed. Once I was in that reverse mount I didn't think my legs were in good position anyway, so I let it go and tried to get a kimura from technical mount. He told me after the roll that he was close to tapping from the triangle and that it was tight through the transition to mount.

I don't remember much about my roll with Wayne. He got me with a footlock b/c I lasso'd his arm like an idiot with a spiderguard variation but didn't do anything else with it. I got him later on with a triangle or something. It was driving me crazy to roll with him b/c he had spilled coffee on his gi (a brand new white gi, what a shame), and having a strong odor of coffee mid-roll was just too much for my brain to handle.

James finally quick ducking me and we had a roll. I say that in jest, as the past couple of classes he'd come over to my square like it was about to go down, and then he'd call an end to class. Today we actually rolled, and I did moderately ok. He bolo'd me at least twice. At one point he partially had my back and was sinking in a choke, but I was able to defend and escape. I think it was a legitimate escape, as he really seemed to try to finish the choke.

Several teammates are going to the sub only tournament in Oregon next weekend and I'm bummed that I'm not going. I don't miss the stress of competing, but I do miss the camaraderie and overcoming personal fears. Hopefully I'll have money to compete next year.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

What Do You Even Call It?

We worked a gi choke today, and the best name that we could come up with was the "lapeloplata". I don't foresee me adding it to my regular inventory anytime soon, but it was interesting to do something completely different. 

From your closed guard, get a grip on a bottom corner of the gi jacket, feed your same side arm under their thigh, grip the gi jacket with the arm that's under their thigh and perform an omoplata sweep. If they try to block your free leg with their far arm, pull the arm in for an arm-bar. There was an animated discussion about whether you should be gripping the gi palm up or palm down. I tried it palm up, but my grip felt much weaker and I couldn't even keep all of my fingers wrapped around the fabric. Antone felt the same way. James said that with palm up you can use it to "punch" the sky as you chop down the leg for the sweep, but it fell on deaf ears. Antone tried to turn the position into a berimbolo with little success. We also worked on an ezekiel by pulling the bottom of the jacket up to their neck and gripping with the opposite arm that is draped across the back of their neck. Feed other hand under the gi fabric and viola.

Rolls with Antone, Tyrone and Sol (twice). Antone and I had a pretty technical roll. I had the inverted triangle set up from bottom side control but _still_ can't finish it. I simply can't fathom the required angle. I also took his back at one point but couldn't get both hooks. Went for a bow and arrow and couldn't finish that either. I suspect he was letting me have positions today.

Went on the offensive with Tyrone and got a triangle and a couple of arm-bars. One of the arm-bars I couldn't help b/c I was in guard and his arm was all the way across my chest and his hand was under my armpit. How do you pass up that opportunity. I tried like the dickens to keep him from passing and I think I was successful.

Sol went pretty hard the first round. Got top side-control and threatened numerous things, but I eventually worked my way out. The second time we rolled I tried to pass his guard instead of the other way around. Met with a lot of failure. Pulling up on the same side elbow that I was passing seemed to be moderately effective, but I wasn't fending off grips and he ended up with a reverse scissor sweep. He completely dominated both rolls and did several catch and release submissions.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Sunday Afternoon & Monday Morning

1/19

I could probably just cut and paste my Sunday class write-up each week. They're probably all going to look like this: It's awesome, I drilled DLR sweeps, I had fun rolls. :)

I arrived a half hour early to get some extra drilling time with Russ. I wrote down a list of what I wanted to drill ahead of time, which helped when my brain started blanking out.

I did tiny bit of a DLR sweep if your opponent is in a combat stance that I watched on youtube right before I left. I did a fair amount of getting someone out of turtle, the DLR sweeps and the 93 guard sweep.

Can't remember who I rolled with besides Antone and James. I did pretty poorly against James. He was working some new techniques and I felt pretty clueless in my response.

1/20

Bigger than normal class due to MLK Jr. holiday. Both Sarah and Rachael were there, which made me quite happy. We worked back-mount escapes, specifically if they don't have a seatbelt, or if they have a seatbelt and get you to the bad side, or if they are applying a bow-n-arrow. I'm going to add back escapes to the list to drill next week, especially the bow and arrow b/c there several details that I usually miss.

Rolls with Keith, Sarah, Rachael and Joyce. The higher belt started with the lower belt on their back. I did rock-paper-scissors with Keith to figure out where we were starting, and since I was the higher belt with the rest I started with everyone on my back. I was able to escape the initial position with relative ease and get to guard. Keith and I had a great technical battle, definitely one of our better rolls together. At one point he tried to choke me from inside my guard, but I finally threatened a plausible sweep and he quit that. I know I should arm-bar all day, but he was somehow keeping my hips down to prevent that. Sarah got me into both 50/50 and X. She started passes from both positions, but don't think she was able to finish any. I am utterly clueless in 50/50.

Rachael and I had a good back and forth too. I had top side control for a piece of time, which she escaped and reversed. She had a tight top side-control that took me awhile to escape. I tried my reverse of the knee slice pass on her with no luck. Need some help with that too.

Joyce wasn't engaging for the first part of the roll, but I finally got her in my guard. I did the hip bump sweep, let her escape mount, swept again, let her escape, then let her work on passing my guard and top side control.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Class and Discourse

1/18

I have a sneaking suspicion that the new trend is for the people who attend the advanced class to skip on Saturdays. In some respects this makes sense, and many significant others will put up with their partner doing jiu jitsu on one weekend day but not both. However, I think it is more likely due to the fact that advanced people prefer rolling with advanced people, and given the option, will ditch a regular class. Purely speculation on my part though.

It was a big class nonetheless. Mostly white belts, with a couple of blues and a couple of purples. Kyle was in class, which was a treat b/c I haven't seen him in probably 6mos or so. He likes to give me a lot of good-natured ribbing. James decided to follow the Sunday plan for the Saturday class, which is 5min of drilling the technique(s) of your choice. We did several rounds of this, and then KOTH. I worked on the bury-head-in-their-hip half guard sweep and getting someone out of turtle from Friday's class.

For KOTH, Kyle was one of the initial guys down, so for the first roll I literally ran over and claimed him. We ended up going for about 20min. I was able to work my guard game at will, and attempted arm-bar after arm-bar after triangle after omoplata. However, I couldn't finish anything, which is why our roll lasted so long. I didn't get near to mount, although I think I got to top side-control once or twice. We had to reset several times b/c we were either getting too close to the wall or to other people. Finally, we went into 50/50, from whence he immediately got ahold of my foot and applied a toe hold. Sad for me, but it was a fun roll. I told him that roll was his wedding present, since he was getting married later that night.

I didn't have a roll with anyone else b/c soon after that time was called.

After class, I was interviewed by a classmate who is in an Occupational Therapy program. She's doing a paper on the types of activities that people do and how it impacts their lives. Took about half an hour, and I was able to wax poetic about jiu jitsu to my heart's content. She's going to use one of my tournament videos as a part of her presentation, which is kinda badass.




Friday, January 17, 2014

The Splits

Took Wednesday off from class, so ended up with three days in a row with no jiu jitsu. That isn't that long, but it felt like a week. Tues and Thurs night I went wall-climbing, so it's not like my body was refreshed for today's Friday morning class.

We had a new guy start today. He heard of us b/c he works at Chipotle, and apparently Antone goes there every day. This guy works at Chipotle, and Antone talked up our school enough that the kid came to try it out. Pretty cool!

Fun class, we went over how to get someone out of the turtle position. Nothing new, so I was able to focus on some details. Even so, I still drilled the first one wrong the entire time by not putting my hand down on the mat before trying to pull them into me. I might put a couple of these on the list to drill on Sunday.

Rolled with Sol, Jason (b), Dennis and Tryone.

I asked Sol to flow roll, and he responded by going very, very light. In fact, he was rolling more like he was my drilling partner instead of doing a flow roll, but that's ok. It was nice to kindof ease back into rolling.

I had really enjoyable rolls with both Dennis and Jason. They were back and forth affairs, and I was relatively close on an arm-bar with Jason close to taking Dennis' back. Jason transitioned from technical mount to a triangle. I was able to keep enough of my torso in so that even when he rotated around to finish it from guard I wasn't in too much danger. When he tried to adjust the angle, he left enough of an opening for me to pop out.

I worked from guard on Tyrone, and threatened the standard fare of arm-bars, omoplatas, triangles and collar chokes. I had to remind myself to do catch-and-release. At one point, he was in the midst of passing my guard with a variation of the knee cut pass. I don't remember the exact configuration, but somehow my legs got too far apart and it felt like I was involuntarily doing the splits. I'm not especially flexible in that area, and had to take a moment to myself. Fortunately, nothing was pulled, just uncomfortable. After half a minute I was able to continue the roll.

Tyrone got his first stripe.

Nate finally got a gi that fit. We're all so excited that he has sleeves and pants that we can actually grab.


Monday, January 13, 2014

Batten Down the Hatches

I considered taking off from class today b/c my body was a little irked about four jiu jitsu classes and a 2hr session of wall climbing in three days. Decided to ignore my body and go to class anyway. Had an ok session, although I was getting mauled in bottom side control.

We drilled regaining guard from a pass by pushing their arm across their body. It was a relatively easy technique, but there were a couple of new guys and I guess it was harder than it looked, b/c we spent more time drilling it than we normally would. After that, we did omoplata from spiderguard and an arm-bar from a failed omoplata. At the end we did tomoe nage on kneeling and standing opponents. I more or less got it from when my partner was kneeling, but wanted no part of the standing variation.

Rolls with C, Julio, Wayne and Nate. I was rolling either with a guy who was much bigger/stronger or more athletic. Awesome. I was kindof having a "day" anyway, so getting my guard passed and put into crushing side control was not a lot of fun. At one point, I had a half guard and Wayne had my wrist trapped under his leg. His shin was digging into my wrist, and finally I tapped from that b/c it was becoming seriously uncomfortable. Meh. Nate was on top for most of the roll, but toward the end I was able to reverse and was working to get both hooks in for back control.

I did that thing that I hate where I just hang out in bottom side and wait for them to transition to a different position or go for a submission. I really dislike just lying there, but when I feel like I'm getting battered around a bit, it's my little cocoon of survival. I can't come anywhere close matching those guys on strength, and my technique is still just good enough to survive, not to overcome.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Advanced Class

I LOVE this class. I did most of the same techniques as last week. Waiter sweep, DLR back-take, RDLR sickle sweep. I spent a little while transitioning between them, trying to initiate an effective movement based on my partner's response. The waiter sweep wasn't going very well for numerous reasons, and I a bit of help from James after class as to what I was doing wrong. I also the half guard sweep where you bury your head in their hip and dive under their free leg. That was one technique that was feeling really smooth.

Rolls with Jason (b), Jason (p), James and Jason (b) again. First roll with Jason (b) was a controlled and fairly even. I don't remember if I was on top, but I did threaten a triangle from guard until he worked his way out of it. It was an interesting escape that I haven't seen before. I'll have to ask him about that next week.

I had probably one of the best rolls that I've ever had with Jason (p). I don't think it was a matter of him letting me work...I felt like I was legitimately making things happen. He did get me with a wrist lock. I identified the danger a split second too late, and that's all it took.

Had a fantastic roll with James. Not sure to what extent he was letting me work, but I felt like I was hitting the right movements at the right time. This time I did identify a potential wrist lock in time and was able to get out of it. He didn't submit me, and in the last 30sec I tried like hell to keep him from sweeping me but couldn't stop it. I worked my ass off during that roll and was exhausted after.

Jason (b) and I did a flow roll for the final roll. It was a true flow roll, and I was happy for it after the tough one with James.

Have I mentioned I LOVE this class?



Saturday, January 11, 2014

Saturday is for Beginners

I considered ditching class b/c I was dragging a bit from yesterday and have a wall climbing adventure tonight. Also, the sun was out for the first time in quite awhile, and my dog was giving me the you-haven't-taken-me-outside-for-days eyes. I promised I'd take her in the afternoon and off I went.

I don't know if a bunch of guys made it their New Year's resolution to do BJJ, but it seemed to be the case today. We had four or five new guys, plus a couple of other newish people. I thought I was going to be the only higher belt (aside from James), but fortunately Clayton, Sol and Keith showed up.

We did the basic kimura from guard, then kimura to back-take, and then hip-bump sweep to triangle. I was working with Clayton for the most part, and both of us were struggling much more than we should have been with the kimura. I've never done James' set-up before, and we kept bonking heads and looking like idiots. I felt sorry for James, because there was another new guy who was just watching, and Clayton and I couldn't have been giving him a very good impression.

I rolled with Clayton and then left to take the dog on a long walk, in which she proceeded to get very, very muddy. That gives me about an hour of chilling before my next adventure. I felt bad not being more involved since there were so many new people, but I just didn't have it in me today.

Oh yeah, way to go Seahawks! Made it waaaaaaaaaay too close at the end, but the final score is all that matters.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Open Mat

We were a little late, but still had well over an hour to roll. Had a couple of warm-up rolls with Rachael, then Antone, then three or four white belts, Rachael again, and then some blue belts. A lot of the white belts were blending together in my head. I was playing a super relaxed game tonight. Partly to save energy, and partly because I wanted to avoid people spazzing out on me. It was an effective strategy, however, it landed me in quite a few bad positions. I was too relaxed, and I people were getting positions that I should have been able to prevent. I don't remember details of the individual rolls. The point was for it to be an experience, and it definitely was that.

It was enjoyable and challenging to roll with so many different body types and styles. Not knowing someone's style and having to adapt mid-roll to their strengths was really, really valuable learning tool. I hope the area has consistent open mats throughout the year. 

The highest belt I rolled with that I didn't know was another 4 stripe blue. Before we went I was hoping to get rolls with purples that I hadn't rolled with before, but they were all pretty big boys and I wasn't too sad when that didn't pan out.

After the open mat we went to a local Brazilian BBQ restaurant and gorged ourselves on the various offerings, especially the grilled pineapple. Soooooooooooo good.

In Control from Bad Positions

I am loving my new schedule. Getting sufficient sleep almost every night and have been able to fit lifting back into my weekly program.

Today we did attacks from KOB. Cross-choke into d'arce, gi d'arce, baseball bat (knee over their arm or knee past their arm) and pulling them up to take the back. Felt good with all of them.

Rolls with Sarah (twice), Sol and Jason (b). I felt smooth and very much in control today, even when I was in bad positions (if that makes sense). Sol had top position most of the time but wasn't able to complete any submissions. I was able to feed my knees through even better than usual. I couldn't do any collar chokes or some of my usual escapes from kesa gatame b/c he recently had tattoos done on his collarbone.

I stayed the hell away from Sarah's 50/50 and instead worked pressure passes or DLR. I controlled those rolls for the most part, and even tried some new techniques from earlier in the week. I made some adjustments on my bottom deep half to make it more effective.

Jason got me with at least one or two arm-bars early on. After that I stayed out of bad positions. More or less. He did get a bow and arrow but it wasn't quite enough under the chin so I was able to pry his arm off. I almost got his back and swept him a couple of times.

Overall, was really, really happy with how I rolled.

Going to drink another gallon or so of water for the open mat tonight in CDA. Looking forward to rolling with a bunch of people I've never rolled with before.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Best Flowing Non-Flow Roll

The only thing that I'm looking forward to when I'm a purple is being a purple belt that is on time to class. We had no fewer than four purples arrive late to class. To be fair, there were a couple of blues too.

Reverse scissor sweep on the menu for today. Reverse scissor into a shoulder lock after the sweep is complete, moving to a kimura if they stand up mid-way through and a single-leg take-down defense that ends in a reverse scissor motion.

Sadly for me, when drilling the last technique with Nate, my head came into painful contact with his head or knee or something quite firm. I had to take a few minutes to clear my noggin. Wasn't a concussion, but it certainly didn't feel very good.

Rolls with Nate, Sol, Nando, Tyrone and Jason (b). After class Antone and I rolled for awhile, probably ~10min or less.

Everyone was able to pass my guard, much to my dismay. I did get reversals on most everyone except for Sol. I think he was having a bad day, and was out to crush. Not in a mean way, but in a...well...I don't know how to describe it, but I didn't think it was a mean crushing. At one point, Nando was going for an ezekiel, which I managed to defend. After a bit of a scramble, I ended up with an anaconda that I couldn't finish b/c I never, ever drill the anaconda and really don't know how to do it right. I kept working it until the buzzer anyway.

Tyrone rolled well and is improving quickly. He passed my guard along with everyone else but I was able to regain and eventually start threatening chokes and arm-bars.

Jason and I had a pretty fun roll. I don't remember the details, but it seemed like while he was able to do some crushing from top side control, there was a little less crushing than usual.

The roll with Antone after class was quite enjoyable. There were a couple of points where he took a little off his game to let me work, and we had some cool transitions. It definitely wasn't a flow roll pace, but the number of transitions made it feel like a flow roll.

There's a open mat in a neighboring town that should be well attended. There were six or seven people sitting around before class, and James looks right at me and asks, "Is anyone interested in going to the open mat?". And just kept looking at me. So...I guess I'm going to the open mat.


Monday, January 6, 2014

Back to the Grind

So my two week holiday vacation is over. Now it's back to fitting an 8hr work-day plus jiu-jitsu and power-lifting. In some respects it's good to be back into a routine. I definitely function better in the midst of a routine. Speaking of which, I'm not going to do night classes anymore unless I have an over-abundance of energy. It's going to be the usual Mon-Wed-Fri morning classes and then Saturday and Sunday afternoons. My body gets worn out from two-a-days or a morning class following a night class. I think five classes a week is a good pace, and should allow me to get back to lifting.

Relatively small class this morning since everyone else is apparently back at work as well. We went over a couple of escapes from an opponent taking your back as you're turtled. Also did a escape from back-mount if you are taken to the wrong side (assuming they have over/under grips).

Rolled with Savannah, Tyrone, Dennis, Jason, Nate and Todd. Savannah was able to complete a pass, much to her credit. I eventually got mount, but her passing is really coming along well.

I tried numerous arm-bars and chokes on Tyrone but his defense was surprisingly good. He hasn't been training long, and I was impressed with his ability to survive bad positions. I was a jerk though and applied a body triangle b/c I knew he didn't know how to defend it. I wasn't squeezing hard though, and let it go to secure a bow and arrow.

Dennis and I had a great back and forth. We usually don't have scrambly rolls, but we were both getting after it today. I tried to break his grip on my pants but was failing miserably. I almost got the DLR sweep I've been working on but couldn't quite finish it. Was excited that I was able to destabilize his base at least.

Jason is definitely letting me work a bit more. I focused on grips at the beginning of the roll which he seemed to appreciate. He of course passed my guard and then got me with a americana from top side control after baiting me with a arm-bar. Later on he was close on a d'arce but didn't quite have his arm under my chin, so I was able to barely fend it off and survive.

I got Nate in a triangle and he stood up with me. I should have kept it locked, but I didn't get the needed grip behind his head and had to break it. I was able to secure a finish a triangle later. He passed my guard and ended the match in mount.

I was happy with how much offensive I was mounting today, but not pleased with how easy it is for people to pass my guard.


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Advanced Class

Today was the first advanced class (blue belt four stripes and up) and it was awesome. We did 5min rounds of drilling your choice. Then it was the other person's turn. Then rotate to someone else and repeat. We did this so that everyone had 5 rounds of drilling. I worked mainly on the DLR sweeps that James and I went over last month. I am really, really dodgy on one of them, and I think it's because I try to force it sub-optimal situations. I also don't have the motion or timing down at all with my legs. I discovered that I really need to pull their weight on top of me, and if they aren't expecting it and let their weight come too far forward, I might be able to get a tomoe nage type sweep out of it. I also worked the back-take, which I'm much more proficient. Did one round of the half guard sweep we worked yesterday and that went well except that I wasn't extending their leg. D'oh!

After drilling, we did our usual 5min rolls. I started with Jason (p), then Sol, Russ and James. I had one of my better rolls with Jason, although he may have been taking it easier on me than normal. He got a choke from top side fairly quickly, but seemed to let me work a bit after that.

Sol got in top side and was going for some dirty gi choke but I eventually worked myself back into guard.

Russ wanted to flow roll, and I guess we kinda sorta flow rolled. But not really. It was an aggressive type of flow. :p

James seemed to be working some new techniques. I did have a nice escape at one point that immediately led into a wrist-lock, so my success was pretty short-lived. I was doing a decent job of not getting into a truly awful positions, and I was really happy with how I moved and transitioned. I could tell that he was going for points in the last 30sec and I was able to prevent the sweep. Great roll, and great class overall. Everyone loved it.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Happy to Survive

Mind and body felt much better today than yesterday. I was a little skeptical going into class, but was able to roll no problem. It helped that I went against lower belts.

Pretty balanced class today as far as belt levels. One new guy, a couple of inexperienced white belts, and a mix of blues and purples. A couple of the new guys didn't have gi tops, so we did half guard sweeps using the bury your head and control the hip method. I've seen this once before, and I liked it quite a bit. There so many little details to it that I'll happily just work on the entry for it during rolling for the next month or so. You can go to a knee-bar, complete the sweep and then knee-bar, or go to deep half.

Rolls with Rachael, Savannah, Dustin, Mike and Aaron. I did well against Rachael and Savannah, maintaining top positions or passing/sweeping at will. It wasn't easy, but I was able to dictate the matches. I can't remember if I've rolled with Dustin before. He's relatively new but has a pretty decent open guard game. I was able to pass but really had to work at it. Aaron a month or so in and I worked more top game than I should have with him. I didn't go for submissions, so at least I wasn't being a total ass.

Mike was brand new, a big guy, probably 230lb+ and possessed Old Man Strength. He didn't have a gi, and he immediately came at me like I had stolen his kids' lunch money. I had a hard time keeping him in my guard b/c I didn't have grips, and also because he was tossing me around like a rag doll. At one point he threw my legs to the side and dived on top of me. I definitely had an "oh shit" moment when he did that, and I was looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to the fact that I might get mauled in the remaining four minutes and to please have a phone ready for the ambulance. He got in top side control, stepped over and went for a kimura. I was able to wriggle out of that and finally got back to a guard. I was getting a little pissed at this point, because he was just doing the big guy spaz thing and I'd had enough. I threw up a couple of armbars and triangles, but he was so thick and strong that he was able to rip out of everything. At one point I had a somewhat decent omoplata and he ripped out of that too. I tried for the sit-up sweep several times, but the second I'd come off the mat he'd smash back into me. Near the end he was trying to choke me from inside my guard, and I wish like hell I could have finished the arm-bar from there. It's almost offensive when someone tries to choke you from inside your own guard. Looked like he signed up after class, so I'm looking forward to the next I get to roll with him and he's wearing a gi.

It's been awhile since I've rolled with a big spazzy guy, and I don't miss it at all. I did feel validated that my jiu jitsu is good enough so that I can at least survive those scenarios.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Doubts

It's weird. Since the mono, I feel like my body has aged 10yrs in 6mos. I was wiped out after class today, and was barely able to drag myself out to the ridge for walk with the dog. I haven't had as much water in the past 24hrs as I should have, but I can't imagine it would knock me this far out. The problem is that this general fatigue is getting to be a more and more frequent occurrence. I love jiu jitsu but I can't be dragging ass all the time. I went to all the trouble of moving my squat rack, bench and weights into the house and absolutely don't have the energy to use them.

Aside from that, I'm feeling like the locomotive headlight is bearing down on me in regards to belt ranking. It's so utterly dumb to obsess about it, but I've chatted about it with a couple of teammates and it's causing me angst. One of my teammates is a two stripe blue and is not happy about being left out of the advanced class on Sunday. When we roll, he often comes out ahead, and submitted me just this morning. Both of us would agree that he's the superior jiu jiterio. But I have four stripes, so I can attend the advanced class and he can't. It's also true that I'll be eligible for promotion before summer, and he probably won't. How is that fair? He's better. Not just athletically. Technically.

I am very, very egalitarian-minded. It really rubs me the wrong way that just by looking at my belt that someone would get the impression that I am better than I am. I think I'm going to ask James to hold off on purple until the fall, because I sure as hell don't feel as if I'm on that precipice yet. I felt like I was worthy of blue when that promotion happened, but not this one. Maybe I won't in the fall either, but good grief.

"Trust the instructor", is what I would tell myself if I were looking at it objectively. I do trust the instructor. But I don't like feeling that I don't fit the standard of the grade either. Hmpf.

Friday Morning

Everyone decided to make Friday morning the return-from-holidays class. Biggest group I've seen on a Friday since Walter visited a couple of months ago.

We started off class with a bit more cardio than usual during warm-ups. It might be that James is getting serious about competition season. I didn't get my usual amount of sleep and was dragging in the morning, but it didn't affect me during warm-ups.

KOB transitions and submissions. We had a brand new guy, a couple of white belts and rack of purple belts and some blues. James spent alot of time with the new guy, so the rest of us got quite a few reps in. We did the far-side arm-bar which I feel pretty comfortable with, a transition into s-mount and then just transitioning the KOB from side to side. I love the far-side arm-bar but I miss a lot of details on it.

Today was KOTH with passes/sweeps, which is my kryptonite. I did have one successful sweep or pass, but otherwise it was one shutout after another. Sol just made me feel dumb with his sweeps. He broke my posture, pulled my arm across and over I went. It was like I was helpless to break his grips and maintain posture. Really poor showing against him on every occasion. I felt like I was getting close to passing Antone's guard and then of course he swept me. I was able to go against most of the guys a couple of times. Kevin S. is training with us, who I haven't trained with since 2009 or so. He was a new purple when I had just started, but he gave it up after awhile. I was able to get a spiderguard sweep on him, which I think is the first time I've ever legitimately got that sweep to work.

We had a couple rounds of KOTH with submissions instead of passes/sweeps. I did a bit better, but was still struggling.

Overall I'm displeased with the passivity of my game. The guys get their sweep/pass and I just accept it. I wish that I didn't, but I think I'm so sick and tired of getting crushed when I try to fight it off that it's easier to accept the bad position and start focusing on escapes instead of trying and failing to not accept the bad position. If that makes any sense. I think I'm unhappy about my game in other ways, although I can't quite nail down the problem. Maybe it's feeling like I should be a lot better than I am as a four stripe blue.

Thursday Night

First class in close to week due to holidays and my body needing a rest from going so much the week before. I felt really good heading into class, although I was a bit tired. Figured it was going to be a big class with a lot of people wanting to get back to it after the holidays, but it was a surprisingly small group.

James took requests on escaping positions. We did a relatively basic side-control escape and a back mount escape. Both of those I've seen before. We might have done another escape, but I'm not sure.

Rolled with Rachael and a couple of other people but I don't remember who. We also rolled for awhile after class without a clock. I was able to maintain top position for most of the roll, which was gratifying. Funny I don't remember who else I rolled with or any other details. At least I remembered some of the techniques, which is the important part.