Wednesday

Technique consisted of attacking combat stance with DLR. I wish I would have remembered this stuff during my matches at Pans. Could've come in handy methinks. James also did a DLR sweep if opponent stands.

Drilled and rolled with Sarah. The last five minutes I rolled with Zach b/c Sarah was pooped from not sleeping the night before. Fun roll with Sarah. I made a TON of mistakes. Some of it I was just kindof trying stuff out, some of it was me making poor life choices for no good reason.

Was fairly even with Zach. I was heavily invested in not being in a bottom position b/c he's a bigger guy. Managed to stay on top and work guard passes and top side. 

Lots of stripes given out after class to blue belts. Forgot to mention that Sarah received her fourth stripe on Monday. Very happy for her.

Sunday and Monday

At some point on Saturday, I bit the bullet and signed up for the Mendes bros site. I figured I'd give it a month to see how I liked it and go from there. I watched several vids multiple times before advanced class on Sunday and gave them a whirl. One was a back-take from turtle, another was maintaining back-control if they get the bottom hook out. If they get their shoulder to the mat, transitioning to a knee cut pass and then arm-bar. I liked the explanation for the techniques and I think they'll be effective with enough drilling.

I picked Mendes b/c they're two relatively smaller guys with very strong top and bottom games. Their site seems to be very well managed, they explain things clearly and in detail that I like and they have a lot of videos from a variety of positions. 

I'm hoping that even if I don't incorporate a bunch of their specific techniques into my game that I'll learn a good number of concepts that will help me with my game and with teaching.

Sunday

In advanced class rolled with Manny, Kelly, Chaz, Jason W. and Julie. Definitely feeling like I have more energy for rolls, even though it didn't do much good in the final outcome. I was getting pretty well dominated by all of the guys. A flow roll at the end with Shaun that was kindof a flow roll. Felt like I did some good things there.

Monday

A bunch of submissions from top side that I haven't seen before. Liked them all quite a bit.

Rolled with Sarah for the entire time. Was really nice to have her back in class. She won't be able to do the M/W morning classes once her schedule changes in a couple of weeks. I don't have quite the thoughtful, chess-like roll with her that I have with anyone else.

Fri Morning and Saturday

Friday morning class.... don't remember much, except that I spent the entirety of one roll with Jason S. having figure four back control. I survived in that I didn't get submitted, but that was brutal.

Saturday Fundies consisted of 8 folks and almost ALL of them were brand new. A little unfortunate that today was open guard day, but I put it off last week and didn't want to put it off again. So..... I tried to make open guard very, very basic. Hopefully I succeeded. Went over some concepts of open guard: managing distance, managing movement side-to-side and having some sortof inside control. DLR sit-up sweep, DLR to tripod sweep and DLR to RDLR sickle sweep.

Noon class we had a bunch of drop-ins from other gyms. Technique was DLR sweeps if someone has a combat stance. Either dump them side a la sit-up sweep, or do a technical stand-up to dump them the other way. If you can get their far arm close enough into you, butt scoot toward them and throw your leg over for an arm bar.

Rolls were KOTH, win by mount or submission. If you win thrice, you go back to the wall.

First roll was with one of the visitors, Mick. Big older blue belt. I worked guard a bit, then bailed to bottom half when I was about to passed. Worked quite a bit of bottom half trying to get underneath him. Realized I wasn't going to succeed, so finally got my leg out and worked open guard again. I swept him somehow and got to mount. Wish I could remember the sweep.

Joyce after that. I didn't roll with her long, taking an arm-bar pretty early into it. Shouldn't have gone for a sub quite that early. 

Then it was Naomi, who I tried to flower sweep about ten times before I finally got it. I should have moved to something else, but I was determined to get it. Finally got her post hand tied up enough that she wasn't able to stop it.

Rolls with Kelly, Mick again, Ryan M., James and Kasey. Kelly was just toying with me for awhile until he finally got me with some sort of submission. Against Mick I worked open guard again, got a sweep (again don't remember how) and then got to mount. Ryan almost got a guillotine while I was in half guard (I keep forgetting that 9/10 subs those guys try are going to be guillotines). I defended that and then got caught with...something.

Kasey...same roll every time. I tried some open guard, almost had a half a second of success with the spiderguard hammer sweep, then I ended up mounted.

Interesting roll with James...tried to pass his guard, and as he was going for a sweep I shot forward and had top side control with both of his arms isolated (one with my legs and one with my arms). I maintained that for a split second and then he was out. I tried to take his back but got wrist-locked before I could get around.

Thursday

Kelly taught in place of Russ, who had to work late. Poor bastard.

Technique consisted of DLR sweeps. Sit-up sweep, RDLR sickle sweep and tomoe nage. A little kiss of the dragon at the end that we didn't have time to drill.

Rolls with Tien, Kelly, Kayla, Daniel and Chaz. Did fairly well with everyone except Chaz and Kelly. Kelly was letting me get to better positions then working out of them. Chaz just kicked my ass like usual. I get into trouble so fast with him. He tried to set up a knee-bar from top position at least twice, and I like to think that I foiled his plans with good defense.

I was getting a little down on myself when rolling with Kelly and Chaz, but not too bad. It's not so much that I expect to win, but I feel like I ought to be at least competitive. Or something. I was frustrated because I was running out of gas. Not quite as bad as last week where I felt downright exhausted mid-roll, but definitely more tired than I should have been. 

Just need to be patient.

Wednesday

No instruction today, drilling instead. 

I didn't have a plan, so winged it with my DLR transitions, grip breaking and passing half guard. I need to get out of my comfort zone and drill some different things, like, oh...takedowns.

Rolls with Ryan, Sol, Chris, Jason S.. The only thing that I liked about how I rolled is that I had a good frame with my forearm as Sol was trying to come around to finish the pass. My energy was pretty decent and I'm finally seem to be getting over the head cold. Even though I don't feel like I rolled well, I'm not as unhappy about it as I was last week. That's something.

Weekend + Monday

Saturday Fundies class went pretty well. Was going to cover open guard, but had two really new people show up so decided to do back-control escapes instead. 

Don't remember the technique for the noon class, but I wasn't drilling much anyway. Rachael's tailbone was really bothering her, to the point where she was worried it was fractured. I was checking on her while half-heartedly drilling. I don't remember the rolls, other than they weren't fun.

Sunday drilling was a little scattered b/c once again I was rushed before class and didn't have time to prepare. Rolls were a hot mess, I was pretty much smashed in bottom side control the entire time. Still not having fun.

Monday morning Sarah was back, but only for today and will probably be out for at least another week or so. Technique was passing lock-down half guard and options from the knee cut.

KOTH b/c we had over 20 people in the morning class (ugh). I mean, it's great that it's doing so well, but KOTH in morning class just makes me sad. Sarah asked James if we could start off together, and we ended up rolling the entire time. THAT was fun.

Fri Morn No Gi

Woke up feeling very meh, but a cup of coffee and copious amounts of sunshine more or less fixed that. Would have liked very much to not have to go to work today.

Technique was transitioning to s-mount from side-control or getting a near side arm-bar by getting them into a sortof crucifix from top side. I don't even know how to explain it using words. 

James' back was bugging him, so after a couple of techniques we started rolling. Laurie, Chris, Jason S., Christopher, Ryan and Shaun. Might be forgetting someone.

I felt like I would do a bunch of crappy things and then one really good thing in my rolls. I was getting smashed quite a bit, especially from Christopher. He perched on top of me and I couldn't help but let out some grunts as I was gasping for air. 

Chris got me in several submissions, including what I think was a peruvian necktie or something along those lines. He doesn't have much of a middle ground...either he's using his strength to smash or he goes limp. I don't mind that he subs me, but when he just completely sits back and practically sets an arm-bar up for me to finish after he gets a sub is off-putting.

Ryan had top control for awhile but I was able to defend (barely) and eventually got to a top position b/c he was holding out for an arm submission that wasn't going to happen. He also went for a heel hook. Wtf with heel hooks at blue? A promoted-less-than-a-week-ago-blue at that?

Shaun wanted to flow roll, and as he started cranking an arm submission I asked him if we were still flowing. He told me he was intending to do catch and release submissions, but the way he was cranking it gave me the impression that he forgot we were flowing. From there out was fine, as he truly did catch-and-release.

All in all, jiu jitsu still not much fun. :(

Thu Night

Out since Saturday due to head cold. Nothing bad. I've been comparing colds to the pneumonia I had last year and it helps me to remember that a head cold really isn't that big of a deal.

Since I've been out, I've been watching lots of jiu jitsu vids. An occasional instructional, but mostly highlights. I was looking forward to getting back on the mat tonight and doing my version of graceful, effective movement. 

Turns out I'm not an elite level black belt and I don't move the way they move. Not even close. There's nothing newsworthy here, except that a little seedling of expectation must have been planted at some point that my rolling would mimic high level competition rolling. 

Russ taught tonight, and it was refreshing to have a smaller class of 10 instead of 20+. He went over a takedown, pass, mount choke and transition to arm-bar from mount. Good stuff, all of it.

Rolled with Emilie, Jason W., Kelly, Manny and Russ. Looking back, I didn't roll that bad, but I certainly didn't feel like I rolled well. I tried to incorporate the hybrid spider/shin guard from a video that I watched on Michelle Nicolini but I didn't fare very well. Having never even drilled it, much less trying it live rolls against people better than I was...of course it's not going to go well.

Emilie did a great job of taking away space when she was in top position. She's a little noodly in bottom positions, but she's making great progress.

Jason and I had the same roll we always have, where we start on our knees, he shuts down my guard (open or closed), he passes into a stifling side-control and then submits with a wrist lock or leg lock. He was choosing predominantly leg locks tonight and it was getting to me. I finally started to go right to turtle from the reset just to try something different.

Kelly was working some inverted guard that I thought I did ok at nullifying. He started off the roll with donkey guard. *sigh*

Manny seemed to be giving me positions and working sub defense.

Russ was pretty much shutting me down everywhere.

I think my cardio isn't quite recovered from the cold, so hopefully that's the source of my doldrums. Class hasn't been fun for over week and it's bumming me out. 

Seminar, Private Lessons, Promotions...and Getting Dropped on My Head

Friday Night Seminar
 
Still felt tired on Friday, but not exactly comatose.

Seminar was massive, at least 40 people. We had to do techniques in groups of three, rotating with one person sitting out b/c there wasn't enough mat space. We have GOT to get more mat space, but that's another matter.

Started off with simple guard passing to KOB if you're not engaged with opponent. A pass using your leg to trap their shin against their hamstring and then smashing down their other leg, finishing with a knee slice over both legs.

A different wrinkle on the far-side arm-bar from KOB (or if they are trying to prevent KOB in the first place). A far-side arm-bar from side-control using a I-don't-even-know-how-to-explain grip or switching it to a kimura on the near side. 

Can't remember what else, but I took pretty good notes.

After the seminar was rolling, similar 4min KOTH format as Thursday night. I did ok against lower belts, felt like crap against everyone else.

Julio and James M. were then shark tanked for 10min. I was 3rd to go with Julio, but thankfully the two guys before me tired him out enough that I was able to take his back and harass him with chokes for most of the minute. I tried to switch to top control but lost it near the end of the minute. They both got absolutely WORKED.

They were awarded their black belts at the end, and it was understandably an emotional experience for both of them. 

Saturday Private

There was a kerfluffle Friday night when Rachael and I learned that there would be an open mat during our private. Wasn't happy about that, but whatever.

We were planning on doing takedowns for the entire lesson, but after a half hour we happily moved on to something else because our asses were starting to hurt. I don't know the name of the first, but the second was a sasae. 

Baiting an opponent into an arm-bar/crucifix if they split pass with double-unders, half guard split pass that ends in a kuzure kesa gatame (going to refer to this simply as "kuzure" from now on). 

He gave us some good advice from a variety of areas, including collar grip in guard and trapping the near arm in crucifixes.

Rachael and I rolled after the private. I tried the sasae and ended up pulling her on top of me. Otherwise it went ok. Rolled with a couple of other people, did ok.

Saturday Belt Testing

I had changed out of my gi and was ready to head out when they asked me to stay and be the uke for Shaun's portion of the belt test. So I stayed for a couple of hours to do that. At one point, he dropped me right on my head doing a takedown. He warned me beforehand "don't faceplant!", but I didn't know the takedown and couldn't anticipate where he was going to take me. I felt my neck do something unnatural, but apparently no lasting harm done. Thank great goodness for that.

His shark tank consisted of the white belts that had just been testing for blue, so I was off the hook for more rolling. Stayed awhile at pot luck and then gratefully went home to shower.
 

Thursday Night

Walter brought the purple shirts for Rachael and I. It doesn't look as good on me as it did on Rodrigo, but whatever. New favorite shirt.

We had about 30 people show up. A different take of KOTH that I sortof liked. Set the timer for 4min rounds. 7 people down and stay down for three rounds while people from the wall rotate through. Once three rounds have gone by, a different set of people down for another three rounds. We only rolled for an hour or so, and I ended up down once. 

Started off with Tien, who was doing surprisingly well considering how long he's been out. I tried to work sweeps from open guard but he was shutting it down pretty good. Then a rest for me.

Kasey, new guy Chase, Nick and Christopher. Rest. Fernando. I think that was it. I did surprisingly well with Kasey, mostly b/c he moved around more than usual instead of wrist-locking me from within my own guard. He wasn't going full smash, but it seemed like I was able to retain guard with what he was giving me. I inverted a couple of times which can be a scary prospect with him.

I was a flower sweep kick and was flower sweeping the white belts multiple times. Nick started using spider guard which gave me some troubles but I eventually got through it to side-control, mount, finish. I felt exhausted in that roll, which was no bueno. 

Christopher unintentionally dropped his weight quickly and hard on my chest at one point, resulting in an 'oooooooooooooof'. He asked if I was ok and it was fine. Took my breath away for a minute.

Fernando got an omoplata that I from which I tried unsuccessfully to roll out. When that didn't work I tried to rotate my arm (I was flatted out at this point) to no avail. I could tell he was trying to work a shoulder or arm-lock but thought it was loose enough for me to make space. It wasn't and I had to tap loudly and fast when he pressured it in a specific direction. I rolled like crap with him.

I felt soooooo tired for most of my rolls. Similar to Wednesday night, I was downright exhausted. Just need to get through one event at a time. Two and half hour seminar tonight (during which I may roll with Walter and participate in a shark tank on a couple of people). Hour long take-down private with Walter tomorrow morning. Shark tank at least one person tomorrow night. Maybe roll with Walter on Sunday. Aeeeeeiiii.

Wednesday Night

Morning class was a no go for me b/c of work. Damn job.

Evening class covered subs from top side-control, mainly by transitioning to s-mount and then going for arm-bars, triangles, etc.

KOTH, win by back-control or sub. One roll with Rachael that lasted the entire time. I came very close to both a bow and arrow and back-control, and she came close to mount. I was getting quite gassed near the end...more so than usual. That was a little troubling to me. I definitely feel tired at times, but rarely completely gassed. 

Walter comes in today. There'll be an all-rolling class tonight, seminar tomorrow, private on Saturday and maybe rolling on Sunday. I hope my body is ready.

Monday Night Droid Roll

Submissions from top side-control. Trapping the near arm to move to a cross choke, brabo choke or slide across their body for a straight arm-bar on the far side. Also from the sortof kesa position there's the wrist lock, americana using your legs and another wrist-lock if you trap their arm and they try to grab your belt or back.

KOTH, win by mount or submission. Started with Rachael...and we went for the entire half hour. I started off strong by passing and staying on top. A little over halfway through I lost my top position and ended up godawful side-control for at least 10min. Near the end I finally wiggled out.

She nearly had mount at least once if not twice. I came relatively close on a paper-cutter from top side early on.

We were wrecked by the end. I overheard Jamie refer to our roll as a "droid roll", presumably because we just keep going and going. Hopefully it isn't a reference to herky jerky movements....

Sunday and Monday Morning

Easter Sunday and we still have five people show up. A bit of a bummer that we had an odd number, but when it came to the rolling part I didn't mind sitting out a round to catch my breath. 

Worked on grip breaks, smash half guard pass, DLR transition, and turtle escapes from Friday.

Rolled with Russ, Kelly (no gi), James and Jason W. Russ and I seemed to have a fairly even roll. Kelly was pushing a 50/50 leg lock game which didn't leave me too excited. Jason smashed the ever-loving crap out of me. James let me a work a little bit but I felt like I was doing an awful lot wrong.

Not especially happy with the rolls, but c'est la vie.

Had Sarah back for Monday morning. Double-under guard pass was on the agenda. Shrugging on leg onto your shoulder and finishing with a knee-to-mouth pressure pass or grabbing their lapels to slide in for an arm-bar or make them turtle. There was a great detail about using your head to trap the leg during the pressure pass that I want to try to remember and incorporate in drilling.

Rolls with Sarah, Ben, Dennis and Jason S. Sarah is still recovering from being sick, so I tried to be rather mellow with the roll.

Ben has been out for awhile. We started standing, I pulled guard and then worked closed guard submissions. Back and forth between arm-bar, triangle and omoplata. Couldn't finish anything, but I was happy with how I was transitioning from one to the other. I almost had a mounted triangle at one point but couldn't make it stick. Late in the roll I got myself into trouble as Ben had a bottom lapel grip, wrapped it around my head and got a choke.

Dennis and I started from standing and once again I pulled guard. I'm very weak with my osoto gari attempts. I need to commit on those or else I'll never get it. Worked quite a bit of guard with Dennis and tried to prevent passing. Got him to turtle and tried to work an armbar but I realized that I was kneeing him in the ear repeatedly while trying to get my leg over. I stopped the roll and apologized. He said it was no big deal, but his ear was very, very red.

Jason passed my guard and had me in trouble, but I fended him off longer than usual and was doing a decent job of leg weaving and keeping a knee up. 

Fundies and Nooner

Eight people for Fundies today, excluding Rachael and I. A couple of them were brand new to the gym. 

Covered passing, including some theory. I talked quite a bit, but I hope it was useful stuff and that I wasn't talking too fast. I have to consciously slow my speech down at times. It seemed to go over well. If I were to do it again with that crowd, I probably wouldn't try to cover standing passes at the end. Otherwise, I think it went well.

James went over mount escapes at the noon class, which was propelled by him watching a UFC fight in which one of the participants apparently did everything wrong to escape mount. Really, really wrong, according to him.

Only one roll b/c I had to leave class early. Rachael and I started standing, and I tried a few different things to get the takedown. She ended up jumping guard, much to my surprise. She did a good job of harassing me in closed guard by breaking my posture and attacking arms. She eventually opened her and I'm not sure what happened after that except that I ended up on top and was working for back-control when time ran out. I was pleased with my patience in closed guard, but wish I could have opened the guard sooner. I had a fluid transition from one position to another when I was on top which was refreshing.

Fri Morn No Gi

I hate finding out about the specific location of muscles/tendons via doing something silly when rolling and having them pulled in unnatural ways. :(

Bottom turtle today, mostly escapes. Starting with going into turtle from bottom side-control if they block your near hip. If they have hip-to-hip top turtle and both knees down, reach your near arm across their legs and bowl them over. If they have their far leg up and they're reaching their arm across your back and hand inside, pinch it, near foot back, sit to butt and move to side-control. Alternatively, pinch the arm to you and sit out to their back, getting a shoulder lock or taking a top turtle position of your own.

Rolled with Emilie, Bailey, Shaun and Sol. Emilie specifically asked me to not go easy on her, so I locked up a triangle and finished with an arm-bar. James came over to help coach her on triangle defense before we reset. Bailey was having a difficult time engaging, not wanting to go for anything and getting caught. I kept trying to give her top side-control but she wasn't having it.

Shaun and I had a pretty fun roll. At one point we were in a sortof 50/50 but I think he had his legs locked. In any case, I found myself straining my hip crease to the point where it hurt at the time and doesn't feel so hot now. I hope it's just a temporary thing.

Sol got the better of the roll but I feel like I had good submission defense and my escape attempts weren't awful.

Pleased with how I rolled in no gi today. Felt much sharper than I did for the last no gi class.

Wednesday Morning

My head was not really in it to start class today. Not necessarily in a bad way, but more of a just going on auto-pilot sortof way. I had a hard time going to sleep last night, likely due to a barista ignoring my request for decaf coffee yesterday afternoon. 

Class was run similar to advanced class, with 5min of drilling what you want then switching. I worked grip breaks until my legs were tired, then the DLR -> Sickle Sweep -> RDLR until my abs got tired. That left a minute to work on the Rafa half guard smash pass. I was hoping for more feedback from my partner but there wasn't really time.

More smash pass with the next person, then smash and split passing. After that I worked on the guard breaks and passes that I'll be covering in class on Saturday.

Rolled with Chris, Jason S., Shaun and then spent a round going over the passes with James. Picked up some important details that I was missing.

It was the first time in quite awhile that I felt like I had a competitive roll with Jason. I don't think I ever had him in serious trouble, but I was at least in a neutral position looking for attacks more than I was in crappy positions. 

Rolls with Chris and Shaun were about the same that they usually were. Came close on a straight arm-bar with Shaun, but didn't pursue it b/c we were rolling light.