10/31
James wasn't expecting much of a turnout b/c of Halloween, so he made tonight into an open mat. We had ~10 people, which was a pretty good showing, considering. It was great, as I had close to an hour of half of just rolling. People were pooping out right and left, but I had energy to burn. We were doing rounds over 8min long, which probably contributed to the drop-out rate. I've added a bagel as a mid-day snack and the carb shot has really helped my energy levels.
Rolled with Kelly (twice I think), Michael, Savannah, Ian, C (twice), James, Clayton, Nando. I tried rolling with Kelly's berimbolo attacks and it more or less worked, except that he was able to cinch it up a little bit tighter each time until I couldn't roll out of it anymore. The first roll he pretty much demolished me top side control, but in the second roll he seemed to ease up and let me work.
Michael was doing well in the first part of our roll and then petered out and left with a couple of minutes to go. He just gave me a couple of submissions which is unlike him. He said something about being sick yesterday.
Savannah has been doing better with guard passing, but hasn't been staying diligent with her posture and I was able to use that to my advantage tonight. I went for an arm-bar for the finish again, which I told myself I wasn't going to do with her. Catch and release.
Ian's been doing well and is getting ready for the tournament next weekend. He's going to be wearing my SYR, so I'll be there in spirit. :) I told him about leaving his far-side elbow flopping around when he's in reverse kesa gatame. I've been able to use that to my advantage with a lot of the guys recently. I'm excited for him to compete and wish I was going to be there to watch.
C and I did our best Miyao v. Cornelious impression in our first roll. It was 8min of messing around in 50/50 guard while he was going for a foot lock. It felt like an interesting chess match but probably would have been terribly uninteresting if anyone had been forced to watch it. He had my foot wrapped up but never went for the lock. Either I was doing a good job of protecting it or he wasn't quite sure how to finish. We didn't have those shenanigans the second time around. He kept trying to pass my guard from combat stance or standing and I kept trying to sweep him.
I felt like James and I had a pretty fun roll. One thing that I really enjoy about rolling with him is that he lets me work all different positions. At one point I inverted at exactly the right time to maintain guard, which felt good. I think he got me with one or two subs early on, but let me work for the latter half. He had me in a bad but not awful position with 10sec left, so I started counting down the time and of course he found a way to wrist lock me before the buzzer went off. Damn it.
Clayton worked top game to start and then seemed to let me work top game a bit. We were sortof-not-really-flow rolling.
I coerced Nando into rolling even though he was tired. Told him I'd take it easy, and we started off kindof flow rolling and then he jumped into full speed. And he got tuckered out pretty fast b/c he doesn't have his cardio back. I was trying to make sure I wasn't putting pressure on his knee even though he says that it's good to go. He was doing well, but just didn't have the juice. I told him to bebe more agua throughout the day.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wrist Locks All Day
10/30
There were only three of us plus James. We started off going over the same technique as the no gi class from the night before. At some point it morphed into maintaining top position in deep half guard. Anytime you're holding their elbow to you, you've got keep your own elbow to your hip. When trying to maintain top deep half, I've just been pulling their elbow up instead of pinning it to my hip. Hopefully this mod will help me be more successful in that situation.
Rolls with Dennis, Todd and James. Dennis had great top position. I tried getting his arm over my shin in bottom side-control but the guys are getting wise to that move. I was able to use it once to help me shrimp away, so it wasn't for naught. Todd and I had a good back forth. I had his back at one point and was able to maintain long enough to finish a bow and arrow. James got me with at least one wrist lock b/c I grabbed his lapel like an idiot. How many times must I make this mistake? I can't help but curse and laugh each time he gets it. I spent most of the roll trying to pass, with little success.
Walter is coming in three weeks. I've been a bit more consistent with my Portuguese studying, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to exchange pleasantries and maybe have a discussion about colors and numbers. :p
There were only three of us plus James. We started off going over the same technique as the no gi class from the night before. At some point it morphed into maintaining top position in deep half guard. Anytime you're holding their elbow to you, you've got keep your own elbow to your hip. When trying to maintain top deep half, I've just been pulling their elbow up instead of pinning it to my hip. Hopefully this mod will help me be more successful in that situation.
Rolls with Dennis, Todd and James. Dennis had great top position. I tried getting his arm over my shin in bottom side-control but the guys are getting wise to that move. I was able to use it once to help me shrimp away, so it wasn't for naught. Todd and I had a good back forth. I had his back at one point and was able to maintain long enough to finish a bow and arrow. James got me with at least one wrist lock b/c I grabbed his lapel like an idiot. How many times must I make this mistake? I can't help but curse and laugh each time he gets it. I spent most of the roll trying to pass, with little success.
Walter is coming in three weeks. I've been a bit more consistent with my Portuguese studying, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to exchange pleasantries and maybe have a discussion about colors and numbers. :p
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
No Gi, No Grips
10/29
It's been awhile (couple of months?) since I've done a no gi class, so I decided I'd give it a whirl tonight. I forgot that James likes to use the no gi class for conditioning. We had a fairly rigorous warm-up (by our standards), and then worked open guard. Specifically, flaring out their elbow and latching on for straight arm-bars or transitioning to omoplatas. I had an uber flexible drilling partner, so it was difficult to tell if I was doing it right. The arm looked completely jacked up, so I must have been doing something right.
At the start of the roll I was once again flummoxed b/c there were no sleeve grips, no collar grips...nothing. I started with Savannah, which gave me a chance to ease into it a bit. I worked position and got a couple of arm-bars. I should have just stuck with transitioning through positions, but I wanted to see how my submission game was in no gi. Then Sol, who pretty much dominated in top side control for most of the match. I had one semi-legitimate escape, if that. Then a women who I haven't seen before but who is somewhat seasoned. I fared well and truly went for just positions instead of submissions. After that was Grant, who had top side for 90% of the match. I finally escaped when he went for something. He gave me props for continuing to fight for the escape, but he gets all the credit for keeping me down the entirety of the match. If it was point scoring he would have kicked my ass.
Last two rolls were with Julio and Jason. Just shoot me. Both of them were going for calf slicers. At one point Jason had my leg trapped and was falling backwards to further sink in whatever awfulness he was doing to my leg. I squawked out a rather loud verbal tap, b/c I was fearful for the health of my leg. Turned some heads, and I explained that everything was fine, just skerred. Some guys can kick my ass and I have little to no worry of injury. Other guys can kick my ass and I'm fearful everytime I roll that I'm not going to come out whole.
It's been awhile (couple of months?) since I've done a no gi class, so I decided I'd give it a whirl tonight. I forgot that James likes to use the no gi class for conditioning. We had a fairly rigorous warm-up (by our standards), and then worked open guard. Specifically, flaring out their elbow and latching on for straight arm-bars or transitioning to omoplatas. I had an uber flexible drilling partner, so it was difficult to tell if I was doing it right. The arm looked completely jacked up, so I must have been doing something right.
At the start of the roll I was once again flummoxed b/c there were no sleeve grips, no collar grips...nothing. I started with Savannah, which gave me a chance to ease into it a bit. I worked position and got a couple of arm-bars. I should have just stuck with transitioning through positions, but I wanted to see how my submission game was in no gi. Then Sol, who pretty much dominated in top side control for most of the match. I had one semi-legitimate escape, if that. Then a women who I haven't seen before but who is somewhat seasoned. I fared well and truly went for just positions instead of submissions. After that was Grant, who had top side for 90% of the match. I finally escaped when he went for something. He gave me props for continuing to fight for the escape, but he gets all the credit for keeping me down the entirety of the match. If it was point scoring he would have kicked my ass.
Last two rolls were with Julio and Jason. Just shoot me. Both of them were going for calf slicers. At one point Jason had my leg trapped and was falling backwards to further sink in whatever awfulness he was doing to my leg. I squawked out a rather loud verbal tap, b/c I was fearful for the health of my leg. Turned some heads, and I explained that everything was fine, just skerred. Some guys can kick my ass and I have little to no worry of injury. Other guys can kick my ass and I'm fearful everytime I roll that I'm not going to come out whole.
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