Wednesday, July 31, 2013

July 30th 2013 - Gi

Greg was out tonight due to work so Jerad took over class.  He had us do a few of the seminar techniques from butterfly guard.  Mostly having to do with preventing the pass by keeping the hand posted back and the front hand on the collar.  I ended up working with a new guy that didn't have a gi so I had to modify things a little bit but he could practice everything.  After the movement drill we practiced collar drag followed by the loop choke and the basic collar choke. 
We had enough students to do king of the mat with four different groups.  To keep the theme we started from butterfly guard like we had been practicing.  I was king a few times and eventually found myself sucking wind.  As I have posted in the past, I've fully embraced the omaplata.  I'm beginning to see opportunities for it everywhere and I'm getting a feel for how to be a little more tricky with it.  It's nice to have progressed to a point where I have my "thing" that I'm particularly good at or known for. 

It was my first class as a blue belt and it felt pretty good.  I've been thinking about what differences the belt can make.  Of course any real difference is superficial, the belt itself has no intrinsic reality altering power.  But, it has the potential to affect my attitude toward my training.  It also can affect how others see me.  For instance, I'm planning on visiting a school when my family and I travel to Chicago.  I would feel a lot more comfortable going in there as a really good experienced white belt as opposed to a new blue belt.  I don't want to walk into a situation where I have a target on my back and the students there feel like they need to tap out the visiting blue belt. 

On the flip side I want to represent our school, Greg and Tinguinha well. I know they wouldn't have promoted me if they didn't think I deserved it.  I've worked hard for it.  So, my plan is to walk in with a good attitude and intentions and try to learn something and make some friends. The most important thing is that I prevent injury.  I'll do my best when it's time to roll and accept each win and defeat as a learning experience. 

Monday, July 29, 2013

July 27th 2013 - Seminar / Promotion (The Dexterous Dozen)

Tinguinha's Spider Guard
There is so much I could put into this post so I apologize if this is too long.  I'll start off by saying my expectations for the day were exceeded and there was so much new information disseminated that I would be grateful to retain a quarter of it.  I was also happy that two of my Hapkido training partners, Craig and Kori, were able to attend.  I've included all of the techniques I can remember in lists at the bottom of this post as well as some pictures from the day.

Craig was my partner for the first class and throughout the day.  We kept a pretty steady pace throughout, and now that I've looked at the list of techniques I'm sure we got our money's worth of information.  It's very important now that I pick a few of these things to focus on and add to my repertoire while they're still fresh. A couple things that really stick out from the first seminar was using a rear hand on the ground to help hip out from butterfly guard and that I have a new omaplata to add to my game from the spider guard.

As I suspected, Tinguinha is a great instructor. He's obviously speaking from experience and he seemed to cover any questions that I would have before I could ask them.  We started out doing some basic easy things but it got very complicated at times.  He'd show us a technique multiple times and he and Greg would walk around and help or let groups know they were doing a good job.

Directly following the seminar we gathered for the belt promotion.  Greg gave out some stripes first; 2 for little Jared and bald Brian and 1 for Air Force Brian.  Then they promoted the 12 of us that tested to blue belt in the order that we tested.  He mentioned that several of us wouldn't be at this rank for too long (probably not referring to me) and purple was just around the corner.  Conan was also awarded 2 or 3 stripes on his blue belt.  It was a very cool moment.

The no-gi seminar was a little smaller.  Most of the out of towners had to leave for the day.  This is the session that I was looking forward to, because no-gi guard passing is something that I don't have a good gameplan for.  I was not disappointed.  Right off the bat he showed us the guard break by shooting our hands under their thighs, it's revolutionary (to me anyway).  Then he also showed us the hip switch pass that Greg seems to do to me at will.  I had some issues with it at first but once I figured out what to do with their knee it became easy.  There was even the no-gi clock choke that I've never seen before.  I couldn't have asked for a better session. 

Morning Gi Open Guard:
Butterfly guard
Distance drill
Inverted drill to regain Butterfly Guard
Torreando pass hip escape to regain butterfly guard 
Collar Drag
Loop Choke
Leg up Ankle pick to knee slide
Other leg up scoot in and hook sweep

Spider Guard
Kick out, bring foot to opposite hip, underhook knee
Combat base situp grab sleeve kick out knee grab over shoulder roll them into side control
Combat base situp Grab sleeve they stand up under leg standup single leg knee bar thing
From kneeling kick out secure wrist to hip omaplata
Opponent standing, Foot on hip grab ankle pant grip push and pull over body.


Afternoon No-Gi Guard Passing and top game
Closed guard, basic guard break with the addition of putting both hands in opening to break 
Double Under Pass
Single under to big circle around their arms
Jump over to pass.

They're Sitting, guard passer is standing
Standing grab ankles and swing them up go to double unders.
Standing to knee slide pass using underhook
They grab leg kimura grip step back and around to back, kick out of half guard or kimura

De La Riva
Grab ankle elbow to floor, roll into side control.
Grab toehold leg drag, knee down, crossface

Butterfly
They have Over/Under hooks, spread out, lean to overhook side, bring leg up into knee slide pass.
They have double unders, spread out and flatten them to their back, hip switch

Top Turtle
Get head lock grabbing far shoulder, switch to other side, lock up with bicep, No-Gi clock choke.

Top side control
They use underhook to bridge singe-leg to escape side control.  Sprawl and push head down step to the side, Omaplata

Vicious Loop Choke

My Spider Guard






Saturday, July 27, 2013

July 26th 2013 - Testing

Got to the school just as Chris' testing was finishing up.  The time had finally come that I have been stressing out about.  Similar to other times once I reach the event I calm down, but the worrying and butterflies before hand are a bitch.

Greg followed the curriculum sheet going through the different positions doing a few techniques for each.  He corrected a few things like my hand placement in armbar from the guard or my gi grip during the single under pass.  It went fast and turned into a little bit of a workout.  And then, it was over.  I felt like I did well and Greg and Tinguinha said as much.

Jerad and I rolled a little bit.  Not too seriously but I did hit my favorite omaplata sweep.  He then proceeded to set-up and complete a farside armbar.  We messed around with the berimbolo a bit until I decided I was getting too sweaty and I had to head back to work.

Friday, July 26, 2013

July 25th 2013 - No-Gi (Keepin It Real)

We had some drama at the beginning of class.  The women's dressing room became inadvertently locked with Gina's gear inside. It took the power ingenuity of Bauer who had left after the gi class and returned for his water bottle.  He went and got a hammer and a crow bar and they eventually got the door open.  Before it was all said and done Tinguinha finally arrived, we all introduced ourselves and he watched the remainder of the class.  From there on out I was checking where he was and who he was watching.  Seeing if the expression on his face showed positive emotion. 

We did two techniques from butterfly guard; Adam, Jerad, and I partnered up.  The first was the sweep using an overhook.  It wasn't too difficult as long as you didn't let them base their hand out.  Which is why the second technique was a guillotine if they prevented the sweep by basing out.  Greg came by and gave me some pointers on wrist and arm position. 

King of the mat followed starting from butterfly.  I actually wasn't able to pass anyone but had some great attempts.  Conan vs Adam and Mike vs Greg were a few of the epic battles.  I felt like I did pretty well against Greg or he was just taking it easy on me, either way I'll take it.

We free rolled for a couple of rounds after that.  I started with Patrick and felt great about my performance.  I really focused on butterfly guard and omaplata sweep and then passing.  Jerad was my second partner and my ego got crushed.  My guard seemed defenseless and as soon as he passed it took me forever to get out of side control.  When I did he got me with a triangle.

I spoke with Tinguinha a little bit and he was very happy with the skill level of the class and wondered why we were all white belts.  A very good sign.  Conan joined into the conversation and we talked a little bit about our history and how we came to this point.  He seems like a really cool, laid back, guy.  Pretty much how Greg described.

After class I was talking to Conan about being a little nervous leading up to class.  I had some butterflies in anticipation of meeting Tinguinha.  It was the same feeling I get before a tournament.  Conan made the comment "That's what I like about you, Josh, you're real."  I was a little taken aback, and my response was "Thanks, I don't know how to be any other way."  It was a great complement but of course it got my brain working.  I know this blog probably seems boring at times or too technical but my main purpose is to share my experience and to help solidify the lessons by having to recall them as I write the blog.  I think it has helped me express myself more and made me contemplate my journey at a deeper level.  I'm probably a little more honest about myself since there's no way I could lie while writing this, there's too many people I train with that read it.

I've definitely had some issues with how truthful I should be, what should be shared, and what should be left out.  I've strayed away from reporting the people that I've submitted.  I don't want to shame anyone or cause any real drama.  Although there are a few people that are exempt and I will gladly share when I finally submit them.  You know who you are.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

July 23rd 2013 - Gi

Greg was answering testing questions and demonstrating any techniques that people asked about.  So the class was a little disjointed but it had a higher purpose.  After the warm-up we worked on the judo turnover from turtle.  Adam was my partner and we got quite a few reps in.  We also skipped ahead and did some back-takes from the same position.

Next I had requested the scarf-hold or headlock self defense technique of wrapping the leg to escape.  This actually turned out well since there were some details that I was missing.  The beginning part is the same from all of the headlock defenses in that we grab our hands and use a leg swing to get our elbow to the floor.  From there the three different defenses take place.  We worked on throwing our leg over and getting to all fours and cross facing until we could take the back.  It was different than what I had in my head so I'm happy with the clarification.  We also reviewed the standing guillotine defense and I asked about arm position for the armbar from guard which gave me some food for thought.

We broke for king of the mat with 4 different groups.  I had a nice run as king of my area until Mike came and dethroned me.  Before that I hit a couple omaplata sweeps and a hip heist.  I had some good battles with Adam, Chris, and the 2 Jerads as well and was able to become king again for a short while.  I love that we have air conditioning now.  It seems that the months without have conditioned me pretty well.  I still got a little winded a couple of times but I always felt ready to go and even cut in line a couple of times because people weren't moving up.

After class I got all paid up for the seminar and testing and we talked a bit about upcoming kids classes.  I'm really excited to get my boys involved with BJJ.  I hope they like it.  I've been so wary about pushing them into martial arts.  I want them to choose it on their own instead of me making them do it.  I just need to purchase a second kids gi and they'll be all set.  We also talked about lunch time and/or morning class which I'm excited about.  I just need to work out someway to take a shower before returning to work. 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

July 20th - Open Mat (Testing Prep)

There were a lot of students in attendance yesterday to prepare for next week, but I only ended up rolling with Ray, Jerad, and Mike.  Also in attendance were Greg, Will, Bauer, Adam, Brian, and Fuji. I went back and forth between discussing the testing material and grappling.  I think I have a handle on everything that is on the testing paper now and can do them with some relative proficiency. 

I went with Jerad first.  Started off well with passing his guard right away but all it took was one mistake and I was on the bottom.  Not sure what that mistake was but I spent the rest of the fight in side control.  With a little more scrambling I was tapping to a reverse arm triangle choke.  Then Jerad and I wondered over and talked

Ray also played possum a bit at first and allowed me to take a good position and even attempt some submissions.  I avoided his deep half as much as I could but eventually he wiggled himself there.  After some defense in side control he was able to tap me with a kimura and pull it away from my body.  I tapped maybe a little prematurely because he told me he didn't have it completely locked up.  Ray also was a huge help with some pointers on osoto gari.  This was huge because I think I finally understand how it works. 

Mike and I trained no-gi and we had quite a few good battles.  We spent some time in 50/50 as I did my best to defend and also attack ankle locks.  I'm still pretty clueless in this position, but I felt like I did better than usual.  I attempted a guillotine and had a good north/south choke for a little bit too but couldn't finish them.  He got me a few times with a kimura and a pretty good inverted triangle that he pushed my neck into with a straight choke.  It's hard to describe but it was genius.

Friday, July 19, 2013

July 18th - Gi/No Gi (Too Much Turtle)

Was able to make it to beginner gi class yesterday to have a little extra prep for the test next week.  I was surprised that the testing will be done semi-privately with 2 students testing at a time.  Jerad and I scheduled ours for next Friday during my lunch break.  Superexcitednervous.  Saturday Greg said he's going to be there to go over curriculum questions.  In other news, supposedly the air conditioning for the school is getting fixed today so I'm interested to see how much of a difference that makes to my performance in class.

The gi class started out with the judo turnover from turtle and we worked on turtle the rest of the day.  I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have any real problems with my knee the whole time.  Although, I could be a little more flexible.  I don't get nearly as low as Greg or Mike which would help tremendously with this position.  I worked with Jerad on these techniques.  We took the back or went to side control.  We also worked on the granby roll escape to regain guard from the turtle.  We finished the class with a couple of 2 minute rounds of positional sparring from the turtle.  Fuji completely dominated me from this position to the point that I felt helpless.  So new rule has been established, avoid turtle or get out of it as soon as possible against Fuji.

In the no-gi class Mike and Robert joined in with Jerad and Adam remaining.  After a warm-up we got into more turtle.  We did a back-take by doing a forward roll over their back.  It seemed to be a little meaner than I have practiced it in the past because you drive your bicep into the back of their neck and then roll and kind of trebuchet them over you into the back mount position.  We worked on this for quite a while.

The rest of the class was spent on rolling with 5 or 6 minute rounds.  I was surprised to pull off a butterfly guard pass that I had just learned recently, which has caused it to level up in my arsenal.  Mike truly trounced me and I got little frustrated.  He has really advanced quite a bit lately.  I did well against Robert who is the only person that has less experience than me in the class so it's understandable.  Jerad reminded me that he can do a knee slide pass on me at will and my half guard has nothing on him.  Greg did his fancy hip and leg work to pass my guard with magic and then arm bar me.




Wednesday, July 17, 2013

July 16th 2013 - Gi (Get back in the Pool)

We had a visiting blue belt last night from Oklahoma. I think his name was Shane, but I could be wrong.  We also had a returning student, Ben, from a while back. 

We worked on the scissor sweep and a couple things to do if the sweep was prevented.  I worked with Jerad and Mohammad.  I'm not very successful with the scissor sweep anymore.  It used to be one of my go to sweeps but I've gotten smashed and passed or stuck too many times using it.  Plus it depends on a deep knee bend.  Didn't have any problems with the sweep yesterday.  But did have a little bit of an issue with the elevator sweep that we did as a counter to the defense.  Me and Jerad figured it out in the end.

We trained up/down/out passing from the closed guard.  Had some success and also got passed a couple of times.  Like usual it was hot and I tried my best to keep it together but had a little trouble a few times mustering up the energy.  During regular rolling I went up against Mohammad which allowed me to work on technique and not worry too much.  He didn't have a gi though which made engaging with him a little difficult at first. 

Lately I feel pretty drained by the time we get to training and free rolling.  I hate that feeling of not being able to perform as well as I can when I'm winded or get a side stitch.  I especially hate when I feel okay with letting someone pass my guard just get my turn over with.  It doesn't happen often but I'm ashamed to admit that it does happen.  I need to figure out

I got back in the pool during lunch today and had a nice workout.  I didn't swim during bachweek due to it being tough enough to complete all of those classes and I haven't swam since.  Hopefully this will get my cardio back on track.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

July 13th 2013 - Open Mat

Henry and I were the first ones there so naturally we rolled first.  He's not entirely used to the gi yet so I had a little advantage from that standpoint.  We had a little bit of back and forth and I made some mistakes here and there, especially from top sprawl position.  The far side armbar was working well for me from side control and has probably been my highest percentage sub.

My roll with Bauer was going well.  We had both reversed each other a couple times and had our share of sub attempts.  I attempted the farside armbar but he was able to twist out it and stack me. During a sweep attempt I felt a little pain in my lower back while bridging and twisting.  We rolled a around a little more until I decided to call it quits.  The pain wasn't unbearable but at the same time I didn't want to make it worse by continuing.  So I begrudgingly sat out the rest of the session and watched everyone else have fun. 

Jerad gave me some advice afterwards on the armbar, that I could have posted out with my other arm and sat up to keep him from stacking.  Mike also showed me a pretty good side control escape that I will drill as soon as possible.  If you shrimp but can't get your knee in, go flat and keep a stiff arm to get back up to knees or guard.  Can't wait to try it out and get a feel for it.  


Friday, July 12, 2013

July 11th 2013 - No Gi

It was good to have Conan teach again.  With his change in work schedule he hasn't been around much lately. Will was also in attendance for the beginner class.  He had been recovering from the same surgery as me.  I can relate to him saying that he felt out of shape coming back.

After the warm-up we worked on the hip heist sweep from guard.  I partnered up with Mike and Bauer.  From there we did some kimura set-ups.  Most of it was stuff that I have practiced before, but the new thing I learned was grapevining their leg and lift to bust their defense to the kimura.  That was truly awesome.  I also worked with using the shin on the bicep and then kicking it through helps create the space to get the kimura arm position.

We trained from side mount with 6 minute rounds and then switch top and bottom.  Mike did a great job attacking and defending.  Later he told me that I'm not shrimping enough which he has told me before but I guess I'm not listening.  I do a good job of turning on my side but I'm not making enough space.  Just another thing to add on the list of things to work on. I set up a nice guillotine choke from side mount but wasn't able to finish it

We did king of the mat and in no-gi everyone was slippery, it was difficult to complete any submissions.  I had tough matches against both Conan and Bauer.  Once again I did well until I got put into side control.  If I can figure out how to stay out of that position, I'll be unstoppable (or get submitted from mount and back mount instead).

Mike and I went over some pointers after class on the guillotine.  Mostly on where to put my wrist and how to use the elbow of my other arm to lock it in tighter.  We also ran through the Ryan Hall back take that he got me with during training. 

After everyone left, Conan and I had a little conversation about the new school and the history of Jiu-Jitsu at Roseberry's while mopping the mats.  It was a nice little chat and I have even more respect for what he went through keeping the Jiu-Jitsu program going.  He revealed that he's so excited to have a teacher again.  And, he's happy that all of the students transitioned to Greg as their instructor and the start of the school has been going so well.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

July 9th 2013 - Gi

With Greg still on vacation Jerad taught class last night.  Business as usual with the warm-up routine and then we did some hip throws before getting into techniques.  Due to popular request we worked on the Rickson choke that is on our blue belt testing document.  I worked with new Jerad for the majority of the class and we were both getting this choke pretty well.  We worked on north/south choke next and with a few tweaks we were both getting that technique down as well. 

We talked a little more about the techniques on the testing sheet and the technique that no one was sure of was the Judo rollover from turtle.  We had a speculation technique that is probably correct

Then it got really hot as we did some guard passing up/down/out from closed guard.  I did pretty well here as I was one of the most advanced people in class.  I tried to use my cross grip to omaplata sweep as much as I could.  It didn't always present itself but when it did I was usually successful except for with Jerad who was able to put me in a inverted triangle because I wasn't hugging his leg enough.  We also free rolled a couple of 3 minute rounds and I felt overheated and wasn't able to give much.  Jerad was my partner and I felt like a rag doll.

I've been running through the rest of the blue belt requirements with my Hapkido training partners.  It's been a good review and I'm pretty happy with my skill level and my ability with those techniques.  I'm not too worried about the testing except for being compared to all of the guys that are better than me.  My main focus right now is to maintain guard and not accept getting put into bottom side mount. 

Saturday, July 6, 2013

July 6th 2013 - Open Mat

I succeeded in rolling with everyone this morning.  We had a visiting purple belt, Eric from Colorado, that was in town for the holiday and found our school.  Seemed like a very laid back, cool guy as well as skillful.  Also in attendance were Jerad, Fuji, Mike, Bauer, and Brian. 

I had a lot of trouble from bottom side control and knee on belly today.  I rarely escaped.  So I need to work harder to get to sweep and pass guard and stay off of the bottom.

After I rolled with Mike a couple of times we did some spider guard drills and he gave me some pointers.  I've been avoiding spider guard since my injury so I'm a little bit behind everyone else that has been working on it.  It was quite informative and made me want to focus on the position for a while.

I rolled with Eric last and it was actually fun and informative.  He took it easy on me.  I was able to do some deep half guard to prevent his mount once and tried to attack the back.  The second time I tried deep half he caught me with a kimura on my inside arm.  Need to focus on burying that.  After he beat me a couple times we discussed the cross grab guard to omaplata sweep that I saw him do to Bauer.  I got some major pointers on this that will help me immensely. 

Friday, July 5, 2013

July 3rd - Gi

Since there will be no class on the 4th of July I was fortunate  enough to get to attend the beginner class tonight.  I arrived a little early and they were preparing Robert for an MMA fight by having him roll with everyone with 4 minute rounds starting from bottom guard.  He would then attempt to get back to his feet, improve position or submit.  Greg allowed me to join in and take a round.  I was put on top in butterfly guard and was able to pass a few times and Robert was able to get up a few times.  He mentioned that I was able to put a lot of pressure on him mostly because I weigh a lot more than the other guys that he went against.

Beginner class started and after the warm-up we focused on upa from mount if the top person puts their arm around your neck.  There were a few new people in class, Henry who has trained no-gi for a while, and Muhammad who was there for his first class.  I worked with both of them a little bit.  Also, Fuji, Jerad, and the roommates were in attendance as well.  I ended up working with Muhammad and helped him out as much as I could.  We switched to the americana or what Greg referred to as the paint brush from mount.  It took a while to get Muhammad to get all of the steps down but he eventually got it.

We then trained from the mount and I ended up in a 3 person group with Jerad and Fuji and we ran it in up/down/out style.  I could not get Fuji off of me and I had a rough time defending his mount.  One of the worst things I had to defend was his Ezekiel choke where he kept trying to jab his fist/fingers into the side of my neck.  He eventually submitted me.  Both Jerad and Fuji were able to escape my mount, but all was not completely lost as I was able to gain guard from Jerad.  I also got to watch how Jerad escaped Fuji's mount which is something I've been trying to pay more attention to, what the smaller guys do against the bigger guys.  Don't know if I gleaned anything from this time, but I'll keep an eye out.

New Jerad was nice enough to roll with me after class, since I'm not used to only doing an hour of Jiu-Jitsu and then leaving.  We had a pretty good roll.  I almost completed a Shaolin sweep except I got stopped by the wall.  There was a point when I was on top in half guard and the other Jerad told me to put a knee on his hip which helped break his guard.  Jerad then showed us a few more tricks to that.  I then rushed out of there so I could do some fireworks with my kids before bed.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

July 2nd 2013 - Gi

Great class last night with some great news.  Greg's instructor Mauricio ‘Tinguinha’ Mariano, who is a BJJ 4th degree black belt, will be coming to Lincoln to conduct a seminar and see how well Greg is training us.  The official dates/times have not been posted yet but I should be able to participate. 

During the warm-up I kept guessing our next exercise incorrectly.  Just for reference we only do front shrimp and back rolls in advanced class.  We had a huge class with a visitor, Arlo, from MN and a new guy, Lucas.  Lucas is a big dude, who is also a high school wrestling coach. 

After some shoulder throws with a partner we worked the baseball bat choke from knee on belly.  My partners were the roommates Jerad and Brian.  I had a few problems with getting my grips close together at first but after I got that figured out I was more focusing on my posture and where I put my head.  The thing that I was really happy with was both knees were able to cut through the defensive arm without any problems.  From we resorted to an armbar if they were defending the choke by extending their arm not allowing your knee to get in to get into the correct position.

We did up/down/out knee on belly training.  I ended up on the bottom of Lucas' knee on belly twice and he didn't have much of a problem getting to mount.  He was a little rougher with me than I would have liked but nothing dangerous, just frustrating.  I tried to work the baseball bat choke as much as I could but everyone was super conscious about their collar.  The one time I was close I couldn't get around the person's arm.

We rolled 6 minute rounds after this and I went up against Greg, Brian, and Lucas.  Greg allowed me to try to butterfly sweep him but every time he would foil the sweep and not let me get x-guard.  I told him he was cheating.  Eventually he got tired of that and passed my guard and armbarred and baseball bat choked me the next time.  I took Brian a little more seriously than last time and caught him with a few americanas, I may be paying those forward from when I got submitted with that technique so many times in the past.  Lucas was tough, he stayed on top the whole time and while I regained guard and even went for an omaplata he smashed me from that position and I couldn't get out.  I panicked a bit when I was stuck on my shoulders with this hulk above me.  It's really got me thinking about what my strategies should be against bigger guys.  I might need to watch when my betters face off against Lucas and Fuji and see how they handle them. 

Monday, July 1, 2013

June 29th 2013 - Open Mat

Once again I forgot to write this sooner, so I've forgotten a lot of things. 
Participants: Jerad, Fuji, Bauer, Conan, Greg, Brian, Jordan (wrestler).  For some reason Conan and Bauer eluded me but I ended up working with everyone else.  I can't even remember if I rolled with Jerad.

Fuji: I have been doing better against Fuji when I'm on top.  But, once I'm on the bottom I haven't been able to get back up.  He's getting pretty good at setting up chokes from the collar, I'm going to have to figure some way to get out of his side mount.

Jerad: Don't remember much about our roll except I'm sure he kicked my butt pretty good.  In fact I'm starting to question if we did roll.


Brian and Jordan: I was very impressed with Brian's improvement and I had to take him a little more seriously than I expected.  My focus with both of them was sweeps or taking a submission from guard if it arose.  While I had several triangle and armbar attempts I wasn't able to finish them, they often turned into omaplata sweeps or I would regain guard.  The other sweep that presented itself was the pendulum which I love completing.  Otherwise it was of day the north-south choke.  I was able to secure it on both of them a few times and then showed them the common defenses against it.

Greg:  He submitted me fairly quickly in our first match.  As usual I feel like an inexperienced newbie when it comes to some of the things he's doing.  I lucked out at one point and escaped his back mount resulting in a scramble to where I grabbed his belt and followed him into turtle.  I tried my best to take his back but ended up falling off to the side.  We discussed defending spider guard a little and I still don't think I get how to get the basics of defending against it.