October 15th 2013 - Gi Noon & Evening

Thanks to everyone that read and commented on my last post Who Am I Supposed To Be.  Writing the post turned out to be very therapeutic.  I also might have been a little over dramatic about the situation.     


Noon
Theme and Techniques: Cross Guard Omaplata, Standing Guard Break to Knee Cut

Jeremy joined us for class today, which was the first time we got to train together.  I've seen him plenty of times in passing but never in the same class.  We also had a visitor from out of town show up a little late but jumped in a trained with us a bit.  As usual, my Tuesday bromoplata brother in arms, Jordan was also there.

I worked with Andrew (the visitor) on the omaplata.  He mentioned that he had some experience, but not much in the gi.  He needed a little help with the specifics of the two techniques that we worked on but he picked them up fairly quickly with minor mistakes here and there.  Which was understandable since we worked on the standing guard break which has several steps in it. 

Rolling: Guard Pass/Sweep/Submit

Andrew and I were partnered for the first round.  He had a good base and wasn't easy to sweep.  I kept him from passing my guard, but it wasn't easy.  I had a failed attempt at a cross choke when he had sprawled back.  Greg said later that my grip wasn't deep enough.  I think I may look deeper into this technique.  Jordan was my next partner and we had a good battle.  We both cancelled out each other omaplatas so we had to go to other things.  I played some spider and tried some techniques that are always done to me.

My technique of the day turned out to be the scissor sweep though.  This has emerged as a goto technique lately when other sweeps have failed.  I had actually abandoned that technique as it had stopped working for me a while ago. 

Evening
Theme and Techniques: Hip Throw, Standing Guard Break to Toreando Pass

I worked with John on both techniques.  In the end of working on the standing guard break he made noticeable improvements.  The piece of this technique I need to work on the most is maintaining the straight arm on their chest, but otherwise I feel very competent with the technique.

Rolling: Closed Guard Pass/Sweep/Submit, Guard Gauntlet, Free Rolling

We had a new visitor in class tonight with a wrestling background.  He wasn't used to being in someone's guard but he had a great base and was athletic.  He caused me a little bit of trouble but he made the mistake of trying to collar choke me from within my guard.  My next partner was Mike and he made me feel like a beginner while passing my guard.

The next exercise I'll call the Guard Gauntlet, Greg had the four most advanced guys in class each take a spot on the mat and we were each assigned a different guard to play while everyone rotated through.  I was designated closed guard, Mike: Spider, Adam: Half, and Roberts: butterfly.  This was pretty fun and allowed everyone good training.  The new guys got to experience a lot of different guards and we got to focus on the assigned guard.  My partners came close a couple times, but I kept them from passing and paced myself well enough to not gas out. 

Mike and I had a nice discussion after class.  We talked about how everyone is progressing as a whole and the good things coming out of the changes since LBJJC started.  I showed him a tornado guard technique that I saw in a Cyborg video and he seemed impressed with my tornado guard.  Greg joined the conversation and the subject of Leandro Lo came up and how Mike had been modeling a lot of his game around his techniques.  He made the observations that Lo's game was compatible to him since they have very similar body types.  I mentioned that I should find a famous Jiu-Jitsu player with a similar body type to model my game after and they suggested that Cyborg may be him.  So, I will start watching some of his competition videos and see if I can glean some new skills.

WHOYA: October 15th 2012 - Gi

Jerad taught with the theme of armbar from guard.  Coincidentally I had tried to setup a few armbars today but came no where near completing them.  I've been considering various techniques to focus on and this might be one of them.

I also talk a little bit about getting caught in deep half.  This has gotten better lately as I've stopped hanging out in the position so much, hide my arm better and I feel like I have a better understanding of when to sweep and when to abandon it.  It's been an interesting journey through the phases of learning this position and it's far from complete.