June 27th 2014 - Gi (Philosophizing)

Morning Crew

Theme & Techniques: Hip Throw, Cross Collar Choke from Guard, Armbar from Guard

Big class of 9 for a Friday monring, apparently we were a Brian short to tie the record of 10 from March 14th.

I ended up partnering with Bhuvana for this portion of the class.  To her credit, she didn't display any signs of frustration at all my nagging.  There were just little modifications for each technique

Hip Throw: keep your feet closer together and bend your knees more

Cross Collar Choke: Keep wrists straight and elbows close to your body.

Armbar: When pivoting keep the knee tight to the shoulder and keep flat and hold the hand thumb up against your chest as you raise your hips.
 
Rolling: Closed Guard Up/Down/Out

This was great I'm always happy to do Up/Down/Out because I get the chance to work with so many people.  However, I don't think I got enough sleep the night before because I was pretty tired by the end.  I could see some improvement from everyone that I rolled with and what I observed in other matches. I can't think of anything out of the ordinary to mention, I completed some sweeps and some guard passes.

After class I asked Greg about how to handle getting up from the single leg that I attempted on Robert.  Apparently it would have been a lot easier to stand up than I thought instead of attempting to take the back.  From there we talked about how I got there which led to my problems dealing with wrestlers' in turtle position.  Mike showed me a way that he's been dealing with turtle by hooking the far hip and going under the elbow and with the other arm grabbing their shoulder and collapsing the elbow.  It seemed pretty doable and not too difficult so I may look into it tomorrow.

While changing and a little bit over instant message this evening Mike and I have been discussing some philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu.  Terms like spirituality and artistry were tossed around a bit, but I think we finally got to the bottom of it.  He made the observation that I approach it from a concrete point of view while he is looking at it abstractly.  I was really hung up on him saying that winning isn't the goal but creating art is.  While I agree it isn't something to be obsessed with, I think it is very important.  In the end we both decided that it is important but he would rather focus on creating art on the mats and I think I agree with him, but I don't feel the need to think about it that way on the mats.

Some of my straight forward philosophy would be:  
The goal is to have the most efficient technique and strategies to advance position and submit or restrain your opponent with the least amount of force. This is coming from my self defense point of view.  To drill your techniques until the details disappear and the body and mind work together.  AND to takedown, sweep, pass guard, and submit with the coolest, badass techniques.