November 9th 2014 - Weekly Review

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Guillotine from Guard Defense, Ezekiel from Mount & Top Half Guard

It was quite a week.  These classes were pretty hard on the neck as most choking weeks can be.  I did find out that I'm generally being too nice with my ezekiel because I'm not bringing it across the throat as much as I should, so look forward to that.  I also needed to work on keeping my head down before applying the choke.  I think this has a little to do with discomfort concerning tight spaces and a little bit of a sweat factor.  I had a bit of a theory that the EZKill was easier to get from half guard since their hands are out of the equation rather than the mount where I feel a lot of people can defend with their hands and keep their head tight to the mat.  Greg disagreed and I think I'm coming around to his way of thinking.

Rolling was fulfilling during these classes as I got to roll with Zack who just returned to Jiu-Jitsu after a hiatus as well as Greg, Brian AF, Ben, and Bhuvana.  I helped Brian get ready for his blue belt test and got some half guard questions from Zack.

No Gi: Pummeling Techniques, Passing Butterfly guard: Guillotine, Hip Switch Pass

It's been a long time since I've felt this sweaty in class, but no-gi will do that to you.  Tinguinha led us through quite a warm-up focusing on the abs.  Jerad was my partner which was very productive for some good training especially when it came to the hip switch guard passing. 

During rolling I got all of the big guys.  Adam took it to me pretty good and I had to scramble my ass off.  Jorge had learned some new tricks, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't berimbolo me the next time we roll as he was close this time.  Bauer reminded me of why I need to train more no-gi as with all of my gi grips gone I had a hard time controlling him.  Jerad pretty much destroyed me with butterfly sweeps and armdrags. 

Tinguinha and Greg rolled to finish out the session and Greg had a lot better showing than earlier in the day.  In the rolls that I saw them together in, I really saw Greg's A game shine through as he was doing everything that I know him to be good at in rapid succession but Tinguinha always had an answer for it.


Tinguinha Seminar

I created a post just for the seminar: November 8th 2014 - Tinguinha Seminar

One thing that crossed my mind during the seminar was how similar mine and Tinguinha's body types were.  We seemed to be of similar height and frame, maybe weight.  It probably is a good idea to model some of my game after him.  I've already discovered the cross guard to click well with me.  Maybe the spider guard should be my next focus.

Esteemed Colleagues and Honorable Mentions

Conan: The second in command and currently the only purple belt at LBJJC is one of the reasons that I started Jiu-Jitsu in the first place.  When I first met Conan back in 2000, I was seeing him several times a week at Detox.  Before you start jumping to conclusions it was because I worked there and he's a police officer.  Not until several years later when I visited his Jiu-Jitsu class with some of my Hapkido colleagues did I realize how much of a badass Conan was and how little I knew.

He constantly surprises me technically with his ability to put enormous amounts of pressure on me from side control with seemingly little effort.  Then there's his stupid butterfly hook that comes out of nowhere.  I also hate when he plays possum and gives me a good position and then reverses and sweeps me slowly and methodically.  Sorry, I'll keep this positive and digress.  He's also given me a lot of great advice that has served me well.  He's been there for others as well both as a teacher and a friend.  I would consider him our Papa Smurf.

Conan deserves a lot of props for getting Jiu-Jitsu going in Lincoln.  I'm not clear on the whole back story but I know Conan had to do quite a bit of research and experimentation on his own to get good at Jiu-Jitsu and along the way gather up several of my closest brothers and sisters in this sport.  He introduced Jiu-Jitsu into the State Games a few years ago and put on a few local tournaments.  Plus we probably wouldn't have our current school without contributions from him and Jerad.  So Thank You Conan!