Wednesday, September 30, 2015

September 30th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard, Tripod Sweep
Partner: Anthony

Anthony has returned after taking some time off over the summer.  He mentioned being worried about forgetting everything but he seemed to be in the swing of things once class got going. 

During drilling I tried to focus on my opponents posture.  I got the idea when I was on the top of Greg's guard that there came a point where I was too extended and didn't feel comfortable or felt like I was ready to be put into a submission at any moment.  So reverse engineering that how can I make the top person feel that way.  Not sure I totally figured it out but it was a different way to look at it.

Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Anthony, Ben, Brian G.

This session made me realize how good this position is.  I had a really tough time passing my partners' guards.  I was also able to maintain this position very well.  The combination of the collar/sleeve grabs and the feet on hips and bicep cover your bases.  I haven't figured out how to smoothly transition to submissions or sweeps but keeping this position seems pretty natural.

During free rolling I played a lot of guard as relaxed as I could be.  I found myself using scissor sweep and butterfly sweep.  It seems like the loop choke has been presenting itself lately too.  One thing I noticed was I did some shaking to free something today.  Like trying to pass half guard I shook the legs to free my knee.  I shook my arm free after an over/under pass.  Not sure why I noticed this. 

Office Hours Partner: Anthony

Happy to have someone stay behind and roll with me a bit.  After a few rolls I ended up talking him through some passing and setting up some submissions. 


Tuesday, September 29, 2015

September 29th 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard, Tripod Sweep
Partner: Bhuvana, Megan

Bhuvana brought a friend in to train today and she had a pretty good attitude for her first class.  Understandably a little hesitant but willing to try the stuff and take instructions.  I think it was a pretty good class to start with because we started with open guard and only did a couple other things from there.

Some things that I found work for me in open guard:
  • The leg on the bicep is your active leg.  Keep that hip off the floor so you can move that leg around anywhere you need it.
  • When learning this position, relax.  Know that you want to remain on your side and keep your hips in line with them.  When they move try to figure out how to reset the starting position 
  • When coming up from the tripod sweep pull the pushing leg back so you can kneel on it. 

Rolling: Basic Open Guard (4 x 2 min)
Rolled With: Greg, Josh M

Interesting roll with Greg.  My open guard didn't last too long when I was on bottom either time and I ended up in half guard or he was in knee up passing position.  I felt pretty good about the half guard time, I ended up using his lapel under his leg to try to work my way into deep half and keep him from passing.  It worked for a little while at least.  From the top I was really worried about getting triangled.  I attempted the belt grab and foot push pass but couldn't get free of his grips.  On our last roll we ended up in an interesting foot lock position where he played around with a calf cutter.

With Josh I was able to setup some loose omoplatas and move into cross guard.  When I was on top, Josh caught me in a triangle position near the end of our roll.  I was able to posture but he was still working for it until the time ran out. 

Office Hours Partner: Josh

Greg had us work a bit on the twist sweep.  He pointed out that I was focusing too low with the sweep and should control their thigh instead.  Hopefully this is the detail I need because it's still not sinking in.  No one wanted to stay and roll with me though, bummer.


Friday, September 25, 2015

September 25th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Defending Knee Slide
Partner: Dave, Morgan

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well Wednesday and had some work to do, so I skipped class.

Since there were so few of us Conan wanted to work on something a little bit different for the last class of the week.  While he taught a couple techniques, it was more conceptual and more of a progression. 

First was to hide your arm under your thigh or knee.  If you don't make it there put your arm under their knee and don't let it touch the floor.  From those positions we would choose to push them forward with your knee or back based on what they do.  Finally use the stiff arm to their shoulder or opposite bicep or the outside foot to push on their shoulder or with a knee shield.  We did quite a few reps experimenting with each.

Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Dave

I felt very relaxed while working from the bottom.  While I still "tried" to not have my guard passed, I was trusting the techniques.  I still had to go to turtle or choose an alternate way to recover but all in all a very good learning experience for the concepts covered.  From the top, both Morgan and Dave gave me a hard time passing.  Granted I was just trying to do the knee slide over and over, and the only times I really did pass were when I switched to a different one. 

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

September 22nd 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Defend Guillotine from Guard, Ezekiel from Mount & Half Guard
Students: Bhuvana, Dave, Mo, Abdul, Ben, Morgan, Tom

Pulled out some different exercises for the warm-up today.  We did some partner shrimp walks where you push on your partners legs while they stand over you to assist with the shrimp.  Then front shrimps with a partner that I just remembered.  We did some back and forth takedown fitins, then some grip fighting from standing.

Some things I tried to focus on while teaching the techniques were:
  • In order to defend the guillotine from guard you have to get ahead of them and stay ahead.  Getting to your toes and pushing them flat on their back before they can pull you down and move to the side is going to be key.  
  • After releasing the choke pull your arms back along with your head and try to get your posture back.  Unless you like being armbared.
  • For the Ezekiel I've been playing around with where to apply the choke.  I'm still not 100% that I have the best way, but I've had a lot of success with going across to the other side rather than just applying the choke to the near side. 
  • From half guard, have the intention that you are going to pass to mount, make them take away their defense to block your knee to get a good shot at completing the choke.  

Rolling: Closed Guard (2 x 2 min), Half Guard (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min)
Rolled With: Tom, Ben

With uneven partners I was able to roll a few times.  Rolling felt pretty smooth, always love starting in mount on the top, plus half guard!  Both Ben and Tom did a good job at defending. 

During the free rolling round I did my best to give Abdul some pointers as he's only been to a couple of classes.  Most of my advice had to do with posture and preventing armbars and triangles from guard.  After class we talked about figuring out what the desired positions are and knowing when you're in trouble is what he needs to focus on first.

Office Hours Partner: Morgan

After rolling a couple times Morgan asked about how to go about passing guard from knees/butterfly.  I went over a couple passes that I like to do and discussed the grips I like to go for.  I've been working on dealing with avoiding the armdrag by kind of getting the grips and jumping the pass. 



Saturday, September 19, 2015

September 19th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class Technique: Armbar from Mount, Elbow Escape from Mount 

Rolling/Game: Mount Position, Belt Grab Game

I did a different warm-up for the kids on Wednesday and the kids asked me to do it again today.  My intention was to mix it up a bit but I'm not sure I want to have to go through it every kids class.  Basically it's the old Jiu-Jitsu warm-up of running around the mat, then shuffling, some rolls, push-ups, etc.  I add in a couple things of my own with "On your feet, on your back, on stomach" exercise.  Then we did a partner falling exercise called the lawn mower, and finished it in a circle with sprawl ball.  I'll have to come up with some different stuff to keep it interesting. 

Both boys are doing great with the armbar.  I guess working on it for so many classes paid off.  I saw Jayden show a little more drive while rolling to get on top.  Jerad had them play a new game at the end of class where they raced from various positions to see who could get a belt first.  Pretty fun and can see how it relates to Jiu-Jitsu.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Jerad, Alejandro
Game Plan: Uchi Mata, Guard Retention

Fuji: My kids left with my parents and Fuji showed up a little early.  We spent some time with the uchi mata with a little bit of success until Ray showed up and told us not to work on it the way we were.  He advised me to spin more which helped tremendously and had Fuji do a snapdown.  Fuji and I rolled again later on and I felt okay about my performance.  I defended and recovered from a couple things that I normally don't but I still had trouble with his brabo grip and he eventually worked his way into a choke.

Jerad: We had a great roll as usual.  My knee shield half guard was working well, but when he got passed it I had to deal with his hip switch and eventually got passed.  I know I've commented on this a lot lately but my ability to make space really shows itself when rolling with him.  He's still able to capitalize on my mistakes and find a way to get ahead of me. 

Alejandro: We rolled no gi when he first arrived and then gi later on.  I was able to move a little more in no gi but I still felt completely outmatched.  When he was on bottom I couldn't help but get put into single leg x, I really need to research avoiding this position.  In the gi he paid me a compliment on defending his de la riva.  I had researched it a bit and asked Greg about basic defense.  Pretty much boiled down to stepping and crouching to remove the hook and control the free foot.  The only other good thing I did was defend a collar choke by getting to deep half and then using the waiter sweep.  But from there I ended up in 50/50 and eventually got ankle lock.  Alejandro and Ray both gave some good pointers on the position afterward.  One bit of advice was that I should have gotten up when my foot was on the other hip in a type of leg drag position.


Friday, September 18, 2015

September 18th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Open Guard
Partner: Craig

My good friend Craig,  joined us this morning and is trying to make it a regular thing.  He and I have trained together for a long time.  He was there when I went to my first TKD school and we've been friends since then.  In fact I owe him for getting me into Jiu-Jitsu because when I was teaching Hapkido he was interested in ground fighting and we would try our best to learn the positions and stuff.  He also came with me to visit Conan's Jiu-Jitsu class for the first time.  We still get together pretty often to roll.

Conan took me by surprise and started teaching open guard rather than the triangle.  I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me off guard when he started teaching something different.  I know that if I were teaching I would want to be able to switch things up a little bit.

The open guard was with one spider and a collar grip.  We worked on recovering guard and sweeping with a similar technique to the lasso sweep.  Unfortunately Craig has been struggling with a leg injury and it flared up during drilling, so he sat out for the rest of the class.  Hopefully he'll be healthy back at LBJJC soon.

Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 4 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Conan, Josh, Dave

Had some good rolling.  I felt pretty good about maintaining guard, but wasn't able to attack much from the position.  I did hit a couple of sweeps, or was able to come up to my knees to attack a single leg.  With Josh, I fell into a triangle but I gave him some trouble with my posture.  I showed him some things to do after the roll.


Office Hours Partner: Conan

Rolling with Conan was tough.  He kept me at bay with his new arm positioning for guard retention.  He's been experimenting with it and it seems very effective. I've had some success with it myself although I don't have as many contingency plans as Conan.  I feel like I've learned quite a bit from Conan lately with guard retention and recovery and it's made a difference in my rolling.  I'm definitely not on a plateau at the moment.



Wednesday, September 16, 2015

September 16th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Triangle from Closed Guard
Partner: Morgan

After several reps of the triangle the way Greg taught it, I tried a couple other setups.  The cross guard to omoplata and then to triangle seems to be the most natural (duh).  I also played around with Shawn William's guard but didn't feel strong setting it up.  Greg said I needed to put my hands together to keep them from stacking which I didn't think was a part of the position.

Rolling: Closed Guard (6 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Shane, Jeff

Had some good rolling today.  Greg had us go with everyone in guard and then a couple free rolls.  I was able to complete a triangle today with the failed omoplata setup which made me happy.  Also the loop choke appears to be coming back as something useful, it was being blocked consistently so I kind of left it alone for a while but I've hit a few lately and they felt quite smooth.

I found the guys were getting better in guard since we worked on it last week and there was just a little extra grip or going to turtle when they were about to be passed or opening the guard with something in mind.  It keeps me on my toes as sometimes I'm not sure how much I should try in the beginner classes. 

Office Hours Partner: Jeff

Went over some half guard stuff with Jeff.  He was having some posture and darce troubles.  I showed him a few things with messing with their leg to turn their hips a bit and talked about getting the underhook.  Also some Ryan Hall stuff came up with controlling the inside space and using the knee shield.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

September 15th 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Triangle from Closed Guard
Partner: Morgan

Worked on the Uchi Mata with Dave before class started.  Felt pretty good trying to generate the turn of the body that I wanted.  The step back and lift also felt good with the neck hip throw, I focused on trying to catch Morgan as he was coming up. 

Triangle from guard is always one of those things that I know in theory but have a hard time completing in rolling.  During drilling I can choke someone and make it really tight, but always have a problem closing the triangle and controlling their posture during rolling and usually the omoplata is right there so I will abandon it for that. 

Rolling: Guard Position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Ben, Robert

Morgan was able to sweep me today as I defended his triangle attempt I became over extended and went to my back to claim some type of guard.  I probably should have gave him the triangle instead in the spirit of learning the technique that we practiced.  Ben did fine and stopped me from doing what I wanted to do a couple times.  However, with one of the sweeps I felt like he gave up a little too soon.  From the top I hit a few omoplata sweeps but it was interesting that I was getting my legs kind of tangled up afterward.  I think I just need to sink into side control faster rather than wait there. 

Rolled lightly with Robert as he is cutting weight for a fight.  I ended up in turtle at one point and did a granby into triangle position.  He postured way back though and I didn't even get close to locking it up.  Otherwise we went back and forth position wise and it seemed pretty smooth rolling.



Saturday, September 12, 2015

September 12th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Armbar from mount, Elbow Escape from Mount
Rolling/Game: Mount Position

Kid's have been doing great in class lately.  There's still the occasional tickling or what not and Jayden is still having trouble getting motivated for the warm-up but he'll have moments of doing well.  They both did well with the armbar these past weeks.  The elbow escape was a little more difficult because they wouldn't always trust their shrimp.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Robert, Baeur, Gina, Henry, Alejandro, Mo, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Guard Retention, Controlling the pace

Jerad: Rolls with him have been a blast lately.  I feel like I'm challenged technically more than physically if that makes sense.  I've probably said this too much already but little things like some extra hip escapes and moving a little more have been making a big difference.

Robert: He's preparing for a fight so we went no gi.  Rolls with him are the opposite of Jerad.  They are really physical and fast paced but pretty straight forward technical-wise.  There's a lot of half guard going back and forth, many guillotine attempts, and some north/south. 

Bauer: Had a little back and forth with half guard.  I spent some time in mount and tried to setup the spiral armbar, but I went too fast and tried to lay down when I should have stayed up.  I went to grab the leg but it was too late, I really want to get this technique down.  Spent some time in north/south after that.

Gina: Our roll didn't last long, but I did feel like she had improved since our last roll.  She had me in mount and I escaped to quarter and then went for deep half but it affected an existing hip in the process.  So we quit after that, hopefully she's okay.

Henry: I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and try to fight smart.  He mentioned at one point that I was better at preventing his knee slide.  I had to work really hard to get out of an armbar attempt from side mount that he's gotten pretty good at setting up.  I was able to time it just right.  Somehow I ended up in mount in the end. 

Alejandro: I didn't feel like I did anything well against him today.  There was one point where I was in seated guard and had his sleeve between his legs, but he pulled it out before I could do anything with it.  His grip control is really amazing and something I need to watch him do more.  He went over his version of over/under pass with me which was informative.  He never goes to his knees with it, he get's his head around the front of their thigh to avoid the crossface problem, then to finish he'll sometimes for their legs back to center to kind of end up in a leg drag position.  Not sure how much I'm going to change my way, but it will be good to experiment. 

Mo: I called Mo over to work on some deep half guard stuff.  He's pretty new to the position but seemed to catch on to several of the tips that I gave from knee shield to underhook, to hiding the inside hand and keeping posture.  Hopefully it was informative.  We rolled for a bit and we ended up in weird back mountish half guard position.  He ended up catching me with a kimura/straight armlock that surprised me.

Bhuvana: She just wanted to work on a couple things.  I showed her the butterfly guard sweep that I've had success with lately.  We also did some NS choke troubleshooting as people have been escaping it lately. 

Friday, September 11, 2015

September 11th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Head Lock Escape to Back Mount, Standing Guard Break to Knee Slide
Partner: Morgan

Conan emphasized dealing with not being able to get ideal grips.  How sometimes he'll get the leg grip first and go for the chest grab before immediately trying to break the guard.  During drilling I played around with this a bit with a little hand fighting. 

Rolling: Closed Guard (2 x 4 min), Kesa Getamae (2 x 4 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Zac, Jordan

I tried to channel Conan during positional sparring, using minimal effort and structural stability to prevent the pass.  I felt pretty good about my performance from top and bottom.  Kesa gatame is a different thing all together.  I hate this position, but understand that I should work on it every now and again.  Zac gave me some good advice in that I would let him know that I was going to try something with my breathing paterns.  Also when he was on the bottom with me I could feel his chaining of escapes and could see how he made space.  From the top he told me to think of attempting a judo hip throw and looking up and away if my opponent got squirrely.  It felt pretty strong.  

Office Hours Partner: Conan, Zac

Had a rough long roll with Conan.  I don't remember much of it but somehow I passed his guard.  I know he was trying a new particular guard pass defense that is more of a last ditch effort, so that probably helped me chances.  Once I got to side control, I had to tell myself to start attacking.  I know that if I don't I'll be put on the defensive and Conan will start trapping my arms.  So I attempted any submission that I could.  I tried to stay ahead of him and had to move to the other side of side control a few times, went to the turtle, then the back, then back to side control.  Ended up with a one armed RNC to which Conan said "finally" 

Zac went over some collar choke stuff that I could have attempted.  He also implied that I didn't do as well with my NS choke because of my reverence for Conan, which I think has some truth to it.  It was a great way to end the class though and I got my cardio in for the day.



Wednesday, September 9, 2015

September 9th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Head Lock Escape to Back Mount, Standing Guard Break to Knee Slide
Partner: Tom

I had a little bit of a problem getting a good hook in on the leg and then pushing off the other leg for the head lock escape.  I got it, but it didn't always feel secure.  Close to the end of demonstration portion Greg happened to trap my arm while going to the back.  As a challenge I tried some different ways to duplicate this while practicing.  It seemed like getting my knee up high and then bringing my foot around his shoulder as we rolled to the other side was the key.

We did several reps of the standing guard break.  Tom was pretty new to some of the details but had done a similar technique previously.  We went over some no-gi options to go with the underhook.  I had to work on pulling up on the sleeve because I would forget to do it on my left side sometimes. 

Rolling: Closed Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Tom, Roland, Jordan

Wanted to play some 2 on 1 again and seemed to get shut down by everyone.  Maybe I'm not trying hard enough or I'm being too obvious.  Had a couple close calls where I had to scramble to regain guard.  I ended up in head lock position at one point and felt like I didn't have an automatic answer for it.  I think I may hit up Adam with some good responses from there.  I may just need to work on my sitouts more because I'm too hesitant to go for it.

From the top I hit a couple knee slides trying to attempt what we worked on in class.  Tom noticed a couple times that he was attempting to get to guard and I would sit on his shin/foot so he couldn't.  This is most definitely a product of the over under pass and natural at this point.

The only thing that stuck out in free rolling is that I got a couple low butterfly sweeps that have been materializing lately.  I get a grip on their post hand and bump under them and then sweep and keep bumping and pressuring toward their base hand until the sweep is complete.  Seems to be working but I don't always end up in the best passing position.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

Tried to do the Uchi Mata a few times but felt worse than Saturday.  I watched the Mat Lab video again and I think I was pushing too much sideways at first instead of lifting my elbow.  Tom wanted to work on the north/south choke and the defense.  I feel like I've been teaching it a lot lately.  It's pretty cool as it's something that developed organically for me.  I really didn't drill as much as the other things in my "A game" it just kind of developed over time.  I will say though, that I failed at it a lot which led to contingencies and developing a nice series from there.  Some people like Jerad are able to defend it consistently, so there is still work to be done. 


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

September 8th 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Head Lock Escape to Back Mount, Kneeling Guard Break to Knee Slide
Partner: Bhuvana

Pretty small class today with only 4 of us.  A few things that came up during class:
  • For the head lock escape digging the toes in and sending their head forward was the most difficult part.  This is a good skill to have though as it comes up with other techniques.
  • After breaking the guard open I think about grabbing the collar and twisting it like a bully grip bringing my elbow closed on my thigh creating a wall against their leg.
  • During the knee slide don't forget to grab the sleeve and pull it up to keep them from turning in.
Rolling: Closed Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Bhuvana, Morgan, Tom

I attempted to do 2 on 1 a couple times but everyone defended it well.  My cross guard was always in my back pocket and I used it a couple times.  From the top I was able to complete the guard break a few times but never was able to do a knee slide.  I ended up having to stand and go for toreando or go to over/under. 

Office Hours: No One Wanted to Stay

I just went to youtube and watched some of my first tournament matches.  Holy crap was I shitty.  So much has changed since then and it turned out to be difficult to watch.  I don't move like that any more, I don't make those same mistakes or miss those opportunities.  Kind of cool to see but cringe-worthy at the same time.


Saturday, September 5, 2015

September 5th 2015 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Jerad, David, Bhuvana, Mo
Game Plan: Uchi Mata, Hip Bump Sweep, Guard Retention

This may not be my best post since I have to type it on my phone. I'm camping in the backyard with the kids again.  Kids did great in their class. They worked on armbar from mount.

Fuji and I reviewed the Uchi Mata video and then attempted some.  I didn't feel like I was getting it but when he suggested to forget about the kick part and focus on upper body it started to come together.

Jerad said that our roll had been the funnest that he'd had in a long time. I think the guard retention and side control escape stuff that I've been working with Conan have upped my game lately.  He also said that my butterfly felt stronger.

I got stuck with David again in an armbar position unable to finish. Greg and Mike have me some ideas for the future. I definitely wasn't being technical enough and he's great at defending.

I went over posture in guard with Bhuvana since Greg had commented that she sat back too much.  We rolled some with me giving up side control from the start. She's getting tougher to escape from.

Mo surprised me a couple times. I still tried to do the rolling back take even though I knew he had a defense for it and almost got my back taken in the process.






Friday, September 4, 2015

September 4th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Seoi Nage, Double Ankle Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep
Partner: Dave

I focused on more of the same things from the previous classes.  Timing the throw with my stepping.  Also I tend to forget to look back behind me during the throw.  With double ankle to not release my guard until I have the ankles.

I helped Dave with the butterfly sweep quite a bit and I think we made a lot of progress.  The big thing was he was falling to the side instead of crunching up and bringing his shoulder more directly to the mat.  He said that it felt easier and more effective in the end so I win at teaching today.

Rolling: Closed Guard (2 x 4 min), Butterfly Guard (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Dave, Josh

I was pretty surprised with Dave's ability to get grips and hold on to them.  He had me worried a couple times.  I had some fun playing some de la riva though with both Dave and Josh when the initial guard didn't go my way.  The sickle sweep was the only thing that seemed viable to me so I do need to learn some more options from the position or just try to figure out what Alejandro does to me every time.  I did attempt the waterfall backtake but couldn't get as far behind my partner as I would have liked. 

Josh made the comment that I was putting on a clinic with him from butterfly.  I liked the compliment but told him that he was really foiling a lot of the things that I was trying to do and I had to switch my technique several times in response to his pass attempts, I really wanted the hook sweep but couldn't get.  Another thing that I went over with him was that it's okay to stand-up in butterfly if you get the pant grips, it's very difficult to pass from the knees without doing some type of single/double/over under type pass.

Office Hours Partner: Josh, Zac

I went over the cross guard basics with everyone because Zac asked about doing the armbar from mount.  I showed how I got an armbar from there most often.  Rolled with Josh a couple times after that.  Zac and I worked on dealing with the hip switch half guard and I think we finally figured out the leg weave escape that Greg showed us months ago.  Using our other leg to assist in getting the foot in made it unstoppable in my opinion. 


Wednesday, September 2, 2015

September 2nd 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Seoi Nage, Double Ankle Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep
Partner: Ben

Continued with the back step and pulling him into the shoulder throw.  Feels good, but I still want to get timing down to get them on their toes just as I'm throwing.  Had to tell Ben not to lean over too soon which I've seen a lot of my partners do with these types of throws connect them to your upper body before you lean over.

I found myself opening my guard too soon before I had the ankles grabbed.  Tried to overcome that.  And, just focused on the squeeze and hang as I have been for the butterfly sweep.  Greg really hit it home today that the sweep is not about using your knee to kick them away but how your hips turn.

Rolling: Closed Guard (4 x 2 min), Butterfly Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Ben, Mike, Morgan, Tom, Greg

I've solidified the hip bump as a contingency for when someone escapes my cross guard.  It happened a couple times last week and a couple times this week as they attempted to get away from my cross sleeve grab they pull their hand too far to one side and I'm able to sit up and go over their shoulder.  Nice addition and very smooth.

I believe I was able to prevent my guard getting passed today (except Greg).  Probably the coolest thing I did was when someone had me stacked but I had a sleeve grab I was able to recover to turtle and roll for an omoplata. 

I don't remember much of the beginning of the roll with Greg.  I felt like I had an opportunity to pass at one point but the moment had come and gone by the time I realized it.  After that I spent some time in half guard and then got swept, and then was in the bottom of mount trying to escape.  He was looking for the arm triangle but eventually settled for an armbar after getting me so uncomfortable.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

Went over some grip fighting and some of my ideas for starting a roll with Tom.  I gave my normal spiel of treat the grip fight like a boxing match.  I haven't boxed much but I like to juke and throw some jabs to get some reaction before I throw my power hand to get the grip that I want and then push them around a bit and get the other grip and stand.  When I defend I do my best not to let anyone have a grip for too long and if I break a grip off I keep a hold of it and use it to get an underhook or a different grip.  

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

September 1st 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Seoi Nage, Double Ankle Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep
Partner: Zac, Bhuvana

Had a rather large class today.  Some thoughts on the techniques for this week:
  • For the shoulder throw I've been working on different stepping and kind of pulling them into it.  Seems to help load them up onto the hips more.
  • Doing the "make a muscle" motion is very important
  • For the Double Ankle sweep the major thing I emphasized a couple times today was as you're getting up hipping forward on one side on top of their leg pinning it to the floor.  Keep your knee on the floor the entire time you move to mount.
  • For the Butterfly sweep I like to use the back hand to help me move under them as I shoot for the underhook.  Zac said this helped him lead with his hips instead of his hips to avoid the guillotine.

Rolling: Closed Guard (2 x 2 min), Butterfly (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Zac, Robert, Tom

Rolling felt great from the guard positions.  My cross guard is always in my back pocket.  From the top I've felt like breaking and passing the guard is very hard work.  Having to keep posture, monitor grips, have gravity against me, attempt to stand-up, then even if I break the guard I still have to figure out the best pass to attempt or deal with some type of open guard.  With butterfly I'm still trying to get the underhook squeeze and hang off my opponent perfected.  I was able to pull off a couple guard recovery tricks that Conan showed me the other day, in the vein of a granby roll.

In free rolling I was able to pull off the single leg x-guard setup to technical standup.  I'm still feeling stuck in mount sometimes unable to setup a submission.  I have my things but if people are keeping their defenses tight I'm kind of stuck, pushing and pulling on stuff hoping they'll make a mistake.  Tom told me I fooled him because previously I caught him with a couple NS chokes so when I was in north/south position he started worrying about the choke but I went for kimura instead.  This may be useful in the near future when everyone learns to defend my NS choke.  

Office Hours Partner: Tom, Robert, Zac

Rolled no-gi after class.  I started to feel pretty tired from lack of sleep and it was pretty hot in the gym. 

Had a very tough roll with Robert.  I spent some time on top and got caught in his half guard.  I attacked a guillotine but couldn't connect my hands.  Eventually he swept me.  It was so slippery and while I thought I was defending the cross face from bottom half guard he was able to slip right through it.  At one point he caught me with a kimura as I attempted to go deep half and was even close to completing the sweep but he was able to isolate the arm.  I was pretty wiped out after this session.