Saturday, October 29, 2016

October 29th 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Eric (Visitor), Henry, Greg, Tyler, Nick
Game Plan: Kimuras, Deep Half & Omoplatas

Eric: No easy rolls today and this was a great way to start.  Eric has visited are school a few times in the past when he was purple and now he's a brown belt.

Felt like I did pretty well, was able to sweep from deep half but had a difficult time passing.  He had a slick lasso sweep that had me defending the rest of the roll.

Toward the end of open mat we shared some cross guard omoplata stuff. I showed him my guard pull and he showed me his lasso setup to omoplata. I think I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong with this. I've been trying to bring my head to close to them as I rolled. We also talked about the lawn mower position which was the name he used for the sitting on the shoulder position after an omoplata sweep.

Henry: My major objective was to avoid guillotines and kimuras. Difficult task with Henry. We rolled for quite a while and I'm happy with my performance even if he did eventually get the guillotine. We had a good discussion about using kimuras for control and I think I'm beginning to understand. The major thing is to push into their body with straight arms while trying to get in position and sucking the arms in when submitting.

Greg: Felt like I had some good movement during our roll. He caught me with a few leg locks. The one setup that I'd like to work on is from when the bottom person gets an underhook and you step back to setup the inverted heel hook.  I was able to catch him in a kimura grip but he kept a good hold of my leg to keep me from using it.

Tyler: I respect how frustrating his guard can be. I'm not sure how he does it but every time I attempt to get close he's able to push me away or threaten a back take.

Nick: My rolls with Nick are always great and just like the other good guys I roll with he has techniques and attributes that make his game different.  He put me in a couple omoplatas that I had to work hard to defend, not many people put me there but I think being good at a position helps you be good at defending it.

Friday, October 28, 2016

October 28th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break, Torreando Pass, Knee Over Pass, X-Pass
Students: Craig, Tom, Ryal

Was the instructor today and added some throw fitins to the warm-up.  We then went right into Koshi Guruma. 

We did quite a few reps with the standing guard break and switched out the pass.  I liked showing some other options from the standing guard break.  I've gone over the x-pass with a few people lately and have enjoyed adding it to my teaching repertoire. 

Rolling: Guard, Free Rolling


Made sure to try the standing guard break as often as possible when on top.  The topic came up with Ryal if it was good to come up with them or not and I mentioned that it's possible to just stand-up and turn it into some judo.  I've been thwarted with this before and would like to think of some go to throws to deal with this.

Played some more cross guard today from the bottom and focused on transitioning to back roll or triangle.  Went over being stacked in a triangle with Tom and how I treat it like defending a double under pass and spread my knees out onto their arms until I can get my posture back and lock up the triangle again or go to guard.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

We drilled some cross guard and helped him with some specifics of getting to the position and getting the wrist to the other side.  We rolled a few times and had a good discussion about progressing in BJJ.



Thursday, October 27, 2016

October 27th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break, Torreando Pass
Partner: Bob

Tips for techniques of the week:
  • Koshi Guruma: Try not to grab anything with the arm that's around their neck just make it a fist and squeeze their head.
  • Standing Guard Break: The answer is on the ceiling.  Get your grips keep your posture as you stand and pull up on their sleeve.
  • Torreando Pass: We did a cool variation today that Greg said the ATOS guys do.  If they grab your ankle as you stand to break you turn your foot and walk to the side, then push their knees to the other side as you walk back in.  Hard to explain in text I guess.
Rolling: Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Bhuvana, Jess, Jordan

Bhuvana did some good things and was setting up a nice tozi pass before time ran out.  I gave her some pointers on it later, because she needed to switch her hips at the end in order to open the guard.  Jess has some good instincts and is doing well, I think he may need to slow down a bit and think about things as time goes on.

Did some experimenting with cross guard that worked out pretty well.  Jordan was doing a good job at posturing and I tried to hang off of him more and bring my cross guard up kind of high.  It felt like I was playing around with the position a bit and was able to have some fun with it, if that makes sense.

Office Hours Partner: Greg

We worked a bit on a throw that Greg and Bob were working on.  Kind of Makakomi o-soto gari to kimura throw.


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

October 26th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Blue Belt Curriculum Page 1 and some Cross Guard
Student: Ben

Only Ben showed up today and I was so thankful to have at least one.  The real curriculum of this week included Standing Guard Break, Torreando Pass, and Koshi Guruma which we covered a little bit of during the process.  I had him do a couple reps of each techniques and then gave him a few pointers if I saw some things.  A lot of the things were pretty nit picky but I think a few of the things he said were helpful tips. 

We talked a bit about cross guard as a position and getting the omoplata.  He was skipping over the position a little bit to get to the omoplata which makes it more difficult to get the wrist into the opposite hip. 

We rolled a few times with some breaks to discuss a couple of options from positions.  He said he liked rolling this way with a little bit of instruction mixed in.  I think it has it's time and place and definitely don't want to be the guy that stops a roll for instruction because I'm going to get caught in a submission and I do my best to avoid being patronizing to anyone. 

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

October 25th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Butterfly Guard: Arm Drag, Butterfly Sweep, Knee Tap
Partner: Jess, Phil

Greg gave his classic class on butterfly guard and it was a good refresh.  I think I understood the knee tap so much better than previously.  Mostly because I had to explain a lot of details to Phil and Jess.  I think they came away with a good understanding of the position though. 

Rolling: Butterfly Up/Down/Out & KOTM
Rolled With: John, Bhuvana, Mike, Tim, Phil, Jess,

Mike obviously gave me the most trouble today.  We got into a couple of leg locky positions and I threw up a heel hook attack from top half guard that I've been working on.

Had some other close moments with others that became a little scrambly.  I'm striving for that a little to get a little better cardio workout and I like the aspect of trying to just work and not think as much.

On my last roll with Bhuvana she complained that it would probably get over too quickly so instead of going for the pass right away I went to half guard first and then a cross face.  Purposefully trying to make her a little uncomfortable, I then tried to help talk her out of the bad spots and had her look for underhooks and stuff.  She seemed to appreciate the nature of the roll.

Office Hours Partner: Jess, Mike

Helped Jess with some basics of guard breaking to get out of closed guard without a gi. 

Rolled with Mike a few times with a couple of moments of acrobatic scrambling on Mike's part.  We went over some leg lock stuff and he helped me with some hand position stuff on the half guard heel hook.  We also discussed deep half and transitioning to tornado guard as an option to attack legs if deep half doesn't seem to be working.  I think I'll do some Youtube research on Cyborg Abreu to get some ideas.  I like what we experimented with quite a bit.



Saturday, October 22, 2016

October 22nd 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jess, Henry, Tyler, Andy, Bhuvana, Josh J
Game Plan: Bottom - Waiter Sweep, Top - Baseball Bat choke

Jess: He did pretty well today. Had some decent escapes. We rolled gi and no gi.  He'll be a handful once he figures some things out.

Tyler: Another tough roll, I don't know how he is able to maintain and attack from guard so well. There always seems to be something in the way.

Henry: We ended up in a lot of ankle lock positions. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I didn't do well it makes me want to focus on them more. He's also doing great with kimuras lately which I will have to work with him on.

Andy: I showed him some tips from Nick on the inverted triangle that we worked on last week. The specific thing was lifting the head instead of pushing it down to setup the choke.

Bhuvana: We rolled from butterfly guard. She wanted to work on guard retention. Her big takeaway was to get collar sleeve and either collar drag or put a foot on their hip.

Josh: Man what a roll to finish the session. We went back and forth a lot and he defended so well. I tested my resolve to keep being technical and not get impatient.

Friday, October 21, 2016

October 21st 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Technical Stand-up variations
Partner: Tim (New)

Conan made a class out of the technical stand-up and showed some sit-up to single leg guard type stuff to use the same motion.  Tim is pretty new and I had to instruct quite a bit but by the end I think he gained some knowledge.  Hopefully he sticks with it.

Rolling: Combat base, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Tim, David

During rolling I switched between cutting to the chase with a pass or sweep and letting him work and talking him through things. 

Had a good roll with Dave, I played guard for most of the roll and we went back and forth between me attempting submissions and him getting close to passing.  We ended up going the whole round without a sub.  I did attempt to triangle the triangle guy. 

Office Hours Partner: Craig, Conan

We took turns rolling.  I was able to pull off the new side control escape that Conan and I have been working on (see video below).  I was able to pull it off too.  Conan was really in a pressuring mood and I felt like I had to fight my heart out to gain any ground.  There was a point where I was in deep half and he was trying to isolate my arm where usually I find it quite easy to retain but it was very difficult to fight him off and get my arm back.




Thursday, October 20, 2016

October 20th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Technical Stand-up, Guard: Hip Bump Sweep, Kimura
Partner: Bhuvana

We worked quite a bit on the technical standup.  The main thing emphasized today was that you don't have to do all of the steps depending on the space your opponent gives you.  You may be able to stand-up after the first kick, you may have to kick them attempt to stand up they move in again, you lay on your back, repeat until you get enough space.  I think the most important thing to practice once you have the ability to stand-up down is knowing how far away they need to be for you to stand-up safely.

Bhuvana and I went over a few different kimura setups and some different ways to trick them into putting their hand on the mat in order to jump on the kimura.  She seemed to appreciate this exercise.  We also did a kimura from half guard and I was telling her to go to half butterfly but Greg said to just stay in half guard, so I was a little mixed up about that and will have to collect my thoughts. 

Rolling: Guard KOTM
Rolled With: John, Bhuvana, Bob, Jordan, Chris, Anthony

Had a lot of fun rolling and appreciate being able to roll with other blues like John and Jordan.  Apparently David is coming to early morning class tomorrow.

Didn't focus on any techniques in particular, I did hit a hip bump or two.  I tried to stay away from cross guard from the bottom and did more collar grab to open guard.  From top the focus was on floating and hip switching after a standing guard break.  I resorted to over/under a few times but might need to expand my passing game a bit more. 

There is always the dilemma of working on my best stuff or trying new things to challenge myself.  I'm planning on experimenting with some new things in the near future.  Just not sure what yet.  Ankle locks are on my list for sure.  Maybe a different guard like De La Riva.

Office Hours Partner: John

Watched John and Jordan roll and gave John some pointers on going to butterfly half when under hooked and cross faced in regular half guard and an entry into deep half from bottom of mount that he could have capitalized on.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

October 19th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Technical Stand-up, Guard: Hip Bump Sweep, Kimura
Partner: Chris C

Another small Wednesday but Chris and I put the work in.  We didn't spend too much time on instruction since he was already aware of the techniques but we stopped occasionally to make small adjustments to his technique.  The big thing was getting his hips back and coming up and over my shoulder.

Rolling: Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Chris, Jerad

Before doing positional sparring we discussed standing guard break.  There was definitely a difference in the way the two of us played and maybe there is something to that.  I was more than willing to open my guard where he seemed to want to hold me in his guard tight.  Probably just a thing that happens over time but I do remember caring a lot if my guard got opened.  He did take me by surprise at one point when I attempted spider guard and he stacked me and I had to turtle and he went right in to trying to take my back.  Didn't get to follow it through as time ran out.

Had a great roll with Jerad and felt like he dominated me afterward and said as much to him.  But, I was only really thinking about the last couple minutes of the roll where I was trying to escape mount and back mount.  I did quite a few things before that in pulling off a omoplata sweep and a good attempt at a loop choke.  I should follow my own advice and celebrate the little wins.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

October 18th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Half guard hip switch pass & back take
Partner: Henry

Mike had us work on one of my favorite pass positions from half guard. One detail that he emphasized was to get behind their triceps with your triceps. It wasn't something that I considered that important as I'm attacking the kimura if their arm is in or trying to pass to mount if their arm is out. Getting behind the tricep helps prevent them framing and is more desirable. Henry and I went off in tangents a few times with rolling back takes and other setups.

Rolling: Half Guard
Rolled With: Henry, Tom, Jesus

Had some good rolls. Henry did well with his inversions from the bottom and guillotine attempts from the top.

With both Jesus and Tom I was able to get to deep half from the bottom as they left too much space with their knee.  I also helped Tom isolate an arm and crossface to get mount.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

We rolled a few times and he shut down my NS choke. When I commented about not getting what I wanted he said something like, "I'm still on the bottom defending." We worked on the hip switch a bit more along with getting and underhook and coming up to the dog fight position.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

October 15th 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Craig, Tommy, Andy, Nick, Chris, Mike

Craig: We did some flow rolling before actually getting down to business as a little warm-up. I feel like his guard passing is improving since we've been working on it.

Tommy: Tommy was on his second day and he had a few people including Jerad and Nick work on some stuff with him. He had just watched his daughter do the kneeling guard break in the kids class so we worked on that mostly. Then I gave the typical shpeel about what positions are good and bad, position before submission, and posture and grips. Probably a little overwhelming.

Andy: He got me a little hung up in inverted triangle from side mount. I gave him a tip on grabbing the inside wrist to tighten it up which he seemed to appreciate.

Nick: Had quite a few rolls together. He complimented me on not making very many mistakes.  We went over the spiral armbar position as he caught me in a gogo plata armbar choke thing of a miserable submission.

Chris: I helped Chris with some guard passing and knee on belly transitioning to mount then Americana. I think this helped him put some pieces together attacking wise.  He gave me the impression that he felt like he was wasting my time. I just want to throw it out there that my time only feels wasted if the other person isn't interested in learning otherwise I'm game to roll with anyone and I think i can say the same for the purple and blue belts.

Mike: Quite a few rolls no gi style at the end of the session. He had my number today as he caught me with heel hook after heel hook. We discussed me not feeling pressure with it and maybe not tapping when I should to avoid injury. Luckily he's not looking to hurt me. The rest of the rolls consisted of guillotine and NS choke attempts with some deep half and waiter sweeps thrown in there.



Friday, October 14, 2016

October 14th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Back Mount: Cross Collar Choke, Bow & Arrow
Partner: Jesus, Jess

I helped Jesus and Jess on some of the finer points of the B&A along with escaping it. That technique is feeling really smooth especially my feet transitioning. I may start going for it again more often.

Rolling: Back Mount, Side Control
Rolled With: Jess, Josh J, Jesus, Tom

Transitions are feeling better than usual lately. Not trying to brag but flowing between mount, side control, and back control attacking my goto subs along the way feels very natural. Of course all of that changes against someone equal or better than me.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

Had an interesting cross guard omoplata sweep without actually having the omoplata locked in as he was hiding his elbow.  We also drilled some cross guard and omoplatas.


Thursday, October 13, 2016

October 13th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Seoi Nage, Cross Collar Choke from Back, Guillotine from Closed Guard
Students: Bhuvana, Shane, Jess, Anthony, Frank

Had them do a standing arm drag to the back to valley drop drill for part of the warm-up.  With Seoi Nage I tried to incorporate some of the stuff that Bob has helped me with.  Stepping into the tip of the triangle and getting them off balance.  One thing I also emphasized today was the importance of falling correctly.

The cross collar choke or sliding lapel choke has actually turned into one of my highest percentage chokes.  At first I discounted it because I liked the bow and arrow so much more, but now I go to this first and then if I can't finish it will transition to bow and arrow.  I consider this choke pretty direct and I don't have to work as hard.

With the guillotine Bhuvana actually pointed out something that I forgot during instruction which is how Greg gets his hip off to the side.  It's a really great detail as you really get out of their way as their head falls to the floor.

Rolling: Back Mount, Guard, Free Rolling


I didn't get to roll that much today due to even number of students.  Saw some good stuff and was surprised by Anthony as he just came back from a long break.  He was using his flexibility and redirecting bigger guys pretty well.  Jess the new guy was doing some good things too but also gassing himself out a bit, won't be long before he gets used to it. I saw Shane setup an awesome triangle and when he got stacked he underhooked the far leg and took total control of his partners posture.  So cool to watch people improve.




Wednesday, October 12, 2016

October 12th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Single Leg-X: Entry from kneeling and standing, Tech Stand-up sweep, Transition to full X
Students: Frank, Chris C

I was a little worried that no one was showing up at 5 till.  Frank and Chris mosied on in and I was so happy.  After some basic floor exercise warm-ups we did some standing guard break drills and everyone's favorite 180 side control movement drills.

I decided to work on single leg x since I was pretty sure they haven't practiced it and I feel it's pretty useful. The cool thing was that both of them said they had been on the receiving end of it several times but didn't know how to do it.

Rolling: Single Leg-X, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Chris, Frank

Had them roll with each other starting from the SLX position and while they didn't do great from there I got some satisfaction seeing them get to the position without thinking about it every time.  I got some rolling in too with a focus on open guard.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

October 11th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Butterfly Guard: Turning Pass, Knee Slide Pass, Guillotine
Partner: Jess (New Guy)

Great material today with all stuff I like to use. The guillotine that we did is commonly referred to as the marcelotine and it's one that I need to incorporate more into my rolling.

Rolling: Butterfly Guard
Rolled With: Jess, Greg, Ian, Jesus

Jess did pretty well for being new. Having a wrestling background helps.  Had decent rolls with Ian and Jesus. Didn't have much success with playing actual butterfly from the bottom but ended up with a lot of half guard and an occasional arm drag. Top was pretty straight forward over/under pass.

Felt pretty good about my roll against Greg came close with a couple things like hip switch pass and kimura from half guard. We were talking later and he gave me the impression that I needed to work on controlling with the kimura more.

Office Hours Partner: Frank

Frank and I rolled a few times and then went over rolling back takes and the twister side control position since I pulled off one off earlier in the roll. Seemed like I taught him something new today.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

October 8th 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Ross, Henry, Kevin, Bauer, Bhuvana

Ross: Great to see him after such a long time. He did a few things that seemed new. He rolled from bottom of turtle and attempted some knee bars and we ended up in 50/50 for a bit. I felt like his hip escapes were a lot better too. Always cool to see how people progress when they train somewhere else and wonder how different their skill would be if they stayed. He did pay LBJJC a compliment and said that he likes how the upper belts are more willing to share techniques and give technique advice.

Henry: Great roll with quite a pace.  We had some back and forth a lot of it from half guard.  One thing that he does that I admire is his ability to invert to escape side control, it's very tough to deal with. I'll have to have him show me how to do it some time.

Kevin: Felt a little better about my performance with him this week but gassed out in the end. One thing I'd like to figure out is options from when I go for a belly down armbar with the shin across the neck and they hide their arm, I feel stuck when I get there lately.

Bauer: Good rolls with Bauer. Had one bit of advice for him as we started both times he kind of pushed me into closed guard, so I suggested to put a knee up to start passing right away. I also showed him my new NS choke setup. I think I'll call it the shelf setup or something like that.

Bhuvana: She requested a shorter version of the 8 minute drill since she's never done it before.  I'm pretty impressed with her defenses as I may have only submitted her once or twice during the exercise. We also worked on loop choke and arm triangle.

Friday, October 7, 2016

October 7th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Kimura basics from guard
Partner: Evan

Did some basic kimura stuff from guard.  Instead of focusing on just the technique we dealt more with when the opponent defends by trying to tuck their arm under their leg.  We then usually ended up with a sweep or a folded arm type of kimura that Conan has taught before.  I especially like the half guard stuff as I hook up the submission from their more often but am not always able to finish it.

Rolling: Guard, Half Guard
Rolled With: Evan, Ryal

Took a deliberate sloth approach to rolling with both of them.  Tried to focus on structure and very slowly working for the pass that I wanted.  It takes a little bit of trust in my grips and posture to do this.  Helped Evan out with some guard passing toward the end.  Ryal jumped right on the kimura from half guard a couple times and I had to be careful not to get it pulled away and isolated.  I told him to keep working on that because it seemed to be pretty natural for him.

Office Hours Partner: Josh

Rolled a couple times after class and Josh did a good job at giving me a hard time.  He attempted a brabo from knee on belly and I had to wait for my moment to escape.  We went over transitioning to knee on belly and I discovered something that I didn't realize that I was doing but is very effective.  He was coming up to knee on belly with his shoulder turned where when I went to knee on belly I would turn my shoulders so my chest would face him and it makes the position so much more unbearable.  People probably teach it but I just hadn't heard it verbalized or realized that I was doing it.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

October 6th 2016 - Gi All Levels (Ray's Return?)

Theme & Techniques: Head Lock escape to valley drop, Back Mount: Basic Escape, RNC
Partner: Sara

Ray walked into class today after a long time (years?) of not training.  He taped his ankle like it was in a cast and spoke about expecting to be humbled upon his return.  I hope his fears about not being as good as when he left don't keep him away since most of us consider him family. 

Tips on Techniques of the week:
  • Valley Drop: I find this to be one of the more fun self defense techniques because you really get to whip your opponent around.  Sara did a great job with it against me.  Make sure you pull on their far arm as you step in a circular motion.
  • Escaping back mount: Fighting to get your head on the side that you want to escape to is the #1 priority, followed by getting your shoulders to the floor.
  • RNC: I feel more confident in my gi chokes than this one in the gi, but would like to get better at it.  The more I work on trapping my opponent's arm the better I feel about the choke.
Rolling: Back Mount, Half Guard
Rolled With: Bhuvana, Ray, Sara, Ben, Tim, Justin

Had some good rolls today.  Didn't hit any RNCs but did escape with deep half and saw some others do it too.  It's a very valid back mount go to escape.  Then when we did some half guard I saw some more deep half. 

Rolling with Ray was an experience as always.  He complimented me saying that I'm a lot better than I was.  He did try the ankle lock from inside my back mount that I was a worried about but was able to find the angle to avoid having to tap this time.  He was able to escape to deep half as I was with him.  I was torn about being concerned about hurting him but also wanted to give him a good roll.  Hopefully we'll see him again on the mats soon.

Office Hours Partner: Tim

Was happy that Tim stayed after today to roll a few times, even though I forgot that I had to get back to work for a meeting.  I showed him some deep half entry stuff as he was getting caught in half guard with a cross face when he went for it.  We also discussed some passing basics about grip fighting etc.  



Saturday, October 1, 2016

October 1st 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Josh J, Kevin, Craig, Mo, Jerad

Josh: He told me after we rolled that he was concerned about my arm drags today since I caught him a few times yesterday. It worked as I didn't see an opportunity to attempt one.

Kevin: Rolled gi this time and I felt a little better about my performance with him but he's still a beast.  We had a lot of positional changes and there were a few situations that he got out of in ways I'm not used to, so that is something that rolling with him will help me with.

Craig: We rolled a few times and I think I ignored that he asked me to try to flow more before we started rolling.  He was doing a good job of defending my over/under. In our second roll I eased up a bit and he ended up passing my guard and put me in an anaconda type of choke. It was close but i think my wide shoulders and being calm helped me escape.

Mo: Played a bit of lapel guard (video below) with Mo and he seemed interested.  It worked pretty well and I could tell he was hesitant to get caught in any traps.  I don't go as far as Keenan does in the video but it works for the omoplata or getting to bikini guard.

Jerad: Had a super tough roll as usual. Somehow I ended up on top and got to attack for a bit.  At one point I was doing an over/under pass and instead of grabbing his belt or the skirt of his gi I grabbed his pants and pulled them half way down his ass.  I spent most of the rest of the roll in the bottom of mount trying to escape. I told him he's responsible for making my mount escapes better.