Master Worlds Trip 2021 Part 1 Preparation and Training

I wanted to get my thoughts down about the experience of preparing and competing in IBJJF Master Worlds 2021.  While I've competed in this tournament 2 other times (2017 and 2019), this is the first time that I helped others prepare.  We went with a good size group this year.  This year Zac Davis and Josh Johnson signed up to compete as well.  I felt like it was on me to share my past experiences and to come up with a plan to help us all prepare.

Preparation

June 23rd Started Line Group: Used a messenger app that we could share all of the details of the tournament and plan our training.

August 8th: Sunday training started

November 11-13: Competition

My personal goals:

• Get better and more confident with stand-up
• Improve gas tank and aggression

Team goals:

• Develop game plans
• Familiarize everyone with the rules
• Describe the experience to help prepare for the chaos of a tournament
• Get to know teammates' personality and games
• Develop coaching relationships

Creating a warm-up

This is a factor of BJJ competition that I think is often overlooked.  With the adrenaline dump we can often go out on the mat and be strong, but it often leads to tightness during the match, muscle burnout, and make it difficult to catch your breath which can exhaust you for your next match.  I tried to emphasize to everyone to pick warm-up exercises that you can do by yourself with limited space.  Things like burpees, push-ups, airplane push-ups, jumping squats, etc.  You really want to get a sweat going before you get on the mat for your first match. 

Making Weight

Making weight was a huge part of the trip.  It's important to know if you can make the weight class that you enter under and if you can feel strong at that weight.  In Jiu-Jitsu you usually have to weigh in on the day if not right before you compete.  It doesn't pay to dehydrate yourself to make a weight class.  Months ahead I changed my diet to use intermittent fasting and that seems to work for me.  I was on weight a couple weeks before competing.  

Check out the rules for the tournament and figure out if you have to weigh with your gi on and how much time you need before you compete.  It can be a tough decision to determine if going down a weight class is worth it.  Competing is stressful enough but limiting calories can have an affect on the fighters mood as well as physical performance.

We all made weight easily, partly because I think their scales are like 5 lbs off at least. But it did cause some stress for each of us.

Sunday training:

For the Sunday training sessions we would start at 8:30 AM and train for a little over an hour.  I would try my best to figure out a theme for each session.  During the earlier sessions we would discuss our A game strategies.  The main topics being a Guard Pass, a Sweep, a Submission, and the Stand-Up strategy.  We did some sessions where we would drill these techniques and then do some rolling.

One of the drilling formats is the Best Case Scenario drill.  This is drilling your A game techniques from standing until submission.  For instance my A game path was to get grips cross collar and sleeve and throw tai otoshi, then go to knee on belly and setup a baseball bat choke.  That was my game plan if everything went according to plan.  

As the training sessions progressed I put a request out to see if others would join us so we could have fresh opponents for shark tank type training.  So Zac, Josh, and I would stay on the mat for 5 to 10 minute rounds while fresh people would cycle in.  I recorded a great deal of these sessions and would put them out on the google drive so everyone could review the training and look for things they needed to work on.

Another topic that we focused on was getting out of bad positions with positional sparring.  This would range from our 8 minute escape type drill to starting in other positions like front head lock and being down 2 points and having to work hard to make a come back.  With time as a factor we really had to learn when to turn it up and use energy when down on points.

Probably the drill that I loved and hated the most was the first to score drill.  We would start standing as if it were the beginning of a match and then go until the first person scored.  Whether that was by take down, sweep, guard pass, or submission.  This was the thing that I wanted to improve on the most.  I believe I've heard that statistically the first person to score is statistically the winner of the match.  I also feel like the more often we can drill the beginning of a match the more prepared we'd be for the adrenaline dump.

Questions  

If you helped us prepare or you have any oppinions on our training camp, please message these to me in Facebook or email me at HapkidoJosh@yahoo.com

What went well?

What would you change for future tournament camps?

Comments for Josh C:

Comments for Josh J:

Comments for Zac:

My Personal Thoughts 

What went well?

Establishing the line chat was helpful I think to keep everyone updated about the tournament and trainings.

I found a lot of benefit in recording the sessions although there was not always the best video angle for everyone.

The training partners that came and helped were awesome and I'm very thankful to have those volunteers.

I felt very prepared concerning my personal stand-up game

What would you change for the future tournament camps?

Nail down who can make it to the trainings each time to be able to better plan the session.  Need enough people to have fresh bodies for the competitors.

Figure out some more good solo warm-up routines for the bullpen

Stress that we'll all have good and bad days and that the training is to instill toughness and winning all of the time is unrealistic

Determining when to rest and take a day off was tough for me.  I trained in some capacity every day and avoided injuries, but could I have had better gains doing harder training and then resting a day?

Personal Goals going forward

• Judo Black
• Continue to stress the stand-up strategies
• More grip fighting
• Train more wrestling
• Guard passing, breaking guard, balance

Thank Yous!

Of course my wife Jennifer deserves a lot of credit for the support, helping me train, and helping me eat right.   I tried my best not to be too moody this time around.  Hopefully I didn't get on her nerves too much.  She's also improved with Jiu-Jitsu recently, I'm excited to see her get promoted to blue belt.

Huge shout out to Conan for traveling with us as our coach.  He was on board since the beginning and it was good having him around while we trained not only to teach us each technical Jiu-Jitsu but also to practice his coaching skills and get to know our personal games better.  He was there for each of us in the bullpen and when we competed.

Another shout out to Krista, Craig, Aaron, and Emily for also traveling with us and their support.  It's good to have a cheering section and people to go out walking, eating, and drinking with in Vegas.  Especially when you're trying to cut weight and they all send you pictures of their heavy lunches ;)  Leading up to competition can be a stressful time and having people to get you a water or sit with you before or after your match.  

For me personally I learned the most from rolling with Jerad and Mike.  They both played huge parts in keeping me sane during the covid shut down times and I gained a lot of skill by rolling with each of them day in and day out.

I was blown away by all of the people that were willing to help us train!  I did my best to figure out everyone that showed up on our Sunday trainings, hopefully I didn't miss anyone.  Conan, Jerad, Mike A, Craig, Aaron E, Hugh, Chris R, Tyler R, Bob, Mike W, Justin M, Cody, Dave M, Tanner, and Tony.  As well as the many rolls with people in classes and open mats.  I honestly felt support from the whole gym.

 

May 2nd 2015 - Kids & Competition & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique/Game: Side Control Escape, Side Control to Mount, Side Control and Free Rolling

Only had a little bit of trouble during the technique portion today.  There was some tickling and getting in each others faces to make the other laugh.  Otherwise they were trying during the warm-up and the rolling went very well.  Jayden was a little sad that Jace kept stepping over into mount, but I saw him do some good things from the top and when the actually free rolled he got a sweep.  I can see them moving their hips correctly to get to their knees and get on top.  It's very fun to watch them roll.  Hopefully they'll realize how important taking the technique portion of class seriously is.

Competition Class
Focus: Guard: Omoplata Sweep; Pass: X-Pass, Smash Pass; Takedown: Cross Guard Pull 
Partner: Henry

Greg had us warm-up with some different grip breaks with 2 minute rounds.  The first two were ones that we commonly use, the third one was a defense against a stiff arm on the lapel where we kind of compressed it into our opponent.

The humidity was tough to deal with today and I felt a bit out of shape.  I got winded doing so many reps of the omoplata sweep and the x-pass was tough on my legs.  It felt good to join in on the competition class though.  I think focusing on the omoplata sweep during rolling is going to be a good idea.  I was setting up a wrist lock or going to the spiral armbar as a follow up.  During the guard passing portion I had Henry grab my ankle after a while to deal with it since it's a common problem from the position.  

Open Mat
Rolled With: Conan, Adam, Jerad, Mo, Bauer
Game Plan: Bottom - Anything Deep Half & Cross Guard, Top - Baseball Bat Choke, Spiral Armbar

Conan: I had asked him yesterday if he had any pointers on the Tozi pass since he's been working on it.  He basically took me through a whole class.  Several things that I didn't know were brought to light.  He lays on his side more than I do once the thigh is smashed down.  His head doesn't necessarily need to be up by their head but can be in the armpit too.  He will also push on their hip with his free hand.  A lot of good information that I collected today.  I don't think I ended up in anyone's close guard after that so I didn't get to use it today.

We rolled and I started out pretty well.  He ended up sweeping me from half guard with an underhook.  I almost regained a couple times and was able to mess with his balance but it was only a matter of time before he submitted me.  I think it was either an armbar, kimura, or americana.

We went over dealing with the knee slide pass and keeping my arm under my leg to keep him from grabbing it.  Also controlling my opponents knee and not letting it hit the floor by pulling it into myself.

Adam: Had some good things happen with Adam but ultimately I felt weak against him.  He eventually passed my guard and while I regained to half guard and then butterfly, I never came close to a top position. 

I struggle with how much energy I need to conserve.  Yeah I can keep him from submitting me for quite a while in side control, but how much more effort would I save if I used it on preventing being passed?  Maybe that is an experiment that I need to conduct.  Focus all of my energy on maintaining guard and sweeping.

Part of my problem is also not trusting my technique with the better guys.  Sometimes an opportunity will present itself for the makings of an omoplata or something else I'm good at, but I'll think that they're too good to fall for that and not try it or be too slow to try it.  Need to work on getting some confidence in my technique and throwing a little caution to the wind for a while.

Jerad: Jerad called me out early on since we didn't get to roll last week.  I tried to turn on my no-thinking mode and it worked pretty well.  I was able to pass his guard with an x-pass and I attacked from top for a time.  I went to north/south choke, then guillotine then mount and finally switched to ezekiel but apparently I was in the middle of his throat instead of on the side.  Once he busted out of that I ended up on bottom, and he turned it up a notch.  I felt too tired to fight back effectively and my fingers seemed to completely shot.  He submitted me with an armbar maybe, not sure why I'm blanking on the submissions tonight.

Mo: During our roll I went through my north/south choke to guillotine sequence again.  He ended up getting free but I went right into a rolling back take from quarter guard that seems to be getting better for me.  After our roll he asked some questions about the north/south choke and I showed him my sequence and how I go to mount using the guillotine and then post my head and try to connect my hands.  He says that the north/south choke has been working for him lately, so I'm happy to help him with his contingency plan.

Bauer: We had an epic match which took too long because I was late getting home and didn't get a chance to work with Bhuvana.  Bauer, like me, is very good at defenses.  I think we have being the junior guys at Roseberry's before the move to LBJJC to thank for that.  I felt like I was always playing defense there.

I was in mount and couldn't isolate an arm or get the ezekiel, he made me question if I could submit him from mount.  I was able to setup a spiral armbar but when I went for it he sat right up and stacked.  I had a couple of good sweeps after that with a deep half guard sweep and a butterfly sweep.  The butterfly was in transition as he had just reversed me to the top and was going for mount.  I caught his leg in half butterfly, went to full butterfly and swept and went right into knee slide.  I think previously I would have stopped to think or rest once I captured his leg.  I attacked a lot of bread cutter chokes and tried to setup a farside armbar but never felt confident enough to finish the techniques.  Finally I got into a north/south choke and really took my time in keeping everything tight. 

I asked Greg how I could prevent people sitting up into my spiral armbar.  It was simple, I just needed to step my other leg over his shoulder and it made all the difference in the world.  That is a huge piece to that technique that I completely overlooked.  Fair warning to everyone I mount I'm hunting for this particular sub.

August 30th 2014 - Kids, Competition, & Open Mat

Kids' Class

About 10 minutes before we left for class, Jace was brushing his teeth and yelled that his nose and mouth were bleeding.  I came into the bathroom to find a crime scene.  I kept him relatively calm as I cleaned him up, but he said that he didn't want to attend class today, but he came along anyway.  He ended up getting his gi on anyway and did fine.

Despite a few minor times in the beginning of class when Jace wanted to get in Jayden's lane they were really good.  The both did well with falling and rolls and they even did their forward rolls without the ball quite well.  They played flag tag and Jayden didn't win which seemed to bother him a little bit.  Greg added an extra flag to make the game a little more complicated.  The technique of the day was getting a high collar grip from mount, which tickled them both.

Competition Class
Focus: 2 on 1 Back Take, X-Pass, Deep Half Sweep
Partner: Jerad

Greg kicked our butts with some partner exercises today.  Did several sets of burpees in between lunges, leg lifts, sprints, wheel barrows, piggy back, and bench pressing our partner.  That took a lot of the fight out of me. 

From there Jerad and I did our sets of techniques.  Major takeaway was that I was releasing my leg too much in my entry to deep half from knee shield, which is where Jerad usually catches me.  We had a competition style roll and he shut me down badly.  He was up 10-0 before submitting me with a bow and arrow choke. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jesse, Tim, Ross

I noticed a dog tag tattoo on the new guy Jesse and we ended up talking for quite a while about the Marine Corps.  He had quite an impressive hardcore career that I won't go into too much, but it was a little intimidating rolling with someone who would have outranked me and was definitely a badass in the Marines.  He didn't have much experience with BJJ though so I ended up doing more positional sparring with him and explaining some of the basics. 

I wanted to continue my guard aggressiveness with Tim and Ross, but it was difficult to maintain after the competition class.  I was hitting some omoplatas from open guard which seemed to fall into place.  I also hit a couple deep half guard sweeps.  I went over an escape for omoplata with Tim, which he was able to use in our next roll.  

August 23rd 2014 - Kids, Competition, & Open Mat (The Scraps)

Kids' Class

Kids were better than usual.  I think my deal with Jayden is working pretty well.  I just have to figure something out for Jace.  The did some sumo matches for their first game.  I was impressed with both of them.  Jayden was doing similar techniques to an armdrag to get behind them that they may have picked up from flag tag.  They weren't really into the technique of the day which was getting certain grips from both top and bottom of guard.  Finished up the class as usual with blob tag with several kids from the older kid class.

Competition Class
Focus: 2 on 1 to back take, Smash & X Pass, Deep Half Sweep
Partner: Henry

Not sure if 2 on 1 is working out for me.  I've been trying to incorporate it into rolling lately and it hasn't been working out for me.  It may be time to move on to something else.  Drilling seems fine but I think a lot of people have had to deal with Greg doing it and they've become wise to the technique.

X Pass feel great and I got some pointers on the smash pass from Greg.  I was not putting my head up by their head where it needed to be was the biggest thing.  From there it's more uncomfortable for my partner as it twists them up a bit more.

Had a competition match with Henry and didn't do too great.  I didn't get submitted but I was way down on points mostly because he passed my half guard several times after I regained it.  Eventually towards the end he went for an armbar and I was able to counter and get on top, but it was too little too late. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Mike, Sam, Tim

I can always count on Jerad to keep my grounded.  I have a real hard time dealing with his open guard and top half guard.   We were talking about my shortcomings after rolling and he said that I don't seem to flow with him as much as other people and a lot of that is probably mental.  Which is true, I'm a little more cautious with him and others that I know are better than me.  I did hit an omoplata sweep and had side control for a little while, but he eventually escaped. 

Mike and I rolled for a long time.  He was still wearing a brace on his finger from the dislocation a couple of weeks ago so he was a little limited.  That said, he was still a handful although I did feel bad a couple of times for taking advantage of his injury.  We got stuck in some berimbolo type positions and for a little while I was caught in a turtle where he was attempting to take my back or armbar or triangle.  Somehow I was able to pass his guard and eventually setup a north/south choke which was a battle to finish.  He'll probably be getting me back as soon as he's 100%.

I was a little surprised when Sam asked to roll with me as I think we've only rolled one other time in open mat.  I figured I must have smashed her or something in that roll.  I was impressed with her shoulder pressure from side control and I think in general she knows what she's doing.  She seemed a little disappointed a few times when I passed her guard.  I went over the farside armbar setup with her from side control.

Tim did pretty good today and had me in a nice tight side control at one point.  I attempted some 2 on 1 but failed miserably.  There were a couple of pass attempts that he had, where i ended up regaining full guard and he had to start over attempting to pass.  I don't recall how our roll ended. 

Thinking more on the 2 on 1 not working for me, I have a hypothesis that the techniques that become part of my A-game are the scraps from my seniors.  Things like butterfly guard, 2 on 1 are/were prevalent in Greg's game and my fellow students are having to defend these techniques from him on a regular basis.  Then if I come around and do these certain techniques at a lower skill level I get shut down easier.  No one that I know of does cross guard to omoplata, north south/choke, or deep half guard (except Ray) as much as I do.  I'm able to have a little more freedom to make mistakes when practicing these techniques because my fellow teammates don't see them as often.

August 16th 2014 - Kids, Competition, Open Mat

Kids' Class

Jace had a little trouble focusing today and wanted to annoy his brother through the beginning of class.  Jayden was pretty good about ignoring him while trying to complete all of the exercises.  Jayden and I have a little deal that if he behaves and tries hard for 6 Jiu-Jitsu classes in a row, he can get a mod for Minecraft (computer game).  Class 2 of 6 down.  He even counted the reps during falls which he hasn't been doing. 

They both did well in flag tag as usual.  These games are teaching them some good grappling basics that will help later.  They worked on a wrist grab release as the technique of the day, maybe it had something to do with flag tag?

Competition Class
Focus: 2 on 1 to back take, Smash & X Pass, Deep Half Sweep 
Partner: Henry

I took a couple videos of my drilling to see what these new techniques look like.  2 on 1 seems to be coming along.  I think during rolling I need to trust it more once I get the grip and elbow control, because I'm still hesitant about opening my guard and moving to butterfly.  I originally was only working on the smash pass, but the x-pass has become instant A game material.  I need to get a little lower and more pressure with the smash pass, makes sense that smash is in the name.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Henry, Tye, Gina, Ross, Austin,

It was an odd day of not many people showing up to open mat.  Nevertheless I still got some good rolls in.  2 rolls with Henry one in the gi and other no-gi.  We had quite a battle and I thought I had him a couple of different times but eventually he outpaced me.  My laziness or being tired was a major factor in him tapping me out.  There were definitely times where I sat to my butt instead of pushing forward and fighting for top position like I should of.  Henry finished me with a nasty cross choke that smashed my nose pretty good, in no-gi I don't remember, may have been armbar or guillotine.

Tye surprised me today.  Started off playing a lazy guard and let him pass and he went to mount fairly quickly.  Big mistake as he got in both grapevines and made me very uncomfortable.  I was a little concerned about hurting my knees and played it pretty safe until I was eventually able to get a leg free.  Once I got on top he also did a great job from guard and attempted some triangles and a cross choke.  I eventually turned the tide and got to a dominant position. After the roll was over I told Tye that I would have to start respecting him more during rolling, I do not want to be mounted by him again.

In my other rolls I was able to use some deep half guard, X-pass, the rolling back take and the cross collar drag.  I used a couple north/south chokes which Nic took notice of and asked me about.  It's part of my A game for sure and I feel like I can set it up with little difficulty.  Part of that may be because not to many of my teammates use it often.  However, I have shown multiple people how to defend it so my avenue to it may eventually disappear.  I coached Austin on some armbar defense and Ross on some technical mount defense.

August 9th 2014 - Kids, Competition, Open Mat

Kids' Class

Boys were a little wild today which may be because Adam was teaching instead of Greg.  They started off the warmups by themselves but a few other kids showed up and I think it helped them focus.  Jayden's falls are getting a little better and with some reminders he was keeping himself from hitting his head on the mat during back falls.  They did well playing flag tag especially with their grip fighting.  I saw a few good scissor sweeps, but they had some problems with (accidentally?) tickling each other during the collar grab which slowed some things down.

Competition Class
Partner: Jordan

Jerad had us split our techniques into 5 minute rounds.  We worked on our takedown/guard pull strategy first.  I started out with pulling to cross guard and then mixed in a few double legs towards the end.  For guard passing I gave equal time to smash pass and the x-pass which felt great.  Had a few problems with my 2 on 1.  I didn't feel like I was able to push his hand far enough to the side while kicking out for the back take, I think I may need to push the arm out at a different angle.  I also had some problems with the hand off when he stood up, I'm not sure what is the best way to do this is yet.  We finished the drilling portion with some side control escapes.

We had a competition style roll and I mostly flowed and tried my best not to use any strength.  I used a lot of stiff arm defense when he attempted to pass and swept with omoplata. 


Open Mat
Rolled With: Matt, Tye, Phil

Matt had quite a friendly war.  I should have kept track of the time, but I'm sure we rolled for around 10 minutes.  There was quite a bit of back and forth.  We fought from each others half guard a few times.  I would switch hips and attempt to pull my knee out.  Eventually I spent some time in the bottom of his mount and he started to loosen my gi to start a brabo.  I'm not sure how I got out of mount but I felt really claustrophobic a couple times.  I remember working from deep half a bit as well as completing a butterfly sweep.  Eventually I was able to isolate an arm from top half guard and finished with an americana. 

This could have gone either way as there were a couple of times when I didn't feel like I would have the energy to get back on top.  I really hate this feeling when I'm trying to gauge how much energy I have left to use and then I'm wary of trying anything that could gas me, but I need to do something because I'm behind.  Often this bites me in the ass when I should fight my hardest to maintain guard instead of starting to fight hard once I'm in bad position. 

Tye (sp?) was interesting to roll with.  He has some flexibility and wasn't too bad with his pass attempts.  I quite a bit bigger than him and having more experience helps.  At one point I threw on a north/south choke and he asked me to show it to him and how to defend it.  To which I never refuse to show someone a part of my game.  Seemed like he picked up on it pretty well.  Later on he almost caught me in a triangle.  He had my head and arm trapped in but wasn't able to completely lock it up and I used the knee pry to eventually escape, although he did have me a little worried.  I gave him some pointers on changing the angle on the triangle after that roll and he seemed to appreciate it.

It's been a long time since I rolled with Phil and he asked me not to kick his ass too bad.  Jokingly I told him that was up to him.  I played some guard and off the bat attempted a hip bump sweep which he shut down.  I attributed that to being one of the favorite techniques of our friend Jorge.  I eventually played some deep half guard and was able to sweep.  In the end I was able to setup an armbar and after some work was able to separate his hands.  We went over armbar escapes as well as finishing the armbar.  He mentioned that people were able to stack him while attempting the armbar and Will and I advised him to use the leg over their head more to pin them.  Also I went over not trying to pull at the elbow to get the armbar but to attack lower by the wrist to lever it better.

August 2nd 2014 - Kids, Competition Class, Open Mat

Kids' Class

My boys were the only two in class again and they were not really on their best behavior.  It was the same thing with Jayden letting his head hit the ground after each back fall, I'll try to work on it with him tomorrow.  Then neither of them wanted to do forward rolls on their left sides.  They do have fun during the games and they want to go to class.  Hopefully someday they'll share the love of this martial art with me. 

Flag tag has been going very well and they seem to enjoy it.  They both have their own strategies as Jace has the most success pushing his opponent out of the ring, while Jayden has success hand fighting and getting around to pull the flag. 

Competition Class
Partner: Conan

I met with Greg before the kids class and we decided on the techniques I would drill during the competition class 2 on 1 to Back Take, Smash Pass, Deep Half Homer Sweep.  Conan was great to work with and gave me some pointers that will be a huge improvement on the techniques that I chose.

Closed Guard 2 on 1 to Back take: Conan gave me 2 changes on this one.  First was a more efficient way to get to the hand position after grabbing the pistol grip.  The second was during the butt scoot to push their arm away more to get them to turn.  Both were huge improvements.

Smash Pass: I had to have Greg show this to me before class which helped.  I think my biggest problem with it right now is not knowing when to use it.  My second problem is the timing of switching to the underhook during the pass motion.  Conan helped me figure out how to keep my hips lower and have been head pressure.  I felt a lot better about this pass after the drilling portion.

Deep Half Homer Sweep: I wasn't really feeling this technique today, and I'm not sure why.  I think I'm still having trouble with the knee control, which may be the problem. I find that my opponent's other leg is getting in the way quite often when I go for the actual sweep.

Ross and I had a tournament style match which I'm having a difficult time remembering.  My first goal was to keep him from passing guard since he was able to pass twice yesterday.  Somehow I went from guard to side mount and setup a farside armbar.  I helped him with his single leg a little bit with the little before the class ended.  Then I showed him my setup for the breadcutter that has worked well for me, that Jerad showed me previously. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jordan, Austin, Conan, Greg

Jordan: We rolled 3 or 4 times where I started in guard each time.  I mostly played butterfly and spider until I could sweep or setup a loop choke.  I stressed to him to fight for good pant grips when starting and we worked on a bullfighter a bit. 

Austin: I made my way to side control and from there attempted a bow and arrow.  The gi was over his chin and he was able to defend off the choke with some good hand fighting.  I moved to back control next and worked on the RNC setup.  I had to lock his arm up with my legs and then used the pry that Greg has described multiple times to work my way into the choke. 

Conan: He was nursing a thumb injury that I hope will heal by next Saturday.  I played a lot of guard against him and even successfully used his cross bicep stiff arm to regain guard like he showed me.  I played a little cross guard and I unbalanced him a little but wasn't able to sweep or did I?  Somehow in the end I was on top attempting to pass his guard, but I think his thumb was bothering him and he had to quit.   

Greg: He rolled with me under the condition that I drill something with him, which I'm more than happy to do.  He wanted to work on his guard pulling which is awesome.  I think I'm figuring out how he's getting to single leg-x but I don't really know how to prevent it...yet.  I don't remember how he submitted me but I defended a baseball bat choke and then an armbar.  I don't remember what he ended up submitting me with though. 

January 11th 2014 - Kids, Competition, & Open Mat

Kids:

The boys did pretty well today.  They both did all of the animal walks without any problems and they tried a little harder during 1 on 1 foot tag.  They practiced the knee escape from side control, which went pretty well except for getting off track a couple of times.  We finished the class with blob tag and the kids got a little crazy towards the end.  I could tell it took a little bit out of Greg.

Competition Class:

I partnered up with Jorge again for this session.  Andrew from North Platte, joined us to prepare for the tournament as well.  We did a couple rounds of drilling escapes from bad positions.  Then the tough part we did a minute of each conditioning exercise.  I'm pretty sure we did all of the burpees with some lunges and push-ups in between.

We worked on our techniques.  Everything feels great except I'm still getting a sore neck when practicing the single leg.  I was a little worried that I'd lost my mojo with the omoplata but I think it's coming back to me now as I hit it a couple times today during rolling.

We finished the class with some matches and Greg partnered me up with Andrew.  My goal was to not gas out.  I ended up pulling guard but then immediately sweeping.  From there I spent most match in a dominant position, except for once where he escaped my back mount and rolled over into guard.  But the omoplata sweep was there to save me.

Open Mat:

Fuji and I worked together on the ideal game drill.  I used my secret weapon technique that I am not willing to divulge yet and Fuji worked on his ideal game.  Later on Fuji and I had a talk about last week's roll.  While it was a big confidence boost for me, he said that he also got some encouragement out of it.  It made him want to refocus his efforts on the basics and drill his escapes.  That was pretty cool to hear.  

Conan and Jerad both handed my ass to me.  Although I did spend a little time in mount with Jerad on our second roll I feel pretty helpless against his guard passing.  I thought about it a little bit and I'm not sure how much of that is me expecting him to inevitably pass and instead of fighting it to my best ability, I think I'm conserving my energy.  But, I know it actually takes more energy to escape a bad position than to fight to maintain guard.  Conan pointed something similar out to me.  That I wasn't actively trying to escape his side control but just stave off his attacks for as long as I could.  I think it has something to do with lack of confidence against people that I know are better than me.  Not sure how to get over that.

I did my weekly roll with Jorge which was similar to our other rolls.  I spend all of my time attempting submissions and he defends them.  It's a great workout for both of us.  I can't wait until he figures out some escapes, then it will be interesting.  I rolled with Andrew again a few times and played guard until I could sweep.  From there I stayed in side control quite a bit in order to keep him from turning over into turtle.  After rolling a couple times I gave him some pointers on passing guard with the gi.  Hopefully my pointers were welcome.

January 4th 2014 - Kids, Competition & Open Mat

Kid's Class

Greg returned to teach class this morning along with Conan.  I was happy with Jayden's animal walks today as he didn't stop in the middle like he has been lately.  Jace however did not want to partner up with anyone except his brother.  It causes a little trouble because Jayden would like to work with other kids, but he's nice enough to work with his brother.  They played 1 on 1 foot tag in the ring, which I enjoy watching.  Sometimes they forget that they need to get the other person's feet to win and both kids play defensively.  They worked on the double leg takedown again, which both of my sons seem to like and do well at.

Competition Class
Drilling: Over Under Pass, Omoplata from cross guard, arm drag to single leg, pulling guard

Wess and his son Tristan, Gina, and Jorge were all initiated into the competition class.  Jorge and I were partnered up due to being closest in weight.  Greg told us not to change anything since we only have a couple of weeks to prepare for Circle of Iron.  We got right into by doing some mount escapes and then went into working on our 3 things.  Everything felt pretty good, Jorge reacted differently with a couple of the techniques so I had to adjust to make everything work.  I applied some things from Tinguinha's DVD to my omoplata and my open guard pulling. 

Rolling: 1 tournament style match


Greg matched me up with Fuji and my only goal was to not end up on the bottom.  I attempted some takedowns and we grip fought until Fuji pulled guard.  Then I knew I had to avoid his spider guard and leg lasso and stay on top by keeping my elbows in.  I was able to pass his guard and mount and finally back mount but it ended up taking it's toll on me and I gassed for a little while.  I knew I was ahead on points by a lot so I had to keep from getting submitted.  Fuji went for his brabo choke and it was very tough to defend.  Time was almost up and when the choke didn't happen he started to scramble to score some more points which allowed me an opportunity to sweep into mount when soon after time ran out.

While this was a huge confidence booster, I also realize that 9 times out of 10 Fuji has my number.  Greg and I also discussed my gassing out as this isn't the first time it's happened during tournament match practice.  I'm not sure how much is mental and how much is actual cardio, regardless I need to improve on it.

Open Mat

I was pretty tired for open mat, but still rolled with Jorge, Henry, Greg, and the new girl Sam.  As I've probably written before, Jorge is great at defending submissions.  I threw everything I could at him but at the same time making sure I didn't get reversed.  Henry and I had a pretty good roll.  I felt like I was controlling the match in the beginning but gassed out again and he submitted me with a mounted triangle.  I really tapped from jaw cramp pain but the choke was there.  I felt worthless with Greg.  I don't remember much but I'm pretty sure he took my back 2 or 3 times easily and made me tap with an RNC.  Since it was Sam's 2nd class and I was tired, I took it pretty easy on her.  I would get to mount or side mount and then walk her through how to escape.  She seems to like BJJ so far, so hopefully she'll stick around as our female population is very small.

Tournament Prep

Diet has been going well.  I'm not snacking as much and haven't had a pop since Monday.  I'm planning on doing some swimming this week as well as the weight workout Bauer sent me.  I think both will be good for my cardio.  I may look into doing some extra rolling after each class.  I also bought some school patches for our gis that I'll get stitched on soon.  They're a really great design and I'm excited to represent LBJJC in a tournament. 

December 7th 2013 - Kids & Competition & Open Mat

Kid's Class:

I've been going to the kid's class every Saturday and a few Mondays, and it's been a blast to be able to be on the mats with my boys.  I've had some worries that they wouldn't like it or lose interest, but now that more kids have been joining they seem to like it even more.  We've had our struggles with shrimping and crab walks being hard and not wanting to partner with other kids but it's getting better.  They love the games foot tag, blob tag, sumo wrestling, sprawl ball, and crab walk soccer, which all have applications to BJJ.

They've covered several actual techniques as well: scissor sweep, side control to mount, upa from mount, o-soto gari and a couple others.  We even worked on scissor sweep and escaping back mount at home last night.  My wife was so proud (she was being half sarcastic).

Competition Class:

This was the last comp class before the tournament next week.  Greg took it pretty easy on us partly because attendance was the lowest we've had.  Robert Rojas had fought the night before and I guess it went pretty late.  Apparently the fight went very fast and Robert won in the first round by TKO.

I worked with Fuji starting with drilling side control escapes and then did a couple of interesting drills.  The first was to implement our ideal game with little resistance.  Off the top of my head I used 2 of my three techniques that we've been drilling.  Arm drag to Single leg, over/under pass to side control, to far side arm bar. 

The second drill was to deal with someone stalling in full guard.  The opponent would just lay their head down and keep their elbows tight.  This was to simulate that the person on top is ahead by 2 points and you need a sweep or submission to win before time runs out.  Both were great exercises to prepare for a tournament.

Open Mat:

Not very many people stayed or showed up for open mat.  Jerad had to take off for work so we got a couple rolls in quickly.  I'll have to look back and count how many times he's handed my ass to me and then add 2 more to the count.  I did well in the beginning of our second match as I passed his guard and attempted some submissions from side mount.  Once he escaped it was a lot of the same.  He is one of the few people that likes to attack from mount.

I spent the rest of the session with Jorge.  We rolled a couple times where I spent most of the time on top in side control.  He is very difficult to submit.  After that we went over side control escapes mostly focusing on the tripod with underhook.  In our last roll I focused on knee on belly as I haven't been doing it that much lately.  He really made me work to keep control and maybe I need to take Fuji's advice and be a little more mean with my positions.

November 30th 2013 - Competition & Open Mat (Bad Day?)

Competition class

Missing a few people again today but we had even numbers which helps Greg out.  We skipped our usual conditioning and went right to drilling:

• Drilling guard pulling back and forth
• 4 rounds 4 minutes of guard pulling with Henry and Adam
• 4 minute rounds of our guard technique
• 4 minute rounds of our guard pass
• 4 minute rounds of our 3rd technique (single leg)

Throughout the whole thing I had some trouble with my cardio.  Not sure if I just had a bad day or if I still have some congestion lingering.  I may have to get back in the pool for some laps to get in better shape.

We finished the class with tournament matches and I was partnered up with Henry.  I was doing quite well in the beginning and was in side mount for a majority of the first half.  Somewhere along the way I lost top position and ended up in guard then half guard and then he passed.  Eventually he was way ahead on points and I wanted to give up.

Open Mat


Conan gave me some pointers from bottom half guard.  The position hasn't been working as well for me lately and it's been bugging me.

I rolled with Mike for a while and he smoked me pretty well.  It feels like he's got me pretty figured out and I'm going to have to expand my game if I'm ever going to challenge him again.  He spent most of the time in side control where I felt like there was no chance of escape.

Conan felt immovable.  Everything I tried felt like running into a wall.  He beat me fairly easily a couple times.

Dwight showed up with 30 minutes left and Mike and I rolled with him no-gi.  I felt pretty good in the beginning working some butterfly guard and half guard.  The most progress I made was with an overhook from guard otherwise I wasn't very offensive.  Everything was going well until he went for a heel hook. 

So if you haven't noticed this post was pretty negative.  Although I know that there are ups and downs in BJJ and this is definitely a down, I'm having a tough time getting over it.  I've just got to stick this out train through it.  Looking back on some posts from last year, I'm at least thankful to be able to train without hurting. 

November 23rd 2013 - Competition/Open Mat

Competiton Class

Our class was down to 5 yesterday but we still had a tough session.  Greg setup stations with 4 minute rounds to work on our guard pass, guard technique, our third technique, pulling guard, and conditioning.  The worst part by far was the conditioning with lunges, push-ups, triangles, and finally burpees.

Rolling: Tournament Rules Matches with everyone

I didn't feel great about my performance but I suppose that's to be expected with the people I went up against.  I successfully pulled guard on Fuji but when I went to underhook his leg his knee landed firmly in my face.  There were some expletives and I eventually wriggled my way out of it but it sucked.  It finished the same as usual in side control.  I pulled guard again but he passed my legs by pretty easily we ended up in a nasty knee on belly. 

Probably the highlight of the morning was a dropping shoulder throw that I pulled off on Henry.  I had thought about the throw before the match and he and I went back and forth a little bit before I decided to try it.  I worked for his back and almost had a bow and arrow but he defended it well.  I screwed up after that, I gassed a bit and once points started Henry turned it up and passed my half guard.  He gained a lot more points after that with mount and knee on belly and I wasn't able to come back. 

I rolled with Jerad and Will as well but don't remember as much about those matches.  I know Jerad shut me down pretty decisively.  Will and I stalemated although I was awarded the win for passing the guard early in the match.

Open Mat

Everyone was pretty wiped after class but I had to go home soon to the family so I decided to roll with Jorge.  I was able to sweep him okay and reach side control, but I spent a lot of time trying to submit him.  He's doing a great job of protecting himself but I eventually wore him down to catch him with an americana.  He asked me about some alternative side control escapes so I showed him the underhook tripod escape to single leg.  We rolled once or twice more after that.

Ray systematically destroyed me.  He worked very methodically to pass my guard take side control then mount and not give me any space to work with.  I did a little better during our second roll but not much.  He did put me in back mount which was weird for him, I escaped it, back into mount though.  He ended up submitting me with a couple of kimuras I believe.

WHOYA: November 23rd 2012 - Open Mat

I returned after a hiatus to open mat.  It sounded like a pretty good time, I rolled with Mike, Buaer, Greg, and Ray.  This was still at a time when I thought my knee was going to heal on its own.  It seems like my roll with Ray was similar to yesterday with him spending most of the time on top.  The roll with Greg made me realize that he has changed his game recently.  For a while it seemed like he was always working toward a guillotine now it seems like he focuses on butterfly guard and then hunting for back mount. 

November 16th 2013 - Competition/Open Mat

Competition Class

I ended up missing Thursday and Friday classes due to a nasty cough.  Quite a bummer.  I went with my kids to the morning class and worked out with them and felt pretty good so decided to come back for the competition class.  I still have a bit of a cough but it's manageable.

We ended up with an odd number of students so Greg got creative.  He chose 5 different exercises each for a minute: lunges up and down the mat, Pushups, Guard Lifts, Guard Situps, and finally Burpees.  My thighs were burning by the end.  Will and I each drilled our 3 techniques for 4 minutes a piece.  Very tough class.

I had a pathetic tournament match against Fuji next.  He did a great job of snapping me down and I feel like I've got nothing against him from standing.  Once we were down he quickly passed my guard and worked me over using the brabo grip.  So frustrating.

Open Mat

John showed up for open mat and while everyone was wiped out I decided to oblige him in some rolling.  It wasn't difficult to not use strength because I had very little left.  I also rolled with Will and was able to setup a triangle near the beginning of the roll.  A technique I never am able to finish, but I took it as slow as possible and made sure to control his posture.  During our second roll he caught me in an armbar from guard.

Fuji and I did some more stand up.  This is not fun for me and is a little scary.  I'm mostly scared of landing wrong and getting hurt but I'm not sure if I'm overreacting. 

November 9th 2013 - Competition/Open Mat

Competition Class 

Had a little change up in groups this week.  Jerad and Will were both absent and Bauer and Mo showed up.  Bauer and I ended up together which made the workout a little more difficult than the previous weeks.  Greg had us do the basic back mount escape timed and then he gave an instructional on pulling guard.  We then drilled pulling closed or open for several minutes.  During my first attempt I totally slammed myself instead of locking up the closed guard, I decided to practice pulling open after that.

We ran through the conditioning set ending with burpees, which sucked verily.  We did several rounds of each of our predetermined techniques.  Bauer provided some motivation when I started slowing down during the over/under pass.  Probably the most difficult part of the class for me physically was the single legs.  I'm not sure if I'm just not used to them or if I'm doing something wrong, because my back gets fatigued quickly. 

Open Mat

I rolled with Jorge and Derrick.  Jorge continues to be more challenging than I new guy should be.  He does a good job of keeping his arms in already.  I had to be pretty crafty while rolling with him as well as conserve my energy.  He was having some trouble getting out of mount so I showed him the step over to recapture half guard escape.  My main focus with Derrick was the Ezekiel choke which I pulled off a few times.  I also coached him a bit on the bullfighter guard pass and tried to get him to get good grips while attempting to pass.

November 2nd 2013 - Gi Competition/Open Mat

Competition Class was pretty similar to last week minus the explanation of tournament rules.  So, it was horrible but in a good way.  Everyone returned from the previous week, so we commenced with the same partners.  Which meant Will had to lift me repeatedly once again.  We duplicated the partner drills and Greg tracked our counts.

We did reps for time of the basic side control escape, our guard pass (over/under), our 3rd technique (Single Leg), and finally our guard technique (cross guard to omaplata sweep).  I wish I had kept count because I did a lot of reps.  Everything felt pretty smooth by the end but the over/under pass especially killed me. 

We each had a match tournament style and I was put up against Will.  It is definitely a different feeling than just regular rolling.  Everything happens faster, more frantic, and supercharged.  I felt a little gassed afterwards, but not during.  Very early on he pulled guard and then setup a pretty tight armbar that I just barely got out of.  I had passed his guard right before points took affect.  I wasn't even thinking about this but I should have been.  I did go for knee on belly points after that though got the points and setup a baseball bat choke.  I didn't consider it a clean choke though as I wasn't deep enough.

Like last week most everyone cleared out after the competition class.  I rolled with Mike a couple of times and did a little better than last week.  I took some of his advice and made a point of sitting up and fighting for grips whenever he was standing up trying to pass.  It turned out to be great advice and I was able to stave off his passing a little longer. 

WHOYA: November 2nd 2013 - Open Mat (Setback)

One of a handful of times that I injured my knee last year.  After this time I decided to take some substantial time off still hoping it would heal up on it's own.  At the time I wished I hadn't attended that one class, but surgery was inevitable.  As a result I also mention practicing Jiu-Jitsu for the long haul.  This is something that has affected my rolling to this day.  I've tapped several times when it was probably a little too early, especially when it comes to leg locks.

October 26th 2013 - Competition Class & Open Mat

Competition Class:

Due to the upcoming tournament Greg scheduled a tournament class and met with each student planning to attend.  We each picked a guard technique and a guard pass and then a miscellaneous technique.  No surprise, my guard technique was cross guard to omaplata, my guard pass was the over/under, and my miscellaneous is the single leg takedown. 

We spent quite a bit of time discussing rules for BJJ tournaments and rules for the upcoming tournament.  One strange thing about this tournament is that there are no points in the first half of the match and then points do count at the end.  I think it's one of those ideas to encourage people to go for submissions rather than play for points and stall. 

We did many of the same partner body weight exercises from Tuesday.  This time I was partnered with Will and he was a lot easier to lift than Adam. We drilled our guard techniques and guard passes which I felt pretty good about. 

We finished the class with a couple of tournament style matches.  I ended up going against Jerad.  It was a lot more fast paced then I've been used to.  I felt pretty good about my performance even though Jerad made me tap. 

I feel pretty good about the class structure and my areas of focus.  The single leg is the technique I need the most work on, so it will be good to focus on that for a while.  I'm also looking forward to getting everyone else ready for the competition. 

Open Mat:

I didn't stay very long for open mat and Mike ended up being my only opponent.  Things ended up the same as usual with him running around my guard and then would spend most of the time in side control.  At one point I tried to be more aggressive than usual and it seemed to be working, I at least created some interesting scrambles.  It's pretty frustrating to get continuously dominated by him.

WHOYA: October 26th 2012 - Open Mat (Foot Locked)

I rolled with Mike and Ray and according to the title, plenty of footlocks were delivered.  I had also just started my journey into the deep half guard.  This position especially has come a long way in a years time.  I remember being very frustrated when I would get there and it would lead to my demise.  Now my options are many and I know when to abandon something if it's going to put me in worse trouble.