July 16th 2015 - Drilling Open Mat & No Gi Advanced

I'll make this post quick since I have to be up to teach in the morning.  I'm feeling pretty good after these 3 days of enhanced training.  It was great to get some no gi in as well.  

Drilling Open Mat
Partner: Henry
Techniques: Deep Half Position, Head Lock Turtle Position

Deep half felt pretty good.  The waiter sweep is being a little elusive, I thought I was getting good at it but sometimes I get stuck with it not able to complete the sweep.  I helped Henry with taking the back a bit.  Then he helped me with dealing with wrestlers a bit.  He made the comment that I was probably trying to maintain side control too long and instead sometimes it's better to accept that turtle is happening and transition to deal with that.  We went over some headlock stuff as well and I found it all very helpful. 

Theme & Techniques: Butterfly Guard Arm Drag, Hand Fighting to Hook Sweep, Kneeling Knee Tap
Partner: Adam

I feel pretty good about my hook sweep in general, but there were times that it didn't feel right against Adam.  Not sure if it's because he's so wide or because he's heavier than most that I roll with.  The knee tap was a little difficult for me, but I think that is mostly because I wasn't hanging off my opponent like Greg told me after class. 

Rolling: Butterfly Guard (4 x 3 min), Free Rolling (3 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Adam, Caroline, Henry, Mike, Greg

Had some good rolls with everyone.  I ended up in some interesting leg lock positions with Mike and after some back and forth he submitted me with a knee bar.  My roll with Greg probably stands out the most.  It's amazing how easily he was putting me into the smash pass position when I thought I was in a decent guard.  He submitted me with head and arm choke twice, not sure if that is something he's working on now or something that I'm being more susceptible to.

Office Hours Partner: Greg

I asked Greg about the underhook in butterfly guard and why people are able to stand up in my guard some times.  He helped me with some minor adjustments on the position.  One thing was that he is kind of hanging off of his opponent or falling to the side once he gets the underhook.  This is something I could feel, I'll try to replicate when I get a chance to work on the position again.

April 8th 2014 - Gi Drilling & All Levels

Drilling: Cross Guard failed omoplata counters to triangle/armbar and armbar

It felt great to get back on the mats and I appreciate all of the congratulations and ribbings for being a new dad again.  This was the first drilling class that I have attended and it went by way too fast.  I partnered with Will and we both worked on some closed guard techniques.  He was doing some 2 on 1 and I with my signature cross guard.  I'm at a place now where I feel pretty comfortable expanding this game past the omoplata success or fail.  So today I focused on if they try to turn back in or use a stiff arm against my leg.  It was good practice and I'm glad I made it.

My right knee has been bothering me a bit lately, but it feels more like a bruise rather than anything serious.  I'm sure it will heal up in no time.  It didn't cause me any trouble during class but it was a little tight afterwards and only really bothers me going up stairs.

All Levels
Theme & Techniques: Elbow Escape from Mount, Armbar from Mount, Followup Armbar from failed Americana

I trained with Brian L. during this portion of class.  One side of my escape was way better than the other, which is I guess to be expected, but I usually like to practice everything equally on both sides.  I didn't have any issues with the armbars as usual. 
   
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Mount, Guard Gauntlet

Greg separated us into two groups by weight and as expected I was on the big guy side.  I've never thought of myself as big, mostly because I'm only 5'9" and I was pretty scrawny growing up and didn't really fill out until after Marine Bootcamp.  I guess I just have to accept it.

My mount has felt pretty good lately.  I feel like I have a lot of attacks and am able to anticipate my opponent's escapes to be able to shift my weight properly or flow into another attack.  Of course with the likes of Jerad and Will as my opponents I do have to work a lot harder. 

I was a guard passer rather than a guard player during the gauntlet this time.  Had a good time with everyone.  Jerad hit the pushing double foot hook sweep that he's been working on, on me.  It's so demoralizing, especially after fighting to pass his butterfly guard for so long. Adam was assigned half guard which is always difficult to deal with.  There are so many things to think about especially because of his wrestling he can turn over at any time and then I have to worry about the lockdown as well.  Shawn had full guard and he surprised me with an explosive sweep after I passed to half guard. 

After class Brian asked me to help him with a kimura setup from side mount that Greg walked us through.  This was a complimentary technique to the farside armbar but starting with the arm on the other side of your head.  From there we put pressure and moved to the other side to setup the kimura.  The takeaway for me was that I wanted to posture up to get the arm in the right position but I actually wanted to keep my head down and put pressure down.  I think this may come in useful and I may need to drill it some more.

September 19th - No Gi (Time Flies)

Drilling: Leg Drag

Greg had us do 8 minutes a piece of drilling a technique of our choice.  This must be why it felt like the class went by so fast.  Who better to practice leg drags with than Jerad, as he gave me a lot of pointers.  By the end I felt smoother with the technique, mission accomplished.  Greg said we are going to do this a lot more and I approve, I just need to have some go to techniques on hand.

Theme: Triangle from Side Mount

This was a brand new technique to me, which hasn't happened in while.  I actually thought that it wasn't a possibility from side mount but the set-up turned out to be quite slick.  We would trap the near side arm in our hip and then threaten mount with a knee on belly.  If they blocked the knee on belly with the other hand, then we would grab it like a kimura and swing our leg around like a mounted triangle.  From there I usually practiced the armbar option, which I can't wait to try on someone that wasn't there for the class.

We trained from side control for a couple rounds.  I went with Jerad and then Adam, who were both frustrating, but in a good way.  We did free rolling after that where my partners were Greg and Henry.   

WHOYA: September 19th 2012 - Morning Open

The thing that really stands out from this post is this phrase: "Sometimes I feel like I get stuck in a loop though and keep going to the same techniques over and over."  I no longer experience this but remember the feeling.  I'm not sure if it's an illusion and I just have more options now to repeat or if that was a natural phase in BJJ.

Got to call it a night.  I'm looking forward to the first 6 am class.

Sometimes I feel like I get stuck in a loop though and keep going to the same techniques over and over. - See more at: http://joshjiujitsujournal.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-19th-morning-open.html#sthash.AzbqIxaw.dpuf

Sometimes I feel like I get stuck in a loop though and keep going to the same techniques over and over. - See more at: http://joshjiujitsujournal.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-19th-morning-open.html#sthash.AzbqIxaw.dpuf

Sometimes I feel like I get stuck in a loop though and keep going to the same techniques over and over. - See more at: http://joshjiujitsujournal.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-19th-morning-open.html#sthash.AzbqIxaw.dpuf

Sometimes I feel like I get stuck in a loop though and keep going to the same techniques over and over. - See more at: http://joshjiujitsujournal.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-19th-morning-open.html#sthash.AzbqIxaw.dpuf

September 14th 2013 - Open Mat

My goal was to work on deep half guard today and I was able to get some practice in with it. I also have been working on a way to bridge that I heard about on a podcast from a Rickson Gracie black belt.  Basically you bridge straight up and then turn you head.  It seemed to really help today.

Free Rolling:

Brian: I felt like I had really good control of Brian today.  However, I wasn't ever in a position to go to deep half, I was on top most of the time and prevented his escapes.  Watching him improve though inspires me to keep on the ball and progress.

Adam:  I need to come up with a new strategy when facing Adam.  For now he starts off our rolls in butterfly guard until he can do some type of sweep and end up on top and then grind me out in side control until he can set something up.  My only real hope is to pass his guard before any of that happens.  Today he submitted me with what seemed like a combination of the Rickson choke and a brabo grip.  It was pretty surprising to both of us, how well it worked. 

Henry: I stayed as relaxed as I could against him.  I payed for it a couple times as he was able to pass my guard and put me into side control.  I made a few attempts at deep half, but ended up having to defend a kimura from foolishly leaving my arm dangling.  We went back and forth several times with my new bridge method helping regain guard. 

Greg: It's getting more and more fun rolling with Greg.  While I most definitely lose every time, I am allowed to move and try things and he plays off of my mistakes more than trying to force me into something.  He submitted me with an americana, which Fuji made fun of me for, and an armbar that he set up with an underhook that I gave him. 

Jerad: Today, I felt completely owned by him.  My guard retention is what really bothers me.  It doesn't seem like I have any good answers for his guard passing.  He set me up with a funky armbar after I made a miscalculation with my deep half guard 


Drilling:

Greg asked me if I would drill with him and of course my answer was yes.  He and I did several reps with a spider guard pass.  Greg ran a timer on his phone to determine when we would switch.  The technique was to bring your elbows close together and pull them so they can sit up.  Then circle one hand around and get a controlling grip on the pants, then A couple of things occurred.  I got really sore in my back and neck.  This technique required a lot of bent knee squatting movements.  Then being in the spider guard, even though I tried my best not to, I was probably pulling too hard because my fingers were screaming.

Greg also did some reps with a single x-guard setup.  This hurt my shins a little bit, but was very cool.  Instead of doing some reps with this I asked for some pointers on my deep half and did some reps with that sweep.  More drilling needs to be done.

WHOYA: September 13th 2012 - Gi

My knee was bothering me during this class and working on butterfly guard didn't help.  It's great to be healthy now.  Mike taught the cross choke from mount which I have used a little bit, but I think it's something I can revisit as I usually go for armlock submissions from mount but when that isn't available the back-up should be some type of choke.  It's funny because I remember this class well as I had just bought a new gi.

February 29th - Morning Open

Greg drilled a reverse de la rivas sweep with me from the opponent in combat base.  You push their sleeve in between their legs and then do kind of a backwards roll into side control.  It was a pretty cool move.

There were 5 of us today so we used a timer to switch out and have one person on break.  I rolled with Erik, Robert, Ken, and Greg.  We only did 4 minute rounds so there weren't too many submissions.  I felt really slow and low on energy this morning. 

Erik seemed to jump in skill recently which is good to see.  He was able to hold me in side control a lot better and I ended up being on the bottom for most of the time with him.  It's tough to play half guard with him because he's big and long and now that he's figuring out how to put pressure on me and I'm having a hard time getting low.  I played some guard and tried a few guillotines but neither of us were able to submit the other.

With Ken it seemed like he was a little too quick for me this morning.  Maybe the combination of my back and low energy I just couldn't keep up with him.  He got me with an Americana even though I've been specifically trying to prevent that technique.

I was able to dominate Robert pretty well our first match.  Mostly because I was able to get top first and I have been getting better at keeping side control when I get it.  I had him in the north-south choke but it was really hard to tell in the gi if I had his neck in the right place.  I kept trying to get it tighter but he eventually was able to escape. 

While rolling with Greg I was doing my best to pass his guard and not allow him to get any kind of spider.  I worked my way into the over-under pass position but I soon realized that this is exactly where he wanted me to do the technique that we drilled earlier.  I may need to watch the over-under pass video again to see what I'm doing wrong or if this is a potential flaw in the pass.  He eventually got me with a bow and arrow.

Greg and I drilled a back take from side control when they turn away from you.  You take the seatbelt grip and move your knee close to their shoulder and bring the opposite knee up.  Then step over their body and fall back to your other side.  Then put the hooks in.  There were some important details like putting the hand that's under their arm over your other hand and putting your foot across both legs to prevent them from pushing it between their legs.