July 9th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Back Mount: Cross Collar, Bow and Arrow
Rolling/Game: Back Mount, Free Rolling

Kids are doing better lately.  Greg had them do a pretty cool obstacle course where some of the adults helped out holding belts for them to jump over, crawl under, and roll over.

My boys are still had a little trouble with the back mount chokes. It seems like it has mostly to do with the collar grip.  They did pretty well rolling from back mount.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, David, Shane, Bhuvana

Before rolling Greg worked on north/south choke with me, wanting to know if I had any tips. The few things I emphasized were keeping the elbow on the floor and hiding my head behind the shoulder.

Jerad: He helped me drill a few things from some Cyborg videos I've been watching. I didn't quite get them to work out as well as Cyborg but they have some potential.

We rolled a few times and I had a very hard time passing his guard as I tried to throw everything at him.  They were both good rolls for me as I need to seek out and roll with the people that have an edge over me.

David: He's getting ready for state games next week and wanted me to play guard. He is pretty good at controlling my hips and preventing movement in guard. He really made me have to work technique because I wasn't going to overpower him and he has good technique himself and has great defense.

Shane: This was the first time I rolled with him and he was very tough. I felt like I did some good things like transitioning to deep half, but he seemed to capitalize on any mistakes I made. We discovered that my biggest problem was leaving too much space when transitioning between guard passes. He asked me about the finer points of NS Choke too and I explained what I could with the help of Henry.

Bhuvana: She wanted to work on a few things. Side control escapes and then I shared the NS Choke for the 3rd time. We discussed getting the underhook from bottom side and trying to walk hips out to get a reaction.

June 25th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Back Mount Cross Collar Choke
Rolling/Game: Back Mount

My kids were a little tired from spending the night at Grandma's. Greg had them do a "Death by Crawling" exercise where they did 3 laps around the mat with backwards alligators, forward alligators and bear crawls. They did great.

The collar choke was a little tough for them but it was good as an introduction. I eventually had them do it from their knees instead which helped quite a bit.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Mike, Josh J, Henry
Game Plan: Cross Collar Choke

Mike: Went with Mike a few times no gi. He had my number today.  I had a hell of a time passing his guard and defending ankle locks.  I felt like I did some good things regardless. We discussed rolling to escape the heel hook and it's something I need to make automatic.

Henry: Had a couple good rolls with Henry as usual.  Our second roll had a nice scramble when he setup a kimura grip from half guard, there was some back and forth as we rolled around but I made a mistake going to deep half and he was able to torque it.

Josh: He asked me some help with North/South chokes and I was happy to oblige.  Focused mostly on setting it up from side control or knee on belly and controlling the chin.

During rolling I attempted the cross collar several times but he defended well, at least I was able to transition into something else with it.

We also worked on bow and arrow choke from side mount and more North/South choke.  He showed me the video of his tournament match where he used cross guard. Very cool to see someone use something i helped with.

June 18th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Had a large number of teammates compete at the submission challenge tournament. From the picture it looks like many did well. I'm proud to be a part of the team. Jerad and I held down the fort for the kids' classes and open mat.

Josh J texted me after the tournament and say he hit the cross guard omoplata that we've been working on. Awesome feeling to know I made a difference in someone's BJJ game.

Kids Class
Technique: Kneeling Guard Break to Knee Slide
Rolling/Game: Closed Guard, Stand-up Sparring

Teaching the younger kids class was a little trying on the patience. Luckily I've had a lot of practice with my own 3 boys and kept my cool.

The older kids' class couldn't have been more different.  My boys have been doing great in class lately.  Jayden still needs a little aggression he has a habit of turning away when someone comes at him. Jace is doing fine, but maybe relying on his walk around back take too much.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Ben L, Wes, Lucas, Justin, Jerad
Game Plan: Open Guard

Ben: This is my first roll with him and I like his style.  He did some inversion type stuff and some good grip breaking. I think we rolled 5 or 6 times.

Wes: Got several rolls with him too. He did an interesting thing to remove my knee shield in half guard using a gabble grip over the knee to pry it out of the way. After rolling we talked about open guard; I mentioned that I like 2 on 1 so we went over that for a while along with the grip break.

Lucas: I decided my best game plan was to keep my distance at all cost. I played shin on biceps guard and any time he put me in half guard or tried single under leg pass I'd fight to return to the biceps.  In the past I would go with the flow and end up in half guard and eventually get smashed and passed. It was cool that I was able to form a plan execute it and stick with it.

Justin: He did much better against me than any of our previous rolls. Probably a little of him being fresh and me just having a 15 minute roll with Lucas. Regardless he's getting better and I think he just needs to get a few answers to some common positions.

Jerad: We started out rolling well but it was only a matter of time before I gassed.  I tried to be a little less predictable and not go for my best stuff, which seemed to work, I think I just need new stuff. He caught me with a nasty cross choke from mount.

May 28th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Single Leg
Rolling/Game: Push/Pull Game, Stand-up Sparring, Free Rolling

Conan and Jerad had the kids do the warm-ups the same as the adults without having to be separated into groups. Seemed to work well. Jayden had to be motivated a couple times.

While working on the single leg they had a bit of trouble with pulling so the leg they wanted stepped forward, but otherwise they enjoyed the technique.

Stand-up sparring went well I saw both if my boys get after it.  There was a bit of a scary moment when Jayden was on his stomach and Jace went for back mount like he does when the other person is in turtle but with Jayden's legs straight it bent his back pretty good. Luckily he was okay and just needed to walk it off. Jace was pretty upset though. We'll have to talk about it later.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Conan, Tyler, Bauer, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Lapel Guard

Fuji, Clint, Derek, and Jerad did some wrestling before open mat. I took some guilty pleasure in seeing Fuji get thrown around a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like my back was up to participating.

Conan: We took turns working on some lapel guard stuff. I feel like I'm getting a good feel for it but just need to get down some contingencies for when things don't go as planned. We rolled after that and I starting out getting the better of the roll but I eventually lost ground and he got on top and submitted me.  While defending I did attempt some of the lapel guard stuff but was unable to use it.

Tyler: I asked him to teach me some berimbolo stuff as I think it would be fun and probably surprise a few people if someone my size was good at it.  We rolled a bit after that and I had to avoid all of his inversion stuff.

Bauer: Always great to roll with him as we haven't in a while.  A few interesting things happened. I tried to set up the spiral armbar from mount and he was able to roll me over the first time. The second time I set it up he attempted to roll me over but I adjusted position to stay on top but I lost the armbar.  I still have some work to do on this technique.

He gave me quite a few compliments afterwards and like usual I'm terrible at accepting them. The one that I took to heart was when he said that he enjoyed when he comes in seeing how much I've improved.

Bhuvana: We rolled and worked on a few things.  She was doing a decent job with the lapel guard and seems excited about it.  There were a couple times I set something up like the bread cutter or the baseball bat and she asked to rewind and figure out how to defend against it.

May 21st 2016 - Grapplethon, Kids, Open Mat

Grapplethon

There was a 24 hour Grapplethon for charity at Pinnacle Sports. Myself and several others attended at various times. I was there last night from 10:30-12.  Got in some good no gi rolls and also showed off some of my fancy kicks on the heavy bags.

After a quick warm-up roll with Jerad, Henry asked me to roll and to his surprise I was able to use some cross guard and pull off some omoplatas.

The weird thing was that the round clock was set for 3 minutes and 1 minute off which wasn't something I was used to.  I rolled with a mix of our guys and their guys and had a great time and felt pretty good even though I attended the 6:30 am class that morning. Of course there was a bit of apprehension in the back of my head with visiting a new place and grappling with people that I haven't met, but I found everyone to be pleasant and happy to have us there.

Kids Class
Technique: Triangle
Rolling/Game: Guard, Stand up, Sharks and Octopuses

Jayden had a tough time with the running warm-up today as I tried to motivate him as best I could.  After a little refresher on the triangle they were doing fine with it.

Jace had a tough time rolling with his partner as be was a little more rough with collar chokes and attacking than he's used to. I saw that he was upset but he kept trying which is good enough for me.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Drew, Henry, Austin, Josh J.
Game Plan: Deep Half & Cross Guard

Drew: After a few rolls I helped him with some guard retention and we talked about spider guard a little bit. Don't have much to offer there but I helped him with the basic sweep.

Henry: Had a tough roll with Henry after both of us confessed to being worn out from the grapplethon.  There was quite a bit of back and forth where we both had our moments of attacking, defending, recovering guard, sweeping, and rinse and repeat. At the end he caught me with a turning choke using his own lapel and we both collapsed finally able to rest.

Austin: It's been a long time since I rolled with him and I'm glad to see him back. There was a point where I was transitioning from a failed kimura to north/south choke where he said something like, "I knew it wasn't going to be an armbar" because he thought don't normally do them. Then I made it my mission to try and armbar him. Unfortunately when I got to armbar position he was able to defend it very well to where I had to make multiple adjustments to try to keep ahead of the game.

Josh: He had some questions on cross guard that I was more than happy to answer. After having to troubleshoot the position for so long I enjoy sharing my findings. The 2 things were things that I have struggled with too.  When they pull their leg away so I can't underhook it I go to 2 on 1 and look for the back take. When I'm attempting the back roll sweep I let up on the underhook to give my head room to back roll.

We rolled and I felt like I spent 10 minutes attacking in back mount until he was finally able to escape.  I've got to get better at attacking from there.

May 14th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Jiu-Jitsu Stand-up, Hip Bump Sweep
Rolling/Game: Guard Position

Kids have been doing great in class lately and I think a lot of it has to do with some work we've been doing at home.  I'm working with Jayden to lift his butt more during shrimp walks.  We've also been doing push-ups every night which have also noticeably improved.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jorge, Jerad, Gina, Adam, Greg, Drew, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Deep Half, No Gi Training

Jorge: Tough first roll with Jorge. It's been a long time since we've rolled and he's gotten tons better.  We had a true back and forth where I would sweep and get to top side control and he would recover to turtle and sweep me.  This might have happened 4 or 5 times. I wasn't able to hold him down.  We both kept the other from submitting and eventually decided to take a break.

Rolling with him made me want to improve my side control escapes and figure out how to flow more from top to deal with escapes to single or turtle.

Jerad: I decided to not try for deep half in this roll and see if I could instead make him think I was and use it to sweep with.  It didn't necessarily work but we did end up in some different position scenarios from half guard. He was able to consistently transition to knee slide from my half guard. I need a better go to solution when someone stands in my half, DLR? He eventually caught me with a kimura from top half.

Gina: Had a good couple rolls. Realized part way through that I wasn't as worried about crushing her as I used to be.  After one of the rolls she asked me if I thought she made any glaring mistakes. I realized how much I may put Greg, Conan, Jerad, Mike on the spot when I ask this question because I couldn't think of much to say besides clear the collar grip that I had.  We discussed a little about the knee slide doesn't require a full underhook but you need to put your hand in some way that prevents their underhook.

Adam: Decided to go no gi with Adam and started off pretty well on top in hip switch half. Later he said that position was very dominant for me.  I had a few attempts at regaining guard and legceeded with half and got passed again. He eventually did a slick setup on north/south choke, one of the few people that could catch me with it.

I asked him about some things to do from the bottom front headlock position and he showed me the sitout to double leg which I already knew about but the key piece that he mentioned was to push into them a bit more where I was always trying to pull my head away from them to make space. This made so much sense!

Greg: More no gi and I didn't feel like I accomplished much. Got caught with several ankle locks as I tried to figure out what the hell I need to do to defend I seem to constantly do the wrong thing.  I did go to deep half a few times and had a good attempt at the waiter sweep but didn't follow through like I should have.

Drew: After rolling a few times I showed him the north/south choke since I caught him with it a few times.  We also went over the knee over pass.

Bhuvana: She only wanted to work on the omoplata an pendulum sweep from closed guard.  We did the omoplata from an overhook so not using cross guard like I normally would use for both of these techniques. She had a little bit of trouble conceptualizing the swinging motion but eventually she had a light bulb moment.

April 9th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Knee Over Pass
Rolling/Game: Guard, Free Rolling, Sharks & Octopuses

My boys had a good day today.  Conan led the warm-up and did a few extra partner exercises with dragging your partner across the floor and wheel barrows.

By the end of training the technique everyone was doing the guard pass well.  When my kids first started with it they were a little mean about putting their knee on the thigh.  Not really on purpose, at least I hope not, but they just didn't understand the staple and where their weight should go. They worked with different partners which helped keep them in line.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Craig, Will, Robert, Derek W, Josh J, Jerad
Game Plan: Bottom Turtle

Craig: Between the kids' class and open mat we worked through the 2nd half of the blue belt curriculum.  He was familiar with most of it and I just needed to give him a few small sometimes medium sized critiques.  As an instructor now It'd give me a sense of accomplishment to see the people that I help out, get their blue belts.  We had a few good rolls before I requested to work on bottom turtle.  I mostly wanted to attempt sit outs and I did but still don't feel confident with the technique. 

Will: He came out pretty strong in our roll with some spider guard and eventually swept me.  I played some cross guard and eventually completed a sweep when he raised his leg.  I'm glad to see Will back on the regular.

Robert: I finally completed a waiter sweep.  I feel like I get to deep half so often with Robert but never complete any sweep especially this one, and this time it clicked.  Otherwise I feel a little weak against him most of the time.  He's definitely more aggressive and makes me work hard for everything I get.

Derek: He has done some improving since we last rolled.  His defenses and his composure were a lot better and he was making a lot fewer mistakes.  I did pass his guard a few times with over/under pass so I showed him how to do the pass and how to defend it.  Derek seemed to take to it pretty well.

Josh: I called out Josh from across the room since we had talked about working on cross guard yesterday.  I think I helped fix a couple things that I usually help people with in this position.  Think of cross guard as another guard position, go 90 degrees twice, don't push them away so much and use the underhooked leg to help pull you into position.  We had a few good rolls after that.

Jerad: At the end of the roll he told me that I made him work hard for the submission that he caught me with.  So there's that.  I had him on the ropes a bit in the beginning as I was able to pass guard and get to a north/south choke.  But, he rolled me over with a trap that he showed me after we rolled which was some great information.

I feel like I'm in kind of a cycle with him.  I try the things I'm good at and he shuts them down, so I learn something new and it works a few times but he eventually shuts it down again.  So back to the drawing board.  

April 2nd 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Standing Guard Break to knee over pass
Rolling/Game: Guard Position, Free Rolling

I led the warm-ups which some of the kids enjoyed.  My boys had a bit of a tough time, not sure if they were tired, but they haven't been attending classes enough lately.  They weren't on their best behavior for the remainder of the class.  Being brothers, sometimes they just can't work together.  They did get some good reps in with the pass though. 

Jace was doing a pretty good job during rolling and getting the top position or passing the guard most of the time.  Jayden just didn't have the drive today to get after it.  He did try a few times at least but for the most part acted a little sheepish.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Craig, Tyler, Mike A, Greg
Game Plan: 50/50 Research

Fuji: I didn't actually roll with Fuji, but I asked him if he would hook me up with a massage to help my back out.  Holy shit was it painful but worth it.  He showed me a couple of stretches that he does as he has a similar problem.

Craig: We drilled the long step pass out of half guard with some help from Conan.  I was a little lost at first but once we figured out that the knee on their hip was very important we both got better at it.  We rolled a few times and I saw some opportunities to go for the pass but decided not to try it and do my normal thing.   

Tyler: We rolled a few times and I kept passing his guard with the over/under pass.  Eventually I decided to show him how to defend it by sticking his arm between my head and his leg to keep me from turning the corner.  I asked if he wanted to work some 50/50 since I've seen him and Mike fight from there a few times.  Eventually we got Mike to come over and give us some pointers.  I definitely feel like a fish out of water when it comes to leg attacks.  I'm getting better but I need so much more work just to understand the possibilities.

Mike: We did some more 50/50 work in no gi and he handed me my ass several times, but I got some good training in and tips on the position.  One major point was finishing the heel hook by extending my legs near his knee to stabilize the joint.  Another good tip was to get my knee free by controlling their hand and then turning away so my knee would point down and keep spinning to escape.

Greg: I feel kind of bad because right before I rolled with Greg, I told Jerad that I wasn't going to avoid rolling with the big dogs because I didn't want to hurt my back further.  I didn't want to pass up a roll with Greg though.  Before I rolled with Greg I told him I'd probably not be rolling up to my full potential because of my back issue.  Low and behold I jump on a guillotine in his butterfly guard almost immediately.  Then a lot of things started going through my head.  "Am I really going to get Greg to tap for the first time?", "Did I just pull a 'let's roll light' and then go HAM?", "How am I going to feel about this later?", "Can I celebrate?" by that time he was escaping.  I'm not sure if he escaped because of my wandering mind or if he just escaped.  He did tell me it was a good choke, so I got that going for me, which is nice.  We rolled several more times and I think he got his quota of heel hooks for the day.  I remember also defending from the bottom of mount and getting RNC'd from back mount a few times.  Oh well, I will catch him another day. 

March 19th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Farside Armbar, Paint Brush
Rolling/Game: Side Control, Stand Up Sparring, Sharks and Octopuses

Helped teach with Jerad today so attended both kid classes.  I always get a bit of a workout in the little kids class because we do the break falls with them but we also worked on the footwork for the double leg shot.

For the older kids class, Jerad said if they wanted to spar more than everyone would need to do warm-ups quicker. I think this encouraged Jayden to go a little faster.  They did get to spar more and do some stand-up sparring.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Adam, Derek W, Mike A, Bhuvana, Bauer
Game Plan: Bottom - Cross Guard Top - Spiral Armbar

Holy crap there was a lot of people training today, probably the most I've ever seen in an open mat. Luckily Dwight thought of taking a picture. There was almost no room between people training. I think we're gonna need a bigger boat.

Adam: We rolled for over half an hour but I felt pretty strong throughout our roll.  Today was the closest I've come to submitting him with both an Ezekiel and a loop choke but he got out of them.  He's made me better at escaping side control and  avoiding his butcher.  I need to work on preventing his smash and kick out guard pass.  I'm going to catch him one of these days.

Derek: He had a great attitude toward rolling as we probably went 8 times. Had to give him pointers on guard passing and going for pant grips. I should write an FAQ and post it on the wall.  We talked a bit about bottom half and creating space with framing.

Mike: We rolled twice and with the first roll he caught me with a kneebar from inverted half guard. In our second roll he attacked a wristlock and became focused on finishing it, but flexible wrists are one positive things about 20 years of Hapkido.  He focused on it so much that I was able to take his back. It wasn't over yet, I tried to secure the RNC but he fought it well, eventually I ended up in mount trying setup arm triangle ended up in side mount and set up the switch side baseball bat choke.

Bhuvana: We talked about some strategies from bottom midrange half guard, as she had a little trouble from there. My suggestion was knee shield. If there's space in half, I'll always go for it.

Bauer: We didn't roll but he let me drill some deep half stuff and put a little resistance in there.  It was pretty tough drilling with his flexibility in this position.

February 27th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Cross Collar Choke
Rolling/Game: Guard, Sharks and Octopuses (possibly octopi)

Good class today they were especially excited for the game.  They did have a few negative moments in that Jayden didn't want to hustle during hip escapes and Jace got upset when he couldn't figure out the collar choke.

I did see some good things in sparring. They're both getting better at understanding guard and breaking posture. But breaking guard needs some work.

They got stripes on their belts!

Open Mat
Rolled With: Tate, Jerad, Bhuvana, Craig
Game Plan: Guard Retention

Tate: This was the longest toughest roll I've had in a long time. We must have rolled for 20-30 minutes.  It was both tough physically and mentally. There were several times when I thought about giving up but I kept fighting.  There were good submission attempts mostly guillotines and there were some bad ones too, I went for a few ankle locks I shouldn't have.. Spent a lot of time in half guard and deep half.  Ultimately he caught me in a type of neck and shoulder crank.

Jerad: I think I did better against him dog tired. He commented that I didn't hold things that weren't working as long as I usually do.  I think a big part of this is also the recent shift in how I retain guard along with more movement and controlling my breathing better when escaping.

Bhuvana: We rolled a bit before working on some guard retention. I passed along what I had recently learned from Conan about not reaching with the feet to retain guard when they're standing. She seemed to get it right away and take it to heart.

Craig: He was happy to make it to open mat today and get a chance to roll with Greg for the first time. He commented on how Greg's little movements and adjustments made a big difference. We had a good roll like usual.

February 20th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Cross Collar Choke
Rolling/Game: Guard Position

Super proud of how Jayden did in sparring today!  I think he finally got tired of getting his guard passed so easily all the time. He went for grips used his legs and ended up with a couple sweeps.  He still needs to work on his hustle during warm-ups but we'll keep working on that.

A continuous issue with helping teach the kids' class is knowing when to coach and who. I try my best to coach everyone equally and I don't want to only coach my own boys.  It also can be difficult to coach against them.  I know the kids probably don't always understand but it's more important to me that they are trying to do techniques well rather than trying to win at any cost.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Josh J, Henry, Adam, Mo, Greg, Connor
Game Plan: Maintain Guard

Josh: Happy to welcome Josh to his first open mat. By the end of class he said that he'd be attending more often.  We rolled quite a few times with my main goal being to setup the spiral armbar but it never really presented itself. We went over some mount defense and a few other things before switching partners.

Henry: It was just as much a mental battle as a physical one rolling with Henry. Whenever  I'd do something good and try to slow the pace down and he'd get out of it and scramble again. I hate that feeling of disappointment after I just worked so hard for a sweep only to have it taken away.  I need to overcome this thought process and go with the flow.

Adam: Always a pleasure to roll with Adam. I did a few good things and hopefully made it more difficult to submit me than usual. I was able to keep guard a little longer than usual and also recovered guard a few times. My practice with controlling my breathing with bridging is paying off.

My best attempt to get him was when I set up cross guard and went for an omoplata. He stacked and stood to defend.  I'm still not ready to attempt the back roll yet though.  He eventually caught me with a straight armlock.

Mo: I'm going to have to start taking him more seriously because he almost caught me a couple times. At the beginning of our second roll I wanted him to play deep half but I must have been too obvious because he thought I was trying to set him up for a trap.  We went over transitioning to mount from a low side control.

Greg: I was lucky enough to get asked to roll no gi a couple times with Greg. But, not lucky enough to complete any meaningful technique. He stopped my butterfly guard attempts, he caught me with a kimura, an armbar, and head and arm choke.  There was one point where I thought I had pulled him into closed guard but he went to a tozi pass and got out.

Conor: This was his second class so we just drilled a few basics and rolled a bit.  It seems pretty common for new people to try to fight guard by pushing straight forward.  Does anyone else remember how long it took you to get over this?

February 13th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Drop seoi nage
Rolling/Game: Standup Sparring, Free Rolling, Flag Tag

Jace has been sick for a few days and was not able to go to class today.  I'm happy with how Jayden did on his own.  He still has some trouble with the partner exercises like pulling across the floor and giving piggyback rides.

I was impressed with how well him and his partner did with the drop shoulder throw. They both seemed to enjoy it.  It's one of my favorite throws.  During stand up Sparring he would start off well but eventually he'd get stuck bent over with his head down. We'll have to work on that.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Andy, Sam, Hiro, Dave K, Morgan, Derek, Henry
Game Plan: Bottom - Deep Half, Top - Knee on Belly

Had quite a few rolls today, which explains why I'm so tired.

Andy: I was able to foil his nefarious plans to choke me with a baseball bat choke from the bottom.  I'll probably eventually have to show him how to defend my over/under pass.

Sam: After a couple roles we got on the subject of the single leg x entry from butterfly and we worked on that for a while.  I was surprised that she had never worked on it before, but she made the comment that Mike caught her with it all the time.

Hiro: He was a visitor from MAMA who is planning on interviewing some of us for his thesis.  We went no gi and I soon realized that he was more experienced than me.  I felt like I would almost get somewhere only to be blocked.  I had a little success from deep half and almost swept with a waiter sweep but couldn't turn my hips over. He eventually got me with a guillotine from the top of half guard and I couldn't defend anymore.  He complimented me on my toughness, which I'll take.

Dave: Had a couple of tough rolls. I was able to use the shin on bicep to set up the omoplata and went to the crucifix position. In our second roll he was able to trap me in half guard for quite a while before moving up into mount and while transitioning to back mount he caught me with a tight head and arm choke.

Morgan: Had a good couple of rolls and he was able to surprise me with regaining guard from north/south. But, the notable phrase from our roll was when I had him in a cross collar choke from the back and he said, "Can we have a beard break?" At first I thought he said "beer break" but the hair of his beard was caught in my collar grip.

Derek M: He wasn't up for rolling but we drilled some regaining guard from half and side mount before he had to take off.  Probably a good thing because I was pretty worn out and he's a beast.

Henry: I thought I had enough gas in the tank to do another roll but I was wrong. It started out well with some back and forth but there was a point after he turtled and I was a little high on his back with a collar grip. He shrugged me off and I began to get a decent cramp in my ribs and basically gassed out.

February 6th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: O-soto Gari and Counter
Rolling/Game: Stand up Sparring, Free Rolling

Decent sized kids class today. Jerad and Conan did a great job teaching it.  My boys did well with the throw, the counter took a little explaining though.

The kids were  divided by size to do the standup sparring.  I saw quite a few good throw and takedown attempts. They're fun to watch because it seems like they have less fear of failing.

Open Mat
Rolled With: David, Andy, Jerad, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Spiral armbar, maintaining inside space

David: Very long and tough roll to start out the day.  I felt like I did a pretty good job attacking but he was very good at defending. I ended up with burning forearms and worn out fingers from trying collar and north south chokes.  I attempted to setup the spiral armbar a few times but wasn't able to turn the corner on it.

Andy: If I had to give him one criticism it's that he relies on baseball bat choke from the bottom too much.  He's good at them and they definitely work, but I feel like it's too high risk high reward for my blood.  Hopefully that's not too blunt.  Of course it's also good to have someone good at something like this so people get experience defending it.

Jerad: Same as usual. I feel like I hit a brick wall attempting what I'm good at with him. I may need to be a little more unpredictable moving forward. I did have one good sweep from deep half using the lapel to wrap his leg.

Bhuvana: She just wanted to drill a few things like north/south and baseball bat chokes.  I had to correct a few things but in the end she was able to do them pretty well.

January 30th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Scissor Sweep
Rolling/Game: Guard Position, Free Rolling

Good class today as usual. Greg had the kids do piggyback rides as a warm-up and my kids have a hard time with that while the other kids don't seem to.  They did well with the scissor sweep but for some reason there was a bit of a breakdown while switching partners at times.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Justin, Dave, Derek, Jerad, Drew, Mo
Game Plan: Hunt for waiter sweep

I asked Greg for a goal of some type for training today. He suggested that I attempt to waiter sweep everyone that I rolled with. Reasonable enough and challenge accepted.  The baseball bat choke was working very well for me today which led me to teaching it to a few people.

Justin: It was a damn tough couple of rolls.  There was a lot of escaping to turtle and attempted back takes for both of us.  I gave him some pointers on technical mount because he was a little low with it.

I wasn't able to hit the waiter sweep until the last roll and it felt like a mistake leading into it because I gave him half guard but he got farther than I wanted with an underhook and crossface. I used the butterfly half to make some space and get to deep and complete the sweep.  I had some nasty forearm burns by the end.

Dave: He was in good spirits today as due to a career change, he gets to train regularly again.  He was doing pretty well but there were a couple of times when he continued to rush headlong forward when he probably should have backed up a bit and regained posture.  I playfully said to him a few times "you sure you want to do that?" That seemed to get him thinking and he would work the right thing.

Derek: He just recently came back to LBJJC.  He's also a fellow former Marine. Between rolls we had a little discussion on the Marine Martial Arts program with which he received a brown belt.

After we rolled a bit he asked me about the baseball bat choke so we worked on it for a while. He was very into learning it and seemed to have an aha moment when he figured out how it worked.

Jerad: We rolled and he sufficiently destroyed me. Needless to say I wasn't able to complete my goal of waiter sweeping him.  He caught me with an americana from mount when I thought he was setting up the mounted triangle like he usually does.  Later I asked him if he thought I was too predictable. He knows what I like to do and works his hardest to stay away from it.  He did compliment me on being more aggressive recently.

Drew: He is another guy that came to the old school a few times, hopefully we'll see more of him.  We rolled a couple times and then I gave him a crash course on defending and attacking from back mount.

Mo: We didn't really roll just went over some finer points of deep half.  One issue he was having was his shoulder wasn't under my leg enough. He was also running into the problem that I had where people were stopping him with their legs as he was attempting to sweep. I think telling him to get higher under the leg helped.

January 16th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Upa Escape from Mount, Americana from Mount
Rolling/Game: Mount Position

It was a little difficult to get the boys there this morning, but once they were, they enjoyed class.  It was a good size of 10 kids. Hopefully we'll have as many next Saturday for the kid's seminar with Tinguinha.

They're pretty good at these 2 techniques so not too much supervision was needed. When it came time to roll I would still like to see Jayden try a little harder. Sometimes a switch will flip and he'll use pressure or fight for the top position and succeed but I haven't figured out how to flip that switch.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Bauer, James, Henry, Mike A, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Be aggressive

Bauer: We did some drilling with a couple of barata plata variations. One that I kind of liked from the north/south kimura position that I think I can readily use with a little more practice.

We rolled a few times and there was some decent back and forth. I was doing my best to try to go after him and not sit in guard too long.  I was able to attack from mount a couple times but not set anything meaningful up. I attempted the spiral armbar a couple of times but he was able to flatten  his shoulders each time.

I asked Greg about the setup and he showed that I needed to not only step further forward but it seemed like he also was pulling up on the elbow with high posture. I've been just trying to get my partners on their sides so I think this is the key I've been missing.

James: We went no gi and kind of stalemated each other. I was moving from omoplata position to close guard when he would posture up.  I wasn't on top very often but I made several sweep attempts some ending in single leg.

Henry: Stayed in no gi. I started out attacking and staying on top but had a hard time keeping him controlled from side mount.  In a scramble we ended up in a leg lock battle that I eventually lost to heel hook.

Mike: He's been pushing the pace with me pretty hard lately and I've got to be on my game when we roll. It seems like any mistake I make results with him on my back.

There was one point where I was in sort of deep half but didn't sweep him all the way. I came up to over under but made the mistake of trying to fight a kimura grip by reaching under his leg. It turned into a crucifix and fuck that position.

Bhuvana: We started off drilling the cross guard to omoplata. She was having trouble with the toughest part for most people, lifting the hips backward instead of using your legs to push off of the partner. We rolled a couple times and I setup a north/south choke so we drilled that a few times too.

January 9th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Upa Mount Escape
Rolling/Game: Mount Position

Mike led the warm-up and had them pretty warm by the time he was done.  It was a fairly small class of 5 so they were all able to roll together with 1 student on break.  I saw a lot of good stuff from back takes to armbars and some escapes to guard.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Lucas, Caroline, Austin, Chris, Derek
Game Plan: Attacking the back

Jerad: It seems like I do a lot better against him when I'm fresh than if we roll closer to the end of open mat.  We had an epic roll.  I started out with the upper hand after passing guard but never felt like I was able to attempt a serious attack. Eventually he swept and tapped me out with an armbar. We discussed the x-pass for a while and how we were looking for the 2 main grips and not necessarily a certain position. We also talked about not accepting a position like side control just to get to a position that you know. An interesting concept that I'll ponder on.

Lucas: A friend of Caroline's and pretty good wrestler. I had a tough time trying to move him around.  Probably one of the most impressive things was when I sunk in an RNC he was able to bridge up and put my head on the floor and kind of crank my neck until I let go.  Haven't experienced that escape before.  After we rolled I showed him some basics of guard passing.

Caroline: It's been a while since we rolled and she's improved.  There were a couple of times where I had set up a sub but she was able to position just enough to prevent it.

Austin: It's probably been months since I rolled with him which is probably the last time he shaved his beard ;).  He expressed that he was ready to come back on a regular basis.

Chris: This week he wanted to work on escaping side control.  We only drilled a few techniques focusing on how to bridge and make space and then getting an underhook toward the end.

Derek: Finished off the session with a pretty tough roll.  Derek wrestled for many years and it shows.  I was able to get to closed guard and tried to work from there but had a tough time trying to sweep, armbar or omoplata. I was also playing cautiously because I didn't want to end up on the bottom of a bad position.  It makes me want to drill my cross guard even more though. We ended up stalemated after a while and decided to call it a day.

January 2nd 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Gordo Sweep
Rolling/Game: Half Guard

Jace and Jayden had a good day. They had a little trouble with doing piggyback rides to each other during the warmup. The gordo sweep was also difficult and made them want to quit. We had a talk on the car ride home about how it was okay if they messed up techniques, all I want them to do is try.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Chris, Fuji, Andy, Adam, Andrew
Game Plan: Kimura Hunting

Great way to start out the new year!

Chris: He requested another mount defense session and I was happy to oblige. He's definitely getting something out of this because it's become more difficult to submit him, he's keeping his arms in and using his legs more effectively. Today I focused on trying to move to high mount and then showing him how to shoulder walk and keep me lower. He still has to put in more time of course but I think it's been fruitful.

I had him attack my mount a couple times to get a feel for what I do and we rolled as well.  He may think about focusing on top mount next, just kidding.

Fuji: I have 2 goals when rolling with Fuji, if I start on top, stay on top. If I end up on bottom maintain guard at all costs.  I didn't accomplish either goal and ended up in side control.  I had my moments of attempting omoplata and getting stacked and defended for a while in the bottom of turtle.  Once he passed to side control I was stuck.

Andy: I find myself being cautious of allowing him to get any type of collar grips. I'm having flashbacks of rolling with Zac. I kept pretty good top control although he defended pretty well.

Adam: He and his brother were up visiting and it's good to roll with them as they're big guys that know how to move and make pressure.  I started off well with attacking a lot but he seemed to be able to defend with very slight movements. I had him in a N/S choke for quite a while but couldn't seal the deal. He then gave me a few pointers on how he likes to finish the choke. One being using a guillotine grip instead of the s-grip that I like to use.  It lifts my wrist and their head up which really helps. Interestingly I was able to catch him with it on our second roll.

On our first roll I'm embarrassed to say that I gassed out. Maybe from all of the submission attempts.  Probably the most taxing was the fight that I had to finish an omoplata. He was also able to stack me and make me pretty uncomfortable while trying to step over.

Another interesting thing was he had a pretty smooth side control escape kind of like the elbow push but it was in my armpit.  Kind of like a Turkish standup, I'll probably ask him about it next time I see him.

Andrew: I also had an omoplata battle with him and had to work hard against him stacking.  So 3 bigger guys gave me trouble with a move that I thought I had pretty well figured out.  Something else to add to the pile of things to work on.

After we rolled we worked a bit on the judo turnover as he was attacking my neck from the top of turtle for a while.

After class we talked a bit about when to exert energy. I was reminded of Conan telling me that it's better to use more energy to maintain guard rather than wait and use energy to escape side control. Greg said that Tinguinha would get on him about this in the past. This is a mindset that I'm ready to adopt.

November 21st 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Bridge to Tripod, Single Under Guard Pass
Rolling/Game: Guard, Side Control

Kids had a good day. Greg has been mixing up the warmup with some different obstacle course type exercises and some partner stuff.

The tripod movement was a little difficult for them but they did improve.  They did well with the single under pass. Working on the techniques of the week at home is helping.

Jayden surprised me and Greg by pulling off an omoplata sweep, it was awesome but I don't think he knew what he accomplished.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Mike A, Fuji, Anthony, Mo, Gina, Jordan H
Game Plan: Work for top position, A Game

I was so sore and beat up from competition class yesterday.  It was a lot of hard work and I'm feeling pretty good about my progress. I feel like I'm transitioning a little faster and have a little extra get up and go.

Mike: More and more Mike is challenging me with positions and attacks that others don't. It's good to have him around because I can see my defenses improving especially with ankle locks and back takes.

Fuji: He's challenging himself with bottom side control and trying to escape with better technique. We went a few rounds then worked on some half guard and deep half entries.

Anthony: We rolled no gi and he surprised me with his posture and positioning.  There were a couple times when we stood up and all I did was sit back down, not sure if I should have attempted to fight a little bit from standing or not.

Mo: Had some good rolls, he said he felt a little off his game though after taking some time off.  He came close to getting deep half and I gave him a few pointers mostly focused on moving himself instead of trying to move me. Then we drilled Homer Simpson several times.

Gina: Went as light as I could with Gina because of size difference.  Luckily I didn't hurt her this time.  We ended up in half guard and we discussed arm placement and avoiding the arm drag.

Jordan: I mostly played top and had to resort to half guard to pass. We talked about defending the hip switch and I gave him some tips on attacking from open guard.

November 7th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Recover Guard from Half Guard, Hip Bump Sweep
Rolling/Game: Side Mount Position

Greg was busy signing a new student up so I led the warm-up.  Fun as usual but I got a warm-up as well.  Kids have been doing better with the techniques as we work on them before bed almost every night.  Jayden is still disappointed in his sparring but he is getting better.

Open Mat
Rolled With: David K, Chris, Mike, Adam, James, Jerad
Game Plan: A Game techniques, being more assertive

Drilled some techniques with David before rolling. I mostly played guard during rolling and almost finished an armbar. David's ear started bleeding and we cut our roll short.

Went over hip bump and attacking the back with Chris before rolling.  He's coming around with understanding positions I think.

Mike is definitely getting the better of our exchanges lately. He's taking my back or going for ankle locks and I feel like I'm constantly on the defensive. It's really good for me but a little frustrating.

I felt pretty good about my performance with Adam. I didn't sweep him or come close to submitting him, but I did regain guard way more times than normal.  Still working on dealing with his butcher technique.

James and I rolled no gi and it was interesting as he has a little different style than I'm used to. Which is a great thing the more different types of grapplers I can roll with the better I'll be.  I was able to catch him once and he caught me the second roll. He said I felt a lot stronger since we last rolled which was at least 2 years ago.

I had nothing for Jerad.  He systematically got past my defenses. I kept looking for him to make a mistake that I could capitalize on but I never saw one. Before I knew it he was in mount.

October 31st 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Triangle
Rolling/Game: Rolling, Blob Tag

Small class today as a few of the kids were at the Circle of Iron tournament.  I ran a special holiday warmup with some different exercises and some extra stuff. We worked on the triangle yet again so hopefully my kids don't forget it.

We did a couple tournament style sparring matches at the end. Jayden has been more into sparring lately and it's heart breaking when he doesn't score any points. I can see him getting better though and try to tell him that.

Jace is also doing well and picking up new things all the time and he's willing to try anything.  He's really into knowing how many points he's scored and tries to carry his points over to other matches.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jordan, Andy, Chris, Jerad, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Look for Cross Collar

Had some good rolls with Jordan and went light to keep tabs on my knee. No problems today although it was a little tight.  I attempted a few cross collar chokes from mount but had a hard time getting around his headgear.  We worked on some mount escapes afterward.

Andy was a student at the old school but had to move out of town.  He's back and actually signed up today!  He was still pretty good for not training as often.

Jerad was the most difficult match of the day as usual we rolled and while we had a good discussion after rolling about what happened I don't remember much about it now. I feel like the back and forth is better lately and I'm able to match him move for move for a while but I eventually make a mistake that he capitalizes on.  It is very difficult to escape his mount after that. He submitted me with an armbar and a mounted triangle.

Chris was told by Greg to get with me to prepare for the submission challenge tournament coming up since we are of similar size.  We went over some of his game plan with a sweep, and a guard pass.  I did my best to share what works for me. I think it will be interesting to see how much he improves before the tournament.

Bhuvana just wanted to work on omoplata from cross guard. I'm a little picky with the technique since it's my go to.  We also worked on troubleshooting getting the underhook from half guard with Jerad.