April 6th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week# 9 Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break, Torreando Pass
Partner: Jordan

I enjoy working with someone more advanced once in a while.  Jordan and I got to play around with troubleshooting the pass and follow ups. I also showed him the pistol grip trick Jerad taught yesterday. Plus half of it we discussed his trip to Europe.

Rolling: Closed Guard KOTM
Rolled With: Jordan, Jeff, Jesus, Daniel

I challenged myself during rolling by attempting the z-guard when I could.  The person that gave me the most trouble with it was Jeff.  I just couldn't get around to hand off the lapel for the single leg half guard.  I had a little tunnel vision in only wanting one thing and I eventually abandoned it when Greg said we had a minute left.  I'll have to think about the setup more.

Office Hours Partner: Jordan

Jordan let me drill the foot sweep a few times after class. I'm feeling better about it but I'm not ready for live yet.  No one else wanted to stay and roll.

April 4th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Passing Butterfly: Guillotine Step Around, Knee Slide
Partner: Ben

Great class today.  Not that I need to say it because I rarely have a bad class at Jiu-Jitsu.  Although as many know I dislike classes based around kesa gatame. 

The first pass that we did often ended up in north/south choke for me, which I enjoy.  Greg did point out that I wasn't controlling the chin as much as he wanted me to.  I really enjoy the knee slide pass and was able to give Ben a few pointers.  I think everyone's first inclination it to smash the other person's leg down during the pass.  It's not really necessary, you just need to get your knee to the ground and turn your hips through.  I found myself having my head up more than I should of too often and need to keep an eye on that. 

I found a video instructional that is very similar to what we practiced today.

Rolling: Butterfly Partner and Up/Down/Out
Rolled With: Bob, Ben, Sam, Richard, Jess

I hit quite a few guillotines today and it mostly had to do with the other person's posture and hand fighting.  Keep your head up in butterfly, both top and bottom.  Or think of it like keeping your head above your hips in alignment.  I also used the kimura a couple of times, once to pass with the front roll sort of motion and once for the spin around back take. 

Office Hours Partner: Ben, Jess

Gave Ben some tips on deep half with the shin sweep and preventing kimuras.  Shin sweep has become one of my gotos although I haven't drilled it too much.  Had a few good rolls with Jess and after catching some guillotines we discussed the grip that I was using.  He thought my one arm guillotine grip felt strong so I tried my best to explain the concept of pulling into your body. 

With many grips like defending the harness in back mount or defending a guillotine I'm not trying to use muscle to pull their arm away, rather I'm pushing their wrist into my body.  This goes for sleeve grips as well.  Find a way to use your body to support your grip or your frame.  If I'm on the bottom of side control against someone stronger I try to bring my elbows into my body.  When someone tries to isolate my arm I move in a way that they push against my body instead of just my arm muscles.  Of course I don't have it all figured out because I still get caught, I get my arm isolated, I lose guillotines, but I feel like I'm figuring it out.

March 30th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week #8 Technical Stand-up, Closed Guard: Hip Bump Sweep, Kimura
Partner: Bob, Jeff

We did the hip bump a little more dynamic by pulling out partners posture down and then following them up as they postured.

Gave a lot of pointers to Bob and Jeff on getting their hips in the right position to use their body more for the kimura.

Rolling: Closed Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Shane, Bob, Jeff

Had some good rolls.  Shane's guard is getting pretty difficult to pass and he's not doing too bad from the top either.  Jeff almost passed with the over/under pass that I showed him last week.

Bob and I had fun. I used the z-guard to sweep him and come to the top and said, "That's a sweep" to which he responded, "Nope, I was winning." So I asked him if he was a Trump supporter. Luckily he thought it was funny.

Office Hours Partner: Jeff

Went over over/under pass several times making sure he kept his hips down and head right to my thigh. I also showed him how I set it up from closed and open guard and no gi.

March 28th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Butterfly Guard: Arm drag, Hook Sweep, Knee Tap
Partner: Richard (new guy), Nate

Worked with 2 of the new guys as they were partnering up with each other and would have been pretty lost left to their own devices.  So I would do each technique to each of them to show what it feels like and then I coached them through doing the techniques to each other.  One of the difficult things with new people is to not overwhelm them with too much details but still get them to do the technique generally correct.  They did fine for their first time with butterfly.

Rolling: Butterfly Gaurd
Rolled With: Greg, Bob, Richard

Felt pretty good about some of my attempts to pass and sweep Greg, although I didn't accomplish much.  There was a deep half waiter attempt that was close and a few over/under passes that were almost there (or were they). 

Bob gave a good couple of rolls.  We had some good back and forth and he said he liked rolling with me in no gi better because it was more forgiving. 

Rolled with Richard last and after sweeping and passing a few times I helped him out with some things that he should do.  He thanked me for helping him out today.  

Office Hours Partner: Greg, Justin

Greg asked if I'd do another round of butterfly and of course I would.  It went a lot worse for me than our earlier rounds.  He heel hooked me most of the time.  There were a couple of times where I thought I was getting somewhere but it just led to the ankle lock positions.  Asked a quick question about crucifix and they suck your leg up.  Greg told me to triangle when that happens which isn't something I thought of before. 

Rolled with Justin a few times and he didn't kick me in the head today.  We had some good exchanges and I found myself in positions to do rolling back takes.  I didn't succeed at them all but felt good about my timing.  He wanted to work on some half guard and did well from there.  I gave him some tips on working with his legs a little more instead of just locking them up. 

March 23rd 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week# 7 Seio Nage, Back Mount Lapel Choke, Guillotine from Guard
Partner: Bob, Frank

Greg had Bob teach the drop shoulder throw today and I was pleased.  However, he makes the floor come quickly when he throws me.  Both Bob and Frank did a good job with both chokes and there were only some minor adjustments that I made mostly with body position, elbows etc. 

Rolling: Back Mount, Guard KOTM
Rolled With: Frank, Jess, Andy, Nate, Tim, Jeff

I think I only made one grave mistake today and it was when I was setting up a choke on Jess and he almost passed my guard.  I had to recover to turtle and granby to get back to guard.  Otherwise I had a lot of success with sweeping and passing.  I probably should have went to half guard and attempted some z-guard sweeps.

Office Hours Partner: Jeff, Jess, Greg

Jeff asked to work double legs again and I did my best to show him what I know about it.  Focused on the penetration step, changing levels, keeping posture and turning the corner.  It looks like he's taken this on as a personal project to improve on. 

Rolled with Jess 3 or 4 times.  Had a good time.  I was lazy somewhere in the middle and he caught me in a straight ankle lock.  It felt like it was a little low on his body and I was going to wait it out, but there was a little pop so I tapped.  It turned out to not be anything and I wasn't in any pain.  I should have been actively defending the footlock though instead of thinking that he'd eventually let go of it.  Did some good things in the roll, had a nice spider guard sweep, attacked for crucifix from turtle but he hid his arm well so I went to the back. 

Greg wanted to work takedowns and although I gave him two rounds, my congestion didn't make me very competitive for him.  I did feel good about changing levels and moving around a bit, but it kind of felt like anything I extended myself for Greg was ready to pounce on.  I did hit a nice butterfly sweep at one point after he took me down but the rest of the times he got me with the takedown that he's been working on.

March 21st 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Escape from Back Mount & Granby from Turtle
Partner: Ben

We worked on 2 things that I feel like I'm relatively good at.  Escaping back mount had a few different details for no gi.  Since we can't stiff arm the leg, Greg had us do a kind of a half guard on the leg that we didn't smash to the floor.  Then we would use our knee and foot to slowly pry it out once we were in a good upper body position to move to side control. 

I tried to give Ben all of my tricks for doing the granby roll as he started out rolling forward a little too much.  Things like try to kiss your knee, try to get the back of your shoulder on the floor as quickly as possible, try to fold under yourself.  I feel like he improved on this a lot today.

Rolling: 8 Minute Escapes
Rolled With: Greg

We did the 8 minute drill and I was ecstatic that Greg asked me to be his partner.  I started on defense and was actually able to escape a few times from each position except for back mount.  From turtle the first time I was able to use the granby roll to get back to guard.   

Attacking was a different story, I didn't submit him although I was able to go from turtle to side control once.  I did take note of some of Greg's escapes from mount, he's great at getting his knee in for SLX.  Mount was where I felt like I couldn't do anything to him.  Regardless, I feel pretty good about my performance and he told me that did a good job.

Office Hours Partner: Mike

We discussed some half guard kimura stuff and we had a good discussion on positives and negatives from transitioning shin across from turtle.  He had some good arguments to avoid the position and won me over in the end. 

We had a couple of good rolls that were fast paced.   I ran into my waiter sweep then attacked his standing leg to attempt an ankle lock again that he was able to roll out of.  We discussed this after and I have some things to think about.  He had a great idea of an alternate leg position that I should use while doing this to prevent the roll.  We also discussed the truck and who is winning or in control of the truck by who is closer to the opponent's knee. 

March 14th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Side Control: Arm Triangle Choke, Tripod Escape to Half Guard
Partner: Jess, Mike

Got a good detail about the arm triangle today.  I've been having a hard time getting their arm in the right position before going over.  Mike helped me figure out the angle and how to push with my head to get their arm up.  Feeling good about it.

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Mike, Bob, Jess

Good rolls by all.  Mike and I had a "Leg Lock Bonanza" (his phrase, not mine).  He caught me a couple times although I'm feeling like our leg lock battles are becoming more involved and I'm sort of keeping up although behind the curve.  During our last exchange I was in a position to waiter sweep but he stood up.  I went to the other leg with single leg x and he turned and I attempted to setup a knee bar but wasn't sure which

Office Hours Partner: Greg, Mike

Mike and I did a couple of standup rounds for Greg.  I have some congestion and found it hard to breath through my rounds.  I did some good things, had a good series where I got around his back and attempted valley drop.  I got him down but I couldn't get to the top, eventually I tried to drag him into back mount but didn't respect his kimura grip and he locked that out.  I was feeling okay about my posture and my hands but he also completed his favorite takedown 3 or 4 times on me.

March 13th 2017 - Gi Advanced

Theme & Techniques: Deep Half Waiter Sweep!
Partner: Henry

I'm on a bachelor's week with my wife and kids out of town for their spring break. I really miss advanced classes.

Greg has been teaching deep half lately and tonight was waiter sweep.  Henry sought me out to be his partner and said I might have some things to share.

A couple of small suggestions that make a difference are:

• During the entry protect against the cross face until your head can get to their hip.
• After that extending your arm to move under them instead of pulling them over you.
• During the sweep direct your pressure toward their knee

Rolling: Half Guard KOTM
Rolled With: Henry, Ben, Adam, Greg, John, David, Jerad

Rolling was tough, everyone was dangerous and had a chance to sweep or pass. I had quite a few close battles. Unfortunately I didn't go for deep half very much, I was looking more for the z-guard, knee shield twist sweep, and loop choke.  I had some successes and some learning experiences.

I probably will keep most of the posts short this week as I need to get more rest than usual to do a couple classes a day. Oh and I swept Greg today, so there's that.

March 9th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week #5 Double Leg, Mount: Cross Collar Choke, Upa
Partner: Jess

Some tips on the techniques of the week:

• Double Leg: It's so important to get down the penetration step and level change.  I feel like it's coming around for me now I just need to figure out when to do it.
• Cross Collar: Something that I noticed today that I hadn't previously was that Greg put his head to the mat before attempting any type of choking motion.  I think this may have costed me the submission in the past.
• Upa: One thing that still sticks with me is how Greg does this in live rolling.  Everything happens at once with trapping the arm and foot and bridging.  My upa improved exponentially after working on that.

Rolling: Mount, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Jess, Tim, Frank, Greg

Had a couple of opportunities to go to the shin across armbar/kimura position during the mount exchanges that I had.  I'm feeling better about the transition but still need to tighten it up.  From the bottom transitioned between my 3 main escapes of upa, ankle drag to deep half, or elbow escape.

Frank is improving on his grip fighting although he may have overemphasized on trying to control my arms too much where he should have probably been focusing on controlling my legs when trying to pass.  But he addressed any collar grab which is a huge improvement.  

Got to roll with Greg and had a good couple of exchanges.  There were a couple of times where I felt like I was getting somewhere but something would happen to turn the tables and everything would unravel and I'd be defending from the bottom of side control.  I was able to get to the z-guard and transfer the lapel but he went to reverse half guard and then came back and drove his hand through to get the under hook. 

Office Hours Partner: Greg

Greg asked if I would do some standup sparring with him and I couldn't have been happier.  We did two 3 minute rounds.  I had a few "almosts" with some drop seio nage attempts, double leg attempts, a decent single leg, and a cross guard pull but he figured out a way to stuff them all.  He also hit me with the takedown that he's been working on at least 3 times, which I may switch to in the near future.

I asked Greg about people hiding their arm when I was going for crucifix and he told me to just start going for their back and hopefully the arm will present itself again for crucifix.  

March 7th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

EBI Slap-Jitsu Champ: Nick Honstein

Nick participated in the first Combat Jiu-Jitsu 4 man tournament in EBI 11 and came home with the belt.  He won both of his matches the first in over time by RNC and the second with a Twister after one of his awesome double legs.  This is huge for Nick and our school. 

https://www.facebook.com/UFCFightPass/videos/1109269439195480/

Theme & Techniques: Half Guard: Underhook Pass, Regaining Underhook from Bottom
Partner: Daniel

Greg showed the pass that he seems to always do to me when we roll.  He seems to always be able to blow through my half guard.  So I have a lot more to learn about this pass as I don't even come close to passing people as smoothly with this pass.  I think my knee pads also affect my success with this pass.

Rolling: Up/Down/Out Half Guard
Rolled With: Mike, Frank, Daniel, Jesus, Bob

Greg had us start the first several rolls with the top person having an underhook. Attempted the pass a several times but ran into some lockdowns or leg entanglements that prevented it.  From the bottom it was business as usual with knee shields to underhook to deep half.  Mike gave me the most trouble and we ended up in some leg lock battles.  One of our rolls was at a pretty intense pace for 2 minutes. 

Office Hours Partner: Bob, Justin, Mike

Greg and Bob worked on a half guard pass where you knee slide through a knee shield.  I drilled it a few times too and thought it was a pretty good pass that I'd like to incorporate.  We took it past the pass a few times and he complimented me on being smooth.

Rolled with Justin and he gave me a hard time in a few places.  There were times when I had him and due to no gi and his explosiveness he'd get out of a bad position.  It was a nice roll for me to get in some extra cardio.  I was hunting for crucifix but missed my chance in the scramble.  Hard to work on the position when I haven't figured out how to get to it.

Mike drilled an outside single leg that I liked.  Then we discussed some leg lock stuff.  I feel like I'm focused too much on getting my hands right for the submission and need to get to the leg lock position first before securing the heel hook or toe hold. 

February 21st 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Half Guard: Clothesline Sweep, Get Underhook, Knee Slide Pass
Partner: Jess

Justin brought his dog into the school today and he went around getting petted by everyone during the session.  Scoob was our mascot for the day.

Jess and I got quite a few reps in as we rolled from one side of the mat to the other then switched half guards and rolled back the other way.  Because once you sweep, you end up in the same position so the person on the bottom can do the same sweep.  Then if they were to base out, they should make enough space for you to base out.  Finally we worked on passing with the key of putting our head on the other side of theirs to flatten out for the knee slide.

Rolling: Half Guard
Rolled With: Jess, Mike, Greg, Justin

We started our half guard rolls with the head and arm control.  I didn't have many problems from top or bottom half guard.  I did move to the double underhooks pass at one point and like the control, but haven't passed using it much.  From the bottom in this position, my goto is to get a butterfly hook in.

I felt like I did a pretty good job against Greg in the beginning.  I transitioned between guillotines and even had a kimura locked up for a second.  Didn't matter he turned the kimura around on me and went for an armbar that I had to escape.

Mike wore some MMA gloves and threw some shots whenever he was in a position to.  I tried to respond accordingly and did put myself in trouble a few times I wouldn't have if we were just grappling.  I did grab a kimura in the process and us it to sweep to the top.  I also went for the heel hook from half guard but botched it up. 

Office Hours Partner: Frank, Jess

Frank has been working on the butterfly sweep with me the last couple of times we've rolled.  He's getting there but still has the problem with using the underhook to control my posture so I've been focusing on him improving that.  We rolled a few times after that.

Jess and I rolled and it seemed like he was trying to put me into straight ankle lock position and I just didn't want to deal with defending it.  He did use it well though as he was able to pass to side control at one point.  Otherwise I was mostly in control.


Asked Mike and Greg about the half guard to heel hook setup and got more details on it. Mike helped me with finishing the heel hook.  The major takeaway was my wrist on their achillies tight was important.  I was too high on the forearm. 

February 16th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week# 2 Standing RNC Seio Nage Defense, Farside Armbar From Side Control, Scissor Sweep
Partner: Jeff

Not that many people in class today, where's everyone been at?  At times I felt like I was giving Jeff too many details but he asked me good questions and wanted to make sure he was doing things right.  Helped him with landing better during the shoulder throw.  For the scissor sweep we worked on both the regular way and the knee push way.    

Rolling: Guard Shark Tank
Rolled With: Jesus, Jeff

Since there were just 3 of us rolling we each got 7 minutes in the bottom of guard with the other two switching out half way.  Saw Jesus do some good things as far as setting up triangles and maintaining guard, but he had a hard time finishing the triangle.  I gave him some pointers on underhooking the leg and stuff like that to prevent getting stacked. 

I didn't have too many issues rolling from top or bottom. Jeff's size and strength are a factor but it gives me confidence that I can handle someone like him.

Office Hours Partner: Jeff

Showed Jeff the standing guard break as he was pretty much just trying to go straight through guard instead of trying to break it open. 

February 9th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week 1 O-Soto Gari, Side Control: Knee Across Escape, Americana
Partner: Jess, Jesus

Greg asked to drill an ankle lock setup on me before warm-up.  The Estima lock always scares me, I have to make sure to tap quickly.

Felt good about my O-Soto technique and off balancing.  I'm still putting together the timing of it all.  Helped Tom a bit with putting my weight onto the leg to be reaped.  Greg gave us a new setup for the Americana where we were in a farside armbar position and put some elbow pressure on their jaw to get them to bring their arm in to defend.  It then put the arm in the right place for the americana.

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Tom, Daniel, Jess, Frank

From the top I setup a few NS chokes and transitioned to mount.  I also attempted a few head and arm chokes that I wasn't able to finish.  I did run into a pesky quarter guard occasionally.  From the bottom I mostly fought for underhook or elbow push and didn't see any good opportunities to hit the basic escape. 

Office Hours Partner: Frank, Greg

I showed Frank an escape and avoidance of the ezekiel from quarter guard.  We rolled for a while and then took a break to go over butterfly sweep.  The big thing was controlling the shoulders taking a high underhook and going sideways instead of backward. 

Greg wanted to drill a takedown that he's been working on that I'm really liking the look of.  He then let me drill cross guard and I worked on some variations of going back to closed guard after underhooking the leg.  He gave me a huge tip against people that stand to break the guard.  I need to hand over the sleeve to my underhooked hand and then control their collar to break their posture.  Seems like a great option.

February 7th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Side Control: Tripod Escape to Half Guard, Darce from Top
Partner: Mike A

Got to work with Mike for the first time in a long time.  We improved our darce technique today as we both were doing it more neck cranky.  Greg was having us push on their shoulder with our body where I was primarily pushing down on their head with my ribs to push their neck into my arm.  Mike and I were choking each other pretty well by the end and didn't have to fall onto our sides as much as I thought.  The other great thing about working with Mike was that we would play during techniques, maybe give each other a little resistance here and there and respond to it naturally.  Obviously a newer person isn't going to be able to do that well.

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Mike A, Mike G, Daniel, Jess

Aquila and I had some good rolls from side control.  I started out with a choke series going from NS to guillotines but never able to get the tap...maybe if he had a bigger neck.  He gave me a lot of props for the exchange and transitions.

Most of my side control escapes ended up in half or deep half guard, I'm getting better with taking the back from them stepping over in DH but I could use a rewatch of Ryan Hall's DVD.

I got to crucifix position with Jess and felt like a bull rider trying to maintain it and not get thrown off. I couldn't quite get my hand in the right spot for the RNC though.

Office Hours Partner: Jordan

Rolled with Jordan H several times.  We had trained quite a bit together when the school first opened and we were both working on cross guard.  I was pleasantly surprised that he maintained some skills since he's been out injured for quite a while.  I had a hard time passing his guard.  I did however look at it as a way to attempt leg locks since he's a fellow blue belt. I felt like what Mike must have when I wasn't any good at defending heel hooks, and I'm trying to figure out how to attack them.

During rolling he told me that this was his last class with us as he's moving away.  Just when he was making a return to LBJJC too.  It's always tough when fellow students move away and become part of our extended family.  The upside is that I'll have some place to train if I visit New Mexico.

February 2nd 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Headlock Escape Bridge Over, Straight Footlock: Setup and Escape
Partner: Bob

Had some good practice with Bob.  He didn't seem to favor the kesa escape until I told him to slow it down and bridge and turn rather than be explosive, seemed to make all the difference.  He can definitely make the footlock tight, but I only had to give him a few pointers to make the technique more direct and to the point.  A few things:

• Once the foot is in place, treat the stepping like you're doing a walking break fall.  Don't fall back but fall to the side.  
• Look away.  He had a similar problem that I had that I wanted to see my partners face to see when I went too far with the ankle lock.  It's pretty much required that you have to look away to turn the shoulders correctly to get the tap.

Rolling: Guard Up/Down/Out, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Shane, Jess, Justin, Jesus, John, Ben

Once again, I tried some tozi passes but wasn't able to complete them.  I think I'm going to have to do some research on it. 

Shane did a good job of maintaining guard and grip fighting, I had to really work to pass his guard.  With Jess I had to keep him from foot locking me and I mostly did that by keeping my heel on his ribs or hip and not let my foot get pulled to the side.  I didn't see much of an opportunity to setup my own footlocks, maybe that will be my goal for tomorrow morning.

Office Hours Partner: Justin

Justin asked some questions about what I would do from the top of side control and we went over bread cutter, NS choke, and farside armbar.  We rolled a few times and then discussed pieces of the rolls a why they happened and what he could have done to defend or prevent them. 

January 31st 2017 - No Gi All Levels (Deep Thoughts in Deep Half)

Theme & Techniques: Closed Guard: Break to Double Unders, Stacking Variation on the Pass, Kimura from Guard
Partner: Justin

My nuts had a tough time during the guard break today.  Usually I don't have any issues but this particular guard break was uncomfortable every time. 

Greg gave an alternative way to stack for the double under pass where you grab their shoulder to keep them from shoulder walking and then stack and get way under them. I'll have to play with it more but I think it has some potential.

Rolling: Closed Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Justin, Jeff, Morgan, Ben

My goal from top was to complete a tozi pass and I didn't complete any of them.  I had a hard time keeping my head in place next to theirs. I don't consider it a wasted effort though.

From the bottom I played some Z-Guard and hunted for triangles.  I also setup a few kimura traps and ended up in 50/50 and other leg entanglements.

While stretching I spaced out a bit contemplating what to tell Ben about defending the kimura from deep half. Greg noticed and we got off on a tangent about deep thoughts with Jack Handy.  I guess Deep Thoughts from Deep Half with Josh Cather would be a decent podcast title.

January 26th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Guillotine Defense from Guard, Ezekiel Choke from Mount & Half Guard
Partner: Jess

Ezekiels are my jam and I felt like I did a good job of giving Jess some good details.  I don't feel like I hit is as much from mount anymore as people are wise to it, but passing half guard seems to still catch people off guard.  I'll try to write some more tips on the technique tomorrow when I have time.

Rolling: Guard KOTM, Mount
Rolled With: Jess, Jordan, Tom, Daniel

Had to work harder today than I was prepared for.  Both Jordan and Tom gave me a hard time in my guard.  I attempted sweeps and went to 2 on 1 but they were both insistent on wanting to pass.  I had to turtle and prevent getting my back taken.  I did end up coming up into a single leg at one point which is something that I need to do more often. 

My mount both top and bottom felt pretty good today as it has lately.  I would say if you are one of those people that says that mount sucks and side control is better, you may be right for your style and body type, but give mount a chance.

Office Hours Partner: Greg, Chris

Greg had Jordan and I roll hard with him after class.  We started standing and he pulled guard on me both times but swept soon after from butterfly.  I was on the defensive for the rest of it I think.  I felt like I escaped quite a few submissions until he finally caught me in an armbar.  Afterward he told me that my defense is good but he doesn't feel threatened by me.  So my new goal is to be threatening to Greg.  Greg showed me a trip takedown that he's been working on off of an arm drag.  I kind of like it but would need to drill it to get the leg part down.

Helped Chris a bit with grip fighting from butterfly and holding their arm to his body after he breaks a grip instead of letting them regrip right after.  Seemed to be surprised that he hadn't known that already.  To me those are the best kinds of lessons because once you feel like they're obvious, you can use them right away.

January 24th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Side Control: Tripod Escape, Arm Triangle Choke
Partner: Jeff (New Guy), Jess

Was glad I got to escape train today, as I'm a little stressed from work.  I like how BJJ can put things into perspective and clear my head but I am a bit of a bitch if I miss a workout.

The new guy, Jeff, has the build of a wrestler but he said that he runs Ironman races and stuff like that though so he'll probably be a terror after he learns some technique. 

I worked on perfecting my tripod and trying to find the best way to get to my head and shoulder and maintain my bridge.  For the arm triangle I focused on keeping my head on the floor and copying the way that Greg did it to get their arm in place.  Helped out both Jess and Jeff a lot with some basic side control things aside from the techniques of the day.  They both had pretty tight arm triangles by the end of the session. 

Rolling: Side Control Up/Down/Out
Rolled With: Jess, Jeff, John, Morgan, Daniel, Ben

My North/South choke was delivered plentifully today as many of my brethren left their necks unprotected in side control.  I explained to a few people how to defend it but pushing my chin to make me look away which helps make space for them to turn their head.  I also had some success with the waiter sweep today, feeling especially good about coming up after the sweep.

Had some good rounds.  Jess was hard to hold down in side control as usual and I was transitioning from side to turtle, trying to take the back, trying to get crucifix, then eventually got an arm in guillotine using the method that Greg showed us a couple of months ago.  He is so difficult to control in no gi.

Office Hours Partner: John, Morgan

Rolled with both John and Morgan and experimented with some single leg-x and full-x.  I looked for more leglocks on John, but had some trouble finding good technique to finish the heel hook.  Probably have to go over that with Mike or Greg again. 

There was a point with Morgan where a toe hold presented itself and I put it on to kind of show him it was there and for my own muscle memory.  From his office Greg said, "Are you toe holding a white belt" to which I let it go and responded "NO! I was just um...showing him it was there."

January 19th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard: Maintaining the position, Tripod Sweep
Partner: Bob, Ben

Was especially paying attention to what Greg taught today because I have to teach this class tomorrow.  I'm thinking about doing the Tripod sweep too and adding in the omoplata with probably a mention of sickle sweep. 

Rolling: Open Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Ben, Tom, Justin

Had some good rolling.  For the most part I was able to maintain open guard, but did have to turtle once for Tom when I failed a triangle attempt.  He's pretty good at posturing through that.  X-Pass has been pretty reliable the last couple of days for getting around the basic open guard after I stuff their free leg between my legs.

Justin did a good job in our free roll of getting to the open guard position at the start of our roll, I was pretty surprised he went there.  All of the guys in the day classes are getting more difficult to submit.  Maybe they're just getting used to the things that I'm good at.

Office Hours Partner: Justin

After class Justin and I rolled a bit and I gave him a little tutorial on S-Mount and how crappy it is to be under it.  In our next roll, I went to s-mount but he got his arm free but as he pushed up with his other arm I switched sides to attack that one.  We then talked about keeping elbows in and bridging and escaping without using the arms that much.

January 17th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Shawn William's Guard: Armbar, Omoplata
Partner: Jess

Felt good about drilling the SW guard like usual but am still not good at using it during rolling.  I'm happy that Greg had us start in the position while rolling.  I don't feel the best about doing the omoplata from here either, not sure if it's flexibility or if I'm not making space correctly. 

Rolling: SW Guard Up/Down/Out, Closed Guard KOTM
Rolled With: Mike, Darijo, Ryal, Jess, Daniel, Bob

I didn't have many problems with passing the SW, I was able to get over their free leg most of the time.  The best thing I did in class was setup the triangle from SW, which surprised Greg.  I guess he hasn't seen me complete many triangles.

Had a battle from guard with Mike where I defended quite a few ankle locks and knee bars.  He gave me some props for it after that.  I am feeling more competent in keeping myself out of locks now by triangling my legs at the right time or hand fighting at the right time.  Something that I recently felt oblivious to has turned around for me.  Now I need to gain some attacks.   

Office Hours Partner: Jess, Mike

Had a great roll with Jess.  I kept thinking I was going to submit him and then he'd shrug me off or bridge really well.  I had him in side control, he turtled, I started setting up crucifix and got him stuck for a bit but eventually he shrugged me off, I went for an armbar and he stacked it, eventually I ended up in a triangle.  Mike seemed impressed with my transitioning into the next thing when something was thwarted.  Jess did a great job of keeping me from submitting him.

Mike and I talked about setting up the reverse kimura and barata plata.  We both didn't feel as confident with the barata plata from the top which is something I've been thinking about looking into as another mount attack.