January 26th - Gi

Got to class yesterday and it seemed like most people were already there working on something.  I think their coming in a half an hour early on Thursday and I'm a little jealous because I can't leave any earlier from work.  Conan taught with the theme of side control escapes.  It was a good review as I think I've done all of these before.  There was one where that when you hook your near leg over theirs and they turn their hips and get out of it into side control.  There is some timing involved to bump them on your hips and take them across your body.  That one was a little difficult for me but I like the idea of it and hope to get better at stuff like that.

For open mat I went up against Mike.  It's been a while since we rolled and from the beginning we seemed pretty even.  He was doing a lot of his de la rivas and we had a lot of back and forth.  Our size difference is in my favor and there were a couple of instances where he would have had me in a much worse position but I was able to get out of it.  He had me almost in the new 10 finger guillotine but I saw it coming and was able to keep his hands from connecting. At one point he had me in knee on belly and was setting up the baseball bat choke, but I was able to put him on his back and tried to stay low and control his elbows so he couldn't get the choke.  I attempted an armbar from open guard when he was standing and couldn't finish it.  I eventually got him into side control and then somehow worked into an inverted triangle.  I tried my best to get his arm free for the kimura but I might have been pulling up too much and not pushing in the opposite direction to break the grip first.  I eventually abandoned it and then slid down to north-south choke and with some work got him to tap.  We probably rolled for 15 to 20 minutes and it wore us both out.

Afterwards Mike gave me tips on how I could have beaten him sooner.  One thing that I want to work on is going for the far leg when they stack an armbar.  I've always thought that underhooking the close leg was the best thing to do, but this is much better.

January 25th - Morning Open (Feeling Good)

Had a good session this morning. I wish I could figure out the formula for when I leave the dojo with a positive attitude as opposed to feeling negative and down on myself.  It's really not as much about losing as I let on.  I think I just need to accomplish something that demonstrates my improvement.  If during open mat I get stuck in half guard and I'm not able to move and I just defend for 10 minutes I feel it's a lot worse than if I get submitted in 2 minutes but completed a guard pass that I just learned. 

Greg asked me to drill some things with him again, which I would not refuse.  It was pretty much the same things that he drilled Monday evening.  I also drilled the reverse de la rivas sweep.  We went over the guard pass that we worked on Monday and I felt more confident about it. 

I rolled with Ken and we had one of our back and forth battles.  He allowed me to take side control right away.  I tried several submissions but couldn't get anything to work.  We went back and forth with guard and half guard side control and I had his back for just a little bit.  Eventually I ended up mounted and he put me into an americana.  After that he showed me some wristlocks that he's seen on a Roy Dean DVD.  I was liking it and maybe this will spark some wristlock research between the two of us.

I rolled with Greg next and I was hesitant as usual to commit to anything.  I was pretty amazed at how he uses his hips a lot to pass the guard and get around knees and limbs.  There was one point where I was in bottom half guard and I went for the shaolin sweep.  I felt like I almost had it but I just didn't get him over.  I could tell that his goal was to get me in the new guillotine choke, he was grabbing my chin a lot and controlling it (which I hate) but the gi helped to defend the choke.  He ended up submitting me with the cross choke to armbar that we worked on Monday.  The second time around he set up a baseball bat choke from side control.

January 23rd - Gi

Greg taught class yesterday and the theme was techniques starting with a cross collar choke from mount.  We did a pretty good warm-up with some jogging and up and down the floor shrimping and rolling.  I used to have a really hard time with the front shrimp but now it's become something that I excel at and one of my favorite things to do.

I worked with Fuji for the majority of the class.  We started out doing the cross collar choke.  We practiced one of several versions of this choke.  For this one it was palm up and deep into the neck and the other hand is the same on the other side of the neck going under the first hand.  Usually when I've done this it's one hand deep and one hand on the collar.  From their we worked on things to do if they defended like an armbar if they tried to hip escape or moving into the z-mount.

For open mat I rolled with David for about 15 minutes.  I felt like I was doing better than usual, but it could have been that David was working on something specific to improve his game.  From the start he allowed me to get side control and then worked on escaping.  I tried several things from knee on belly to putting him on his side to get a kimura.  Which allowed him to get to his knees.  I'm still not completely sure what I should be doing when this happens.  I was in side control for a while and eventually got half guard and then guard.  I was working hard to keep my guard and then butterfly guard.  Somehow I was able to get his back for a little while.  He did a very good job of keeping my arms in his arm pits and I was unsuccessful in doing anything from there.  He mounted me for a while and after I defended as best I could he eventually locked up my arm and put me into the gift wrap allowing him to take my back.  This position sucks as David likes to do the body triangle.  I was almost able to get out at one time but he sucked me back in and made me tap with a face/neck crank.

Mike showed me a standing guard pass that he likes to use and we worked on that for a couple reps.  I liked it except it was a little complicated.  It involved grabbing the pants and pushing them to the side and then switching the grips again and a little push pull.  I'll have to have him go over it with me again.

Greg asked me if he could work some techniques on me.  They were mostly from reverse de la rivas and pretty interesting.  As a trade off he gave me some pointers on the guard pass that he taught us a while ago. It's where one arm is straight and holding together both lapels and the other hand is on the pants.  Then after breaking the guard, come over their leg with the knee and post the other leg then underhook their far arm and the other arm goes behind their head to escape to side control.  I did about 10 or so reps of that.  Two things that were pointed out to me was that my weight was too far forward and I need to sit back and when I go to move my knee into their butt that I need to hold pressure down on them with my straight arm.  I'm going to follow Greg's advice and practice this 5 times or so before or after each class.  Maybe until I use it a couple of times during rolling without having to think about the parts of it.

January 19th - Gi (Stupid Triangle)

Ray taught class yesterday and it was a pretty awesome class.  My gripe about not drilling enough was answered.  We started off with some animal walking and other calisthenics.  With a partner we did sweeps, throws, and wrestling takedowns.

For the rest of the class we did several position drills just trying to escape, sweep or improve.  We did mount, guard, open guard, butterfly, half, sprawl position, and maybe a few others I've forgotten.  We kept up a pretty good pace.

During open mat I went with Brad, who I haven't rolled with in a while.  I was kind of hoping that enough time had passed that I would blow him away but that wasn't really the case.  I did well for the most part but in our first match I made the mistake of getting sucked into his triangle.  He did a really good job of holding my sleeves and pulling me into position while wrapping his legs around my head and shoulders.  I hung on for a while but had to eventually tap.

During our second roll I was able to take top position off the bat and kept him in side control for a while.  He wasn't really guarding the north-south choke so I took special care to control his head and not let him turn in and I slunk down into position pushing forward on his shoulder.  His chin was digging into my ribs a little bit but I felt like I still had it locked up pretty well and I steadily applied pressure until he tapped.

We went a third time for a tie breaker and I thought I was doing well.  I had him in the reverse arm triangle for a while but eventually lost it trying to make it tighter.  Later on I was doing the basic guard pass with my shin across his leg and I kind of got stopped.  Instead of continuing to go forward I thought it would be more clever for me to go around his leg to the other side of his body.  Big mistake as this freed his other leg and I was put in his stupid triangle again.  We hung out there for a long time and soon everyone was congregated around us telling us both what to do to submit/defend the triangle.  My sore neck tells me that I probably should have tapped sooner because I eventually had enough and tapped.  So, I'll be working triangle defenses as soon as possible.

January 18th - Morning Open (Need More Reps)

Had some trouble getting out of bed this morning, but it was worth it.  I appreciate Ken coming in despite not feeling well.  Luckily Greg and Robert showed up. 

Since there were three of us we did some drills first working on the guillotine that we did on Sunday.  I'm pretty sensitive to these types of chokes, anything on the throat bugs me quite a bit after a while.  However, I really like to do this choke because it seems to be so much more effective than the traditional guillotine.  Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate it in to my game (or lack there of).

We did some 2 minute drills with side mount alternating partners.  It was a good reminder that I need to do a lot more work.  Greg escaped at will and was able to stick a knee in between us easily.  When I was on the bottom I was constantly getting a knee on my stomach.  As expected I fared a little better against Robert but still had my share of mistakes. 

A couple of pointers that Greg gave was to use the close hand and walk away from knee on belly.  If I push with the far hand I'm just asking to get armbared.  Which I knew but I didn't see a better way to get out of it, I just try to snatch it away if they start going for the armbar.  Also I need to frame better and use my far leg to hip escape side control and get my knee in there.  I currently try to push into them instead of make space like I should.  I also don't frame with my arms enough.

Robert and I are pretty evenly matched, uh well except for his never ending stamina and strength.  Like usual I do several decent things against him but I usually end up on the bottom in half guard getting smashed.  I didn't feel like I did very well today though.  I don't think he made me tap but I know I was in a bad position for most of the matches.  I know I made some obvious mistakes too.

We rolled for 6 minutes rounds next and went twice with everyone.  Being in Greg's guard is definitely a mental exercise.  I have to be sure not to over extend myself or get my arms all tied up and at the same time try to pass.  I usually fall on my butt mid-pass.  Then there was more knee on belly.  He got me in an armbar, a triangle, the new guillotine choke, and the baseball bat choke.

Afterward, Greg mentioned that he was interested in coming to Wednesdays more often.  Which would be really cool.  I also asked him about drilling because I think something that will improve my game is more reps of the basics.  While I really enjoy Jiu-Jitsu class, I don't feel like I retain as much as I should.  I know it might be boring to some people, but I would like to do 20 reps on each technique.  So my plan is to either find someone before class and do some guard passes or maybe before open mat and review everything we worked on.  I think that would be good.

January 16th - Gi

Jerad taught class last night and he taught his catch wrestling technique class.  It is a series that starts with a kind of reverse arm triangle (Their arm is in your armpit) from side control.  It was a good refresher since we haven't done these in a while.  We were just about to do some drilling when I interrupted the class and reminded him of the neck crank that we usually end with.

I did the side control drill with Adam and then Josh.  Adam just crushes me and makes it difficult to move.  Probably the worst part was when he had me in knee on belly and holding my collar.  Josh was a completely different experience.  When I'm on top in side control it's almost like I'm touching the ground, so I have to stay a little lower to hold him down.  He's also very quick where I try to be slow and methodical. 

For open mat I went with Robert.  It was a good back and forth role.  As usual I get close to getting something right away but I'm not able to finish it.  I kept telling myself not to get discouraged and give up.  I did some good from guard and half guard and had top position on and off.  Eventually I started having stitches in my side and found it hard to breath and I decided to tap.  We figured we'd been rolling pretty rigorously for 20 minutes.  So he didn't submit me but I had to quit due to attrition.

After some rest I went with Ken and kind of took it easy.  I must have been in a daze because I really don't remember that much.  He had me in a mounted triangle close to the end and I think he got me with an armbar or something.  I was dead to the world last night after getting the kids to sleep and just curled up in bed and played some ps3 while drinking Gatorade.

January 15th - No Gi

Jared taught class yesterday with some wrestling help from Adam.  We worked on Adam's single leg stuff that he usually teaches.  I like that he shows us the same thing over and over instead of trying to show us a different series every time. 

I worked with Fuji for most of the class and like usual he was giving me crap about this blog.  Him and David are both worried about ending up in here after the day that I submit them.  Well it didn't happen yesterday, but I did accidentally rack Fuji during one of the single leg takedowns.  I wouldn't have put that in here but he told me to.

Joking aside, knowing that people are somewhat concerned about what I'm going to write about them later is a reason I question continuing to contribute to this blog.  I'm always concerned about my tone and how I portray the events of class, especially if I win in open mat.  I have to remind myself that I wouldn't mind if someone posted about me losing.  Maybe that's because I tap all of the time.  I hope by reading this that no one thinks I'm a braggart by any definition of the word.  I'm saving all of my bragging for when David taps out.

Jerad had us do some stuff that he was currently working on.  We worked on ten finger guillotine, X-Guard, butterfly sweep, shin sweep.  Pretty good stuff.

During open mat, I went with Fuji first.  It feels like I'm improving against him.  Being on the bottom of his side control is still awful, but I was able to weasel out a couple of times and even had side mount for a while but I couldn't finish anything.  My usual technique to try when they turn into me is the darce but whenever I try this on Fuji he's able to get to his knees and out.  I almost got him in a North-South but he was able to blast out of it.  He finally got me with a kimura from half guard.

I rolled with Ken next and we had a pretty lively roll with several scrambles.  I spent the majority of the time in my goto half guard position.  Toward the end I was in a mounted triangle but kept my hands clasped.  He rolled to his back and I got my head out but left my arm in.  I wasn't in a good position to roll out of it and he caught me with an omma plata.

Ken helped me with guard a little bit afterwards.  We did several drills and he gave me pointers along the way.  I saw a lot of possibilities that I hadn't noticed before but I've had them done to me.  This might open up a new addition to my game.