I wore my new Tatami Zen Gorilla rash guard tonight. It may be a bit out there compared to the plain solid color stuff I'm used to wearing, but it's very comfortable and fits me just right, I'm glad I went with a large instead of x-large. I also got a fair share of compliments on it. Apparently Henry has a Angry Panda rash guard coming so we foresee a Gorilla vs. Panda match going down in the near future.
Due to some that Greg had been asked about ways to attack from the back, he showed us a really cool retention technique. When the opponent moves to the underhook side and tries to flatten out our leg, we would release our hook and the shrimp and pull them back to the side we want. Then if they put up the knee to elbow barrier, we would cross our feet over their other thigh and hip into them to stretch them out. This worked great to get them to open back up and allow the hook to go right back in. It was really very simple but I had never seen it before.
Rolling: Back Mount Position, Free Rolling
We did positional rolling from the back for 3 minutes a piece. I went with Adam, Mike, and Henry. I feel pretty good about my performance. There were a couple times I escaped back mount to side with Adam and Mike but couldn't improve after that.
Free rolling I rolled with Adam, Henry, Will, and drilled with Mike. Mike has a hurt rib from training so Greg asked him to take it easy and just pick something to drill. He did a guard pull from the clinch to single x-guard and then sweep. Pretty slick move. I drilled the waiter sweep from deep half and felt pretty good about it.
Henry threatened me with a lot of guillotines today. My neck must be sticking out too far from half guard. He even got me to give up position at one point. I was able to defend all of them off but they disrupted my attack game and made me go on the defensive.
The thing I dislike about no gi is the sweat factor. We are all so slippery and it makes it really difficult to complete submissions. I missed some armbar opportunities because of it. I guess the argument could be made that my technique wasn't tight enough and I need to work on that.
Being the only person to attend class is a little bit of a mixed blessing. Yes I get awesome private instruction and the class is tailored to things that I need improvement on. However, if the attendance of the class doesn't pick up I'm assuming eventually the class will be eliminated. Let's hope that doesn't happen because I am getting the perfect amount of mat time with the new schedule.
We each picked three things to drill for 7 minutes a piece I believe. I chose 2 on 1 to butterfly guard back take, Omaplata, and the side control stiff arm escape Greg has been working on. Mostly with the omaplata I worked for the submission, but I also did a few reps with the roll if they posture to defend. I think we finally figured out what the problem was, I was pushing with my leg too much instead of just using my shoulders and torso to do the back roll.
Rolling: Free Rolling
Greg had more backs to take during our rolling session. That's pretty much all there was to it. I defended over and over but a lot of my effort was for not.
Evening Theme and Techniques: Conditioning, Judo Turnover to Side Control and Back take
We went through a series of partner exercises for which I was partnered up with Adam. The exercises included: Standing Guard break pick-up, Sit-ups from lifted guard, Rowing our partner, benching a sprawled partner, Sit-ups, leg pressing a sprawled partner. I had a hard time lifting Adam over and over, which probably was the reason we took the longest to finish. It was a great workout and my body held out just fine.
The rest of the class was spent drilling the Judo turnover which is just reaching under and grabbing the lapel from turtle and grabbing a sleeve and pulling them over while getting out of their way. The back take slide felt really natural and smooth from both sides.
Rolling: Turtle Position & Free Rolling
I did turtle position drills with both Adam and Will. I did well with being able to escape a couple times from bottom and end up in side control from the top position with both partners. The granby roll was working where in the past I'd hesitate while trying to figure out which way to turn my head.
I free rolled with Alec and stayed as close to him as I could. His small size allows him to take advantage of any space given. I think I did well matching his game though and playing some butterfly, x-guard, spider stuff.
Chris and Adam were my next opponents and both crushed me pretty good. Chris neutralized my half guard game. I feel like I use way too much energy and strength trying to defend him. I want to relax but my technique isn't to a point yet where I can flow with him like a want to. Eventually he put me into side control and then put me in a far side armbar that I saw coming but couldn't escape. Adam played half guard bottom and I was able to defend a while by threatening a guillotine. He eventually took top side and put a lot of pressure with knee on belly until he secured a kimura.
Can't help but be a little discouraged by how I was man handled by Chris and Adam. It just makes me want to get back to the mats and drill more stuff. It's a good thing that there are plenty of people around that are better than me. I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle skill wise at the school and probably most of the new guys think the same way about me as I do about Adam and Chris...and Jerad and Mike and Fuji and Ray and Conan and Greg (probably forgetting some people).
WHOYA: October 22nd 2012 - Gi (Magic Grip)
Jerad taught with a focus on Kimuras. I remember this class well as a video had been circulating the dojo that contained the kimura magic grip. I think I might try to bring this technique back as I'm finding myself in this position lately but I've never been good at finishing a kimura.
We did some king of the mat and I express some confidence in my guard playing and mention cross guard which has been huge for me lately. I also worked with Jerad on some tornado guard and Mike on the bull fighter pass.
I felt really good about my guard passing today and lately. I feel like I have a lot of options and can easily transition from one pass to another. I find I'm having to deal with the knee shield more and looping my arm around their top leg and grabbing the pants of their bottom leg is working well.
Greg showed Bauer and I an awesome butterfly guard setup that I had no idea about. It was simply awesome. From closed guard we would get an armdrag arm position and then work our way to butterfly guard. From there their arm is locked up for either a back take, a sweep, or a stiff arm. I'm going to be practicing this more.
Rolling Highlights:
Greg had warned me at one point not to let Fuji settle
into side control after he had swept me. This is probably the most
important takeaway for the day. While it may expend more energy up
front, if I can avoid a sunk in bad position I won't have to work
completely uphill.
Bauer and I had one of our epic battles. I played guard for quite a while and was able eventually sweep him with one of the recent techniques I got from a Cyborg video. I felt like I was pretty chill during the entire roll, but he made the comment that I felt tense when he was in my guard. So, I'm not sure which it is, I was monitoring myself as best I could to make sure I wasn't going to gas out. While I might have had the better of him today, we're evenly matched either one of us could submit the other on any given day.
I was able to pass Jerad's guard. But my top game didn't last long. He was very tricky from mount and setup an armbar with the potential for a lot of other subs.
Greg gave me another session on how easy it is for him to take my back. I'm so miserable from that position but he did compliment me on my defense.
WHOYA: October 19th 2013 - Open Mat
Back at the old dojo, I had to sneak out of work a little early on Fridays to try to get some open mat time in. I was still getting there late and people had taken off or already had gotten several rolls in before I got there. On this particular day I rolled with Jerad and make mention of him passing my half guard over and over again. Some things never change.
I was the only one to show up this morning, allowing me to receive some awesome private instruction. Greg and I each did 6 or 7 minute drilling of a technique of our choosing. My choices were the omaplata from cross guard and the waiter sweep from the previous night. One key discovery from the omaplata was when switching my grip from under their leg to around their waist I learned to time my kickout and situp and then the transition a whole lot better. I feel so much more confident in the waiter sweep after today. Some finer points were grabbing their wrist or sleeve after underhooking the leg. Then the use of the pendulum sweep motion to get them over. Finally the hip switching to at least get half guard and not expecting to go directly to side mount.
Rolling: Free Rolling
Greg put a back take clinic on me. I don't think I ever had any real type of guard at any point. Every time I came close he would start a knee slide pass. From there he worked me into gift wrap and took my back. I was only able to escape back mount once, but I escaped into mount and he just turned it into back mount again soon after. I defended as best as I could but at such a disadvantage it's only a matter of time. Many RNCs were had.
Theme and Techniques: Takedowns, Guillotine Choke setup from Side Mount
We did some fit-ins first with groups of three techniques. I worked with Jerad for this part and we both worked on a combination technique of a throw attempt to a knee tap. It's very slick and I can see it becoming a part of my stand-up game, just got to put in the reps.
We then did kind of an up/down/out with stand up going for the takedown. Jerad was the floater going from our big group to the small guy group. I felt a little better about my performance today than I have in the recent past. Adam still had to remind me to keep my front hand down to prevent shooting on my front leg.
The guillotine was setup from them using the underhook escape from side mount. Allowing them to get to their knees and then locking up the choke and using the forearm over the shoulder to make it suck for the other guy. This is a great technique but it's hard on the throat to practice.
Rolling: Shark tank for Alec, Free Rolling
Alec is back on leave for a little while from the Air Force and to welcome him back Greg had him attempt to pass each of our guards in turn as we swept him over and over again. A shark tank is usually an exercise where one person has to roll with everyone in class without a break. He's pretty fun to work with as he's a very light guy, flexible, and difficult to pin down.
Had several good rolls during free rolling. Rolled with Jerad, Mike, Robert, and Alec. I had great rolls with everyone. The highlight of the night was a waiter sweep that I had just learned from a video that I was able to setup from deep half guard on Robert. Without any prior practice. He did help me complete it as I had the angle wrong the first time I attempted the sweep part, but getting there was very cool.
Jerad and I worked on it a couple of times after class with some help from Greg. I'm really liking this technique, and after watching some videos during lunch at work I have a few other things I want to try in the gi. This is shaping up to be a fruitful experiment.
Thanks to everyone that read and commented on my last post Who Am I Supposed To Be. Writing the post turned out to be very therapeutic. I also might have been a little over dramatic about the situation.
Noon Theme and Techniques: Cross Guard Omaplata, Standing Guard Break to Knee Cut
Jeremy joined us for class today, which was the first time we got to train together. I've seen him plenty of times in passing but never in the same class. We also had a visitor from out of town show up a little late but jumped in a trained with us a bit. As usual, my Tuesday bromoplata brother in arms, Jordan was also there.
I worked with Andrew (the visitor) on the omaplata. He mentioned that he had some experience, but not much in the gi. He needed a little help with the specifics of the two techniques that we worked on but he picked them up fairly quickly with minor mistakes here and there. Which was understandable since we worked on the standing guard break which has several steps in it.
Rolling: Guard Pass/Sweep/Submit
Andrew and I were partnered for the first round. He had a good base and wasn't easy to sweep. I kept him from passing my guard, but it wasn't easy. I had a failed attempt at a cross choke when he had sprawled back. Greg said later that my grip wasn't deep enough. I think I may look deeper into this technique. Jordan was my next partner and we had a good battle. We both cancelled out each other omaplatas so we had to go to other things. I played some spider and tried some techniques that are always done to me.
My technique of the day turned out to be the scissor sweep though. This has emerged as a goto technique lately when other sweeps have failed. I had actually abandoned that technique as it had stopped working for me a while ago.
Evening Theme and Techniques: Hip Throw, Standing Guard Break to Toreando Pass
I worked with John on both techniques. In the end of working on the standing guard break he made noticeable improvements. The piece of this technique I need to work on the most is maintaining the straight arm on their chest, but otherwise I feel very competent with the technique.
Rolling: Closed Guard Pass/Sweep/Submit, Guard Gauntlet, Free Rolling
We had a new visitor in class tonight with a wrestling background. He wasn't used to being in someone's guard but he had a great base and was athletic. He caused me a little bit of trouble but he made the mistake of trying to collar choke me from within my guard. My next partner was Mike and he made me feel like a beginner while passing my guard.
The next exercise I'll call the Guard Gauntlet, Greg had the four most advanced guys in class each take a spot on the mat and we were each assigned a different guard to play while everyone rotated through. I was designated closed guard, Mike: Spider, Adam: Half, and Roberts: butterfly. This was pretty fun and allowed everyone good training. The new guys got to experience a lot of different guards and we got to focus on the assigned guard. My partners came close a couple times, but I kept them from passing and paced myself well enough to not gas out.
Mike and I had a nice discussion after class. We talked about how everyone is progressing as a whole and the good things coming out of the changes since LBJJC started. I showed him a tornado guard technique that I saw in a Cyborg video and he seemed impressed with my tornado guard. Greg joined the conversation and the subject of Leandro Lo came up and how Mike had been modeling a lot of his game around his techniques. He made the observations that Lo's game was compatible to him since they have very similar body types. I mentioned that I should find a famous Jiu-Jitsu player with a similar body type to model my game after and they suggested that Cyborg may be him. So, I will start watching some of his competition videos and see if I can glean some new skills.
WHOYA: October 15th 2012 - Gi
Jerad taught with the theme of armbar from guard. Coincidentally I had tried to setup a few armbars today but came no where near completing them. I've been considering various techniques to focus on and this might be one of them.
I also talk a little bit about getting caught in deep half. This has gotten better lately as I've stopped hanging out in the position so much, hide my arm better and I feel like I have a better understanding of when to sweep and when to abandon it. It's been an interesting journey through the phases of learning this position and it's far from complete.
I've been thinking about writing a post on this topic a lot lately. This post has taken a while to write and I hope all of my thoughts and feelings come through the way I intend them to. As
many of you know before Jiu-Jitsu I was heavily involved with Hapkido. This will be a continuation and addressing some topics from the previous post: For those of you wondering why. Please read that for a little background.
I considered Hapkido as a defining characteristic of what is me. I have its Chinese characters tattooed on my chest. One of the reasons I joined the Marines was because my Hapkido instructor is a former Marine. I created instructional videos for YouTube and got quite a lot of good feedback. I remember thinking that I would practice and teach Hapkido for the rest of my life.
Looking back, I was delusional about my skill level. I honestly thought that I could kick ass if the shit hit the fan, but I had really not been challenging myself for a long time. I tried, I upped our amount of sparring in class, I practiced as much as I could, I visited other martial arts classes. Alas, ultimately I needed more advanced training partners and I needed to learn more.
I have come to the conclusion that in order to be good at a martial art, competition is the most important piece (not the only piece). In my opinion it's the only way to gain confidence in the techniques that you practice. This sparks several debates in the martial arts community concerning sport vs self defense and techniques that are unsafe for competition. I'm not trying to solve that debate here, but the more I delve into BJJ the more I think the "dirty" or "deadly" techniques are not worth practicing as much as safe reliable "sport" techniques. I put that in quotes because almost all of the sporting techniques can be devastating if taken to that level.
I've kept a little Hapkido/Ground Fighting going with a small group of people once a week. Slowly it has been stripped down to a groundfighting class. I have mentioned to my training partners that I don't feel confident in many of the Hapkido techniques anymore.
Probably the strangest thing is, I don't feel like I am as good at Hapkido as I am at Jiu-Jitsu. Putting my 20 years of Hapkido against my 2 years of Jiu-Jitsu should be a given that Hapkido would win. Sure there are aspects within Hapkido that I don't get in BJJ: Punching, Kicking, Weapons, dealing with self defense type scenarios, etc. The fact that it covered so much ground is one of the positive aspects I saw in Hapkido. I would also contend that it was one of it's biggest faults. You have to work really hard to be good at all of these things, and there is really only so much time per class that can be spent on a given topic. Although, I wouldn't be as good at BJJ if I had started with no martial arts experience. While it may not sound like it, we did train very hard. I just think the competition piece was missing.
The most difficult part about all of this is losing the relationship with my Hapkido instructor. Although, I'm bashing Hapkido here, it has been a positive part of my life. I felt more confident in myself after I started martial arts. I had a rough time in junior high school and I started to come out of my shell after martial arts training. I was interested in martial arts from a very young age, and once I was able to do it I poured my heart and soul into it. It was my personal activity that I felt like I was good at. It gave me the confidence to make it through Marine bootcamp, to work at detox and the county jail. I am my instructor's only Hapkido black belt and me quitting may result in his teachings not being passed on. I looked up to my instructor and respect him still. However, I have not had an authentic conversation with him since I started my BJJ training. This makes me very sad and has been hard to deal with. In a way it has also allowed me to move on.
My original idea when starting Jiu-Jitsu was to refine pieces of Hapkido through other martial arts. I'd train ground fighting for a little while and then bring it back. Maybe I'd find a good place to learn some weapon techniques, train more with Taekwondo or take up some boxing to round myself out. I'm loving the BJJ culture so much and have high hopes of someday
attaining a black belt that I see the prospect of going back to Hapkido
very slim.
I used to be so gung-ho about self defense. Which others have cautioned my neglect of. They lecture me about the drawbacks of BJJ being only on the ground and the lack of striking, and what if you have to fight 10 ninjas with glass, dirty needles, and lava on the floor. Yes it is true that we primarily fight each other on the ground and don't have good answers for fighting multiple people (really what martial art does?). But, against an untrained person I like to use the quote "The ground is my ocean. I am the shark and most people don't even know how to swim."
Self defense no longer concerns me. I'm having fun and love what I'm doing now. It's the equivalent of human chess. It challenges my mind and body. I have friends that I train with that are just as passionate as I am and we challenge ourselves and make each other better.
So, who am I supposed to be? A Hapkido guy that's dabbling in Jiu-Jitsu? A Jiu-Jitsu guy that used to do Hapkido? Do I need to remove this tattoo or add a new one? Am I forgetting my roots and being disrespectful to my former art and instructor? At the end of the day I have to do what feels right for me and I couldn't be more satisfied.
