Theme & Techniques: Kesa Getami Over Head Reversal, Ezekiel from Mount & Top Half Guard
Partner: Zack, Harvey
Good
day at training. Relatively small class for a Tuesday but a good group
all the same. I found the Kesa escape to be easier than previously. I
was caught once letting my bridge back down before fully rolling over
but did it correctly the times following.
Ezekiel is
one of those techniques that I struggle with but I have success with
from time to time. Usually my problems stem from which part of their
neck do I need to jam my fist into. There are some different schools of
thought on that for sure. One key thing to remember doing this choke
from the half guard is that I don't want to bring my free knee off the
floor.
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Mount & Half Gaurd
Rolled With: Robert, Zack, Anthony, Harvey
With
only five of us there was only ever one person resting at a time and
sometimes you didn't get any rest. I got a few ezekiels today from both
mount and half guard and set them up just like we practiced. My bottom
mount defense felt really strong and I was able to pull everyone into
half guard if memory serves.
I had a couple notable
battles with Robert and Zack. It was very difficult to pin Robert and
get him into side control. Every time I thought I was passed his guard
he'd stay on his side and keep me at a distance. If I tried to hop to
the other side he would get up to turtle and then win the wrestling
match from there. One cool thing with Robert was that I got him to say
"dammit" once when I made it to deep half guard. Zack and I had a few
scrambles that could have gone either way. He's making me better at
watching for collar chokes. My deep half guard really came in handy
today, but I also made a couple mistakes and got into no-mans-land where
I had my opponent's hips on top of me but no good control over their
legs or torso. Just have to keep experimenting and learning.
Office Hours Partner: Robert
We
rolled for 2 5 minute rounds. Started from standing and he was able to
take me down twice but I ended up in half guard both times. One time I
did a yank on his collar which brought him right into a single leg. He
stayed on top for a majority of the rounds but I also had a few sweeps
including a gordo sweep that flowed really nicely. He kept me out of
good top positions but neither of us had any meaningful submission
attempts.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
April 18th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat
Kids Class
Technique/Game: Mount Cross Choke, Armbar, Mount Position, Underhook game
Boys did pretty well today. It was probably the biggest kids class I've seen. Jayden took less drink breaks during the warm-ups and seemed to be trying his best. We still need to work a bit on the alligator crawls and the front shrimp though.
They did a lot better dealing with tickling each others necks during the cross choke. Usually it would be a deal breaker but maybe having a third partner with them helped out. I don't think there were exactly getting the choke but progress nonetheless. The armbar was a little more difficult, they weren't able to grasp the concept of position their hips behind the elbow to keep them from escaping. During the rolling portion, they continued with the theme of always trying to take the back. Or maybe always giving their backs up from the bottom. They both did better at getting their hooks in this time.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Fuji, Henry, Austin, Mike (Lawyer), Adam
Not my best day, but I did get a lot of rolling in. My foot was a little swollen and I tapped if anyone came near an americana on my right arm. Jerad pointed out that everyone appeared to be going for it. I kind of feel a little sluggish and like I'm lacking some aggression lately. This may be the effects of not doing the advanced class anymore and rolling with my betters.
Jerad: We rolled a couple times and I actually gained some confidence in my deep half guard with him. Usually he shuts it right down. One thing that he was getting me with was to hover with both hooks in from the top as I'm in a somewhat quarter guard. He gave me some pointers on dealing with it afterwards, by pushing on the knee and working back toward half guard.
Fuji: He really took it to me today. I had a hard time passing his guard and eventually he reversed me to the bottom. I was able to play some defense pretty well for a while. I was able to get an underhook and he would switch sides on me. I'd get to my knees and he'd push me back down.
Henry: I played pretty defensive with him because I was too tired to do otherwise. He gave me a lot of trouble. Every time I got him in a semblance of half guard he would knee slide out of it. I was persistent though and eventually got all the way to deep half. I was able to pull off the deep half to double unders. I didn't last long on top though and I ended up on the bottom after escaping a guillotine. I ended up in an omoplata at one point from an over hook in guard I came so close but could not figure out how to seal the deal. He ended up controlling my hips and smash passing me down. I was pretty spent after this and we just kind of quit.
Austin: My goal was to try to get him with a triangle and I came pretty close, but was unable to lock it up completely. He did a great job defending a lot of the stuff I was throwing at him.
Mike (Lawyer): Mike was working on some of the blue belt curriculum and I did my best to help him and Bauer out. I had forgotten the guillotine against a wall defense at first but Ross clued us in. We went over the rest of the standing stuff. Mike and I rolled a little bit and it was a good roll. I recall a butterfly sweep and some work with the overhook to omoplata. He then asked me to quiz him on techniques from the blue belt curriculum. I tried to keep it pretty flowy and if we were in mount I'd have him do a mount submission like armbar and then flow to a guard sweep, etc.
Adam: We went no gi because I didn't feel like putting my gi-top back on after taking a break. I did fairly well until he put me in side control. There were a couple times when I passed his guard but he ended up recovering it right away. I made him nervous with a few wristlock attempts but couldn't complete them.
Boys did pretty well today. It was probably the biggest kids class I've seen. Jayden took less drink breaks during the warm-ups and seemed to be trying his best. We still need to work a bit on the alligator crawls and the front shrimp though.
They did a lot better dealing with tickling each others necks during the cross choke. Usually it would be a deal breaker but maybe having a third partner with them helped out. I don't think there were exactly getting the choke but progress nonetheless. The armbar was a little more difficult, they weren't able to grasp the concept of position their hips behind the elbow to keep them from escaping. During the rolling portion, they continued with the theme of always trying to take the back. Or maybe always giving their backs up from the bottom. They both did better at getting their hooks in this time.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Fuji, Henry, Austin, Mike (Lawyer), Adam
Not my best day, but I did get a lot of rolling in. My foot was a little swollen and I tapped if anyone came near an americana on my right arm. Jerad pointed out that everyone appeared to be going for it. I kind of feel a little sluggish and like I'm lacking some aggression lately. This may be the effects of not doing the advanced class anymore and rolling with my betters.
Jerad: We rolled a couple times and I actually gained some confidence in my deep half guard with him. Usually he shuts it right down. One thing that he was getting me with was to hover with both hooks in from the top as I'm in a somewhat quarter guard. He gave me some pointers on dealing with it afterwards, by pushing on the knee and working back toward half guard.
Fuji: He really took it to me today. I had a hard time passing his guard and eventually he reversed me to the bottom. I was able to play some defense pretty well for a while. I was able to get an underhook and he would switch sides on me. I'd get to my knees and he'd push me back down.
Henry: I played pretty defensive with him because I was too tired to do otherwise. He gave me a lot of trouble. Every time I got him in a semblance of half guard he would knee slide out of it. I was persistent though and eventually got all the way to deep half. I was able to pull off the deep half to double unders. I didn't last long on top though and I ended up on the bottom after escaping a guillotine. I ended up in an omoplata at one point from an over hook in guard I came so close but could not figure out how to seal the deal. He ended up controlling my hips and smash passing me down. I was pretty spent after this and we just kind of quit.
Austin: My goal was to try to get him with a triangle and I came pretty close, but was unable to lock it up completely. He did a great job defending a lot of the stuff I was throwing at him.
Mike (Lawyer): Mike was working on some of the blue belt curriculum and I did my best to help him and Bauer out. I had forgotten the guillotine against a wall defense at first but Ross clued us in. We went over the rest of the standing stuff. Mike and I rolled a little bit and it was a good roll. I recall a butterfly sweep and some work with the overhook to omoplata. He then asked me to quiz him on techniques from the blue belt curriculum. I tried to keep it pretty flowy and if we were in mount I'd have him do a mount submission like armbar and then flow to a guard sweep, etc.
Adam: We went no gi because I didn't feel like putting my gi-top back on after taking a break. I did fairly well until he put me in side control. There were a couple times when I passed his guard but he ended up recovering it right away. I made him nervous with a few wristlock attempts but couldn't complete them.
Friday, April 17, 2015
April 17th 2015 - Gi All Levels
Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard
Partner: Dave, Zack
My foot was bothering me a bit the last couple days, but I thought it was well enough to do class this morning. Had a little trouble with the floor exercises and skipped one round of alligator crawls, but otherwise felt okay the rest of class.
Dave was a little too tense with his grips at first. Once Zack told him to relax them a bit he did a lot better with the push/pull. I really noticed the similarities between this position and half guard. You have to be on your side and use the top leg a lot for movement.
Rolling: Open Guard Position (6 x 2 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Dave, Anthony, Greg, Zack
I felt pretty good with maintaining the position in the rolls that I was in but didn't feel the submission set-ups were there. I was able to set up an omoplata or two but wasn't able to complete a triangle even though I tried. From the top, I was able to use my elbow and weave in my other arm under their leg. Instead of focusing so much on passing I allowed my partners to play with the open guard position more.
I came very close to passing Greg with a double unders. He went to turtle and I started attacking the back. I rolled him to the other side and he told me I shouldn't have because I put his feet back on the floor. He ended up on top of my guard, but I'm happy with what led up to that. From the bottom Greg passed me twice with the same half guard pass and made the comment that it may be my kryptonite. Have to look into that.
Free rolled with Zack and setup a loop choke in the beginning while I was standing. I tried to get back down to control him but it allowed to get his head out of the choke. Not sure what I should have done differently. Maybe pushed him to his back to sweep rather than trying to sit back into guard.
Office Hours Partner: Dave, Zack
Worked on the deep half back take and had a little trouble because he kept falling on his butt prematurely. This does seem to be a problem with practicing the position. A lot of people seem to fall over while I'm getting into the position while drilling it, where if we were rolling they wouldn't fall over that easily. I need to practice the back take more, I had a few good reps but had a hard time putting his hips onto my chest. Zack made a comment about my choking and said that when I get into the bow and arrow collar grab I could use my hips to put some pressure on and get the choke, but I'm so focused on doing the grip right that I've got tunnel vision for a perfect bow and arrow choke.
Partner: Dave, Zack
My foot was bothering me a bit the last couple days, but I thought it was well enough to do class this morning. Had a little trouble with the floor exercises and skipped one round of alligator crawls, but otherwise felt okay the rest of class.
Dave was a little too tense with his grips at first. Once Zack told him to relax them a bit he did a lot better with the push/pull. I really noticed the similarities between this position and half guard. You have to be on your side and use the top leg a lot for movement.
Rolling: Open Guard Position (6 x 2 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Dave, Anthony, Greg, Zack
I felt pretty good with maintaining the position in the rolls that I was in but didn't feel the submission set-ups were there. I was able to set up an omoplata or two but wasn't able to complete a triangle even though I tried. From the top, I was able to use my elbow and weave in my other arm under their leg. Instead of focusing so much on passing I allowed my partners to play with the open guard position more.
I came very close to passing Greg with a double unders. He went to turtle and I started attacking the back. I rolled him to the other side and he told me I shouldn't have because I put his feet back on the floor. He ended up on top of my guard, but I'm happy with what led up to that. From the bottom Greg passed me twice with the same half guard pass and made the comment that it may be my kryptonite. Have to look into that.
Free rolled with Zack and setup a loop choke in the beginning while I was standing. I tried to get back down to control him but it allowed to get his head out of the choke. Not sure what I should have done differently. Maybe pushed him to his back to sweep rather than trying to sit back into guard.
Office Hours Partner: Dave, Zack
Worked on the deep half back take and had a little trouble because he kept falling on his butt prematurely. This does seem to be a problem with practicing the position. A lot of people seem to fall over while I'm getting into the position while drilling it, where if we were rolling they wouldn't fall over that easily. I need to practice the back take more, I had a few good reps but had a hard time putting his hips onto my chest. Zack made a comment about my choking and said that when I get into the bow and arrow collar grab I could use my hips to put some pressure on and get the choke, but I'm so focused on doing the grip right that I've got tunnel vision for a perfect bow and arrow choke.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
April 14th 2015 - Gi Beginner (It's Back)
Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard
Partner: Anthony
This is one of the few weeks in the curriculum where we only work on one thing. Granted it's a big thing and a good intro to open guard. Getting into the position seemed to come pretty natural to me. I think this is mostly because the beginning motions are so similar to a scissor sweep. Anthony had a little trouble because of his long legs it took him a little bit to figure out where to put his hips.
Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Anthony, Ty, Zack
Working on the position with Anthony and Ty, it appears that the elbow on the bottom leg can be a real killer to the position. If I was able to get the pant grip and bring the elbow down I was able to eventually get an over/under or double under position. On the other hand if that arm is pulled up to the chest, the push/pull of the position really presents itself. From the bottom I found that I was constantly scooting my hips around in like front shrimp motions. I made sure to stay on my side instead of falling flat to my back as well.
Free rolling with Zack I started out strong. I passed his guard and went to side control and then turtle and then a back take. I was just a good grip away but he fought my hands very well. He was able to turn into me and I ended up in butterfly guard. There was a moment of clarity there were I kind of felt like I was on a downward slope and I should have done something to stop it. I ended up in half guard and he started to attack an americana, I thought I had stability and I hipped into it like I have done before. It was the wrong thing to do because something kind of popped in my elbow. It ended up being okay and not having any pain at the time. It's a little sore now but I think it was just a tendon moving or something and nothing serious happened. I learned a lesson and I'm not going to try to escape that way again.
Office Hours Partner: Robert, Zack
Robert asked to go a couple rounds after class and I gladly said yes. We started from standing even though he had his ankle wrapped. I was surprised he came in so close instead of trying to keep me away and stiff arm like I'm used to. I attempted a reaping throw and switched to a knee tap, but he was a little ahead of me and was able to get me down and I landed in guard. I went into a loop choke from half guard and got it locked in more than I thought I would, but I had no hip movement to make it tighter and he eventually got his head out of it. He felt pretty strong and it may be due to the weather change because I'm still feeling a little tired and slow. It may be a mental block too because I'm really only feeling tired against people that usually beat me. There was quite a bit of half guard and I was mostly on the bottom. I did come up to turtle and felt stronger keeping my head down and pressed against him but I eventually was put back on the bottom. He eventually submitted me with a tight arm triangle.
Our second round went close to the same. A lot of half guard bottom for me. At one point I got the butterfly hook in and gained butterfly guard. Can't remember how I screwed that up but I ended up in mount. The timer went off without him submitting me but he was in control for the majority.
Zack wanted to work on more butterfly guard and we just rolled from the position a few times. Sometimes I passed and sometimes he swept. I gave him a few pointers one what I thought and there were a few times where I told him that he was there to just try the sweep. He may be waiting until everything is perfectly in place which is something that I am all too familiar with. We went over hand fighting and how I get into the butterfly position and he seemed to take to it.
Partner: Anthony
This is one of the few weeks in the curriculum where we only work on one thing. Granted it's a big thing and a good intro to open guard. Getting into the position seemed to come pretty natural to me. I think this is mostly because the beginning motions are so similar to a scissor sweep. Anthony had a little trouble because of his long legs it took him a little bit to figure out where to put his hips.
Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Anthony, Ty, Zack
Working on the position with Anthony and Ty, it appears that the elbow on the bottom leg can be a real killer to the position. If I was able to get the pant grip and bring the elbow down I was able to eventually get an over/under or double under position. On the other hand if that arm is pulled up to the chest, the push/pull of the position really presents itself. From the bottom I found that I was constantly scooting my hips around in like front shrimp motions. I made sure to stay on my side instead of falling flat to my back as well.
Free rolling with Zack I started out strong. I passed his guard and went to side control and then turtle and then a back take. I was just a good grip away but he fought my hands very well. He was able to turn into me and I ended up in butterfly guard. There was a moment of clarity there were I kind of felt like I was on a downward slope and I should have done something to stop it. I ended up in half guard and he started to attack an americana, I thought I had stability and I hipped into it like I have done before. It was the wrong thing to do because something kind of popped in my elbow. It ended up being okay and not having any pain at the time. It's a little sore now but I think it was just a tendon moving or something and nothing serious happened. I learned a lesson and I'm not going to try to escape that way again.
Office Hours Partner: Robert, Zack
Robert asked to go a couple rounds after class and I gladly said yes. We started from standing even though he had his ankle wrapped. I was surprised he came in so close instead of trying to keep me away and stiff arm like I'm used to. I attempted a reaping throw and switched to a knee tap, but he was a little ahead of me and was able to get me down and I landed in guard. I went into a loop choke from half guard and got it locked in more than I thought I would, but I had no hip movement to make it tighter and he eventually got his head out of it. He felt pretty strong and it may be due to the weather change because I'm still feeling a little tired and slow. It may be a mental block too because I'm really only feeling tired against people that usually beat me. There was quite a bit of half guard and I was mostly on the bottom. I did come up to turtle and felt stronger keeping my head down and pressed against him but I eventually was put back on the bottom. He eventually submitted me with a tight arm triangle.
Our second round went close to the same. A lot of half guard bottom for me. At one point I got the butterfly hook in and gained butterfly guard. Can't remember how I screwed that up but I ended up in mount. The timer went off without him submitting me but he was in control for the majority.
Zack wanted to work on more butterfly guard and we just rolled from the position a few times. Sometimes I passed and sometimes he swept. I gave him a few pointers one what I thought and there were a few times where I told him that he was there to just try the sweep. He may be waiting until everything is perfectly in place which is something that I am all too familiar with. We went over hand fighting and how I get into the butterfly position and he seemed to take to it.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
April 12th 2015 - Weekly Review
I'm thinking of making the blog public again this week. I've worked out what I want to share and the hangups I've had about it before.
Focus of the Week: Half Guard, Maintaining Backmount, Triangle
Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Koshi Guruma, Triangle with punch setup
Partnered and Rolled With: Anthony, Greg, Zack, Josh, Dave, Mike, Robert
I think I've finally found the pieces of the triangle that I've been missing. It has seemed so simple for the people that I've tried it on to posture out of it. During the instruction portion, Greg mentioned that he wanted newer students to move the arm over to the other side before completing the triangle but he felt like he didn't need to any longer. Once I started moving it over in practice it seemed to make it more difficult for them to posture.
The other part that we discussed earlier in the week was to treat the beginning of the triangle like a back mount harness grip. Once I cross my feet my hips should be up and my knees should be flexed outwards. Then he added another gem that I've never heard him say before, when putting the shin into the crook of the knee, pull their head toward you a little bit. It makes it much easier to tighten up the triangle! Who knows I may start triangling people now, but I won't hold my breath.
Worked with Zack a little on butterfly guard again and Greg gave us some pointers on maintaining back mount after losing position and hooks.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Adam, Mike, Sam, Conan, Dwight
Jerad: Had a great roll with Jerad. A lot of the same but I felt good about some of my performance, I'm stopping to think a lot less I think. I was able to pass his guard with an x-pass that went pretty well. I stayed on the top for a while and threatened some things that never came to pass. He was able to reverse me and from there we dealt with a lot of half guard. I defended some darces from him, seemed like he really wanted one today. I don't recall what he got me with in the end.
Adam: We flow rolled for a while before actual rolling. He started out in guard and I passed to half for a while. I feel like I did a pretty good job controlling him and squashing his under hook. Eventually he was able to get to his knees and I wasn't able to guillotine. He went for back mount which was odd for him. I don't recall what he tapped me out with either.
I picked his brain a little bit on wrestling and scrambles. I showed him that I was getting stuck when I came up to turtle from quarter guard with an underhook and he showed me that my head was up too high, I should have been pressuring with my head a lot more to get the far leg. This is pretty big, as I've been losing in this spot lately or forced back to half guard.
Mike: I had a lot of success with deep half with him. He said I was pretty close on taking his back with the technique that I've been working on. There were a few times where he was attempting collar chokes and I was able to nullify them by going into deep half. I was able to hit a double unders pass from deep half. He eventually regained guard though and during a scramble we ended up in leg lock position and I tapped from exhaustion, although he would have inevitably got it.
Sam: With her I played some butterfly guard at the start. I swept her but ended up in her half guard. I noticed that she's been working on it lately because she went right to an underhook and started the gordo sweep. I was able to cross face her though and regain composure. I eventually caught her with what I thought was a barratoplata but it turned out to be more of a cutter, I've got to get my forearm across deeper. We rolled again and I ended up in a mounted triangle. Conan came over and helped us figure out an escape plan for the submission.
Conan: I started out strong with Conan, but slowly I became tired and didn't feel like I had anything. He does a good job at squashing and isolating things, even within my own guard. Somehow he took my back, probably from side mount and then started a bow and arrow type choke. I swam my head to the other side and thought I was on my way out, but he had just enough to finish it. We rolled again but I had nothing in the tank. He passed my guard and put an americana on me from side mount.
Dwight: I don't know why I rolled with Dwight because I was already feeling pretty worn down, but what the hell? We went no-gi and we were both so slippery it was hard to pin each other down. The best thing about this roll was I worked a lot of deep half guard. I went for the waiter sweep twice and got it both times. Although I did get stuck for a little while before I was able to sweep. I think I was trying to push away too much instead of opening a whole for him to fall into. We ended up quitting the roll after a while because a submission didn't seem likely for a while and we had been rolling for probably 10 minutes.
Focus of the Week: Half Guard, Maintaining Backmount, Triangle
Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Koshi Guruma, Triangle with punch setup
Partnered and Rolled With: Anthony, Greg, Zack, Josh, Dave, Mike, Robert
I think I've finally found the pieces of the triangle that I've been missing. It has seemed so simple for the people that I've tried it on to posture out of it. During the instruction portion, Greg mentioned that he wanted newer students to move the arm over to the other side before completing the triangle but he felt like he didn't need to any longer. Once I started moving it over in practice it seemed to make it more difficult for them to posture.
The other part that we discussed earlier in the week was to treat the beginning of the triangle like a back mount harness grip. Once I cross my feet my hips should be up and my knees should be flexed outwards. Then he added another gem that I've never heard him say before, when putting the shin into the crook of the knee, pull their head toward you a little bit. It makes it much easier to tighten up the triangle! Who knows I may start triangling people now, but I won't hold my breath.
Worked with Zack a little on butterfly guard again and Greg gave us some pointers on maintaining back mount after losing position and hooks.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Adam, Mike, Sam, Conan, Dwight
Jerad: Had a great roll with Jerad. A lot of the same but I felt good about some of my performance, I'm stopping to think a lot less I think. I was able to pass his guard with an x-pass that went pretty well. I stayed on the top for a while and threatened some things that never came to pass. He was able to reverse me and from there we dealt with a lot of half guard. I defended some darces from him, seemed like he really wanted one today. I don't recall what he got me with in the end.
Adam: We flow rolled for a while before actual rolling. He started out in guard and I passed to half for a while. I feel like I did a pretty good job controlling him and squashing his under hook. Eventually he was able to get to his knees and I wasn't able to guillotine. He went for back mount which was odd for him. I don't recall what he tapped me out with either.
I picked his brain a little bit on wrestling and scrambles. I showed him that I was getting stuck when I came up to turtle from quarter guard with an underhook and he showed me that my head was up too high, I should have been pressuring with my head a lot more to get the far leg. This is pretty big, as I've been losing in this spot lately or forced back to half guard.
Mike: I had a lot of success with deep half with him. He said I was pretty close on taking his back with the technique that I've been working on. There were a few times where he was attempting collar chokes and I was able to nullify them by going into deep half. I was able to hit a double unders pass from deep half. He eventually regained guard though and during a scramble we ended up in leg lock position and I tapped from exhaustion, although he would have inevitably got it.
Sam: With her I played some butterfly guard at the start. I swept her but ended up in her half guard. I noticed that she's been working on it lately because she went right to an underhook and started the gordo sweep. I was able to cross face her though and regain composure. I eventually caught her with what I thought was a barratoplata but it turned out to be more of a cutter, I've got to get my forearm across deeper. We rolled again and I ended up in a mounted triangle. Conan came over and helped us figure out an escape plan for the submission.
Conan: I started out strong with Conan, but slowly I became tired and didn't feel like I had anything. He does a good job at squashing and isolating things, even within my own guard. Somehow he took my back, probably from side mount and then started a bow and arrow type choke. I swam my head to the other side and thought I was on my way out, but he had just enough to finish it. We rolled again but I had nothing in the tank. He passed my guard and put an americana on me from side mount.
Dwight: I don't know why I rolled with Dwight because I was already feeling pretty worn down, but what the hell? We went no-gi and we were both so slippery it was hard to pin each other down. The best thing about this roll was I worked a lot of deep half guard. I went for the waiter sweep twice and got it both times. Although I did get stuck for a little while before I was able to sweep. I think I was trying to push away too much instead of opening a whole for him to fall into. We ended up quitting the roll after a while because a submission didn't seem likely for a while and we had been rolling for probably 10 minutes.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
April 5th 2015 - Weekly Review
Focus of the Week: Deep Half Back Take, Half Guard Knee Shield Arm Drag
Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Kesa Getami Escape to Backmount, Standing Guard Break, Knee Slide Pass
Partnered and Rolled With: Anthony, Jordan, Dave, Bhuvana, Brian (New), Ty, Zack, Robert, Brian (FF)
I was able to attend a rare Thursday evening beginner class and drilling open mat this week. I miss being able to go to the advanced class but I've got to keep my priorities straight.
I felt like I helped quite a few of my fellow students this week which felt nice. The standing guard break is something that I feel confident about. Had some good rolling and I'm seeing a lot of improvement from people in the beginner classes like Bhuvana, Dave, Jordan, and Anthony to name a few that I work with regularly.
Zack has also been my drilling buddy after Tuesday and Friday classes. We both have some things to teach each other. He's been focusing on butterfly guard lately and I've found as I'm relaying things that I like to do in the position I'm figuring some things out for myself as well. An example is how important using your head and it's position is. I remember having a really hard time with my head when I was first learning the position.
Drilling Open Mat: Half Guard Knee Shield to arm drag, Deep Half Position
Partner: Mike (Tumbleweed)
Mike worked on some straight foot lock stuff and it was very impressive. He's definitely ahead of me with foot locks. I drilled the knee shield to arm drag in no gi and it still felt strong without the sleeve grip. We discussed why it worked so well and he seemed impressed with it. The second round I just worked the position and it was pretty difficult with Mike. A big takeaway was that I need to focus on where his knee points and try to go in that direction with my sweeps. I attempted the waiter a few times and it put me in trouble for foot locks. Not cool.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Henry, Jerad, Josh, Bhuvana
I did some drilling between the kids class and open mat with Jerad and Greg. I worked on my back take from deep half and it's coming along. I also worked the knee shield arm drag. Unfortunately Jerad laid his glasses down not far from where we were working. He showed me a back take that he was working on and I base out placing my hand right on top of his glasses and they completely crumbled. Fortunately he said he just mad a visit to the eye doctor and is getting a new pair soon.
Henry: He played guard and I was able to pass it with my over/under. I started working some side control attacks and he left his neck open for the north/south choke. I was in pretty deep right away but he decided to rotate away and try to escape. I locked up a really nice super guillotine. We scrambled to control the leg positions and where are hips were but ultimately I was in too tight. I did okay in our following rolls as well but I wasn't able to match his relentlessness. I played a lot of half guard and noticed that he was mostly escaping by standing and pulling away from me. Something for me to think about and learn how to deal with. He submitted me with an armbar off the baseball bat choke and another choke that was probably a baseball bat.
Jerad: I had some good and not so good moments with Jerad. I was on top for a little while and threatened a pretty good bread cutter. Later he told me he just barely escaped it. I could have done it better and grabbed his collar rather than settling for his shoulder. I was in north/south and he exploited a point when my legs were close together and rolled me over. I feel like I'm doing better with dealing with his knee pass but still need some more work. I'm at least moving a lot more and affecting his balance. He submitted me with armlocks I believe.
Josh: Haven't rolled with him for quite a while. He definitely wanted to play guard because he would grab me as I was sitting and attempt pull me into closed guard. My immediate reaction was to bring my knee up and not allow him to close. My main goal was to focus on going with the flow and taking what he gave me. I played back mount a bit as well as some north/south and side control. I heard him tell Fuji later that our roll was educational for him. I'll take that as the compliment of the day!
Bhuvana: I went over some more omoplata stuff with her and gave her a few extra pointers. Like triangling the legs and how closely related it is to the triangle. She was doing better with the leg position to finish, this may be something viable for her to learn. We rolled a bit and I gave her a hard time from side control mostly. After rolling we went over 3 options for side control escapes that I think she can use and what I use. The basic guard replace, hooking with the far leg and then the under hook. I showed some options for how to put them together and it seemed to trigger some light bulbs.
Greg: Greg said he would drill a few things with me when the mat cleared early. I went over the deep half back attack again and he drilled his crescent kick to leg drag. I gave some resistance for the leg drag that disrupted him a bit but he was able to find a solution by stepping on the other leg. For my back take he said maybe I should try an exercise of getting to the first part with their hips on my chest and just hang out there with some newer guys. That will help me understand the position a little better and learn how to deal with common escapes instead of always rushing to the back attack and potentially losing the position.
So I had said a couple weeks ago that I was going to set aside the deep half for a while but when I talked to Greg about something new to focus on he encouraged me to stick with the position. So I've been playing the Deep Half DVD every night while I'm playing Call of Duty and I've been picking up a few things along the way that I'm taking a piece at a time. I'm pretty happy that I'm sticking with it now because a couple of weeks ago I thought the position was getting pretty stagnant for me.
Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Kesa Getami Escape to Backmount, Standing Guard Break, Knee Slide Pass
Partnered and Rolled With: Anthony, Jordan, Dave, Bhuvana, Brian (New), Ty, Zack, Robert, Brian (FF)
I was able to attend a rare Thursday evening beginner class and drilling open mat this week. I miss being able to go to the advanced class but I've got to keep my priorities straight.
I felt like I helped quite a few of my fellow students this week which felt nice. The standing guard break is something that I feel confident about. Had some good rolling and I'm seeing a lot of improvement from people in the beginner classes like Bhuvana, Dave, Jordan, and Anthony to name a few that I work with regularly.
Zack has also been my drilling buddy after Tuesday and Friday classes. We both have some things to teach each other. He's been focusing on butterfly guard lately and I've found as I'm relaying things that I like to do in the position I'm figuring some things out for myself as well. An example is how important using your head and it's position is. I remember having a really hard time with my head when I was first learning the position.
Drilling Open Mat: Half Guard Knee Shield to arm drag, Deep Half Position
Partner: Mike (Tumbleweed)
Mike worked on some straight foot lock stuff and it was very impressive. He's definitely ahead of me with foot locks. I drilled the knee shield to arm drag in no gi and it still felt strong without the sleeve grip. We discussed why it worked so well and he seemed impressed with it. The second round I just worked the position and it was pretty difficult with Mike. A big takeaway was that I need to focus on where his knee points and try to go in that direction with my sweeps. I attempted the waiter a few times and it put me in trouble for foot locks. Not cool.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Henry, Jerad, Josh, Bhuvana
I did some drilling between the kids class and open mat with Jerad and Greg. I worked on my back take from deep half and it's coming along. I also worked the knee shield arm drag. Unfortunately Jerad laid his glasses down not far from where we were working. He showed me a back take that he was working on and I base out placing my hand right on top of his glasses and they completely crumbled. Fortunately he said he just mad a visit to the eye doctor and is getting a new pair soon.
Henry: He played guard and I was able to pass it with my over/under. I started working some side control attacks and he left his neck open for the north/south choke. I was in pretty deep right away but he decided to rotate away and try to escape. I locked up a really nice super guillotine. We scrambled to control the leg positions and where are hips were but ultimately I was in too tight. I did okay in our following rolls as well but I wasn't able to match his relentlessness. I played a lot of half guard and noticed that he was mostly escaping by standing and pulling away from me. Something for me to think about and learn how to deal with. He submitted me with an armbar off the baseball bat choke and another choke that was probably a baseball bat.
Jerad: I had some good and not so good moments with Jerad. I was on top for a little while and threatened a pretty good bread cutter. Later he told me he just barely escaped it. I could have done it better and grabbed his collar rather than settling for his shoulder. I was in north/south and he exploited a point when my legs were close together and rolled me over. I feel like I'm doing better with dealing with his knee pass but still need some more work. I'm at least moving a lot more and affecting his balance. He submitted me with armlocks I believe.
Josh: Haven't rolled with him for quite a while. He definitely wanted to play guard because he would grab me as I was sitting and attempt pull me into closed guard. My immediate reaction was to bring my knee up and not allow him to close. My main goal was to focus on going with the flow and taking what he gave me. I played back mount a bit as well as some north/south and side control. I heard him tell Fuji later that our roll was educational for him. I'll take that as the compliment of the day!
Bhuvana: I went over some more omoplata stuff with her and gave her a few extra pointers. Like triangling the legs and how closely related it is to the triangle. She was doing better with the leg position to finish, this may be something viable for her to learn. We rolled a bit and I gave her a hard time from side control mostly. After rolling we went over 3 options for side control escapes that I think she can use and what I use. The basic guard replace, hooking with the far leg and then the under hook. I showed some options for how to put them together and it seemed to trigger some light bulbs.
Greg: Greg said he would drill a few things with me when the mat cleared early. I went over the deep half back attack again and he drilled his crescent kick to leg drag. I gave some resistance for the leg drag that disrupted him a bit but he was able to find a solution by stepping on the other leg. For my back take he said maybe I should try an exercise of getting to the first part with their hips on my chest and just hang out there with some newer guys. That will help me understand the position a little better and learn how to deal with common escapes instead of always rushing to the back attack and potentially losing the position.
So I had said a couple weeks ago that I was going to set aside the deep half for a while but when I talked to Greg about something new to focus on he encouraged me to stick with the position. So I've been playing the Deep Half DVD every night while I'm playing Call of Duty and I've been picking up a few things along the way that I'm taking a piece at a time. I'm pretty happy that I'm sticking with it now because a couple of weeks ago I thought the position was getting pretty stagnant for me.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
March 29th 2015 - Weekly Review
Focus of the Week: Half Guard
Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Seio-Nagi, Double Ankle Grab Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep
Partnered and Rolled With: Josh, Ross, Mike (Lawyer), Austin, Zack, Bhuvana, Robert
On Tuesday, Bhuvana and Zack let me drill some half guard stuff before and after class that I picked up from the Ryan Hall DVD. Using the knee shield I grab the sleeve and use it to create an arm drag. I really liked how much control it allowed for and the other possibilities I saw and can't wait until I can try it in free rolling.
For the throw I focused on doing the uppercut motion and keeping a fist instead of grabbing the tricep. For the double ankle sweep we went over grip breaks quite a bit. Greg showed us both a palm strike and the circular thumb wedge thing.
Bhuvana was pretty happy with her progress on the hook sweep. It is very technical with everything having to fall into place. For me I had trouble with my head control and falling to the side. Her biggest problem was rolling to her elbow and stopping herself instead of rolling to the shoulder.
On Friday morning I worked with new guy Josh again. Didn't have to correct too much stuff on the throw. Just had to mention to keep his hip out and feet closer together. He seems to be very serious and expect a lot of himself. I would think maybe his expectations are a little too high at this point.
I felt pretty good about teaching the hook sweep. I'm able to relay this info pretty well recently. My butterfly guard also felt better during the rolling portion of these classes. I'm starting to understand the head position in relation to the underhook.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Andrew, Jerad, Ross, Adam (NP),
Andrew: He and his brother drove in from North Platte for open mat. I was hoping to warm-up a bit with some drilling but he wanted to go right into rolling instead. I treated it more like a flow roll which lead to him passing my guard a couple times, but I did a good job of recovering. I caught him with cross guard omoplata a couple times but each time his arm disappeared into his sleeve. This was a new problem that I may have to discover alternatives for. I fell into the good part of a half ass crucifix position with him, but was unable to finish. I attempted a collar choke but couldn't get it under his chin.
He asked me to work on somethings for when a person is standing and I'm sitting. I told him it's not my strong suit but I showed him the entry to single leg-x and sweeping and switching to full-x. Greg came over and gave a key piece of info that I was missing. I was coming at it from straight on with pulling their leg and kicking into the position, but Greg says he does it more like a butterfly guard sweep and falls to the side. Makes a huge difference!
Jerad: I was able to actually use what Greg just showed me on Jerad. Where I couldn't even move him before I made it to single leg-x and then to full-x and swept. That was the highlight of my day. After that there was a point where I was trying to pass his open guard and he grabbed my sleeve with 2 hands on one side. I felt in a little danger for a triangle. I grabbed his belt and did the Tinguinha belt grab pass controlling his foot and trying to get to north/south. It worked pretty well. Something that didn't quite go my way was when I had him in deep half and was able to sweep, but apparently he slipped on some sweat and put him a little farther away from me than I had anticipated, which gave him enough space to come up into a knee tap. He was able to submit me a couple times with an armbar and a wristlock. I told him he could do a wristlock there so he was a little hesitant to count it. There was a great exchange when I was in bottom half guard and had a great underhook. Many sweeps were attempted and came close to completing but eventually I got lazy and he pulled his foot out.
Ross: I gave him some pointers on defending the kimura when he's in top half guard. Dwight had caught him with one. I showed him how to posture and break free. We rolled a couple times. I caught him with a north/south choke after he defended one. I'm finding that to happen often lately. That I'll go for a NS choke and they'll defend and I'll regroup and start to go to another position but then attack the NS choke right away and be able to finish it.
Adam: I started out passing and playing some side control. He was able to recover guard and I passed again. He escaped side control by going to turtle I tried my best to stay with him but eventually ended up on the side of him in a half ass back mount. I clung on for dear life but it was the wrong thing to do. I ended up in half guard and by pressuring my underhook side down he worked his way to mount. From there I defended a lot and while I almost escaped a few times it never happened and eventually he grinded me out to get an americana to armbar. So the couple of takeaways are I have to figure out contingencies when I have the half back mount in turtle and what to do when my underhook is pinned in half guard.
Bauer: We didn't roll but he worked with me on a side control escape that he's been experimenting with. I also showed him the elbow push and how I deal with the crossface from the bottom. He seemed to appreciate it. We talked about our games and he really wants to focus on drilling the techniques for the blue belt test.
Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Seio-Nagi, Double Ankle Grab Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep
Partnered and Rolled With: Josh, Ross, Mike (Lawyer), Austin, Zack, Bhuvana, Robert
On Tuesday, Bhuvana and Zack let me drill some half guard stuff before and after class that I picked up from the Ryan Hall DVD. Using the knee shield I grab the sleeve and use it to create an arm drag. I really liked how much control it allowed for and the other possibilities I saw and can't wait until I can try it in free rolling.
For the throw I focused on doing the uppercut motion and keeping a fist instead of grabbing the tricep. For the double ankle sweep we went over grip breaks quite a bit. Greg showed us both a palm strike and the circular thumb wedge thing.
Bhuvana was pretty happy with her progress on the hook sweep. It is very technical with everything having to fall into place. For me I had trouble with my head control and falling to the side. Her biggest problem was rolling to her elbow and stopping herself instead of rolling to the shoulder.
On Friday morning I worked with new guy Josh again. Didn't have to correct too much stuff on the throw. Just had to mention to keep his hip out and feet closer together. He seems to be very serious and expect a lot of himself. I would think maybe his expectations are a little too high at this point.
I felt pretty good about teaching the hook sweep. I'm able to relay this info pretty well recently. My butterfly guard also felt better during the rolling portion of these classes. I'm starting to understand the head position in relation to the underhook.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Andrew, Jerad, Ross, Adam (NP),
Andrew: He and his brother drove in from North Platte for open mat. I was hoping to warm-up a bit with some drilling but he wanted to go right into rolling instead. I treated it more like a flow roll which lead to him passing my guard a couple times, but I did a good job of recovering. I caught him with cross guard omoplata a couple times but each time his arm disappeared into his sleeve. This was a new problem that I may have to discover alternatives for. I fell into the good part of a half ass crucifix position with him, but was unable to finish. I attempted a collar choke but couldn't get it under his chin.
He asked me to work on somethings for when a person is standing and I'm sitting. I told him it's not my strong suit but I showed him the entry to single leg-x and sweeping and switching to full-x. Greg came over and gave a key piece of info that I was missing. I was coming at it from straight on with pulling their leg and kicking into the position, but Greg says he does it more like a butterfly guard sweep and falls to the side. Makes a huge difference!
Jerad: I was able to actually use what Greg just showed me on Jerad. Where I couldn't even move him before I made it to single leg-x and then to full-x and swept. That was the highlight of my day. After that there was a point where I was trying to pass his open guard and he grabbed my sleeve with 2 hands on one side. I felt in a little danger for a triangle. I grabbed his belt and did the Tinguinha belt grab pass controlling his foot and trying to get to north/south. It worked pretty well. Something that didn't quite go my way was when I had him in deep half and was able to sweep, but apparently he slipped on some sweat and put him a little farther away from me than I had anticipated, which gave him enough space to come up into a knee tap. He was able to submit me a couple times with an armbar and a wristlock. I told him he could do a wristlock there so he was a little hesitant to count it. There was a great exchange when I was in bottom half guard and had a great underhook. Many sweeps were attempted and came close to completing but eventually I got lazy and he pulled his foot out.
Ross: I gave him some pointers on defending the kimura when he's in top half guard. Dwight had caught him with one. I showed him how to posture and break free. We rolled a couple times. I caught him with a north/south choke after he defended one. I'm finding that to happen often lately. That I'll go for a NS choke and they'll defend and I'll regroup and start to go to another position but then attack the NS choke right away and be able to finish it.
Adam: I started out passing and playing some side control. He was able to recover guard and I passed again. He escaped side control by going to turtle I tried my best to stay with him but eventually ended up on the side of him in a half ass back mount. I clung on for dear life but it was the wrong thing to do. I ended up in half guard and by pressuring my underhook side down he worked his way to mount. From there I defended a lot and while I almost escaped a few times it never happened and eventually he grinded me out to get an americana to armbar. So the couple of takeaways are I have to figure out contingencies when I have the half back mount in turtle and what to do when my underhook is pinned in half guard.
Bauer: We didn't roll but he worked with me on a side control escape that he's been experimenting with. I also showed him the elbow push and how I deal with the crossface from the bottom. He seemed to appreciate it. We talked about our games and he really wants to focus on drilling the techniques for the blue belt test.
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