Theme & Techniques: Defending Knee Slide
Partner: Dave, Morgan
Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well Wednesday and had some work to do, so I skipped class.
Since there were so few of us Conan wanted to work on something a little bit different for the last class of the week. While he taught a couple techniques, it was more conceptual and more of a progression.
First was to hide your arm under your thigh or knee. If you don't make it there put your arm under their knee and don't let it touch the floor. From those positions we would choose to push them forward with your knee or back based on what they do. Finally use the stiff arm to their shoulder or opposite bicep or the outside foot to push on their shoulder or with a knee shield. We did quite a few reps experimenting with each.
Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Dave
I felt very relaxed while working from the bottom. While I still "tried" to not have my guard passed, I was trusting the techniques. I still had to go to turtle or choose an alternate way to recover but all in all a very good learning experience for the concepts covered. From the top, both Morgan and Dave gave me a hard time passing. Granted I was just trying to do the knee slide over and over, and the only times I really did pass were when I switched to a different one.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
September 22nd 2015 - Gi Beginner
Theme & Techniques: Defend Guillotine from Guard, Ezekiel from Mount & Half Guard
Students: Bhuvana, Dave, Mo, Abdul, Ben, Morgan, Tom
Pulled out some different exercises for the warm-up today. We did some partner shrimp walks where you push on your partners legs while they stand over you to assist with the shrimp. Then front shrimps with a partner that I just remembered. We did some back and forth takedown fitins, then some grip fighting from standing.
Some things I tried to focus on while teaching the techniques were:
Rolling: Closed Guard (2 x 2 min), Half Guard (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min)
Rolled With: Tom, Ben
With uneven partners I was able to roll a few times. Rolling felt pretty smooth, always love starting in mount on the top, plus half guard! Both Ben and Tom did a good job at defending.
During the free rolling round I did my best to give Abdul some pointers as he's only been to a couple of classes. Most of my advice had to do with posture and preventing armbars and triangles from guard. After class we talked about figuring out what the desired positions are and knowing when you're in trouble is what he needs to focus on first.
Office Hours Partner: Morgan
After rolling a couple times Morgan asked about how to go about passing guard from knees/butterfly. I went over a couple passes that I like to do and discussed the grips I like to go for. I've been working on dealing with avoiding the armdrag by kind of getting the grips and jumping the pass.
Students: Bhuvana, Dave, Mo, Abdul, Ben, Morgan, Tom
Pulled out some different exercises for the warm-up today. We did some partner shrimp walks where you push on your partners legs while they stand over you to assist with the shrimp. Then front shrimps with a partner that I just remembered. We did some back and forth takedown fitins, then some grip fighting from standing.
Some things I tried to focus on while teaching the techniques were:
- In order to defend the guillotine from guard you have to get ahead of them and stay ahead. Getting to your toes and pushing them flat on their back before they can pull you down and move to the side is going to be key.
- After releasing the choke pull your arms back along with your head and try to get your posture back. Unless you like being armbared.
- For the Ezekiel I've been playing around with where to apply the choke. I'm still not 100% that I have the best way, but I've had a lot of success with going across to the other side rather than just applying the choke to the near side.
- From half guard, have the intention that you are going to pass to mount, make them take away their defense to block your knee to get a good shot at completing the choke.
Rolling: Closed Guard (2 x 2 min), Half Guard (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min)
Rolled With: Tom, Ben
With uneven partners I was able to roll a few times. Rolling felt pretty smooth, always love starting in mount on the top, plus half guard! Both Ben and Tom did a good job at defending.
During the free rolling round I did my best to give Abdul some pointers as he's only been to a couple of classes. Most of my advice had to do with posture and preventing armbars and triangles from guard. After class we talked about figuring out what the desired positions are and knowing when you're in trouble is what he needs to focus on first.
Office Hours Partner: Morgan
After rolling a couple times Morgan asked about how to go about passing guard from knees/butterfly. I went over a couple passes that I like to do and discussed the grips I like to go for. I've been working on dealing with avoiding the armdrag by kind of getting the grips and jumping the pass.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
September 19th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat
Kids Class
Technique: Armbar from Mount, Elbow Escape from Mount
Rolling/Game: Mount Position, Belt Grab Game
I did a different warm-up for the kids on Wednesday and the kids asked me to do it again today. My intention was to mix it up a bit but I'm not sure I want to have to go through it every kids class. Basically it's the old Jiu-Jitsu warm-up of running around the mat, then shuffling, some rolls, push-ups, etc. I add in a couple things of my own with "On your feet, on your back, on stomach" exercise. Then we did a partner falling exercise called the lawn mower, and finished it in a circle with sprawl ball. I'll have to come up with some different stuff to keep it interesting.
Both boys are doing great with the armbar. I guess working on it for so many classes paid off. I saw Jayden show a little more drive while rolling to get on top. Jerad had them play a new game at the end of class where they raced from various positions to see who could get a belt first. Pretty fun and can see how it relates to Jiu-Jitsu.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Jerad, Alejandro
Game Plan: Uchi Mata, Guard Retention
Fuji: My kids left with my parents and Fuji showed up a little early. We spent some time with the uchi mata with a little bit of success until Ray showed up and told us not to work on it the way we were. He advised me to spin more which helped tremendously and had Fuji do a snapdown. Fuji and I rolled again later on and I felt okay about my performance. I defended and recovered from a couple things that I normally don't but I still had trouble with his brabo grip and he eventually worked his way into a choke.
Jerad: We had a great roll as usual. My knee shield half guard was working well, but when he got passed it I had to deal with his hip switch and eventually got passed. I know I've commented on this a lot lately but my ability to make space really shows itself when rolling with him. He's still able to capitalize on my mistakes and find a way to get ahead of me.
Alejandro: We rolled no gi when he first arrived and then gi later on. I was able to move a little more in no gi but I still felt completely outmatched. When he was on bottom I couldn't help but get put into single leg x, I really need to research avoiding this position. In the gi he paid me a compliment on defending his de la riva. I had researched it a bit and asked Greg about basic defense. Pretty much boiled down to stepping and crouching to remove the hook and control the free foot. The only other good thing I did was defend a collar choke by getting to deep half and then using the waiter sweep. But from there I ended up in 50/50 and eventually got ankle lock. Alejandro and Ray both gave some good pointers on the position afterward. One bit of advice was that I should have gotten up when my foot was on the other hip in a type of leg drag position.
Rolling/Game: Mount Position, Belt Grab Game
I did a different warm-up for the kids on Wednesday and the kids asked me to do it again today. My intention was to mix it up a bit but I'm not sure I want to have to go through it every kids class. Basically it's the old Jiu-Jitsu warm-up of running around the mat, then shuffling, some rolls, push-ups, etc. I add in a couple things of my own with "On your feet, on your back, on stomach" exercise. Then we did a partner falling exercise called the lawn mower, and finished it in a circle with sprawl ball. I'll have to come up with some different stuff to keep it interesting.
Both boys are doing great with the armbar. I guess working on it for so many classes paid off. I saw Jayden show a little more drive while rolling to get on top. Jerad had them play a new game at the end of class where they raced from various positions to see who could get a belt first. Pretty fun and can see how it relates to Jiu-Jitsu.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Jerad, Alejandro
Game Plan: Uchi Mata, Guard Retention
Fuji: My kids left with my parents and Fuji showed up a little early. We spent some time with the uchi mata with a little bit of success until Ray showed up and told us not to work on it the way we were. He advised me to spin more which helped tremendously and had Fuji do a snapdown. Fuji and I rolled again later on and I felt okay about my performance. I defended and recovered from a couple things that I normally don't but I still had trouble with his brabo grip and he eventually worked his way into a choke.
Jerad: We had a great roll as usual. My knee shield half guard was working well, but when he got passed it I had to deal with his hip switch and eventually got passed. I know I've commented on this a lot lately but my ability to make space really shows itself when rolling with him. He's still able to capitalize on my mistakes and find a way to get ahead of me.
Alejandro: We rolled no gi when he first arrived and then gi later on. I was able to move a little more in no gi but I still felt completely outmatched. When he was on bottom I couldn't help but get put into single leg x, I really need to research avoiding this position. In the gi he paid me a compliment on defending his de la riva. I had researched it a bit and asked Greg about basic defense. Pretty much boiled down to stepping and crouching to remove the hook and control the free foot. The only other good thing I did was defend a collar choke by getting to deep half and then using the waiter sweep. But from there I ended up in 50/50 and eventually got ankle lock. Alejandro and Ray both gave some good pointers on the position afterward. One bit of advice was that I should have gotten up when my foot was on the other hip in a type of leg drag position.
Friday, September 18, 2015
September 18th 2015 - Gi All Levels
Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Open Guard
Partner: Craig
My good friend Craig, joined us this morning and is trying to make it a regular thing. He and I have trained together for a long time. He was there when I went to my first TKD school and we've been friends since then. In fact I owe him for getting me into Jiu-Jitsu because when I was teaching Hapkido he was interested in ground fighting and we would try our best to learn the positions and stuff. He also came with me to visit Conan's Jiu-Jitsu class for the first time. We still get together pretty often to roll.
Conan took me by surprise and started teaching open guard rather than the triangle. I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me off guard when he started teaching something different. I know that if I were teaching I would want to be able to switch things up a little bit.
The open guard was with one spider and a collar grip. We worked on recovering guard and sweeping with a similar technique to the lasso sweep. Unfortunately Craig has been struggling with a leg injury and it flared up during drilling, so he sat out for the rest of the class. Hopefully he'll be healthy back at LBJJC soon.
Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 4 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Conan, Josh, Dave
Had some good rolling. I felt pretty good about maintaining guard, but wasn't able to attack much from the position. I did hit a couple of sweeps, or was able to come up to my knees to attack a single leg. With Josh, I fell into a triangle but I gave him some trouble with my posture. I showed him some things to do after the roll.
Office Hours Partner: Conan
Rolling with Conan was tough. He kept me at bay with his new arm positioning for guard retention. He's been experimenting with it and it seems very effective. I've had some success with it myself although I don't have as many contingency plans as Conan. I feel like I've learned quite a bit from Conan lately with guard retention and recovery and it's made a difference in my rolling. I'm definitely not on a plateau at the moment.
Partner: Craig
My good friend Craig, joined us this morning and is trying to make it a regular thing. He and I have trained together for a long time. He was there when I went to my first TKD school and we've been friends since then. In fact I owe him for getting me into Jiu-Jitsu because when I was teaching Hapkido he was interested in ground fighting and we would try our best to learn the positions and stuff. He also came with me to visit Conan's Jiu-Jitsu class for the first time. We still get together pretty often to roll.
Conan took me by surprise and started teaching open guard rather than the triangle. I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me off guard when he started teaching something different. I know that if I were teaching I would want to be able to switch things up a little bit.
The open guard was with one spider and a collar grip. We worked on recovering guard and sweeping with a similar technique to the lasso sweep. Unfortunately Craig has been struggling with a leg injury and it flared up during drilling, so he sat out for the rest of the class. Hopefully he'll be healthy back at LBJJC soon.
Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 4 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Conan, Josh, Dave
Had some good rolling. I felt pretty good about maintaining guard, but wasn't able to attack much from the position. I did hit a couple of sweeps, or was able to come up to my knees to attack a single leg. With Josh, I fell into a triangle but I gave him some trouble with my posture. I showed him some things to do after the roll.
Office Hours Partner: Conan
Rolling with Conan was tough. He kept me at bay with his new arm positioning for guard retention. He's been experimenting with it and it seems very effective. I've had some success with it myself although I don't have as many contingency plans as Conan. I feel like I've learned quite a bit from Conan lately with guard retention and recovery and it's made a difference in my rolling. I'm definitely not on a plateau at the moment.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
September 16th 2015 - Gi All Levels
Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Triangle from Closed Guard
Partner: Morgan
After several reps of the triangle the way Greg taught it, I tried a couple other setups. The cross guard to omoplata and then to triangle seems to be the most natural (duh). I also played around with Shawn William's guard but didn't feel strong setting it up. Greg said I needed to put my hands together to keep them from stacking which I didn't think was a part of the position.
Rolling: Closed Guard (6 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Shane, Jeff
Had some good rolling today. Greg had us go with everyone in guard and then a couple free rolls. I was able to complete a triangle today with the failed omoplata setup which made me happy. Also the loop choke appears to be coming back as something useful, it was being blocked consistently so I kind of left it alone for a while but I've hit a few lately and they felt quite smooth.
I found the guys were getting better in guard since we worked on it last week and there was just a little extra grip or going to turtle when they were about to be passed or opening the guard with something in mind. It keeps me on my toes as sometimes I'm not sure how much I should try in the beginner classes.
Office Hours Partner: Jeff
Went over some half guard stuff with Jeff. He was having some posture and darce troubles. I showed him a few things with messing with their leg to turn their hips a bit and talked about getting the underhook. Also some Ryan Hall stuff came up with controlling the inside space and using the knee shield.
Partner: Morgan
After several reps of the triangle the way Greg taught it, I tried a couple other setups. The cross guard to omoplata and then to triangle seems to be the most natural (duh). I also played around with Shawn William's guard but didn't feel strong setting it up. Greg said I needed to put my hands together to keep them from stacking which I didn't think was a part of the position.
Rolling: Closed Guard (6 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Shane, Jeff
Had some good rolling today. Greg had us go with everyone in guard and then a couple free rolls. I was able to complete a triangle today with the failed omoplata setup which made me happy. Also the loop choke appears to be coming back as something useful, it was being blocked consistently so I kind of left it alone for a while but I've hit a few lately and they felt quite smooth.
I found the guys were getting better in guard since we worked on it last week and there was just a little extra grip or going to turtle when they were about to be passed or opening the guard with something in mind. It keeps me on my toes as sometimes I'm not sure how much I should try in the beginner classes.
Office Hours Partner: Jeff
Went over some half guard stuff with Jeff. He was having some posture and darce troubles. I showed him a few things with messing with their leg to turn their hips a bit and talked about getting the underhook. Also some Ryan Hall stuff came up with controlling the inside space and using the knee shield.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
September 15th 2015 - Gi Beginner
Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Triangle from Closed Guard
Partner: Morgan
Worked on the Uchi Mata with Dave before class started. Felt pretty good trying to generate the turn of the body that I wanted. The step back and lift also felt good with the neck hip throw, I focused on trying to catch Morgan as he was coming up.
Triangle from guard is always one of those things that I know in theory but have a hard time completing in rolling. During drilling I can choke someone and make it really tight, but always have a problem closing the triangle and controlling their posture during rolling and usually the omoplata is right there so I will abandon it for that.
Rolling: Guard Position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Ben, Robert
Morgan was able to sweep me today as I defended his triangle attempt I became over extended and went to my back to claim some type of guard. I probably should have gave him the triangle instead in the spirit of learning the technique that we practiced. Ben did fine and stopped me from doing what I wanted to do a couple times. However, with one of the sweeps I felt like he gave up a little too soon. From the top I hit a few omoplata sweeps but it was interesting that I was getting my legs kind of tangled up afterward. I think I just need to sink into side control faster rather than wait there.
Rolled lightly with Robert as he is cutting weight for a fight. I ended up in turtle at one point and did a granby into triangle position. He postured way back though and I didn't even get close to locking it up. Otherwise we went back and forth position wise and it seemed pretty smooth rolling.
Partner: Morgan
Worked on the Uchi Mata with Dave before class started. Felt pretty good trying to generate the turn of the body that I wanted. The step back and lift also felt good with the neck hip throw, I focused on trying to catch Morgan as he was coming up.
Triangle from guard is always one of those things that I know in theory but have a hard time completing in rolling. During drilling I can choke someone and make it really tight, but always have a problem closing the triangle and controlling their posture during rolling and usually the omoplata is right there so I will abandon it for that.
Rolling: Guard Position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Morgan, Ben, Robert
Morgan was able to sweep me today as I defended his triangle attempt I became over extended and went to my back to claim some type of guard. I probably should have gave him the triangle instead in the spirit of learning the technique that we practiced. Ben did fine and stopped me from doing what I wanted to do a couple times. However, with one of the sweeps I felt like he gave up a little too soon. From the top I hit a few omoplata sweeps but it was interesting that I was getting my legs kind of tangled up afterward. I think I just need to sink into side control faster rather than wait there.
Rolled lightly with Robert as he is cutting weight for a fight. I ended up in turtle at one point and did a granby into triangle position. He postured way back though and I didn't even get close to locking it up. Otherwise we went back and forth position wise and it seemed pretty smooth rolling.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
September 12th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat
Kids Class
Technique: Armbar from mount, Elbow Escape from Mount
Rolling/Game: Mount Position
Kid's have been doing great in class lately. There's still the occasional tickling or what not and Jayden is still having trouble getting motivated for the warm-up but he'll have moments of doing well. They both did well with the armbar these past weeks. The elbow escape was a little more difficult because they wouldn't always trust their shrimp.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Robert, Baeur, Gina, Henry, Alejandro, Mo, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Guard Retention, Controlling the pace
Jerad: Rolls with him have been a blast lately. I feel like I'm challenged technically more than physically if that makes sense. I've probably said this too much already but little things like some extra hip escapes and moving a little more have been making a big difference.
Robert: He's preparing for a fight so we went no gi. Rolls with him are the opposite of Jerad. They are really physical and fast paced but pretty straight forward technical-wise. There's a lot of half guard going back and forth, many guillotine attempts, and some north/south.
Bauer: Had a little back and forth with half guard. I spent some time in mount and tried to setup the spiral armbar, but I went too fast and tried to lay down when I should have stayed up. I went to grab the leg but it was too late, I really want to get this technique down. Spent some time in north/south after that.
Gina: Our roll didn't last long, but I did feel like she had improved since our last roll. She had me in mount and I escaped to quarter and then went for deep half but it affected an existing hip in the process. So we quit after that, hopefully she's okay.
Henry: I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and try to fight smart. He mentioned at one point that I was better at preventing his knee slide. I had to work really hard to get out of an armbar attempt from side mount that he's gotten pretty good at setting up. I was able to time it just right. Somehow I ended up in mount in the end.
Alejandro: I didn't feel like I did anything well against him today. There was one point where I was in seated guard and had his sleeve between his legs, but he pulled it out before I could do anything with it. His grip control is really amazing and something I need to watch him do more. He went over his version of over/under pass with me which was informative. He never goes to his knees with it, he get's his head around the front of their thigh to avoid the crossface problem, then to finish he'll sometimes for their legs back to center to kind of end up in a leg drag position. Not sure how much I'm going to change my way, but it will be good to experiment.
Mo: I called Mo over to work on some deep half guard stuff. He's pretty new to the position but seemed to catch on to several of the tips that I gave from knee shield to underhook, to hiding the inside hand and keeping posture. Hopefully it was informative. We rolled for a bit and we ended up in weird back mountish half guard position. He ended up catching me with a kimura/straight armlock that surprised me.
Bhuvana: She just wanted to work on a couple things. I showed her the butterfly guard sweep that I've had success with lately. We also did some NS choke troubleshooting as people have been escaping it lately.
Technique: Armbar from mount, Elbow Escape from Mount
Rolling/Game: Mount Position
Kid's have been doing great in class lately. There's still the occasional tickling or what not and Jayden is still having trouble getting motivated for the warm-up but he'll have moments of doing well. They both did well with the armbar these past weeks. The elbow escape was a little more difficult because they wouldn't always trust their shrimp.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Robert, Baeur, Gina, Henry, Alejandro, Mo, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Guard Retention, Controlling the pace
Jerad: Rolls with him have been a blast lately. I feel like I'm challenged technically more than physically if that makes sense. I've probably said this too much already but little things like some extra hip escapes and moving a little more have been making a big difference.
Robert: He's preparing for a fight so we went no gi. Rolls with him are the opposite of Jerad. They are really physical and fast paced but pretty straight forward technical-wise. There's a lot of half guard going back and forth, many guillotine attempts, and some north/south.
Bauer: Had a little back and forth with half guard. I spent some time in mount and tried to setup the spiral armbar, but I went too fast and tried to lay down when I should have stayed up. I went to grab the leg but it was too late, I really want to get this technique down. Spent some time in north/south after that.
Gina: Our roll didn't last long, but I did feel like she had improved since our last roll. She had me in mount and I escaped to quarter and then went for deep half but it affected an existing hip in the process. So we quit after that, hopefully she's okay.
Henry: I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and try to fight smart. He mentioned at one point that I was better at preventing his knee slide. I had to work really hard to get out of an armbar attempt from side mount that he's gotten pretty good at setting up. I was able to time it just right. Somehow I ended up in mount in the end.
Alejandro: I didn't feel like I did anything well against him today. There was one point where I was in seated guard and had his sleeve between his legs, but he pulled it out before I could do anything with it. His grip control is really amazing and something I need to watch him do more. He went over his version of over/under pass with me which was informative. He never goes to his knees with it, he get's his head around the front of their thigh to avoid the crossface problem, then to finish he'll sometimes for their legs back to center to kind of end up in a leg drag position. Not sure how much I'm going to change my way, but it will be good to experiment.
Mo: I called Mo over to work on some deep half guard stuff. He's pretty new to the position but seemed to catch on to several of the tips that I gave from knee shield to underhook, to hiding the inside hand and keeping posture. Hopefully it was informative. We rolled for a bit and we ended up in weird back mountish half guard position. He ended up catching me with a kimura/straight armlock that surprised me.
Bhuvana: She just wanted to work on a couple things. I showed her the butterfly guard sweep that I've had success with lately. We also did some NS choke troubleshooting as people have been escaping it lately.
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