February 12th 2016 - Gi All Levels (Impromptu Lab)

Theme & Techniques: Step Over Pass
Partner: Conan, Zac

It was just myself, Conan, and Zac today so we made it more of a Jiu-Jitsu lab and worked on a pass that Conan has been using lately.  It's kind of like the hip switch guard pass but triggered off of a knee slide pass instead. For reference watch at about the 3:50 mark of the video below.  It seemed a bit out of my comfort zone as it dealt with creating much more space between me and my opponent than I'm used to.  All in all it seemed like our normal Monday morning where we've been getting together to do this type of thing.  Message me or Conan if you're interested. 

Rolling: 5 min rounds with half guard, side control and free rolling

I had a very difficult time trying this during rolling.  Trying to set this up with my foot planted off to the side presented the most challenges for me.  I kept getting pulled into deep half or some type of bad half guard.  It was a little discouraging but you got to fail if you ever want to learn anything new.  I was also having trouble knowing where to put my hands at any given moment. 

Zac was challenging himself by starting on the bottom of side control with each roll.  So I got to attack quite a bit in rolls with him.  Conan gave him some pointers on controlling the top person and not letting them setup their submissions.  Later Zac said he was impressed with my neon belly and asked if we could work on that on Monday.  I look forward to that. 

When I rolled with Conan I think he assumed I was having a bad day because I was getting killed trying to complete this pass over and over again.  When we started free rolling I came out of the gate ready to go and he kind of let me pass his guard a bit.  I wasn't able to submit him but I had a better time than I usually do. 

The other day Conan seemed a bit concerned about my emotional state after I wrote that I was put in a bad mood after he destroyed me one morning.  One of the problems with writing this blog is walking the line of what to share.  I share what I'm working on, what I'm good and bad at, what frustrates me, etc.  While trying to stay away from bragging and talking about the submissions that I get I also try to stay away from too much self deprecation and self pity.  So I'm always concerned about how people will take being mentioned in here and if I offend them.  It honestly used to be easier to write this blog when I sucked really bad.  I'm in a pretty good place right now where I feel like I'm consistently progressing at a good pace and it's good to be reminded that I still have a long way to go.

February 10th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Seoi Nage, Double Ankle Grab Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep, Butterfly Guard Pass
Students: Mike A, Chris, Morgan, Ben, Tom, Cassey

Welcome back to Chris!  Good to see him back after some time off.  He was the first person that I competed against in my first tournament.  Also, he's still a beast and I hate him for it.

I didn't feel the best about my instruction today.  I said everything I needed to but I felt like it wasn't concise enough and I kept going back and remembering details.  I may need to review the techniques before class and go through in my head how I'm going to teach them so the lesson seems cogent.  I repeated the warm-up exercises from last week with combination throws, grip fighting and pummeling.  Some tips on this week's techniques:

• Seoi Nage: The biggest issue I saw was allowing too much space when starting to lean over for the throw.  I try to connect their shoulder to the back of my shoulder so when I lean over they come with me.
• Double Ankle Sweep: Mike made a very good point when he said it should be called double heel sweep instead, the lower you grab on their feet the better.  Also as you begin to pass sit on their leg and move your weight to that knee and allow as little space as possible.
• Hook Sweep: Posture is so important in this sweep.  Keeping yours and breaking theirs.  Keeping your head up and having your underhook elbow high really goes a long way.  I still keep in mind what Greg told me about hanging off of the opponent to break their posture.

I showed the butterfly guard pass Saolo Ribero shows in the Jiu-Jitsu University book.  I've had some success with it and I thought it would be a good addition to this class.  It's for when the guard player doesn't do the underhook well and you can put your hand on the floor then go for a guillotine grip.  Get to your feet and get over their knee to side control.

Rolling: Butterfly Up/Down/Out, Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Everyone

Had quite a battle with Chris and while I did a little better against him than I did before he left he doesn't seem to have lost much of a step.  He was even able to put me into x-guard and passed my guard once.  With Mike I've been ending up in reverse half guard a lot and he's able to control my pants enough to free his leg.  I'll have to figure this out.

I sat out while everyone else free rolled and coached where I could.  Probably the highlight was witnessing Ben get a deep half guard sweep.

Office Hours Partner: Mike, Tom

I showed the youtube video below that has a few tournament clips of Marcelo doing a farside armbar and kind of sitting to his side.  We played around with it a bit and thought it was pretty cool.  I may look into it more and ask Greg what he thinks about it.

Mike has been drilling a spider guard sweep that seems to be coming along very well for him.  I drilled some deep half and switched between waiter sweep and taking the back.  I've been feeling pretty good with the position and not getting as worn out trying to do techniques like I was before.  I do need to nail down the back take a little more.

February 9th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Kimura Setups
Partner: Robert

The main technique that Mike wanted to teach was the front roll into kimura setup, but he thought it better to work some basic setups first for the newer guys.  The takeaway for me today was if you are working on finishing the sub you hold their elbow tight to your chest, but if you are using the kimura to move then you want to straighten your arms.  This is a rule that I can embrace for now.  We also did a pretty brutal crossface trying to reach for their armpit a couple times I wanted to tap to Robert's.

Attempting the front roll with the kimura was not as difficult as I thought.  There is some looseness to it in that you connect the kimura as you roll and then determine if you take the back or come up for the kimura. 

Rolling: Butterfly Guard (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Robert, Mike, Harvey

Working with Robert in butterfly guard was challenging and fun.  We pretty much stalemated each other, but had many positional changes but no sweeps or guard passes completed.

Mike and I had a good roll ending as it usually does lately with him ankle locking me.  I felt a little good about my defenses but it was inevitable from 50/50.  Just got to keep working them.  I think I may need to refresh the basic leg attacks as I'm still trying to piece together when I should be defending and when I should be attacking or doing both at the same time.  When I was trying to pass the guard I was consciously thinking of my elbow placement so that is coming along.

I had some fun rolling with Harvey and tried to go with the flow but maintain a dominant position at all times.  There were a few submissions that I may have been able to get but I felt like transitioning between positions instead and not forcing anything.  To his credit he was able to make me reposition a couple of times and he was able to come up into my guard from back mount. 

Office Hours Partner: Tom, Mike

I wanted to drill the spiral armbar a bit and Mike gave me some pointers on it.  I'm still working on the position and I think I just need to be more patient and not try to force the armbar.  We rolled for a while after that and he has gotten really good at defending my attacks.  He even commented that he feels better about the basics since attending the beginner/all level classes.  He asked about granby from turtle after and Mike complimented me on how well I do with them.  I didn't know that I was known for that but the granby does work for me quite often. 

February 6th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: O-soto Gari and Counter
Rolling/Game: Stand up Sparring, Free Rolling

Decent sized kids class today. Jerad and Conan did a great job teaching it.  My boys did well with the throw, the counter took a little explaining though.

The kids were  divided by size to do the standup sparring.  I saw quite a few good throw and takedown attempts. They're fun to watch because it seems like they have less fear of failing.

Open Mat
Rolled With: David, Andy, Jerad, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Spiral armbar, maintaining inside space

David: Very long and tough roll to start out the day.  I felt like I did a pretty good job attacking but he was very good at defending. I ended up with burning forearms and worn out fingers from trying collar and north south chokes.  I attempted to setup the spiral armbar a few times but wasn't able to turn the corner on it.

Andy: If I had to give him one criticism it's that he relies on baseball bat choke from the bottom too much.  He's good at them and they definitely work, but I feel like it's too high risk high reward for my blood.  Hopefully that's not too blunt.  Of course it's also good to have someone good at something like this so people get experience defending it.

Jerad: Same as usual. I feel like I hit a brick wall attempting what I'm good at with him. I may need to be a little more unpredictable moving forward. I did have one good sweep from deep half using the lapel to wrap his leg.

Bhuvana: She just wanted to drill a few things like north/south and baseball bat chokes.  I had to correct a few things but in the end she was able to do them pretty well.

February 5th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Against Wall Defense, Kneeling Guard Break, Double Under Pass, Defending the Double Under Pass
Students: Josh J, Anthony, Ty

Pretty much repeated the teaching portion of class from yesterday.  So I got to share the double under defenses with a new group.  I guess I wasn't the only one because Josh said that Jerad went over some of it the night before as well.

Rolling: Guard (4 x 3 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Everyone

I played pretty light today and tried to work technique methodically, but also gave the other guys a chance to try to set things up.  From the bottom I tried a little spider guard and I'm having some trouble being smooth with it or setting things up.  At the most I'm able to keep people from passing until I can transition to closed or butterfly guard.  I'm not up to doing the single leg-x transitions that are done to me so often.  I also did some cross guard and was able to pull off the back roll sweep very smoothly. 

Office Hours Partner: Josh

I worked with Josh a bit on the cross guard and holding the thigh to your head so they can't step over.  I told him to put his ear on his leg like he's listening for the ocean.  Then extend your body and sweep.  It seemed to make sense and I remember dealing with this problem a lot when I first started the cross guard. 

I worked on getting the spiral armbar and he gave me some resistance.  I was having trouble with trusting my posture from here to get into position so I think this helped.  I just have to keep walking forward and raise up high to keep affecting the elbow.  It seems counter intuitive but it's the way it has to be done to get there.

February 4rd 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Against Wall Defense, Kneeling Guard Break, Double Under Pass, Defending the Double Under Pass
Students: Ben, Tim, Megan, Bhuvana

Did some of those extra warm-up things with some combination fitins, some grip fighting, and fighting for the clinch.  Everyone seemed to understand the kneeling guard break and double unders pretty well so I took some time to show the defenses against the double unders.  The defenses that I showed were:

• At the beginning of the double unders spread your legs and bring the inside of your knees around their elbows.  Use your hips to make your legs heavier and you may have to shoulder walk to prevent being stacked.  Ultimately if you can get your feet to butterfly hooks you can look for the submission.
• The 2nd defense is against a bad double under pass where they attempt to throw your leg across.  From here keep your hips up like you're doing half of a back roll.  Once the foot of the leg they pushed over touches the floor kick back like a granby roll to regain guard.
• The elbow push was the last defense and it was when they have you stacked and are reaching for your collar.  Get your hand on their sleeve over their elbow and keep them from hiding their elbow.  As they turn into the pass stiff arm them and scoot out to regain guard.

Rolling: Guard (2 x 2 min)
Rolled With: Megan

Megan is still pretty new so I talked her through a few things from the top and bottom.  Just basic things like grip fighting and off balancing.  Or I'd get close to completing the pass and then stop and rewind and show her what she could have done to prevent it.

Office Hours Partner: Ben

Had a couple of good rolls with Ben.  He is defending my attacks better and better all the time.  After we rolled he gave me a few compliments and said that I roll different than most of the other people that he rolls with (he meant it in a good way).  We talked a bit about how knee on belly isn't used much by the white belts and we were thinking it may be because it's not in the beginner curriculum that much if at all.  We also talked about mount and how I think it has a larger learning curve than side mount.  I'm going to ask Greg about knee on belly and where it falls into the overall curriculum. 

February 3rd 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Against Wall Defense, Kneeling Guard Break, Double Under Pass
Partner: Mike

When I arrived Greg and Mike were getting in some last minute drilling before Greg took off for California.  They were working on some type of toe hold with a calf slicer on the other leg.  As I was entering the changing room I heard Mike say something like "This renders all of the Jiu-Jitsu that I know useless."  Wow that's quite a leg lock and something I need to learn.

While drilling techniques Mike and I messed around with some kicks and stuff like that.  It felt kind of good to dust off some of those techniques that I haven't done in a while.  Maybe I'll find some time to start hitting the punching bag at home and freshen up my skills.

Some tips from today's techniques:

• Guillotine Defense: Posture is very important throughout this technique.  Once you are able to get your posture and start working for the neck crank don't lose your posture then because they can get the guillotine right back.
• Kneeling Guard Break to Double Under Pass: It seemed like we were overemphasizing the use of the elbow in the guard break.  It serves 2 purposes, the hand holds their hips down and the elbow prevents the triangle.  I usually think of that arm as the triangle shield when doing single or double under passes.

Rolling: Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Mike, Tim

I'm going to have to keep an eye on Tim because he's doing pretty well for a new guy.  It's a combination of being explosive, having some strength, and decent timing.  I really had to have some patience and using persistent deliberate technique and let him struggle a little bit and not give him any space to exploit.  From the bottom I attempted a scissor sweep a couple times but it was strange how he was able to twist a bit to make it less effective.  Switching to 2 on 1 control kept him at bay. 

Office Hours Partner: Mike

Rolling with Mike during class was fun as usual.  When we started from the knees I was being very careful to keep my elbows close and not reach out.  I even mentioned that while shoveling snow I was thinking about my elbows and training myself to keep them in close.  It's something I'll have to keep in mind for a while because it's still not second nature.  I played a little de la riva with him and did okay.  One point that he made was that I needed to prioritize breaking his grip on my free leg.  Otherwise we ended up in a leg battle and he caught me with a toe hold. 

We drilled a little bit after class and I worked on some cross guard with a little resistance.  We talked about using wristlocks when the omoplata got loose and also worked some collar chokes from my new favorite position of omoplata crucifix. 

I asked him if he had any tips for dealing with bigger guys, since he does it so often.  He mentioned having patience and keeping the inside position as being the main things.  For instance your frame in half guard using the diamond.  He also uses sitting up in butterfly guard as the place that he feels the safest and once he starts to get pushed down he tries to find a way back there.  He said the reason that I may get overwhelmed is because I think I should be doing something so I try to force something.  Definitely something to contemplate.