Saturday, December 28, 2013

December 28th 2013 - Open Mat

Kids Class

My lovely wife's parents were in town for Christmas and were able to come to watch our kids do some Jiu-Jitsu.  Class went as usual with Jerad and Conan teaching.  As usual the kids enjoyed foot tag and blob tag.  They had a little bit of an off day with their shrimping and animal walks, I'm not sure how to motivate them that these are the important things.  They also worked on shooting for the double leg, which turned out pretty well.  They even completed the takedown today.

Open Mat

Since I had a family get together at 1:00, I went to class early and Jerad was the only one there to roll with.  He got the better of me most of the time with some one legged x and his ability to pass my guard.  He finished me with a mounted triangle and an armbar.  During one of our rolls I had a good volley of submissions and ended up attempting a north/south choke, then went to kimura, and finally an armbar.  Something like that doesn't happen often with Jerad.

I spent the majority of my roll with Fuji in his mount and finally side control.  I feel like I defend the submissions well but I don't feel like I have an escape plan.  I may need some positive thinking, but it seems like Fuji has my number and I'm not making much ground against him.

It's not often that I get to roll with Gina, predominantly because we attend different classes.  It's quite a different experience rolling with her.  There are things that she can get out of that I give others a hard time with.  My main objective was to take her back, but for some reason she was always able to twist out of it even when I got to the full position with hooks in.  She did make the mistake of telling me that arm triangle was her kryptonite recently so I used that information against her. 

Mike and I had a great long roll.  I was in side control for a lot of the time and I had to stick close to him.  I transitioned from north/south choke to guillotine and then kimura.  I attempted to take his back but he defended his collar well and didn't allow me to get any hooks in.  I screwed up though and he ended up in my guard and was able to escape the choke.  From there he passed my open guard quite easily and after some top work submitted me with a gi choke.  I'm just happy that I got to train this week.

Monday, December 23, 2013

December 23rd 2013 - Gi (Forearms-a-burnin)

Theme & Techniques: Weird Lasso Sweep Type thing with kimura and roll over variation

As I entered the school, Conan said that he heard I was suffering from Jiu-Jitsu withdrawal.  Ain't that the truth.  I'm assuming my wife made mention of this earlier in the kid's class.  With being sick and then having a limited holiday schedule for the next two weeks I'm going to be going crazy without my BJJ fix.  Luckily I was able to attend the beginner class tonight.

Conan started off class saying that as a Christmas present we'd work on something a little more advanced in the beginners class.  We started out the sweep by moving to a shin spider guard then kicking one leg through and going over to the opposite armpit and kicking through all the way to the knee.  Keep holding on to their sleeves and then kicking them forward.  If they resisted and moved in the kimura was there, if they sprawled back you just rolled the opposite direction.  It's difficult to describe so I won't go into more detail.  It seemed to work well and I may try it while rolling.  I ended up working with Ross and he did well for only having done a couple classes so far.

Rolling: Up/Down/Out Guard Position, Free Rolling

Had a lot of success in Up/Down/Out but I mostly went up against the new guys.  My pass of choice for the evening was Toreando while I used a couple of different sweeps.  The scissor has been my stand-by lately while the omoplata has not been bearing any fruit.  Mike and I discussed it after class, and it's just natural that the school as a group are learning and responding to a technique that I was good at for a while.  I also hit the spider to x-guard to technical stand-up sweep.  I think this is the next thing to be added to my a game as it's been high percentage lately.

Conan stayed around after class and let us roll since this would be the last until Saturday.  I rolled with Brian first who's kids attend class with my boys.  I guess I'll refer to him as glasses Brian not to be confused with Air Force Brian.  This is the first time I rolled with him and he asked me what we were doing.  The question kind of confused me, but I guess if he's only ever been in beginner class he may never have free rolled.  That being said he did fine for a beginner.  His posture and base were good but I just have several more tricks up my sleeve than he does for now.

I finished out the evening with Wess.  We haven't rolled since classes at Roseberry's so I was interested to see how he's progressed.  Soon into our first roll I already started to feel a forearm burn.  I did my best to keep top position and spent some time in back mount.  His hand fighting was very good and frustrating which just made my forearms and fingers more fatigued.  During our last roll I almost felt like asking to quit because my arms had nothing left.  I had the best success with collar chokes as every time I tried to do an armbar he was good at keeping them tight to his body.  If I were to give him any advice, it would be to focus on standing guard passes and using the pant grabs to setup a pass.

Friday, December 20, 2013

December 20th 2013 - Gi

Theme & Techniques: Drilling Omoplata, Side Control Escape

I was the only one to attend this morning which was okay since I'm getting over a cold.  I did a couple variations on the omoplata besides the submission like the sweep and then the armbar we worked on a few weeks ago.  I had a little trouble keeping it in the armpit but only because I thought holding the elbow was more important.  I worked on the stiff arm side control escape which I have seen some success with lately.  The major improvement I needed was to turn on my side more in the beginning.  Greg worked on a back take from turtle that he learned from Marcelo Garcia's website that would be pretty cool to pull off.

Rolling: Free Rolling

We had a couple of good rolls where I totally dominated and didn't allow him any position that he wanted or to establish a decent guard.  I then pulled off a slick trick by floating from half guard into mounting him followed by a gift wrap to backmount.  I submitted him with with an RNC and then later on a straight ankle lock that I've been working on.  And, that would all be awesome if it was what I did and not what Greg did to me.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

December 17th 2013 - Gi (Coworker)

Theme & Techniques: Self Defense against standing RNC, Mount Upa Escape & Cross Collar Choke

My coworker Bhuvana decided to try out a class yesterday.  She was hesitant for a variety of reasons but seemed to enjoy the class nonetheless.  She took a couple of hard falls with the first throw and commented that her insides were a little shook up. I ended up being her partner for the rest of the class.  There were a few times where I had to remind her to relax because she was trying to muscle the technique.  In the end, Bhuvana said that she had fun and left wanting more.

Rolling: Mount Position, Free Rolling

Somehow amazingly I was able to escape Greg's mount and regain guard.  The second time he ended up taking my back with a gift wrap.  Jordan and I rolled after class for a little while.  I had some success with the spider guard to x-guard that Greg often does to me.  I was also able to setup the mounted triangle that I turned into an armbar. 

Apparently everyone that competed did well at the tournament this past Saturday.  I haven't got too much information about what happened but a lot of medals were brought home.

I've been sick as a dog since yesterday and had to miss the evening class.  Hopefully I'm well enough for tomorrow's class.

Friday, December 13, 2013

December 13th 2013 - Gi (Throat Punch)

Theme & Techniques: Takedown fit-ins, Mount Hip Escape, Drill Comp Stuff

I was still a little sore from yesterday and from the weights lifted on Wednesday.  I forgot to mention that Bauer hooked me up with a basic routine to help me get started with lifting.  My goals are to improve my back and knee strength and just generally improve BJJ.  He's having me do some body weight squats, dead lifts, bent over rows, as well as pull-ups and push-ups.  I've only done it once so far but I liked it, hopefully a good addition to my current workout schedule.  I'm taking special care to make sure I'm improving myself instead of raising the chance for injury.


The mount escape was going fine until Brian accidentally elbowed me in the throat as he was practicing the escape.  It didn't hurt as bad as it could of, but it came out of nowhere and surprised me.  We continued and I didn't think much more about it.

Brian reacted a little differently than I'm used to with the omoplata from cross guard.  It made it difficult to do the omoplata but the pendulum sweep was right there.  There were a couple of times I was able to transition to the right thing to do when he reacted differently whether it be finishing the sub, or him rolling over into side mount, or having to straighten out and do the sweep.  I was trying some of the different things Adam was doing with the over/under pass but Greg convinced me to keep doing it the way I have been.

Rolling: Slow and Free Rolling

We did some slow rolling, which was new to Brian but he got along fine.  We may have been a little stiff and had too many pauses between our turns. 

After class I rolled with Greg and had a great time.  He obviously kicked my ass but I did some pretty good things.  Deep half guard presented itself a couple of times and I kept myself out of submissions a few times.  It ended with a kimura that he set up from north/south.  One of the most noticeable problems I have with his style is the way he uses his feet and shins to prevent me from regaining half guard.

On the way to work I kept thinking that my throat was hurting.  I was trying to figure out if I was getting sick, but then I recalled the elbow to the throat that Brian delivered earlier.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

December 12th 2013 - No Gi

Theme & Techniques: Footlock Defense for straight ankle and heel hook

I've been hoping for a footlock class for a while and Greg thought it would be a good time to refresh defenses before the tournament.  Things to remember included: don't try to spin out of a straight ankle; don't move in straight on a heel hook; get rid of their foot on your hip.  Adam and I were both a little tentative because we don't like having ankle locks done to us.  Will was our third partner and he helped me out a couple times when I wasn't getting up to my knees properly.

Rolling: Takedown sparring, free rolling

The guys competing on Saturday drilled and did more safe activities to be fresh for the tournament.  Greg, Adam, Jordan, and myself did some resistance training.  During standup I tried to setup the Russian tie but rightly so it wasn't happening with Adam or Greg.  I had a little more success with Jordan but still probably over-thought my game too much. 

During free rolling Adam and I had quite the half guard battle that went back and forth.  I may need to take Fuji's advice from last Saturday and be a little more mean with my crossfaces and pressure.  I executed my game pretty well with Jordan and was able to maintain back mount for a while using a gift wrap entry.  Greg schooled me pretty well, however I was not falling into some of the traps that he was setting for me.  There were a couple of pauses where I knew he was expecting me to use a deep underhook so he could setup his monoplata armbar whatsit.  I guess I'm unconsciously picking up things not to do with Greg, so I got that going for me.  He did end up submitting me with an RNC from back mount. 


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

December 10th 2013 - Gi Noon & Evening (Fingers had it Rough)

Noon
Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Guard - Hip Bump sweep & Kimura

Attendance is starting to pick up at the Tuesday noon class; there was 5 of us plus Greg.  Ross who was on his second class, Bearded Josh, Jordan, Air Force Brian, and me.  I ended up working with Josh due to matching pretty closely size wise.  He kept questioning if he was doing the hip bump correctly, maybe because it felt too easy.  Of course that technique heavily relies on timing and the other person's posture to be effective in rolling.  Hard to simulate during drilling.  Greg and I both tried to assure him it was correct

The kimura from guard has always been difficult to setup for me.  I think it's because where you put your arms is so important for the top guy that in the words of Kurt Osiander if you get put into a kimura from guard, "you fucked up a long time ago, bro!"

Rolling: Guard Position, Shark Tank for Brian

This was the start of my finger pain.  I did so much gi gripping today that they feel like they were rubbed with sand paper.  Went with Josh and the question of how do I roll with new people ran through my head.  He hasn't gotten the basics down of grips and posture so I do my best to make my techniques as smooth as possible using the most leverage.  Eventually I give him some pointers describing what I'm trying to do and how he can defend it.  Greg was next and I feel like I did some good things.  I had a few sweep attempts that I chained together but it wasn't enough to bring him down.

To give Brian some extra tournament prep, Greg had Jordan and I take turns rolling with him under tournament rules for 4 rounds of 5 minutes.  Like I always say, he's doing great for how new he is to BJJ.  We put him through the ringer and he came out pretty well.  I was able to setup the farside armbar from side control twice and told him afterwards to not put his arm on that side of my neck. 

Evening
Theme & Techniques: Competition prep reps

Brian returned for the evening class for more prep.  Class was run similar to the Saturday competition class, which I'll be sad to see go.  We did 4 minute rounds of working on our guard technique (omoplata) guard pass (over/under), and our #3 (Arm Drag to Single Leg).  I worked with Adam on all of these and he helped me out quite a bit with the over/under pass.  He does a few things slightly different that I'm going to start incorporating into this technique.

Rolling: 8 Minute Drill, Tournament rules matches

I worked with Adam again for the 8 minute drill and I'm happy with my performance.  I was able to escape every position except side mount, he is a boss at that position.  There were a few times that I could feel his strength and size being a helpful factor in him escaping. 

I did matches against Adam, Brian, and Moe.  Between the matches Greg had the guys competing do some calisthenics to make rolling a little more difficult.  I felt bad just watching them, but not too bad.  I kept Adam in guard for quite a while but eventually he got ahead of me and I remained in side control for the rest of the round. Brian almost made the same mistake as earlier and I reminded him of the far side arm bar.  Later on somehow the kimura from guard presented itself disproving my earlier assumption that I suck at setting it up.  Moe pulled guard as soon as he got grips but he wasn't able to lock it up and fell pretty hard on the mat.  It probably looked like I slammed him.  I took it easy on him due to him being worn out and made him work to escape my mount when he wanted to give up.