Theme & Techniques: Single Over Pass/Knee Over from Combat Base, Same Pass as Counter to Spider Guard
Partner: Will
Before class I asked Henry if he'd like to slow roll and he obliged. We both flowed through some good stuff. I don't know about him but there were a few times that I had to remind myself not to take it seriously and just be chill.
This was a good technique to work on. At first I thought it was basic and I wouldn't get much out of it, but there were some things to glean from it. A lot of it is similar to the over under pass that I use in that we loaded their leg onto our shoulder and then slide our knee over their thigh to staple it down. From there the person on the bottom has their flexibility put to the test as the top person puts pressure down and back steps followed by side control.
The Counter to spider guard was awesome. Spider guard has been tough for me to deal with lately and I get stuck in it often lately unable to remove one spider hook to complete a pass. First you place your knee on their thigh which should allow you to circle your hand under to grab their pants. Then step up with a hip bump to remove the other hook. This puts their leg into the perfect position to go right into the pass above. It was very slick.
Rolling: King of the Mat Guard Positions
Rolled With: Anthony, Mike, Jerad, Greg, Adam, Will, Fuji, Gina, Henry
In my first roll with Anthony, I setup the omoplata fairly quickly and went for the sweep. I felt a twinge in my bicep femoris muscle (according to self diagnosis through google image). I ended up completing the sweep but decided to make sure my leg was okay and resigned my kingship. It was just a little tight and didn't feel like a serious injury. After some stretching and walking it off I got back in line. It feels okay now as I write this, but I suspect I may feel it in the morning, so we'll see.
The farthest I made it today was butterfly guard, which was pretty good, but Mike dethroned me with a sweet armbar. I did some good against Adam and held on to guard a lot longer than I thought possible with some fancy leg work. While attempting to pass Greg I attacked from half guard for a while and got a little excited that I might pull off a pass, but he was able to turn it into a single leg x sweep. I finished the evening with a sweet omoplata combo with Will. He was able to roll with my first attempt and tried to pull my arm into his own omoplata, I rolled again and was able to finish it the second time.
My cross guard is feeling great lately and I'm very happy that I've refocused my efforts into this position. After class I asked Greg about ending up in single leg-x after pendulum sweeping from cross guard and he showed me that I needed to change the angle and pendulum my leg quite a bit more. Then I should end up in a good armbar position. I suspect I was just pushing them over and then gave them too much space to be able to fit their knee in. I'll be working on improving this soon.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
July 29th 2014 - Gi
Theme & Techniques: Technical Stand-up, Hip Bump Sweep, Kimura from Guard
Had a great class today as usual. Bhuvana was my partner for the technique portion. She was doing okay with the technical stand-up, but not really guarding her face or moving so I put a little more pressure on to help her get up and go. As usual Greg mentioned that it's good practice to make it a habit of standing up this way in daily life. It's a good feeling when you finally start doing it without thinking about it.
Greg showed me a variation on the kimura for when someone hides their arm and postures up to defend. It should give the opportunity bring the other leg around their head and gives a lot of leverage to pry their arm into the lock. I made the comment that you could also do an omoplata from there and Greg said something to the effect of , "yeah, but you wouldn't want to let go of the kimura." Oh yeah, who would want to do that? Of course I know he's right, but I just love omoplatas.
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Guard Position, Free Rolling Post Class
Had some good matches in up/down/out. From the bottom I mostly played cross guard and either went to omoplata or swept from there. If they were savvy with hand fighting I went to the 2 on 1. I set up cross guard early on against Ben and then he accidentally moved his body into the direction of the omoplata. I tried to warn him he didn't want to do that but it was too late. He asked me to show him how to defend it later.
From the top it was about hand fighting and standing guard break. I ended up in half guard a few times with Tim. The first time I attempted the choke that Jimbo showed me from Saturday and it worked perfectly. I showed Tim and Greg after class and it seemed like Greg liked it. I liked it since it worked but more research must be done. The second time I transitioned to knee slide, but must have had my hips too high because he rolled me over and almost swept me so kudos to him.
I rolled with Tim, Bhuvana, and Anthony after class. At one point I had back mount on Tim and was working as hard as I could to complete the RNC. I got under his chin and I thought I was in but as soon as I went to complete the choke he was able to get his chin down again. Greg showed me later to pry and inch a little more, pry and inch until I can grab the shoulder.
Had a great class today as usual. Bhuvana was my partner for the technique portion. She was doing okay with the technical stand-up, but not really guarding her face or moving so I put a little more pressure on to help her get up and go. As usual Greg mentioned that it's good practice to make it a habit of standing up this way in daily life. It's a good feeling when you finally start doing it without thinking about it.
Greg showed me a variation on the kimura for when someone hides their arm and postures up to defend. It should give the opportunity bring the other leg around their head and gives a lot of leverage to pry their arm into the lock. I made the comment that you could also do an omoplata from there and Greg said something to the effect of , "yeah, but you wouldn't want to let go of the kimura." Oh yeah, who would want to do that? Of course I know he's right, but I just love omoplatas.
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Guard Position, Free Rolling Post Class
Had some good matches in up/down/out. From the bottom I mostly played cross guard and either went to omoplata or swept from there. If they were savvy with hand fighting I went to the 2 on 1. I set up cross guard early on against Ben and then he accidentally moved his body into the direction of the omoplata. I tried to warn him he didn't want to do that but it was too late. He asked me to show him how to defend it later.
From the top it was about hand fighting and standing guard break. I ended up in half guard a few times with Tim. The first time I attempted the choke that Jimbo showed me from Saturday and it worked perfectly. I showed Tim and Greg after class and it seemed like Greg liked it. I liked it since it worked but more research must be done. The second time I transitioned to knee slide, but must have had my hips too high because he rolled me over and almost swept me so kudos to him.
I rolled with Tim, Bhuvana, and Anthony after class. At one point I had back mount on Tim and was working as hard as I could to complete the RNC. I got under his chin and I thought I was in but as soon as I went to complete the choke he was able to get his chin down again. Greg showed me later to pry and inch a little more, pry and inch until I can grab the shoulder.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
July 26th 2014 - Cross School Open Mat at MAMA
Today our school was invited to Mid-America Martial Arts here in Lincoln. It was a fantastic idea and it seemed like everyone had a good time and I didn't witness any bad blood or injuries! They set up four different rings with a ref and a someone to keep time. Whenever a match ended they asked for 2 more volunteers for the next match. There were no brackets or weight classes just first come first serve. I think we represented our school pretty well and from my point of view the skill levels were consistent by belt color.
After rolling with 2 blue belts from MAMA (I wish I could remember their names) my forearms were pretty burned out. I think that was the major take away from today. I've got to ease up on the death grip in my early matches. I also rolled with Air Force Brian, Jimbo, Josh H., Mike (tumbleweed), and Ray. I was hoping to roll with one of their purple belts to see what it was like but it never worked out.
Some personal things of note. The north/south choke was working very well for me today. I wasn't able to always finish it but my setup is coming along pretty naturally. I used cross guard and omoplata sweep when I could. Didn't finish the submission though. I think the only person that submitted me today was Ray with a straight ankle lock. Otherwise I lost one other time to points against one of the MAMA blue belts (Ron maybe), he was very good at guard passing. After getting over my forearm burn I relaxed a lot more and felt like I was able to move a lot better.
Jimbo and I hadn't met in person before today, but we've been friends on Facebook. We sat and talked for quite a while about our past jobs and found out we were both Marines. We also discussed how much teaching highschool was similar to being a correctional officer. Then we had a light roll and took it easy on each other or tried to anyway. After we rolled he showed me this pretty cool half guard pass to a bread cutter choke that I want to try.
I felt better about my performance with Ray than usual. I at least off balanced him a little with my cross guard. Made him say "damn cross guard!" He setup a straight ankle eventually but I did mount a decent defense up until that point. Conversely when I rolled with Mike I attempted a knee bar out of nowhere. I wasn't able to finish it and converted to a straight ankle which I couldn't finish either. I think my inside foot was ending up in uncomfortable places for him.
After taking the picture below they brought in some hamburgers and other food. All I could stomach was some watermelon that hit the spot. There was some good comradery going on. Hopefully this is the first of many open mats.
After rolling with 2 blue belts from MAMA (I wish I could remember their names) my forearms were pretty burned out. I think that was the major take away from today. I've got to ease up on the death grip in my early matches. I also rolled with Air Force Brian, Jimbo, Josh H., Mike (tumbleweed), and Ray. I was hoping to roll with one of their purple belts to see what it was like but it never worked out.
Some personal things of note. The north/south choke was working very well for me today. I wasn't able to always finish it but my setup is coming along pretty naturally. I used cross guard and omoplata sweep when I could. Didn't finish the submission though. I think the only person that submitted me today was Ray with a straight ankle lock. Otherwise I lost one other time to points against one of the MAMA blue belts (Ron maybe), he was very good at guard passing. After getting over my forearm burn I relaxed a lot more and felt like I was able to move a lot better.
Jimbo and I hadn't met in person before today, but we've been friends on Facebook. We sat and talked for quite a while about our past jobs and found out we were both Marines. We also discussed how much teaching highschool was similar to being a correctional officer. Then we had a light roll and took it easy on each other or tried to anyway. After we rolled he showed me this pretty cool half guard pass to a bread cutter choke that I want to try.
I felt better about my performance with Ray than usual. I at least off balanced him a little with my cross guard. Made him say "damn cross guard!" He setup a straight ankle eventually but I did mount a decent defense up until that point. Conversely when I rolled with Mike I attempted a knee bar out of nowhere. I wasn't able to finish it and converted to a straight ankle which I couldn't finish either. I think my inside foot was ending up in uncomfortable places for him.
After taking the picture below they brought in some hamburgers and other food. All I could stomach was some watermelon that hit the spot. There was some good comradery going on. Hopefully this is the first of many open mats.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
July 26th 2014 - Kids Class
Check out the video below to get an idea of what flag tag is like. It's training them to focus on good hand fighting and control the opponents arms. I think they're looking really good!
Friday, July 25, 2014
July 25th 2014 - Gi
Theme & Techniques: Shoulder Throw, Back Mount Cross Choke, Guillotine from Guard
Practiced the throws with Darijo and Dave and then worked with Tim on the rest of the stuff, who made a rare Friday morning appearance. All was well with this portion of class and I only gave him a few pointers on the guillotine. It was mostly about arm position and how to get a deeper hold on it.
Rolling: Back Mount Position (4 x 2 min), Guard Position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min rnds & Post Class)
I wasn't feeling good about my back attacks today. Apparently everyone is getting better at defending them. I was doing a good job of keeping my chin down on their shoulder and letting go of a hook to push off on the floor. Also the single leg pry to get a hook back in has been working great for me lately. For back defense I focused a lot on my head position to get to the side I wanted and then preventing any collar grips. Ross was doing a good job with his grip fighting from the back.
I rolled with Greg for guard position and felt like I was doing pretty good with some cross guard to 2 on 1. He had stood up at one point and I was able to feed his arm between his legs and almost got the sweep but he kept his far leg away and I ended up trying for a back take unsuccessfully that turned into a leg tangle to inverted half guard to him passing. We went over the 2 on 1 sweep after class which I feel a lot better about.
I rolled with Ross after class with the goal of working on my cross guard/omoplata. I am feeling more confident in the modified pendulum type sweep that I've been doing from there when I can't get the omoplata. I noticed some improvement in his stiff arm side mount escape. I'll give myself a little pat on the back for having something to do with that. Before we left Ross mentioned that he's not used to anyone going for the omoplata to which Greg said something to the effect of "No one attacks it as often". I'll take it as a compliment.
Practiced the throws with Darijo and Dave and then worked with Tim on the rest of the stuff, who made a rare Friday morning appearance. All was well with this portion of class and I only gave him a few pointers on the guillotine. It was mostly about arm position and how to get a deeper hold on it.
Rolling: Back Mount Position (4 x 2 min), Guard Position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min rnds & Post Class)
I wasn't feeling good about my back attacks today. Apparently everyone is getting better at defending them. I was doing a good job of keeping my chin down on their shoulder and letting go of a hook to push off on the floor. Also the single leg pry to get a hook back in has been working great for me lately. For back defense I focused a lot on my head position to get to the side I wanted and then preventing any collar grips. Ross was doing a good job with his grip fighting from the back.
I rolled with Greg for guard position and felt like I was doing pretty good with some cross guard to 2 on 1. He had stood up at one point and I was able to feed his arm between his legs and almost got the sweep but he kept his far leg away and I ended up trying for a back take unsuccessfully that turned into a leg tangle to inverted half guard to him passing. We went over the 2 on 1 sweep after class which I feel a lot better about.
I rolled with Ross after class with the goal of working on my cross guard/omoplata. I am feeling more confident in the modified pendulum type sweep that I've been doing from there when I can't get the omoplata. I noticed some improvement in his stiff arm side mount escape. I'll give myself a little pat on the back for having something to do with that. Before we left Ross mentioned that he's not used to anyone going for the omoplata to which Greg said something to the effect of "No one attacks it as often". I'll take it as a compliment.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
July 23rd 2014 - Gi
Theme & Techniques: Drilling: Guard, Guard Passing, Submissions
I partnered with Adam for the drilling portion. Greg told us to work our A game with our partner not resisting. For guard that consists of cross guard to omoplata and the variations that follow, scissor sweep, and some 2 on 1 to pendulum or back take. Guard passing consists of standing or kneeling break to knee slide, bull fighter, over/under, and smash pass. Submissions were my favorites: omoplata, bow and arrow, farside armbar, kimura, north/south choke, and many others. The teammates that will be competing in Chicago had to do 10 burpees each round and I felt a little bad just sitting there and watching them.
Rolling: King of the Mat Guard Positions, Tournament Style Matches
This was a pretty cool idea as if the person on the bottom was able to sweep their first opponent from closed guard, they would then use spider guard with the next opponent. Followed by butterfly guard and half guard. I started with Gina in my closed guard and utilized my cross guard to omoplata sweep as gently as I could. Henry was able to pass my spider guard next but it took a while. I then had 2 long rolls in Adams guard which both turned out to be half guard battles. I fought for underhooks and cross faces and did my best to stay out of lock down, but it was so difficult to get out and when I felt like I was close he would turn into me and standup.
I was paired up with Will for the first match. I pulled guard and went for cross guard right away. I was able to sweep but as I was trying to get a good top position he was able to put me into single leg-x and then x-guard and sweep me back. I got an overhook but wasn't able to do much with it, I felt like I was stuck flat on my back and couldn't get off to the side like I wanted to. He eventually pulled his arm out and I attempted cross guard again but was too far away and he was able to pass to side control and then submitted me with an armbar.
I volunteered to go again and Greg was my partner. He beat me to the punch on pulling guard and went to butterfly. I did my best to keep my base low but he eventually swept me to side control. He caught me in an omoplata that I was able to escape from and then prevented a back attack. Finally he setup a farside armbar and I attempted to defend it but I stupidly let go of my grip to attempt to put his leg into half guard.
I'm not feeling too good about my performance today. I'm in a bit of a rut and not really progressing right now. I have an urge to make a change in my training but I'm not sure what it would be. I had sent Greg a message few weeks ago (below) to which he answered that I am on the right path and just some little changes are the difference to me now and future me. I just need to trust in this and carry on.
I partnered with Adam for the drilling portion. Greg told us to work our A game with our partner not resisting. For guard that consists of cross guard to omoplata and the variations that follow, scissor sweep, and some 2 on 1 to pendulum or back take. Guard passing consists of standing or kneeling break to knee slide, bull fighter, over/under, and smash pass. Submissions were my favorites: omoplata, bow and arrow, farside armbar, kimura, north/south choke, and many others. The teammates that will be competing in Chicago had to do 10 burpees each round and I felt a little bad just sitting there and watching them.
Rolling: King of the Mat Guard Positions, Tournament Style Matches
This was a pretty cool idea as if the person on the bottom was able to sweep their first opponent from closed guard, they would then use spider guard with the next opponent. Followed by butterfly guard and half guard. I started with Gina in my closed guard and utilized my cross guard to omoplata sweep as gently as I could. Henry was able to pass my spider guard next but it took a while. I then had 2 long rolls in Adams guard which both turned out to be half guard battles. I fought for underhooks and cross faces and did my best to stay out of lock down, but it was so difficult to get out and when I felt like I was close he would turn into me and standup.
I was paired up with Will for the first match. I pulled guard and went for cross guard right away. I was able to sweep but as I was trying to get a good top position he was able to put me into single leg-x and then x-guard and sweep me back. I got an overhook but wasn't able to do much with it, I felt like I was stuck flat on my back and couldn't get off to the side like I wanted to. He eventually pulled his arm out and I attempted cross guard again but was too far away and he was able to pass to side control and then submitted me with an armbar.
I volunteered to go again and Greg was my partner. He beat me to the punch on pulling guard and went to butterfly. I did my best to keep my base low but he eventually swept me to side control. He caught me in an omoplata that I was able to escape from and then prevented a back attack. Finally he setup a farside armbar and I attempted to defend it but I stupidly let go of my grip to attempt to put his leg into half guard.
I'm not feeling too good about my performance today. I'm in a bit of a rut and not really progressing right now. I have an urge to make a change in my training but I'm not sure what it would be. I had sent Greg a message few weeks ago (below) to which he answered that I am on the right path and just some little changes are the difference to me now and future me. I just need to trust in this and carry on.
"When I see high level matches I don't see too much stalling/being stuck in a position. So I'm trying to hypothesize how the later belt version of me may be different and try to work towards that. When you roll with big people you're not going to get by with some of the things that I do that depend on my size/strength so I figure there has to be a more Jiu-Jitsu way of doing things and I'm not cultivating it."
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
July 22nd 2014 - Gi
Theme & Techniques: Shoulder Throw, Back Mount Cross Choke, Guillotine from Guard
Worked with Harvey on the technique portion. He seems to learn best by talking the details of each technique out. It did get a little slow at times but hopefully he learned something. I appreciate how he get's excited when he figures something out or learns something new. He had the common problems that everyone has: didn't have his hip over far enough for shoulder throw; had some trouble with wrist position during the cross choke; moving the hips back to make some space to get a good arm position on the guillotine.
Rolling: Back Mount Position (2 min), Guard Position (2 min), Free Rolling (5 min rnds)
People have described Harvey as having old man strength and after today I would agree. When I had him in back mount, I kept him under control, but he got a hold of my choking hand and I could not get it back for the life of me. I was able to escape his back mount once, but the second time he did a great job with his hooks to keep me from getting free.
I went with Mike (lawyer) for this portion of class. I was hoping to rekindle my focus on cross guard, but he did a great job of keeping his hips way back right from the get go. I was just barely able to keep him from passing, I resorted to using leg over head recovery and the kimura to attempt a back take but settled for regaining guard. From top he did almost get me in a triangle but my posture saved me. I was am way too lazy dealing with sleeve grips in guard lately.
Robert and I had a great roll. There was lots of back and forth. As soon as I would pass his guard he would be able to get a knee back in. I've got to figure out how he's doing this and figure out how to make my side mount better. I did have an arm trapped at one point and we had a bit of a scramble where I ended up on top.
I worked with Harvey on some grip breaks after class and gave him a short version of July 2nd's class. Then I worked with Bhuvana on the half guard sweep that she's been working on. I like the approach that she's taking as this is the position that she is ending up in very often, so she's researching and drilling a technique to deal with it. I attempted a technique from Tinguinha's cross guard DVD but didn't quite get it to work. I lent the DVD to Greg today so I watched it a few times recently. Bhuvana and I rolled for a little while. I decided not to go for submissions and tried to flow from position to position as smoothly as I could. There came a point when she was panicking a little bit and I talked her through calming down and then using her bridge to make the position a little less uncomfortable for her.
Worked with Harvey on the technique portion. He seems to learn best by talking the details of each technique out. It did get a little slow at times but hopefully he learned something. I appreciate how he get's excited when he figures something out or learns something new. He had the common problems that everyone has: didn't have his hip over far enough for shoulder throw; had some trouble with wrist position during the cross choke; moving the hips back to make some space to get a good arm position on the guillotine.
Rolling: Back Mount Position (2 min), Guard Position (2 min), Free Rolling (5 min rnds)
People have described Harvey as having old man strength and after today I would agree. When I had him in back mount, I kept him under control, but he got a hold of my choking hand and I could not get it back for the life of me. I was able to escape his back mount once, but the second time he did a great job with his hooks to keep me from getting free.
I went with Mike (lawyer) for this portion of class. I was hoping to rekindle my focus on cross guard, but he did a great job of keeping his hips way back right from the get go. I was just barely able to keep him from passing, I resorted to using leg over head recovery and the kimura to attempt a back take but settled for regaining guard. From top he did almost get me in a triangle but my posture saved me. I was am way too lazy dealing with sleeve grips in guard lately.
Robert and I had a great roll. There was lots of back and forth. As soon as I would pass his guard he would be able to get a knee back in. I've got to figure out how he's doing this and figure out how to make my side mount better. I did have an arm trapped at one point and we had a bit of a scramble where I ended up on top.
I worked with Harvey on some grip breaks after class and gave him a short version of July 2nd's class. Then I worked with Bhuvana on the half guard sweep that she's been working on. I like the approach that she's taking as this is the position that she is ending up in very often, so she's researching and drilling a technique to deal with it. I attempted a technique from Tinguinha's cross guard DVD but didn't quite get it to work. I lent the DVD to Greg today so I watched it a few times recently. Bhuvana and I rolled for a little while. I decided not to go for submissions and tried to flow from position to position as smoothly as I could. There came a point when she was panicking a little bit and I talked her through calming down and then using her bridge to make the position a little less uncomfortable for her.
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