Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard, Tripod Sweep
Partner: Anthony
Anthony has returned after taking some time off over the summer. He mentioned being worried about forgetting everything but he seemed to be in the swing of things once class got going.
During drilling I tried to focus on my opponents posture. I got the idea when I was on the top of Greg's guard that there came a point where I was too extended and didn't feel comfortable or felt like I was ready to be put into a submission at any moment. So reverse engineering that how can I make the top person feel that way. Not sure I totally figured it out but it was a different way to look at it.
Rolling: Open Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Anthony, Ben, Brian G.
This session made me realize how good this position is. I had a really tough time passing my partners' guards. I was also able to maintain this position very well. The combination of the collar/sleeve grabs and the feet on hips and bicep cover your bases. I haven't figured out how to smoothly transition to submissions or sweeps but keeping this position seems pretty natural.
During free rolling I played a lot of guard as relaxed as I could be. I found myself using scissor sweep and butterfly sweep. It seems like the loop choke has been presenting itself lately too. One thing I noticed was I did some shaking to free something today. Like trying to pass half guard I shook the legs to free my knee. I shook my arm free after an over/under pass. Not sure why I noticed this.
Office Hours Partner: Anthony
Happy to have someone stay behind and roll with me a bit. After a few rolls I ended up talking him through some passing and setting up some submissions.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
September 29th 2015 - Gi Beginner
Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard, Tripod Sweep
Partner: Bhuvana, Megan
Bhuvana brought a friend in to train today and she had a pretty good attitude for her first class. Understandably a little hesitant but willing to try the stuff and take instructions. I think it was a pretty good class to start with because we started with open guard and only did a couple other things from there.
Some things that I found work for me in open guard:
Rolling: Basic Open Guard (4 x 2 min)
Rolled With: Greg, Josh M
Interesting roll with Greg. My open guard didn't last too long when I was on bottom either time and I ended up in half guard or he was in knee up passing position. I felt pretty good about the half guard time, I ended up using his lapel under his leg to try to work my way into deep half and keep him from passing. It worked for a little while at least. From the top I was really worried about getting triangled. I attempted the belt grab and foot push pass but couldn't get free of his grips. On our last roll we ended up in an interesting foot lock position where he played around with a calf cutter.
With Josh I was able to setup some loose omoplatas and move into cross guard. When I was on top, Josh caught me in a triangle position near the end of our roll. I was able to posture but he was still working for it until the time ran out.
Office Hours Partner: Josh
Greg had us work a bit on the twist sweep. He pointed out that I was focusing too low with the sweep and should control their thigh instead. Hopefully this is the detail I need because it's still not sinking in. No one wanted to stay and roll with me though, bummer.
Partner: Bhuvana, Megan
Bhuvana brought a friend in to train today and she had a pretty good attitude for her first class. Understandably a little hesitant but willing to try the stuff and take instructions. I think it was a pretty good class to start with because we started with open guard and only did a couple other things from there.
Some things that I found work for me in open guard:
- The leg on the bicep is your active leg. Keep that hip off the floor so you can move that leg around anywhere you need it.
- When learning this position, relax. Know that you want to remain on your side and keep your hips in line with them. When they move try to figure out how to reset the starting position
- When coming up from the tripod sweep pull the pushing leg back so you can kneel on it.
Rolling: Basic Open Guard (4 x 2 min)
Rolled With: Greg, Josh M
Interesting roll with Greg. My open guard didn't last too long when I was on bottom either time and I ended up in half guard or he was in knee up passing position. I felt pretty good about the half guard time, I ended up using his lapel under his leg to try to work my way into deep half and keep him from passing. It worked for a little while at least. From the top I was really worried about getting triangled. I attempted the belt grab and foot push pass but couldn't get free of his grips. On our last roll we ended up in an interesting foot lock position where he played around with a calf cutter.
With Josh I was able to setup some loose omoplatas and move into cross guard. When I was on top, Josh caught me in a triangle position near the end of our roll. I was able to posture but he was still working for it until the time ran out.
Office Hours Partner: Josh
Greg had us work a bit on the twist sweep. He pointed out that I was focusing too low with the sweep and should control their thigh instead. Hopefully this is the detail I need because it's still not sinking in. No one wanted to stay and roll with me though, bummer.
Friday, September 25, 2015
September 25th 2015 - Gi All Levels
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.
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.
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.
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