December 12th - Gi (A Matter of Time)

David taught class last night and the theme was the guillotine.  David does a pretty good job making the warm up difficult and we do a lot of different drills.  I especially like the 5 Judo 5 Wrestling takedowns as a part of the warm-up.

I've decided that I hate having the guillotine practiced on me.  My neck and adam's apple were very worn out at the end of the class. We did most of this from Guard or sprawl position.  We finished the class with the 8 minute drill.  I had Brian as a partner.  He is tough to deal with when back mount is concerned.  With his long limbs I have a hard time maintaining hooks and hand fighting.  When I was back mounted he crushed my insides with a body triangle.  Otherwise we were both pretty even for the most part.

For open mat I rolled with Ken first.  We had a war with me on top for most of the beginning.  I took his back, had side control, gift wrap.  There was a moment that I felt close and got that feeling that I was going to get a sub.  I just couldn't finish.  Like usual I eventually gassed and Ken got on top and he was able to get me into an Americana.  We talked about how he hip escapes from side mount and I kind of like it.  I'm going to try it out when the situation arises.

I went with David next and was still a little tired from Ken.  My main goal was to try to misdirect and not use much strength against David.  I felt like I was doing a good job and I actually had a little bit of confidence.  There were a couple of times when I worked from half guard and was able to do my thing to get on my side and guard from his arm.  I regained half guard and at one point was able to get to my knees and get topside using the guillotine that we just worked on.  However the stupidest thing happened to me when David locked up both of my arms with overhooks and had me with a double armbar.  I verbally tapped probably too soon, but I'm not interested in getting hurt with something like this that I can't tap from.  I believe in our second match David took my back from turtle and choked me out.  Later on we discussed what to do with double underhooks on the legs and I think my roll to turtle was good, I just need to get out of turtle more quickly.  It's only a matter of time before I submit David.

November 7th - Gi (Ho-Hum)

Had one of those nights last night where I kind of felt like nothing really clicked for me just felt kind of bla.  It was a relatively small class at first.  We did some good cardio and partner drills for warm-up including wheelbarrows and the armbar drill.  We also did a set of Judo throws and wrestling takedowns.  We ended the warmup with Adam in the middle of the mat and then we each tried to take him down.  I almost had him with a wrist throw which I think surprised him but he got out of it and eventually took me down.

David taught and went over his favorite submission, the triangle.  We did a couple of different things mostly focusing on keeping their posture down once we got the feet hooked and then working into the proper position.  We covered underhooking their leg and then tipping them over into no-man's land. 

We finished the regular class with some partner guard passing and then the 8 minute position drill.  I did this with Robert who is an MMA Pro.  He does a few things that are a little different than what I normally see at our school.  He was very good from all positions especially his side control escapes getting back to guard.

I rolled with David first.  I thought I would be able to do a little bit better with not letting him pass my guard today, it didn't work though because he did the same thing as usual of straightening my legs and then moving into side control.  I'm not sure how it all went down in the end but I felt like I had a chance to escape and then I was put into a triangle which I was escaping but then my arm was left out there and David did an inverted armbar.  Pretty cool and smooth transition.

After watching a good match between David and Robert and then Ken and Tate as well, Will and I rolled.  Will is a little more easy going than David.  Not as straight forward.  We hung out for a while not getting positions until I tried to pass his guard.  I almost got there but I had to roll to my back and settle for half guard.  I tried my best to work the low half guard sweep but once again my far shoulder was getting pinned down.  I need to work on framing and getting on my side more.  He eventually isolated my arm and got me in a kimura.

Day 6

My days of temporary bachelorhood are winding down.  My wife and boys should be returning tomorrow (Wednesday).  While it's been a great experience for me martial arts wise, I've missed them and can't wait until they get back.

Yesterday morning I got up and did a 6:30 Hapkido class with Shawn and AJ.  We mostly worked on stuff from a clinch or some hand fighting into some wrist locks.  Then we worked on taking the back and getting a rear naked choke from standing.

At Jiu-Jitsu later last night we had about 8 people or so.  David and Will taught the class.  The focus of class was on going all out when you are stuck in a position and down on points in a tournament situation.  Basically needing to pass someone's guard and get points before the clock ran out.  We would work on a couple of escapes or transitions with our partner and then go all out for a minute or so trying to accomplish them.  I asked if we could work on some butterfly guard (which I get passed in often) and north/south position (both places that David puts me in regularly).  We also worked on escaping back mount and side control.

I learned some really cool sweeps from butterfly that I hadn't worked on before.  They were a little counter intuitive but I was able to use them a little later in open mat.  I have new hope for when I'm forced into butterfly guard.

During open mat I worked with Will and Ken.  I felt pretty good during both rolls.  I did get gassed going up against Ken at the end though.  I pretty much begged him to just tap me out.  It was really hot and I sweat my butt off.  Hydration is going to be paramount this summer.

During these 6 days of workouts I think every part of my body has been sore.  I'm going to take the day off and go see X-Men tonight.  Give my body a chance to recover.