Theme & Techniques: Basic Throws/Takedowns, Butterfly Guard Grip Breaking, Arm Drag to Back Take, Defended Arm Drag to Butterfly Sweep
Partner: Adam, Bauer
We did fit-ins and then throws and takedowns from the white belt curriculum. One partner would do these throws in a row: Osoto Gari, Seonage, Koshi Guruma, O-Goshi, double leg. No problems here for me, except I need to work on getting a better penetration step with my double leg.
I'm pretty confident with my grip fighting from butterfly guard. I feel like it's improved recently with my focus on attacking more from the guard. We went from the RNC break on the pants, to grabbing the wrist and kicking our leg out to break, and finally breaking wrist grabs with a Y-grip circular motion. We did the arm drag off of the kick grip break and used the jump back for the back take. Finally we looked for the opponent to pull their arm away as soon as we went for the arm drag to leave an opening to close the distance and get an underhook for the butterfly sweep. I had a little trouble with the timing of this, but got it to work a couple times in practice.
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Butterfly, Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Conan, Adam, Gina, Mike, Bauer, Jordan (Wrestler)
I was a part of and witnessed some good battles during up down and out. First Greg had us start in butterfly from a distance and I feel like my passing was feeling pretty strong. I mostly looked for my pant grips and then was relentless on my passes. I even almost passed Adam, but missed a key piece of not collecting his sleeve during a knee slide. He ended up turtling and then I went for his back, but couldn't get my hooks in and he eventually turned into me. I attempted an x-pass against Conan but he was able to catch me with a butterfly hook which he's been working on.
From the bottom my guard retention seems to be coming along fine. I'm finding it easier to weave my legs in when I need to. One problem that I need to ask about is when I have a cross collar grip my opponent will often post on my leg and pass that way and my collar grip feels useless and it seems like sometimes I almost get my back taken. A collar drag may be the answer, but I think it's a good question for Greg Friday, but if anyone else has any thoughts please post them, if you know what I'm talking about.
I was attempting to pass Mike's (Tumbleweed) guard and he setup and slick omoplata which I defended by hunkering down and then jumping to the other side of his body. Suddenly I heard him shouting in pain and freaking out a bit. One of his fingers had been dislocated and bent at a 30 degree angle and it looked pretty nasty. He ran over to Greg asking him what he should do, and Greg got him to calm down. Conan stepped in and straightened it right up. I felt really bad, as I don't want to be the cause of anyone not being able to train. I realize it was an freak accident. Luckily Mike seemed fine by the end of class except for some swelling.
The roll with Bauer, went very similar to last time. I played guard and attempted to play my game and he shut everything down. I did remind myself to try some new things and loosen up a bit, but I still couldn't get anything going. Eventually I was in half guard and working towards the underhook and then somehow I was on top. Soon after the timer went off. It gave me some food for thought. I have to come up for some contingencies when I can't underhook the leg for my cross guard. I think the 2 on 1 would have also served me well, but I need to internalize it more.
I tried to take it easy on Jordan and had some fun. I worked some single leg x and tried to set it up with the shin to shin while he was standing. I also played around with a triangle attempt off of his omoplata defense, but he did a good job with his posture so I went back to the omoplata. I also surprised him with the stiff arm defense from side mount to which he said "not that again" or something to that affect.
I got some kudos from Bauer, Jordan, and Adam after class. They pretty much said that my game feels pretty strong and it's coming along. Me being a person that is terrible at accepting compliments tried to redirect my progress to how great of a program Greg is running. Which is true but I also do put a lot of work into this and it's nice to be told that once in a while especially by people that I respect. Adam even said something like "You make me want to come to class so I can kick your butt." That probably wouldn't make sense to someone outside of Jiu-Jitsu, but it makes total sense to me.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
August 12th 2014 - Gi
Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Defense, Half Guard: Escape to Back Mount, Recover GuardPartner: Brian (Fireguy)
Took the day off from work to see the kids off on the first day of school for the kids. Had some good training with Brian, he's a good training partner (I can't actually think of any of my training partners that are poor). The only thing I really had trouble with was switching legs during the guard recovery. It's pretty bad to leave their leg unhooked at any time, you get your half guard passed that way.
Rolling: Half Guard Position (2 x 2 min rnds), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Brian, Ben, Bhuvana, Tim, Harvey
Brian swept me in our first encounter, great job. I was attempting a knee slide pass and trying to get my foot free and I must have had my weight on him too much because I ended up on the bottom in guard. I feel a lot more confident from the bottom of half guard than the top for some reason. From the top, I think I need to work more on my pressure passing.
I rolled with Bhuvana a few times. At one point she attempted to tap out from just being in side control, I wouldn't allow it. I had her at least go through the escape. I played some kesa getamai against Harvey and we went over how to escape it afterwards.
During stretching, it was made mention that Tim is good at defending chokes and he referenced fending off my RNC several times. To which I replied "Challenge accepted." I did a wrist lock to Tim playfully after class and he was pretty surprised by it. Eventually I took his back and no matter how hard I tried I could not setup the RNC. I eventually gave up because I had to get home and switched to an arm triangle. There's always next time.
Took the day off from work to see the kids off on the first day of school for the kids. Had some good training with Brian, he's a good training partner (I can't actually think of any of my training partners that are poor). The only thing I really had trouble with was switching legs during the guard recovery. It's pretty bad to leave their leg unhooked at any time, you get your half guard passed that way.
Rolling: Half Guard Position (2 x 2 min rnds), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Brian, Ben, Bhuvana, Tim, Harvey
Brian swept me in our first encounter, great job. I was attempting a knee slide pass and trying to get my foot free and I must have had my weight on him too much because I ended up on the bottom in guard. I feel a lot more confident from the bottom of half guard than the top for some reason. From the top, I think I need to work more on my pressure passing.
I rolled with Bhuvana a few times. At one point she attempted to tap out from just being in side control, I wouldn't allow it. I had her at least go through the escape. I played some kesa getamai against Harvey and we went over how to escape it afterwards.
During stretching, it was made mention that Tim is good at defending chokes and he referenced fending off my RNC several times. To which I replied "Challenge accepted." I did a wrist lock to Tim playfully after class and he was pretty surprised by it. Eventually I took his back and no matter how hard I tried I could not setup the RNC. I eventually gave up because I had to get home and switched to an arm triangle. There's always next time.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
August 9th 2014 - Kids, Competition, Open Mat
Kids' Class
Boys were a little wild today which may be because Adam was teaching instead of Greg. They started off the warmups by themselves but a few other kids showed up and I think it helped them focus. Jayden's falls are getting a little better and with some reminders he was keeping himself from hitting his head on the mat during back falls. They did well playing flag tag especially with their grip fighting. I saw a few good scissor sweeps, but they had some problems with (accidentally?) tickling each other during the collar grab which slowed some things down.
Competition Class
Partner: Jordan
Jerad had us split our techniques into 5 minute rounds. We worked on our takedown/guard pull strategy first. I started out with pulling to cross guard and then mixed in a few double legs towards the end. For guard passing I gave equal time to smash pass and the x-pass which felt great. Had a few problems with my 2 on 1. I didn't feel like I was able to push his hand far enough to the side while kicking out for the back take, I think I may need to push the arm out at a different angle. I also had some problems with the hand off when he stood up, I'm not sure what is the best way to do this is yet. We finished the drilling portion with some side control escapes.
We had a competition style roll and I mostly flowed and tried my best not to use any strength. I used a lot of stiff arm defense when he attempted to pass and swept with omoplata.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Matt, Tye, Phil
Matt had quite a friendly war. I should have kept track of the time, but I'm sure we rolled for around 10 minutes. There was quite a bit of back and forth. We fought from each others half guard a few times. I would switch hips and attempt to pull my knee out. Eventually I spent some time in the bottom of his mount and he started to loosen my gi to start a brabo. I'm not sure how I got out of mount but I felt really claustrophobic a couple times. I remember working from deep half a bit as well as completing a butterfly sweep. Eventually I was able to isolate an arm from top half guard and finished with an americana.
This could have gone either way as there were a couple of times when I didn't feel like I would have the energy to get back on top. I really hate this feeling when I'm trying to gauge how much energy I have left to use and then I'm wary of trying anything that could gas me, but I need to do something because I'm behind. Often this bites me in the ass when I should fight my hardest to maintain guard instead of starting to fight hard once I'm in bad position.
Tye (sp?) was interesting to roll with. He has some flexibility and wasn't too bad with his pass attempts. I quite a bit bigger than him and having more experience helps. At one point I threw on a north/south choke and he asked me to show it to him and how to defend it. To which I never refuse to show someone a part of my game. Seemed like he picked up on it pretty well. Later on he almost caught me in a triangle. He had my head and arm trapped in but wasn't able to completely lock it up and I used the knee pry to eventually escape, although he did have me a little worried. I gave him some pointers on changing the angle on the triangle after that roll and he seemed to appreciate it.
It's been a long time since I rolled with Phil and he asked me not to kick his ass too bad. Jokingly I told him that was up to him. I played some guard and off the bat attempted a hip bump sweep which he shut down. I attributed that to being one of the favorite techniques of our friend Jorge. I eventually played some deep half guard and was able to sweep. In the end I was able to setup an armbar and after some work was able to separate his hands. We went over armbar escapes as well as finishing the armbar. He mentioned that people were able to stack him while attempting the armbar and Will and I advised him to use the leg over their head more to pin them. Also I went over not trying to pull at the elbow to get the armbar but to attack lower by the wrist to lever it better.
Boys were a little wild today which may be because Adam was teaching instead of Greg. They started off the warmups by themselves but a few other kids showed up and I think it helped them focus. Jayden's falls are getting a little better and with some reminders he was keeping himself from hitting his head on the mat during back falls. They did well playing flag tag especially with their grip fighting. I saw a few good scissor sweeps, but they had some problems with (accidentally?) tickling each other during the collar grab which slowed some things down.
Competition Class
Partner: Jordan
Jerad had us split our techniques into 5 minute rounds. We worked on our takedown/guard pull strategy first. I started out with pulling to cross guard and then mixed in a few double legs towards the end. For guard passing I gave equal time to smash pass and the x-pass which felt great. Had a few problems with my 2 on 1. I didn't feel like I was able to push his hand far enough to the side while kicking out for the back take, I think I may need to push the arm out at a different angle. I also had some problems with the hand off when he stood up, I'm not sure what is the best way to do this is yet. We finished the drilling portion with some side control escapes.
We had a competition style roll and I mostly flowed and tried my best not to use any strength. I used a lot of stiff arm defense when he attempted to pass and swept with omoplata.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Matt, Tye, Phil
Matt had quite a friendly war. I should have kept track of the time, but I'm sure we rolled for around 10 minutes. There was quite a bit of back and forth. We fought from each others half guard a few times. I would switch hips and attempt to pull my knee out. Eventually I spent some time in the bottom of his mount and he started to loosen my gi to start a brabo. I'm not sure how I got out of mount but I felt really claustrophobic a couple times. I remember working from deep half a bit as well as completing a butterfly sweep. Eventually I was able to isolate an arm from top half guard and finished with an americana.
This could have gone either way as there were a couple of times when I didn't feel like I would have the energy to get back on top. I really hate this feeling when I'm trying to gauge how much energy I have left to use and then I'm wary of trying anything that could gas me, but I need to do something because I'm behind. Often this bites me in the ass when I should fight my hardest to maintain guard instead of starting to fight hard once I'm in bad position.
Tye (sp?) was interesting to roll with. He has some flexibility and wasn't too bad with his pass attempts. I quite a bit bigger than him and having more experience helps. At one point I threw on a north/south choke and he asked me to show it to him and how to defend it. To which I never refuse to show someone a part of my game. Seemed like he picked up on it pretty well. Later on he almost caught me in a triangle. He had my head and arm trapped in but wasn't able to completely lock it up and I used the knee pry to eventually escape, although he did have me a little worried. I gave him some pointers on changing the angle on the triangle after that roll and he seemed to appreciate it.
It's been a long time since I rolled with Phil and he asked me not to kick his ass too bad. Jokingly I told him that was up to him. I played some guard and off the bat attempted a hip bump sweep which he shut down. I attributed that to being one of the favorite techniques of our friend Jorge. I eventually played some deep half guard and was able to sweep. In the end I was able to setup an armbar and after some work was able to separate his hands. We went over armbar escapes as well as finishing the armbar. He mentioned that people were able to stack him while attempting the armbar and Will and I advised him to use the leg over their head more to pin them. Also I went over not trying to pull at the elbow to get the armbar but to attack lower by the wrist to lever it better.
Friday, August 8, 2014
August 8th 2014 - Gi (Plateaus, Fugetaboutit)
First off I wanted to wish my teammates well in this weekend's IBJJF tournament in Chicago. I've trained with everyone competing and respect them all greatly. I know if I was competing, I would be beyond nervous at this point with stomach pains and acting all jittery. I know they will represent our school well and do their best! Go get 'em Greg, Conan, Mike, Sara, and Henry!
Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break & Toreando Pass
Partner: Bhuvana
I might have been a little too hard on Bhuvana today while trying to help her with the guard break. From the bottom it looked like she was putting too much weight forward and not getting down low enough with her knees. I think Greg was trying to tell me to ease up by saying she has a different body type than me so it will look a little different. She did well regardless and I saw some improvement since Tuesday. Towards the end I practiced a few x-passes and it felt pretty good.
Rolling: Positional Rolling Feet on Hips Guard various grip restrictions, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Ross
This turned out to be some tough training for a beginners class. We went 6 x 2 min rounds starting with top person with pant grips but bottom person could not use any grips. We weren't expected to prevent passes but give the top person a hard time with out legs. I felt pretty good about my weaving and foot pressure using the hips, shoulder, and bicep but it was inevitable that Ross passed many times. From the top I was able to get quite a bit of work done using toreando and x-pass as needed
The next round we were only aloud to have one grip and the other hand in our belt. I started with the cross grip thinking it was going to be the be all end all. It really didn't work out that way. Without being able to underhook and control their other leg the cross grip actually caused me problems. Moving the same side grip made a huge difference and allowed me to stiff arm a bit to keep Ross off of me. As the exercise went on Ross seemed to tighten up his technique quite a bit and was using more elbow control and good posture.
The final part we were allowed both grips and by this time I was getting winded but dug deep to push myself through it. We ended in half guard a few times, but probably the most frustrating for him was when he was able to pass but I used his sleeve to stiff arm and regain guard. I worked more on the x-pass from the top and it felt great.
With my new affinity for the x-pass I feel like the thoughts of being on a plateau have passed me. I think the feeling was more about not knowing what to focus on next, but it seems like smash and x pass are going to fit into my game quite nicely. I can also see the 2 on 1 becoming a big part of my game. Thanks competition class!
Below is a video of Rener Gracie rolling without the use of his hands that I figured was appropriate to share.
Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break & Toreando Pass
Partner: Bhuvana
I might have been a little too hard on Bhuvana today while trying to help her with the guard break. From the bottom it looked like she was putting too much weight forward and not getting down low enough with her knees. I think Greg was trying to tell me to ease up by saying she has a different body type than me so it will look a little different. She did well regardless and I saw some improvement since Tuesday. Towards the end I practiced a few x-passes and it felt pretty good.
Rolling: Positional Rolling Feet on Hips Guard various grip restrictions, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Ross
This turned out to be some tough training for a beginners class. We went 6 x 2 min rounds starting with top person with pant grips but bottom person could not use any grips. We weren't expected to prevent passes but give the top person a hard time with out legs. I felt pretty good about my weaving and foot pressure using the hips, shoulder, and bicep but it was inevitable that Ross passed many times. From the top I was able to get quite a bit of work done using toreando and x-pass as needed
The next round we were only aloud to have one grip and the other hand in our belt. I started with the cross grip thinking it was going to be the be all end all. It really didn't work out that way. Without being able to underhook and control their other leg the cross grip actually caused me problems. Moving the same side grip made a huge difference and allowed me to stiff arm a bit to keep Ross off of me. As the exercise went on Ross seemed to tighten up his technique quite a bit and was using more elbow control and good posture.
The final part we were allowed both grips and by this time I was getting winded but dug deep to push myself through it. We ended in half guard a few times, but probably the most frustrating for him was when he was able to pass but I used his sleeve to stiff arm and regain guard. I worked more on the x-pass from the top and it felt great.
With my new affinity for the x-pass I feel like the thoughts of being on a plateau have passed me. I think the feeling was more about not knowing what to focus on next, but it seems like smash and x pass are going to fit into my game quite nicely. I can also see the 2 on 1 becoming a big part of my game. Thanks competition class!
Below is a video of Rener Gracie rolling without the use of his hands that I figured was appropriate to share.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
August 6th 2014 - Gi (Playing it Safe?)
Theme & Techniques: Standing Guard Break to Knee Slide Pass and X-Pass
Partner: Bauer, Jerad
Greg started explaining the standing guard break but then stopped and said "you guys all know this" and hurried along to the passing part. Jerad mentioned that I need to work on getting my hip to the floor a little more and I think I was planting my knee too soon instead of sliding down their leg a little more.
I was not too familiar with the x-pass, so it was great to work on something new. The setup is very similar to the smash pass as in the grips are the same by grabbing the outside of the knee and grabbing the lapel. So I can see how these 2 passes can work in tandem. I've seen Jerad and Mike work this pass from time to time and never really knew the specifics of it.
The steps are: 1. Standing guard break; 2. Grab lapel and connect elbow to knee; 3. push their foot between your legs; 4. Grab the pants at the knee; 5. Do like a swinging back kick while pushing their knee down; 6. Move to knee on belly.
Rolling: Tournament Style Matches
Rolled With: Bauer, Jerad, Fuji, Gina
I went with Bauer first and after some takedown attempts from both of us I pulled guard attempting to move to cross guard. He did a good job defending and from there I hung out in closed guard for the rest of the match. I attempted cross guard a few more times but he pulled his leg away each time, I think I need a go to answer for this. For a while I had a pistol grip on his sleeve and had it across his body but I was still unable to do anything with it. My main concern was running out of gas, so I attempted to take everything in stride and try using technique as much as I can. His strength was difficult to deal with and I didn't want to make any mistakes so I played it really safe and didn't go for some things I probably should have. I was eventually able to setup an omoplata and had it locked up but he did a great job of defending, I think I could have probably swept at one point but just held the submission instead, but we ended up back in the guard and I was given an advantage. So playing safe worked out in in this situation, but this is training and not a tournament, I probably should have went for more techniques and took some risks instead.
Jerad dominated me pretty well. I attempted my guard pull to cross guard on him but he defended it by standing and using good posture. From there he spent a lot of time in top half guard and quarter guard either attempting to pass or switching and going for mount. It's pretty frustrating to be in the same place with him every time we roll. He eventually arm barred me after I fended off his mounted triangle attempt. Our second roll was mostly the same, except he set up an awesome ankle pick to take me down.
With Fuji we started from knees and he pulled guard first. There was a point where he was putting me into side control and I was able to use the stiff arm escape and regain guard. However, I have a very hard time of doing any type of guard against him. I went for cross guard and he stacked my leg and then eventually made me invert and I panicked a bit when I felt stuck and gave up side control. I attempted an underhook to try to get to guard and then he started playing his brabo grips and worked his way to a choke. I got really frustrated here and a little angry because I didn't feel like I could do anything. Even though Fuji didn't know it I apologized to him after class for being so mad at him.
I had to dig deep for some energy to roll with Gina. We both played a little guard and I worked my way into the setup for the x-pass and attempted it. I attempted a north/south choke but I don't think I was actually choking her small neck, but she tapped because we weren't really going anywhere. She jumped on side control while I was lying there and I had to defend from there. I worked for the stiff arm escape and maybe used a little bit of my size to put her all the way over into my side control. I then worked my way into back control and had quite a fight to get my hooks in and then the timer went off.
Partner: Bauer, Jerad
Greg started explaining the standing guard break but then stopped and said "you guys all know this" and hurried along to the passing part. Jerad mentioned that I need to work on getting my hip to the floor a little more and I think I was planting my knee too soon instead of sliding down their leg a little more.
I was not too familiar with the x-pass, so it was great to work on something new. The setup is very similar to the smash pass as in the grips are the same by grabbing the outside of the knee and grabbing the lapel. So I can see how these 2 passes can work in tandem. I've seen Jerad and Mike work this pass from time to time and never really knew the specifics of it.
The steps are: 1. Standing guard break; 2. Grab lapel and connect elbow to knee; 3. push their foot between your legs; 4. Grab the pants at the knee; 5. Do like a swinging back kick while pushing their knee down; 6. Move to knee on belly.
Rolling: Tournament Style Matches
Rolled With: Bauer, Jerad, Fuji, Gina
I went with Bauer first and after some takedown attempts from both of us I pulled guard attempting to move to cross guard. He did a good job defending and from there I hung out in closed guard for the rest of the match. I attempted cross guard a few more times but he pulled his leg away each time, I think I need a go to answer for this. For a while I had a pistol grip on his sleeve and had it across his body but I was still unable to do anything with it. My main concern was running out of gas, so I attempted to take everything in stride and try using technique as much as I can. His strength was difficult to deal with and I didn't want to make any mistakes so I played it really safe and didn't go for some things I probably should have. I was eventually able to setup an omoplata and had it locked up but he did a great job of defending, I think I could have probably swept at one point but just held the submission instead, but we ended up back in the guard and I was given an advantage. So playing safe worked out in in this situation, but this is training and not a tournament, I probably should have went for more techniques and took some risks instead.
Jerad dominated me pretty well. I attempted my guard pull to cross guard on him but he defended it by standing and using good posture. From there he spent a lot of time in top half guard and quarter guard either attempting to pass or switching and going for mount. It's pretty frustrating to be in the same place with him every time we roll. He eventually arm barred me after I fended off his mounted triangle attempt. Our second roll was mostly the same, except he set up an awesome ankle pick to take me down.
With Fuji we started from knees and he pulled guard first. There was a point where he was putting me into side control and I was able to use the stiff arm escape and regain guard. However, I have a very hard time of doing any type of guard against him. I went for cross guard and he stacked my leg and then eventually made me invert and I panicked a bit when I felt stuck and gave up side control. I attempted an underhook to try to get to guard and then he started playing his brabo grips and worked his way to a choke. I got really frustrated here and a little angry because I didn't feel like I could do anything. Even though Fuji didn't know it I apologized to him after class for being so mad at him.
I had to dig deep for some energy to roll with Gina. We both played a little guard and I worked my way into the setup for the x-pass and attempted it. I attempted a north/south choke but I don't think I was actually choking her small neck, but she tapped because we weren't really going anywhere. She jumped on side control while I was lying there and I had to defend from there. I worked for the stiff arm escape and maybe used a little bit of my size to put her all the way over into my side control. I then worked my way into back control and had quite a fight to get my hooks in and then the timer went off.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
August 5th 2014 - Gi
Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break & Toreando Pass
Partner: Bhuvana
Bhuvana seemed a little more nervous about being thrown today than usual. Eventually she relaxed when she realized I wasn't going to drop her on her head. She also got better at throwing with a couple of changes to keeping her feet closer, bending her knees and pushing her hip out.
The standing guard break is one of the most important things the beginner can learn. It is so powerful when you are unable to open someone's guard the normal way. Plus passing while standing is very strong. Again there were only a couple things that I had to correct while Bhuvana was practicing it: Secure their hand against their chest, keep good posture at all times, and connect the elbows to the knees. My major take away was that I kept stepping with the wrong foot first doing the toreando pass from the left side. I'll have to work on this.
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Guard Position, Shark Tank for Greg, Post Class Rolling
Rolled With: Greg, Brian (Firefighter), Tim
Greg had myself and Robert take turns rolling with him. Greg is planning on competing this Saturday and an IBJJF tournament in Chicago. While Robert rolled with him first I jumped in on a couple of up/down/out rounds. Tim did a pretty good job of preventing my passing followed by Brian doing a good job of preventing my sweep attempts. With both of them I had to pull several techniques out of my toolbox in order to stay ahead of them.
I turned up the aggression with Greg and tried to move as fast as I could. My stand-up was okay, we struggled with trying to throw each other a few times but I both of us ended up pulling guard when we could. He pulled off an awesome butterfly sweep where it seemed like I was far enough away to regain balance, but he was able to gain more ground by front shrimping or scooting. Most of the time I spent on the bottom of knee on belly as he setup brabo grips and went for chokes. I saw him do the same butterfly sweep motion to Robert, which was cool to watch, but I still don't feel like I know how he does it.
I led the class through stretching as Robert and Greg finished one more round. After class I rolled with Tim a couple times. I'm finding more and more success with the bicep stiff arm and after regaining full guard against Tim, I showed it to him and it seemed like he picked it up and liked it. We also discussed some half guard cross facing.
Partner: Bhuvana
Bhuvana seemed a little more nervous about being thrown today than usual. Eventually she relaxed when she realized I wasn't going to drop her on her head. She also got better at throwing with a couple of changes to keeping her feet closer, bending her knees and pushing her hip out.
The standing guard break is one of the most important things the beginner can learn. It is so powerful when you are unable to open someone's guard the normal way. Plus passing while standing is very strong. Again there were only a couple things that I had to correct while Bhuvana was practicing it: Secure their hand against their chest, keep good posture at all times, and connect the elbows to the knees. My major take away was that I kept stepping with the wrong foot first doing the toreando pass from the left side. I'll have to work on this.
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Guard Position, Shark Tank for Greg, Post Class Rolling
Rolled With: Greg, Brian (Firefighter), Tim
Greg had myself and Robert take turns rolling with him. Greg is planning on competing this Saturday and an IBJJF tournament in Chicago. While Robert rolled with him first I jumped in on a couple of up/down/out rounds. Tim did a pretty good job of preventing my passing followed by Brian doing a good job of preventing my sweep attempts. With both of them I had to pull several techniques out of my toolbox in order to stay ahead of them.
I turned up the aggression with Greg and tried to move as fast as I could. My stand-up was okay, we struggled with trying to throw each other a few times but I both of us ended up pulling guard when we could. He pulled off an awesome butterfly sweep where it seemed like I was far enough away to regain balance, but he was able to gain more ground by front shrimping or scooting. Most of the time I spent on the bottom of knee on belly as he setup brabo grips and went for chokes. I saw him do the same butterfly sweep motion to Robert, which was cool to watch, but I still don't feel like I know how he does it.
I led the class through stretching as Robert and Greg finished one more round. After class I rolled with Tim a couple times. I'm finding more and more success with the bicep stiff arm and after regaining full guard against Tim, I showed it to him and it seemed like he picked it up and liked it. We also discussed some half guard cross facing.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
August 2nd 2014 - Kids, Competition Class, Open Mat
Kids' Class
My boys were the only two in class again and they were not really on their best behavior. It was the same thing with Jayden letting his head hit the ground after each back fall, I'll try to work on it with him tomorrow. Then neither of them wanted to do forward rolls on their left sides. They do have fun during the games and they want to go to class. Hopefully someday they'll share the love of this martial art with me.
Flag tag has been going very well and they seem to enjoy it. They both have their own strategies as Jace has the most success pushing his opponent out of the ring, while Jayden has success hand fighting and getting around to pull the flag.
Competition Class
Partner: Conan
I met with Greg before the kids class and we decided on the techniques I would drill during the competition class 2 on 1 to Back Take, Smash Pass, Deep Half Homer Sweep. Conan was great to work with and gave me some pointers that will be a huge improvement on the techniques that I chose.
Closed Guard 2 on 1 to Back take: Conan gave me 2 changes on this one. First was a more efficient way to get to the hand position after grabbing the pistol grip. The second was during the butt scoot to push their arm away more to get them to turn. Both were huge improvements.
Smash Pass: I had to have Greg show this to me before class which helped. I think my biggest problem with it right now is not knowing when to use it. My second problem is the timing of switching to the underhook during the pass motion. Conan helped me figure out how to keep my hips lower and have been head pressure. I felt a lot better about this pass after the drilling portion.
Deep Half Homer Sweep: I wasn't really feeling this technique today, and I'm not sure why. I think I'm still having trouble with the knee control, which may be the problem. I find that my opponent's other leg is getting in the way quite often when I go for the actual sweep.
Ross and I had a tournament style match which I'm having a difficult time remembering. My first goal was to keep him from passing guard since he was able to pass twice yesterday. Somehow I went from guard to side mount and setup a farside armbar. I helped him with his single leg a little bit with the little before the class ended. Then I showed him my setup for the breadcutter that has worked well for me, that Jerad showed me previously.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jordan, Austin, Conan, Greg
Jordan: We rolled 3 or 4 times where I started in guard each time. I mostly played butterfly and spider until I could sweep or setup a loop choke. I stressed to him to fight for good pant grips when starting and we worked on a bullfighter a bit.
Austin: I made my way to side control and from there attempted a bow and arrow. The gi was over his chin and he was able to defend off the choke with some good hand fighting. I moved to back control next and worked on the RNC setup. I had to lock his arm up with my legs and then used the pry that Greg has described multiple times to work my way into the choke.
Conan: He was nursing a thumb injury that I hope will heal by next Saturday. I played a lot of guard against him and even successfully used his cross bicep stiff arm to regain guard like he showed me. I played a little cross guard and I unbalanced him a little but wasn't able to sweep or did I? Somehow in the end I was on top attempting to pass his guard, but I think his thumb was bothering him and he had to quit.
Greg: He rolled with me under the condition that I drill something with him, which I'm more than happy to do. He wanted to work on his guard pulling which is awesome. I think I'm figuring out how he's getting to single leg-x but I don't really know how to prevent it...yet. I don't remember how he submitted me but I defended a baseball bat choke and then an armbar. I don't remember what he ended up submitting me with though.
My boys were the only two in class again and they were not really on their best behavior. It was the same thing with Jayden letting his head hit the ground after each back fall, I'll try to work on it with him tomorrow. Then neither of them wanted to do forward rolls on their left sides. They do have fun during the games and they want to go to class. Hopefully someday they'll share the love of this martial art with me.
Flag tag has been going very well and they seem to enjoy it. They both have their own strategies as Jace has the most success pushing his opponent out of the ring, while Jayden has success hand fighting and getting around to pull the flag.
Competition Class
Partner: Conan
I met with Greg before the kids class and we decided on the techniques I would drill during the competition class 2 on 1 to Back Take, Smash Pass, Deep Half Homer Sweep. Conan was great to work with and gave me some pointers that will be a huge improvement on the techniques that I chose.
Closed Guard 2 on 1 to Back take: Conan gave me 2 changes on this one. First was a more efficient way to get to the hand position after grabbing the pistol grip. The second was during the butt scoot to push their arm away more to get them to turn. Both were huge improvements.
Smash Pass: I had to have Greg show this to me before class which helped. I think my biggest problem with it right now is not knowing when to use it. My second problem is the timing of switching to the underhook during the pass motion. Conan helped me figure out how to keep my hips lower and have been head pressure. I felt a lot better about this pass after the drilling portion.
Deep Half Homer Sweep: I wasn't really feeling this technique today, and I'm not sure why. I think I'm still having trouble with the knee control, which may be the problem. I find that my opponent's other leg is getting in the way quite often when I go for the actual sweep.
Ross and I had a tournament style match which I'm having a difficult time remembering. My first goal was to keep him from passing guard since he was able to pass twice yesterday. Somehow I went from guard to side mount and setup a farside armbar. I helped him with his single leg a little bit with the little before the class ended. Then I showed him my setup for the breadcutter that has worked well for me, that Jerad showed me previously.
Open Mat
Rolled With: Jordan, Austin, Conan, Greg
Jordan: We rolled 3 or 4 times where I started in guard each time. I mostly played butterfly and spider until I could sweep or setup a loop choke. I stressed to him to fight for good pant grips when starting and we worked on a bullfighter a bit.
Austin: I made my way to side control and from there attempted a bow and arrow. The gi was over his chin and he was able to defend off the choke with some good hand fighting. I moved to back control next and worked on the RNC setup. I had to lock his arm up with my legs and then used the pry that Greg has described multiple times to work my way into the choke.
Conan: He was nursing a thumb injury that I hope will heal by next Saturday. I played a lot of guard against him and even successfully used his cross bicep stiff arm to regain guard like he showed me. I played a little cross guard and I unbalanced him a little but wasn't able to sweep or did I? Somehow in the end I was on top attempting to pass his guard, but I think his thumb was bothering him and he had to quit.
Greg: He rolled with me under the condition that I drill something with him, which I'm more than happy to do. He wanted to work on his guard pulling which is awesome. I think I'm figuring out how he's getting to single leg-x but I don't really know how to prevent it...yet. I don't remember how he submitted me but I defended a baseball bat choke and then an armbar. I don't remember what he ended up submitting me with though.
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