March 31st 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing RNC defense using Seoi nage, Farside Armbar from Side Control
Students: Jordan, Bhuvana, Dave, Byrav, Derek, Kirk (visitor), Chris C.

Been out all week since I've been suffering from a back ache.  I hurt it doing something benign as sitting on the floor and setting up our kindle fire so my son could watch a Curious George video.  I just twisted to reach a bit and felt something was a little wrong.  My back got progressively worse Saturday and Conan and I were pretty worthless trying to teach the kids class, because he also had an ear infection the day before.

It felt good to get on the mat today.  I am not 100% but I was able to demonstrate most of the exercises for the new guy and didn't have too many problems with the techniques. The shoulder throw was probably the most difficult thing for me.

Here are some tips for this week's techniques:

• Shoulder Throw RNC Defense: The bits of advice I gave out the most were to use their belt knot as a guide to how low you need to get your hips.  I like to get my shoulder as high as I can into their armpit.
• Farside Armbar: Keeping the knee up while switching sides is very important.  Don't let them sit on your leg.  
• Scissor Sweep: Make a connection with your opponent.  One you have your grips and get to position sit up into them and when you fall back take them with you so you can scissor their legs easier.

Rolling: Side Control (2 x 2 min), Guard (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Kirk, Bhuvana, Dave

Rolling went okay.  There were a couple moments where I didn't feel like I could bridge nearly as well as I normally do so I chose my moments of when to exert myself.  I rolled with Kirk and did my best to explain the positions and talk him through some things.  At the end of class, he seemed very interested in returning, very cool.

Bhuvana and Dave were good rolls and presented some challenges with my back.  I let a few things go that I normally wouldn't have like a guard break and pass but I kind of liked the idea of choosing techniques to overcome an injury.

March 25th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Side Control Basic Escape to Guard, Americana from Side Control
Partner: Craig, Jesus

Conan threw in a few of the advanced warm-ups like side rolls and butterfly guard walks.  During the throw training, Jesus had a little bit of trouble with the upper body work of the throw.  I think he was more trying to push Craig back rather than put his weight down on the foot that he's going to kick out. 

Rolling: Side Control (4 x 4 min), Open Guard King of the Mat
Rolled With: Josh J, Justin, Jordan, Craig, Jesus, Tyler

Had some good rolls today and I'm going to have to take a couple people more seriously.  I'm glad to have Justin in these Friday mornings as he's also a blue belt and he's gotten better since he's been attending the advanced classes.  Hopefully he'll continue to show up.

Jordan surprised me during king of the mat open guard.  He came close to passing so I turtled.  He immediately went for the turn over and got my lapel and switched sides and pulled me on my side and went for the back take and got it.  Executed perfectly!  So he's moved up a category of someone that I will not take lightly.

Office Hours Partner: Josh J

Josh really surprised me today.  He took it to me and prevented quite a few things that I would normally get easily.  There was a point when I was in deep half guard and went for the normal homer sweep and came up but I was being lazy and brought my arm to the inside right into a triangle.  It took a little while and made me question if I should gut this out or tap.  I attempted the knee in escape but he was too high on my chest and eventually I tapped and told him great job.  He played it off that I wasn't trying my best or screwing around, but honestly I made a lazy mistake that I shouldn't have made when coming up from deep half and I paid for it.  It made me think that I can get lackadaisical when I roll with some of the junior guys and I should really be striving for perfect technique all the time.  I don't have to always go hard but I need to cut down on simple mistakes just because I can get away with them most of the time. 

March 24th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Side Control Basic Escape to Guard, Americana from Side Control
Partner: John, Tim, Derek, Bhuvana, Byrav, Bob, Morgan, Chris C, Harvey, Andy

The biggest class that I've taught to date.  I taught everything pretty much the same as yesterday with some stand-up grip fighting, pummeling etc.  Then right into O-Soto Gari and having them focus on the upper body instead of the trip. 

One thing that I noticed a lot while they were working on the americana was too much use of the arm to push their opponents arm to the mat.  Connect their arm to your chest and use your legs to get their arm to the floor. 

Rolling: Up/Down/Out Side Control, Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Most of the class

Saw some good things in rolling.  I was surprised that I didn't see very many people making it to mount.  That may be something that I could put a class together on in the future as I feel like I am developing my transitions into mount pretty well. 

I had a tough roll with Derek that pretty much ended in a stalemate.  I pulled guard and tried to sweep or choke him and he kept not letting me.  When it was over and I stood up, my thighs were fatigued from trying to keep him in guard. 

Office Hours Partner: Harvey, Chris

Went over armbar from the guard with Harvey and we got into a short discussion about trigger positions.  He said he understood how to do the armbar and which way to turn when we are drilling it but under pressure he couldn't think about the same things clearly.  This is the reason that we need to drill things and come up with the positions that trigger these techniques for us.  In this case when the arm goes across my belly and their elbow is near my hip that is my trigger to start the armbar process. 

Rolled a few times with Chris and we worked on some mount defense and offense.  I showed him how to isolate an arm using his body more than arm strength and how important taking a higher mount is. 

March 23rd 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Side Control Basic Escape to Guard, Americana from Side Control
Students: Mike A, Tom, Jordan, John, Byrav

Felt good about the information that I dispensed today.  Of course it helps that I'm comfortable using these particular techniques in rolling.  did a couple standup rounds with grip fighting, fighting for thai clinch, and alternating throws. 

I tried something new when teaching O-Soto Gari and had them not do the trip the first time around.  Instead they were just supposed to do the step and the steering with the arms to focus on this part of the throw more.  I think too many people (myself included) focus so much on the tripping part and don't do enough with the upper body.  I may try teaching it again this way tomorrow.

Tips on the other techniques:

• Side Control Escape: bridge like you are going to knock them over, make them react to your bridge.  Keep your foot engaged with the floor
• Americana: Once you are in the position to finish this technique keep your own wrists straight.  Have your hand on their wrist instead of half on their hand.  Lock everything in with your elbow in their neck.  Drive their arm down as you lift their elbow keeping the back of their hand on the floor.

Rolling: King of the Mat Side Control, Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Everyone

Had some good rolls and attempted the side control escape when I could.  I wasn't able to pull off any americanas.  Both Mike and John foiled my side switch baseball bat choke because my posture was too high.  So new part of this is I have to stay low and not let them get their legs involved.  Can't have people get wise to my technique.  I did setup a darce, some north/south chokes and some back takes. 

March 22nd 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Attacking Turtle to Back Mount
Partner: Bhuvana

Good topic for class today as I don't think we've covered turtle in this Tuesday no gi class.  Some basic things to remember for the top person:

• Keep your weight low and over their hips draping your across their lower back
• Always be trying to weasel your hands either into the spot between their hip and leg
• Harness grip needs to be tight, I like to think about squeezing my elbows into them rather then pulling straight back on my hands.

Rolling: Turtle Up/Down/Out
Rolled With: Mike A, Derek M, Tom, Harvey, Morgan, Bhuvana, and others

I felt unstoppable with my granby roll today.  I'd bide my time and keep my defenses tight and then blast into a roll when the coast was clear.  One of the big keys was something that Tom and I talked about after class, when I start on the bottom of the position, I don't let anyone have any grips before we begin.  It's easier to prevent them than it is to remove them. 

Mike did give me some trouble when I was on top.  I felt like I was so close to taking his back but I got my weight just a little too high and he shrugged me off.  Otherwise I was attacking the back pretty consistently with the technique that we did today.

Office Hours Partner: Harvey, Tom

I showed the guys that hung around how I do my granby roll and some basic tips for it.  Mike gave some pointers on crucifix stuff that I've been wondering about and Tom helped me practice that a few times.

March 19th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Farside Armbar, Paint Brush
Rolling/Game: Side Control, Stand Up Sparring, Sharks and Octopuses

Helped teach with Jerad today so attended both kid classes.  I always get a bit of a workout in the little kids class because we do the break falls with them but we also worked on the footwork for the double leg shot.

For the older kids class, Jerad said if they wanted to spar more than everyone would need to do warm-ups quicker. I think this encouraged Jayden to go a little faster.  They did get to spar more and do some stand-up sparring.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Adam, Derek W, Mike A, Bhuvana, Bauer
Game Plan: Bottom - Cross Guard Top - Spiral Armbar

Holy crap there was a lot of people training today, probably the most I've ever seen in an open mat. Luckily Dwight thought of taking a picture. There was almost no room between people training. I think we're gonna need a bigger boat.

Adam: We rolled for over half an hour but I felt pretty strong throughout our roll.  Today was the closest I've come to submitting him with both an Ezekiel and a loop choke but he got out of them.  He's made me better at escaping side control and  avoiding his butcher.  I need to work on preventing his smash and kick out guard pass.  I'm going to catch him one of these days.

Derek: He had a great attitude toward rolling as we probably went 8 times. Had to give him pointers on guard passing and going for pant grips. I should write an FAQ and post it on the wall.  We talked a bit about bottom half and creating space with framing.

Mike: We rolled twice and with the first roll he caught me with a kneebar from inverted half guard. In our second roll he attacked a wristlock and became focused on finishing it, but flexible wrists are one positive things about 20 years of Hapkido.  He focused on it so much that I was able to take his back. It wasn't over yet, I tried to secure the RNC but he fought it well, eventually I ended up in mount trying setup arm triangle ended up in side mount and set up the switch side baseball bat choke.

Bhuvana: We talked about some strategies from bottom midrange half guard, as she had a little trouble from there. My suggestion was knee shield. If there's space in half, I'll always go for it.

Bauer: We didn't roll but he let me drill some deep half stuff and put a little resistance in there.  It was pretty tough drilling with his flexibility in this position.

March 18th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Kesa Getami Roll Over Escape, Straight Foot Lock
Partner: Morgan, Josh J

With Conan teaching I was able to get some reps of this week's techniques since I taught the last 2 days.  Conan emphasized a couple of things that I did not.  I will have to go over the technique again with Greg to iron a few things out.  Do I want their toes secure before I lay to the side?  Do you bring my back leg up after breaking the guard?  Otherwise I'm feeling confident in finishing the straight footlock where previously I felt it was hit or miss.

Rolling: Guard (4 x 3 min), Free Rolling (2 x 5 min)
Rolled With: Josh, Jesus, Justin, Morgan

Some good rolling occurred.  Josh tried to catch me with cross guard omoplata with me responding with an "nah uh uh" you're not catching me with my favorite thing, at least not until he practices it more.  He did a good job with hand fighting and preventing me from a lot of the grips that I wanted. 

Justin and I had a good roll as well.  I thought I had him there for a little while but he escaped my side control to turtle and then I went for a crucifix but was a little too high on his shoulders, I should have rolled more over his back.  Eventually I'll put some time into researching this position.

Office Hours Partner: Josh

We went over cross guard per his request.  Something that helped him was when I said that the cross guard was another guard.  He seemed to want to quickly get to the omoplata but I think it of more like going 90 degrees twice.  So I helped him tighten the position and gave a few contingencies.  We talked about how my game developed and I gave my usual story that it didn't start really developing until our first competition class when Greg assigned me the techniques to drill (Cross Guard, Over/Under Pass).  He also paid me a huge compliment saying that he couldn't imagine that I was ever as lost at Jiu-Jitsu as he is.  I tried to get across that it felt like I spent my first year on the bottom of side control and that I felt like he is pretty good for how long he's been doing it.