Friday, May 23, 2008

Attacks from the top of Side Control

I made it to the Monday and Thursday classes this week, whoot.
We've been working attacks from the top of Side Control all week, which is something I need a lot of practice with.
Adam laid out a five point guide for it:
1. Control the Upper body
2. Control the Hips
3. Kill the near arm
4. Attack the far arm
5. Stay mobile (I think this was the 5th one...)

I can do 1, 2, and 3 pretty damn well. I was able to hold down pretty much everyone I could get side control on. However the second I start attacking the farm arm I either free up their hips or their head and they escape. I need to figure out how to attack that arm without losing pressure.

Monday rolling was all from halfguard, I was making my sweeps work pretty well and even escaped from George when he got sloppy armbarring me.
Today we went live for the last 20 minutes of class, which is always fun. I rolled w/ Ralph for a while and we scrambled back and forth w/ sweeps and escapes. He triangled me and his legs are too short for Mikey's ankle lock escape to work, so I tapped. He also arm triangled me very very smoothly and RNCed me. I armbarred him, couldn't finish it, so did the foot across the forearm deal which he tapped to. I then found out that bicep splicers are frowned upon in the gym and so will no longer be using them.
I then rolled with some tall guy with a bunch of tattoos on his right arm. No idea what his name was, but he was pretty good. I defended well but he was able to Kimura me once and RNC me once as I recall. The mats were really slippery so mobility was pretty hard. Was some good rolls though.

Monday, May 19, 2008

NAGA Wrapup

I've been too lazy to update the blog, but I've finally gotten motivated to do it.
Our trip to NAGA was awesome. Johnny destroyed his division and took 1st place. I absolutely dominated my first opponent, got double underhooks standing and secure a nice bodylock, then picked him up and slammed the crap out of him. He fought his way back to standing and I tripped him down and landed in his guard. From there I postured up and dug my hands into the space under his lower ribs and let him wear himself out a bit, then I passed his guard, ended up in mount, got the "Who's Your Daddy?" choke but couldn't finish it, rolled back and put a triangle on him couldn't finish it, swept him and sat on the mounted triangle, still couldn't finish it. The guy was seriously game. I crushed him on points and looked good doing it.
After that match I couldn't even muster the strength to open my water bottle my grip was so blown. My cardio was fine, I wasn't really TIRED and my legs were fine, but my forearms were gone. My second match I need not describe since I got video of it, but I lost 6 to 3. Still had some good sweeps and escapes, but in the end he just had more strength/energy than I did.
The other guy who went with us, Ronnie, had his match at the same time Johnny had his finals match, I was busy coaching Johnny and didn't even know Ronnie was on the mats, so he lost on points basically because he had no direction. I'm proud of him though, it's the first competition of any kind he's ever been to.
Ronnie is now heading off for 3 months of Army Training, and Johnny is about to graduate with his Accounting degree. As soon as he gets employment he's coming up to Hardcore to sign up, he's also dropping down to 200, he's gonna be a monster at that weight.

I took a week off from class after NAGA while I tried to get my nutrition in order. I'm eatting better and have almost fixed my iron deficiency which was giving me problems previously. I'm also spend more time working on the Rower since my cardio is still crappy and I'm working on grip training.
I'm heading to class tonight for the two hour monday class. I'm going to try to roll 100% the entire time if I can.

Oh, Videos are:
My second match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2070345299862448585&hl=en
Johnny's first match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5683987099192848018&hl=en
Johnny's Second Match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4403537939271475905&hl=en
Johnny's Third Match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcrpHw2mzis
Ronnie's Match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4667472277371957823&hl=en

I'm too lazy to make them all links right now.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Wait... why am I driving home? Did class end...oooh...

So, awesome day for me at class yesterday. Another day heavy with rolling. First up I got to roll w/ Chad, who is one of the instructors and just plain awesome. We were going light, so he didn't murder me completely. For the first 15 minutes I was actually able to fend him off, caught an achilles lock and even managed to pass his guard to side control for a few seconds. We took a break for a couple of minutes and then started again. I managed to surprise him and get mount, ok well, what really happened was I surprised him, was going to get mount, then thought "No way is this going to work on Chad." and bailed to guard. He told me I should have kept going and gave me mount anyways. So semi legit. It lasted for all of 4 seconds, but still. I managed to pass to side control again after he showed me what I was doing wrong with my weight, gotta remember to keep my hips DOWN when I'm pinning the leg to pass. I got flipped over like a dozen times before Chad showed wtf I was doing wrong. After that it was straight to Kimura town from under side control about a dozen times. I would push him up to escape, but I wasn't getting my shoulders and head up, so he would just step over to headmount and take my arm. I need to remember to get up OFF the mat if I'm going to put my hands in his armpit and push. I also need to keep constant pressure on it.

After the 20th or so kimura in a row we took a break and I moved over to the other side of the room to roll w/ "anyone who is not chad" for a little while. I ended up with TJ who I've rolled with before, but who is NOT the person I kept thinking he was. TJ != to super flexible guy who takes my back from the bottom of north south, side control, etc...
He's been doing this about the same amount of time as I have, but is a little stronger. He had essentially no defense against the situp sweep, so I hit it relentlessly. He was good at getting out from under mount though and even when I could hold it I wasn't able to isolate an arm to finish him.
When he did pass my guard I frequently tied him up in half guard until he pushed all of his weight up onto me, then swept him over to side control. One of those times he reguarded and caught me in a triangle, which I defended for a while before he finally pulled my head down to get the tap. A little while after that he managed to pass to side control with a VERY tight arm triangle. As I was thinking "This is really tight, don't think I can fight out of it, I should tap..." I suddenly was driving home. I began to think, "Wait, why am I driving home? Did class end...?" Then I woke up on the mat. That's the first time I've been choked out.
No ill effects though, we went back to rolling and I continued to sweep him mercilessly and eventually caught him in a triangle and was able to finish it.

His sub defense is really good, but he has absolutely no defense against that situp sweep.

So, fun times. More or less held my own against Chad, got choked out by TJ. Funtimes.