Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Shoulder injuries, crossfit, weightlifting

I found out right before Casca Grossa that I've been running around with my shoulder partially dislocated, got that fixed and did ok at CG. Took 2nd. My boy Johnny destroyed his division again despite the weightclasses being changed at the last second. He was down to 195lbs expecting to be in the 199 division. They changed it up though and he was in the 190-215lb division. The other guy I took got 3rd, which was great since it's his first ever grappling tournament.
I'm still working out with them on Fridays, but my actual BJJ is going to be sporadic because once again my downfall was not a lack of skill or technique, but a lack of strength and endurance. So I'm continuing with my lifting and starting Crossfit this friday. For the next few months my emphasis is going to be on conditioning and strength training instead of Jiujitsu. Hopefully my friday workouts and my general screwing around will be enough to keep me from losing too much skill in the mean time.
I added deadlifts in to my lifting also, and everything is still sitting at 95 lbs. Getting 5x5 reps of overhead press w/ 95 has proven to be difficult with my shoulder healing, but it's mostly there now, so I'm going to give it a try again tonight.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Twice in one week? OMFGWTFBBQ!

Yeah, so made it to class again today. It was my favorite kind of class, all rolling. I rolled w/ Patrick and got less murdered today. I took his back and rolled for an armbar, but I broke his grip with the wrong foot (The one by his head) and he rolled up and out of it. Other than that, I didn't really get any opportunities to finish him. Though I did find that EVERYONE is too strong for me to Kimura from guard off of a failed situp sweep. Then I rolled with.... dude whose name I forget who doesn't seem to ever tap to anything. Triangled him twice and tried to "Teepee" him, but couldn't get it tight enough. Then I caught him in an Omoplata, but he drug me around and I couldn't lock it in, so I turned it into an Omegaplata (Omoplata locked in, extend the top leg across the throat like a Gogplata and reach up and grab your foot.) but couldn't get enough pressure to tap him with that either. He kept trying to Darce me from halfguard, but he wasn't getting his weight on top of me enough so I was able to sit out, posture up and spin, I pushed him over and took side control twice. As well as sweep him a few times and end up in mount. Which was like trying to stay on a freaking crazed bull.
After that me and Gumby rolled, which was a blast as usual. He's not as heavy as the other guys and not insanely stronger than me. He's also only a little more flexible than I am, which makes for some crazy shit. We ended up with some crazy double leg lock on each other, when spinning out of that I ended up with an ankle lock, which we then rolled out of and I ended up with side control. I even managed to get an arm triangle, but he peeled me off with his feet. All kinds of good positional stuff. Tons of fun. Unfortunately I have shit to do every day next week and won't be able to make any classes. I might not even be able to lift, which would blow. But we shall see.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Ugh. Going in Reverse sucks...

It could have been worse. That's about all I can say. Missing an entire month of class I came back and could feel how much ground I had lost. Guys that I could beat were holding their own against me, guys I could stalemate were smashing me. I really have to find a way to make it to class more often.
During the first part of class we worked Open Guard and I got to play with my butterfly guard a bit which worked reasonably well. I'm getting better at it, but I still feel like I don't have enough leg strength to make it work against people 30+ lbs heavier than I am. I was able to pass a few peoples open guard and generally just got to work on my passing which has improved a lot even with the backsliding.
After that we worked on "popcorn" which is using small explosive movements chained together to escape from a tight hold. I'm not particularly good at it making a whole bunch of movements, but I never seemed to need more than 3 or so to get a knee wedged in.
After that we went live and I rolled w/ Gumby which was a blast. We ended up in some strange positions and generally just had a good time. I was mostly able to defend against everyone and even ended up with mount on a couple of people, an omoplata that I just couldn't finish and a gogoplata that the guy just wouldn't tap to, I think it was the same guy in two different rolls actually... Then I rolled w/ Ralph and that boy has gotten slicker than shit. He's half asleep and choking me silly now. I can't wait to see his first Ammy fight coming up. I expect him to steamroll his opponent in short order.
Lifting weights tonight, then class on Thursday. Meeting Johnny and some of the guys on Friday to work on my wrestling too.