Monday, November 30, 2009

Cobrinha is awesome.

So I picked up a copy of Cobrinha's DVDs a few days ago, and while 90% of the material is a bit beyond me right now the first DVD has some great stuff from full guard w/ the overhook that fits right in with my regular game as well as having some great butterfly stuff that works for me. I'm still watching it over and over trying to get a solid mental framework so I can practice working some of the techniques.
Class is going well, Operation Blue Belt is still a success, I'm getting tapped by Casey, Johnny, Coe and Kyle, not really anyone else coming close. I've got to get through the damn holiday season and then really crank down on my cardio to get ready for NAGA in February. I also have to get my weight lifting routine back because it has completely gone to shit. I think I'll have to just start at 87lbs again and work my way up from there. I also need to add protein powder to my chocolate milk and eat more. I really want to be back up close to 150 so I can cut to 139 again. I felt really strong last time I did that and I think it helped.

I've been improving my guard passing and working on keeping pressure on people. I've been using the Von Flue choke from side control as a means of control, putting a lot of pressure on people to hold them down. It's helped me think more about staying super heavy on everyone. Other than that still working on sweeps and passes.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Thoughts aAbout Levers

This post is going to be a bit rambling as I try to capture some thoughts I've had recently, so bear with me.

I was talking to some new guys at class and trying to think of things that were kind of over arching concepts they should keep in mind during class. It got me thinking about simple machines, levers, wheels, screws, that kind of thing. The lever gets a lot of credit in jiujitsu, but the wheel and the screw are big players as well as far as motion goes. As an example my strategy when dealing with very large people is to act as a wheel, or more specifically a marble. I make myself into a tight ball under them and roll myself around until I can pop out from under them. Screws make an appearance in many grip breaking techs and in finishing of subs like ankle locks and even the kimura. Thinking about simple machines when you are looking at your technique is a good way to get inside the fundamental mechanics of the move.

Concentrating on simple things like maintaining shoulder pressure and using my entire body to move people has really started to make a lot of things work for me that didn't before. My guard passing is getting better every time as are my sweeps.
I still feel a little weak with the subs sometimes though. I can get to the triangle or the armbar almost at will on some people, and just can't finish it. I'm not as frustrated about that as I used to be and am comfortable just bailing to a different sub or moving to a sweep continuously until I hit something. That means I'm spending a lot of time out positioning the bigger guys and not so much time finishing them.

Most importantly I feel like a lot of things are becoming natural and instinctive for me, like keeping pressure on when I'm passing guard and scooping up the legs for the under pass when the opportunity is there. Everything just seems to be fitting together really nicely and for once my ability to perform is outstripping my ability to explain. Usually I think through whatever I'm doing step by step as I do it and can easily break it down for other people. But several times tonight I just did something and had no idea how really. I just did it because it was "Right".
I want more of that.

I'm also holding off the wrestlers a hell of a lot better now than I used to. My open guard is... well... like I alluded to previously you need Elephants to get past my guard..

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Lifting Restart and Operation Blue Belt

So after recovering from shoulder, back, and knee injuries (All minor, but annoying when combined) I restarted lifting a couple of days ago.
My bench press I dropped down to 107 5x5 again, and did a set of 5x5 squats w/ 107. Tonight I did 2 sets of 5 w/ 107 on the squats, then kicked it up to 143 for the next 3x5. So I'll be doing 5x5 w/ 143 lbs ATG, which is my bodyweight. So not too shabby. Overhead press I dropped back to 87.5 3x3 to rebuild. Deadlift I bumped up to 143 as well. I think I can still make bodyweight benchpress by the end of december, but we'll see.

Operation Blue Belt is going well. Still haven't been tapped by any of the whitebelts except Vinni, who doesn't count because he should have been a blue long since. And I'm stalemating or beating most of the other Blues. My tournament schedule for next year is gonna be awesome with 3 NAGA events, the Miami Open, and at least 2 Lutadore events. I'm looking to bring home a lot of gold medals.