Friday, September 25, 2009

Fun With Leglocks

Armed with my newfound Leglock knowledge I've been playing with The Saddle and heelhooks and kneebars along with my more open and sweep heavy guard. Wednesday night I got a chance to try my game out against our resident hyper flexible leglock specialist.
But first, we did some spider guard work and a takedown which was a staple from my TKD days, but is illegal in every grappling tournament of been to. The flying scissor takedown. I had a blast with it for a while, then we moved into drilling starting with sleeve grips and either feet on hips or feet on biceps. I started with feet on hips pretty much every time so I could start playing my normal open guard game. There was much sweeping and the occasional sub. I had fun. Anthony managed to wriggle out and escape from me a couple of times and I think he managed to get past my guard once, not sure on that one.
After that we got to roll, I did a 7ish minute round with one of the newer guys and worked him over a bit, tried to let him work some stuff. Then I got a 10 minute round with Mark our resident leg lock addict. With my newfound outlook on leglocks and how to use my feet and protect them as well as how to attack my opponent we spent nine minutes and about thirty seconds going back and forth. I swept him a bunch of times and out positioned him. He kept going for heel hooks, knee bars, etc... but I was able to defend them all fairly easily. Then with about 30 seconds left to go I set up the Saddle, caught him in it, and heel hooked him.

I'm loving the way my new game feels and flows. Props to Zapruder for this step in my development.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Rolling Kneebars, I has them

Sunday night we worked on stuff from the turtle, both attacking and defending. First was working on the fatboy roll, which I love and use all the time. The second was an armbar counter to the fatboy attempt, which I hated, the third was a rolling kneebar when your opponent is beside you with the harness. At first I thought the kneebar was a little gimmicky, then I reflexively hit it rolling and it worked great. So now I've added it into my arsenal. I also hit a pair of Kimura's from the turtle, which was just silly, but I was happy with them.
I think I'll have no problem with my blue belt test now. Weight lifting is going well, I need to keep hitting the conditioning that Coe is doing after the regular class. I skipped out on it Sunday.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Tryin to Catch the Blues

So post NAGA I'm concentrating on the stuff it will take to get my Blue belt in October. To that end I have abandoned closed guard entirely in favor of a sweep heavy open guard game. It was working out ok for me except against Ian who just completely wrecks my game. Something about the combination of his style and athleticism shuts down my normal methods and I have yet to come up with a way to handle him that doesn't involve me going full out 100% intensity. And even that just evens us up. So I have resolved to roll with him at every opportunity in order to sharpen my game up.
Other than that I feel solid about testing for blue in October and fairly confident that after a year at Blue I'll be ready to make a run at my Purple belt.

Monday, September 14, 2009

NAGA Georgia, Sept 2009 - The Aftermath

Videos are now up from NAGA the links are below:
No-Gi Match 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtf5iKr4ptE
No-Gi Match 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNHLCp4UHcg
No-Gi Match 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL1ylx33fdc

Gi Match 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZxENdlFzmI
Gi Match 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vNRO4yMCXM

Before this tournament I had a record of 8 wins and 8 losses. With 3 wins in this tournament and only 2 losses I move to 11/10, YAY! I have a winning record now! Hopefully I will continue to grow that W column in the next few events.
Highlight of the day was my Gogoplata victory in my third No-Gi match. I even got some props from the tournament director for that one.
Now back into training to get ready for my blue Belt test next month. Weight lifting starts back up tonight and now I can EEEAAAATT again! This was the first tournament I have cut weight for, I dropped from 147 to 139.5 over the course of 7 days. A fairly gradual cut, but I'm not used to not being able to eat everything within my reach, so I was a little grumpy. Now I'll be trying to hit 155 via weightlifting before May next year which is the next NAGA event I'll be attending.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Pilgrim's Progress

So, I'm rejoicing for two reasons, first is that I got my first legit tap on a blue belt last friday. A new blue belt from San Diego started up with us and I got to roll with him some. I caught him with a kick over armbar from omoplata attempt in Gi. He triangled me in No-Gi after FLINGING my omoplata attempt off. I had expected him to posture and toss me a bit and was ready to hit a triangle myself, but he tossed me so far that I ended up with no way to recover. A quick scramble put me in his guard where he went for rubber guard, I carefully stacked him and then postured up when he broke back to full guard. He got a hand on my wrist and was exerting very steady pressure, I tried to pop it free and he snagged it down and caught the triangle. I felt like I was pretty much dead even with him, and he outweighs me about about 20lbs and is in incredible shape. Dude is a marine and he runs and bikes every day. Definitely in better shape than I am.
Second is that I passed my instructors guard legitimately. He went for a collar choke which I defended well and used the opportunity to get to side control. He wasn't going 100% (Black belt with 60lbs on me, he could just throw me off of him) but he wasn't letting me get it. So I feel really good about it.
I'm on rest week for NAGA now, light work, no grappling, watching videos to get me all keyed up. Videos from NAGA will be up Monday night.