Monday, March 29, 2010

Triangle Chokes and whatnot

So Last friday was a craptacular class for me. Nothing was working right, I was getting my ass kicked and didn't feel like I learned anything except that I'm weak. Sunday's class was a completely different story. It was No-Gi and we worked on armdrags to the bag and some butterfly sweeps. I need to be more authoritative with my armdrag grip and not worry so much about moving my opponent or even myself, just establish the grip and work for one of the many many many sweeps or attacks that you can do with it.
Rolling was fun, locked in a bunch of triangle chokes, including finishing one when I was stacked so far over that my knee was braced on my forehead. Also hit armbars, an RNC, a gogoplata, an anaconda choke, and several other triangles. It was a solid night for me.

I'm sore as HELL today as well, started a new training regime over the weekend and it is a killer. Hopefully I'll see my strength go up before the next NAGA.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Weightliftin, whoot.

Personal best on the bench.
117.5 x5
137.5 x1
137.5 x1
153.5 x1 (PB)
137.5 x3

I felt really good about that. Verra happy.
Deadlifts not so great, but I did pull 250.

Jits tomorrow, not sure what I'm gonna work on right now.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Cardio is BAAAAACK!

No-Gi last night was fantastic. My cardio was back 1000%. I never even felt winded the entire class.
We started up with our normal warmup, then drilled knee to elbow escapes from mount to half guard to guard, then scissor sweep, then the other person escapes, and so on. The technique portion of the class was on sweep counters and guard breaking. Started out with countering the scissor sweep by sitting back and down hard, then scooping under the top leg and grabbing the bottom, then pulling up on the opponents arm sprawling out, digging your head into their bottom rib and walking around their legs. Important detail is to keep shoulder pressure down really tight on their top leg to keep their hips immobile and stop them from spinning under you to regain guard.
Next we did can-opener and can-opener counters. People who can-opener me are annoying and deserve to be armbarred. So I practiced double armbar and regular armbar counters to the canopener as well as the comedy monkey flip option.
Finally was a counter to the gift wrap sweep. When your opponent scoops under your leg to load you up, you sit back hard and trap the arm. Next you feed your arm around the back of their head like you are going to try a guillotine, then you clasp your hands together and sort of roll sideways to put pressure on the neck. As neck cranks go I found it mildly unpleasant, but difficult for my opponent or me to finish since we were both flexible enough to brace our heads against our knees to help block some of the torque. Took a while to get the angle just right to make it work.

After that we rolled from full guard for a few rounds. I threw out a few heel hooks, but mostly tried to work on breaking guard and passing.

During live rolling I was grouped with Sean and Ankhor, Sean is huge, Ankhor is freakishly strong and flexible. I armbarred and triangled Sean a few times, Ankhor managed to fight off a super tight triangle. But for the most part I made both of them play defense the entire time with my continuous array of attacks. I'm still finding that the best defense is a good offense. I spent a lot of time coaching Sean and by the end of the night he was getting past our guards, though he wasn't really able to secure the position yet. He's making good progress though and I have high hopes for his performance at NAGA in July.

Definitely a great class, I felt great during and after. Tonight I'll be lifting weights, trying 270 for reps on the deadlift and gonna give 153.5 a shot on the bench press.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Attacks from the Back part 2

The kimura from the back worked quite well for me twice once time ran out in the round before I could finish it, but the second time I was able to pop the arm free and finish. I also have finally tuned my Gi Triangles and was able to hit and finish several.
I also found a new usage for my old bicep splicer from guard as I was able to use it to setup a giftwrap sweep several times.
My cardio was back as well. Did the Crossfit WOD before class, had time to do a total of 21 handstand pushups and 21 pullups.
Then I tore through all of the lightweights for the entire class. Felt good to be back on point.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Attacks from the Back

I have been thinking about my range of attacks from the back recently and determined that they are woefully deficient. I have 2 chokes and an armbar, and the comedy triangle option that I rarely get. To that end I've decided I need to pick up some more attacks that I can combo with to open up more opportunities.
One option I'm looking at is transitioning to a Kimura since most of the time I have half of the grip established already and it's not something people normally look at defending against when you are on their back, however it does involve giving up the position in order to switch to head mount or side control to finish it, or to the crucifix. I've been told I shouldn't give up position to go for the sub, but I feel like moving from one dominant position to another isn't so bad. Plus I feel like threatening the Kimura will open up my single cross collar choke option more.

I can also see the possibility of using that grip to hit armbars, and even using that grip plus some slick transitioning to hit a triangle choke. My intent is to try tonight and hopefully film some of it for review later. I will post further once I've tested it out.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

NAGA Vids As Promised

So, here are the links to my vids from NAGA. I was overall disappointed with my performance. Cardio was bad, which killed me. But the competition was strong, so I'm not too upset with it. The team did great though. We're still waiting to hear back on the Team rankings.

No-Gi - Intermediate Flyweight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZ-SPBDrEg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLAHMCrw8ho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njcNCKlsrCA

Gi - Blue Belt Flyweight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX00mUir5ms

Hoping to get my cardio back up and do better in July.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

NAGA Feb27, 2010

So, long story short NAGA sucked.
I was sick leading up to it and hadn't recovered by the day of. I won my first match on points while trying to rest as much as possible. Lost my second by getting triangled after making a STUPID mistake. Was up by 4, had control of my opponent with a knee slicer and his back, no way he could escape if I just held it there. Gave up the leg to try to transition to his back for a choke. FOR NO GOOD REAOSN. I could have just sat there and won.
Went on to lose my next No-Gi match and my first Gi match. Dude who beat me in no-gi got 1st, dude who beat me in Gi got 2nd. I'm pissed about it all.
Videos will be up by the end of the week.

Back weightlifting today. 143.5, 5x5 on the squats, 117.5 , 5x5 on the bench.