Wednesday, August 20, 2014

I had something for this...

I had a relevant title for this post, but I forgot it, because.... reasons.

Anyways, good class this morning, more mount escape work. Rodeo drills, then cardio and rolling.

Getting to the point where I can reliably beat up on the blue belts again even when exhausted, but my sweep and pass completion needs a lot of work still. I'm not assertive enough when I'm completing them still. It's definitely better than it has been in the past, but not as good as it should be.

I'll be at the Atlanta Open at the end of this month as a spectator filming for people. Looking forward to that.

Oh. Almost forgot, my elbow that I tweaked a bit monday is fine. Barely any pain or stiffness.


Monday, August 18, 2014

Americanas are Serious Bizness!

Got in and did some drilling with one of the blue belts for 20 minutes, 5 on top and 5 on bottom each. Worked mostly grip controls and sweeps, just rebuilding some of my chains and reflexes. He's got a competition coming up so he worked a lot of passing stuff.

Technique was Mount escapes, standard knee and elbow to halfguard, and standard upa.

Drilled those for 20 minutes, then did rodeo drills for... a while. Felt like eternity.  Was probably 7 minute rounds.

Cardio was sprawls while partner sprinted the mats, partner does pushups and sprints back, then you sprint down, do pushups, and sprint back. Pushups were done countdown style, 10 on the first lap, 9, 8 ,7. and so on. It was brutal.

After that we rolled, and at this point it's mostly a blur. I do remember defending an americana a little too long because it was super sloppy and it felt like I was about to escape the entire time, and then he suddenly started doing it right and I felt my elbow pop once. So that's not good, but probably won't be too bad. In retrospect I should have tapped about 20 seconds earlier, but the dude doing the americana was a purple belt, and it was white belt sloppy, so I felt like I could defend and escape it. But the guys top pressure and control is 100% purple belt, so he was able to keep me there while he cranked on my arm, and then suddenly he shifted and finally brought my elbow down properly and the americana went from 'meh, whatever' to OMFG TAP. So that sucked.

I remember getting MAULED by the instructor in hilarious fashion. At one point I swear he was posting on just one hand and I still couldn't generate a sweep.

I rolled with a blue belt that I had talked to a while back about focusing his weight better when he was on top and he apparently took it to heart because this time whenever I had a frame or anything his weight was immediately 100% focused and just splattered me back flat. I finally eventually managed to hit x-guard, sweep, and pass and stay on top for about 15 seconds.

Might have been some other stuff that happened

Friday, August 15, 2014

Indian run? What's that?

So, today I learned a new method of torture called the Indian Run. But first, I worked with one of the other purple belts who is just getting back from a long layoff trying to rebuild his technique library. We worked on some spider guard sweeps and stuff for about 20 minutes, then technique for the day was Knee On Belly. Two armbars and an escape.

The two armbars were the standard nearside when they roll away, and the farside where they push on the knee but flair the elbow out.

The escape was one I have actually never seen before. Inside arm cups the opponents knee, outside arm supports the inside, hand over hand. Elbows in tight, you turn away from the opponent  while pushing hard with your frame, then shoulder roll to guard. Felt a bit awkward the first few times, but then I got the hang of it and it's pretty slick.

Now, back to those Indian Runs. I had never done these before, but as it turns out you form a line with everyone and start jogging, and the person at the back of the line SPRINTS to the front of the line, then you repeat. We did that for... A mile I guess? Something like that. Then we split into groups of 3 and one person carried the second person, while the third person motivated, when person one couldn't continue they became the motivator, the motivator became the carried guy, and the previous carried guy did the carrying. Trust me, it was super hard. We did this in full gi in the middle of the day.

Once we got back to the gym we did 4 rounds of rolling. I had a roll with the purple belt from earlier, a roll with a largeish white belt and a roll with a blue, then a break and a roll with the instructor. My Gi game is steadily rebuilding itself. I was able to sweep and work to the top a lot, even managed a legitimate guard pass on the instructor which I felt good about. Still a lot of work to do, but steady training should mean that I actually end the year better at jiujitsu than when I started, so that will be nice.