So, for the first two years of my BJJ career I did only No-Gi, so no stripes, and no belts. Then when I trained with Alliance I didn't get any stripes. I went from white to blue, and blue to purple. But now that I am training at a Roberto Traven affiliate stripes are a thing, and today I got my first stripe.
I'm actually pretty psyched by it. It's a good signal that I've managed to return to my pre-layoff skill level and I'm now actually getting better at jiujitsu. This is a nice boost for me going towards the New Breed tournament in December.
Today was the same halfguard stuff from monday plus cardio via running back and forth, shooting under one partner, then jumping over them, then getting taken down and the partner doing the running and whatnot. Fun stuff for 5 minutes, then grueling for the next 5.
After that was work from halfguard, 5 minutes on the bottom, then 5 minutes on the top. I hit a couple of Caio sweeps, but I need to work more on forcing the arm to the inside in order to get the reverse scissor sweep and the back take to work, and generally mess with my opponents posture more. I'm too lenient about letting my opponent flatten me out and going for the Caio or setting up waiter sweeps and things.
On top my passing is light years better than it was even before my layoff. Having an instructor who is my size means all of the guard passing tips and techniques are better tailored to smaller people so I've been really able to tune my passing game.
After that I had time for one roll with a 3 or 4 stripe purple who's a bit bigger than I am and is also one of the MMA fighters. He has a solidly intense rolling style with a great mix of clever techniques and crushing pressure. A couple of months ago with I rolled with him I was able to accomplish exactly nothing, this time I was able to generate a sweep, a near sweep, a couple of close guard passes, and defend almost everything. I went down to an armbar that was setup with insanely good pressure, but I didn't feel as completely outclassed as I did last time.
So, getting the stripe felt great, and I'm going to be working even harder now since I still want to have a shot at my brown belt in the next 18 months.
Showing posts with label half guard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label half guard. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
This Weekend... Next Weekend... Whenever...
Once again updating here has fallen by the wayside a bit. Business with work, training, and owning 26 acres and a 150 year old farmhouse are eating up all of my time, but I'll try to do better since I need to keep some notes on my training.
Last week Chris tried to kill us all. We warmed up with armbars, triangles, and omoplatas, then spent 30 minutes doing some kind of Crossfit style masochism consisting of (for me) a 35lb bar and a pair of 10lb bumper plates, then 40 reps of back squats, front squats, strict overhead press, overhead push press, clean and press, and jerks.
By the end of this I wasn't sure what was going on and was pretty much as exhausted as I had ever been in my entire life. Then we rolled for a good 45 minutes. I spent the entire weekend barely able to move because of how sore and stiff I was, but it was awesome.
Went back today and we were decidedly lighter. Worked on some halfguard stuff.
First technique was a slick sweep against the wizzer that I love and want to work on more. You get your underhook from half guard. The opponent wizzers you and you circle your own hand back inside and trap their wrist, then you roll back and pendulum sweep. It's nice and flashy.
Second one was the standard reverse scissor-sweep, current gym calls it a Wing sweep. Also played around with the immediate backtake off of this one.
Third one was for when they block your knee from coming in for the wing sweep, you bring it up on top and pinch the shoulder and rotate to face the feet for the armbar.
Then our cardio for today was an exercise in guard based on some stuff that happened at the tournament over the weekend. Your opponent is in guard and stands up with you, you open your guard and immediately change levels for the double leg, then you stand up and pick your partner up and they do the same thing, back and forth for 5 minutes. Then you start in mount, your partner reguards, you stand up, they monkey flip you into mount, you reguard, they stand, you monkey flip them. Back and forth for 5 minutes.
Then we did some positional sparring from halfguard. I was able to get some decent technical halfguard going with a successful waiter sweep, a technical stand to single leg, a butterfly sweep, a couple of caio sweeps, finally got got tricked by the blue belt in our group and he caught me with the top half guard bow and arrow. When I came back in on top I immediately passed guard using the tricks I picked up a few weeks ago that have really altered my passing game against halfguard.
The focus on driving the elbow down to block the knee really changed how my passing works and upped my success rate. Ended up with a couple more passes in similar fashion, then had to shower and head out to work.
My conditioning is steadily improving and I feel like I'm rapidly returning to my previous technical level, which leads me to.... Competition Time!
I was going to head up to Virginia for the US Grappling Submission Only competition Dec 13th, BUT I couldn't find anyone who would give me a ride from the airport to the venue and back, SO there's a Newbreed tournament Dec 6th right in town that a bunch of guys from the current gym are going to, AND there's a Roberto Traven seminar on the 13th. So instead of paying for a plane ticket, I'm going to see if I can do the Newbreed comp and the seminar instead. It will be my first time competing under my new teams umbrella, so I'll be training pretty hard leading up to it.
Last week Chris tried to kill us all. We warmed up with armbars, triangles, and omoplatas, then spent 30 minutes doing some kind of Crossfit style masochism consisting of (for me) a 35lb bar and a pair of 10lb bumper plates, then 40 reps of back squats, front squats, strict overhead press, overhead push press, clean and press, and jerks.
By the end of this I wasn't sure what was going on and was pretty much as exhausted as I had ever been in my entire life. Then we rolled for a good 45 minutes. I spent the entire weekend barely able to move because of how sore and stiff I was, but it was awesome.
Went back today and we were decidedly lighter. Worked on some halfguard stuff.
First technique was a slick sweep against the wizzer that I love and want to work on more. You get your underhook from half guard. The opponent wizzers you and you circle your own hand back inside and trap their wrist, then you roll back and pendulum sweep. It's nice and flashy.
Second one was the standard reverse scissor-sweep, current gym calls it a Wing sweep. Also played around with the immediate backtake off of this one.
Third one was for when they block your knee from coming in for the wing sweep, you bring it up on top and pinch the shoulder and rotate to face the feet for the armbar.
Then our cardio for today was an exercise in guard based on some stuff that happened at the tournament over the weekend. Your opponent is in guard and stands up with you, you open your guard and immediately change levels for the double leg, then you stand up and pick your partner up and they do the same thing, back and forth for 5 minutes. Then you start in mount, your partner reguards, you stand up, they monkey flip you into mount, you reguard, they stand, you monkey flip them. Back and forth for 5 minutes.
Then we did some positional sparring from halfguard. I was able to get some decent technical halfguard going with a successful waiter sweep, a technical stand to single leg, a butterfly sweep, a couple of caio sweeps, finally got got tricked by the blue belt in our group and he caught me with the top half guard bow and arrow. When I came back in on top I immediately passed guard using the tricks I picked up a few weeks ago that have really altered my passing game against halfguard.
The focus on driving the elbow down to block the knee really changed how my passing works and upped my success rate. Ended up with a couple more passes in similar fashion, then had to shower and head out to work.
My conditioning is steadily improving and I feel like I'm rapidly returning to my previous technical level, which leads me to.... Competition Time!
I was going to head up to Virginia for the US Grappling Submission Only competition Dec 13th, BUT I couldn't find anyone who would give me a ride from the airport to the venue and back, SO there's a Newbreed tournament Dec 6th right in town that a bunch of guys from the current gym are going to, AND there's a Roberto Traven seminar on the 13th. So instead of paying for a plane ticket, I'm going to see if I can do the Newbreed comp and the seminar instead. It will be my first time competing under my new teams umbrella, so I'll be training pretty hard leading up to it.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Takedowns, Halfguard, and Ankle Injury
Missed an update for the Wednesday class, which was one of the most physically demanding I've done yet, well, up until that point. More half-guard work, some rolling which included a round with a 190ish lb guy who just won gold at the Mundials as a blue belt, so that was fun. A lot of work, which is good for me.
Today we started out with some takedown sparring which went reasonably well for me for once. I kept baiting the single and converting it to no-gi tomoe nages, then on the second to last takedown the guy shot in for a double, I got underhooks, he tried to convert to a bearhug trip. I turned with it and got the throw for the reversal, but rolled my ankle at the same time. So that hurts like mad now.
After that we drilled more halfguard. Halfguard passing this time.
First, basic pass to mount. Farside underhook, nearside arm under the head, knee in the armpit, then hip switch to the free hip, walk the trapped leg up, pop the leg off with the elbow, and drive through. Spider walk the underhooked arm up to control it, and windshield wiper your free foot over to the thigh to help complete the pass to mount.
Second pass was the same up until you clear the trapped leg, then opponent blocks the knee drive, so you pop up and drive to the inside for the baseball slide pass.
Third pass, they grab the underhook before you can flatten them, so you backstep, your outside hand goes to their knee to block them from following you, you scoot your hips up a bit and then free your leg.
Fourth pass is just like the third one, but you decide to get greedy and go for the kimura, they defend by hiding their arms behind your back. You grab the toes of their inside leg, and then roll over your shoulder and via crazy rolling sorcery take the back.
After that did work in half-guard, guy on top passes or submits, guy on bottom sweeps, submits, or reguards. Got some stuff to work, felt fairly good in general. Did the second round with a new guy who seemed a little frustrated that I was sweeping and passing on him very easily, so I tried to encourage him and help him out a bit and he seemed to be ok at the end.
Got in a couple of rounds of rolling after that, one of which was against a guy with silly triangles. Twice I thought could beat him to the escape and couldn't, and one of those involved me getting leg-in triangled in hilarious fashion. I was able to get halfway to the omoplata on him pretty reliably, but wasn't able to finish it.
Again a very physical class, my ankle hurts like hell now, so I'll have to wrap it and ice it when I get home, but I'l be back at it Monday!
Today we started out with some takedown sparring which went reasonably well for me for once. I kept baiting the single and converting it to no-gi tomoe nages, then on the second to last takedown the guy shot in for a double, I got underhooks, he tried to convert to a bearhug trip. I turned with it and got the throw for the reversal, but rolled my ankle at the same time. So that hurts like mad now.
After that we drilled more halfguard. Halfguard passing this time.
First, basic pass to mount. Farside underhook, nearside arm under the head, knee in the armpit, then hip switch to the free hip, walk the trapped leg up, pop the leg off with the elbow, and drive through. Spider walk the underhooked arm up to control it, and windshield wiper your free foot over to the thigh to help complete the pass to mount.
Second pass was the same up until you clear the trapped leg, then opponent blocks the knee drive, so you pop up and drive to the inside for the baseball slide pass.
Third pass, they grab the underhook before you can flatten them, so you backstep, your outside hand goes to their knee to block them from following you, you scoot your hips up a bit and then free your leg.
Fourth pass is just like the third one, but you decide to get greedy and go for the kimura, they defend by hiding their arms behind your back. You grab the toes of their inside leg, and then roll over your shoulder and via crazy rolling sorcery take the back.
After that did work in half-guard, guy on top passes or submits, guy on bottom sweeps, submits, or reguards. Got some stuff to work, felt fairly good in general. Did the second round with a new guy who seemed a little frustrated that I was sweeping and passing on him very easily, so I tried to encourage him and help him out a bit and he seemed to be ok at the end.
Got in a couple of rounds of rolling after that, one of which was against a guy with silly triangles. Twice I thought could beat him to the escape and couldn't, and one of those involved me getting leg-in triangled in hilarious fashion. I was able to get halfway to the omoplata on him pretty reliably, but wasn't able to finish it.
Again a very physical class, my ankle hurts like hell now, so I'll have to wrap it and ice it when I get home, but I'l be back at it Monday!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Day 1 of Mundials Training Prep
Started off with half an hour drilling scissor sweeps and then drilling attacking for the single leg takedown against standing guard passes.
Then rolled light for half an hour and worked on sweeping, passing, and applying baseball bat chokes.
The main class fed nicely into what I was working on with a lesson on halfguard/zguard with the overhook.
The first technique was a basic transition from halfguard, to the z-guard (Also called long range half) then situp and get the overhook, shrimp out on the overhooked side, free the bottom leg and base on the opponents hip, then pull the top leg out and base that on the hip. Push the opponent away and clear the arm to execute a triangle choke. There is a straight armbar available here as well if everything lines up just right, but it's rare.
Second technique was the same initial setup, but finishing with an omoplata. Key detail is to lift and drag your hips away from your opponent to drop them over onto their side before trying to finish.
Third tech was the Mir lock when your opponent tries to free their arm from the overhook. They drive their elbow towards the inside and you lock it up, extend your body and pull up like a guillotine for the finish. If they have super flexible shoulders you can turn it into a sweep by lifting them over with your top knee.
We then did position sparring from halfguard. I stuck with the lightweight side of the room and spent the time sweeping from the bottom mostly. Kris is the only one that can even slow down my guard passing and that's primarily because he has great hip movement on the bottom. Which reminds me I need to make it a point to continue working passing against him to make it more reflexive to establish good controlling grips and block the hips properly while passing. He'll make me pay for mistakes better than pretty much anyone else I could train with in my weight class.
Rolling was a lightweight gauntlet. Again I tried to concentrate on working my scissor sweeps, single collar chokes, and baseball bat chokes. I also worked a couple of back-take transitions that combo with the single collar. I briefly got distracted playing with the berimbolo, then reminded myself I wasn't supposed to be screwing around and got back on track.
Final roll of the night I rolled with Brian, who wasn't wearing a Gi, and without anything to latch onto to slow him down he mauled the crap out of me. He's REALLY worked on refining his technique and avoiding muscling things and it shows in his progress. He's going up to Atlanta this weekend to compete int he "Fight For Your Belt" tournament as a white belt and I fully expect him to return with a Blue.
I felt like it was a good progressive day. I hit my goal of drilling and using the small group of techniques that I want to refine the majority of my time on the mat. A very successful class.
Also, my cardio felt great even after two and a half hours. I could have gone another hour and still been fine.
Then rolled light for half an hour and worked on sweeping, passing, and applying baseball bat chokes.
The main class fed nicely into what I was working on with a lesson on halfguard/zguard with the overhook.
The first technique was a basic transition from halfguard, to the z-guard (Also called long range half) then situp and get the overhook, shrimp out on the overhooked side, free the bottom leg and base on the opponents hip, then pull the top leg out and base that on the hip. Push the opponent away and clear the arm to execute a triangle choke. There is a straight armbar available here as well if everything lines up just right, but it's rare.
Second technique was the same initial setup, but finishing with an omoplata. Key detail is to lift and drag your hips away from your opponent to drop them over onto their side before trying to finish.
Third tech was the Mir lock when your opponent tries to free their arm from the overhook. They drive their elbow towards the inside and you lock it up, extend your body and pull up like a guillotine for the finish. If they have super flexible shoulders you can turn it into a sweep by lifting them over with your top knee.
We then did position sparring from halfguard. I stuck with the lightweight side of the room and spent the time sweeping from the bottom mostly. Kris is the only one that can even slow down my guard passing and that's primarily because he has great hip movement on the bottom. Which reminds me I need to make it a point to continue working passing against him to make it more reflexive to establish good controlling grips and block the hips properly while passing. He'll make me pay for mistakes better than pretty much anyone else I could train with in my weight class.
Rolling was a lightweight gauntlet. Again I tried to concentrate on working my scissor sweeps, single collar chokes, and baseball bat chokes. I also worked a couple of back-take transitions that combo with the single collar. I briefly got distracted playing with the berimbolo, then reminded myself I wasn't supposed to be screwing around and got back on track.
Final roll of the night I rolled with Brian, who wasn't wearing a Gi, and without anything to latch onto to slow him down he mauled the crap out of me. He's REALLY worked on refining his technique and avoiding muscling things and it shows in his progress. He's going up to Atlanta this weekend to compete int he "Fight For Your Belt" tournament as a white belt and I fully expect him to return with a Blue.
I felt like it was a good progressive day. I hit my goal of drilling and using the small group of techniques that I want to refine the majority of my time on the mat. A very successful class.
Also, my cardio felt great even after two and a half hours. I could have gone another hour and still been fine.
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