Weightlifting 8/19

New PR on the Benchpress, 193.5 went up slow but steady. Tried Squats at 227.5 and did two reps but not low enough for me to count it. I was able to get a successful 187.5 though and I'll work my way up. Deadlift I tried 283.5 and couldn't budge it, did 3 reps with 217.5 though and 227.5 went up. So I'm calling my powerlifting total right now 190+185+225= 600 even. Pretty crappy from a powerlifter standpoint, but not too shabby for a random 148lb person.
Starting saturday I'll be working on getting my squats and deadlift up. I want to put 50lbs on both of those by the end of the year and I don't think it will be a problem. I'd like to put 75 pounds on by squats and 100 on the DL, but I don't know if I can pull that off. It'd be ecstatic if by my birthday next year I was putting up 225+260+325 = 810. That's a very respectable total even for a power lifter and I think it's possible for me.

Weightlifting 8/17

Worked on overhead press, Hit 107.5 for a few reps, then hit 113.5 kind of shaky. I wasn't happy about it so after an hour or so of break I went back and tried it again and put it up for 4 reps. I might put 123.5 on there and give it a shot saturday, but tonight is my first attempt at 193.5 on the bench. If I hit that I'll probably give a ~220lb squat a try and then see if I can pull 270 on the deadlift again. If I'm successful I'll have 193.5+223.5+273.5 = 690.5 as my powerlifting total. Not winnin any awards, but not horrible for a 148lb bodyweight, which is what I'm at right now. My goal is 225+300+450 = 975.

That means I'm coming in right now at the bottom of the powerlifting chart, a class IV according to thee numbers: http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/1793
With a goal of getting to a class 1. It's going to be hard to keep my bodyweight at the 148lb range, but I think it's a good goal. This means that starting at the beginning of the year I'll have to become more serious about my lifting as well as about my jiujitsu since my goal is a purple belt by the end of next year. If I can put together some good progress towards my powerlifting goals I think that will help with my jiujitsu progress as well.

Weightlifting for 8/16

I put up another set of 4 with 167.5 and followed it with a set of 2 with 173.5. Along with some miscellaneous overhead press, good mornings, and squats. I'm very much on track for my 200lb goal by the end of september.

Knee is feeling good, I'm sure it will be 100% by friday.

Deconstructing my Rolls

Today I've got a handful of videos of me rolling with a couple of our white belts that I'm going to breakdown and talk about, but first an update on my lifting situation. I hit 167.5 for a set of 4 last night. New personal record. Also hit 152lbs bodyweight, then went out to work in a warehouse for a day and dropped 10 lbs. I'm back sitting around 148 right now. I'll be trying for a set of 5 with 167.5 again on Saturday. I'm taking a week off of Jits to let my knee finish healing, so I won't be back to class until next friday, but in the meantime I'll be lifting and watching vids.

Now, video time!
First video is against an ex football player who weighs maybe 20-25lbs more than I do. This is his fourth class, so he is still very spazzy and doesn't really have any idea what he's doing.



As part of my Guillotine project I decided I would do my best to only sub him with guillotines. So right off the bat he tries to tackle me from the knees, I sprawl, get my hand under his chin, and fall back for a guillotine. No strength needed.
I have to explain to him that we get to keep going.>:) He moves in aggressively and I mess with his legs, mostly I just work on maintaining guard while I let him try various things to pass until he gives me my favorite sweep at one minute in. Notice how i use my hips and knees to keep him away from me. I'm not pulling him in and encouraging him to lay on me. I'm using hip mobility and my legs to keep him on the outside of the circle so that I can beat him around to any pass attempts.

This is the leghook/bicepslicer sweep that I've been using a lot. Most of the guys in the gym are wary of it now and so run away from my leg hook the second I get it, this guy hasn't rolled with me before and had no idea what was about to happen. He landed with a bit of a thump and I gave him a second to catch his breath.
After that I complete my transition to Knee on Belly, I could have dropped onto his arm for the Bicep Slicer finish there, but chose to try to setup another guillotine. He pushed me up, I rode it around to north south and locked in the guillotine.

On the restart I grabbed his collar for a snapdown, athletic noobs will frequently over commit their upper bodies at the beginning allowing for easy transitions to the back. I abuse this liberally. You'll see I went to some weird knee on back position for a second before getting bucked off, I was fishing for a far side collar grip so that I could do a comedy forward roll, but I couldn't find his collar.
So I set up the triangle from the back, used that to get the torque to sweep him, and went back to KoB, then let him come up to his knees into another guillotine. After that I messed around looking for an Omoplata, but ran out of time.

Next video is with a friend of mine who has been training about six months. He outweighs me by about 70lbs most of the time. He has good natural balance and is a quick learner.



I open up looking for a collar grip, but he gives me an arm so I hook onto that and fall back to attack it, he pulls away, but I use that opportunity to get the collar I wanted in the first place. I transition to the other collar because I didn't want to put too much pressure on my injured leg working the leg hook guard.
You'll notice that he is WELL aware of the implications of that leg hook and works very hard to avoid letting me get it. I see an moment when I think he's off balance and try to move to the top, but he beats me to it and I spend a few seconds in halfguard bottom.
Notice that I do NOT let him settle onto me. I'm driving my knee up the entire time, not giving him a place to get comfortable, and I get back to open guard. I trick him with a pull -> push and start working to pass his guard. He's strong so I get shoved around a little, but I keep my weight down and don't allow him a chance to sweep me. Even when he does get some leverage I ride with it and maintain my base.
We run out of time as I'm working to pass his guard.

Despite his 70lb advantage I NEVER allowed him to settle on top of me. I kept at least one knee wedged up between us at all times and I used my feet equally as often as my hands to maintain my space.


We were doing 3 man groups doing 3.5 minute rounds, fresh man comes in at the 3.5 min mark, so you roll 7 minutes in a row. So now we're back with the first guy.



I open up by establishing butterfly hooks since he likes to charge forward. He plays right into it and I hit the monkeyflip and roll to mount.
I'm not worrying about being particularly heavy, I mess with his arm he starts trying to stiff arm me and just rolls himself over. I let him establish a solid turtle so that I can practice breaking it down a bit. I get underhooks on both sides and then start frogkicking out to flatten him down. Easy choke follows.
I fail a leg hook variation sweep, but I use that to catch a grip on his arm and set up the triangle, he tapped a little early to the triangle. I started letting him work side control, but even then I keep a knee up to never allow people to settle in completely on me. This round was a little short due to the guy needing some water, he still has cardio issues.

And now back to my friend. I'm being a little more aggressive in this round, digging for the collar and practicing breaking him down into my guard. Normally I wouldn't be playing closed guard against him, but it's part of my Guillotine project for this month.
[Edit: Realized I didn't upload this video, oops. So this one is listed as part 5, but is actually part 3]


I break him down a little, he escapes, etc... just working the grip. Then I get a couple of deep collar grips and mess with a collar choke. He was gurgling, but I couldn't quite seal the deal with it so I transitioned out.
Notice that I keep my foot in his side the entire time to give me the best chance of ending up on top. He's able to dodge back and avoid it, but I end up with full guard and him broken down, which lets me move to an armbar. I had no intention of finishing the armbar against him, so I moved around to a bicep slicer, which again I had no intention of finishing, then time ran out.

This one is a good example of how I stop larger people from passing my guard by continually attacking them to keep them from getting settled and working to pass. I never gave him a chance to stop defending and try to pass.


The final video is half the new guy and my friend, then when the new guy gasses I hop in to roll again. I come in at about the 1:50 mark. I decide I want to get on top this time, so I just pile in and work on passing his halfguard.



Notice, MOBILITY. I move back and forth switching my pass from one side to the other until I get past his arms. Then I settle in to a north south choke and start sliding back. It was close, but he had enough of a grip on my Gi to keep me from moving far enough down to finish it.



All of these videos demonstrate that as a Blue belt you shouldn't really be having trouble with athletic white belts. Guys who outweigh you by 70lbs? No problem. You just play a different game. Keep your knees up, be mobile. There is no reason you should be letting big noobs get on top of you unless you specifically want to work out from under those positions. I plan on filming a lot of my rolling in the coming months and picking out 1-2 good ones each week to post on here and discuss. Feel free to throw some comments out.

August is Guillotine Month

I hit 2 sets of 3 with 167.5 last night, ready to try a set of 5 tonight, if that works out for me then I'll be trying 193.5 on thursday. I jacked up my right leg doing throws last week before I went out of town, so I've had to leave off the squats for a few more days, but I'll be back on those next week.

This month at Jits is going to be all about Guillotines. I was looking back over some of my notes and things and it turns out that I've actually got more successful submissions with Gogoplata's than with Guillotines. So I've decided to sharpen up my guillotines and their setups all this month. I picked up Din Thomas' 1001 submissions videos and he has several slick guillotine variations on there I plan on trying, and Tony Desouza has this video out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5972847251527800343# that Zapruder hooked me up with which was most informative.

Back at Jits tomorrow and we'll see how things work out.

MOAR WEIGHTLIFTING!

So yesterday was probably one of my bigger lifting days. I did one of my normal sets of 2 reps with 167.5, then put up 3 reps of 167.5. Then I put up 3 sets of 5 with 147.5 which is a huge improvement for me as far as work capacity is concerned. I also did a set of 5 overhead press with 80lbs, then hit 2 reps with 100lbs which is a new personal best for me. Then I knocked out a couple of sets of 5 on the squats with 167.5. That's more lifting than I've done in one day in a long time and I feel great. I feel stronger than I've ever been.

I'm still working hard at class to take things to that next level where I feel like I can make a run at my purple belt. I think I'm making good progress towards it. I feel strong against everyone, even the two giant purple belts. If all goes as planned I'll crush me some NAGA next July in my final run at the Blue Belt division and go for my purple some time late next year.

Armdrags and Weightlifting

I moved my squats up since my knee has been feeling better and better. Did 3-4 sets of 3 with 167.5 spread through the day on thursday, then a couple of sets of five, then saturday did several sets of five. I'll probably do that again tonight and look to move up later this week. Bench press I hit 187.5, dropping back down to 167.5 to work for more reps. I want to hit a set of 5 before I try to move up to 193.5.

In jits I've been re-visiting Armdrags again. When I first started BJJ I briefly tried making them work for me with poor results. I tended to yank on someones arm and nothing happened. About a year ago I tried them out again with better results against the complete noobs, but still not enough success to make them part of my main game. The last few weeks I've been slowly mixing them back in and making them work more and more. My current favorite is from butterfly guard Marcelo Garcia style. I also discovered that I don't have to be explosive with the armdrag to make it work. Just get the grips, force the arm far enough across that I can block it with my body, and hip out to the side.
This has led me to several sweeps and a high percentage of the time gets me my opponents back. I think I've finally gotten to a point where armdrags will be a part of my primary game.

It's almost time for me to do a new MindMap as well. I'll probably start from scratch so as not to pollute my new mentality with my old roadmap. Then I'll compare the two.

Continuing to Flow

I definitely need to start video taping the rolling in class. I played it completely chill and easy last friday, just sweeping and hanging out on top, not really forcing any submissions or anything. It felt lazy, but I was in a lazy kind of mood.
I'm hoping to continue my work against our Purple belts tomorrow. I need to be able to sweep them, it's becoming pathological. To that end I'm looking for some sweep combinations I can put together to throw at them.

My wedding is rapidly approaching. We're getting everything put together reasonably well, but still have some loose ends to tie up. It's going to be awesome. Then a 10 day honeymoon in the mountains. After the wedding my quest for Purple belt officially begins. I'll be going up to Alliance HQ twice a month to train and looking to demonstrate my awesomeness to the degree required to get my purple belt next summer.

I put 183lbs up on bench again yesterday and the day before. It felt a little easier than it did the first time. I'm going to do it again today, then take two days off from bench to do squats. I tried a set of 3 squats with 183 as well, first one I did 3/4 squat, then just above parallel, then parallel to ease myself into it and see how my knee felt. No twinges, no trouble. I'm going to alternate with 3x3 on the squats and my GTG work on the bench every other day if I can. But i don't mind being a little random.

Feelin the Groove

Casey was under the weather last week so I had the chance to teach class last wednesday and worked on breaking people down in guard and freeing your hips to maneuver.

Step one: From closed guard pick a side. Get a sleeve grip on that side and a collar grip in the other side.
Step two: On the sleeve grip side put your foot on the hip and push your hips up and escape them to that same side while driving your collar gripping elbow straight down to the mat and stiffarming your sleeve grip across and to the mat.

Step three: Kick your leg up from their hip across their back.

You now have them pinned down pretty well and you have a hand free to work with.

From there we went over setting up a single collar choke + sweep, setting up the Kimura, and setting up an armbar.

I spent some time talking about how being flat on your back with double wrist control is not a good way to progress in guard, even if you feel "safe" there. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and catch on really well and now one of my friends who had been having a lot of trouble with his hip movement in guard is nailing armbars left and right.

Friday we briefly worked on an arm-in guillotine escape, then we rolled for over an hour in a huge gauntlet. I got to work against our two huge purple belts and achieved a moral victory in briefly unbalancing one of them.

Sunday was no-gi and one of our ammy fighters is getting ready for a fight, so no mercy. I got all kinds of sneaky on him and was able to sweep him a few times and finish a triangle and my trademark bicep slicer on him. I also warned him that he needed to free his arm when people spin to armbars on him from guard and he stacks them, but he didn't listen and my buddy with the improved hip movement armbarred him from guard EXACTLY in the way I warned him about.

I was also able to defend against our purple belts very well and start launching attacks. I feel like I'm making a lot of progress right now in just feeling peoples weight and feeling how techniques flow together. I'm starting to understand why a lot of the purple belts over at Bullshido don't post much in the way of technique how-tos or discussions. I'm hitting a point where I'm just flowing instead of planning my path. I've become increasingly willing to give up "control" in order to let my opponent move to create openings for me. I'm no longer looking to impose my game on my opponent, but letting the game reveal itself as we go along. I find it harder to analyze my technique post class now though because I can't really say, "I set out to work through this roadmap, I was able to do so X times out of Y attempts. That is Z more times than last class." My goals are so much more amorphous now. I need to start video taping the rolling portion of class more often so I can see WTF I'm doing.

Arm triangles and whatnot

Today by popular request we worked on the arm triangle that Brock used to finish Carwin at the last UFC. The grip is slightly different than the normal one since it's designed to be used on people with retardedly large shoulders. Basic arm triangle setup, but you grip palm to palm instead of on your bicep, and you have to keep your head tight to trap the arm. Then it's just squeeze and walk towards the head.
After that we worked on a couple of other arm triangle variations including my favorite setup where you scoop the arm from north south dig under your opponents head and lock it down there.
Specific sparring was from bottom of side control, I swept everyone while on bottom, then subbed everyone while on top. Rolling with the lightweights is getting a little too easy. Even my boy Fausto who was giving me absolute FITS a few weeks ago was no match for me today. Though in his defense he's got some tweaked ribs slowing him down. I hope we do some gauntlets with the entire class again next time I do No-Go so I get some more time to work with the big guys.
Rolling my group was 4 lightweights, we did 1 3.5 min round, then switched partners and repeated, then rested for 1 round, then switched partners again and repeated. Again, complete dominance.
After that I rolled with Will, who is about 220lbs, naturally athletic, and very strong. I spent about 20 seconds under side control with the rest of the round being me dominating him. Including sub via Kimura. That makes me happy with my ability to deal with the bigger guys and gives me some insight into how much my new strength is helping me. He was still able to rip out of quite a few things, but over all it was MUCH easier to make my shit work and much harder for him to escape. He's got about 4-5 months of training, so enough to know what to look out for. That combined with his natural balance and strength has made him very difficult to deal with in the past. I was very happy with how I handled him today.

Did 4 sets of 1 w/ 173 today. The last one was after jits, which was ill advised. I almost dropped it on my face. Gonna try to get 8 successful ones in tomorrow. Then I might be going out of town again for a week. If that happens I'll stick to 173 as my workout lift for at least 3 more days before trying to put 187 up. If I'm able to lift all the way through the week then I'll try 187 after resting saturday and sunday.

Continuing Progress

Monday I hit 177lbs for a new personal best on the bench press. I then went out of town until Saturday for work. Upon my return I decided I felt strong and rested, so I put 183 on the bench, and I managed to put THAT up too. I've now gone up almost 50lbs on my max bench press since this time last year.
Today for the first time in about 6 months I started doing squats again. I put 120lbs (Edit: Just looked at my bar and I actually had 120lbs on it, not the 100lbs I originally thought) on my small bar and went for 3 sets of 10 Ass to Grass Front Squats. I definitely felt the workout. I'm going to stick to that every other day as much as possible until the end of september I think to give myself a strength baseline and put on some more muscle tissue, then I'll start upping the weight and dropping the reps. Probably go up 10lbs and down 2 reps per set every week until doing single reps at 90% of my 1rm multiple times per day and increase the weight every week.

I need to add in more grappling related cardio as well. Maybe some variation of fight gone bad with burpees, and pushpresses...

STRONG LIKE BULL!!

Ok, so been stupidly busy at work and training and what not, so I haven't updated here for a while.
Been working spider guard, leg hook guard, and the bicep slicer sweep all together, kind of mixing everything back in still. It's all coming together really well which is making me happy. Because my sweeps have been working so much better I've been able to work my top game. Really working knee on belly and staying mobile. Still fishing for the single collar choke ans my primary sub with armbar right behind it and then the omoplata. Americanas and Kimuras are getting mixed back in pretty regularly now.

The biggest development has been in my weight lifting. I started concentrating on bench press and building up my upper body strength, since then my max bench has gone up from 137lbs to 173lbs. I'm on point to be at 200lbs by the end of the year. I need to add squats back in to the mix though, my lower body is getting neglected.

I'll be skipping NAGA in July and possibly in October as well unless money rains from the sky or something because I'm getting MARRIED and need the moneys to pay for the honeymoon.

If that's the case the next NAGA I hit will be sometime in 2011....

I'm awesome again.

So, despite feeling like a I sucked a big one at the alliance tournament I'm feelin good about life again.
Bench press is about to creep over 170lbs and jits is going good.

I've been continuing to work my leg hook stuff, going for the leg hook sweep and comboing it with the bicep slicer and the slicer sweep. I also have been working elevator sweeps from butterfly and half butterfly as a means to help strengthen my top game. I've been trying to pattern my game after Cobrinha's with the same kind of top pressure he uses and so far it's working well against guys my size.
I still have some trouble against hyper athletic people when I can't slow them down and make them play my game, but it's not as big of a problem as it used to be and I'm still getting better at dealing with it.
I hope to put some good technique stuff in here later tonight after class.

In House Tournament suckage

So a couple of weeks ago we had an in-house Alliance BJJ tournament. I had been training the bicep slicer setup I mentioned in my previous post and really making it work. I found out 20 seconds before my match started that the bicep slicer was illegal in this tournament. I then got taken down by a low single and out wrestled for a while. I got frustrated and by reflex setup the slicer and put it on, then realized I wasn't allowed to finish it. After that I froze. I lost 10 to 0. Second match was Anthony from my gym, he pulled off the slowest situp sweep in the history of jiujitsu and beat me 2-0. A crappy tournament experience for me and it resulted in my knee being jacked up from the single legs and me ending up with ringworm a couple of days later. The ringworm is pretty much gone now and my knee is almost better, so I'll be heading back to Jits on wednesday.
I need to work on some side control escapes again for a while, at least getting back to halfguard and working my halfguard sweeps.

How To Do The Same Move 100 Times, And Win.

So, since Slideyfoot started talking about Spider Guard and I made that video in the last post I decided to play with it some. We had previously looked at a leg hook sweep from De la Riva guard that was essentially the same one I've been playing with as a combo with the bicep slicer from side control. It looks like this:


There are about a dozen different sweep variations that it works with and went through most of them in various incarnations. I essentially did the same move 100 times, even when everyone knew that's what I was trying to get to they couldn't stop me. I just kept fighting for it until I got it, over and over and over and over and over.

Makes me feel great about the upcoming Alliance tournament.

Butterfly Guard to Spider Guard

Ok, so my buddy Slideyfoot was having some trouble establishing a working guard while rolling, and apparently he likes Spider Guard and wants to work on it so I told him I would film my personal set up for spider guard from butterfly for him to look at. I rarely use it because I don't have a lot of options I like from spider guard, but here it is:

Butterfly Guard to Spider Guard

Good days, bad days

Wednesday night was a mixed bag for me. We worked De La riva guard, and I'm terrible at preventing the pass with it since it's a position almost exactly counter to my normal open guard. So I spent a lot of time getting my guard passed and defending subs.
In addition I spent some time working spider guard since Slideyfoot had mentioned it. I can establish Spider, but the only sweep I can hit from that is the comedy monkeyflip option, which I hit twice.
Other than that I just shove people around while trying to catch them in a triangle until they pass. So not a very productive day for my normal game, but some fun with new stuff.
Video of the way I establish spider guard will be up for Slideyfoot later tonight most likely.

We have an in-house Alliance BJJ tournament coming up at the end of the month which I'll be competing in.

More Comments on the Values of Tenacity

As usual I've been watching Cobrinha's DVDs regularly, not so much for the technique instruction right now but for the match footage where I can see how he puts it all together. I'm constantly struck by his tenacity in following a technique through to completion. I'll probably be harping on it for at least another couple of weeks as it's proven itself yet again for me.
My current pet technique is the single collar choke. I've been setting it up from everywhere, using combos to get it, and being really persistent about keeping the grip and returning to the choke attempt over and over and over until it works. Last night it paid off for me again as I was able to use that approach to completely control one of my more athletic rolling partners. I usually find it very difficult to deal with his combination of strength and technique, but last night I was able to nullify almost all of that simple by constantly working for that collar grip and then once I got it keeping it and battling for the choke. It took a while but I finished it once and was very close to finishing it a second time.

Welcoming Noobs

I'm not sure what the normal way to welcome Noobs to class is, but I've always felt that "jumping them in" was a good policy. I mean, who wants to go to a martial arts class and flail around like a spazzy noob and come away feeling "Well, that wasn't too bad, those guys didn't really smash me...". I mean, if that's the case why bother taking a martial art? Just lift weights and be a strong spazzy noob. It's even more important of the noob IS Strong and spazzy. If they come and you let them just smash away at you and they leave feeling like they won then they might not come back.

If instead of feeling like they won, or even feeling like they held their own, they get completely dominated for five minutes by someone they outweigh by 50lbs then obviously what they are there to learn WORKS and is worth while. Towards the end of class, or on their second class you can let them work on stuff, give them pointers, etc... But that first class should be a clear demonstration that they are completely helpless against a trained opponent.

So the next time you get a first day noob in the class do him a favor, jump him in.

Combos and Persistence

I was watching Cobrinha's DVDs again a couple of nights ago and noticed something that I had previously missed. He is VERY persistant. He has a specific technique in mind and he KEEPS WORKING it until he gets it. The specific thing that made me notice this was one match where he continually tries to pass his opponents sleeve off to the opposite hand to trap it, his opponent fights it, breaks the grip, fights it, etc... Cobrinha moves briefly to a different attack as if he's given up that idea, then as soon as the guy starts defending that attack its BAM right back to passing the sleeve off, which he gets this time, and right to the sweep that he's been working on for like 4 minutes. It was like everything that Cobrinha did was designed to further his application of that single technique until he hit it.
So taking that in mind I decided to try to maintain that same kind of mindset to go with my new increased commitment to individual techniques. Now I've dedicated myself to the single collar choke. So last night I was spending time trying to set that choke up. Sometimes one of my feints would work and I would get a sweep or another sub along the way, but the plan really came together rolling with super athletic dude Brian. I kept throwing triangles, armbars, and sweep attempts at him while I continually attacked his collar and worked for the grip, just before time ran out I finally got it and started to sink the choke on, unfortunately time ran out on us before I could finish it, but I definitely consider that a successful night.

So to elaborate on the whole idea, commit yourself to a single technique every once in a while at least. Pick one sub or one sweep and make that your entire focus for a night. See how you can use your other techniques to set that one up, see what places you can hit it from. Commit yourself entirely to that technique for just one night. Make it happen.

Don't Pull Guard You Noobs!

If you've seen any of my videos from competition you'll likely be wondering WTF I'm on about with the title of this post. I clearly pull guard about 90% of the time. Except that I don't.
When people say "Pull Guard" they generally imagine flopping onto their back with their legs spread like a five dollar hooker. That's not going to help you win anything. I recommend instead that people think of it as Establishing Guard.

Pulling Guard makes you think of a desperation, defensive technique. Something to avoid the takedown and hope you can do better eventually. That's a defeatest mindset and leads to people flopping to guard and then playing defensively. When you Establish Guard you are creating a position from which you can attack your opponent. You are getting your desire grips and foot placement and preparing to launch an assault that will lead to victory.

So don't Pull Guard, Establish Guard.

No Movement Without Purpose

In the midst of this whole mental shift that I've been undergoing in jits lately I stumbled upon a concept that that I'm sure I've been introduced to before, but just didn't internalize at the time. The idea of making sure that everything I do has a purpose. I had gotten to the point where I was throwing up sub attempts and sweep attempts incoherently just to be doing them. There was no real connected purpose to the techniques I was using.
With my recent slowing down and increased commitment to my attacks I've found that I just move less. I attempt a sub, latch onto it, and stick with it while I look for a second attack from that same position. I don't throw for a sub, fail, then abandon it and return to my guard. That would be movement without purpose.
To that end I'm continuing to shrink my library of techniques and refine them, choosing the ones with the strongest connections to each other and attempting to achieve excellence with those techniques. I want to win the blue belt and intermediate divisions at NAGA this time around and move up to Advanced/Purple belt with the goal of winning there and getting my purple belt by the end of next summer if not sooner. The only way to do that is to continue to refine my set of techniques and work on my fundamental posture and base.
To that end I'm still trying to get more mat time, but haven't had much luck extending it beyond an extra 30 minutes before a couple of classes each week.

Lifting update 4-12-2010

Did Bench and Squats tonight. Hit personal bests on both.
Did 157.5 for 2 reps on the bench and 197.5 ass to grass for 2 reps on the squats.
Warmup on the bench was 10 reps at 87.5, then a set of 4 at 137.5, then I did another set of 6 with 127.5 after I put up 157.5.
Squats I did a set of 10 ass to grass front squats with 87.5. Then went straight to 197.5. Then did a set of 6 with 147.5 afterwards.
I feel like I'm finally lifting some real weight. The goal now is to be putting up 157.5 for 3x3 on the bench and 197.5 for 3x3 on the squats. Whoot.

From Craptacular to Spectacular

So after that one crappy class I took a look at the way I was approaching rolling and decided to make some changes. My previous strategy took a big page from the school of "The best defense is a good offense" and I spent my time throwing constant submission and sweep attempts at my opponents to keep them from mounting a defense. That has worked fine for me as long as the level of competition I was working against couldn't capitalize on my failed attacks to pass my guard and punish me for them. That's no longer the case for most of the guys at the gym. We now have a solid crop of Blue Belts and a big handful of White Belts who will probably be promoted this year. So my sub attempts have been leaving me open to getting passed and they are now taking advantage of those openings. With this in mind I resolved to slow my game down a little and commit more to each attack.
That has worked great. I now spend a little more time setting up each attack, and about twice as much time working it before giving up and moving to something else. I've been able to re-establish dominance over a couple of whitebelts that were starting to catch me and I even managed to sweep and armbar my buddy Johnny (Who is a monster) for the first time in over a year. In addition everything has felt better and more secure. I don't feel rushed when I'm on top, I just relax and work, as long as I'm on top there's no hurry.
I still like to play an aggressive style, I've just relaxed it back a step to increase the success percentage of my attacks.

Class has been a lot of X-Guard stuff. I like X-Guard, but my biggest problem is establishing the X-Guard. I *know* a lot of ways to get to the X-Guard, but I haven't really been able to put them into practice yet. I plan on continuing to work on it though and hopefully be able to use it with confidence by June.

And next up, the move that I got Johnny with Friday I also hit Sunday, since I hit it Friday pretty much as a fluke I thought that since I got it again on Sunday there might be something to it, so I made a quick reference video of what I'm doing:


It's pretty easy, your opponent is passing your halfguard so to block him you reach out and grab his wrist, then swim your arm under his head and reach over the shoulder for a Kimura grip. Now you give up half guard and let them pass. Continue to put pressure on the Kimura trying the normal Kimura sweep from the bottom of side to force them to North/South. When they do that move your hips out and come up to your knees on the other side, again continuing to maintain pressure on the Kimura. Then just sit back and force them down into the armbar. I'm pretty sure there are some other options from here as well, I just haven't had a chance to explore the space yet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dealing With Wrestlers

So I got paired up with Johnny and Christian tonight which meant I was rolling with two of the best wrestlers we have at class, quite possibly the two best wrestlers period. Christian outweighs me by about 25lbs, maybe 35. Johnny is running around about 50lbs heavier than I am.
I spent the entire time working on keeping them from passing my guard while trying to stay aggressivee. Threw a triangle at Christian, threw a Kimura at Johnny, wasn't able to finish either. Managed to sweep Christian once, wasn't really able to disrupt Jonny's base. Got kimuraed by both guys.
However both of them had to work like MAD to get past my guard, which is all I was really looking to do.

First Post of 2010

Ok, so I'm a little late getting some posts up for 2010. I've been hitting class pretty regularly and continuing to get better each time. I've had continued success with the Saddle and with my Shinbar thing and my transitions, passes, and sweeps are all improving apace.
My latest favorite toy is a Braulio Estima position called Leg Hook Guard or Hook Guard which includes an option for a very slick Omoplata and a great sweep. I just started using it last week and have been going nuts with it. The fun part about it is that if you can get the sleeve grip and hook your leg over the arm and shove it down there's pretty much nothing your opponent can do to stop you from either hitting the sweep or the omo attempt.
I still have trouble finishing the sweep and ending up on top every time, but that was much improved last night over my previous attempts with it. I think part of my problem is that I need to get a big fist full of Gi to help me keep my opponent on the ground while I transition. I'll be using it more tomorrow and see how things go.

Aside from my gimmicky hilarity last night we worked on sweeps against standing opponents using a sickle sweep and a hook sweep.
With your opponent standing and your feet on their hips you need to end up with a sleeve grip and an ankle grip. It can be same side or cross side sleeve grip, doesn't matter.
From there you put one foot in your opponents stomach and then depending on which way they are moving you grab one of their ankles. With this grip you need to really be pulling their sleeve and pushing out with your foot that is in their stomach to stretch them out and make it hard for them to pass. Once you get the sleeve and the ankle grip you user your bottom leg (the one that is not pushing on your opponents stomach) and sweep your opponents free leg either by hooking with the top of your foot or by blocking it with your calf. A quick shove in the stomach while you pull the ankle and block the other leg and your opponent goes over backwards. Keep your sleeve grip and use their momentum to bring you up into at least halfguard, preferably side control.

Or use it like I do as an opportunity to transition to the Saddle.

Weightlifting has been swapped around a little again. Switched off of the 5x5 to do a pyramid. Tonight I'll be hitting 123.5x6, 127.5x4, 133.5x2, 137.5x1, and then 123.5x6 again. If that works out well for me I'll be going for 127.5x6, 133.5x4, 137.5x2, 143.5 x1, and then 127.5x6 again. That would mark the first time I've been over my bodyweight on the bench press in almost a decade.

Looking forward to it.

Shin-in-Throat Armbar *UPDATED*

I promised awesomeness regarding this technique tonight, but it will be delayed. I shall include pics and/or video as recompense for my lateness.

*UPDATE*

Ok, so I previously talked about this technique over on Bullshido trying to determine whether it was a viable technique or just something that was working on total noobs. Wednesday night I pretty much answered that question by tapping our senior blue belt who outweighs me by 70ish lbs with it. He was unable to pressure up against it because of my shin pushing on this throat, was unable to push my leg off of his head because it was secured on his neck, and was unable to pry my foot off with his other arm because my other leg was able to push against his elbow. Pushing with my shin allowed me to force him to release his defensive grip on the armbar to try to relieve the pressure on his throat, which allowed me to isolate the arm and finish the armbar.

I included this technique on my recent mindmap as an attack from mount and from guard. I was asked if it should be linked to the Omoplata because it is applied from an Omoplata setup. The answer to that is that it CAN be linked to the omoplata, but I rarely hit it from there. I most often hit this technique from guard only if my opponent postures up while I have their arm and am trying for a traditional armbar.
More commonly I hit this from the top. I go to the traditional armbar and then immediately rotate my hips and wedge my shin into the throat. I find it gives me more control and allows me to put more pressure on large opponents that normally are able to resist my armbar attempts via brute strength.
The pressure you can put on the throat is enough to cause SERIOUS discomfort because the shin is driving UP towards the top of their head as well as down towards the floor. The pressure ends up being applied to the area of the throat JUST under the jaw, if you press against that with your hand a little you'll see why it's so effective.
I've had a couple of people try to defend by reaching up and grabbing my foot to peel it off their neck. To stop that I use my other foot and stick it in their elbow and push away. This also keeps them from turning up into me to try to hide their elbow and escape.
If your opponent is strong enough they may still be able to sit up, if that happens don't worry. Just keep your leg extended and apply pressure on the arm across your thigh for the tap.
A note of caution, your leg is assisting this technique, so it applies more pressure than just pulling with your arms. People are likely to tap before you think they should.

This technique is great if you are a smaller, weaker guy who has a hard time breaking the hulk smash grip of your larger opponents when they are defending the armbar. If you are generally able to get to the armbar position, but can't finish it before your opponent escapes this is for you.
Step 1. Get to your basic armbar position from mount so that you are on top. I hit this from scrambles a lot when people stiff arm me to keep me from passing.
Step 2. Scoop your opponents arm with your arm that is closest to their feet.
Step 3. Turn slightly up on your side facing the opponents head and post up on your elbow.
Step 4. Rotate your foot so that your toes are pointing at your opponents ear. The closer to that exact angle you can get, the better.
Step 5. Open your hips and push your shin into your opponents throat.
Step 6. Start your grip breaking. Put your other foot on your opponents elbow or bicept and push, you should be able to angle the push so that it puts more pressure on your opponents throat. If this fails go to step 6a.
Step 6a. If you can't break the opponents grip and they haven't released it to attempt to defend the throat yet then take the flat of your foot and place it on the heel of the leg that is pressing against their throat. PUSH DOWN. This might tap your opponent here, but it will definitely make them release their arm.
Step 7. Now that the grip is broken use your other arm to hook their arm at the wrist and place your other leg against their elbow to keep them from regaining their defensive grip. Slowly work the arm straight against your bottom thigh.
Step 8. Remove your foot from their elbow/bicep and place it on the ground near their armpit. Use it to arch your hips up off the ground while you push the arm down for the tap. Alternately now that you have the arm extended you can switch to a more traditional armbar position for the finish.

Now, if you find that for whatever reason you just CAN NOT make them let go, no matter how much you mess with their throat you can scoop their elbow with your other arm, the one near their legs, and post up onto your hand. Work your way up to the mounted Gogoplata position and finish from there. I've yet to find anyone I couldn't get to release their grip with the shin in throat method though.

Illustrative pictures will be posted when I can get some taken.

I Am Awesome

Last nights class we warmed up and then I ran the stretching for the class, flashbacks to TKD there. After that Casey showed a couple of solid halfguard passes. The one I always use and one other that I like, but am not as good at.
The first on is the standard one where you walk your foot up to their but, pop their leg off of your knee and push through to mount.
The second one is if they get the underhook and you can't re-pummel. You switch to a headlock grip and then back step over them, use your hand to block their hip to keep them from following you over, and then shrimp your hips away and take side control. I found that this one, which I don't use that much, flows very well into the Von Flue choke, so I've resolved to try to use it more.
We then did a third one which is favored by one of our senior blue belts, Coe, which involves jaw crushing and hip switching to push your knee through and take side control.

After that we did some halfguard rolling, top guy has to pass or sub, bottom guy has to sweep, reguard, or sub.
My friend Will who just recently started there did pretty well, he managed to reguard a few times against me, and was very difficult to sweep. His balance and weight management have gotten really good in just the last couple of weeks.
After that we rolled, Casey paired us up. I rolled with JC first and played catch and release for the most part, just being relaxed and casual about it.
After that I rolled with Brian who is a super athletic guy from the MT class whom I generally can control, but have trouble submitting. I've solved that problem and subbed him with my shin-in-throat armbar and with a kimura which I grabbed from long range halfguard and used to sweep him over, took head-mount, and finished. I was quite proud of that one.
Next I rolled with Coe who has been my nemesis since I started doing Gi. We battled back and forth a bit and I threw the saddle on him and got his base disrupted and had him stretched out good. He tried to hide his foot from me and I grabbed it and hit him with a toe hold for the tap.
He then crushified me with his mighty girth and choked me with something a couple of times before I managed to get him in the saddle again and went for outside heel hook, he moved his leg I went for the straight footlock, he moved his leg again and I got the inside heel hook for the tap.

I'm psyched about that as I have been totally unable to catch him or finish him in anything really. I have to give props to Zapruder for introducing me to the saddle and helping me add it to my game. It really gives me a ton of options from guard when I just can't get past the legs.

Finally I rolled with Judo for a bonus round and tapped him a few times, he managed to snatch a guillotine on me and catch me in guard before I could get around it, giving him the tap on that one. He's really explosive all of the time, half the time he just tries to jump into mount on me and I snatch halfguard and work from there. He also has great posture and good pressure. He's fun to work with.

I'm feeling great about my technique going into NAGA, my no-gi game is stronger than ever now and my Gi game is progressing rapidly. My bench press is back to 117 and I'll be trying for 123 tonight. Overhead press is at 87 and I'll be back to trying 93 on Thursday. Squats and deadlift are at 153 and I'm happy with that for the moment.

Refining My Game

Weightlifting is going pretty well, did 113 again on the bench Saturday because I was out late watching the fights and was already tired. Went ahead with 153 on the squats though and they felt good.
Jiujitsu last night we worked on takedowns, which I hate. I got one decent body lock takedown and got taken down a bunch of times. The guy who kept taking me down I ended up getting one time via trickery. I threw out a sloppy single leg, let him sprawl on me and grab a body lock, then I sat out and took his back for the "Takedown". Yeah, I know, Lame.

After that we played with star sweep variations which I like, had some fun with that. Then we rolled. I didn't realize it until much later, but I was really casual the entire class and still no one came close to putting me in danger. I also noticed that I'm constantly attacking. I rarely get defensive. Even when I'm defending a position I'm looking for a way to attack, I think that mentality helps me a lot.
I've also stopped my technique acquisition phase. I found myself thinking, "I need something new and esoteric to play with!" and then I thought about that statement for a minute and realized I was falling into the "BJJ is my Pokemon" trap discussed on Bullshido previously. I have plenty of techniques, usually 3-5 options from any giving position, and I need to be refining them. I've already been working to refine my guard passing and improve it, so now I'm approaching the rest of my game with the same kind of attitude. I plan on using the same handful of techniques over and over and over for the next few months to try to be unstoppable with those few techniques. I feel like that will be a better use of my time than learning new ways to setup the Gogoplata.

One place I'm still having trouble is avoiding the Kimura when I'm on halfguard bottom vs one particular guy. I experimented with a flexibility based escape, but found that I couldn't hook my leg up properly unless I could get my other hand out from under his body to work. I think I just need to change my halfguard style against him and stop going for underhooks. We'll see how that works out.

Oh, and because I want to make this a somewhat more technical blog:

Star Sweep and Variations:

When someone stands up in your guard the normal sweep is to brace on your shoulders, underhook both legs, break your guard, bring your knees together and push with your legs. Resulting your opponent falling over and you riding the momentum up to mount.
Well if your opponent stands up with one foot back, preventing you from hooking both legs you can switch to the Star Sweep. Underhook the nearest leg, put your other hand flat on the mat near your head, palm down, finger tips pointed down towards your shoulder (Like you are going to do a hand stand). Now push your hips up and load your weight onto your opponents leg/knee, causing them to lose their balance and fall. Again you ride their momentum up to mount.
If for some reason they aren't falling with your weight on their knee you continue the spin by kicking off with the leg opposite your opponents trapped leg and dropping into the turtle with their leg trapped under your arm. Now drive your weight back to put pressure on their knee and bring them to the ground, or stand up with the leg and do a single leg takedown.
KEEP THE LEG while you move to side control and establish your position.

Weight lifting again tonight, Jits on Wednesday.

Back to weightlifting and conditioning

Last night was my second night back lifting, I lost a little bit of progress but not too much. I had to drop my bench press back down to 113 and my overhead to 83. My squats and deadlift were already well under my previous lifts so I was able to continue increasing them. The squats are actually starting to feel heavy at 147.5. If I can avoid injury and everything goes pretty steadily I'll hit my body weight on the benchpress for 5x5 sometime in february, just in time for NAGA.

Speaking of NAGA we started conditioning at the end of class to prep for NAGA last week. Starting out with just 5 minutes of P90X style conditioning and gradually increasing to a 15 minute workout. I always try to get someone to roll with me for 5 minutes after the conditioning so I get a chance to try to work completely exhausted. Worked out well for me, went 5 minutes with the Judo guy that recently joined us and did quite well despite the total and complete exhaustion I felt. It was great.

My most recent technique issue has been getting out of/away from kimuras from halfguard and side control. Mostly halfguard since I can usually snag a leg and rarely end up in side. The guy doing it to me is hugely stronger than I am, so I've been working on finding something to counteract that. My most recent thought is to use my flexibility to counter his strength by kicking my outside leg up through his top arm, putting my shin in the crook of his elbow and using that to break the grip and turn it into a bicep slicer. I'll get my first chance to try that out tonight and we'll see how it goes.

Other than that I'm doin great, the Saddle has become a staple technique for me used as a sweep to get on top, used for setting up subs, and used to help me pass guard. It hasn't taken over my entire game, it's just become a very useful tool that integrates well in the rest of my style.

Heel Hooks and Gogoplatas and Von Flue Chokes, Oh My!

So I couldn't find my NAGA shorts for No-Gi night so I grabbed my competition Gi pants (The highly recognizable blue ones from all of my videos) which meant to keep my mental association consistent I had a "No Mercy" night and instead of letting people work on stuff and being all nice and whatnot I warned everyone and then went on a rampage.
The result was a bunch of heelhooks and gogoplatas alongside the normal complement of triangles and straight armbars and a solid Von Flue choke. All against guys 30-40lbs heavier than I am. It was hilariously brutal.
To add something slightly more technical to my blog I'm working on a takedown that is flashy and workable. Step one is to pull flying guard without breaking your opponent down so that they stay standing and you end up with your legs around them. Then you drop backwards and underhook a leg, brace your other arm on the ground release your legs and kick around so that you end up turtled next to your opponent with their leg secure uner your arm. Now stand up with the single leg and finish the takedown. I'll be practicing it Wednesday and might have video of it depending on how things go.

Progress has been excellent for me almost everywhere. My only real issue comes from guys who are 30+ lbs heavier than I am with similar experience levels. Which is reasonable.
Restarting Stronglifts 5x5 AGAIN tonight using 85lbs on the bench, sticking with 140 on the squats. Started conditioning for NAGA already, that gives me almost 3 full months to get ready for my first tournament as a blue belt. The goal is still to go undefeated. I'll see how that works out for me.

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.

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..

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.

Operation Blue Belt, Day 1

So I'm officially an Alliance Blue Belt now under Jacare.
The test went pretty smoothly, we attended the normal saturday class at Alliance, worked a slick open guard pass, did some open guard rolling drills where I swept a black belt much to my satisfaction but got totally ownaged by most of the blues and purples. After that I got to roll with one of the other blue belts whom I ran a clinic on. He seemed really nervous or dehydrated or something though, his hands were really shakey...
After that the folk who were testing were pulled aside and Jacare ran the heavier guys through their techniques while Cobrinha (Who is awesome and very friendly) ran us lighter guys through our stuff. We just went down the list demonstrating the techniques on each other. I got a couple of "very nice" compliments from Cobrinha and it was all a lot easier than I thought it would be. I didn't blank on anything and ended up with a Blue Belt. Hurray!

That was Saturday, today was my first class as a blue and it was No Gi, so I didn't get to wear it. But with that in mind my goal is not to let any white belts tap me for a while. That doesn't mean being stupid and refusing to tap when some white belt as an armbar fully extended. It means I'm going to roll calm and careful and not get into positions like that. I did a good job of that today making even Casey work to get past my guard and sub me. I even managed to pass his guard once.
Rolled with Vinni as well who should have tested with us for blue and can legitimately be called a blue belt. He's also one of our Ammy fighters. I climbed all over him with sub attempts, and swept him a couple of times. I felt really good about the roll with him as well.

I also rolled a with a new kid who is here for like his second day I think... I ran a clinic on him just to demonstrate how cool JiuJitsu is, then taught him how to properly open guard and told him to work exclusively on that for a while.

It was a good day.

BLUE BELT COUNTDOWN!

So I haven't updated because of a combination of work business, shoulder and knee injury, and working on getting ready for my upcoming Blue Belt test.

Haven't done any weight lifting in a couple of weeks and had to skip a couple of BJJ classes because of some shoulder and knee injuries. They are cleared up and tonight we are reviewing everything we'll need for the guys testing for blue this saturday.
If possible I will video my test and put it up here for folks to check out.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

NAGA Prep

So, Friday we started really getting ready for NAGA, did some gi choke work from side control, working on a baseball bat choke that combos well with the arm triangle I use. I was dehydrated and exhausted by the time class started due to work issues, but I remember doing about 1.5 hours of class, some drills, and some rolling, then 15 minutes of conditioning. Then I did a couple of bonus rounds, one Gi and one No-Gi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtomJpvzrs0
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lcxUxeP9vU

I picked these guys because they are both in good shape, both skilled, and both guys that I usually have an edge over when we're both fresh. With me tired they really exposed some weaknesses I had. I also threw in a heelhook from the Saddle for Zapruder. All of us are competing at NAGA, so the more mat time we get the better.

Tonight was more of the same, but we did Guillotine and RNC escapes at the beginning of class. The guillotine escape involved armover the shoulder, then working to the side and kind of sweeping the opponents legs out from under them and taking side control. I had a thought "could I scoop him up WWE style and drop him in side control?" and the answers was a resoundingly awesome YES.
After that, some rolling. I rolled with the whitebelt who caught me with a kimura last time, I was in competition mode, so he got subbed a lot, mercilessly. After that I rolled with Courtney, threw her around and subbed her bunch. Then more conditioning, then I did a bonus round with Coe who CRUSHIFIED me and spent a large portion of the time working a guillotine on me which I finally had to tap to. A good night though, working my conditioning should pay off I hope.

Energy Legs!

In preperation for class today I took 2 aspirin and this thing called a Stress Tab. The stress tab has like 100mg of caffeine and a billion tons of B12 and B6 and stuff. The consequence was that I was PACKED FULL of energy the entire class. We did some side control escape drills to start off with, then I broke off to help the Noobs work on Americana and Kimuras, Both Jenn and Courtney caught on pretty quick to both of those, but the straight armbar we were doing was a little more complicated and they had a harder time with that.
For drilling we started under side control and had to escape while the guy on top had to sub. I starte with Ankor on top and eventually swept him and escaped, then I rolled with Coe, started out on top and held him there for a while before he finally go a hand in my armpit and a fistful of gi and stiff armed me over. After that I rolled with... asian dude whose name I can't remember, I started on the bottom and got a little too lazy, he got mount and americanad me.
After that we rolled, I started with Ankor in Gi and we did some back and forth, I was trying to be super aggressive and so gave up sacrificed some defense, we tapped each other a few times. After that I rolled w/ one of the new guys. I threw him around and subbed him a bunch, he was enjoying it. After that I did a round of No-Gi with Ankor, got the Crucifix Kimura a couple of times, a triangle from the back, a standard Kimura, and an armbar as I recall. He got me with a freakin body triangle from the back and I think a kimura, and possibly a straight armbar... A good roll for both of us.
Next up I rolled with Courtney for a few minutes and threw her around and subbed her a bunch, then the same with Chad.

All in all a good class and I still felt packed with energy afterwards, even now! I'm going to start taking those stress tab thing before class every time I think.... And for sure before NAGA.

Be my Butterfly

We played with butterfly guards and butterfly transitions to X-guard today and I got some practice lifting 250lb people up in the air, which I need. After that we did some drilling, I swept a bunch of folk including this one kid who is the kind of wrestler that clamps down on your head and just sits there right now. He locked down onto my head and wouldn't let go forever, eventually I managed to get enough space to omoplata sweep him and take side control.

After some butterfly drilling we rolled and the kid who called me out a week or so ago passed to side control and managed to americana me, which he was very happy with. I won't be letting that happen again. My goal tonight was to play with the crucifix and I got to do that quite a bit on a couple of people, I was able to transition to it and get the kimura, I had trouble with the hell strangle because I kept needing both arms on theirs to maintain the position, I think I'll want to transition to scooping the arm behind my "top" arm and hooking it there in the future. I tried to take the RNC from there once, but couldn't get the right leverage so I had to give it up. It worked pretty well as an option from the back for me though.

My final roll was against one of the college wrestlers in the class who is built like a 55 gallon drum full of bricks. It's like trying to grapple with a very acrobatic bowling ball. I was able to sweep him a couple of times though from half guard when he tried to darce/choke me. I was able to defend against his RNC and avoid several other subs, but he pretty much ran me over.

A good class, somehow I dropped 3.5 lbs in the last 2 days though, weighed in at 141.5 this morning. That means I should be able to cut to 139 for NAGA without any trouble.

Flying Sidekick

This is the video from my midterm for 2nd degree TKD blackbelt, I left TKD shortly after this was filmed. I'm breaking 2 boards with the flying sidekick and then 2 boards with an upset knifehand strike.



If you watch the video and pause it at the 15 second mark you can see that I should have had my non-kicking leg tucked up a little tighter. Also, the distance I ran was more for visual effect than out of necessity, I've done the same break with only 2-3 steps.

Competition Videos

I dug through all of my video links and have pulled them out in chronological order for anyone interested in checking them out:

First ever grappling match 2007
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1071241798571137899

Later that year, NAGA
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3548201218593477837
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2224045126269133779
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-788920203550747355
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-415686111276980243

2008 NAGA
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2070345299862448585

2008 Casca Grossa
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3123214915948448823
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-99204263708741123

2009
No-Gi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYt45pKaZ48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLJYsRQJeBg

Gi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI8k3-OSEA4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egkJMfABa_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKKytXmraDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mmcB5530hA

Not all of my matches got video taped, my second match at that very first Casca Grossa was missed, I lost via armbar about 90 seconds in.
My First match at the 2008 NAGA was missed, which was very disappointed because I got A HUGE takedown at the beginning and just dominated the guy from start to finish.

I think those are the only two that have been missed. Other than that every single match in my competitive career to this point is recorded and on the internet for everyone to see.

My Guard, It Is Impassable, Unless You Have Elephants

I was on a roll again today, we worked on some attacks against the turtle using the clock choke, as well as counters to the clock choke. The primary counter was actually the "Fat Boy Roll" that I use from wrestling already, so that was good since I'm already good at that. Also learned how to properly apply the clock choke, whoot. Another Gi sub in my arsenal now.
After that we did some drills from turtle, hijinks ensued, then time to roll.
I started out rolling with a guy who was new to class, he was somewhere around 6 feet tall and maybe 180 lbs, and apparently had wrestled for a while. I have no idea how long. He was completely unable to pass my guard, but was very very active. He fought off a tight triangle for a while, constantly worked to get by my guard, but eventually was swept and mounted. I hung out in mount until time ran out since by then there were only 30 seconds or so left and I was tired.
After that I rolled with one of th guys whose name I constantly forget, he actually called me out this time which was fun. I arm-barred him, RNCed him, swept him a few times and generally had my way with him. He's learning though.
After that I rolled with another guy whose name I can never remember but who is another 190ish lb guy who is very strong and active. He was also unable to pass my guard and I eventually swept and mounted him also.
I practiced getting collar grips and breaking him down into my guard over and over and over again as well as working on holding him down. Next step will be to work on feeding the different collar chokes from there.

All in all, a good night, though my lack of sleep lat night hurt my endurance and left me too tired for a bonus round.

Ugh, ate a brick...

So I had a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs friday before class, not the most brilliant idea.
Felt like I was grappling with a bowling ball in my gut.

We warmed up with takedowns and sprawls, then worked on guard passing and did guard passing drills, I did ok...

After that we rolled, I rolled with a very athletic 180ish pound guy who is VERY intense. Forces me to go 100% against him. I subbed him with a heel hook then held him in my guard for a while because I felt like crap.
After that I rolled with JC who is lanky and my same weight, but like 6'2". I damn near fell asleep while rolling with him and he ezekieled me.
After that I got a bit of a second wind and rolled with one of the much newer guys, swept and subbed him a bunch. Then rolled with one of our ammy MMA fighters for a while. Heel hooked him, and he returned the favor.
Finally I rolled with my resident blue belt nemesis, but by that point my left arm was numb and I was barely awake and he crushed me in dominant fashion.

All in all, not my best day at class. I shall strive to avoid consuming heavy meals right before class in the future.

BJJ, It's like a Magic Trick

So the tips I got from Zapruder are continuing to pay off in a big way. Wednesday I pretty much ran a clinic on everyone under 180lbs in the gym. Sweeps were on point, subs were happening, finally hit a triangle in Gi. Even rolled with one of our Ammy fighters and passed his guard and stayed on top of him for most of the roll. Went for the "Saddle" heel hook and couldn't secure it and he ended up on top in halfguard, where we stalemated.
After that I did a No Gi bonus round with a kid that just started Jits but has been doing Muy Thai for a while. RNC and Triangle+Armbar for the win. I was never really in any danger of being subbed by anyone except for Ankhor who landed a super tight triangle that took me forever to fight out of. Eventually he was just too exhausted to keep it locked on and had to let go.
Over all I feel really good about my Jits and I think I have a shot at a solid performance against the blue belts at NAGA. If everything goes well I'll take 1st and feel ready to take a stab at Purple belt.

Noobs and Collar Chokes

So I brought a fleet of noobs (Well, 3 today, probably a couple more next Sunday) up to Casey's to join the crew. The roster included my fiance Jenn, our friend Chad, and our other friend Courtney. Now, Chad and Courtney represent completely opposite ends of the human spectrum, Chad is 270lbs, farmboy strong, monster huge dude. Courtney is 120 and built like a leprechaun, so we had a great time with that.
I paired up with Jenn to work collar chokes, kimura's, and arm triangles. Chad worked with the purple belt, Darnel, and courtney paired up with Falsto to work. Pretty basic stuff, Jenn caught on right away and enjoyed making my eyes bug way out with a couple of deep collar chokes.
After that I did some rolling with Jenn and Courtney having them start in my guard and work to pass and so on. After sweeping them a few times I showed them how to posture and break guard to pass. We worked on that for a bit then the two of them worked together. Courtney is a little spastic, and very energetic, Jenn is a lot more methodical. Both of them were catching on quick though.
While this was going on Chad had been fed to the lions on the other side of the class. He was working with Darnel which at least meant he got a lot of good advice.
After that we split up to roll, I rolled with Chad first which was a blast. I was able to apply all of the stuff that Zapruder and I had been talking about and kept him in the air and off balance the entire time. I swept him and subbed him about every 30 seconds for 7 minutes. Which he thought was awesome.
After that I called out Coe for the obligatory blue belt ass whipping. He was showing a little less mercy this time after I asked him if he scuffed his knuckles punching old ladies... I made him work for the pass and tossed off a few more remarks about a failed collar choke before he got a good grip and throttled me. I was briefly able to pass his guard, but before I could lock side down he got a hand in my armpit and pushed me off, I spun to his back but couldn't lock that in either before he dumped me back down and I had him in my guard again. A couple of times I had to tap to the CRUSHING WEIGHT of knee on ribs, but a fun time indeed!
Last I got a bonus round with Darnel. Up until tonight he had actually not subbed me rolling. First up he managed to get me with a goofy wristlock while I was defending the americana, it wasn't even the normal knuckles on the ground wristlock either. I think he got me with something else as well then I tried to 50/50 sweep him so I could get a heel hook. His base was just too good and he slowly crushed through my guard and armbarred me though.

Still feeling REALLY good about my skills now. I'm not having anywhere near the kind of problems with WEIGHT that I used to. Coe and Darnel are still destroying me, but not as much with weight as with superior skill in using that weight. The less experienced heavy guys are far less of a problem now.

A New Era

So it's been 6 months since my last update. A lot has happened in that time. For one thing the blog is going public again.

Early this year due to work scheduling issues and financial concerns I had to stop attending HCG. It sucked and I was out completely for almost two months. Luckily I found out in March that Casey Baynes from Alliance in Atlanta was sharing space with one of my old TKD schools and teaching Jits 3 days a week. The class times were a better fit for my work schedule and the classes were less expensive. It's mostly a Gi class, but that's fine. HCG is still the best MMA gym outside of Atlanta, and a good argument can be made that they are the best MMA gym in the state, but my focus has never really been on MMA so I was never using those resources to their full potential anyways.

So for the last 4 months I've been doing Jits with Casey and the guys there. I competed in the white belt Gi division at NAGA and got 2nd, I took 3rd in Intermediate No-Gi. I've been progressing nicely and now really feel like I'm ready for my blue belt test which should be coming up in October.
In september I'm going to compete at NAGA again, this time as a blue belt in Gi just to test the waters.

Most recently I've been working on collar chokes and balling up under huge guys trying to crush me and last night I had an epiphany. A bunch of stuff that Zapruder from bullshido had been telling me clicked together and I was able to keep a 220lb white belt suspended in the air for most of a 7 minute round. I really feel good about it and I'm confident I'll easily pass my blue belt test. After that I think I can wait a year and probably get my purple belt next summer.

Now that the blog is public again I'll try to post up some videos from class when I have them. I'm picking up a 4gb memory stick for the camera next month, which should let me record the entire class if I want to, but mostly I'll just be posting me rolling with various folks so I can get some comments on it.

Now time to clean the house, exercise the horses, and go for a trail ride.

Wrecking Machine!

So Friday at Open Mats I showed up early and got warmed up a bit, then grabbed a guy that I had last rolled with before christmas and rolled light to warm up. He's got MAYBE 6 months but is gorilla strong. I passed his guard and worked on him a bit, he regained guard, and I tried to bait the triangle to pass again, which had worked GREAT 2 months ago. Well, he's since learned how to lock it in and caught me. I fought it for about a minute but he was having none of that and cinched it in for the tap. I saw him hit 2 or 3 other people with the Triangle over the course of the evening, he's gotten pretty slick at it.
Other than that, I did not get tapped, I spent a total of maybe 2 minutes in an inferior position all night. And I finally started finishing people. STRONG people. I got 3 RNCs, an Arm Triangle (From guard no less), an Arm Bar, a Bicep Splicer, an Omoplata, and I think I got a triangle in somewhere, but can't remember.
Even the one guy I didn't finish I spent a lot of time in mount on. I certainly was positionally dominant. I mostly just glad that I'm starting to get the subs successfully.

After that I went down to meet the guys to workout and they had brought a ton of people to play with us. We had 7 other people there which was awesome. One of them was a 260lb guy who was rediculous strong that I subbed twice with a straight armbar that I've been calling the KoalaBar because you wrap your entire body around their arm and drive the blade of your forearm into their elbow and you're attacking the "wrong" side for a regular armbar. I've been working on it and hit someone with it at the last monday class, but it's still not 100% reliable for me.

Anyways, I'm awesome. I feel awesome about my Jits. I feel like I have a real chance at NAGA even though I'm moving to Intermediate.

A New year, time to update!

SO, my Jits goals for the year are to get my Blue Belt, which I hope isn't far away since I can hang with most of the other blues already, though just barely. And to place in the intermediate division at NAGA.
My weightlifting goals are to get my Deadlift up to 300. My bench press to 200, and my squats back to 400.

My guard passing has gotten way way way way better. A few things came together that really made the whole process click for me. Pinning the leg with my instep instead of my shin, keeping my upper body tight, getting the farside underhook... It all just kind of came into focus right before the end of last year and now I'm passing a lot more guards than I was before. My biggest problem remains opening the guard against the stronger guys, but that's getting better too.
My sweeps are pretty slick, the z-guard scissor sweep, the basic situp sweep, and my giftwrap sweep have been money for me still and are just getting better and better.
I've gotten better about not waiting for the EXACT PERFECT setup to try subs, which means I get reversed more often, but I'm also finishing people more. I had a couple of weeks of rampaging through people with a bicep splicer from guard before everyone caught on and started shutting it down. I'm a million times better at finishing arm bars than I was 3 months ago, the same for kimuras.
All in all my whole game is really solidifying. I just need to put in the time to keep improving. I've been hitting 2-3 times a week at HCG and my 2 hour friday gig almost every week. I just took a week and a half off because I'm switching back to polyphasic sleep (Which explains why I'm awake at 2:20am doing deadlifts on a Wednesday) and needed a few days to adjust.

I'm up to 144lbs now though, so actually gonna have to try to cut 5 lbs for NAGA.... Should be doable.

Gonna go see if I can hit a personal best on overhead press tonight too...