JiuJitsu 9/10

I got to class a little earlier and put in about 20 reps of the situp sweep, just trying to get a feel for it. Something about the extra bulk of wearing the gi makes it feel really awkward. I need more reps.

Techniques today were butterfly guard -> Armdrag -> Take the back. Several different ways to set it up. All pretty much the same. It was good to get in reps with the armdrag.

Did some positional rolling starting from butterfly guard and spent my time sweeping folks and passing guard. Taught Katie how to pin the knees on one side or another and pass with the shoulder to the gut. She needs all the tricks she can get since she weighs like 100lbs.

After that I rolled with Brian and a visiting blue belt named Phil from Daniel Moraes academy in Jacksonville. He had a very solid style on top, very good at taking away any space that opened up. The first roll we were fairly even with me working several sweep attempts which he blocked and me eventually turtling and moving to halfguard where we stayed for a while. Second roll with him I used my fav tech for breaking people down and was able to launch a nice series of attacks which failed, and eventually ended us up in halfguard again until he had a sudden cramp and had to bail.
Rolling with Brian was normal. I'll sweep him if he gets too aggressive, then if I give him the slightest chance he'll explode and resweep me. He tapped me with a nice north south choke the first time. Then I tapped to Kesa because I got bored under it and couldn't get anywhere. Then we sat around for a while and talked techniques. My guard was compared favorably with Moraes' guard, not that mine is anywhere near as good, but that it is a similar style. A very fun class and nice that I was competitive against a 5 year blue belt from another school that outweighed me by 30lbs who came to play. Always feels nice to validate your training a little like that.

Also, Mad props to my Jennosaurus who made sure I went to class tonight. I've skipped a few recently to help her with nursing school stuff and because I've been SUPER busy at work, but she made sure I got on the mats tonight and that's just one of the many reasons that she's awesome and I'm marrying her in ~30 days.

UGA Grappling Club 11/8

Tonight we started "Boring" Jiujitsu. The first few weeks I taught I would show 2-3 techniques, everyone would practice each technique ~10 times, then we would roll either starting from a specific position or just free rolling. This way everyone got introduced to the kinds of techniques they will eventually be able to use as well as getting to see how hard it is to apply those techniques against other people. This period also lets them get some of the SPAZZ out on each other and usually manages to convince them that if they want techniques to work that they will have to practice them.

Once I've got them hooked on the BJJ though, it's time to get serious. So tonight we went over the very first side control escape I showed them 6 weeks ago and I broke it down step by step, then we repped it 100 times each. We started with minimal resistance, just enough not to be a dead fish. Then every 10 reps we increased the resistance until the last 10 reps you were doing everything to prevent your opponent from escaping, including transitioning to other positions. Some folks were skeptical initially, but by the end of it everyone was very happy with how much they learned. I don't think most of them realized there could be that many details to something as simple as a side control escape. Honestly I could do like 30 hours worth of class time on nothing but side control escapes and still have only gotten started on what I know about them, much less what a black belt knows. I would love to have a month of side control escapes at Megalodon...

No rolling at all tonight. All drilling that escape. Boring JiuJitsu makes you good.

Jiujitsu 11/5: Good to be back!

So despite all the screw ups with the software upgrade I was working on tonight I made it to an hour of jiujitsu. I was rolling pretty hard today, a lot harder than I usually do, but I also noticed some things about my style which I need to fix pronto. I will list those first:
1. I have gotten into the habit of giving people grips on my gi pants as a way to lure them in since everyone runs away from my guard all of the time. This leads me too often to having to defend the pass before I can start attacking. BAD JIUJITSU! So I need to go back to starting in a good butterfly position and sticking to it. If my opponent wants to run away from me then I'll just have to chase them and get REALLY aggressive about it.

2. In no-gi I have gotten SLOPPY. I'm not breaking my opponents down and really fighting for my overhook control the way I should. I'm not going for the situp sweep as a combo to help me break people down. Definitely need to start putting in a little more no-gi time soon to keep me sharp.

3. My halfguard needs a tuneup. I used to be super dangerous from the bottom of half, now I seem to just stall out looking for the oldschool sweep and end up with people hanging on my neck. Gotta get aggro from the bottom of half again.

Now, on to what was awesome:
I hit a ton of armbars. Way more than I usually hit. I was willing to just throw my hips and legs up and see what happened a lot more tonight. As a result I hit something like 6 armbars, including a couple of triangle to armbar transitions.
My situp sweep attempts kept turning into Kimura sweeps though. I need to tune that up a little, gotta get someone to drill with me one day.

I hit a choke I've been looking at for a while but never really found the right place to try. It's a Cobra choke, which works thusly:

I have my grip on the opposite collar and I'm looking to set up my collar choke, my opponent manages to back away and goes for the double underhook pass. I defend the pass by spreading my knees open and digging my feet in under his thighs. I then put my free arm across the back of his neck and snack my hand under my arm that has the collar grip. Then I point the fingers of my non gripping hand at the ceiling and just.... make it tight. I hit that 2-3 times and it was awesome since I've been blocking that guard pass and not having any options. Now I have a great option.

I also hit a kimuraplata. This is a SLICK move for you little folks who find that people get a death grip on their clothes when you go for a kimura from guard, and those same people roll forward when you go for an omoplata.

Step 1: Get your kimura grip from guard and spin 90 degrees to put the kimura pressure on. Your opponent doesn't grab onto something, finish them. If they grab something then go to step 2.

Step 2: Keep your Kimura grip and continue rotating until you are in the omoplata position with the kimura grip. Begin to sit up like you are going to finish the omoplata, but keep the kimura grip. What this does is hook your leg around your opponents elbow and bend their elbow towards the front of their body while you have their wrist locked in place. So instead of moving the wrist to create the pressure on the shoulder you are moving the elbow to create pressure on the shoulder. It works a treat and is super sneaky.

I think this was one of my most productive classes in a while. I actually was able to pinpoint some specific weaknesses to work on, which is nice.

UGA Grappling Club 11/2

I did the last lesson in my "Beginners BJJ Curriculum" today. Normally I would have spent an entire month on each of the things I taught instead of a single class, but the idea is to keep the class fast paced and give people a taste of everything BJJ has to offer to keep them interested first. NOW I'll go back to the beginning and make them drill it over and over and over again.


We had a couple of new people, a couple of gigantic guys, one reasonable sized guy and a girl. Gave them a quick introduction to shrimping, up, and sitouts.

Techniques were attacks from guard. I leave submissions from guard until the end because I want to keep the emphasis on position and obtaining superior position instead of having everyone throwing up wild triangles at each other from the bottom. First I showed the two safe positions in guard, head in the solar plexus, hands in the armpits, weight down on your opponent. Then how to posture up using your opponents ribs and hips to post on. After that I showed triangle chokes concentrating on getting the hips high and getting a good kick over with the leg to make the choke successful. The refresher was really good for me as well since I've been letting my triangle chokes get super lazy and it's been hurting me.
Next up was armbar from the guard. I showed how to isolate the arm and bring it across the chest, then use your legs to trap and hold your opponent and finish. Briefly went over how to sweep from the armbar to finish if your opponent tries to stack you.

Rolling was King of the Mountain style with 5 groups on the mat and the other 6 or so people on the wall. I had them start in guard with the top guy trying to pass, the bottom guy trying to sweep or submit. Things rotated through pretty quickly and everyone got plenty of chances with different partners. I stepped in after everyone had been through once and got some time rolling with different folks. Hit a few situp sweeps, but found myself hesitating to fire the armbar on top a lot. I did hit a couple, but I definitely need to keep refining it. This is an excellent project for me for sure.

After that I let everyone roll open-mat style for a while and I grabbed people to roll with. One guy jumped on my neck from halfguard and tried to tear my head off, which annoyed me enough to pass, bust out the no-gi ezekiel, and then armbar him.

We've got a good solid core group in the club it seems like, so next week we can start in with the "boring" part of jiujitsu that really makes you good at it. Drilling.

Running, it sucks.

So I resolved to start running again to help improve my overall cardio as opposed to only my grappling specific cardio and boy do I need it. My course is 1.5 miles long, .75 up and .75 back. After the first .75 I was sucking wind and coughing like a pack-a-day smoker. I dunno why my lungs are being such bitches about it, but they HATE to run in the cold apparently. Well screw them! I'll be up for another 5am run tomorrow and try to push a little further since this time I ran .75 and walked .75. Once I can run the entire 1.5 I'm going to start edging it up until I'm doing 3 miles. My eventual goal is to run the 3 miles in under 20 minutes. If I actually keep at it with the running this time around I might be get there sometime in 2012....

I skipped JiuJitsu last week to let some minor injuries heal up before they became actual problems, back at it tonight teaching the grappling club. I'm going to teach triangles and armbars from the guard and go over the importance of posture and hand positioning.

Inspiration Struck

So I've been hit by inspiration in the form of this kid Rebecca "Mini-Beast" Forsyth. I've seen her at NAGA a few times when I was there and she's a super fierce little kid. She crushes the competition. Well a co-worker is thinking about putting his daughter in a martial art and I of course suggested BJJ. In order to show him an example of a girl about his daughters age competing I looked up some of Becca's vids from NAGA.
While watching them I noticed two things, firstly that the girl has only gotten more dominant in the last 8 months or so since I saw her compete last, and secondly that she has honed her situp sweep and armbar into a victory machine. She hits the situp sweep almost every match and frequently finishes with the armbar. That kind of dedication to just a handful of offensive techniques has given her a really sharp game. I also liked her technical standup about two minutes in to this video which is one of the cleanest I've ever seen. She follows it up with a nice takedown as well.

So in honor of the Mini-Beast I will be spending the next FOUR, that's right FOUR months working situp sweep and then armbar from the top. Nothing but those two techniques.

UGA Grappling Club 10/25

We were sharing the room with what appeared to be an Indian girls dance troupe of some sort this time around, which was interesting mostly because they kept screaming at each other about whose fault it was when their routine got messed up.

We started off drilling situp sweeps and mount escapes, then I went over the Kimura -> Guillotine -> Situp Sweep combo and we worked on the various parts of that for a while. Then because I had it as a request we did the Darce choke from top of halfguard. This is probably my single WORST submission, but I went over it anyways and we drilled it a little. I went over a halfguard sweep by request as well. My go-to sweep where you overhook, trap the same side leg, and upa. Everyone kept getting 2/3rds of the way through the upa, and then instead of pushing their opponent away EXTRA hard to gain separation and get to side control they would switch to hugging their opponent and land in top of halfguard. I corrected that and then we did positional sparring from the top of halfguard.

We had a couple of people come in towards the end of the positional sparring that have previous Tang Soo Do and Takewondo experience. I rotated them in as we started rolling to see what kind of folks they are. They weren't overly spazzy and both of them are fairly light, so not dangerous. One kept trying to canopener me or something, the other one attempted to get rubber guard from the bottom of side control. I answered that attempt by mounting him, letting him sweep me over, then immediately running through Mission Control -> New York -> Chill Dog -> Kung Fu Move -> Omoplata on him.

It seemed like a good class. It was one of our smaller ones with only 10 people in it, but I expect attendance to pick up again once the dance troupes are all done practicing.

I'm still floundering around a little trying to figure out how I want to proceed with my own training. I think I should revisit some of my old No-Gi basics for Gi since the Situp sweep and Triangle choke used to be my bread and butter, but I don't really hit either in Gi that much. Unless I get some brilliant stroke of inspiration by wednesday I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks just working on situp sweep and triangle. There is a triangle choke setup off of the failed situp sweep, so I want to work that as well.

And as long as I'm talking about triangles, I figured out WTF I'm doing that's lowering my triangle choke percentages in Gi. I figured it out because I did it in No-Gi last night. I'm leaving my hips far too close to my opponent and being far too lazy about the sub. In fact, I've been far too lazy about everything while working on my flow. I've just been flowing with people and looking for openings and then if I get too much resistance just transitioning off to something else. If I'm going to go through all of the trouble to setup a triangle and get halfway to it, I need to go ahead and work harder to finish it.

Bit of a slump

So after talking several other folks through how to deal with their slumps over the last 8 months or so I've hit one myself. The guys in my class that I'm better than I'm just plain better than. The guys that I'm not better than are gigantic purple belts or gigantic wrestlers and the gap between us is pretty big because of that. So I'm having a hard time bridging the gap between where I am and where I want to be.

Luckily I know the answer. Drill. Drill my A-game. Drill my B-game. Drill my backup plans. Drill my go-to-hell plans. Drill drill drill and drill some more. So tonight I'm going to abuse my position as instructor for the UGA Grappling club and get some No-Gi reps in of my A-Game no-gi sweeps and a few other things. See if I can break myself out of the rut.

JiuJitsu 10/14

So true to my resolution I continued working on my A game and my general flow last night and I can definitely feel the improvement over where I was six months ago.

Techniques were an ezekiel from the back where you rotate so that you are looking in your opponents ear, drive your bottom wrist around to on top of their far shoulder, grab your sleeve, and ezekiel.
Then a quick armbar from the back, then an armbar from the back with a kimura grip for greater control.
And finally an armbar vs the turtle where you scoop their far arm with your far arm then roll onto your side. You can finish there or have the option to flip them over and finish.

We did specific sparring from the turtle, Rugby is getting better already, he was able to shake me off a couple of times and get back to guard. Once was my own fault since I felt the triangle setup that I use and automatically went for it, resulting in him escaping to a neutral position.
My single collar choke setups are getting sneakier and sneakier as well.

Rolling was with Ankhor and Katie. Ankhor is one of the super athletic guys that does Muay Thai and BJJ, he's got an MMA fight coming up at the end of those month. A few months ago he was giving me absolute fits because of how strong he is, but over the last 3-4 months I've gotten a lot stronger and improved my technique. So last night I was able to breakdance all over him for the first time in a long time.

Katie is like 14 and is Casey's daughter. I'm not sure how seriously she takes JiuJitsu, but she's there pretty regularly and I try to give her tips on how to make stuff work when you are 100lbs lighter than everyone. Sometimes she seems to be working hard at it, sometimes she doesn't seem to care. But I think if she had some more people her size that she could see the stuff working on it would motivate her more. Instead the next lightest person is like 40lbs heavier than she is and probably 5x as strong. Definitely not a recipe for morale building.

Workin' my A game

Ok, so normally I would entering a new month of experimentation, digging through youtube, reading Subs101 or lockflow, generally just casting about for new techniques to play with. Instead I've decided to go for another month of consolidation on my current game and try to bring it up a level against our purple belts and a couple of the big athletic blue belts. I know there are tricks I can use on them that will work, now I'm going to make a concerted effort to work this tricks and refine them. Time to take things to the next level with my current game until I find a place where I don't have the proper tool. At the moment I think I have plenty of tools to work with.

Weightlifting 10/7

I'm thinking of switching to only updating my lifting stats once a month or something.... 4 times a week makes for a bunch of short little posts with no content.

That being said, hit 5 reps at 127.5, 3 at 147.5, and 5 reps at 163.5 on the bench. That's a personal record of volume for me. Whoot!

Hip Control

I had mentioned to BJJGrrl that controlling the hips was one of those things that was crucially important to a lot of aspects of JiuJitsu, and everyone told me that for years, but I never really understood what it MEANT or how to accomplish it until recently.

I've worked out that there are three ways to kill someones hip movement, the direct method, the indirect method, and retreating. With the direct method you are using solid pressure directly onto their hips. An example would be when you are in someones closed guard and you put your hands on their hip bones and drop your weight on them. You've directly shutdown their hips in order to work on opening their guard and passing. This method requires that you be able to solidly manage your weight, keep it centered, and "drive" down into your opponent. This is probably the first method that most people discover for controlling the hips.

The Indirect method is the method that I've actually found to be most useful though. With the indirect method I'm not attacking the hips directly, I'm removing the levers that control that hip motion, the legs. Every motion of the hips requires that the legs be involved to generate the torque and force required to accomplish anything. Shrimping, bridging, all of it involves driving with the legs. Because of this my primarily method of hip control has become the legs. An example is from mount when you grapevine the legs, it does add some direct pressure to kill the hips, but it mostly just takes the legs out of the equation. I expand on that concept whenever I'm on top and work to lift my opponents legs off of the ground to prevent shrimping. For example, in side control I will turn slightly towards my opponents feet and grab their FAR leg at the knee and pull it up off of the ground. This makes it very difficult for them to shrimp and makes it easier for me to transition to mount if I want to. I follow the same idea when I'm passing guard. I hug the knees, sprawl and then turn and lift to keep my opponents feet off of the ground. This stops them from shrimping away or chasing me with their legs.

The third method is retreating or transitioning. This is the method I use the most now and it's even LESS direct than the direct method. I feel like this method is best suited for a smaller person who is working against a larger person and is still applicable even against people of the same size or smaller, it's just not as necessary. With this method you just remove yourself from where their hips want you to be. If you are in side control and they start to shrimp to regain guard you transition towards north south then pop to Knee on Belly as they follow you. If they try to bridge you off there you spin and sit down on their head for headmount/northsouth. If they start to escape that you slide down to side control on the opposite side and start the process over again. You have to be pretty sensitive to when your opponent is moving to make this work though.

Now, the BEST method, and one I'm just starting to reliably be able to use, is a combination of all three. When I'm moving to KoB I like to grab the far leg at the knee and pull up to prevent shrimping away from me. At the same time I use the KoB to drive heavily into the hips to pin the hips. When I'm sweeping someone I maintain control of their hips either with leg pressure across the hips directly, or with a hook under the knee, or with a handful of pants. Concordantly I work to keep my hips AWAY From my opponent. This flipside of this entire thing is that controlling your OWN hips is just as important as controlling your opponents. If they have your hips locked down you can't do much to them. So again the legs come into play. If your hips are pinned by direct pressure you have to be explosive even if it's a tiny explosion. Just enough to unfreeze your hips on one side and pop out. If your legs are being lifting try to pull your knees up to your chest and pop them open like butterfly guard. If someone is using fast transitions then trick them. Fake shrimping one way the roll to your knees on the other side.

Above all look at ways to prevent your opponent from using their hips while finding ways to maximize your own hip movement.

JiuJitsu 10/7

Worked on a takedown for a bit, then flower sweep variation and a triangle combo with it. Fun times.
Did some specific sparring from guard where I played around trying to figure out what I want to work on this month, then rolled for a while.

I had a couple of big guys to play with and spent my time letting them start in side control or mount so that I could work out of it. One of them managed to spark my rage for a moment when he tried to use gorilla strength on my head to keep me from taking his back. Whenever someone big does that it momentarily releases my normal mental block, so I immediately smashed him to the ground, drive my forearm into his neck/jaw, then armbarred him when he tried to defend against that. Everything was super hard and fast until the armbar went on. I never completely lose control, but that contained rage is something I've been trying to harness so that I can let it out at tournaments when it would really be helpful to be moving twice as fast as I normally do. He also tried to americana me from inside my guard, instant armbar again. He's a good guy, and I look forward to how good he's gonna be when he gets some more training time in, but he's only been training for a week or two, so he still has some bad habits to grind out of him.

This is an "Experiment" month for me, but I have no idea what I want to try out... Gonna have to browse lockflow/sub101/etc... and find some stuff to play with. Or I might hit the Roy Dean purple belt DVD and make it an Experimental Combo month and see what I can put together.

Weightlifting 10/2 and 10/3

Benchpress was only 6 reps at 155 I believe, don't have my notes with me right now.
Overhead press was 9 reps with 90lbs which is very solid for me.
Tomorrow will be squats again which puts me starting my third week of 5/3/1. Overall I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I'm looking forward to maxing out again at the beginning of December to see where I'm at.

Weightlifting 9/28

Squats! WHOOT!

The first day of my second week of 5/3/1.
3x115 (113.5)
3x135 (133.5)
10x150 (153.5)

I felt pretty good about 10 reps at my bodyweight. Tonight is Benchpress, I'll be trying to hit 9 reps or better with 157.5.

UGA Grappling Club 9/27

We had a total of six girls show up to the class, which was awesome. I think only 2 or 3 of them will stay on as regulars, but that's still good. I continued my normal warmup of Shrimping, Upa, Sitouts, then had the folks who had been there before working on Situp sweep to mount, then Knee to Elbow escape, then Situp sweep, repeat...

After that we move on to some a halfguard sweep and a halfguard pass. I taught my go-to moves for both of those. The sweep is 99% similar to the Upa mount escape. You overhook the arm on the same side as the the trapped leg, then plant your inside foot as close to your butt as possible, put your hand on their hip, and upa. You push with your arm at the same time to increase the amount of separation between you and your opponent so that you can try to land in side control top instead of halfguard top.

The pass was the basic shoulder of justice pass. Underhook + arm under head, good shoulder pressure, walk your foot up to their butt, then pop their knee down and drive through to 1/4 guard, put your other foot up on their hip and drive your trapped foot the rest of the way through to mount.

After that we did Americana from side control.

Next week we'll work on Armbar from Mount, and Side Control Escapes, then I'm going to start them working on the "Boring" parts of jiujitsu. We'll be doing positional rolling starting in full guard with the top person working to pass, and the bottom person looking to sweep. No submissions. I'll probably have them do 10 reps of the situp or scissor sweep and 10 reps of a guard pass right before hand so they have something fresh in their mind.

I think I'll start waxing a little philosophical on them as well... Time to get them to start settling down when rolling instead of trying to out muscle and out run each other.

The one sour note was that I had to call out one of the guys for some inappropriate remarks while a couple of the girls were rolling. I suppose I could have done it quietly later, but I wanted everyone to know that I don't tolerate that kind of shit. He seemed to understand, so I don't think it will be a problem in the future.

Weightlifting 9/26

Did overhead press, had my max set at 115 instead of 110 and I was rounding up with my weights, so I ended up with an extra 7.5lbs on my final set, was able to do 6 reps. Fixed the weights, waited about an hour and redid the set at 87.5 instead of 93.5 and was able to hit 10 reps. Both of those are good sets for me considering a year ago 93.5 was my max and I was struggling with it.

JiuJitsu 9/24 and Weighlifting 9/25

Friday is Takedowns as usual, we're working on the deep underhook and wrist control which is a position I like, but one I rarely end up in because people fight so hard to stay away from me. I find that silly because my takedowns are so bad, but whatever. We worked High Crotch to Single leg and High Crotch to duckunder some more. People are getting ready for NAGA, so we're refining techniques instead of learning new ones.

We did standup sparring and I got two nice takedowns. I got the best throw of my life on Antony and it got videoed, so it should be available sometime soon. It was awesome. And I got Rugby when he tried to tackle me and I rolled him backwards and took mount. That one got some applause too.

I find that when I can get some kind of grip and close the distance with my opponent I can actually get the takedowns, but I'm so rarely able to close that distance and I don't shoot very well from outside. I'll keep workin on it.

Weightlifting 9/25

Today was Deadlifts, did 125x5, 145x5, and 165x15. My hands were giving out on the last couple of reps, but I think I could have pulled out one or two more, but the program says not to go to failure. I'll probably do OHP today instead of monday since I have the UGA Club on Monday so I'll be out late.

Weightlifting 9/24

Second day of 5/3/1, first day was Squats, today was Bench Press. Again did no warmup sets or any of the support exercises, might try to work those in next week. Started with 107.5x5, then 127.5x5, then 143.5x9. The last rep at 143.5 was extremely difficult to finish for some reason. I think the height of my bench is really going to start to bother me soon and I'll have to find some way to get my feet up higher so I can support myself properly.

I'm looking forward to how this program plays out for increasing my work capacity, it's a lot more reps than I've been using up to now and I'll actually be working my lower body properly for the first time in almost a year.

JiuJitsu 9/22

Had horrible stomach problems all day, pretty sure I ate some expired Yogurt. Manage to fight my way through class anyways, felt like I was sleep walking.

We worked on some halfguard passes, a couple of which I liked, one of which I didn't. Specific sparring was from guard, we had a new guy who is an ex rugby player in the class, he tried to collar choke me inside my guard so I swept him. Guy is monster strong though, once he has a few months under his belt he's going to be a force.

Rolled with Ian and Ankor again today, not anything like the slickness I had last time I rolled with them. I could barely control Ankor and couldn't do anything with Ian. I made it through though and that's all good.

Still having stomach issues today, was late for work because of it and feel incredibly dehydrated. I weighed in at 143 and it's been months since I was that low.

Weightlifting 9/21

First day of the 5/3/1 Program. Started out with Squats. Doing a 4 day program since I have Jits 3 days a week I'll lift on the days when I don't have jits.

Started with squats today.
5x105, 5x120, and 10x135. I think I could have pulled a couple of extra reps out on the last set without any real trouble, but I don't want to push too much early. It felt good to be squatting again though.

UGA Grappling Club 9/20

Got to the club early and sat around watching the Kendo people whack at each other with sticks while I stretched.

Turn out was good, we had 12 repeats and 6 new faces. 18 people showing up is great. Again we had 4-5 people from Megalodon there, which was good. I opened up by grabbing the new people and showing them how to Shrimp, Upa, and Sitout while the repeats all hit the wall for shrimp+upa+sitout warmup.
Next I taught the Knee to Elbow escape from mount, then the Scissor Sweep. Then I showed them the drill that combines the two. So one person would start in mount, the other would knee to elbow escape, then scissor sweep. Now the other person escapes from mount and sweeps, repeat. I had them do that a few times to get used to it.
Next I showed the knee-through guard pass. I went over the basic guard break again to reinforce the concept and for the people who didn't see it before. Several people had trouble with this pass because they kept turning their backs to their partner when moving around to side control. Had to remind them to get the underhook before moving, which solved that issue.
Finally I gave them a submission to play with. Rear Naked Choke time. I chose that one because I want to force them to work for position instead of trying to crank subs on each other all the time. So I gave them a sub which only exists at the very TOP of the positional hierarchy. Everyone seemed to have fun with that and we moved on to rolling.

This time in order to try to be a little more organized I counted everyone off and had the even numbers take places on the mat, then paired them up with an odd number and had one set of numbers rotate each round. Now that everyone has had a taste of rolling with a variety of people I'll probably set them up in 3s next time and let them do 2 rounds in, 1 round out.

I spent the time working nice and controlled and making it a point to perform the techniques I had shown them and letting some of them sweep me, etc...

Everyone seemed to enjoy it and overall I thought it was a good class.

JiuJitsu 9/15

I apparently forgot to write about this class.

Casey was tied up with something so arrived late, in the mean time Darnell showed a couple of guard passes based around grabbing the gi. They are "gracie gift" style passes with one arm in and one arm out, which can be dangerous, but if you keep the grip on the gi then you are protected from the triangle.

We did some positional rolling, then I got paired up with Ian and Ankor. I love rolling with these guys because both are insanely athletic, so they are kind of my benchmark for how I handle athletic people. I was able to control both of them and generally impose my game well. My integration phase is coming along nicely and the combination of the leg hook, butterfly guard, spider guard, armdrags, and technical mount transitions are serving me well. I spend most of the time in top position after hitting a sweep. I'm rarely stuck on the bottom.

I'm very pleased with my progression and really think I have a good shot at earning my purple belt by the end of next summer.

UGA Grappling club 9/13

It was fun to be teaching again. We had (including me) 8 people from Megalodon at the club and about 10 others. I opened up teaching everyone how to shrimp, upa, and sitout then had them do a bunch of each as a warmup. After that I showed how the Upa and Shrimp became escapes from mount and sidecontrol. Parterned the up and had the work escapes for a while. Next it was on to breaking the guard and moving to combat base and the double underhook pass. Finally I introduced the situp sweep and we drilled that for a little while.

Then we rolled 3 minute rounds for about 45 minutes. I used that time to gauge folks intensity as I rolled with everyone. We had a couple of people with previous experience which is nice, but most of the non Megalodon guys were complete noobs. I let folks work, swept them let them escape, let a couple pass my guard with the double under. Generally just had a bunch of smooth and controlled rolls.
Also rolled with Ankor and caught him in the reverse inverted triangle and was able to finish it. A very good first class I think.

Next week will be shrimp, upa, sitout warmup. Then teach the knee to elbow escape from mount. Then situp sweep to mount to knee and elbow escape and repeat.
Then the knee through pass.
Then RNC.

Weightlifting Update and UGA Grappling Club

So, I tried 197 on the bench on Thursday and failed. Killed my arms trying to push it up. So instead of trying to force it I'm going to take a break from lifting for a few days (probably until this Thursday) and then go ahead and start 5/3/1 with my max bench as 190.

In other news tonight I have my first session as the instructor for the UGA grappling club. I'll be doing that every Monday night. My curriculum is going to look something like this:

Fundamental Movements:
Shrimp
Upa
Sitout

Guard Passing:
Guard Break
Double Underpass
Knee Through pass
Toreador Pass


Sweeps:
Situp Sweep
Scissor Sweep
Elevator Sweep

Escapes:
Upa Mount Escape
Knee and Elbow Mount Escape
Shrimp Side Control Escape to Knees
Shrimp Side Control Escape to Guard
Escape From Back Control to Guard

Submissions:
Guillotine
Triangle Choke
RNC
Armbar
Kimura
Americana

I'm going to start with the fundamental movements and a couple of passes and sweeps and get everyone comfortable with moving around and using positional control first before I introduce the submissions.

I'm really looking forward to this, I love teaching and as far as I can tell I'm pretty good at it. I'll start adding those updates to here as well.

JiuJitsu 9/10

Class today was takedowns again as every Friday will be now. We worked on a high crotch to single leg to seio nage sequence which i really liked.
My problem with takedowns is that i always seem to end up with mu opponent death gripping my wrists/sleeves and im unable to do anything from there. I imagine there must be a throw from there, i just have no idea what it is.
I gave my camera to a 10 year old girl to film class, so i have video, but there's no telling what of. Ill post some up on Monday.

Conditioning and Jiujitsu 9/8

Hit up class at 6 for conditioning. Shaved 2 minutes off of my ladder time so added a second 1 minute rest and did another 5 reps, working to get 3 full ladders in 25 minutes eventually.
Judo showed up at 6:30, but we had to wait about 10 minutes for the kids TKD class to finish up before we could roll. I worked on the Roy Dean Scissor Sweep->Triangle->Armbar->Omoplata->Sweep->Armbar combo. Ran through it a couple of times then we worked on his Triangles for a few minutes. After that we rolled for about half an hour straight. We went back and forth a lot tapping each other, I was trying to work my transitions on top and my combos, but mostly I was just trying to exhaust myself before class. It worked.
When class started Casey had us do armbar drills from guard, then sprawl drills, then crunches throwing the medicine ball back and forth.
Technique was attacks from the top of halfguard. The first one was acting like you are going to pass, then handing the lapel off under their arm to your arm which is under their head. Pushing your knee through and posting up, swithing hands, grabbing some fabric on the opposite shoulder, and choke.
Second one was same setup, but they defend the choke so you pull the arm across for a Brabo+Armbar combo.
Third was the same Brabo as #2, but setup from North/South with an over and an underhook. Pass the lapel from the underhooked side across to the other arm, then spen to KoB, snag the leg and pin it. Choke or Pull the Arm across.

Sparring was me Sean (Shawn?) and Mac. Sean and Mac are both around 220. Mac is a blue belt, Sean is about a 6 month white belt. I was mostly able to impose my will on them, broke them down into my guard, moved to the single collar choke, the triangle, or the armbar. Swept Sean a few times and worked on flowing into submissions, hit a few armbars that way. Was throwing up combos and really feeling smooth and connected. One of the best classes I've had in a while for FEELING like I was doing good jiujitsu.

Gonna try to take the camera on Friday and get someone to film, hopefully I'll have another good day.

Weightlifting 9/7

177 x 2, was going to do three, but my right arm was lagging behind for some reason. The weight overall felt easy enough, but my left arm pushed up just fine and my right went up a lot slower, so I stopped at 2 reps. Still going for 197 on thursday.

Weightlifting 9/4

Lifting was 153.5 for 3 sets of 3. That's actually a personal record for reps at that weight I believe.

Today is horseback riding day, tomorrow is a full rest day, then another 3x1 with 173.5, then thursday 197.5.

I can TASTE that 200lb goal...

Jiujitsu And Conditioning 9/3

Got to the gym at about 10 to 6 so got changed and started conditioning a couple of minutes before 6. Did 25/20/15/10/5/ 1 minute break /5/10/15/20/25 for a total of 150 of each of Squats, Pushups, Crunches, and Bent over dumbell Rows (each hand). Took me just over 25 minutes to complete the set.

After that I waited around hoping my efforts to bribe people to show up early to roll would be successful, but they were not.

Technique was Takedowns tonight, looks like Friday night is going to be takedown techniques and takedown drills going forward, which is good since my takedown game is weak.

We worked on duck unders to a couple of different finishes and a strong underhook transitioning to a couple of different throws. After that we did specific sparring from standing working for the takedown. I hit a couple of decent judo throws and one double leg.

After that we took it to the ground for a big gauntlet. My arms were shot so I spent most of the first two or three rounds working legs only throwing moving through the Scissor Sweep -> Triangle -> Armbar combination then once my arms were feeling better I switched out to Leg Hook -> Omoplata -> Rollover Omoplata sweep to the top. Really trying to work on my flow.

I still turtle too much against Johnny because he blasts through my guard if I do anything except pure defense, and Coe just crushified me as usual, fun times. Gonna keep the flow goin and continue integrating this month, it's feelin good.

Starting not this coming monday, but the monday after I'll be acting as the "instructor" for the UGA Jiujitsu club (Or sub grappling club or whatever they are calling it) So that should be fun. I don't know how structured they want the classes to be, so at first I'm mostly just going to be there to provide guidance to keep them from killing each other.

The beginner class at Megalodon probably won't start until the beginning of next year.

Ugh, all this typing is making my arms tired. Going for 173.5 3x1 again tomorrow, then Some rest, then going for 197.5 on Tuesday. RRRAAARR!!

Weightlifting 9/2

Got the weights set back up, in the living room this time.

Preparing for my attempt at 197.5 I put 173.5 on the bar and put it up for 3 sets of 1 with a couple of minutes rest between each one. Definitely felt the weight, but that's a new personal best for me for reps with that weight.

Once I hit 200 on the bench I'll start the 5/3/1 program as prescribed (as best I can considering time pressure and lack of pullup apparatus) and start working on getting my PL total up. 900 here I come!

JiuJitsu 9/1

This month is an integration month. I've got the single collar choke, Butterfly Guard Armdrags, Tornado Guard, Some new sweeping principles, Leg Hook guard, and a whole new Knee On Belly based top game that I've worked separately over the last 4-5 months. This is the month where I bring it all together into my main butterfly guard based game.

Today I hit up class early, but there was still one of the TKD classes in the room we use, so had to wait until 6:40 or so to get in there. Greg a.k.a. Judo was there early and I showed him my personal favorite way to break people down in closed guard. Cross lapel or cross collar grip, same side sleeve grip, then the foot on the same side as the sleeve grip goes to the hip. Shrimp out to that same side while driving your collar gripping elbow to the mat and pushing the sleeve grip across your opponents body. Then pull your sleeve gripping arm back out and block their arm with your body. Let's you work all kinds of nasty things. I primarily use it to set up my single collar choke.
After that we rolled for about 30 minutes. He weighs 190, has endless cardio, and great posture and base from his time doing Judo. He also can crack a turtle with a quickness. Gave me a good chance to warm up and get ready to open up my game. I caught him with a few things, I think he caught me with something... Power guillotine I think. Really well set up too.

After that we worked some takedowns, using a two handed lapel grab to setup a single leg. I hate takedowns and this one was no exception.

After that we move to some side control stuff. Setting up the Kimura, the Armbar, and the paper cutter choke in north south starting from side control.

Specific Sparring was from side control. I escaped a bunch and choke some people. One of our 4 month white belts, Kris, had asked me not to take it easy on him, so the first roll with him he asked what the goals were, I told him that "inverted triangle" was one of my options from the bottom. Then 2 seconds after we started I tapped him with the inverted triangle.

Rolling had me set up with Judo and new wrestler guy. I dunno how heavy he was, but he was bigger than me and probably somewhere in the 180 range. I tossed them both around, got one REALLY SLICK sweep on judo from butterfly guard when he tried to grab a guillotine. A beautiful backwards roll that landed me in side control. Also had another really good sequence where I went for leg hook guard, went for my sweep, he tried to crush me, I spun under him to Omoplata, he spun somehow and gave me a shot at an armbar, he was able to turn out of it and I had to give it up and take side control.

Was an excellent integration night though. I bounced between butterfly and leghook and feet on hips spider guard pretty well, used my sweeps from all three positions, set up my top game and was able to stay on top and look for subs and get them. An excellent night and one that makes me feel like I'm starting to put together a purple belt level game. I've got some road to travel yet for sure, but I think I've got the road map now.

Conditioning 8/29

Skipped out on JiuJitsu because my little bro is about to leave for Israel and we had a little going away party for him at my parents.
Did some light conditioning, 25/20/15 w/ squats, pushups, crunches, and bent over rows w/ 36lbs. Just enough for my arms to feel it and to get my blood flowing. Gonna probably do a full rest day tomorrow and get my weights set back up, then lifting tuesday and conditioning + jits on wednesday.

Conditioning And Jits 8/27

Went to class early to see if anyone would show up to play. I did some conditioning for about half an hour. 25,20,15,10,5,5,10,15,20,20 of Squats, Pushups, Crunches, and dumbbell rows (Each arm) with a 20lb weight. Took a brief rest after the ladder down and another after the ladder back up. Could have done more of everything except the pushups. Arms were completely on strike.

Had a warmup roll with one of our Ammy fighters, Brian, his standup is awesome, but his ground game has been highly reliant on his athleticism until the last few months. He's finally starting to settle down an start working the technique, though he still tends to fall back on just being in better shape than everyone else sometimes. We rolled for a while and I caught an elbow to the trachea. Didn't stop the roll, but it got uncomfortable later. Not videos this time around because class was so small, had no one to run the camera.
Talked to Casey about getting a beginners class going and he agreed to it, so long as he didn't have to come do anything. I'm going to talk to Coe and Darnell, the two purple belts, about working up a schedule and a curriculum for it.

Technique was a counter to the far side underhook escape from side control. Bottom guy gets the underhook, turns in and pushes you off. You backstep for stability and then step over into technical mount with the overhook. Next you work your foot on the overhook side up to your opponents head and then squeeze your knees towards each other (EVen though one of your knees is still on the ground, yes) resulting in an omoplata like shoulder lock.
Next technique was the same setup, but you feed your leg across for the Gogoplata. Final technique was same setup but you feed the leg across and sit back for a wicked armbar.

After that some specific sparring from side control. I got to move over to the Gigantor side of the room to even things up. Rolled with GiantNewWhiteBelt guy who I discovered is named Brent, Darnell, Brian and Casey. Played as defensively as I ever play which means looking for sweeps and subs while not completely ignoring the fact that I'm about to get tooled. Darnell shut me down completely today and even Got me with an ezekiel while I had an overhook and he was in my full guard. Sneaky.
Casey dominated me in hilarious fashion as usual. The best part about that is the split second between me making the key mistake and him putting on the sub. It's just a huge "OHSHITISHOULDN'THAVEDONETHAT" moment and it's always from something seemingly innocuous.

Brian I was able to sweep a few times early on, and generally handle just fine, but once I started to slow down it was all over. The guy does NOT get tired.

Sparring was with Brian, Darnell, and then one of the guys my size, Kris. More of the same with Brian, while I Was fresh I could handle him, but as soon as I started to get tired it was everything I could do not to get mauled.
Darnell continued to shut me down.
Kris I was able to sweep a bunch, throw around, an generally handle the way I handle all of the whitebelts my size. At one point he went for an ankle lock of some kind, so I defended and slapped a toe hold on him. Apparently I tweaked it a little hard for his taste, but he's fine. I don't go for leg locks on white belts unless they start in it first, but I probably need to start working that toe hold on the higher belts a little more....

By the time I got home from class lifting the gallon of milk to pour me a glass felt like the heaviest thing in the universe. That's how I know it was an good day.

Conditioning 8/26

Weights are still in storage so Conditioning again:

Wearing my 20lb weight vest: 25/20/10 of Squats, Pushups, Situps and Upright Rows w/ 36lbs.

That shit is tough. My conditioning really needs the work, so I'll probably stick to the conditioning routine even once I start lifting again.

Saturday I'm adding an extra set of 5 to the end, so 25/20/10/5, then probably Tuesday I'll add 4/3/2/1 to it. Bringing me to 25/20/10/5/4/3/2/1. To increase I'll add to my fresh set until they are all at 25. So 25/21/10/5/4/3/2/1, then 25/22 and so on with a goal of 25/25/25/25/25/25/25/25 with a short rest between each set of 25. That should be enough of a goal to keep me working for the next 12 months or so.

Pressure as a Concept

Many people talk about having "Good Pressure" or "Being Heavy" in jiujitsu without really thinking about what that means or why you would want it. For a while I was really obsessed with being heavier with my opponents, really crushing them down whenever I was on top. Then I realized that I got swept more often against bigger guys when I did that. Linking so much of my weight to them gave them more control over me while sacrificing my mobility advantage. Against people my size the conventional notion of pressure was fine, but against larger people I was getting too enthralled with the idea.
So I stepped back and asked myself WHY I wanted to be heavy. Why did I need "good pressure"? There turned out ot be several reasons. One was to give myself more opportunities for a submission. If I'm heavy my opponent has to work harder, has to open themselves up more, has to give me more opportunities. Another was to make my opponent tired, but again the end result of that is to give me more opportunities for a submission. To prevent my opponent from escaping, again to give myself more opportunities for submissions.
So I looked at these goals and then I looked at what I was doing and thought, "How can I accomplish these goals most efficiently?" Having good weight distribution and being heavy is one way, but it's not the only way and it's not always the best way.
As a small person I'm frequently going to run into people for whom my weight, no matter how well placed, is negligible. In those situations I can't rely on being heavy. I have to rely on other types of pressure.
To find other ways to generate those same results I thought about what pressure really means in the abstract sense. It means stress. I want to create stress in my opponent to make it harder for them to plan, harder for them to implement their game against me. I've started more and more to do that by being increasingly mobile. I'm heavy where I can be and when I can be, but I don't get committed to the idea of crushing someone with my weight. I use my agility and my mobility to continuously move and attack my opponent and keep them from implementing their game plan or being able to work against me. I keep good pressure by making my opponents react to me.

So don't get too attached to what you THINK something means, back up a step and look at what you're trying to accomplish and see what works best for you to accomplish it.
Remember, the best thing about jiujitsu is that if something works, it's good jiujitsu.

Weightlifting 8/24

So due to visitors coming up this week my weights are in storage in my closet for a while. In the meantime I decided to bust out my old weight vest. It weighs 20lbs.

I threw the vest on and did
20 Squats, 20 Pushups, 20 Situps
20 Squats, 20 Pushups, 20 Situps
10 Squats, 10 Pushups, 10 Situps.

Cried.

My muscular endurance needs work, so once I hit 200 on the bench I'm switching over to doing working towards 100 pushups with the weightvest on while I work on my squats and deadlift. I figure that should keep my bench from going down while I'm not benching as often. I'll max with it once a month or so just to make sure I can still hit 200.

Jiujitsu 8/20

Videos will be added to this post tomorrow:

Techniques were all Omoplata attacks. Standard Omoplata from guard first, then a counter for when they try to roll out of it, you roll with them and keep your underhook of the far arm, establish a crucifix and escape your hips out for the omoplata finish.
The last one was for when they try to power straight up, you underhook the far shoulder again and this time you do a flower sweep type motion with your legs and roll them over into a very uncomfortable stacked position, then wrist lock them for the final humilation. I got to be the test dummy for the last two. Fun times.

Drilling was just from closed guard, bottom person has to sweep or submit, top person has to pass. I vaguely remember sweeping a bunch of people and passing some guard. Then I rolled with one of our purple belts who is about 220lbs, I kept trying for my leg hook guard and whatnot, but was having none of my shenanigans. Finally I ended up on my side balled up under him and with one butterfly hook. I snagged his ankle and went for the butterfly sweep and it worked. Made it all the way up into guard too. Serious cheers for me there since the guy has proven well nigh impossible for me to even unbalance, much less sweep. I'm clearly getting trickier.

Sparring is where I have videos to share. The first round I have was against my instructor Casey it was hilariously crushing. He tied me up and took my back and went for a bow and arrow choke, I defended long enough that he sort of pretzled me up and then armbarred me.
Reset and essentially the same thing happened though this time I spun out of the bow and arrow and was able to avoid getting subbed again until time ran out.

Then I rolled with Johnny who is a monstrous wrestler. He's walking around close to 200lbs again, but he was down at 185ish for a while and really should get back down there again to compete. His top pressure is just brutal. He smashed my legs raced past my guard, and ended up in my halfguard working the darce. Eventually he got past my halfguard and I knew I wasn't going to escape, so tappity tap. Repeat that procedure only he went to NS and went for a Kimura, I spun out of it using a decidely risky escape and ended up under side control where I don't remember what the hell happened and can't tell from the video, but I think it involved me tapping.
After that I played it cautious, spikey ball, no attacking. Time ran out before much could happen.

Next I rolled with Antony who is another blue belt my size. I like to work my sweeps and top game against him so I immediately set up my leghook guard, got the sweep, went to KoB and worked from there, alternated between side control and KoB and North south for a while. He caught me in halfguard, I tried something weird, he rolled me and stood up and dived past my guard. I turtled (I turtle against him because he does the SAME thing every time) and grabbed his elbow for the fatboy roll, he recovered guard and I worked to pass. Settled down in side control and bounced around there until time ran out. I always like rolling with him because he stands up to pass and he's generally pretty fluid and fun.




Net up I rolled with one of the gigantic new white belts. He has had some training somewhere in the past, but it reveals itself only sporadically. I think this is his fifth or so class maybe. I Work my normal game, leg hook to sweep, he stiffarms me and I reset and retry. I get on to and he flings me off, I reset and start attacking, I essentially bully him over and he sort of powers out of it and we end up in neutral again. I start working full guard and hit a scissors sweep. He tries to push me off of him so I spin to an armbar. I ended up showing him why not to push up on peoples chests for the rest of the round.




Final roll was against Darnell (Whom you will remember as the purple belt I swept earlier) I work to establish butterfly and go for the same sweep I got him with earlier. That fails so I move to full guard with the over hook and manage to catch the Mir lock. He gets sideways defending it and I'm able to sweep him over. I should have kept the arm and switched to the inverted shoulder lock thing that Ian McPherson used and I believe I posted about previously. Instead I got all excited and tried to take side control. That didn't work out, he turtled and I tried to control him, ended up back in his guard and tried a funky knee compression because I couldn't think of anything else.



I'm extremely happy with my sweeps and my guard work in general. I need to work against Johnny more to shore up my weaknesses against his explosive guard passing though. All in all, I feel I'm making decent progress.

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.