Just had Kris for the beginners class so we rolled for about an hour and change occasionally stopping to trouble shoot things for him he's still improving rapidly and I'm looking forward to him picking up his blue belt when Jacare gets back.
Main class we started out working takedowns and I'm continuing to improve on my single leg. Still spent more time hitting sacrifice throws though. Went for one Seio Nage to firemans carry combo that ended up with Kris RNCing me. Doing that throw No-Gi requires a hell of a lot more precision than in the Gi since if you let their arm slip at all you get choked.
On the ground we were working Kesa attacks including a sort of chest crush/neck crank, kickstand armbar, and the americana with legs (I believe). Worked with Ankur on those.
Drilling was from Kesa,I swept some folks and whatnot, Ankur subbed me with the chest crush thing from class, Casey murdered me, fun times.
There was a new guy in class today, it's his second class and he's one of Ankur's friends. Very athletic and still pretty spazzy. He caught me across the bridge of the nose with a very nice looking elbow while we were rolling which annoyed me. So I monkey flipped him and armbarred him and told him to relax. He's got great potential if he'll just slow down, take a breath, and work on paying attention instead of tearing peoples heads off.
Rolling was one big gauntlet so I got to play with Casey which is always fun, passed his guard, and was able to get a sweep against him when he stood up one time. Mostly murdered though.
Gi class tonight should be loads of fun.
New mundials video coming up as well.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Product Review: Manto BJJ Shorts
So my friends over at MMAHQ and BJJHQ sent me a pair of Manto BJJ Shorts to check out and I finally got my hands on them today and was able to try them out.
The first thing I noticed was that the color is VIBRANT. The blue is REALLY blue and the red is REALLY red. I don't know if that will fade with time, but for the moment they definitely catch the eye.
The logo on the side is a nice high quality screenprint, not some kind of stick on that will peel off after a couple of rolls so it should last as long as the shorts do.
The material feels very sturdy, somewhat thicker than my old NAGA shorts which gives them a very durable feel. I was worried at first that this might lead to them feeling hotter once I got going. The stitching is VERY heavy duty. A nice triple stitch on every seem with reinforcing at the tension points. These are easily the sturdiest shorts I've ever owned.
The ONLY point that I feel a little iffy on is the amount of velcro being used on to secure the shorts. I only feel some trepidation in that regard because the only real problem with my NAGA shorts is that the velcro teeth broke off over time and so now the fly doesn't really close all the way, but those shorts have snaps in addition that help keep it closed. The velcro on the Manto shorts does feel a lot sturdier than my other shorts though, so I feel pretty comfortable that the velcro will remain fully functional for at least a couple of years (My NAGA shorts are four or so years old now) with no reduction in holding power.
The best thing about these shorts was the fit though, which owes itself partially to the velcro I was just complaining about. I got a small, and I am a 30 inch waist. I could have been an couple of inches fatter and still been comfortable in them, but they would also easily go down to a 26 inch waist. The velcro is very versatile allowing for a comfortable fit at a variety of waist sizes. The shorts also have a drawstring to lend a hand, but they felt very secure even without the drawstring.
To test them out I went through my warmup, did some stability ball work, and ran a mile, then rolled for about 15 minutes straight. During the warmup they felt nice and light, almost as if I weren't wearing anything. Never bunched up or interfered during shrimping or any of my other normal movements.
The stability ball did have some issues though, the fabric that the Manto shorts are made out of has a little bit of friction to it which combined with the rubber stability ball caused the shorts to bind up a little and twist on me while I was moving around in KoB on the ball.
The run was another pass with flying colors though, comfortable to run in, no uncomfortable rubbing points, no bits of label or anything stabbing me. Every bit as good as running naked.
The shorts held up great during the roll as well. They didn't bunch up or interfere with my movement, I was never worried that they were going to pull down or come unfastened, and my earlier fears that the heavier material would be hot proved to be completely unfounded. These shorts pulled sweat away from me far better than my previous shorts and I felt cool and comfortable for the entire roll.
A bonus point for these shorts was that they were almost completely dry by the time I had finished changing clothes. In fact, about 15 minutes after I took them off you would never have known I had been grappling in them. They shed the sweat almost instantly.
My overall impression of these shorts was VERY positive. I'll have to see how the color holds up over a few washes, and how the velcro holds up over the long term, but I feel very comfortable giving these shorts an 8.5 out of 10. As a reference point, my NAGA shorts rate a 5 out of 10.
Manto BJJ Shorts Rating: 8.5/10
The first thing I noticed was that the color is VIBRANT. The blue is REALLY blue and the red is REALLY red. I don't know if that will fade with time, but for the moment they definitely catch the eye.
The logo on the side is a nice high quality screenprint, not some kind of stick on that will peel off after a couple of rolls so it should last as long as the shorts do.
The material feels very sturdy, somewhat thicker than my old NAGA shorts which gives them a very durable feel. I was worried at first that this might lead to them feeling hotter once I got going. The stitching is VERY heavy duty. A nice triple stitch on every seem with reinforcing at the tension points. These are easily the sturdiest shorts I've ever owned.
The ONLY point that I feel a little iffy on is the amount of velcro being used on to secure the shorts. I only feel some trepidation in that regard because the only real problem with my NAGA shorts is that the velcro teeth broke off over time and so now the fly doesn't really close all the way, but those shorts have snaps in addition that help keep it closed. The velcro on the Manto shorts does feel a lot sturdier than my other shorts though, so I feel pretty comfortable that the velcro will remain fully functional for at least a couple of years (My NAGA shorts are four or so years old now) with no reduction in holding power.
The best thing about these shorts was the fit though, which owes itself partially to the velcro I was just complaining about. I got a small, and I am a 30 inch waist. I could have been an couple of inches fatter and still been comfortable in them, but they would also easily go down to a 26 inch waist. The velcro is very versatile allowing for a comfortable fit at a variety of waist sizes. The shorts also have a drawstring to lend a hand, but they felt very secure even without the drawstring.
To test them out I went through my warmup, did some stability ball work, and ran a mile, then rolled for about 15 minutes straight. During the warmup they felt nice and light, almost as if I weren't wearing anything. Never bunched up or interfered during shrimping or any of my other normal movements.
The stability ball did have some issues though, the fabric that the Manto shorts are made out of has a little bit of friction to it which combined with the rubber stability ball caused the shorts to bind up a little and twist on me while I was moving around in KoB on the ball.
The run was another pass with flying colors though, comfortable to run in, no uncomfortable rubbing points, no bits of label or anything stabbing me. Every bit as good as running naked.
The shorts held up great during the roll as well. They didn't bunch up or interfere with my movement, I was never worried that they were going to pull down or come unfastened, and my earlier fears that the heavier material would be hot proved to be completely unfounded. These shorts pulled sweat away from me far better than my previous shorts and I felt cool and comfortable for the entire roll.
A bonus point for these shorts was that they were almost completely dry by the time I had finished changing clothes. In fact, about 15 minutes after I took them off you would never have known I had been grappling in them. They shed the sweat almost instantly.
My overall impression of these shorts was VERY positive. I'll have to see how the color holds up over a few washes, and how the velcro holds up over the long term, but I feel very comfortable giving these shorts an 8.5 out of 10. As a reference point, my NAGA shorts rate a 5 out of 10.
Manto BJJ Shorts Rating: 8.5/10
Friday, July 1, 2011
2011 Mundials - Kron Gracie
After a grueling week in 100+ degree temperatures out in Texas I've made it back into town and, as promised, am providing you with tasty, tasty Mundials action in the form of Gracie JiuJitsu Prodigy Kron Gracie:
Next video will be up on Tuesday and will feature alliance brown belt Jordan.
Also, my shorts from MMAHQ arrived while I was out of town and I'll be testing them out tonight and posting the review, so far it looks like I'll have nice things to say about them.
Next video will be up on Tuesday and will feature alliance brown belt Jordan.
Also, my shorts from MMAHQ arrived while I was out of town and I'll be testing them out tonight and posting the review, so far it looks like I'll have nice things to say about them.
Friday, June 24, 2011
2011 Mundials - Preston - Match 2
This is Match 2 for Alliance Purple belt Preston at the 2011 Mundials. Enjoy!
Next video will be delayed while I go out of town, but it will feature none other than Kron Gracie. Look for it NEXT Friday!
Next video will be delayed while I go out of town, but it will feature none other than Kron Gracie. Look for it NEXT Friday!
S&C 6/23/2011
Back to my Strength and Conditioning workout I did 3 sets, then 1 more rep of each exercise. Felt pretty good. Set 3 felt a lot more like set 2 did last time. I'm hitting up one solid day of class tonight before I head out of town for a week for work, going to try to make the most of it.
Points to work on:
Side Control escapes that include reversals or immediate sweeps.
Guard pass progression - Pass -> Side Control -> KoB -> Mount -> Standup
Takedowns from Standing - I'm good at sacrifice throws, so I'm just going to keep working those and try to get even better at them.
Points to work on:
Side Control escapes that include reversals or immediate sweeps.
Guard pass progression - Pass -> Side Control -> KoB -> Mount -> Standup
Takedowns from Standing - I'm good at sacrifice throws, so I'm just going to keep working those and try to get even better at them.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Mundials 2011 - Cobrinha - Match 1
Here is Cobrinha's first match in his weightclass, I don't know the name of his opponent unfortunately, if anyone does post it and let me know.
Next video will be Preston's second Match.
Next video will be Preston's second Match.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Mundials 2011: Preston v Unknown
Alliance Purple belt Preston (He's the one in white with the big ALLIANCE logo on his Gi) at the 2011 Mundials. If anyone happens to know his opponents name (or his last name!) please let me know so I can update it.
I've got one more of Preston, but first I think I'll post one of Cobrinha's matches. However, I'm on my way out of town so you'll have to wait until Wednesday for more Mundials awesomness!
I've got one more of Preston, but first I think I'll post one of Cobrinha's matches. However, I'm on my way out of town so you'll have to wait until Wednesday for more Mundials awesomness!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Ian McPherson v Eduardo Telles
As promised here is the exclusive video of the McPherson v Telles match from the 2011 Mundials.
A fantastic match full of a lot of back and forth and some really great jiujitsu from both guys.
My next video will feature Alliance Purple belt Preston (Sorry, don't know the last name) vs an unknown opponent. Look for it tomorrow!
A fantastic match full of a lot of back and forth and some really great jiujitsu from both guys.
My next video will feature Alliance Purple belt Preston (Sorry, don't know the last name) vs an unknown opponent. Look for it tomorrow!
Exclusive Mundials Videos Incoming!
Listen up my Grappling Brethren! I’ve managed to get my grubby little hands on exclusive video of 14 matches from this years Mundials with guys like Kron Gracie, Cobrinha, and Marcello Garcia. I’ll be releasing these videos one at a time here on the blog over the next couple of weeks.
The first video will be up this afternoon featuring Alliance powerhouse and rising star Ian McPherson vs one of the best in the world Edwardo Telles.
Now, with that out of the way, I’ve been hitting my S&C workout nice and regular on schedule and I already feel a difference. We worked on takedowns last night and in the clinch I could feel the additional strength and stability in my back and was able to maintain a lot more control and execute a whole bunch of sacrifice throws. I only hit a couple of things that weren’t sacrifice throws, but still that’s more successful takedowns in one night than I generally get in a month.
Technique was a continuation of open guard passing techniques based around the knee cut pass. First one was for what to do when you can’t get the kneecut to work, you secure a grip behind the collar, and a grip on the far pants leg, then backstep and drop down laying next to your opponent. The control of the pants leg is CRUCIAL to stop your opponent from rolling up on you. Next you use your free leg to shove your opponents bottom leg while you pull their top leg with your Gi grip to free the trapped leg. Settle in to side control.
Second up was the same beginning sequence, but your opponent lets their elbow get a little loose from their body while trying to prevent you from freeing your leg, so you switch your pants leg grip to their wrist and move your collar grip to scoop under and secure the kimura grip. Use a combination of the Kimura grip and your free leg to apply pressure and free your trapped leg, then finish the kimura. You also have the option if your opponent makes a mistake of locking up the kimura grip at the same time as you move to backstep at the very beginning of the sequence. But that can get very scrambly, so you want to be pretty confident of your ability to control the position if you take that route.
Third was the “Fancy” technique of the night. Same setup as the first two, but instead of going for the wrist you free your opponents lapel and feed it under their armpit to the hand with the collar grip. Suck it up nice and tight. Next kill their far arm by either pulling it down between your bodies or pushing it up over their head and trapping it with your hand. Now step your free leg (The one you backstepped with to get here) Over them and pin them down on their side.
Now you can try to finish with a modified armtriangle/brabo style choke, or you can put your shin in their back and roll, allowing you to secure hooks, and work to finish from the back.
After that we did some drilling from open guard, I swept and passed a lot, but JC managed to trick me into a really wicked tight guillotine while I was passing. Very nicely done.
Next up we worked takedown sparring and as previously mentioned I had a ton of success, even against Kris who usually shuts me down pretty well during standup. Eventually I got tired enough to screw up a takedown and flubbed a sacrifice throw against JC.
Rolled with Casey, Johnny, and Brian for a couple of rounds and had a blast with Casey. He dials it down to just above my level and lets me work and I always have a great time with it. Johnny and Brian are a completely different story. I’m able to get on top and pass guard against Brian for a while but eventually he generally manages to dump me over and then I spend a ton of effort just defending. Johnny pretty much immediately smashes into me and I spend the entire time defending against subs. I’m kind of a jerk with them though, I don’t tap unless they are doing things EXACTLY right, so sometimes I end up getting my head crushed for two or three minutes while they try to sink in a choke using more muscle than technique. That’s getting less common now though, which is nice. They tend to set them up and sink them in properly before starting to crank up the power.
S&C Again tonight, then 2 days off since I’m going down to Florida to hit up Disney with my in-laws.
The first video will be up this afternoon featuring Alliance powerhouse and rising star Ian McPherson vs one of the best in the world Edwardo Telles.
Now, with that out of the way, I’ve been hitting my S&C workout nice and regular on schedule and I already feel a difference. We worked on takedowns last night and in the clinch I could feel the additional strength and stability in my back and was able to maintain a lot more control and execute a whole bunch of sacrifice throws. I only hit a couple of things that weren’t sacrifice throws, but still that’s more successful takedowns in one night than I generally get in a month.
Technique was a continuation of open guard passing techniques based around the knee cut pass. First one was for what to do when you can’t get the kneecut to work, you secure a grip behind the collar, and a grip on the far pants leg, then backstep and drop down laying next to your opponent. The control of the pants leg is CRUCIAL to stop your opponent from rolling up on you. Next you use your free leg to shove your opponents bottom leg while you pull their top leg with your Gi grip to free the trapped leg. Settle in to side control.
Second up was the same beginning sequence, but your opponent lets their elbow get a little loose from their body while trying to prevent you from freeing your leg, so you switch your pants leg grip to their wrist and move your collar grip to scoop under and secure the kimura grip. Use a combination of the Kimura grip and your free leg to apply pressure and free your trapped leg, then finish the kimura. You also have the option if your opponent makes a mistake of locking up the kimura grip at the same time as you move to backstep at the very beginning of the sequence. But that can get very scrambly, so you want to be pretty confident of your ability to control the position if you take that route.
Third was the “Fancy” technique of the night. Same setup as the first two, but instead of going for the wrist you free your opponents lapel and feed it under their armpit to the hand with the collar grip. Suck it up nice and tight. Next kill their far arm by either pulling it down between your bodies or pushing it up over their head and trapping it with your hand. Now step your free leg (The one you backstepped with to get here) Over them and pin them down on their side.
Now you can try to finish with a modified armtriangle/brabo style choke, or you can put your shin in their back and roll, allowing you to secure hooks, and work to finish from the back.
After that we did some drilling from open guard, I swept and passed a lot, but JC managed to trick me into a really wicked tight guillotine while I was passing. Very nicely done.
Next up we worked takedown sparring and as previously mentioned I had a ton of success, even against Kris who usually shuts me down pretty well during standup. Eventually I got tired enough to screw up a takedown and flubbed a sacrifice throw against JC.
Rolled with Casey, Johnny, and Brian for a couple of rounds and had a blast with Casey. He dials it down to just above my level and lets me work and I always have a great time with it. Johnny and Brian are a completely different story. I’m able to get on top and pass guard against Brian for a while but eventually he generally manages to dump me over and then I spend a ton of effort just defending. Johnny pretty much immediately smashes into me and I spend the entire time defending against subs. I’m kind of a jerk with them though, I don’t tap unless they are doing things EXACTLY right, so sometimes I end up getting my head crushed for two or three minutes while they try to sink in a choke using more muscle than technique. That’s getting less common now though, which is nice. They tend to set them up and sink them in properly before starting to crank up the power.
S&C Again tonight, then 2 days off since I’m going down to Florida to hit up Disney with my in-laws.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bullshido Presents: James Clingerman
*Update* Just want to give a shout-out to Matthew Perry, James Clingerman, and the guys at Indiana Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.
As promised here is some more in-depth info on the Clingerman guard passing videos that are up over at Bullshido.
Video 1
My personal passing style shares a LOT with the style James uses. All the way from the way he maintains combat base through the passes he uses. For that reason I was able to pull some GREAT details out of this first video.
The very first thing I picked up is that his stance is even MORE compact than mine is in combat base. To that end I've started tucking my chin even deeper and burrowing my elbows in even tighter which has already led to a higher guard passing percentage for me.
Second great detail is how he uses the forearm across the throat as well as the stacking pressure to make your opponent WANT you to pass. At the point where you are half-choking them and smashing their own knee into their face they want nothing more than to let you take side control and that detail has also helped me to increase my pass percentage.
Third thing, and one that I've been doing for a while now, but a LOOOOT of people miss comes in at the 4:45 mark. When you are passing over a pinned leg, bring your back foot up and cross it over that leg BEFORE you move your lead leg off of it. Stops you from getting caught in half guard and gives you a lot more control of your pass.
From there the rest of the video is gravy. I recommend watching it three or four times, but just the three points I mentioned will do wonders for your guard passing.
Video 2
This video picks up pretty much where the previous one left off, with some specific guard passes. This time against butterfly guard. Again I share the same methods. the first detail I picked up that I liked was at the four minute mark, up to that point I already was doing everything he mentioned, but the way he scoops the arm across at the end of the pass is a detail I've not previously paid attention to. It really makes your pass more aggressive forcing your opponent to start defending against your submissions immediately instead of trying to regain guard.
The second thing that I really liked was the detail on the pass at about the 6:15 mark. It looks like you're giving your opponent a free triangle choke, but if you pay attention he actually has complete control and as long as you maintain the control he described you aren't in any danger and it really adds a LOT of options to your passing game.
This video just has some great specific pass techniques in the first 10 minutes. Several of them I plan on drilling into my main game over the next few months.
Towards the end he revists some of the details for controlling your opponent while you are passing which are all 100% pure gold.
The detail at 11:40 where he is passing to one side, his opponent blocks his hip and he switches to the other side is a fantastic point to take note of since it's one of the things that people have tons of trouble with. You get committed to passing on one side and get blocked, so you just shut down and your opponent gets to take over the momentum. Switching your pass to the other side lets you maintain the initiative and more likely complete your pass.
I highly recommend that everyone keep an eye on The Fighthub Forum over at Bullshido for more Clingerman videos to come. The guy is awesome and he has an excellent teaching style as well.
As promised here is some more in-depth info on the Clingerman guard passing videos that are up over at Bullshido.
Video 1
My personal passing style shares a LOT with the style James uses. All the way from the way he maintains combat base through the passes he uses. For that reason I was able to pull some GREAT details out of this first video.
The very first thing I picked up is that his stance is even MORE compact than mine is in combat base. To that end I've started tucking my chin even deeper and burrowing my elbows in even tighter which has already led to a higher guard passing percentage for me.
Second great detail is how he uses the forearm across the throat as well as the stacking pressure to make your opponent WANT you to pass. At the point where you are half-choking them and smashing their own knee into their face they want nothing more than to let you take side control and that detail has also helped me to increase my pass percentage.
Third thing, and one that I've been doing for a while now, but a LOOOOT of people miss comes in at the 4:45 mark. When you are passing over a pinned leg, bring your back foot up and cross it over that leg BEFORE you move your lead leg off of it. Stops you from getting caught in half guard and gives you a lot more control of your pass.
From there the rest of the video is gravy. I recommend watching it three or four times, but just the three points I mentioned will do wonders for your guard passing.
Video 2
This video picks up pretty much where the previous one left off, with some specific guard passes. This time against butterfly guard. Again I share the same methods. the first detail I picked up that I liked was at the four minute mark, up to that point I already was doing everything he mentioned, but the way he scoops the arm across at the end of the pass is a detail I've not previously paid attention to. It really makes your pass more aggressive forcing your opponent to start defending against your submissions immediately instead of trying to regain guard.
The second thing that I really liked was the detail on the pass at about the 6:15 mark. It looks like you're giving your opponent a free triangle choke, but if you pay attention he actually has complete control and as long as you maintain the control he described you aren't in any danger and it really adds a LOT of options to your passing game.
This video just has some great specific pass techniques in the first 10 minutes. Several of them I plan on drilling into my main game over the next few months.
Towards the end he revists some of the details for controlling your opponent while you are passing which are all 100% pure gold.
The detail at 11:40 where he is passing to one side, his opponent blocks his hip and he switches to the other side is a fantastic point to take note of since it's one of the things that people have tons of trouble with. You get committed to passing on one side and get blocked, so you just shut down and your opponent gets to take over the momentum. Switching your pass to the other side lets you maintain the initiative and more likely complete your pass.
I highly recommend that everyone keep an eye on The Fighthub Forum over at Bullshido for more Clingerman videos to come. The guy is awesome and he has an excellent teaching style as well.
Monday, June 13, 2011
MMAHQ Launches BJJHQ!
So my friends over at MMAHQ have seen the light and launched a similar website devoted to BJJ related merchandise deals. The current deal is a Vulcan LW Gi for only 135$. So go check it out! Hopefully I'll get some merch from that side of the show to review soon as well.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
BJJ 6/10/2011
Spent some time watching the videos from James Clingerman posted over at Bullshido about guard passing. I love his videos because his style is so similar to my own.
Taught some guard passing to the beginner class and had them work on posturing, guard breaking, and passing for a while.
Main class was open guard passing which tied in quite well with the stuff I was working on with the beginners. Drilled for a while then did a gauntlet with the lightweights. Spent the whole time sweeping and passing. Also hit the Ghost escape a few more times on various people. Really starting to get it tuned up.
Saturday was a full rest day and I took my wife to see “As You Like It”, it rained so I built us a makeshift tent and the play ended up going on despite the rain.
Sunday my jiujitsu was interrupted by work, but I was able to hit up my S&C Routine as well as the Riders fitness routine my wife is doing.
Managed 3 full sets. 10 swings, 5 rows/arm, 10 dumbell deadlifts w/ 55lb dumbells.
That is a ferocious pace for me and I really feel like if I can push my way all the way to 15 minutes solid of it I’ll be in the kind of physical shape I need to be for the mundials.
There will be a more detailed post about the Clingerman guard passing videos soon.
Taught some guard passing to the beginner class and had them work on posturing, guard breaking, and passing for a while.
Main class was open guard passing which tied in quite well with the stuff I was working on with the beginners. Drilled for a while then did a gauntlet with the lightweights. Spent the whole time sweeping and passing. Also hit the Ghost escape a few more times on various people. Really starting to get it tuned up.
Saturday was a full rest day and I took my wife to see “As You Like It”, it rained so I built us a makeshift tent and the play ended up going on despite the rain.
Sunday my jiujitsu was interrupted by work, but I was able to hit up my S&C Routine as well as the Riders fitness routine my wife is doing.
Managed 3 full sets. 10 swings, 5 rows/arm, 10 dumbell deadlifts w/ 55lb dumbells.
That is a ferocious pace for me and I really feel like if I can push my way all the way to 15 minutes solid of it I’ll be in the kind of physical shape I need to be for the mundials.
There will be a more detailed post about the Clingerman guard passing videos soon.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Strength and Conditioning: Day 2
My eventual goal is to hit 15 minutes straight of these, but today I managed 3 minutes. I still pulled out twice as many reps as Day 1 though.
Swings w/ 55lbs 2x10
Bent over Rows w/ 55lbs 2x5 each hand
Bent leg deadlifts w/ 110lbs 2x10
Time, 2:45 secs.
I consider that to be a successful 1/3rd of one round. I intend to be able to maintain that pace for 15 minutes straight by the time I hit the mats at the Mundials next year.
I also joined my wife in an Equestrian fitness workout that is sport specific to horse back riding. It has a lot of crossover with jiujitsu so I found it thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly challenging.
Swings w/ 55lbs 2x10
Bent over Rows w/ 55lbs 2x5 each hand
Bent leg deadlifts w/ 110lbs 2x10
Time, 2:45 secs.
I consider that to be a successful 1/3rd of one round. I intend to be able to maintain that pace for 15 minutes straight by the time I hit the mats at the Mundials next year.
I also joined my wife in an Equestrian fitness workout that is sport specific to horse back riding. It has a lot of crossover with jiujitsu so I found it thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly challenging.
Forthcoming Product Reviews
Regular visitors may have noticed the large prominently placed MMAHQ logo to the right there, that's because I've just closed a deal with them to review products for the blog here. The site idea is awesome, they function as a kind of WOOT for MMA Gear putting up one really good deal each day.
The first item I'll be reviewing will be a pair of shorts which are on the way currently, I'm looking forward to checking out their merchandise.
The first item I'll be reviewing will be a pair of shorts which are on the way currently, I'm looking forward to checking out their merchandise.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
BJJ 6/8/2011
My first day of training getting into a Mundials mindset and it was pimp. Managed to fit in a pre-jiujitsu horseback ride and then was off to the gym. Warmed up the class with some skipping and jogging, tech fall and tech stand, then upas and sitouts and some stretching.
Technique was open guard passing using the cross collar grip and the same side knee to pass, then moving to collar choke if they clamp down on your leg, then on to a darce variant if they try to block the collar choke.
After that we drilled in open guard for a while and hit a slick DLR sweep to the back and then to side control. Hit a lot of sweeps and passed guard a bunch. Rolling was a gauntlet for the lightweights, hit a couple of Bow and Arrow chokes that I've been working on as alternate ways to finish from the back. Hit a baseball bat choke, hit my spinning loop choke a couple of times, and worked my guard passing really strongly. I was never in a bad position unless I let myself be put there so I could work out of it and everything felt great.
I finalized my S&C routine yesterday and it's going to look like this:
All Using my 55lb dummbell:
Kettelbell Swings x10
Bent over Row x5 each arm
Static holds x30 seconds (55lb in each hand)
Deadlifts x20 (55lb in each hand)
Repeat for 15 minutes.
The goal being to make it through the entire 15 minutes without stopping for more than changing the weight. Then add time and see where it goes. I'm basing the exercises off of the things that I saw over and over and over again in the top guys routines. Pulling, posture, and grip strength are huge assets.
Technique was open guard passing using the cross collar grip and the same side knee to pass, then moving to collar choke if they clamp down on your leg, then on to a darce variant if they try to block the collar choke.
After that we drilled in open guard for a while and hit a slick DLR sweep to the back and then to side control. Hit a lot of sweeps and passed guard a bunch. Rolling was a gauntlet for the lightweights, hit a couple of Bow and Arrow chokes that I've been working on as alternate ways to finish from the back. Hit a baseball bat choke, hit my spinning loop choke a couple of times, and worked my guard passing really strongly. I was never in a bad position unless I let myself be put there so I could work out of it and everything felt great.
I finalized my S&C routine yesterday and it's going to look like this:
All Using my 55lb dummbell:
Kettelbell Swings x10
Bent over Row x5 each arm
Static holds x30 seconds (55lb in each hand)
Deadlifts x20 (55lb in each hand)
Repeat for 15 minutes.
The goal being to make it through the entire 15 minutes without stopping for more than changing the weight. Then add time and see where it goes. I'm basing the exercises off of the things that I saw over and over and over again in the top guys routines. Pulling, posture, and grip strength are huge assets.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Inspired by the Mundials
So I spent large chunks of the weekend watching or reading up on the Mundials and as a result I've decided I'd like to compete there next year.
So yesterday was spent getting my nutrition in order and figuring out what I'm going to be eating for the next 12 months and today I'm working on getting my training schedule put together and getting my strength and conditioning routine fixed up. I'd like to compete at 154 with the Gi on, which means I'd like to weigh 155ish and cut down to 149 which is a super easy cut for me. But right now I'm walking at about 146, so that gives me a solid 9-10lbs I can put on in muscle over the next 12 months.
My training schedule should look like this once I get everything in place:
Mon: Lunchtime BJJ - 1hr. S&C - 1hr
Tues: Luncthime BJJ - 1hr. S&C - 1hr
Wed: Newaza w/ Judo School - 1hr. BJJ - 1.5hrs
Thurs: Lunchtime BJJ - 1hr. S&C - 1hr
Fri: BJJ - 3hrs
Saturday: Trip to Alliance HQ every other saturday for 3hrs BJJ.
Sunday: BJJ 3hrs
That gives me an avg week of 13 hours of BJJ training with 3 hours of additional strength and conditioning.
If I can maintain that pace I think I'll actually be ready for a run at the Mundials with a good shot at taking a medal.
At the same time I've decided I'd rather shoot for that than start trying to deal with MMA since I hate training striking.
So yesterday was spent getting my nutrition in order and figuring out what I'm going to be eating for the next 12 months and today I'm working on getting my training schedule put together and getting my strength and conditioning routine fixed up. I'd like to compete at 154 with the Gi on, which means I'd like to weigh 155ish and cut down to 149 which is a super easy cut for me. But right now I'm walking at about 146, so that gives me a solid 9-10lbs I can put on in muscle over the next 12 months.
My training schedule should look like this once I get everything in place:
Mon: Lunchtime BJJ - 1hr. S&C - 1hr
Tues: Luncthime BJJ - 1hr. S&C - 1hr
Wed: Newaza w/ Judo School - 1hr. BJJ - 1.5hrs
Thurs: Lunchtime BJJ - 1hr. S&C - 1hr
Fri: BJJ - 3hrs
Saturday: Trip to Alliance HQ every other saturday for 3hrs BJJ.
Sunday: BJJ 3hrs
That gives me an avg week of 13 hours of BJJ training with 3 hours of additional strength and conditioning.
If I can maintain that pace I think I'll actually be ready for a run at the Mundials with a good shot at taking a medal.
At the same time I've decided I'd rather shoot for that than start trying to deal with MMA since I hate training striking.
Friday, June 3, 2011
BJJ World Championships This Weekend
For anyone who doesn't know the Mundials are this weekend. Budovideos is broadcasting Saturday for FREE with a 10$ PPV for Sunday.
This tournament features some of the absolute best in the world and is a must see for everyone.
This tournament features some of the absolute best in the world and is a must see for everyone.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Some Jiujitsu Happened!
I hit up class on Wednesday for the first time in a while and we worked leg locks and such then rolled a bunch. Everything was clicking pretty well and I felt the flow.
Today was even better. Had a lot of folks show up for the beginner class and worked on all of the blue belt curriculum with Kris and the younger kids while Ian worked on the purple belt stuff.
Main class was breaking grips to finish the armbar. Basic left and right lean and the bicep crusher.
Specific sparring started with one person halfway armbarred. Fun stuff.
After that I rolled in a group with Rugby and Kris. The flow was present even stronger than on Wednesday and I was able to make Rugby feel weak. He's the kind of guy that can pick me up and just fling me off of him if I get loose or fail to adjust properly, but I did everything right and was able to smother him and move around and look for submissions. Largely that was thanks to a post by bullshido user JNP regarding spinal/body alignment. It turns out that it really IS hard as hell to bench press someone off of you when they are bending your head towards your opposite shoulder.
My guard passes were so smooth that it was more like transitioning from inside guard to side control. There was barely any actual "pass" there. I just teleported through the guard.
I also have started to take advantage of my improved agility now that my back is healed and I was flying all over the place on the top. I feel comfortable with the idea of being a purple belt now and I'm really looking forward to my test.
Today was even better. Had a lot of folks show up for the beginner class and worked on all of the blue belt curriculum with Kris and the younger kids while Ian worked on the purple belt stuff.
Main class was breaking grips to finish the armbar. Basic left and right lean and the bicep crusher.
Specific sparring started with one person halfway armbarred. Fun stuff.
After that I rolled in a group with Rugby and Kris. The flow was present even stronger than on Wednesday and I was able to make Rugby feel weak. He's the kind of guy that can pick me up and just fling me off of him if I get loose or fail to adjust properly, but I did everything right and was able to smother him and move around and look for submissions. Largely that was thanks to a post by bullshido user JNP regarding spinal/body alignment. It turns out that it really IS hard as hell to bench press someone off of you when they are bending your head towards your opposite shoulder.
My guard passes were so smooth that it was more like transitioning from inside guard to side control. There was barely any actual "pass" there. I just teleported through the guard.
I also have started to take advantage of my improved agility now that my back is healed and I was flying all over the place on the top. I feel comfortable with the idea of being a purple belt now and I'm really looking forward to my test.
Monday, May 23, 2011
BJJ No-Gi 5/22/2011
Kris showed up at about 6:30 for the beginner class so we went over a mini Blue Belt test since he got confirmation that he'll be testing for his Blue when I test for my purple. Ran through the whole list and I feel pretty good about his chances for success.
Casey was at the beach with his family or something, so Ian and I ran the class. Which really meant I ran through three techniques real quick then we rolled for about an hour.
Techniques were basic butterfly guard sweep with overhook and an underhook. Then a sweep with two overhooks. The keypoint to that one is to make sure you lock your hands together really well and clamp down on your opponents arms so that they don't get to use the underhooks against you. Third tech was for when your opponent pulls away from you when you have the overhooks, you kick your hips away and drive their shoulders down with your overhooks, then pop one arm free and go for the guillotine.
After that we rolled a bunch. One of our Ammy fighters stuck around to roll with us, he's a guy that in the past has beat me up every time, but this time I was able to consistently out position him and take his back. Even finished with an RNC which represents a significant increase in my ability to handle extremely athletic people.
Also almost finished Johnny with a guillotine. I'm more and more often able to fight Johnny off for longer periods of time and even launch attacks at him. The same with Ian.
We had a new guy in the class that was somewhere in the 200lb range and VERY active. Was a blast, he didn't seem to get tired which meant I had someone to roll with for pretty much the entire hour.
I got Kris with the Rigan Machado 50/50 counter again. Also, used my new side control escape several times and managed to avoid the D'Arce all night.
A really solid class for me.
Casey was at the beach with his family or something, so Ian and I ran the class. Which really meant I ran through three techniques real quick then we rolled for about an hour.
Techniques were basic butterfly guard sweep with overhook and an underhook. Then a sweep with two overhooks. The keypoint to that one is to make sure you lock your hands together really well and clamp down on your opponents arms so that they don't get to use the underhooks against you. Third tech was for when your opponent pulls away from you when you have the overhooks, you kick your hips away and drive their shoulders down with your overhooks, then pop one arm free and go for the guillotine.
After that we rolled a bunch. One of our Ammy fighters stuck around to roll with us, he's a guy that in the past has beat me up every time, but this time I was able to consistently out position him and take his back. Even finished with an RNC which represents a significant increase in my ability to handle extremely athletic people.
Also almost finished Johnny with a guillotine. I'm more and more often able to fight Johnny off for longer periods of time and even launch attacks at him. The same with Ian.
We had a new guy in the class that was somewhere in the 200lb range and VERY active. Was a blast, he didn't seem to get tired which meant I had someone to roll with for pretty much the entire hour.
I got Kris with the Rigan Machado 50/50 counter again. Also, used my new side control escape several times and managed to avoid the D'Arce all night.
A really solid class for me.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
If you've got the poison, I've got the remedy.
So, no sooner do I recognize a hole in my game than I find a perfect piece to fill it. I was looking around for different side control escapes to find one that didn't feed right into the D'Arce. Lo and behold I find The Ghost:
I worked through the movement a bunch before class and then had the chance to try it against none other than Casey, AND IT WORKED. Of course he almost immediately dumped me back on my back and went to work, but I escaped from side control without setting my opponent up with an instant D'Arce. I plan on repping the shit out of this one through june so I can add it to my regular arsenal.
Trying to get my weight lifting routine back on a solid schedule as well, and my current daily driver car decided that transmissions are over-rated, so I'm doing a rebuild on my OTHER car (1988 Honda CRX HF) this weekend. Fun Times!
I worked through the movement a bunch before class and then had the chance to try it against none other than Casey, AND IT WORKED. Of course he almost immediately dumped me back on my back and went to work, but I escaped from side control without setting my opponent up with an instant D'Arce. I plan on repping the shit out of this one through june so I can add it to my regular arsenal.
Trying to get my weight lifting routine back on a solid schedule as well, and my current daily driver car decided that transmissions are over-rated, so I'm doing a rebuild on my OTHER car (1988 Honda CRX HF) this weekend. Fun Times!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Health and Training Update
Got over my illness and returned to class last friday. Injuries are all healed up even though I still have a little pain in my left hand it's nothing serious.
I got confirmation that I'll be testing for my Purple belt when Jacare gets back from the Mundials, so Mundials are June 2-4 which puts me testing most likely on Saturday June 11th. I'm feeling ready for it.
In amongst my training towards my purple belt I've run into a serious hole in my game that is now my main focus. It's related to my previous post about side control escapes and has definitely become an issue. I'm going to lay the situation out and see if any of the folks that keep tabs on my training here can offer a suggestion or two.
So, situation is thus, I am on the bottom of side control and working to escape. I have several options that include turning into my opponent, shrimping and attempting to regain guard, turning away from my opponent and turtling, trying to catch a leg and pull to halfguard, trying to jailbreak and slip my far foot in for halfbutterfly, or attempting a reversal.
My problem comes when my opponents outweigh me by 50-60lbs, and are far stronger than I am. From side control no matter which way I attempt my escape I'm feeding himself right into a D'arce or Anaconda choke. I can defend for a while, but I can't generate enough leverage to escape. I'm actually incapable of moving my upper body against the weight being applied to it and trying to do anything with my lower body usually results in me getting folded in half or ragdolled.
So a LOT of my rolls are playing out with me playing defensively for the first minute or so, then getting bored and starting to attempt sweeps and submissions, thus opening myself up to getting passed, where I then work to escape while my opponent crushes me until they can grab an arm or I manage to get half guard or turtle at which point I get D'arced.
If I just sit and play 100% defense then I can keep it from ever getting to that point, but that's silly to be doing while training. So what I need is some input on how to handle people going for the d'arce as I try to escape from bottom of side control. Particularly interested in the view point of other small and weak people that know what it's like to be physically unable to overcome the strength in your opponents arms no matter how much of your body you wedge into it.
This particular hole in my game is really driving me nuts.
I got confirmation that I'll be testing for my Purple belt when Jacare gets back from the Mundials, so Mundials are June 2-4 which puts me testing most likely on Saturday June 11th. I'm feeling ready for it.
In amongst my training towards my purple belt I've run into a serious hole in my game that is now my main focus. It's related to my previous post about side control escapes and has definitely become an issue. I'm going to lay the situation out and see if any of the folks that keep tabs on my training here can offer a suggestion or two.
So, situation is thus, I am on the bottom of side control and working to escape. I have several options that include turning into my opponent, shrimping and attempting to regain guard, turning away from my opponent and turtling, trying to catch a leg and pull to halfguard, trying to jailbreak and slip my far foot in for halfbutterfly, or attempting a reversal.
My problem comes when my opponents outweigh me by 50-60lbs, and are far stronger than I am. From side control no matter which way I attempt my escape I'm feeding himself right into a D'arce or Anaconda choke. I can defend for a while, but I can't generate enough leverage to escape. I'm actually incapable of moving my upper body against the weight being applied to it and trying to do anything with my lower body usually results in me getting folded in half or ragdolled.
So a LOT of my rolls are playing out with me playing defensively for the first minute or so, then getting bored and starting to attempt sweeps and submissions, thus opening myself up to getting passed, where I then work to escape while my opponent crushes me until they can grab an arm or I manage to get half guard or turtle at which point I get D'arced.
If I just sit and play 100% defense then I can keep it from ever getting to that point, but that's silly to be doing while training. So what I need is some input on how to handle people going for the d'arce as I try to escape from bottom of side control. Particularly interested in the view point of other small and weak people that know what it's like to be physically unable to overcome the strength in your opponents arms no matter how much of your body you wedge into it.
This particular hole in my game is really driving me nuts.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Being Sick Sucks
I've been sick since Wednesday afternoon, missed wednesday, friday, and sunday BJJ because of it, STILL stick now, but hoping to be better by this wednesday. Ugh.
I hate missing class.
I hate missing class.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Injury Update and Random BJJ
I've been a little lazy on the updates because I've been building a fence around my property with most of my free time the last couple of weeks, but as of yesterday the fence is DONE and my horses now have free access to most of the property.
The work on the fence actually IMPROVED my shoulder and it's almost pain free now. My left elbow got aggravated a little bit, but it's just sore, not interfering with me. The finger on my left hand is still gimpy enough that I'm waring my MMA gloves for jiujitsu to keep it from getting bent back randomly.
BJJ has been interesting. I'm rolling around some different side control stuff and working on pinpointing the issue I keep having with giving up my head when I'm trying to escape from side control. Should be more on that after wednesday's class.
Sunday night was No-Gi and Kris showed up for the beginner class, he had some questions about spider guard in no-gi and since no else was there we worked on that for a bit, then rolled for a while. It turned into a leglock clinic and I hit a half a dozen things from Rigan Machado's "Leglock Encyclopedia". Kris has a really nice straight ankle lock that he caught me with a couple of times too.
Did some work from under side control and kept giving up my head or head and arm for chokes, so definitely have to troubleshoot that.
The main class was self defense against shirt grabbing. I busted out some aikido and the old TKD self defense stuff to play with as well as some other random stuff. Also a really nice throw against a rear bearhug that I might get some video of this week.
Rolled with Kris, Ankhor and JC and had a good time. Ankhor needs to get back to the BJJ class, he's definitely lost a step from spending all of his time in Muay Thai.
Looking at this video for ideas on side control escapes for now.
The work on the fence actually IMPROVED my shoulder and it's almost pain free now. My left elbow got aggravated a little bit, but it's just sore, not interfering with me. The finger on my left hand is still gimpy enough that I'm waring my MMA gloves for jiujitsu to keep it from getting bent back randomly.
BJJ has been interesting. I'm rolling around some different side control stuff and working on pinpointing the issue I keep having with giving up my head when I'm trying to escape from side control. Should be more on that after wednesday's class.
Sunday night was No-Gi and Kris showed up for the beginner class, he had some questions about spider guard in no-gi and since no else was there we worked on that for a bit, then rolled for a while. It turned into a leglock clinic and I hit a half a dozen things from Rigan Machado's "Leglock Encyclopedia". Kris has a really nice straight ankle lock that he caught me with a couple of times too.
Did some work from under side control and kept giving up my head or head and arm for chokes, so definitely have to troubleshoot that.
The main class was self defense against shirt grabbing. I busted out some aikido and the old TKD self defense stuff to play with as well as some other random stuff. Also a really nice throw against a rear bearhug that I might get some video of this week.
Rolled with Kris, Ankhor and JC and had a good time. Ankhor needs to get back to the BJJ class, he's definitely lost a step from spending all of his time in Muay Thai.
Looking at this video for ideas on side control escapes for now.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday 4/22 and Sunday 4/24
Friday I had Kris and Steven show up for the beginners class. Worked on more guard breaking and guard passing with a counter sweep. Tried to get them to do some flow rolling, but with Steven involved it always escalates pretty quickly because he still can't calm down.
Kris has made some HUGE strides in relaxing while rolling now. He no longer goes crazy hunting for subs and is really a much more controlled and relaxed grappler from where he was even a month ago. I feel like he's ready to test for his blue belt now for sure. His demeanor has caught up to his ability.
We worked some feet-on-hips spider guard, with I think we are now calling monkey guard just for the sake of being concise, in the main class. Went over the shin block version of the leghook sweep with a couple of different details on it. Then an inverted triangle if the sweep fails. One of my favorite positions to work on.
Rolled with Kris and Steven, but had to do it one handed since I'm still protecting my elbow. Was able to shut Steven down completely because he still wants to substitute speed/strength for technique, but Kris was able to work past my guard and catch me trying to roll out and snag a bow and arrow choke very nicely. With two hands I could have escaped, but there was no way I was going to get out without putting nasty pressure on my elbow. So definitely a legit catch for him.
Sunday
Had 3 of the kids show up for the main class, but no one else. They are 14-16 and all about my size or a little smaller, which is fun. I got them warmed up with some fundamental movement drills and then worked on some of the Self Defense techniques. Escape vs Headlock standing and on the ground, and Escape vs Guillotine standing and on the ground. Had them drill a bunch, then we did some positional sparring starting in full guard. Then rolled for about half an hour. It was nice to get to practice against people my size, even if they aren't super skilled. They are all in good shape and reasonably strong, so I wasn't just flinging them around. I did find a few major differences in how techniques work against people who are my height. My leg positioning has to change for a lot of my spider guard stuff and for my butterfly guard. My whole hook game and my open guard has to change subtly to deal with their lower center of gravity and greater agility. It was very productive for everyone. They learned some good stuff, I got to work my game on people my size. It was an excellent class.
Kris has made some HUGE strides in relaxing while rolling now. He no longer goes crazy hunting for subs and is really a much more controlled and relaxed grappler from where he was even a month ago. I feel like he's ready to test for his blue belt now for sure. His demeanor has caught up to his ability.
We worked some feet-on-hips spider guard, with I think we are now calling monkey guard just for the sake of being concise, in the main class. Went over the shin block version of the leghook sweep with a couple of different details on it. Then an inverted triangle if the sweep fails. One of my favorite positions to work on.
Rolled with Kris and Steven, but had to do it one handed since I'm still protecting my elbow. Was able to shut Steven down completely because he still wants to substitute speed/strength for technique, but Kris was able to work past my guard and catch me trying to roll out and snag a bow and arrow choke very nicely. With two hands I could have escaped, but there was no way I was going to get out without putting nasty pressure on my elbow. So definitely a legit catch for him.
Sunday
Had 3 of the kids show up for the main class, but no one else. They are 14-16 and all about my size or a little smaller, which is fun. I got them warmed up with some fundamental movement drills and then worked on some of the Self Defense techniques. Escape vs Headlock standing and on the ground, and Escape vs Guillotine standing and on the ground. Had them drill a bunch, then we did some positional sparring starting in full guard. Then rolled for about half an hour. It was nice to get to practice against people my size, even if they aren't super skilled. They are all in good shape and reasonably strong, so I wasn't just flinging them around. I did find a few major differences in how techniques work against people who are my height. My leg positioning has to change for a lot of my spider guard stuff and for my butterfly guard. My whole hook game and my open guard has to change subtly to deal with their lower center of gravity and greater agility. It was very productive for everyone. They learned some good stuff, I got to work my game on people my size. It was an excellent class.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Failbow is Extra Fail
So my left elbow was more injured than previously believed. I've managed to tear up most of the connective tissue around the elbow and have had to keep it immobilized for the last week. This meant I missed class Sunday, and yesterday. I'm going back tomorrow with an elbow brace on it to roll light and work on one handed spider guard, DLR, and RDLR stuff.
Bullshido poster David Koresh Jr. has a thread over there dedicated to Spiral Guard (aka Reverse De La Riva) which has a lot of good troubleshooting videos and techniques in it that I'm going to be exploring. Won't be able to do any weightlifting for at least a month now, so you know what, screw weightlifting. I'll just be stupidly technical and deal with it.
Bullshido poster David Koresh Jr. has a thread over there dedicated to Spiral Guard (aka Reverse De La Riva) which has a lot of good troubleshooting videos and techniques in it that I'm going to be exploring. Won't be able to do any weightlifting for at least a month now, so you know what, screw weightlifting. I'll just be stupidly technical and deal with it.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Friday Noon Open Mat and Fundamentals Class
So one of the guys sent me a text thursday night about meeting up for an open mat on friday at noon and of course I jumped on it. We had five guys there and I had a great time. Tossed some big white belts around and did a round with Ian. We were rolling 4 or 5 minute rounds and we're thinking about moving those to 6 or 7 minute rounds and making it a regular thing. I'd love that.
After finishing out my day at work I went back to teach the beginner class. Kris showed up, so we worked the basic Gi guard break and drilled it for a bit, then working a basic guard pass where you move to combat base with your right leg up, trap your opponents right leg under your left arm, grab their left pants leg and the knee and lever your elbow out and drive their knee towards their face, then release the knee once you have it pressured down and wrap around the leg and grab the far collar, then walk towards the head and pop the leg off to pass to side control. Easy as it can be.
Then we worked on the counter scissor sweep to that pass. When the person pops their knee up to combat base you drive your opposite leg across their chest and use your same side leg to hook around the foot of the leg they are basing with to trap it. Then tricep and collar grip in the trapped leg side sweep.
Then for kicks did the counter to the counter sweep. When the persons knee drives across, you slide your down knee in towards their bottom leg and drop onto your hip, pinning their leg, and grab their belt at the back. Then free your basing leg, back step, hip switch, and climb them to side control.
After that we rolled for a while. I went positional only while Kris was allowed subs. I spent a lot of time sweeping him and running around on top, at one point he locked up an inverted triangle and I took a page out of my lutador experience and just based and stood up, then peeled him off. Fun times and he's getting better for sure.
About that time Coe showed up and we talked about side control escapes and I worked a few ideas with him, then we did some medium speed flow rolling which was great. Flow rolling with him is a little hard because he's so heavy with his pressure all of the time, but once we got into the groove there was tons of back and forth. Including one excellent inverted overhead sweep. He was standing up out of north south and a grabbed his sleeves, put my feet in his armpits, and flipped him straight forward over me. Fun stuff.
Injury Report: Left arm is STILL jacked. It will feel fine, then I go to class and don't do anything particular to it, and the next day I can barely move it. Knees are both good, ribs are good, back is good, neck is good. Finger on my left hand is 90%. Either way I'm starting back to full classes Sunday, I'll just roll one handed for a few weeks again. No big deal.
Also! BJJFights has the Aba Dhabi Pro No-Gi championship matches posted up, including Cobrinha, Langhi, Mendes, and a bunch of other absolutely awesome guys. Insanely technical no-gi matches.
After finishing out my day at work I went back to teach the beginner class. Kris showed up, so we worked the basic Gi guard break and drilled it for a bit, then working a basic guard pass where you move to combat base with your right leg up, trap your opponents right leg under your left arm, grab their left pants leg and the knee and lever your elbow out and drive their knee towards their face, then release the knee once you have it pressured down and wrap around the leg and grab the far collar, then walk towards the head and pop the leg off to pass to side control. Easy as it can be.
Then we worked on the counter scissor sweep to that pass. When the person pops their knee up to combat base you drive your opposite leg across their chest and use your same side leg to hook around the foot of the leg they are basing with to trap it. Then tricep and collar grip in the trapped leg side sweep.
Then for kicks did the counter to the counter sweep. When the persons knee drives across, you slide your down knee in towards their bottom leg and drop onto your hip, pinning their leg, and grab their belt at the back. Then free your basing leg, back step, hip switch, and climb them to side control.
After that we rolled for a while. I went positional only while Kris was allowed subs. I spent a lot of time sweeping him and running around on top, at one point he locked up an inverted triangle and I took a page out of my lutador experience and just based and stood up, then peeled him off. Fun times and he's getting better for sure.
About that time Coe showed up and we talked about side control escapes and I worked a few ideas with him, then we did some medium speed flow rolling which was great. Flow rolling with him is a little hard because he's so heavy with his pressure all of the time, but once we got into the groove there was tons of back and forth. Including one excellent inverted overhead sweep. He was standing up out of north south and a grabbed his sleeves, put my feet in his armpits, and flipped him straight forward over me. Fun stuff.
Injury Report: Left arm is STILL jacked. It will feel fine, then I go to class and don't do anything particular to it, and the next day I can barely move it. Knees are both good, ribs are good, back is good, neck is good. Finger on my left hand is 90%. Either way I'm starting back to full classes Sunday, I'll just roll one handed for a few weeks again. No big deal.
Also! BJJFights has the Aba Dhabi Pro No-Gi championship matches posted up, including Cobrinha, Langhi, Mendes, and a bunch of other absolutely awesome guys. Insanely technical no-gi matches.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Lutador April, 2011 Videos
Here are the videos from Lutador:
Masters Blue Belt
Advanced No-Go
Absolute Blue Belt Match 1
Absolute Blue Belt Match 2
Masters Blue Belt
Advanced No-Go
Absolute Blue Belt Match 1
Absolute Blue Belt Match 2
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Lutador 4/9/2011 Post Mortem
We woke up at 6:45 AM, grabbed our stuff and headed into the ATL. We stopped off at the Dover Saddlery at about 9:30 after sitting in an intersection for 20 minutes watching road construction. After looking at some horse accessories we then headed over to the Cobb Civic Center (Which turned out to be a middle school gym) and arrived promptly at 11:20 where I was informed that they were "Running a little ahead of schedule so far". Well, since my division was slated to start at 11:50 I hurried off to weigh in. I tipped the scales fully clothed at a whopping 144.2lbs. For the 141-154 division.
I then hit the bathroom and changed. Dropped off all of my stuff near our crew and went to figure out when my division was going. Turns out the teens were still rolling, so I ran down to coach a couple of our kids. They were jittery, but they went out and did their best. Drake's first match in each division didn't work out so well, but his second match in both was picture perfect. As his opponent tried to pull guard he got his knee in, surfed to side control and then crushified his opponent. Good enough for 3rd place in both divisions. Katie was up against guys in her division and was generally just outmuscled despite her efforts. We're just gonna have to keep working with her on that.
At that point the Masters division was supposed to start, and didn't. And still didn't...
And so on until about 5pm. I finally stepped on the Mats after a ton of confusion for my first match of the Advanced No-Gi division. My opponent was turned out to be an Alliance Purple belt. I almost snagged a guillotine during his takedown, and had a near triangle choke but I was only able to fend him off for a couple of minutes, but he eventually just pressured to side control. Then I made a mistake while trying to escape and he caught my arm for the kimura, I fought it and tried to work my way out, but he had it in tight and I had to tap. He took 1st or 2nd in the division, I don't remember which, but I'm not disappointed with the performance.
A while later I got my first Gi match against a guy that just took 2nd in the Pan Ams. Again the grinding pressure just shut my game down and I ended up sitting under side control and losing by I think 3 points. I had a near collar choke on him, but couldn't finish it.
Sat around and ate a cliff bar and drank some powerade while waiting for the enormous absolute division to start. We had over 20 people in the division. I was up against a guy who weighed about 220 and I played my normal game, pulled guard, played spider guard, snagged the collar and tricked him into passing, then rolled under, worked my way to north south and choked him completely out. It was a bit disturbing, but he was ok.
Second match was against a guy that armbarred his opponent in about 10 seconds in his first fight. I worked to play the same game, got a decent sacrifice throw, and almost caught him with the same choke, but he was able to slip out of it and pick up a darce on me. As the room started to tunnel I had to tap.
So I went 1-3 again at this one, against a pretty high quality of competition. The Kimura I fought off ended up doing more damage than I thought, my arm is pretty sore today. Other than that I feel good. Videos will be up tomorrow some time and might differ somewhat from my descriptions since I haven't watched them.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
BJJ 4/6/2011
Had a fun tournament prep class. Me and Ian and Coe rolled medium light 5 minute rounds and had a lot of fun. My top pressure is good, I was able to make my sweeps work and play a strong top game. That will be my goal going into Saturday. Work for the takedown early, if it looks like my opponents standup game is too strong then I'll get it to the ground however I can and work my excellent sweep game, get on top, and ride it to victory. Feelin good!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
BJJ 4/3 - Lutador Prep
So I've been getting ready for lutador and friday I continued trying to heal up and work on my flow and my mental game and intensity. Wasn't really feeling the mojo though, was spending too much effort trying to avoid hurting my finger, and then ended up hurting it anyways.
Today I was feeling the flow a LOT better. I wore my Primetime MMA gloves and it really protected my hand well. Kept me from getting bonked or bent at all. So I was moving a lot better. I feel like my flow is good enough to win at lutador. I'm a GOOD blue belt, I'm in good shape this time around, and I'm going for some gold medals.
Monday, March 28, 2011
BJJ 3/27/2011
Again, just taught the fundamentals class since I'm trying to let all of my injuries heal. Kris showed up and wanted to work on halfguard sweeps and halfguard passing so we worked on the halfguard overhook sweep and then the oldschool sweep and the plan B sweep.
For passing I just went over the basic pass where you switch to a cross body position and walk your foot up until your knee is straight up and down, then push your opponents leg off and drive your knee to the mat. Showed a couple of alternate finishes for that pass as well, but all of the setups involve pinning your opponents upper body so that you can free your hips and pass.
Did some flow rolling after that, worked up to some medium strength rolling. JC and Antony showed up early for the main class and I grabbed JC to roll for a bit, he's 100% submission defense, so I sweep him and then sit in mount messing with him. He tried to peel me off with his feet so I ankle locked him, but he refuses to tap, so instead of ripping his stupid leg off I let him go and reset and just kept crushing him from on top. He really needs to open up a bit so that his escapes develop, but apparently he doesn't actually like BJJ all that much.
Rolled with Antony and had a lot of fun, he's better at establishing the deep halfguard than I am, but I'm able to stop him from doing much with it. We went back and forth for a few minutes having a good time then the main class started up so I headed out.
Hand is much better, but still achy, knee is feelin pretty good though it still has some stiffness and soreness, ribs are much improved, back flexibility is still good.
BJJ 3/25/2011
Had Kris, Antony, and Johnny for the fundamentals class and went through a collar choke sequence that combos from one collar choke setup to the other.
Start out getting your first collar grip nice and deep, with emphasis on keeping your wrist straight. If your wrist breaks and wraps around your opponents neck then you lose the force of the choke later on. So nice deep grip on the first collar, then reach under and get your grip on the second collar nice and deep, and turn your thumbs towards each other and pull your elbows down to the mat.
If you can't get the second grip because your opponent keeps blocking your hand then go for the grip 2-3 times then swing your hand over the top and grab the gi near on top of the shoulder as close to the neck as possible. This finish requires slightly more strength since you are having to close a larger hole for the choke, but it his essentially the same, turn your one thumb in and then elbows down.
If you can't get that grip either then you wrap that arm around on the same side as your first collar grip and pull your opponent down, breaking their posture. then you slide your second hand across the back of their neck and tuck your thumb into the collar right behind their ear. Then as they try to posture up you clear the head, turn your first thumb in, and pull the elbows down to finish. This one is super tight.
If your opponent doesn't try to posture up, but just clings to you there then you hip out a little bit and reach straight across your body, still holding the first collar grip, and place your elbow on the opposite side of your opponents neck, then scissor your elbow and your gripping hand across. This one works really well once you figure out the proper elbow placement. You really have to make sure you get the elbow on the neck to get the tap.
Running through this sequence is highly likely to secure you a collar choke.
I had everyone drill by one partner being in closed guard and the other person running through the sequence ONLY trying to get the collar choke, no other offense, while the top person only tried to defend the collar choke, no guard passing or anything.
After that we did some flow rolling, then Kris wanted a competition level roll. Right of the bat I punched him in the mouth. Not intentionally, but grabbing for his collar, yanked him into guard and just climbed up him and secured the chinstrap choke which I'm beginning to prefer as my single collar choke variant because it's harder to resist. The only difference between it and the normal single collar is the angle that you put pressure on. Chinstrap involves pulling "up" towards the back of the head at about a 45 degree angle compared to the chin. That pulls the collar up into the crook of the throat and makes it MUCH harder to tough out.
Second go he stood up, so I stood up until I could get a sleeve grip, then pulled guard, swept him, and kimuraed him. I liked the level of intensity I kept during those rolls and I hope I can harness it during Lutador.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
BJJ 3/24/2011
Got to class about half an hour early and rolled with Will for about 20 minutes, he's back up around the 235lb mark and when he did get on top of me it was pretty crushing. He's gotten a lot better at using that weight. I was still able to sweep him and airplane all over him though. Definitely my transitions are a step above now.
Warmup was super technique heavy which was great, armbars from guard, triangles from guard, kimuras from guard, sweeping and recomposing guard and resweeping, then some standup work. I had to take it easy on some of it because I'm trying to let my knee and ribs heal before Lutadore, but a good warmup.
I don't remember what the technique we worked on was... So much technique drilling was done that I THINK that's all we did. Then we went to drilling in closed guard and I swept a bunch of people. Antony is super difficult to sweep because as soon as I open my guard he disengages and stands up. I have to bait him with a guard pass to get him close enough to work on him.
Rolling I was in a group with Brian, Antony, and Kris. After the first round I was talking to Antony about Lutadore prep and we decided I should he tweaking my "A" game to get ready. So the next round I was all loop chokes and cut passes. Ended up accidentally bloodying Antony's nose, but I also pulled of the chin strap choke from mount on him, so I'm happy. Brian vs my A game = I don't get subbed and can somewhat out position him. I took his back and held it for points and kept him from passing my guard. A technical victory. Kris tends to grab a sleeve and throwhimself backwards to z-guard, which actually makes it harder to submit him than Antony. I passed his guard and was setting up an arm triangle and my hips got too close, he sensed it and flipped me over which I was very happy with. He's making good progress in the sensitivity department and seems to finally be getting over his obsession with submitting everyone he rolls with. Of course I grabbed halfguard, then full guard, then reversed him, took his back, and choked him. He tends to protect his neck and arms very well though, just need to get him to combine so better defense and escapes with that.
He rode out the rest of the round under mount while trash talking about how I only subbed him once, so I supermanned my cup into his solar plexus and can openered him, but he remained steadfast and rode out the last 30 seconds. I'm really happy with his progress and I see him getting his Blue soon, same for Will. Brian is still a long way away not because of his ability to grapple, but because he only bothers to know like 6 techniques.
Good times! Teaching fundamentals on friday, more pummeling drills and I think collar chokes will be on the menu. I saw a lot of people flaring their elbows and trying to finish with strength when we were drilling them today.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Counter to the Body Triangle from Guard
This is a very quick video I shot for some folks at Jiujitsuforums.com about countering the body triangle from guard. It's just a reference video, so no detail, just the gross movement.
Body Triangle Counter
Body Triangle Counter
Sunday, March 20, 2011
BJJ 3/20/2011
Fundamentals class had Katie and Kris today, so we worked on pummeling to double underhooks and then changing levels and stepping around for the basic sitdown takedown to side control. I made them pummel a BUNCH and practice it over and over. Next we worked on another basic guard pass, breaking the guard and hitting the double underhook pass. I emphasized locking the hands tight and getting a good stack by stacking once, then sitting back and pulling your opponent up, then stacking really hard and rotating towards the head. Again, made them practice it back and forth a bunch.
Things to keep note of are keeping your elbows in tight to stop people from switching to Z-guard. I noticed later that I have a very bad habit of not keeping my elbows in tight enough. I need to work on that.
Third was the regular scissor sweep. I emphasized getting the underhook and really pulling your opponent forward onto your shin and then chopping them over. Also showed a variant for when you get the overhook instead of the under hook. Lift and get your knee pointed to the ceiling, then block them with your leg and move your upper body away and hook the elbow to finish with the Americana variant that Ian McPherson uses.
Afterwards we did some position only rolling for a bit trying to concentrate on guard passing and sweeps. Then after a bit I started rolling with Kris and the wheels in my head started spinning and I started having a lot of fun and then something clicked and suddenly my transitions all started flowing really well. To the point that I was just airplane spinning on Kris and flashing from sub setup to sub setup and all over the place. It was great.
Next step is to try it on some bigger white belts like Andrew or Will, then on Antony, then on someone like Brian or Ian to see if I can keep that level of flow. If I can move like that at Lutador then the no-gi should be no problem.
Gi mobility is still a problem for me, I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Kris is finally starting to chill out I think, that bodes well for his progress. I'm certain he'll get his blue this year in October if he trains through the summer. After Lutador I'm going to start working through Blue Belt test with the people that come to the fundamentals class to make sure they all pass.
Things to keep note of are keeping your elbows in tight to stop people from switching to Z-guard. I noticed later that I have a very bad habit of not keeping my elbows in tight enough. I need to work on that.
Third was the regular scissor sweep. I emphasized getting the underhook and really pulling your opponent forward onto your shin and then chopping them over. Also showed a variant for when you get the overhook instead of the under hook. Lift and get your knee pointed to the ceiling, then block them with your leg and move your upper body away and hook the elbow to finish with the Americana variant that Ian McPherson uses.
Afterwards we did some position only rolling for a bit trying to concentrate on guard passing and sweeps. Then after a bit I started rolling with Kris and the wheels in my head started spinning and I started having a lot of fun and then something clicked and suddenly my transitions all started flowing really well. To the point that I was just airplane spinning on Kris and flashing from sub setup to sub setup and all over the place. It was great.
Next step is to try it on some bigger white belts like Andrew or Will, then on Antony, then on someone like Brian or Ian to see if I can keep that level of flow. If I can move like that at Lutador then the no-gi should be no problem.
Gi mobility is still a problem for me, I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Kris is finally starting to chill out I think, that bodes well for his progress. I'm certain he'll get his blue this year in October if he trains through the summer. After Lutador I'm going to start working through Blue Belt test with the people that come to the fundamentals class to make sure they all pass.
BJJ 3/18/2011
Lot of hilarious pre-class banter before this one which always bodes well for a fun class. We had a new guy who is about 5'6" and somewhere north of 200lbs. I ended up working technique with him so I could show him how things went. The only gi we had for him to borrow was a TKD gi that was about 2 sizes small.
Techniques were all lapel based starting with breaking the opponent down and feeding one lapel up over the back to the other hand. Then if you could pass it off you grabbed a palm up grip with a nice tight lapel and finished like an X-choke essentially.
Second technique was if your opponent ducks his head out of the choke, this traps their arm with the lapel, so you pull the lapel across and swivel to armbar the trapped arm.
Then my favorite of the variations, you get the grip like you are going to hit the first choke, but they reach up to defend, so you grab their sleeve and pull the arm across and hip out to trap their elbow against your stomach, then pull your elbow back to tighten up the choke. Excellent pressure with that one.
Positional sparring starting in closed guard. I tried to work the lapel stuff, but I always have a hard time figuring out how to get the gi open and available, so usually by the time I got somewhere close to the gi being available my opponent had done something that forced me to sweep them. So I got a little practice with it, but not as much as I wanted.
Rolling had Coe join our side since he was heading up to Alliance on Saturday and he always gets thrown to their giants. He squished me a bunch, but not enough to stop me from trash talking.
Don't really remember much else, I DO remember that I was able to put together a bunch of X-guard sweeps which I've been working on.
Good class. Good times.
Techniques were all lapel based starting with breaking the opponent down and feeding one lapel up over the back to the other hand. Then if you could pass it off you grabbed a palm up grip with a nice tight lapel and finished like an X-choke essentially.
Second technique was if your opponent ducks his head out of the choke, this traps their arm with the lapel, so you pull the lapel across and swivel to armbar the trapped arm.
Then my favorite of the variations, you get the grip like you are going to hit the first choke, but they reach up to defend, so you grab their sleeve and pull the arm across and hip out to trap their elbow against your stomach, then pull your elbow back to tighten up the choke. Excellent pressure with that one.
Positional sparring starting in closed guard. I tried to work the lapel stuff, but I always have a hard time figuring out how to get the gi open and available, so usually by the time I got somewhere close to the gi being available my opponent had done something that forced me to sweep them. So I got a little practice with it, but not as much as I wanted.
Rolling had Coe join our side since he was heading up to Alliance on Saturday and he always gets thrown to their giants. He squished me a bunch, but not enough to stop me from trash talking.
Don't really remember much else, I DO remember that I was able to put together a bunch of X-guard sweeps which I've been working on.
Good class. Good times.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Injury Update 3/17/2011
Left middle finger: Very stiff, sore, limited ROM. Probably going to take weeks to fully heal since I keep using it and ignoring it.
Left ribs: Sore, slight pain when taking very deep breaths, tender to the touch. Probably be fine in a week.
Left knee: This is generally my "Bad" knee and it's a little achy because I haven't been doing squats because of fencepost work and the right knee injury. It will probably never fully stop hurting, but it doesn't interfere with anything and always gets better when I'm lifting.
Lower back: Some soreness, mostly muscular, some stiffness, same. Still 100% flexibility. I was able to comfortably put the balls of my feet on the floor above my head while laying on my back. This should continue to improve with my stretching and weight lifting. I have noticed that I need to strengthen my back to counteract my abdominals. The muscle imbalance makes it hard to hold good posture.
Right Knee: Some soreness at the extremes of the range of motion. No weakness, no real pain. It stood up just fine to playing feet on hips spider guard yesterday and tornado guard. Should be 100% in a week.
Neck: Little bit of soreness, but generally my symptoms are pretty minor. If I poke the spot where I have the bone spure I can feel things go tingly, but it rarely interferes with my ability to do things. It does make neck cranks extra painful for me and I tap to them really quickly, which is why I tend to really fight to avoid them.
All told I'm feeling in good shape. Feeling strong and flexible. Going to go back to lifting and just restart the 3 rep week of 5/3/1 and not worry about it. Return to lifting scheduled for next Tuesday.
Left ribs: Sore, slight pain when taking very deep breaths, tender to the touch. Probably be fine in a week.
Left knee: This is generally my "Bad" knee and it's a little achy because I haven't been doing squats because of fencepost work and the right knee injury. It will probably never fully stop hurting, but it doesn't interfere with anything and always gets better when I'm lifting.
Lower back: Some soreness, mostly muscular, some stiffness, same. Still 100% flexibility. I was able to comfortably put the balls of my feet on the floor above my head while laying on my back. This should continue to improve with my stretching and weight lifting. I have noticed that I need to strengthen my back to counteract my abdominals. The muscle imbalance makes it hard to hold good posture.
Right Knee: Some soreness at the extremes of the range of motion. No weakness, no real pain. It stood up just fine to playing feet on hips spider guard yesterday and tornado guard. Should be 100% in a week.
Neck: Little bit of soreness, but generally my symptoms are pretty minor. If I poke the spot where I have the bone spure I can feel things go tingly, but it rarely interferes with my ability to do things. It does make neck cranks extra painful for me and I tap to them really quickly, which is why I tend to really fight to avoid them.
All told I'm feeling in good shape. Feeling strong and flexible. Going to go back to lifting and just restart the 3 rep week of 5/3/1 and not worry about it. Return to lifting scheduled for next Tuesday.
BJJ 3/16/2011
Casey didn't make it to class today, so Coe was teaching. We worked on some side control escapes.
I'm going to diverge for a moment into more technical discussion than I normally do because this particular set of techniques really didn't mesh well with my normal way of doing business so I'd like to get it written down so I can contemplate it later.
For the initial escape your opponent has standard side control and your arms are out, wrapped around your opponent. Your NEAR arm, the one closest to their body, you work in first and grip your opponents bicep on their top arm, the arm closest to your head. NEXT you bring your far arm across and clasp your hands together and use them to frame, bridge, and swim for the farside underhook up high so that it extends their arm. Once you have the farside underhook you bridge and reach while pulling on the bicep to twist your opponent and make it easier to escape.
Now, I have no problem with the last half of that escape, but the FIRST half I take issue with. When you swim your nearside arm through first your opponent can switch to Kesa Getame with their arm under your head and your elbow pulled up VERY easily. It's almost an automatic reaction. Once that happens you have no chance of bringing leverage into them to execute the escape and you have to switch to Kesa escapes.
Swimming the nearside arm through first also traps that arm. Once you have the bicep and before your arms are joined your opponents weight is pinning that arm leaving your far arm unsupported and vulnerable to attack.
My preferred method of building a frame is to lock my hands together above my opponents head and then use the strength of both arms to wedge my forearm or elbow across my opponents face until my far arm is braced across his throat, then wrap my hand over the back of his shoulder. Next I turn into him and pressure up with my elbow to force him to loosen up and I swim my nearside arm through.
At no point were my arms ever in danger, and with the farside arm already in and me already on my side he can't switch to Kesa.
After that you have the same option. Bridge, farside underhook, escape.
I just greatly prefer that entry to the series because I feel that it provides more consistent defense.
We drilled several stages of that escape, including when your opponent goes to north south and you push their armpits and pull your knees up, catching your knees in their armpits and dumping them forward. I showed Kris this one a couple of weeks ago, it's an awesome escape that I've rarely made work rolling. You have to catch your opponents armpits early before they start to slide down in N/S.
Did some position sparring from side control which reminded me why I have the kind of guard game I do. Those people are HEAVY. Everyone got to Kimura me, I escaped a few times, fun times.
We rolled continuously with no breaks for 21 minutes after that, 7x3 minute rounds, switching partners every round with no breaks. I rolled with Brian, Ian, and one of the 220lb cops whose name I can never rembmer, which made for some insanity. And once for a minute with Coe where I played tornado guard while he airplaned around on top of me for about 2 minutes, which was fun.
In trying to up the intensity of my game I was going for a lot more submissions, especially guillotines. On this group of guys I usually just make it about 75% through the setup for armbars and triangles and then they power out of it and I go back to guard. I've been working my guillotine game to help give me some more options. I'm still having trouble finishing them, but I feel a lot better about going for them now than I did before. Mostly I just tried to keep moving the entire time, attacking, working for sweeps, and maintaining a solid guard. It was a good class and I think I'm coming up on another epiphany about my guard sparked by my use of tornado/upside down guard and the recovered flexibility in my back.
Hopefully it will hit before Lutador and I'll make another skill jump. I love those.
I'm going to diverge for a moment into more technical discussion than I normally do because this particular set of techniques really didn't mesh well with my normal way of doing business so I'd like to get it written down so I can contemplate it later.
For the initial escape your opponent has standard side control and your arms are out, wrapped around your opponent. Your NEAR arm, the one closest to their body, you work in first and grip your opponents bicep on their top arm, the arm closest to your head. NEXT you bring your far arm across and clasp your hands together and use them to frame, bridge, and swim for the farside underhook up high so that it extends their arm. Once you have the farside underhook you bridge and reach while pulling on the bicep to twist your opponent and make it easier to escape.
Now, I have no problem with the last half of that escape, but the FIRST half I take issue with. When you swim your nearside arm through first your opponent can switch to Kesa Getame with their arm under your head and your elbow pulled up VERY easily. It's almost an automatic reaction. Once that happens you have no chance of bringing leverage into them to execute the escape and you have to switch to Kesa escapes.
Swimming the nearside arm through first also traps that arm. Once you have the bicep and before your arms are joined your opponents weight is pinning that arm leaving your far arm unsupported and vulnerable to attack.
My preferred method of building a frame is to lock my hands together above my opponents head and then use the strength of both arms to wedge my forearm or elbow across my opponents face until my far arm is braced across his throat, then wrap my hand over the back of his shoulder. Next I turn into him and pressure up with my elbow to force him to loosen up and I swim my nearside arm through.
At no point were my arms ever in danger, and with the farside arm already in and me already on my side he can't switch to Kesa.
After that you have the same option. Bridge, farside underhook, escape.
I just greatly prefer that entry to the series because I feel that it provides more consistent defense.
We drilled several stages of that escape, including when your opponent goes to north south and you push their armpits and pull your knees up, catching your knees in their armpits and dumping them forward. I showed Kris this one a couple of weeks ago, it's an awesome escape that I've rarely made work rolling. You have to catch your opponents armpits early before they start to slide down in N/S.
Did some position sparring from side control which reminded me why I have the kind of guard game I do. Those people are HEAVY. Everyone got to Kimura me, I escaped a few times, fun times.
We rolled continuously with no breaks for 21 minutes after that, 7x3 minute rounds, switching partners every round with no breaks. I rolled with Brian, Ian, and one of the 220lb cops whose name I can never rembmer, which made for some insanity. And once for a minute with Coe where I played tornado guard while he airplaned around on top of me for about 2 minutes, which was fun.
In trying to up the intensity of my game I was going for a lot more submissions, especially guillotines. On this group of guys I usually just make it about 75% through the setup for armbars and triangles and then they power out of it and I go back to guard. I've been working my guillotine game to help give me some more options. I'm still having trouble finishing them, but I feel a lot better about going for them now than I did before. Mostly I just tried to keep moving the entire time, attacking, working for sweeps, and maintaining a solid guard. It was a good class and I think I'm coming up on another epiphany about my guard sparked by my use of tornado/upside down guard and the recovered flexibility in my back.
Hopefully it will hit before Lutador and I'll make another skill jump. I love those.
Monday, March 14, 2011
How I spent my weekend
So, Friday there was jiujitsu involved. At this point I vaguely remember that one of our guys brought one of their wrestling buddies who is ranked 12th in the state at like 189lbs or something crazy like that. I rolled with him and another new guy that's got about 8 months of MMA training, but not a lot of pure jiujitsu. They were both very active and dynamic and sense I was in tournament training mode I didn't really let them work very much. I subbed them both a few times and kept sweeping them. It was fun, I think there's a good chance both of them will be back.
Saturday I rented a post hole auger. Now, one might think that using a post hole auger would make digging post holes exponentially easier than using manual post hole diggers. That would make one WRONG. Using the auger was generally faster, and did let me dig holes where there is NO WAY I would have been able to dig them with post hole diggers, but it was HARD. The thing would dig about 6 inches, bind up in the clay and I would have to deadlift it out against the weight of the augur, and the mud, and the fact that the mud was generally still connected to the rest of the dirt. I put in 74 posts over 2 days.
On the third to last post I was lifting the auger out and felt my right knee pop, it didn't seem to hurt at the time so I just kept going, finished out the holes, put the posts in the holes and then showered up and headed to jiujitsu. On the way I was doing the stretches my Chiro gave me at the redlights and near the last light my back suddenly gave a series of small pops, then a medium pop, then a BIG pop. I went light headed and euphoric for a moment, then realized that my back pain was GONE. Three years of lower back stiffness and pain just vanished. When I got to class I confirmed that I now have regained 100% of my lower back flexibility. Now my hips instead of compensating for my lower back allow me to be all crazy gumby flexible.
No one showed up for the fundamentals class, presumably because it's the beginning of UGA spring break, so I just sat around and chatted and stretched. People started to filter in around 7:20 and then we started class. We opened up with some drilling then went on to techniques. We did sprawl -> guillotine, then sprawl-> guillotine -> 100% Shoulder lock sub, then Sprawl -> guillotine -> 100% sweep.
Drilling was from closed guard and I was rolling with Casey and Coe. I managed to catch Casey in a heel hook and as he spun out of it I hopped up on top for the sweep. And Coe tried to bear crawl over my guard, which he does ALL THE FREAKIN TIME, but this time I was ready for him and spun under, locked his leg up with the saddle and caught him with a kneebar. After that Casey murdered me for a while and Coe upped the pressure, but I never felt totally overwhelmed.
Rolling was with Coe, Casey, and Brian I managed to take Coe's back and work an RNC, but he is insanely hard to finish, so as time ran out and he started to escape I switched to mount and held that until the end of the round. I tried to catch Casey with the butterfly guard lift to heel hook combo, but he shut me down. I felt great though, super energetic, super flexible, and I still feel pretty damn good. However, about an hour and a half after class my right knee started to feel stiff and a little sore. But the time I got in bed around midnight I could barely move it. And now this morning I can't put any weight on it or extend it fully. So, that sucks, but my back feels great, so I figure it's a wash. My knee will heal over the next couple of weeks and I'll just take it easy. I'll be fine for Lutador as long as I don't do anything stupid leading up to it. That means no weight lifting and probably no rolling for at least a week, probably two.
Still, feeling good about having my back fixed and despite getting about 4 hours of proper sleep last night I feel extremely good.
Saturday I rented a post hole auger. Now, one might think that using a post hole auger would make digging post holes exponentially easier than using manual post hole diggers. That would make one WRONG. Using the auger was generally faster, and did let me dig holes where there is NO WAY I would have been able to dig them with post hole diggers, but it was HARD. The thing would dig about 6 inches, bind up in the clay and I would have to deadlift it out against the weight of the augur, and the mud, and the fact that the mud was generally still connected to the rest of the dirt. I put in 74 posts over 2 days.
On the third to last post I was lifting the auger out and felt my right knee pop, it didn't seem to hurt at the time so I just kept going, finished out the holes, put the posts in the holes and then showered up and headed to jiujitsu. On the way I was doing the stretches my Chiro gave me at the redlights and near the last light my back suddenly gave a series of small pops, then a medium pop, then a BIG pop. I went light headed and euphoric for a moment, then realized that my back pain was GONE. Three years of lower back stiffness and pain just vanished. When I got to class I confirmed that I now have regained 100% of my lower back flexibility. Now my hips instead of compensating for my lower back allow me to be all crazy gumby flexible.
No one showed up for the fundamentals class, presumably because it's the beginning of UGA spring break, so I just sat around and chatted and stretched. People started to filter in around 7:20 and then we started class. We opened up with some drilling then went on to techniques. We did sprawl -> guillotine, then sprawl-> guillotine -> 100% Shoulder lock sub, then Sprawl -> guillotine -> 100% sweep.
Drilling was from closed guard and I was rolling with Casey and Coe. I managed to catch Casey in a heel hook and as he spun out of it I hopped up on top for the sweep. And Coe tried to bear crawl over my guard, which he does ALL THE FREAKIN TIME, but this time I was ready for him and spun under, locked his leg up with the saddle and caught him with a kneebar. After that Casey murdered me for a while and Coe upped the pressure, but I never felt totally overwhelmed.
Rolling was with Coe, Casey, and Brian I managed to take Coe's back and work an RNC, but he is insanely hard to finish, so as time ran out and he started to escape I switched to mount and held that until the end of the round. I tried to catch Casey with the butterfly guard lift to heel hook combo, but he shut me down. I felt great though, super energetic, super flexible, and I still feel pretty damn good. However, about an hour and a half after class my right knee started to feel stiff and a little sore. But the time I got in bed around midnight I could barely move it. And now this morning I can't put any weight on it or extend it fully. So, that sucks, but my back feels great, so I figure it's a wash. My knee will heal over the next couple of weeks and I'll just take it easy. I'll be fine for Lutador as long as I don't do anything stupid leading up to it. That means no weight lifting and probably no rolling for at least a week, probably two.
Still, feeling good about having my back fixed and despite getting about 4 hours of proper sleep last night I feel extremely good.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Weightlifting 3/10/2011
Tonight was deadlifts. Warmed up and powered through them, 7 reps with 165lbs, so no drop from the 5x week. I already feel like I'm building back up pretty well. I've been doing my chiro prescribed stretches at work to keep my lower back flexible and I can once again put my palms flat on the floor with my knees straight without any pain. There is some soreness in my back that I'm slightly worried about, but it's not all that painful and doesn't seem to be bothering me much. I assume it will go away over time as I continue to stretch properly and take care of my back.
I'm going in to full on tournament prep mode starting tonight. So, competition level rolls with everyone and no breaks. I'm hoping to be rockin it enough to take the blue belt absolute at Lutador and win the moneys. We shall see though.
I'm going in to full on tournament prep mode starting tonight. So, competition level rolls with everyone and no breaks. I'm hoping to be rockin it enough to take the blue belt absolute at Lutador and win the moneys. We shall see though.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Judo Class Visit
I paid a visit to our local Judo school and had a great time. The guys there were very friendly and a lot of fun. The class was small, the blackbelt instructor, a female blackbelt, and a guy wearing a yellow belt. It was their newaza class, so they made it a brazil night in honor of having a BJJer in the house and we just paired up and rolled the entire time.
They have strangely unexpected holes in their ground game. Very little defense against being butterfly swept, and pretty much zero defense against any guard passes. Their only mount escape appeared to be hook the arm and Upa like mad. They invited me to throw out some BJJ tips whenever I saw an opportunity, so I showed one of the guys technical mount and how to launch attacks from it, and how my favorite collar and sleeve breakdown works and how to launch attacks from that. I also showed the female blackbelt how to use the knee to elbow mount escape and showed the yellow belt why he shouldn't reach up from under mount.
They were absolutely baffled by my guard work and seemed to enjoy trying to get past it, when one of them did get past I damn near tapped from the pressure in Kesa and he managed to kickstand armbar me while I was trying to breath. That actually damaged some cartilage in my rib cage from an old wrestling injury so my ribs are a bit sore today, but overall it was a blast. I might drop in on them again every once in a while, but I won't be able to start Judo training until next summer.
I skipped out of my Jits class early because my wife has a nursing test coming up and then her final exam, so she needed to get home to relax.
They have strangely unexpected holes in their ground game. Very little defense against being butterfly swept, and pretty much zero defense against any guard passes. Their only mount escape appeared to be hook the arm and Upa like mad. They invited me to throw out some BJJ tips whenever I saw an opportunity, so I showed one of the guys technical mount and how to launch attacks from it, and how my favorite collar and sleeve breakdown works and how to launch attacks from that. I also showed the female blackbelt how to use the knee to elbow mount escape and showed the yellow belt why he shouldn't reach up from under mount.
They were absolutely baffled by my guard work and seemed to enjoy trying to get past it, when one of them did get past I damn near tapped from the pressure in Kesa and he managed to kickstand armbar me while I was trying to breath. That actually damaged some cartilage in my rib cage from an old wrestling injury so my ribs are a bit sore today, but overall it was a blast. I might drop in on them again every once in a while, but I won't be able to start Judo training until next summer.
I skipped out of my Jits class early because my wife has a nursing test coming up and then her final exam, so she needed to get home to relax.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
BJJ 3/6/2011
Bit of a late update this time around. Had only a couple of people for the beginner class so I went over the underhook and overhook methods of controlling posture in guard, and then since the two people in the class weren't complete noobs I went through an armbar -> triangle combo from the underhook position.
Spent some time with Katie refining her butterfly guard, she had the same issue most people do of starting with her knees too close together and not maintaining the linkage between her elbows and knees while moving.
Main class was guard passing, the No-Gi version of the passes we did Friday. Hand just below the sternum, hand on hip, sit back to break the guard, then pass. We did a couple of variations of baseball slide and backstep pass.
Drilling was from full guard, I passed a bunch, swept a bunch. Let a couple of the smaller whitebelts work through the pass properly.
Rolling I was with Ian and Vinny (Vinnie?), Vinny is one of our ammy fighters that usually just does Muay Thai. Last time I rolled with him he triangled me a dozen times. He hasn't trained much on the ground since then though so this time around we stalemated. He's very dynamic and athletic which is fun, makes me keep moving the entire time.
Ian kept trying foot locks but was falling back before he actually locked the grip on which allowed me to repeatedly just pop my foot out. I set up a nice gradual armbar and hit it, and then did a stealth heel hook setup against his combat base and got that one. Mostly we just went back and forth though. He caught me with a wicked Kimura from bottom of halfguard while I was trying to pass. I couldn't shake his hand off and he jumped on it as soon as it got too far for me to defend it with my other hand.
Another good class, but I need to really work on upping my intensity when I'm rolling heading towards Lutador.
Visiting the local Judo school today finally, that's going to be fun!
Spent some time with Katie refining her butterfly guard, she had the same issue most people do of starting with her knees too close together and not maintaining the linkage between her elbows and knees while moving.
Main class was guard passing, the No-Gi version of the passes we did Friday. Hand just below the sternum, hand on hip, sit back to break the guard, then pass. We did a couple of variations of baseball slide and backstep pass.
Drilling was from full guard, I passed a bunch, swept a bunch. Let a couple of the smaller whitebelts work through the pass properly.
Rolling I was with Ian and Vinny (Vinnie?), Vinny is one of our ammy fighters that usually just does Muay Thai. Last time I rolled with him he triangled me a dozen times. He hasn't trained much on the ground since then though so this time around we stalemated. He's very dynamic and athletic which is fun, makes me keep moving the entire time.
Ian kept trying foot locks but was falling back before he actually locked the grip on which allowed me to repeatedly just pop my foot out. I set up a nice gradual armbar and hit it, and then did a stealth heel hook setup against his combat base and got that one. Mostly we just went back and forth though. He caught me with a wicked Kimura from bottom of halfguard while I was trying to pass. I couldn't shake his hand off and he jumped on it as soon as it got too far for me to defend it with my other hand.
Another good class, but I need to really work on upping my intensity when I'm rolling heading towards Lutador.
Visiting the local Judo school today finally, that's going to be fun!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
BJJ 3/4/2011
Fundamental Class:
I had enough brand new people in the fundamentals class today to start the actual curriculum so we started out by running through the basic positions. Then we I had them drill moving from one position to the next for a while just to get the idea of moving around in their heads.
Next I demonstrated safe position inside guard and I showed them how to posture up. I had them drill posturing up back and forth for a bit, then moved on to showing how to hold side control and the basic side control escape.
Finally we did positional flow rolling.
Main Class:
Some of the new folks stayed for the main class and we had a visiting blue belt named Josh from California in as well. We worked basic guard breaks and passes, standard grip the gi, grip the hip, make an L with the hips, knee through, establish side control. Good to get reps in and I worked with the super turbo spazzy new guy and got him to slow down some and work technique. He has great potential once he slows down.
Rolled with the spazzy guy, steven, and brian. Almost got Brian with a nice chinstrap choke but I couldn't get the leverage quite right. Then he eventually managed to escape a triangle attempt and get to my back for the choke. Rolled with the visiting Blue belt at the end of class and immediately choked him with my single collar hangman variation. Not sure if he just didn't see it coming or what. The rest of the roll was him being unable to get past my guard and me being unable to mount an offense. Towards the end he passed to side and I pushed down for the inverted triangle and time ran out. Fun times!
Bench press is tomorrow. I'm probably going to end up breaking my lifting up into Mon/Tues = Squats/OHP, Thurs = Deadlifts, Saturday = Bench. That should give me a good rhythm with enough rest built in.
On a non jiujitsu related side note, I now have an awesome Tokay Gecko named Vanderwall the Fierce who is currently climbing around on the side of his aquarium. He was the final birthday present from my awesome Jennosaurus. He seems to be stuck to a paper towel, and he does not appreciate it when I spray the side of his aquarium with water...
I had enough brand new people in the fundamentals class today to start the actual curriculum so we started out by running through the basic positions. Then we I had them drill moving from one position to the next for a while just to get the idea of moving around in their heads.
Next I demonstrated safe position inside guard and I showed them how to posture up. I had them drill posturing up back and forth for a bit, then moved on to showing how to hold side control and the basic side control escape.
Finally we did positional flow rolling.
Main Class:
Some of the new folks stayed for the main class and we had a visiting blue belt named Josh from California in as well. We worked basic guard breaks and passes, standard grip the gi, grip the hip, make an L with the hips, knee through, establish side control. Good to get reps in and I worked with the super turbo spazzy new guy and got him to slow down some and work technique. He has great potential once he slows down.
Rolled with the spazzy guy, steven, and brian. Almost got Brian with a nice chinstrap choke but I couldn't get the leverage quite right. Then he eventually managed to escape a triangle attempt and get to my back for the choke. Rolled with the visiting Blue belt at the end of class and immediately choked him with my single collar hangman variation. Not sure if he just didn't see it coming or what. The rest of the roll was him being unable to get past my guard and me being unable to mount an offense. Towards the end he passed to side and I pushed down for the inverted triangle and time ran out. Fun times!
Bench press is tomorrow. I'm probably going to end up breaking my lifting up into Mon/Tues = Squats/OHP, Thurs = Deadlifts, Saturday = Bench. That should give me a good rhythm with enough rest built in.
On a non jiujitsu related side note, I now have an awesome Tokay Gecko named Vanderwall the Fierce who is currently climbing around on the side of his aquarium. He was the final birthday present from my awesome Jennosaurus. He seems to be stuck to a paper towel, and he does not appreciate it when I spray the side of his aquarium with water...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
3/3/2011 Deadlifts
Deadlift day on 5/3/1.
Warmup sets 5/5/3 with 75/92.5/112.5 then main set with 120/140/157.5. Hit 10 reps with 157.5 which I felt good about.
Then I ate a huge bowl of pasta w/ tunafish in it and drank a bunch of milk. My finger is really stiff from where it got caught in Brian's Gi yesterday, but it didn't interfere.
I decided I should setup a 6 month rotating curriculum for the Fundamentals class. I'm going to work on that tomorrow before class. Current idea is to teach in this order:
Month 1: Positions - moving through them, holding them, transitions
Month 2: Escapes - framing, shrimping, upas, sitouts, combining escapes
Month 3: Guard Passes - posture, grips, guard breaks, various principles of passing
Month 4: Sweeps - grips, breaking balance, using leverage, etc...
Month 5: Basic submissions - Armbar, Triangle, Americana, Kimura, Guillotine, X-Choke, Ezekiel
Month 6: Review
I'll put together something more comprehensive tomorrow.
Warmup sets 5/5/3 with 75/92.5/112.5 then main set with 120/140/157.5. Hit 10 reps with 157.5 which I felt good about.
Then I ate a huge bowl of pasta w/ tunafish in it and drank a bunch of milk. My finger is really stiff from where it got caught in Brian's Gi yesterday, but it didn't interfere.
I decided I should setup a 6 month rotating curriculum for the Fundamentals class. I'm going to work on that tomorrow before class. Current idea is to teach in this order:
Month 1: Positions - moving through them, holding them, transitions
Month 2: Escapes - framing, shrimping, upas, sitouts, combining escapes
Month 3: Guard Passes - posture, grips, guard breaks, various principles of passing
Month 4: Sweeps - grips, breaking balance, using leverage, etc...
Month 5: Basic submissions - Armbar, Triangle, Americana, Kimura, Guillotine, X-Choke, Ezekiel
Month 6: Review
I'll put together something more comprehensive tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
3/2/2011 BJJ and Wendler 5/3/1
Just going to hit the highpoints. It's coming up on Lutador time which will be my first tournament this year. I'm starting conditioning before class now, started out slow with some work on the big yoga ball holding KoB, transitioning to side control, and holding mount. Rocked out some stability ball pushups and other random stuff with it. Did some windsprints and running just kicks my ass like nothing else.
Jits warmup was my favorite drill. Upa->Shrimp->Turtle->Sitout->Repeat, then armbars from guard, then fitins for a hipthrow. That led right into our class for the night which was all standup. Various grip hipthrows. I fucking HATE working standup. We have no crash pads, then mats aren't very thick, and we work on it so rarely that only a couple of us know how to control the throws very well. It's always a pain in the ass. It's also one of my weakest points. We did some takedown sparring which I participated in a minimum of and then on to rolling.
I was in a group with Brian, Andrew, and a new guy that has done two classes. Started out with the new guy and he tried to dive onto my head going about 150%. I fought him off and threw some subs at him to see how he reacted a few times and then the round ended. Next up I rolled with Andrew, very chill working from guard, setup the armbar, then worked from the top, passed guard, and held mount, transitioned to tech mount and setup the single collar choke. Switched to the bow and arrow choke when he held out, then to a shin in the back of his neck to finally finish.
We took a break then I rolled with Brian. I was being as squirrely as possible, working to make him work and try setting up subs. Mostly we just stalemated for like 3 minutes.
Then I ditched the gi to go a second round with the new guy. Without the friction from the Gi I went back to my superior No-Gi game and really got into the groove on him. Tossing him around and subbing him every time he tried to super speed rush past my guard. He's in REALLY good shape, so hopefully he'll learn to calm down, pay attention, and work. Hopefully I can get him to come to the fundamentals class and slow him down there.
Last roll was with Brian again and was no-gi. In the middle of a great sequence where I setup a triangle, then he defended, I switched to an armbar, he defended, I switched to the omoplata and he defended, I caught my fingers on his gi pants and bent them back bad enough that I had to tap. We were just getting into the groove, but that was arleady 10 minutes past the end of class.
Came home and did my overhead press work. Finished out the set with 7 reps w/ 80lbs. That's not too bad considering that my left shoulder is still protesting. Chugged a bunch of milk too, hoping to put on some weight and some strength for lutador.
Jits warmup was my favorite drill. Upa->Shrimp->Turtle->Sitout->Repeat, then armbars from guard, then fitins for a hipthrow. That led right into our class for the night which was all standup. Various grip hipthrows. I fucking HATE working standup. We have no crash pads, then mats aren't very thick, and we work on it so rarely that only a couple of us know how to control the throws very well. It's always a pain in the ass. It's also one of my weakest points. We did some takedown sparring which I participated in a minimum of and then on to rolling.
I was in a group with Brian, Andrew, and a new guy that has done two classes. Started out with the new guy and he tried to dive onto my head going about 150%. I fought him off and threw some subs at him to see how he reacted a few times and then the round ended. Next up I rolled with Andrew, very chill working from guard, setup the armbar, then worked from the top, passed guard, and held mount, transitioned to tech mount and setup the single collar choke. Switched to the bow and arrow choke when he held out, then to a shin in the back of his neck to finally finish.
We took a break then I rolled with Brian. I was being as squirrely as possible, working to make him work and try setting up subs. Mostly we just stalemated for like 3 minutes.
Then I ditched the gi to go a second round with the new guy. Without the friction from the Gi I went back to my superior No-Gi game and really got into the groove on him. Tossing him around and subbing him every time he tried to super speed rush past my guard. He's in REALLY good shape, so hopefully he'll learn to calm down, pay attention, and work. Hopefully I can get him to come to the fundamentals class and slow him down there.
Last roll was with Brian again and was no-gi. In the middle of a great sequence where I setup a triangle, then he defended, I switched to an armbar, he defended, I switched to the omoplata and he defended, I caught my fingers on his gi pants and bent them back bad enough that I had to tap. We were just getting into the groove, but that was arleady 10 minutes past the end of class.
Came home and did my overhead press work. Finished out the set with 7 reps w/ 80lbs. That's not too bad considering that my left shoulder is still protesting. Chugged a bunch of milk too, hoping to put on some weight and some strength for lutador.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Pickin up Heavy Things Again
I've returned to Wendler 5/3/1 as of today. I ended up taking a 4 month break from it during wedding planning, honeymoon, and then post wedding stuff. Now I'm finally ready to get it started up again.
I reset all of my maxes to well under where they were when I stopped last, so for the purposes of the workout my numbers look like this:
Squat 1RM: 150lbs
OHP 1RM: 100lbs
Deadlift 1RM: 200lbs
Bench Press 1RM: 150lbs
I started out with squats today and finished with 13 reps of 115lbs. If you aren't familiar with 5/3/1 you should check out this article http://theswole.com/swole/531-jim-wendlers-theory-of-strength/ to find out WHY I did 13 reps with 115lbs. It felt really good to be lifting again and I look forward to the 6 month mark when all of my lifts are ~50lbs heavier.
I reset all of my maxes to well under where they were when I stopped last, so for the purposes of the workout my numbers look like this:
Squat 1RM: 150lbs
OHP 1RM: 100lbs
Deadlift 1RM: 200lbs
Bench Press 1RM: 150lbs
I started out with squats today and finished with 13 reps of 115lbs. If you aren't familiar with 5/3/1 you should check out this article http://theswole.com/swole/531-jim-wendlers-theory-of-strength/ to find out WHY I did 13 reps with 115lbs. It felt really good to be lifting again and I look forward to the 6 month mark when all of my lifts are ~50lbs heavier.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Post Throwdown Videos
So many of you know that over the weekend I went up to North Carolina for a Bullshido Throwdown. Some of you are aware that part of the reason I went was a challenge match between myself and Matt "War Wheel" Phillips. Those videos can all be seen on Bullshido via their Facebook page or checking out the Gong Sau threads. For most of my readers the more interesting video will be me rolling with a 315lb white belt. That's right THREE HUNDRED. He has about a year of training making him officially the most skilled super heavy that I've rolled with.
So, as usual I used my legs as much as I could to keep him from getting his weight down onto me. I was on top for a bit but seriously he was able to casually push my weight away as I tried to pass. If I were super serious about "beating" the guy I never would have given up top position even if it meant I spent 5 minutes hugging his leg, but this was a TD and is supposed to be a fun thing, so I'd rather play than grind out a non-existent win. At 1:10 or so I'm just holding him up and my legs are getting tired, so I switched to full guard, which was a mistake. With his height and weight he was able to just step over my leg to half guard and with a little patience he was able to lock up a Kimura. I tried a breakdance escape and he was just TOO BIG for me to pull off the flip. It's seriously just INSANE rolling with someone that big.
My legs feel like I was squatting trucks or something today. Very cool guy though, everyone at the TD was awesome.
If anyone else got videos of me rolling I'll throw them up here as well, I got smashed by a !180lb purple belt, and a ~150 Brown belt, and I had a bunch of fun going back and forth with some blue belts of various experience and fitness levels. Hit a Zapruder on one very cool ~140 blue belt from Team ROC, and got crazy phantom straight armlocked by another one.
The entire thing was a blast and anyone who didn't make it missed out on delicious chocolate cake and awesome jits. As well as a ton of free jiujitsu lessons. The Brown that schooled me showed me some tips for De La Riva guard and reverse DLR that are going to help a TON with me.
I'll post details for the date of the next one when it's finalized. So, mad props to Sifu Jason and Team ROC for a MONSTER awesome throwdown. You guys do good work.
So, as usual I used my legs as much as I could to keep him from getting his weight down onto me. I was on top for a bit but seriously he was able to casually push my weight away as I tried to pass. If I were super serious about "beating" the guy I never would have given up top position even if it meant I spent 5 minutes hugging his leg, but this was a TD and is supposed to be a fun thing, so I'd rather play than grind out a non-existent win. At 1:10 or so I'm just holding him up and my legs are getting tired, so I switched to full guard, which was a mistake. With his height and weight he was able to just step over my leg to half guard and with a little patience he was able to lock up a Kimura. I tried a breakdance escape and he was just TOO BIG for me to pull off the flip. It's seriously just INSANE rolling with someone that big.
My legs feel like I was squatting trucks or something today. Very cool guy though, everyone at the TD was awesome.
If anyone else got videos of me rolling I'll throw them up here as well, I got smashed by a !180lb purple belt, and a ~150 Brown belt, and I had a bunch of fun going back and forth with some blue belts of various experience and fitness levels. Hit a Zapruder on one very cool ~140 blue belt from Team ROC, and got crazy phantom straight armlocked by another one.
The entire thing was a blast and anyone who didn't make it missed out on delicious chocolate cake and awesome jits. As well as a ton of free jiujitsu lessons. The Brown that schooled me showed me some tips for De La Riva guard and reverse DLR that are going to help a TON with me.
I'll post details for the date of the next one when it's finalized. So, mad props to Sifu Jason and Team ROC for a MONSTER awesome throwdown. You guys do good work.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
BJJ 2/23/2011
We had a visitor today, eternal purple belt Jeremy who previously trained with Casey was back in town. He's been a purple belt longer than I've been training and absolutely should be a brown, but just... isn't for some reason.
I've rolled with him twice before, once last year, and once the year before and thoroughly enjoyed it because he's about 145lbs and maybe an inch taller than I am.
Technique was continuing on with the lapel wrapups from side control. This time a different armbar setup, and a transition to the back. There might also have been a choke, but I was a few minutes late to class and missed it. Mostly though I'm seeing that there are a ton of options from that lapel wrapup and so I've added it to my list of things to practice regularly.
We went straight to gauntlets after that and my group was me, Antony, and Jeremy making for some fun and dynamic rolls. The very first time I ever rolled with him Jeremy hit me with what I considered a power move that only worked on noobs, he let me pass to side control, then flipped me straight over him. I was baffled, because I've stopped WAY bigger guys from doing that to me. I spent the next year with that in my head and again prevented a bunch of much bigger guys from doing it. Then I rolled with him again, got to side control thinking, "AHA! I've got him now!" and then FWOOSH. So for another year I worked on being able to hold that side control and again this time I thought, "AHA! I've got him now!" 4 seconds later, over I went.
The difference this time is that he demonstrated to Antony how he was doing it and a key detail emerged. He was grabbing my belt over my back and I NEVER FELT IT. Seriously, that's how pimp his timing was. He would get the elbow in under my stomach, then rock back a bit, upa into me and lift. I would feel the lift from his elbow, but that pressure disguised the pressure from him grabbing my belt and lifting. So, once again, I think I have a handle on it and can stop him. Next time I plan on keeping him in side control once I get him there. Then he'll have to bust out some OTHER sneak trick I can steal, cause I'm gonna adopt this one.
He also is phenomenal with his gi manipulation. Half the time I would know exactly what he was doing and move to block it, only to find out my own gi was tied around my leg or something and I couldn't get to the counter in time. And my favorite part of the evening, he caught me in a wicked tight bow and arrow choke that I fought for about 3 seconds longer than I REALLY should have and I almost went out as I was tapping. My entire body was tingling for a good 15 seconds after he let go.
GOOD TRAINING!
I've rolled with him twice before, once last year, and once the year before and thoroughly enjoyed it because he's about 145lbs and maybe an inch taller than I am.
Technique was continuing on with the lapel wrapups from side control. This time a different armbar setup, and a transition to the back. There might also have been a choke, but I was a few minutes late to class and missed it. Mostly though I'm seeing that there are a ton of options from that lapel wrapup and so I've added it to my list of things to practice regularly.
We went straight to gauntlets after that and my group was me, Antony, and Jeremy making for some fun and dynamic rolls. The very first time I ever rolled with him Jeremy hit me with what I considered a power move that only worked on noobs, he let me pass to side control, then flipped me straight over him. I was baffled, because I've stopped WAY bigger guys from doing that to me. I spent the next year with that in my head and again prevented a bunch of much bigger guys from doing it. Then I rolled with him again, got to side control thinking, "AHA! I've got him now!" and then FWOOSH. So for another year I worked on being able to hold that side control and again this time I thought, "AHA! I've got him now!" 4 seconds later, over I went.
The difference this time is that he demonstrated to Antony how he was doing it and a key detail emerged. He was grabbing my belt over my back and I NEVER FELT IT. Seriously, that's how pimp his timing was. He would get the elbow in under my stomach, then rock back a bit, upa into me and lift. I would feel the lift from his elbow, but that pressure disguised the pressure from him grabbing my belt and lifting. So, once again, I think I have a handle on it and can stop him. Next time I plan on keeping him in side control once I get him there. Then he'll have to bust out some OTHER sneak trick I can steal, cause I'm gonna adopt this one.
He also is phenomenal with his gi manipulation. Half the time I would know exactly what he was doing and move to block it, only to find out my own gi was tied around my leg or something and I couldn't get to the counter in time. And my favorite part of the evening, he caught me in a wicked tight bow and arrow choke that I fought for about 3 seconds longer than I REALLY should have and I almost went out as I was tapping. My entire body was tingling for a good 15 seconds after he let go.
GOOD TRAINING!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Video Analysis - 2/22/2011
So I have two videos today, one of me starting from the bottom of side control against my instructor, Alliance black belt Casey Baynes, and one of me starting from top of side control against one of our purple belts. They both weigh in around the 215 mark meaning I'm giving up about 75lbs.
Rolling with Casey
Take note of my arms starting at about the 3 second mark and going the 12 second mark. I'm working to link them together both to protect them, and to provide a better lever for creating space. At the 17 second mark Casey senses my intentions and changes his position to stop me from shrimping and grabbing half guard. You can barely see my feet at the 22 second mark where I am preparing to get all spider monkey up in this thing. I slide my shin into the crook of his elbow and set my other foot up as support, then when he pops his hand free that gives me the opening I need to kick my self around and try to get my knees between us, he eases up the pressure some as I get close to success and lets me rotate through to guard. Against most people, that ease in pressure isn't needed, I just pop them up into the air a bit and spin through, but Casey could easily counter that and crush me.
From there Casey grabs me with his unbreakable steel grip and I work to keep some distance and try to free my legs. At the 49 second mark he cuts through my guard and I get squirrely and snag his leg for some desperation halfguard. At 1:03 I switch to a modified half guard that gives me a better ability to lift and move his leg, it doesn't do much good against Casey, but I find it very handy against anyone else that I end up on bottom of halfguard against. At the same time I'm defending a kimura attempt on my right arm and I take advantage of a momentary opening to rescue that arm and move it mostly out of danger.
Casey then pops past my halfguard and I try to shrimp to regain guard. He stalls me out and I turtle, he moves to my back and I slide down to my side trying to hook his bicep with my knee to give me some leverage. It doesn't work. I try a running man escape and he locks me down, then he makes the transition to my back. I fight off the RNC and at about 2:40 he lifts me to dump me forward to stop me from defending, I counter by curling me heels back to give myself support and bracing and manage to fight off the RNC until the end of the round.
This kind of overmatch is all about tenacity. I don't get intimidated by Casey and assume things won't work. I play a little more cautiously and look for ways to be extra sneaky, but I don't ever assume I'm about to be crushed. The reality is that I AM about to be crushed, but I don't let that affect my efforts and every small victory, like managing to spin through mostly back to guard, or fighting off an RNC for a few seconds longer than last time, shows me that I'm improving.
Rolling with Coe
This roll starts off very slow. I'm always cautious on top of anyone that is capable of just throwing me off of them if they get the chance. The first 25 seconds are me working on freeing his lapel so I can try to tie his arm up with it. I partially succeed which is when he makes his first escape attempt at 23 seconds in. He's trying to trap my arm with his legs, but i'm wise to his shenanigans and I avoid it and go back to the lapel. Again I come close to getting an arm tied up and he makes a move to escape. It's essentially a power move, using his superior size and strength to just sit up against me with a minimum of leverage. At 42 seconds you can see where I am braced on my knee and move to kick out his supporting arm, he adjusts to avoid it being hooked, but that's all I need to get his weight back and roll him over. You can see at 46 seconds how I am grabbing his knee to control his hips. I was using that same pants grip back at the 38 second mark to stop him from getting his legs involved and pushing me over the rest of the way. He's tenacious though and tries to lever me up again and I use that same grip and my head control to dump him over. at 1:10 he's working some gi related shenanigans and trying to choke me from the bottom of side control. It doesn't work, but it does give him enough of an opening eventually when I try to move to mount for him to start an escape. At the 1:50 mark I'm working on floating on top of him, making my body as heavy as possible as he tries to roll me directly over using the leverage on my head. I succeed in stopping that escape attempt, but again I move for mount when he turns into me and this time he catches my leg and keeps it. At the 2:02 mark I'm working to get past his knee, but he uses some strength to just push me back. We go through a scramble and I end up briefly in upside down guard. With Coe that's like having a fencepost driven through your chest, so I can't do much with it. He wraps me up as I try to spin to guard and I end up with desperation halfguard. He starts working some crazy lapel choke just as time runs out.
When you're on top of a bigger opponent the game becomes one of leverage. You MUST maintain enough leverage to counter their strength and weight or they can just toss you to your back and crushify you. Learning ways to make your body more difficult to move is an important part of that, knowing when to go rigid and when to be dead weight as well as knowing what support bits are the easiest to kick out when someone is pushing you around. And again, don't be intimidated by people. A purple belt with 75lbs on you? So what! If you do shit right it will work on them just like it works on everybody else. They know more counters, and more tricks, and you have to do it EXACTLY RIGHT to make it work, but it all still works.
As always, commentary is welcome. Tell me how much I suck, what a noob I am, etc...
Rolling with Casey
Take note of my arms starting at about the 3 second mark and going the 12 second mark. I'm working to link them together both to protect them, and to provide a better lever for creating space. At the 17 second mark Casey senses my intentions and changes his position to stop me from shrimping and grabbing half guard. You can barely see my feet at the 22 second mark where I am preparing to get all spider monkey up in this thing. I slide my shin into the crook of his elbow and set my other foot up as support, then when he pops his hand free that gives me the opening I need to kick my self around and try to get my knees between us, he eases up the pressure some as I get close to success and lets me rotate through to guard. Against most people, that ease in pressure isn't needed, I just pop them up into the air a bit and spin through, but Casey could easily counter that and crush me.
From there Casey grabs me with his unbreakable steel grip and I work to keep some distance and try to free my legs. At the 49 second mark he cuts through my guard and I get squirrely and snag his leg for some desperation halfguard. At 1:03 I switch to a modified half guard that gives me a better ability to lift and move his leg, it doesn't do much good against Casey, but I find it very handy against anyone else that I end up on bottom of halfguard against. At the same time I'm defending a kimura attempt on my right arm and I take advantage of a momentary opening to rescue that arm and move it mostly out of danger.
Casey then pops past my halfguard and I try to shrimp to regain guard. He stalls me out and I turtle, he moves to my back and I slide down to my side trying to hook his bicep with my knee to give me some leverage. It doesn't work. I try a running man escape and he locks me down, then he makes the transition to my back. I fight off the RNC and at about 2:40 he lifts me to dump me forward to stop me from defending, I counter by curling me heels back to give myself support and bracing and manage to fight off the RNC until the end of the round.
This kind of overmatch is all about tenacity. I don't get intimidated by Casey and assume things won't work. I play a little more cautiously and look for ways to be extra sneaky, but I don't ever assume I'm about to be crushed. The reality is that I AM about to be crushed, but I don't let that affect my efforts and every small victory, like managing to spin through mostly back to guard, or fighting off an RNC for a few seconds longer than last time, shows me that I'm improving.
Rolling with Coe
This roll starts off very slow. I'm always cautious on top of anyone that is capable of just throwing me off of them if they get the chance. The first 25 seconds are me working on freeing his lapel so I can try to tie his arm up with it. I partially succeed which is when he makes his first escape attempt at 23 seconds in. He's trying to trap my arm with his legs, but i'm wise to his shenanigans and I avoid it and go back to the lapel. Again I come close to getting an arm tied up and he makes a move to escape. It's essentially a power move, using his superior size and strength to just sit up against me with a minimum of leverage. At 42 seconds you can see where I am braced on my knee and move to kick out his supporting arm, he adjusts to avoid it being hooked, but that's all I need to get his weight back and roll him over. You can see at 46 seconds how I am grabbing his knee to control his hips. I was using that same pants grip back at the 38 second mark to stop him from getting his legs involved and pushing me over the rest of the way. He's tenacious though and tries to lever me up again and I use that same grip and my head control to dump him over. at 1:10 he's working some gi related shenanigans and trying to choke me from the bottom of side control. It doesn't work, but it does give him enough of an opening eventually when I try to move to mount for him to start an escape. At the 1:50 mark I'm working on floating on top of him, making my body as heavy as possible as he tries to roll me directly over using the leverage on my head. I succeed in stopping that escape attempt, but again I move for mount when he turns into me and this time he catches my leg and keeps it. At the 2:02 mark I'm working to get past his knee, but he uses some strength to just push me back. We go through a scramble and I end up briefly in upside down guard. With Coe that's like having a fencepost driven through your chest, so I can't do much with it. He wraps me up as I try to spin to guard and I end up with desperation halfguard. He starts working some crazy lapel choke just as time runs out.
When you're on top of a bigger opponent the game becomes one of leverage. You MUST maintain enough leverage to counter their strength and weight or they can just toss you to your back and crushify you. Learning ways to make your body more difficult to move is an important part of that, knowing when to go rigid and when to be dead weight as well as knowing what support bits are the easiest to kick out when someone is pushing you around. And again, don't be intimidated by people. A purple belt with 75lbs on you? So what! If you do shit right it will work on them just like it works on everybody else. They know more counters, and more tricks, and you have to do it EXACTLY RIGHT to make it work, but it all still works.
As always, commentary is welcome. Tell me how much I suck, what a noob I am, etc...
Sunday, February 20, 2011
It works because you do it RIGHT, not because you do it FAST
OK, so time for another philosophical post. This one is directed at mostly people who feel like they can TASTE that blue belt. You're sure that the only thing holding you back from it is demonstrating how awesome you are by tapping out some existing blue belts, or running a clinic on your white belt compatriots. I've got some bad news for you, you're sabotaging yourself.
I've seen this happen with some guys in our gym, guys who really do have the technical skill to be getting their blues very very soon, but won't. Probably they will have to wait for another year. Why? Because they are rushing. They rush through techniques drilling, hitting the techniques hard and fast as if they are in competition. As a result they screw stuff up and end up getting like 4 decent reps in and otherwise getting confused and flubbing it over and over again.
Then when we start drilling they rush. Instead of working the techniques we just learned from the starting position they move directly to their "A" competition game and don't learn anything new.
And finally when rolling they rush rush rush trying to pass guard, trying to get a sub, trying to escape. Everything they do is in a hurry. The result is a bunch of activity for very little relative result.
So for everyone who has ever spent 5 minutes running back and forth around some guy that looks half asleep, been choked out 20 different ways in one round by someone that seems to move at a snails pace half the time, or feels like they just got done with a track meet after they leave their jiujitsu class I want you to repeat after me, "It works because I do it RIGHT, not because I do it FAST."
That's my motto and I suggest you all adopt it. Throwing your legs up super fast and yanking on an armbar will not get you a tap if your legs are in the wrong place, and not pinched together, and your hips are too low.
Breaking your opponent down, getting your guard up high, isolating the arm, and swiveling for a proper armbar will get you a tap every time, no matter how fast or slow you do it.
If you feel like you CAN'T get the armbar without throwing up fast, then generally you need to back up a step or two to how you're setting up the armbar and re-examine it. That applies to ALL techniques too. Triangle chokes will not work if you throw them on super fast and your heel is halfway down the guys back and he has both of his elbows tucked down. He's got all the time in the world to escape from that no matter how hard you crank.
So I exhort you all to please SLOW DOWN and do things right. I promise you it will increase your success rate in the long run, because once you get used to doing it right, THEN you can do it fast.
I've seen this happen with some guys in our gym, guys who really do have the technical skill to be getting their blues very very soon, but won't. Probably they will have to wait for another year. Why? Because they are rushing. They rush through techniques drilling, hitting the techniques hard and fast as if they are in competition. As a result they screw stuff up and end up getting like 4 decent reps in and otherwise getting confused and flubbing it over and over again.
Then when we start drilling they rush. Instead of working the techniques we just learned from the starting position they move directly to their "A" competition game and don't learn anything new.
And finally when rolling they rush rush rush trying to pass guard, trying to get a sub, trying to escape. Everything they do is in a hurry. The result is a bunch of activity for very little relative result.
So for everyone who has ever spent 5 minutes running back and forth around some guy that looks half asleep, been choked out 20 different ways in one round by someone that seems to move at a snails pace half the time, or feels like they just got done with a track meet after they leave their jiujitsu class I want you to repeat after me, "It works because I do it RIGHT, not because I do it FAST."
That's my motto and I suggest you all adopt it. Throwing your legs up super fast and yanking on an armbar will not get you a tap if your legs are in the wrong place, and not pinched together, and your hips are too low.
Breaking your opponent down, getting your guard up high, isolating the arm, and swiveling for a proper armbar will get you a tap every time, no matter how fast or slow you do it.
If you feel like you CAN'T get the armbar without throwing up fast, then generally you need to back up a step or two to how you're setting up the armbar and re-examine it. That applies to ALL techniques too. Triangle chokes will not work if you throw them on super fast and your heel is halfway down the guys back and he has both of his elbows tucked down. He's got all the time in the world to escape from that no matter how hard you crank.
So I exhort you all to please SLOW DOWN and do things right. I promise you it will increase your success rate in the long run, because once you get used to doing it right, THEN you can do it fast.
BJJ 2/20/2012 No-Gi
Went to Taste of Athens today, so didn't do the fundamentals class, but got there at 7pm and Katie was there, so I went over a quick combo with her, armdrag, opponent counters, you let their arm go and kick the leg up for the triangle choke, they posture up, you switch to the armbar. It's a combo I use pretty regularly and it works pretty well. Only had time to drill it with her a few times, but got it in her head and I'll be introducing it in the next no-gi class anyways.
Main class was full of fun stuff. First tech was from side control and was directed at me personally. I'm really good at getting my knee wedged in from bottom of side and getting guard back, so when someone frames on your neck and pushes and drives that knee in, you reach under their arm to the back of their head like you're going for a darce, then step over their head with your top leg and then back step so that you are in side control on the opposite side, ideally with their arm tied up and them unable to turn into you.
Second tech, you wedge the opponents near arm down away from their neck a bit with your body, then push the far arm down a bit (We found that it was equally useful to fake a kimura attempt since it put both of your arms in the right place anyways and kept your opponents mind off of the next step) then wrap your arm back around under your opponents head like you are setting up for a guillotine. Move from side control to north/south, wedging your lat into the opponents neck, then slide down as far as you can, make a fist with your bottom arm, grab it and squeeze everything together. If it doesn't work it usually means you just need to slide further down.
Third tech was an alliance special. Ian McPherson uses this one and variants on it all the time. You are performing the second tech, but your opponent catches on and interposes his arm so that you can't lock your hands up to finish the choke and you can't slide down far enough to get any more pressure. So you grab the tricep of the interposing arm with your free hand (The one not under the opponents head) and move back towards side control, keeping that arm tight. Next you sit out and put your leg across your opponents stomach. At the same time stay locked around their head until you are secure and ready to finish. Next switch to a heel hook style grip on their elbow and lean back and arch your hips. Puts a ton of pressure on the shoulder really quickly. We did a couple of variations of that one, then went to drilling a bit.
Started with one player in side control, I pulled off the Americana from bottom of side control that Zapruder showed me a while back, ended up finishing it in bottom of guard as a half wristlock. The look of utter amazement as the guy tapped to it was priceless, but it's only good one time really. The same guy managed a REALLY nice reversal to my back a little later. Just pulled a move I completely didn't expect from him. After a bit of escaping and subbing folks we switched to rolling at which point I grouped up with Anthony and Kris and went on a No-Gi rampage.
Somewhere in the last couple of months with my improved top game and my increasingly dynamic guard game I've gotten over being gunshy about truly attempting submissions. I had no worries about getting passed if the sub failed, or anything like that. I just dug in, tossed them up, and worked the combos. I ended up landing a stupid quantity of subs in this class whereas normally I've just been working position recently and only taking subs as they appeared. This time around I was making the subs happen. I feel like I've taken another step up in my game and I have very high hopes regarding getting my purple belt this year. Especially if I can get out to Alliance HQ a couple of times a month for a while.
Main class was full of fun stuff. First tech was from side control and was directed at me personally. I'm really good at getting my knee wedged in from bottom of side and getting guard back, so when someone frames on your neck and pushes and drives that knee in, you reach under their arm to the back of their head like you're going for a darce, then step over their head with your top leg and then back step so that you are in side control on the opposite side, ideally with their arm tied up and them unable to turn into you.
Second tech, you wedge the opponents near arm down away from their neck a bit with your body, then push the far arm down a bit (We found that it was equally useful to fake a kimura attempt since it put both of your arms in the right place anyways and kept your opponents mind off of the next step) then wrap your arm back around under your opponents head like you are setting up for a guillotine. Move from side control to north/south, wedging your lat into the opponents neck, then slide down as far as you can, make a fist with your bottom arm, grab it and squeeze everything together. If it doesn't work it usually means you just need to slide further down.
Third tech was an alliance special. Ian McPherson uses this one and variants on it all the time. You are performing the second tech, but your opponent catches on and interposes his arm so that you can't lock your hands up to finish the choke and you can't slide down far enough to get any more pressure. So you grab the tricep of the interposing arm with your free hand (The one not under the opponents head) and move back towards side control, keeping that arm tight. Next you sit out and put your leg across your opponents stomach. At the same time stay locked around their head until you are secure and ready to finish. Next switch to a heel hook style grip on their elbow and lean back and arch your hips. Puts a ton of pressure on the shoulder really quickly. We did a couple of variations of that one, then went to drilling a bit.
Started with one player in side control, I pulled off the Americana from bottom of side control that Zapruder showed me a while back, ended up finishing it in bottom of guard as a half wristlock. The look of utter amazement as the guy tapped to it was priceless, but it's only good one time really. The same guy managed a REALLY nice reversal to my back a little later. Just pulled a move I completely didn't expect from him. After a bit of escaping and subbing folks we switched to rolling at which point I grouped up with Anthony and Kris and went on a No-Gi rampage.
Somewhere in the last couple of months with my improved top game and my increasingly dynamic guard game I've gotten over being gunshy about truly attempting submissions. I had no worries about getting passed if the sub failed, or anything like that. I just dug in, tossed them up, and worked the combos. I ended up landing a stupid quantity of subs in this class whereas normally I've just been working position recently and only taking subs as they appeared. This time around I was making the subs happen. I feel like I've taken another step up in my game and I have very high hopes regarding getting my purple belt this year. Especially if I can get out to Alliance HQ a couple of times a month for a while.
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