At least I'm making one class in June....

So after missing almost the entire month of June I'm going to class tonight for the two hour monday class. I've had a hell of a month at work but I made a lot of money off of it, so I can't complain too much.
I've been able to start lifting weights again and worked out with Johnny a few times. He's dropped 40lbs since we started working out together and is now at 195lbs. He's planning on staying there until after Casca Grossa on the 19th, then dropping down to 185 as his final weight. Considering how he manhandled the guys at 225 I can't imagine what kind of path of destruction he's going to wreak at 185.
Working with him has kept me from completely deteriorating during my down time, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to class. Follow up post later tonight.

Attacks from the top of Side Control

I made it to the Monday and Thursday classes this week, whoot.
We've been working attacks from the top of Side Control all week, which is something I need a lot of practice with.
Adam laid out a five point guide for it:
1. Control the Upper body
2. Control the Hips
3. Kill the near arm
4. Attack the far arm
5. Stay mobile (I think this was the 5th one...)

I can do 1, 2, and 3 pretty damn well. I was able to hold down pretty much everyone I could get side control on. However the second I start attacking the farm arm I either free up their hips or their head and they escape. I need to figure out how to attack that arm without losing pressure.

Monday rolling was all from halfguard, I was making my sweeps work pretty well and even escaped from George when he got sloppy armbarring me.
Today we went live for the last 20 minutes of class, which is always fun. I rolled w/ Ralph for a while and we scrambled back and forth w/ sweeps and escapes. He triangled me and his legs are too short for Mikey's ankle lock escape to work, so I tapped. He also arm triangled me very very smoothly and RNCed me. I armbarred him, couldn't finish it, so did the foot across the forearm deal which he tapped to. I then found out that bicep splicers are frowned upon in the gym and so will no longer be using them.
I then rolled with some tall guy with a bunch of tattoos on his right arm. No idea what his name was, but he was pretty good. I defended well but he was able to Kimura me once and RNC me once as I recall. The mats were really slippery so mobility was pretty hard. Was some good rolls though.

NAGA Wrapup

I've been too lazy to update the blog, but I've finally gotten motivated to do it.
Our trip to NAGA was awesome. Johnny destroyed his division and took 1st place. I absolutely dominated my first opponent, got double underhooks standing and secure a nice bodylock, then picked him up and slammed the crap out of him. He fought his way back to standing and I tripped him down and landed in his guard. From there I postured up and dug my hands into the space under his lower ribs and let him wear himself out a bit, then I passed his guard, ended up in mount, got the "Who's Your Daddy?" choke but couldn't finish it, rolled back and put a triangle on him couldn't finish it, swept him and sat on the mounted triangle, still couldn't finish it. The guy was seriously game. I crushed him on points and looked good doing it.
After that match I couldn't even muster the strength to open my water bottle my grip was so blown. My cardio was fine, I wasn't really TIRED and my legs were fine, but my forearms were gone. My second match I need not describe since I got video of it, but I lost 6 to 3. Still had some good sweeps and escapes, but in the end he just had more strength/energy than I did.
The other guy who went with us, Ronnie, had his match at the same time Johnny had his finals match, I was busy coaching Johnny and didn't even know Ronnie was on the mats, so he lost on points basically because he had no direction. I'm proud of him though, it's the first competition of any kind he's ever been to.
Ronnie is now heading off for 3 months of Army Training, and Johnny is about to graduate with his Accounting degree. As soon as he gets employment he's coming up to Hardcore to sign up, he's also dropping down to 200, he's gonna be a monster at that weight.

I took a week off from class after NAGA while I tried to get my nutrition in order. I'm eatting better and have almost fixed my iron deficiency which was giving me problems previously. I'm also spend more time working on the Rower since my cardio is still crappy and I'm working on grip training.
I'm heading to class tonight for the two hour monday class. I'm going to try to roll 100% the entire time if I can.

Oh, Videos are:
My second match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2070345299862448585&hl=en
Johnny's first match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5683987099192848018&hl=en
Johnny's Second Match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4403537939271475905&hl=en
Johnny's Third Match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcrpHw2mzis
Ronnie's Match: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4667472277371957823&hl=en

I'm too lazy to make them all links right now.

Wait... why am I driving home? Did class end...oooh...

So, awesome day for me at class yesterday. Another day heavy with rolling. First up I got to roll w/ Chad, who is one of the instructors and just plain awesome. We were going light, so he didn't murder me completely. For the first 15 minutes I was actually able to fend him off, caught an achilles lock and even managed to pass his guard to side control for a few seconds. We took a break for a couple of minutes and then started again. I managed to surprise him and get mount, ok well, what really happened was I surprised him, was going to get mount, then thought "No way is this going to work on Chad." and bailed to guard. He told me I should have kept going and gave me mount anyways. So semi legit. It lasted for all of 4 seconds, but still. I managed to pass to side control again after he showed me what I was doing wrong with my weight, gotta remember to keep my hips DOWN when I'm pinning the leg to pass. I got flipped over like a dozen times before Chad showed wtf I was doing wrong. After that it was straight to Kimura town from under side control about a dozen times. I would push him up to escape, but I wasn't getting my shoulders and head up, so he would just step over to headmount and take my arm. I need to remember to get up OFF the mat if I'm going to put my hands in his armpit and push. I also need to keep constant pressure on it.

After the 20th or so kimura in a row we took a break and I moved over to the other side of the room to roll w/ "anyone who is not chad" for a little while. I ended up with TJ who I've rolled with before, but who is NOT the person I kept thinking he was. TJ != to super flexible guy who takes my back from the bottom of north south, side control, etc...
He's been doing this about the same amount of time as I have, but is a little stronger. He had essentially no defense against the situp sweep, so I hit it relentlessly. He was good at getting out from under mount though and even when I could hold it I wasn't able to isolate an arm to finish him.
When he did pass my guard I frequently tied him up in half guard until he pushed all of his weight up onto me, then swept him over to side control. One of those times he reguarded and caught me in a triangle, which I defended for a while before he finally pulled my head down to get the tap. A little while after that he managed to pass to side control with a VERY tight arm triangle. As I was thinking "This is really tight, don't think I can fight out of it, I should tap..." I suddenly was driving home. I began to think, "Wait, why am I driving home? Did class end...?" Then I woke up on the mat. That's the first time I've been choked out.
No ill effects though, we went back to rolling and I continued to sweep him mercilessly and eventually caught him in a triangle and was able to finish it.

His sub defense is really good, but he has absolutely no defense against that situp sweep.

So, fun times. More or less held my own against Chad, got choked out by TJ. Funtimes.

I love JOOJITZU!

I made it to the monday 2 hour class yesterday. Adam is recovering from a nasty fever he got over the weekend so Rory was teaching today. We started out playing some open guard practicing passing, which I desperately need. I figured out a better way to open the guard using the bottom of the ribs to push up which helped, but I'm still having a hard time pinning a leg down without just getting shoved over. I did hit a cartwheel pass, which was fun. After that Rory answered questions from people about any problems they were having with passing or stopping the pass. The guy I had been rolling with asked about avoiding getting pulled into halfguard and Rory showed him how to hide the leg that is in the ground and use it to pin down the leg you are passing over so that your opponent never gets an opportunity to grab it. We rolled for a couple of minutes with that in mind and he did a lot better at not letting me pull halfguard while he was passing. Another round of questions about what to do if your opponent is shoving your head to the side and stuffing your pass attempts and what to do if you are in combat base but can't get tight enough to pass.
Answers: Get higher on their body to make it harder form them to push the head, make sure you block their hips with your elbows to kill their leverage. If you can't get tight from combat base stand up and do a standing pass (I like the cartwheel from there.).

We then rolled live starting from guard. Top man had to pass, bottom man had to sweep or submit while stopping the pass. I had fun working rubber guard and trying to nail the Omo/Gog/Triangle combo.
I was able to hit a very nice Omoplata when my opponent stuffed my leg and tried to pass over it, I hooked his far leg and slapped on the Omo anyways, he couldn't roll out of it and I tapped him. After that I rolled with a few more people and did fairly well. My halfguard/lockdown is really tight and I was giving people fits trying to pass. I do keep getting stuck in Darce attempts while trying to go out the back or hit Old school from halfguard though. I think a big part of the problem is that I'm being too lazy with my underhook from halfguard and leaving too much space. I need to work on that. The good part is I've gotten so good at defending the Darce that I can sit in it for 5 minutes without being in much danger.

11 more days to NAGA. I'ma win my division this time.

1 class a week, better than nothing....

I made it to class on Thursday and it was a "Brazil Night" just pair up and roll. I rolled w/ Ralph and a guy whose name I keep forgetting, but his older brother works for one of my clients. Anyways, This guy usually wrecks me in short order, but I held him off and was nailing my sweeps like mad. He caught me in one heel hook when I escaped an armbar attempt, and I had him locked into a triangle, but he's really really really good at riding those out, so instead of fighting like a mad man and maybe getting it I was content to get it locked in and then let it go. I also managed to spend like 5 minutes in mount before finally getting frustrated and throwing a sloppy armbar attempt which was easily countered.
Ralph was rollin' light be not letting me hit anything and again my sweeps were on point. He caught me with an armbar, I caught him with a achilles lock, he caught me with an RNC, I caught him with a modifed triangle. I was actually really proud of the triangle modification I used.
I locked on the triangle, then when he tried to posture up I put my right arm behind his head and locked in a good grip on my left arm and pulled him down. When he went for the dive bomber escape to my right (the correct direction and everything) I was able to use the my arms to trap him in a version of the triangle that used my forearm on one side and my leg on the other to finish.
After a bit of a break me and Ralph picked at each other a bit and he said he was gonna choke me out this time, I bet him he couldn't and we got started, after a brief flurry we had to move to the other side of the gym, after the restart he ended up taking my back, but couldn't finish me before we had to stop. Moral victory for me.
I'm psyched about NAGA, my two friends that I workout with on Friday's have decided to go compete just to see what it's like, they'll be in the novice division. I expect Johnny to do REALLY well, but I'm not so sure about Ronny, he has no competition experience at all really and I expect him to adrenaline dump in his first match and gas out, but his cardio is ungodly, so he might be able to fight his way through it.

Fun times!

I ended up being a little late to class and missed the warmup drills, but I then we started rolling. Standard deal, 6 groups of 2 with 2-3 people rotating in as people got subbed. It's been a while so I mostly remember a lot of getting mauled by Ralph's smooth setups. Was generally just fun, I don't remember many specifics but things seemed to be working pretty good. I did manage to armbar a guy. I think he was only 180ish but it took every bit of strength I could get to straighten his arm out. I also made some of the halfguard escapes and side control escapes from the last class work, which made me feel good. I'll be back in class tommorow and hopefully we'll work guard passing. That's still the worst part of my game by a good margin.

More half-guard of DOOM

I made it to a two hour class on Monday, which was awesome. Did some cross side escapes, a couple I had never worked before and FINALLY the one with the hand in the armpit that everyone kept using on me. I really like that one and I want to work on it some more. Also did some mount escapes, the same ones I'm familiar with, though I learned a couple of new tricks about the elbow-knee escape to help me with the larger people.
Unfortunately after working all of those non-halfguard related escapes we spent the next hour rolling live from halfguard. I did a million times better this time. I was able to avoid the darce by posturing "Up", instead of crunching my head down while going for the leg. I even got a couple of sweeps and managed to pass a couple of times. Rolled a little with Ralph and he's now lightyears beyond me, that boys work ethic is incomparable. I hope he goes to NAGA in May, he'll almost certainly win the beginners division this time.
I rediscovered that my half-guard top game blows chunks. If I work really really really hard I can hold my opponent down and do nothing. As soon as I make a pass attempt though it seems like I'm just getting tossed off and swept. I need to find a pass that works better for me than sitting out towards their feet and trying to work my leg free. I just don't seem to be able to quite pull it off. I guess maybe I could just practice that one a lot.....
I still feel like working with Johnny (235lb 4 year wrestler) has really helped my basics, keeping calm while being crushed and working out from under bigger guys. His top game is so strong and he's so explosive that I can almost never submit him, but I've managed to sweep him a few times and take his back. It's also helping me figure out what I can do vs stronger guys reliabley, which is a huge help. I'm hoping to make it to NAGA on May 10th, I'm also hoping to make Monday and Thursday classes every week until then. *fingers crossed*

Flying Omoplata FTW.

So with much joy and happiness I returned to class last night. It was a small class because everyone was downtown watching UFN and TUF which I will address in a bit. I did some light rolling with TJ who is super crazy flexible and fun to roll with, we went slow with half hearted submission attempts and it was a good way for me to get warmed up after being gone for a while. After that we did some basics, Arm Triangle from mount and Americana-Kimura-Armbar combo with a new variation on the armbar that I hadn't seen before. Instead of moving to the straight armbar when your opponent straightens out of the american attempt you scoop the arm up and spin to an armbar. A good refresher after being gone and a new nuance to a familiar technique. After that we got to roll, I took at easy at first because I didn't want to totally gas myself, I didn't try to force anything, just looked for subs where they might appear and spent my time defending. Frist roll was against a larger guy with curly hair whose name I can not remember. I ended up defending a bunch of americana attempts and holding him in my guard, I dropped a couple of triangles on him but he was able to posture up and power out each time. At some point he was able to pass my guard a few times, but nobody got subbed. After that I rolled with a wrestler, same kind of deal he would pass my guard, I would reguard, etc... He tried an armbar and I hitch-hikered out of it and passed to side, but he just shoved me off. Again, no subs. Just some fun. Then I rolled with a tall blond kid who I've rolled with before and whose name I also don't remember because I suck with names. He's got way less experience than I do and his long limbs are easy to trap. He's gotten a lot better though and was able to catch me in a guillotine, but not finish it. Then we rolled again and I threw a flying omoplata on him, which was sweet. After that I took a break for a few minutes and then rolled with the wrestler again. This time I wasn't worried about getting tired since it was the last few minutes of class, so I went more or less full out. After some gripfighting I pulled guard with an overhook and started working my omoplata/triangle combo. As he defended the triangle I pulled my foot over to go for the omo, he centered back up on me so I locked my hands on his head and wedged my shin into his throat for the Gogoplata, he managed to rip his arm free so I threw my leg over his head for the Triangle. After some fighting I got his hand out and had it cinched in, he swept himself trying to escape and I tightened the triangle up some more in mount before rolling back and to the side to finish it.

All in all I felt really good coming back. My time working out with my friends on fridays kept me from getting too rusty, and the fact that one of them is a 220lb wrestling standout has helped my game a lot against the bigger, more explosive wrestlers. I'm looking forward to class today as well.

I've also been reading Mastering the Twister and Mastering the Rubber Guard and watching Eddie Bravo vids. My Rubber Guard is a little stronger now than it was and I get the Omo a little more often, and it combos well with my current Omo/Gogo/Triangle combo that I'm favoring. It's no substitute for the solid basics, but it gives me some fun tricks to try.

Now on to UFN. I got home just in time to watch Bullshido poster boy Joe "J-Lau" Lauzon take on Kenny "I'm a raging Douchebag" Florian. In the early moments of the first round Lauzon ended up in Florian's guard and Florian proceded to spike him repeatedly in the back of the head with his elbow. J-Lau was bleeding profusely from the back of the head and got a minute or two to recover, he didn't seem to use much of his recovery time and jumped right back into the fight. He was actually able to take Florian down repeatedly and made several attempts to finish with heel hooks in the first round, unfortunately Florian, despite his douchebaggery, has mad JiuJitsu skillz and was able to fight him off every time. In the second round Florian finally got a takedown and was able to pass Joe's guard, after a brief struggle he got mount and started working Joe over. Joe gave it a good effort but just couldn't shake Florian off of mount and eventually the ref called it. Joe didn't look hurt and probably could have continued to defend until Florian punched himself into exhaustion, but that might have taken 20 minutes. A Good showing by both guys, it elevates Florian to the status of title contender with maybe one more win between him and a title shot. And the great showing against a BJJ blackbelt actually helped J-Lau's rep a little in my opinion, not as good as a win would have, but not bad either.

Transportation problems, I has them.

So a combination of work, transportation problems, and generaly insanity has kept me from class for the last month. It sucked hardcore. However I will be back training on Tuesday and Thursday this week, and back permanently towards the end of April when everything is all fixed up. I've been trying to stay in shape during the down time, but I'm fairly sure I'll gas in the first 20 minutes I'm back.... Ah well. I'm looking forward to being back on the mats!

OWwww my neck...

Well, class tonight was an hour worth of me getting tooled completely.
We started out from halfguard, I started in Ralph's halfguard and couldn't keep him flattened out. He balled up as soon as I tried to pass and from there it was just a matter of time before he swept me. I then got swept or passed about 19 more times by everyone.
Halfguard = 0/~20.

Then we did the back. First up I started with the guys back, hell I started with the RNC halfway on. No good, I couldn't finish it and after a minute or so he pried my arm off and started to turn to escape, I rolled into him and switched to mount, and he pretty much just threw me off of him. After that I spent 15 minutes fighting off RNC attempts. I managed to win one round via opponent boredom when he just got tired of cranking my head around and went to do something more interesting.
The Back = 1/~15.


Next up was butterfly guard w/ 2 underhooks. Half the people either just picked me up with their feet and dropped me on my side, or picked me up and pushed me over before I could do anything. The other half were slightly more forgiving in that I could at least TRY to pass their guard. I think I passed one persons guard. I was getting beat so fast from this that I didn't even get tired. I just kept moving from spot to spot.
Butterfly = 1/~25.

This is the first class I've been to where I felt like I didn't belong in it. Ralph has passed me completely since he goes to 2 classes/day 4 days/week and frequently makes it to friday and saturday classes. So everyone in the class is stronger than I am AND better. It makes for some very very frustrating times. I felt like I didn't learn anything in this class except that bigger people who are more experienced than I am can kick my ass. I didn't need to get my neck fucked up to learn that.

I'm hoping I will feel less frustrated after the 6:30 class tomorrow, but right now the whole endeavor feels pointless. I just don't see how a technique is going to work when a pre-requisite is always "control an arm" or "Control their head" or "Control their hips" and I can't control someone who can just fling me away one handed. More than once I've gotten into a position to armbar someone from my guard and they lock their arms up and stack me until I have to give it up and do something else, or even if I do get the sweep I have only a split second to finish the armbar or the just rip away from me and escape. I feel like everyone is powering out of every submission attempt I make. The only thing I ever seem to get to work is triangle from guard and that's usually a godawful battle to avoid being picked up, or having them step over my head. I have people standing up while I'm hooking their leg and pulling down with everything I can manage.
At this point I'm having a hard time seeing how I'm ever going to overcome the gap between me and any of these people. It's going to take me years just to overcome the size/strength gap with skill. The amount of skill I'm going to have to acquire in order to actually hold my own against any of them, much less beat any of them is pretty depressing.
I really hope I feel better after tomorrows class.

Knee is betta! YAY!

My knee is finally feeling 100% again, so I'm going back tonight to the 7:30 class. Whoot! While I was out of commission here I started up a new technology blog at http://www.techemperor.com that I'm using as a tech support blog. Development on that has been going pretty well.

I was happy see Frank Mir is back to his old self after a quick tooling of Brock Lesnar. Lesnar looked good for only having a year of training but his submission defense looked non-existent.

I'll have a real post up tonight after class.

Knee Injuries, I hates them!

I'm out for the rest of the week with a knee injury. It's been twinging ever since the 7:30 class on halfguard when someones shin dug into it, but my Dog smashed into my leg sunday night and it REALLY started to hurt. So now anything that's not a gentle walk hurts pretty bad. I'm wearinga knee brace and taking it light. Hopefully I can get back to things next week.

Open Mats: I love 'em!

Open Mats today, my favorite day. I came in and rolled with a dude whose name I SHOULD remember by now, but I never can. In the past he has been beating my ass pretty thoroughly, and that was not the case today. He was still a little ahead of me, but we were damn near even. Then I rolled with a newer guy who was pretty strong, it was mostly me fighting him off and looking for the sub, eventually I triangled him. After that I rolled with a new guy who was unbelievably strong. I came near to armbar and triangle and omoplata on him, but he eventually he tapped out due to gassing. Which doesn't surprise me. He spent like 8 minutes trying to hit the POWER AMERICANA on me with everything he had. Then yet another guy who wasn't as new as the first two, but was still fairly new at this point my legs were super tired so he was passing my guard pretty easy, eventually we got into a scramble and I got his back and worked an RNC and got the tap. It was fun, not particularly educational, but it let me try out the stuff I've been learning. I've gotten the hang of shoving the hand into the armpit to avoid getting stuck under side control, I've gotten a million times better at getting back to guard from under SC if they do get there, and I'm getting better at setting up submissions with technique instead of fighting with the POWER to try to lock them on. My top game still sucks though.

Feelin good about Casca Grossa. I'ma get me some more triangle choke victories.

All about HalfSideGuardControl Escapes

OK. Had a seriously good class on Side Control and Half Guard today. I'm mostly gonna be trying to write down the important points from Half Guard.

1. With Underhook + Arm Under Head: Switch the hips out so that I keep my under hook and deprive him of one. I will end up in sort of Twister side control version of half guard, back towards my opponents head, facing his legs. From there I can push his knee down and go to mount or side control.
*** DO NOT REACH BACK TO PUSH THE KNEE WHILE STAYING FLAT ON HIM!!!****

2. With both underhooks, or a more secure underhook and head, to pull the leg out sprawl out with the free leg, base on the knee, then bring your foot up to your butt and wedge your toes in. Use that as leverage to work your trapped leg free.

Working these two things should up my pass percentage IMMENSELY.

Most of what I got out of working side control again was that I'm pretty good at capitalizing on ANY mistake in weight management that my opponent makes. If the weight gets onto my hips I get the sweep. Popping up and snagging half guard is still pretty high percentage for me.
From the top I can hold side control pretty well, my weight management is getting better, but I still suck at finishing things from the top. About the only sub I can hit truly reliably on almost anyone is triangle from guard. Everything else turns into a strength contest with me pitting my entire body against my opponents arm or arms, and losing. I really need to work on being able to finish from the top.

No Escape, No Surrender!

Last night we worked escapes from under side control, under mount, and then worked from halfguard.
I paired up with Will who is a larger guy, but not super huge. When I work the escapes correctly they work. When I spaz out they don't pretty simple. I was higher percentage with knee and elbow to half guard than with bridge and roll. His arms were so long that I couldn't trap one well enough to roll him most of the time though I did pull it off when he tried to sub me and got his arms trapped. From side control I'm good at getting back to halfguard but still have trouble moving from halfguard back to full guard.
From on top of mount I can generally stay on top, though Will damn near subbed me from under mount with some kind of papercutter-esque choke. He probably could have pulled it off live, which would have been embarassing...
I improved some at halfguard, I was able to get some sweeps and fight off sub attempts. From halfguard top I learned the importance of keeping double underhooks. With them I was able to hold him down essentially for ever. Without them he escaped within moments.

At the end of class we worked some Butterfly guard, which is something I want to improve and I learned two things. Thing 1 is that I need to keep my head in front of my hips. Thing 2 is that I need to lock my arms higher up on my opponent, right under his shoulders to allow me to trap an arm when he tries to pummel.

Update: I found out Casca Grossa is the weekend after Superslam, so SCREW SUPERSLAM and their ghetto weightclasses. I'm doing CG instead.

ON UR MATS! CONTROLLIN UR SIDEZ!

We worked side control today, which is a position I needed a lot of work on. I was able to build on the improvements I had made when working the Kimura before. Some of the specific things to remember are:
1. Block the hips either with your arm or with your hip.
2. Isolate/Control the far arm.
3. Keep weight and pressure on your opponent by pushing forward with your toes.
4. Be ready and able to adjust your pressure based on what your opponent is doing.

While I was on the bottom I still felt like I was just too weak to deal with a lot of things. I ended up having the most success trying to bail out to the side. I did ok getting half guard. My biggest problem is that I'm not strong enough to keep my arms/elbows in tight. My opponent can control me with one hand and attack my arm with the other. Whereas when I'm on top I can have both arms, my head and my whole body weight on my opponents arm without prying it away from their side and getting it to the mat. My current strategy has been to try to wedge my knee under their body until they are turned away from me then try to take the back.
I'm still having insane amounts of trouble finishing subs from anywhere except guard. I don't think I've hit a sub from the top against anyone except the tall lanky kid who is even newer than I am and just as light.
Tomorrow at open mats I'm going to try to remember to ask someone about finishing the Darce from halfguard and the RNC... and hell, I may as well just as WTF is wrong with my top game and see what I get.
I did get some good sweeps which I'm proud of, I'm still good at sensing when my opponents weight is in a place where I can compromise their base and roll them. I really feel like I'm going to be stuck winning matches on points unless I'm fighting from my back though.

Pro Tip of the Day: Bottom of Side Control SUCKS, don't be there.

***********************************************************************************
Jenn's Corner:
So my fiance is a High School teacher and unfortunately the kids she teaches are about as smart as a bag of gravel. Their parents think the kids can do no wrong and insist that everything be made easier for them while at the same time complaining that the kids aren't learning anything. Most of the kids haven't had the math they need to take Chemistry, but they are in her class anyways. It drives her freaking nuts, and it drives ME nuts. Since fucking when do parents believe that it's the teachers job to remind their 15-17 year old kid to do his fucking homework? Isn't that the fucking parents job? Seriously. As a parent those fuckers need to be involved in making sure their kids are doing what they should be doing and not just dicking around all the time. PARENTS! It's YOUR FAULT that your kid is a fuckwit!

Winter Weather Advisory

I had to skip class tonight due to a snow storm blowing in around 5:30pm. My car can't handle any kind of ice on the roads. So I'm spending the time drinking hot chocolate and doing pushups while the vortex of ice rages above my fragile home.
With any luck it will be enough to shut down the schools so my better half gets the day off, but not enough to keep me from venturing forth to earn the proverbial bread.

Pro Tip of the Day: If you can't pull something off in a controlled setting you sure as hell can't pull it off when the shit hits the fan.

Day Off

Ran the stairs today, 5 laps with no break. Felt like my legs were going to fall off on the last half of lap 5. That weight vest gets heavier with every step...
I'm going to stick to 5 laps through this week and next week. Then move up to 6.

I'm taking the night off from BJJ tonight so that I can take both of the 7:30 classes this week. After that I'll probably be doing Mon-Tues, Thurs-Fri to give myself a midweek break.

Do WHAT for 30 minutes?!

Last night was my first night in the 7:30 grappling class. Murder would be a kind way to describe the class.
We spent 30 minutes paired off doing half guard. The top person worked to pass or submit the bottom guy, the bottom guy worked to regain full guard, sweep, or stand up. Once one of these things was accomplished the 'winner' stayed in and a new person started on the bottom.
I managed to sweep precisely twice from the bottom, regained full guard once that I remember, and escaped to my feet once that I remember. From the top I managed to pass a grand total of 3 times I believe. It might have been only 2.... To get an idea of how abysmal that is I probably did the drill about 20-25 times. I know the average rest period was under a minute. I learned more about half guard in those 30 minutes than I have in 3 months of the other class. I also learned that my half guard resolutions do make sense, but I need to work on them a LOT harder. I have the bad habit of sitting back on my heels when I get up to dogfight instead of driving into my opponent the entire time, I kept trying to get the WRONG butterfly hook in, and I still can't finish the Darce despite getting close on two attempts. When attempting to regain full guard my foot keeps getting caught on my opponents leg, then trapped. I feel like there must be a way to take advantage of this, but I can't think what it is. I want to just keep it as a butterfly hook and figure out how to sweep with it, but I've had little luck so far.
From the top it's generally just silly. I can't get past peoples legs, at all. My general recourse is to try to scoop both legs up together and work with that, but then most people immediately attack my neck or start taking my back. It feels like the things that are working to let other people pass my half guard aren't working to get me past theirs. I feel like I lack the bodyweight to put enough pressure on them to keep them from just shoving me around. This will require further thought and study.
After that we switched to live rolling in the same format, when one person got subbed a new person jumped in. The average rest time was a little higher for this at first, but as people got tired it dropped quickly. I ended up rolling probably 20 times. I got subbed a lot, a whole lot. And even when I could get a good position I couldn't finish anything. I have GOT to figure out how to finish people when I have their back, everyone just turtles up and waits for the chance to latch on to my arm and pull me off. I also have to quit playing the overhook game from the guard, I can't pull off the omoplata on anyone, and I'm not strong enough to push the arm out for the triangle setup. So, either I have to figure out a better way to manage the triangle setup or I have to change my game up completely.... figuring out how to hit an armbar either with the overhook or while fighting for the overhook would help. Honestly most of that 20 minutes is a blur punctuated by me tapping out.
After we drilled some armbars from top and bottom, then hip bump situps. I was literally SOAKED with sweat when I left. Last nights class definitely gets a 10/10 for awesomeness. It underscored a lot of the weak points I have, well the weakEST points since most of my game is still pretty weak. I think the hardest part is going to be figuring out what to concentrate on first. I want to improve everything all at once, but I know that won't happen. I think my halfguard resolutions are still a good place to work from, though perhaps I should leapfrog finishing people from mount and from the back above that. I still end up there often enough that I should be tapping people occasionally.

Running stairs today, goal is 5 laps with no break. If I pull that off I'll probably take a 30 second break and do another lap. Then class at 6:30. most excellent.