Wednesday Class 5/7/2008

Another big class yesterday. The school is growing so fast!

We worked on strategies and techniques from guard that will help when a wrestler is stalling. You know, when someone's in your closed guard and they're tired or maybe don't want to worry about passing. They've got their head buried in your sternum, and are either pinning your hips to the mat or maybe are blocking your arms.

The gist of the drills, and the overriding principle that Coach seemed to emphasize was to think about what you have free, rather than on what's trapped. If he's pinning my hips, that means my arms are free to push on his head and create room to shrimp out and get something going. If he's pinning my arms, then my hips are free to shrimp out. Either way, the idea is that if I'm trapped under a guy who's stalling, for whatever reason, it becomes up to me to push the action. In a match, this might mean the difference between a lame 2-0 loss if you're taken down by a good wrestler and then just held there because he's worried about trying to pass guard.

We then did a guard passing drill where one guy gets into any sort of guard position they want, and you try to pass. Then we sparred. I did pretty well. Nothing spectacular, although I'm happy to have passed Josh's guard once (and got swept once, too).

I felt really good after class, and am looking forward to class tomorrow night. As an aside, I went and had a 1 hour massage at the Everest Massage School (formerly Ashmead). I am a huge fan of massage, and can't believe it's been months since my last one. I'm going to go back to trying to get one monthly, and am totally sold on continuing at the clinic. The price ($30/hour) is very reasonable, the massages are consistently good and I don't get any of the fru-fru stuff that, quite frankly, makes me uncomfortable.

Sunday Class 05/04/08

Made it in for Sunday's class. It was a beautiful day in the Seattle area, one of the first this year. We've received more than our share of rain for the year already. Yuck. Yesterday, the sun was out. It was warm and coach had the big garage doors all the way open for the first time this year.

We worked triangle choke defense yesterday. After each tournament, Coach usually sees something that many of the competitors could do better, and I guess a lot of the guys were having trouble with the triangle choke. I'll go through the two big ones I know, including what we've drilled recently in class. For the purposes of the descriptions below, my right arm is caught inside the triangle choke; left arm isolated outside.

The first defense against a triangle choke is to prevent getting caught in one. As soon as I sense an arm is isolated and my opponent raises his hips, I'm going to posture up nice and high to remove his angle and put some pressure on his ankles, making it difficult for him to break me down and secure the choke. The second thing I'm going to do is take my right arm (the one inside the choke), bring my elbow back to block his leg from swinging around to an armbar, and also to keep him from being able to turn his hips. My right hand will be in nice and tight, again to keep him from transitioning to an armbar, and also to put more pressure on his ankles. Next thing to do is decide whether to attempt to pass or to get my outside arm back in and reset in his guard. If I catch the triangle attempt early enough, I can pass to the left side (the side with the arm outside the choke). To do this, I'm going to take that outside arm and in an explosive motion, drive it to the mat next to my opponent's hip (far side). I'll also, in the same motion, turn my hips all the way over, so that I'm now facing his feet. From here, I can swim my arm back over and move into side mount, or do whatever I want.

The second defense is more of an "in time" defense. The choke isn't completely locked down, but it's closer, and I'm not able to posture up as easily. I'm going to do everything the same up to the point where my right hand is in tight against his knee, and my elbow is driving back to block his left hip from swinging out. This time, because it's a little tighter, I'm probably not going to be able to break his legs open swinging my left arm over. Just too tight. So, instead, I'm going to take a little step back with my left arm and drive his knee to the mat. I'm going to keep pressure on his knee with my right arm as I turn once again so that I'm facing his feet. At this point, he may attempt to transition to an omoplata. To prevent this, I need to keep my arm locked out until I'm ready to swim it over for side control, or transition to something else. Main thing, once again, is that I should be out of danger from the triangle choke.

Steve Cooks #3: Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bars

Welcome to another exciting entry in Steve Cooks, where I work on recipes related to general health and fitness. Yesterday, I went back into the lab... err... kitchen for yet another attempt at a high energy, protein bar. To recap, I'm trying to make a bar that is relatively low on carbs, very low in fat and high in protein. I am not in any way advocating a low carb diet. This is less like the South Beach and more of... let's call it the South King County Diet. Down here in South King County, we like carbs. Of course, most of those carbs are from onion rings, steak fries and beer, but what are you gonna do?

I am trying to create something that is relatively cheap to make, holds well in the fridge (at least 2 weeks), tastes pretty good and has a decent, palatable texture. So, I'm avoiding ingredients like milk and eggs to increase the shelf life. I'm also trying as much as I can to avoid anything with a scientific sounding name. I'd like to be able to identify the ingredient as food without pulling out a chemistry book.

Before I get into the actual recipe, I thought it might be interesting to provide a little insight into the creative process. Basically, I'm a cook, not a baker. A baker, as I've learned over the years, is careful and meticulous. In order to bake something delicious more than once, you have to measure things precisely. Cooking, on the other hand, is more about pinches of this and smidgens of that.

So, when I'm making these recipes, it's really about mixing the ingredients until I get a good vibe, scratching down how much of each as I go and fiddling until it "looks about right." It's like having my childhood chemistry set back... except nobody calls poison control when I take a bite of this stuff.

Because my mom used to freak.

So, without further ado, here's the latest expirement:

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Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bars

3 Cups Rolled Oats
2 1/2 Cups Whey Protein Concentrate
1 Cup Raisins
2 Tbs Cinnamon
2 Cups Natural Applesauce
1 Cups Apple Juice
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbs Agave Nectar

Once again, I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another and then added the wet to the dry. Mix up into a batter and bake in a 9"x13" baking dish at 325F for about 35 minutes.

The texture of this bar was a little more cakey than the last, which I liked even better. It's a bit dense, which makes me wonder if I should add a teaspoon of baking powder to the mix next time.

I really liked the flavor. Using the Whey Protein Concentrate in lieu of the Chocolate Protein Mix was a good move, and allowed me to use the cinnamon and the vanilla for flavor. I brought the batch to work and my guinea pigs... err... coworkers gave me rave reviews on this one. Overall, I would call this recipe an unqualified success and am going to add this one to the recipe file.

Ratings (out of a possible 5 *'s)
Nutrition: ***1/2
Texture:*** 1/2
Flavor: ****1/2
Ease of Prep: ****

Overall: ****1/2

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One last thing. I've been working toward getting the carbs down around 10 grams and the protein up in the 20 gram area. This might be an unrealistic goal. I looked at the nutritional information for some of the more popular, commercial bars on the market and found that I'm actually doing pretty well. This recipe ended up with even more carbs than the last, at about 36 grams of Carbs per bar, but the protein jumped up to 16 grams per bar. But it's a much better product, I think. I'm still going to work on shaving carbs from the recipe, but most of the carbs in this recipe come from the raisins and the oatmeal. Roughly 2/3rds of the carbs are from fiber, and 1/3rd from sugars. The sugars are natural, from the agave nectar and the raisins, so not all bad.

Below are some comparisons:

My Delicous Oatmeal Bar ofWholesome Goodness

• 16 g Protein
• 36 g Carbs
• 1 g Fat
• 233 Calories

PowerbarProteinPlus Bar:

• 23 g Protein
• 37 g Carbs
• 6 g Fat
• 290 Calories

Powerbar Oatmeal/Raisin Performance bar:

• 9 g Protein
• 44 g Carbs
• 2 g Fat
• 230 Calories

Organic Food Bars(Omega-3 Flax):

• 10 g Protein
• 31 g Carbs
• 16 g Fat
• 310 Calories

So, there ya go. I'm right in there, and my bars are about half the price. In future recipes, I'm going to work in some different ingredients. Wheat germ has a lot of protein vs carbs and I'm going to see what soy protein tastes like in lieu of whey protein. The soy protein has a lot more protein per serving than the whey and costs about $9/lbs (as opposed to the Whey Protein Concentrate at $15/lbs).

As always, this is a work in progress and there's no ego involved. If you make them and don't like them, let me know. Even better, let me know what you would do to make them better. I've received a lot of email and have tons of ideas for future recipes as a result. Of course, like most people, I thrive on positive feedback, so if you DO like them, I'd like to hear about that, too!

Redbelt Update

I've mentioned before that I'm looking forward to the release of David Mamet's newest movie, Redbelt.

The movie opens this weekend in LA and New York, and in wide release on May 9th. This is a good thing, because, while this is a movie I'm really looking forward to, a choice between Redbelt and Iron Man is really no choice at all.

What I've been curious about is how well this movie will play with the general public, and that remains to be seen. Early reviews are actually pretty favorable for a niche film like this. As of this writing, Rottentomatoes has it at 57% with 23 reviews. Not stellar, but a hell of a lot better than Catwoman! Fandango's review was positive if not a rave and the fan rating is currently at 3.8 out of 5.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised, even if I'm still not expecting this movie to gross over $30 mil. I'd be very impressed if it breaks the $50 million mark. I guess whether it's a success with the viewers remains to be seen.

Sunday BJJ 04/27/08

Sunday, we worked on transitioning from Knee on Belly to what we'll call Knee on Face. I also learned a slick head/arm choke from side control that Jeremy taught me.

The positional drills we did focused on starting in side control, controlling by gripping under my opponent's head with a thumb inside the lapel. This is a good grip to keep my opponent from turning into me. If he tries to turn in, I simply straighten out my arm. My other arm grabs down by his leg. From here, I bring both knees up tight to his body, then pop up into knee on belly.

Once I'm in a good position, I'll work to control his arm. My goal in this drill was to eventually take the armbar. So, I'll work to pull his arm up high. A common reaction to having someone put all their weight on your gut is to try and turn in. As my opponent does this, I'll keep both of my grips (on his sleeve and on his pant leg), turn and put my other knee on his jaw, the idea being to turn his face away from me. At this point, I can move back to Knee on Belly, or often take the arm as he focuses more on the pressure on his head then on protecting the arm from an armbar.

The choke Jeremy showed me is one I can definitely use. It works like this, starting in side control (my right arm is head side and my left is hip side):

1. Bring my right knee up, isolating his left arm on top of my thigh. I might need to sit out into a scarf hold position, and then up into side control in order to do this. Getting this arm high on my thigh is critical to the choke.
   
2. Move my arms to the other side of his body. I need to stay tight, clamping him down with my elbows on one side and my knees on the other. Jeremy recommended camping out here for a few moments, waiting until my opponent decides to stop struggling.
3. With my right arm, reach back under his body aiming for in between my own legs. I want my bicep as tight against his neck as possible.
4. Drop my hips all the way to the mat. I need to get them all the way down or that arm I isolated will sneak back inside and I'll lose the submission.
5. Reach under with my left arm, securing either a gable or "S" grip.
6. And finish by bringing my head to the mat next to my left arm, moving my legs toward the north/south direction.

This choke gets really tight, and as long as each position is clamped down, it's a very methodical technique.

Awesome video

I don't know who this is, but he was enthusiastic:




One of the funniest things I've seen lately.

Steve Cooks #2: Oatmeal Flapjacks

Part of being healthy is eating well. Part of being alive in the world right now is having less time to prepare meals. Stupid world.

As I mentioned in my first installment of Steve Cooks, I'm looking for good, healthy alternatives to store bought protein bars. I started with a reasonably good recipe, but wasn't happy with the taste. It was too sweet for me, and a little bland. Not bad, by any means, but not great. So, I'm working on other recipes.

This go around, I started with a recipe from the UK. A very nice lady named Lou who trains in Kung Fu and more recently MMA posted her recipe for flapjacks. Now, here's the funny part. Brits don't speak English either. Turns out, if you've spent any amount of time corresponding with Brits, they talk funny, and any comments they make about Americans butchering the Queen's English must be made tongue firmly in cheek. Case in point, flapjack. Any American understands that a flapjack is a big pancake. Seriously. EVERYBODY knows this. Sheesh! Turns out, in the UK, a flapjack is like a big cookie bar or something.

Here's her original recipe:

125g butter
300g oats
3 tbsps honey
50g raisins/sultanas
140g brown sugar
50g sesame seeds
50g sunflower seeds
flax seeds (I sprinkle them on top)

Heat the butter,sugar and honey in a pan. When melted,add the other ingredients and place in a baking tray.Cook at 180C for about 15 minutes.

The first difficulty I ran into was conversion. I don't speak metric. So, imagine my surprise when I started converting the recipe above into a scale that I understand. Holy moly! We're talking over a stick of butter. Dayum!

I made a batch of these and I have to say, they're DELICIOUS. But, they don't do the job if I'm trying to put together a protein bar. If you look, there's very little protein in this recipe at all. They tasted awesome, and if the intent is to have something that will stick to the ribs, the oats in this will do that job well.

Here's what I did. Using Lou's recipe as a base, I made some substitutions for ingredients that I have on hand, are better suited for a lower carb/higher protein bar or I just like better.

After doing some conversions, and some substitutions for ingredients that I prefer, I ended up with something like this:

Oatmeal Flapjacks a la Steve

1 Cup natural applesauce (substitute for the shortening/butter)
1 Cup applejuice (to add a little more liquid to the mix)
3 Cups rolled oats
1/4 Cup dried cherries
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs flax seeds (ground)
4 scoops chocolate protein mix
3 tbs agave nectar

I mixed the dry ingredients up in one bowl and the wet in another, then mixed them all together and baked them in a 9x13 pan at 325F for 40 minutes.

I ended up with 12 bars. According to my math, they have about 211 calories each, 22g carbs and 12g protein per bar. Not too bad, although I'd like to reverse the carbs to protein. I substituted Natural Applesauce for the Butter in the original recipe. I also switched cherries for the raisins, just because I had them on hand.

The other main substitution was to use Agave Nectar in lieu of honey. Agave Nectar is delicious and can be used as a substitute for any kind of sugar, honey or other sweetener. I heard about it from a friend who is a vegan. I guess vegans love it because it's good and isn't an animal derivative like honey. All I know is that it's good in just about anything, including oatmeal.

I added some of the protein mix, as well, to provide some needed protein to the recipe.

The bars are delicious, in my opinion. They're thin, almost like an oatmeal cookie, crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. They're also quite sweet, but it's not the maple syrup sweetness of my last bars. These are, again, more like a cookie. Still, they could be less sweet and just as tasty.

I really like this recipe and plan to tweak it. I want to bump up the protein content in the cookie, and reduce some of the carbs. As I said, if I could get 15 grams of Protein and around 10 or so grams of Carbs per bar, I'd be happy. I'm not too worried about these carbs as they are mostly derived from the Rolled Oats, but it's the carbs from the brown sugar, agave nectar and other sugars that I'd like to minimize.

So, next time I make this, I'm going to add some protein from whey concentrate, reduce the amount of brown sugar to 1/4 cup, and back off of the agave nectar a little as well. I'm also going to use dried cranberries instead of cherries. This will help reduce the sugar amount, as well, but still provide a little texture.

Finally, the plate shot with the garnish is for Linda. My kids read your comments on my last recipe and gave me all sorts of hell for not considering presentation. My daughter said (I kid you not), "You know, Dad. Presentation is half the meal."

Ratings (out of 5 stars):

Texture: *****
Flavor: ****
Ease of Prep: ****
Nutrition: ***

Overall: ****

If you give these a try or have any other suggestions, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.