Friday Class

Class on Friday was a lot of fun. My brother, his girlfriend and my wife all showed up about halfway through class. I'm glad they got a chance to see what it is that I'm up to 2 or 3 days per week.

We had a really light warmup... presumably because Coach had a lot of stuff he wanted to go over. We started with some take down drills. I haven't done a lot with takedowns yet, so this was a blast. We started with the fit for a hip toss, then moved into the beginnings of a double leg takedown and finished with a basic sprawl.

The hip toss is set up a little differently than how I've learned it in the past. In this one, the grip is basic, with one hand on the lapel and the other on the collar near the neck. Step in and turn to form a V inside the opponent's feet, drop my hips and push out without really bending the back. This is very similar to the one-arm back throw that I learned.

The double leg takedown starts at about arms distance. Keys to this one are to step first with the lead leg. I'm guessing that this is to make it a quicker motion so that my opponent has less warning to sprawl. Then second key is to keep my head up and between his center line and his side. This will protect me from being guillotined all day long. The third key is to drive up and around, taking a leg high. Going straight forward may get me the takedown, but it will also put me right into guard. Going up and around should get me the takedown right into side control.

We then moved into a light free roll. I was paired up with a blue belt who was really good about working with me. I was primarily focusing on working from guard. What's funny about that is I would pull guard, start trying to work for either a sweep or a submission, and the blammo... he's in my half guard, and then pow... he's in mount. But I kept working, and even got a sweep or two of my own. One mistake that I was consistently making that I need to fix is that I was allowing him to get one of my arms to the outside and one to the inside. This is an invitation to triangle me. Now that I'm aware of that, I should be able to fix it.

During sparring, I worked on passing, and I tried to be a little more assertive with submissions. This worked well in the first round, where I took half guard, moved into side control and actually pulled off a key lock from both side control and mount. I was focusing on a couple of details. First, in side control, I focused on blocking his hips with my arm as well as my leg. When he's shrimp out to make space, I just popped my arm down to block. This is something that I've been consistently forgetting, but oh man, did it make a difference.

Another detail that really helped with the keylock/Americana from side control was to trap his other leg. I was in side control on his right side. My right leg was blocking his hip. I trapped his right arm under my left leg so that I could isolate his left arm. This didn't give me a lot of time, but it was enough to do the job.

In the second go, I was paired up with the same guy I sparred with on Wednesday, and he began trying to work the same sweep (just a simple sweep from guard). I feel like I had pretty good base but I couldn't figure out what to do with his leg. He had a knack for planting that sucker right into my chest or stomach and I couldn't get around it. So, one of the blue belts in the class gave me a hand. The piece of the puzzle I was missing was to control the leg at the knee (grab fabric or whatever) and then drive that down to the floor with my elbow taking his ankle at the same time. This should drive both of his legs together so that I can then move around into side control. I think I moved to the wrong side, making it much harder than it needed to be, but it worked. I may be wrong, but I think I heard Coach saying, "Now move to the right... the right...." And then I moved around to the left. Ah well. I got the leg down. I'll go around the correct side next time.

I didn't make it out of the class unscathed. I did something to my jaw. I was a triangle magnet all evening, and while I was able to get out of most of them using the counter we learned last week, a few were in pretty deep. I'm thinking that one of these popped my jaw a little bit. It's not terrible... more of an annoyance. Didn't keep me from eating dinner yesterday, so there's no danger of starvation. Phew.

I'm out on Sunday. I'll be in Chicago, so no class for me. Have fun and I'll be back on Wednesday.

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Check out their commercial posted to youtube:

Wednesday's Class

Working on fundamentals of mount reversal and defense. It looks like drilling is becoming a big part of our warm-ups, and I'm pretty happy about it. There are a few that are getting easier, and a few that are just murder. In one drill, we control the top guys arms, then balance him on our feet at the hips and basically leg press him. I didn't do as well on that one. But I'm getting better at the armbar and kimura drills, and overall, these drills make for a pretty good warm-up.

Technique yesterday was, as I said before, fundamentals of mount reversal and defense. We've done this before, but Coach says that a lot of us are still making some very basic mistakes. The first technique was a way to regain at least half-guard and ideally full guard. First, things I do wrong and should never do again: never extend my arms to push the top guy away. Keep my arms in until my opponent is distracted. This protects my arms and also keeps my arms/hands in a position to protect my neck. So, the first thing to do is bump strong. This will push my opponent forward and give them something else to think about for a moment. So at that point only I will move my hands… while he's thinking about reestablishing base from the bump.

So, after making my opponent think about something else, I'll move my hands down to his hips and shrimp out to pull half guard, then shrimp out the other way to make room to get back into full guard. We worked specifically on a situation where you try to shrimp out and make room, but your opponent has good base and doesn't give you any space. So, if I'm on the bottom and mounted, I'll shrimp up onto my left side, pushing on my opponent's right hip to make room. He's not budging, so at this point, I can move my left leg back and out of the way. This allows me to hook his right leg with my own right leg and draw it back. At this point, I've got a handle on his right ankle, so I shrimp out the other way, and at the same time push his knee back and down and get my underhook so that I have half-guard… and then bring my right leg through for full guard… or work from half guard or whatever.

A variation was for those times when you've got the ankle hooked in and you shrimp out to your other side but don't get that leg pushed through. If he's based up on that right leg, Coach pointed out that it actually gives me a lot of room to bring my other leg through and get back to full guard.

The second technique was to bump up and at the top of the bump to basically hold my opponent up and bring my legs through into butterfly guard. We worked on this one a few months ago and it's pretty slick when it works. The problems I run into are in bumping the guy high enough to get him to lose his base. When my partner started applying resistance, he was easily able to hook under my own hips as I bumped him, making it impossible to get any sort of a press. It became his leg strength against my arm strength, and I'm not going to win that one. I've tried this move from time to time in sparring, but I think it's definitely a matter of surprise. I've had a lot more success with a few other sweeps we learned, where you bump and then trap an arm and leg, bridge up and roll to that side. To get this to work, I've found that I often have to bump, then trap and move one direction and then quickly go to the other side. This works great if I can actually control both of my opponents arms.

Big class, so I only got one round of sparring in. But it was fun. I tried to work on passing guard and I felt pretty good about my guillotine defense. The guy I was sparring was another white belt. He got the initial fit for the guillotine, but I immediately moved to control his arm and got my left arm up and over his shoulder to make some space to breathe. I worked around into side control, like we were taught a few months back. At this point, I think he made the mistake of trying to force the choke. Once I was in side control, I just tried to relax and tell myself that no matter how hard he tries, he can't choke me from here. So, I kept my knee up close to his hip so he couldn't get half guard back, and let him get tired. After that I thought I'd try and get knee on belly control. Well, I got it… for about 2 seconds. Anyway, it was a productive 5 minutes of sparring. I got into trouble a couple of times, but worked my way out. I controlled his legs to pass, kept good base and didn't get swept. All in all, I felt pretty good about it.

Sunday Class

Well, yesterday was the very last class for one of our guys. I mentioned him in Friday's post, too, but today was his very last class. As I said before, he was extremely well liked and will be missed. So, to send him off, in lieu of sparring at the end of class, everyone lined up and took a minute with him. I think there were 16 of us and it went in ranking order, so by the time he got down to the end of the line with me he'd been thoroughly abused. I'll say this, though, he kept going the entire time.

The rest of class was drills. It was great. We did drills to warm up and then worked with limited sparring drills. The first was a drill where the guy on the bottom tried to either sweep or submit the guy on top, while the guy on top tried to pass guard. The second drill was similar but was a half-guard drill. The third one was mount and we finished with back control. I did better on some than on others. A few times, I was "out" very quickly. Ah well.

Just Joined New Online Training Site

Jean Jacques Machado's online training (http://www.jeanjacquesmachado.com/onlinetraining) was recommended by my coach. He mentioned in class that he had contributed some technique videos to the site and praised it highly as a resource for learning BJJ. It's $25/mo.

I signed up today and have been looking around, and now I'm on overload. There are something like 475 techniques detailed on video, and they're easily sorted using the TAP system. Anyway, it looks very cool, and I'm looking forward to really getting a chance to explore what's there.

Friday Class

I'm very tired today, so fortunately I don't have a lot to write. First, Sunday is the last day for one of the guy's at the school. He's extremely funny and very well liked. Needless to say, he'll be missed. He's also one of the only guys at the school with the moxy to wear a red Gameness gi. Hell, a red gi period. Or is it the pink one... I can't remember.

We did more drills today during the warm-ups. I enjoy those, as I've said before. They make me feel like I'm getting better at some of the movements that I don't otherwise have a lot of opportunity to work on.

And speaking of technique, we worked on the same two that I learned and described on Wednesday. Today went a little smoother, and so maybe in four or five months I'll lock one in on a non-compliant sparring partner. I did pick up a couple of the finer points today that I'd overlooked on Wednesday. Specifically, when countering the triangle, I was positioning my hands wrong. Made a big difference.

Sparring was good today. I think I'm starting to figure some stuff out. I sparred with another guy who's been doing this about the same length of time as myself, and it went well. I worked from both the top and the bottom, worked on control and my sweeps and started to work on some submissions, but didn't get very far.

What I found very encouraging, though, was my second round. I rolled with a guy who's been in class for a relatively short amount of time... I think around one month. He's strong and outweighs me by a fair bit, but I was actually able to control him fairly well, and even got a few taps. Two were Americanas, one from side control and one from mount. The third tap was an armbar from mount. I'm not sure, but I think this was my first one and it felt pretty darned good. I was in mount and he left his arms up on my collar. After this, I pulled him into my guard and worked from guard for a while. I still consider working from the bottom to be my weakest area, so I need to work on that every class. I like to watch the guys who are smaller, in the 140-150 range. They seem so mobile from guard. That's where I want to be someday. Anyway, what I realized is that I am actually internalizing technique, and it felt pretty good.

Happy V.D.

I have to post pretty quick for two reasons. First, I don't want to forget anything I learned today. Second, it's Valentine's Day.

We learned a triangle choke today, as well as a basic counter, and then sparred as usual. There were also some promotions tonight. A couple of guys got stripes on their white belts, and one got his blue. Congrats to them all!

We also started off with a slightly different style of warm-up. I really enjoyed it. Instead of static stretching and jogging, we drilled. I felt like that was really good for me because my body knows how to jog (even if it gets tired doing it), but many of the BJJ movements like the hip movement on an armbar or the mobility from guard are still foreign. We warmed up with an armbar drill, a kimura drill (much more fun than crunches!) and a few others. I don't expect we'll do that every class, but I hope to see it again.

As I said before, our technique tonight (and for the week) is the triangle. Start from guard, and I'll eventually want to get my knees outside top guy's arms. First step is to control both arms. Since we're working with gi, we're taking advantage of the handles we have. The next step is to post both feet on top guy's hips. Then squeeze the arms together and rotate. We'll say I'm going to isolate top guy's right arm. I squeeze and bring my right leg across the arm to break any sort of grip he might have on my belt or whatever. Then bring my right leg up so that my shin is contoured into his neck. At this point, I'll clear his left arm, rotate so that my leg comes across and my knee plants into his neck... deeper the better, and with my left arm grab my ankle so that he can't posture up. At this point, I should have one arm isolated and be ready to lock in my triangle. Raise my hips, bring my left leg over so that my ankle is tucked nicely behind my knee, squeeze my knees together, pull his right arm across and pull down on his head.

The counter involved first getting into a better position. Posture up and bring my isolated arm back toward me, instead of extended out over the bottom guy, and wrap up the leg. So, if my right arm is inside, I'd wrap up bottom guy's right leg. Then, the motion is basically a half circle... I'll take my left arm and put it on the floor next to the guy's hip with my fingers pointed toward his legs. In other words, I'm pivoting so that my left hip ends up on his right hip and my left arm is down next to his left hip. Make sure I've got a good base and then transition into side control.

The counter actually worked for me today in sparring.

I'm ALIVE!!!

Yesterday, I felt pretty good. Today, I feel great My appetite is back and while I've lost some weight in the not good way, I've got energy, am no longer severely dehydrated and am ready to go. I went to the gym yesterday for a light workout without incident and feel good.

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I've been really sick, normal feels SO good! I really appreciate being without pain and nausea. Makes me feel lucky that I am healthy and able to do the things that I enjoy, like BJJ.

It also helps me to appreciate those that do these things in spite of chronic pain. I guess all of this is just to say that I'm looking forward to getting back into class tonight!

This is the worst flu I've ever had

Oh man. I'm feeling better... human even, but I'm still tired, have very little appetite and am struggling to stay hydrated. Needless to say, class wasn't a viable option today. I've got to go to work tomorrow... hopefully, I'll be able to shake this thing and go to class on Wednesday.

The Flu Sucks!

I'm not going to make class tonight. The flu knocked me on my ass yesterday and I'm still recovering. Today, I'm feeling a little better, but my kids are both now sick.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make Sunday's class.

Wednesday Class

Skipping Sunday really made it feel like forever since last Friday. It was good to get back into class.

This week, Coach is helping us with spider guard. A few of the guys at the school, one blue belt in particular, like to use this, and it's murder to get around. So, we worked on two different passes.

A couple of things coach emphasized was to get out to the ends of the bottom guy's legs. When you're in on his spider guard, he's got his back on the mat and has a lot of mobility. So, the first thing to do is to back out so that as little of his back is on the mat as possible.

For the first pass, we were taught to grab the insides of the bottom guy's pant legs and then use our forearms to lever each elbow up and over the feet. This effectively breaks the spider guard and gives me control over the bottom guy's legs. Next, decide which side you're passing over and take that elbow around the outside of that leg and down to the floor. This is going to turn his hips away from you and put you in great position to establish side control. If the bottom guy has a strong spider guard, it might be tough to lever your elbow up and over the foot. We were taught a slight variation to account for that. The second pass would handle that well, too.

Which leads to the second pass. This pass is also for spider guard, and can be used when you're being set up for a sweep with one arm up and one arm down. In this pass, we started by grabbing the pant legs anywhere (as opposed to inside specifically on the last pass). So let's say the bottom guy has me in spider guard, and he's really torquing on my right arm with his left leg, and I want to pass on that side. I'm going to step slightly to my left, controlling his hips with my grips on his pants and then step over his hip and sit straight down with my right leg. This is going to press his left leg down and put me in great position to slide right down into a sit out position, where I can slide my right leg down into side control.

In sparring, I rolled with one of the females in the class in the first go around. I tried not to muscle her around and focused on technique, and it seemed to go well. I pulled guard and worked on my sweeps. At one point, I actually worked the sweep from butterfly guard we learned a few months back. I was so surprised it worked that I forgot to sit out into side control and ended up in half guard.

The second go was with another white belt... bigger guy, so I again tried to work from the bottom. I had pretty good success reversing into his guard or half guard. At one point, though, he was in side control and just crushing my diaphragm. I was pretty disappointed with myself that I freaked out. That aside, I managed to get one reverse from half guard and had pretty good success from guard.

Superbowl Sunday

I'm having people over, so no class today. But I'll think about BJJ somewhere around my third bowl of chili and in between beers.

Friday Class

Turns out that the "warmups" (again, picture air quotes) on Wednesday weren't a fluke. I think they're now a habit. It was like Wednesday, but more. I was pretty tired, but in all seriousness, it wasn't over the top. The sprints are still tough, but the sprawls are getting easier and I'm feeling pretty good today. Not too sore.

We reviewed the kneebar and the simple counter. I worked on keeping my hip tight, and the counter worked a little better for me today. The guy I drilled with was more experienced than I, which is nice. We drilled at a good pace, so I was able to get a lot of practice.

Sparring was really good. I tried to work on technique. I still really need to work on passing guard, and I also need to work on regaining guard from under side control. I'm having a lot of success reversing mount on other white belts, but I'm sure I can't count on that working on blue belts. At one point, I was in side control and baited the guy into mounting me so that I could roll into his guard. He wasn't expecting that. I also spent a lot more time on the bottom just trying to keep working. I'm not having as much trouble breathing, which is good. Oh, when we were drilling the kneebar, I learned a simple sweep from under half guard. just controlling the head, hook the leg and bridge up. So, if I've got the guy's right leg in my half guard, I control his head with my left arm, hook his left leg with my right leg and then bridge up over my right shoulder. It worked a couple of times and when it was right, it was almost effortless. Amazing.