The Fightworks Podcast is conducting their Best BJJ Blog of 2007 right now. Take a moment and go vote for your favorite BJJ blog (pssst... if you're reading this, hopefully that would be this blog!). Voting ends December 30th, so I'm leaving this at the top until then.
PS: I better get at least two votes in this thing, or my mom and my wife are in trouble!
As I mentioned in my last post, sparring warrants it's own post. Did I mention that I caught Josh in an armbar tonight? Oh. I didn't? Well, let me tell you all about it!
Seriously, though, sparring was good tonight. I was worried about my energy level coming off of the illness, but actually felt pretty good. I rolled with Coach first, which went... well, about as well as can be expected. He let me work on some things. At one point, I got a leg over and had good control of his posture (pretending for a moment that he's not 6'5" and 250 lbs), but he pulled his other arm back, pinning my other leg so I couldn't lift it to get the triangle. I'll have to remember that.
Second match was with Josh. I started by pinning his knees and working to pass. Josh has superb hip movement and he tends to roll around until, blammo, you're in an armbar or a triangle. So, he was rolling around and ended up turtled up. I got into the wrist ride position, and fished in for a lapel. I figured he was expecting the Clock choke, so I thought I'd go for the surprise factor and swing over for the Rodeo Choke we learned on that same day. I got it deeper than he expected, I think, but didn't trap his arm as I fell back. Still, it put him in a bad position with me in good control of his arm. He was defending the arm bar first by bringing those damned legs of his up to my head, and then when that didn't work he managed to roll and stack me up. So, I waited until his weight was really heavy over me and rolled on my shoulders to my stomach, which popped his arm out and really cinched in the submission. Woohoo!
Of course, after that, I attempted to pull guard, he passed, and armbarred me back. But let's not dwell on that.
My third match was with big Matt, and I got a nice compliment from him, as well. I was working from guard and managed to survive.
While I don't keep score with submissions, and I think that if anything, I could use more confidence on the mats, I will remember this class fondly as the first time I've ever felt like I actually transitioned from one technique to another and legitimately caught a blue belt. I'm glad it was Josh, because he's one of the most talented people I know and he doesn't give anything away. I won't try to hide how elated I am, but I hope that Josh understands that the reason I'm so stoked is because of how much respect I have for him and his ability. Now, I just have to figure out how to do it again.
Finally! Back to class. I wanted to go to class yesterday, but waited another day so I wouldn't risk infecting anyone else at school with whatever crud I had. Walking in, I learned quickly that it was pervasive. Glad I wasn't the only one.
Technique today was a nice transition from half guard to a triangle. It's a methodical technique, as opposed to an explosive one. These are the techniques I prefer, as I am more of a plodding, methodical grappler.
On a side note, I think for 2008, I'm going to start detailing techniques a bit differently. I've found recently that I'm going back and looking at technique descriptions, but looking for something specific. So, this year I'm going to start by outlining the technique and then detailing it. That way, if I just need a refresher on the technique, it's right there.
Half guard to Triangle
In the interest of not stealing any thunder from my friend over at Black Belt Mama and her ACL surgery (which seems to have gone well, overall), I will preface this post by saying that I am happy and our family has had a wonderful Christmas... overall. There were some snags, though.
First, on the positive note, Santa brought us Rockband. If you are a fan of the Guitar Hero series, you're almost surely familiar with this product. The riffs for guitar or bass are not as difficult as those in Guitar Hero. Medium isn't hard at all. There is also a vocal part, which is actually pretty fun, but difficult for the many songs with which I am not familiar. There are also a lot of songs the lyrics for which I am completely oblivious, so it's like really bad karaoke. Which
is actually fun, in a gong show kind of way.
For me, what makes this so awesome are the drums. If anyone out there has ever entertained fantasies of being the drummer for a rock band, this is the game for you. The "drum set" consists of a group of four drum pads and a pedal. The kit comes with a pair of drumsticks. You really get to bang it, just like a real drum. The rhythms are familiar and even at medium, you really feel like you're drumming. I've been playing off and on as I feel up for it and am pretty comfortable at medium. The jump from medium to hard is a relatively big one, so I'm just going to have to play around in practice mode for a while.
So, that was our big present from Santa for the family. We've all had fun playing around with it. We had several things happen that have made this Christmas a bit of a challenge. First, I've been sick all week. Moving from one illness to the next over the past few weeks, I felt pressure in my sinuses a few days back and have been running a ~100-101F fever since Sunday morning. I tried to avoid making anyone else sick, but couldn't stay out of the way completely.
Sunday started off with feeling like crap, but I figured I'd just take it easy in the afternoon and watch football with my MIL's brother (who stayed with us over the weekend until yesterday.) Earlier that day, I had run out with my wife on a quick errand and she made a comment about the extra car in the driveway and how we'd need to be careful. Truer words were never spoken as just a few short hours later I got a call to come out to the driveway. That's right. My wife bumped her Uncle's car. While she was clearly not going very fast, it did sufficient damage that we're going to need to get our car fixed and he's already filed a claim against my insurance. On the one hand, it bugs me that my premiums will probably go up, but on the other, that's what insurance is for and it was an accident.
The weekend wore on... ill, with a fever, medicated and with no appetite, I was the one who cooked Christmas Eve Dinner. That makes sense. Right? My wife was definitely there to help, which was awesome, cause I don't think I could've done it without her. I obsessively washed my hands and avoided working with anything that wasn't going to get thoroughly cooked, but ultimately, I figured if my MIL and her brother were really intent on staying, they were taking their chances of coming down with whatever I have. It's not like I tried to conceal it.
We had a ham with honey mustard glaze and a grilled mango and pineapple salsa from a recipe I saw on Foodnetwork.com. I'm told it was delicious, although I ate a few bites that I couldn't really taste.
Later that evening, we tried playing a game of Cranium. That's a fun game that my wife and I had played before, but never with our kids... or my MIL. Suffice to say that it didn't go well. She got flustered and after accusing us of cheating and one point and continually insisting that she was terrible at everything (drawing, acting, humming, playing with playdough... pretty much everything that makes the game fun), I couldn't wait to finish and go to bed. It's now about 7pm and I'm wiped and tired of trying to fake it.
Christmas morning was awesome. Still feverish, I tried to buck up and have fun with the kids, and it seemed to work for the most part. My son got a Rip Stick, and he's been out playing with it but has asked me several times to go out with him and I can't yet.
Today, we sat around playing video games. My fever broke this morning and I'm feeling better, although I still have sinus pressure and congestion. Hopefully, the healing will continue. Both my daughter and I missed class today, but I think I'm on the mend, so maybe Friday.
So, Merry Christmas to everyone, and hope all have a Happy New Year! While this will go down in the books as a good one for me and mine, there will definitely be an asterisk beside it in the record books.
No official class today. We had our school Christmas party this afternoon, so everyone drank punch, ate some cookies and then stuck around for open mat from 4 to 5 pm.
Since my son is on the good side of a pretty bad cold, he stayed home with momma while my daughter and I went to the party. It was fun to see her run around. She's pretty shy, but everyone at my school is very nice and most of them are great with kids. So, before long she was out there wrestling around with Sharkey and the kids.
Open mat was a blast. I'm very, very sore, particularly through the shoulders. I rolled with Lim (Limb? Limn? Who knows?). He's about the same level as me, and I really enjoy rolling with him. I have to work really hard, but he's not so much better than me that I'm always scrambling and defending. I can work on setting up submissions and actually making stuff work. After 1/2 hour or so, I was pretty tired.
So I worked with one of the kids. I went really light, didn't mash him or anything. I worked a lot from guard, gave him nudges when his base was really wonky and let him work out a few things. I find that working with the kids, I tend to sweep them over when their base is really narrow, get them on their side and then make them work to posture up. I showed him the Ezekiel choke, rested up a little while rolling with him and then went with his dad for a bit.
Mark (the dad) teaches the kids' class that my daughter is in. I've mentioned before that he's a blue belt in BJJ and a black belt in Karate. Competent guy and I enjoy working with him, too. He works really hard and doesn't give anything away. He's also about my size, so I'm not working with someone either much bigger or smaller than I.
After, I figured I was done, but rested up for a few minutes and saw Lim resting, too. Bottom line, I ended up sparring for about 70 minutes straight. I was tired, but not as tired as I might have thought, and I got to work on a lot of stuff. I'm starting to think about finishing, and about putting things together. I tapped Lim with several different chokes, including the Ezekiel a couple of times, the clock choke, a head/arm choke from side control, and a few others. Not that it was entirely one-sided. Lim is very mobile and I tapped to a few armbars and at least one reverse triangle.
I'm going to take a couple days off. My next class will be Wednesday and I'm planning on making Friday. I'm also hoping to be up for Competition class as well as regular BJJ on Sunday. We'll see if I wuss out or not. :D
Looks like my brother's well on his way. He received his first stripe on his white belt. Won't be long before he's killing me!
Congratulations!
http://www.anchoragebjj.com/news.php
My daughter went to class on Monday and continues to have fun. She's still learning the routine. It's funny because she's very small. She's obviously not a bruiser, but she's stronger than she looks and she's in pretty good shape. So, she'll do the warmups and they're not all that difficult for her... jogging around and all that. But when she catches me looking at her, she'll pretend to be tired. Very cute.
We each got new gis as an early Christmas present, both Gameness. I bought myself a new Gameness Pearl, after noticing that they are now available in both blue and black. I have a white one and it's a terrific gi, durable, extremely lightweight and sharp looking without many of the patches present on the Gameness Platinum Weave. That said, I prefer a blue gi. The blue color hides blood, and I think they just look cooler.
My daughter got a Gameness kids gi... and she wanted the patches. Initially, based on the size charts, I ordered a 00, but there were problems finding them. After a few days, I called them up and asked if they could just up it to a size 0, and I'm glad it worked out. As you can see from the picture, the size 0 fits just right.
We both have class this afternoon. The new threads are all washed and ready to go get dirty.
Sunday's class was, as usual, a review of the technique we've been working on through the week. This week, we reviewed the butterfly guard sweep.
Sparring was brutal for me. I felt really good and tried to work hard, but boy did I get my butt kicked. Rolling with Bing, I managed to stay busy and while I never got around his guard to establish any sort of control, I also managed to avoid being swept or submitted. I can't say the same for my match with Josh. I did manage to pass his guard, but I also got swept twice. Once was a nice sweep that I saw coming and still couldn't manage to avoid. He rolled into a kimura, which I defended well. Of course, he ended up taking my unprotected neck for a choke. I also rolled with Coach and with Bill. All in all, a good class.
Most importantly, I'm feeling really good. I think that next Sunday I'm going to start going to the competition classes and then see where I'm at physically. While this is a very hard season to lose weight in, I'm still going to try and compete in February if I can.
Ever been curious about the BJJ vernacular? What's the RNC called in Brazil?
Another of the blogs I've stumbled across as a result of The Fightnetwork Podcast's blog contest is Words, Words, Words. This isn't strictly a BJJ blog, but the author is training in BJJ. He's posted an English to Portuguese dictionary, or at least started one. Definitely worth a look.
I've mentioned before that I kind of backed into this blogging thing. It started as a strict training log and still is primarily just that. It's also a place to goof off and experiment with some other writing, even some that's not strictly BJJ related.
But one of the things I hadn't anticipated was how many people out there blog. Lots of people. I think the latest number is up in the low gazillions. Or something like that. But most don't actually like to write, and their blogs disappear.
Most of the people who blog do so intentionally, and actually know how to blog along with all the rules of blogging. I often don't, so I mention them as they come up. You may or may not remember that I posted about memes. I had no idea what they were.
Well, today I officially received my first award. It's basically positive feedback from other bloggers... sharing the love. And who doesn't like that? Amy, over at You are a Fly - And You're Sitting on my Wall, gave me the Friendship Award for being a good buddy on the blogosphere. I, in turn, would like to give it to my blogosphere buddy over at Brain Cheese.
I mentioned a few days ago that we learned the Clock Choke and mentioned in that post a no-gi version that Coach taught us.
Coach Foster posted a video on YouTube of this technique:
Tonight we worked on the same technique as in Wednesday's class, a sweep from butterfly guard. This is one that we learned way back in January, 07. I really think that keeping a training journal is beginning to pay off. I remembered being shown this technique at some point, and have played around, on and off, with butterfly guard. It's interesting now to go back and read my descriptions. On this particular technique, I think I got the important stuff.
In the interest of not going over the specifics of the technique again, I'll stick to the details that I picked up either in tonight's class or Wednesday's BJJ class. First, as I said almost a year ago, keeping the hooks active is important, and keeping them in constant contact with my opponent's legs. Second is to mind my hips (says the guy with the bum right hip). While Coach Foster recommends keeping one leg vertical to make it more difficult to be rolled backwards, he told us several times today to avoid turning our hips completely, inviting an easy pass. In the case of this sweep, if my opponent tries to move around my down leg, he's actually moving into my sweep. As I get more confident with this sweep, and in butterfly guard in general, I might begin to bait with that down leg.
Another detail is to remember always to lift all the way through the sweep. The temptation may be to explode up with the leg and then bring it down really quick. Coach's description this week really clicked for me. It's not an explosive move... more like a backwards roll. And I can friggin roll. We did backwards rolls at my previous school, too. I can roll, baby!
After drilling, we sparred. I got schooled by Bill, one of the purple belts, in my first match, tapping to a Kimura and an Armbar pretty quick. I had several minor victories, though, over the course of the night. While rolling with another one of the purple belts in my second match, I managed to pass his guard... on purpose. A guard pass that seems to work for me, particularly against the really mobile guys, is to either pin one leg down and move over, or to pin their knees together and pass around that way. The latter is how I managed to get around Todd's guard, even if it was only for a moment. He rolled to try and reestablish guard and I ended up in perfect position to attempt the clock choke, but was so intent on the mechanics of the technique I failed to keep any kind of pressure. It was ridiculous. He basically just shifted his hips out and rolled back over into guard.
In open mat, I worked with Bobi, a blue belt about my size. We rolled for a bit and he offered several really good pointers. One is that I'm working too hard sometimes going for a lost position. He gave me some tips for transitioning when on top on how to move around from side control to north/south or hopping my opponent's legs to move from side to side. I think it'll help. I also surprised us both by getting this sweep to work. I mentioned to Bill that I need to stop being surprised when something works. Bill told me that it's me admiring my work. Maybe he's right. All I know is that I got the sweep, and ended up rolling right into an armbar. So, on the one hand, I feel pretty good about the sweep. I set it up as intended (baiting with the scissor sweep), and timed it pretty well, but didn't control the space after the sweep and didn't finish.
All in all, I have to say I felt pretty good after class. As always, I left with more things done wrong than right, but more things are right than 6 months ago, or even 2 months ago.
Oh, one last thing, I'm not sure where, but I got nailed under my left eyebrow and have the beginning's of a black eye. I'm not sure how dark it'll get, but at least it's under the brow and not down below the eye where it would be really visible. Hurts, though.
My Daughter has class tomorrow and my next class should be Sunday.
Sunday we reviewed the chokes we learned earlier in the week. The collar choke on a turtled up opponent, and the Rodeo Choke. We also learned a choke called the Bully choke, due to its resemblance to a bully's headlock.
Not a lot to add to my last post. Sparring was good. I'm very sore today, particularly my neck. I guess drilling all those chokes took a toll.
On another, slightly related note, we were watching Ninja Warrior on the TiVo. We love that show. If you're not familiar, it's a Japanese show where athletes work through a series of very difficult obstacle courses. There are open events drawing the occasional female, and then all female events. The obstacles are very difficult, and everyone from gymnasts to fishermen to olympic decathletes have tried and failed. Last night, we were watching the 6th female event and guess who competed? Well, I'll tell you. Kyra Gracie. My daughter thought that was pretty cool. Kyra Gracie is a BJJ black belt. But unfortunately, she failed to make it past the first round. Maybe next time!
Tonight is class number three for my daughter. I ordered her a kid's gi. She really wanted a BJJ gi. Unfortunately, the only "real" BJJ gi for kids out there is the Gameness gi, and it's not inexpensive. Hopefully, she'll wear that sucker out before she grows anymore! With my luck, my 4'3" daughter will grow 6 inches in the next 6 months! I'm going to try and stay for Drills and Conditioning. Depends on what's on the agenda. Time permitting, I'll stay.
I never did get the time to write up Tuesday's class, but I'm very happy to have officially made three classes this week! I'm also going to start tracking my weight again. Back in March, I really worked to get down to 184 lbs for the tournament in Seattle. Since then, I've been maintaining that weight fairly well. Now I'd like to drop a little more of the fat and get down to a competition weight of 170 lbs. Over the last week, I've been watching my diet and my goal is to make four classes every week, one being the D
rills and Conditioning class on Mondays. If the weight doesn't want to come off, I might end up going back to doing cardio workouts at lunch.
My daughter's first BJJ class was on Wednesday. The classes are three days each week and they teach the kids grappling and some striking. The primary instructor is a blue belt in BJJ and a black belt in some kind of Karate. He's a competent guy who teaches the kids some striking as well as grappling. He's a nice guy and very good with the kids. She had a great time and if we don't end up getting too much snow, we should get to class number 2 today.
The technique above should be familiar to any grapplers out there. I learned it on my first day of class as well. This is probably the most basic escape from under mount. Of course, it's a little more difficult when the person on top weighs x3 you do. I posted this picture because it shows her excellent technique, even on day one. Secure the arm and drive it all the way across, hook the same side leg and then bridge over into guard. Kyra Gracie watch out. She was shrimping like a champ and while her rolls need a little work, she's got all the right tools. I will admit that I'm not sure how she's going to react to sparring. She's feisty, but very much a little girl. I sincerely hope she sticks it out and couldn't be prouder.
We've been working on a clock choke in class. The clock choke gets it's name from the motion of your legs as you lock in the submission, walking around like the hands on a clock. It's a very simple choke that's easily set up when your opponent is turtled up. I'll start by gluing my hip to my opponent's, with my other leg posted out to give me good base and mobility. My shoulders and head are low, and if possible I'm controlling the far side wrist.
Thanks to Patrick Parker, of the Mokuren Dojo judo blog for bringing this great video to my attention. This is very much the same technique. Notice how he never rolls over so that his stomach/hips are down.
In the example, my opponent is turtled up, on elbows and knees, and I'm on his right side. My left leg is mirroring the position of his right leg, and my left arm is reaching under his left arm and controlling that wrist. Doing this isn't strictly necessarily, but it will keep him from protecting his neck, so it's a good idea if possible.
The choke is done by reaching through with my right arm and grabbing the far lapel, thumb in. If there's no lapel to grab, I'll drive my right arm deep, reaching underneath his left armpit and grabbing my own bicep, getting a hold similar to a rear-naked choke.
Next I'm going to sit through with my left leg, keeping my hips pointing out. I don't want to turn my hips so that they're down. That's a no-no. I try to put my head on the ground next to my opponent's, keeping my weight on his shoulders to keep him from rolling, and then walk my legs around to get the submission.
We learned a few variations of this move. The first is a gi only move and begins the same. It's simple, but a little flashier. Might not get you a date, but it'll look good on YouTube if you pull it off in a competition. :D I'm in the same setup position, with my grip on the lapel. Instead of winding up the clock, I'm going to use my left arm to post on his back, supporting me as I swing my left leg all the way around his head until I'm basically sitting on his back. Then I fall back, keeping that grip on his lapel, and extend my left leg if necessary to cinch it down. Coach called this variation a Rodeo Choke. If you want to piss the other guy off, yell, "Yeehaa," as you fall back for the submission. Another nice thing about this choke is that you might be in a good position to get the armbar if you can't get the choke.
Sparring was good. I'm continuing to work on getting the sweep I detailed last week. It continues to surprise people and the set up fits nicely into my game. I start by working the lapel chokes from guard, looking to set up the Kimura or Armbar, and then move to the scissor sweep and if I can't get that, I'll try to bait him into this sweep. Of course, I don't get it every time, but for a technique I'm just learning, I feel like it's pretty high percentage. I've reversed someone at least once in each class since I learned it. I'm going to work on not being so surprised when it works so that I can transition better into the Kimura/Armbar following the reversal.
