Blech

was the way I felt for most of class on Monday. I had a nice stomach flue on Thursday night and was not feeling quite 100% but class was pretty fun actually. I've been working a lot on the x-guard pass from Saulo's book and it's been helping me out, as long as my opponent doesn't grab my sleeve and sweep me over backwards. I'm looking forward to the in-house on Saturday.

Armdrag

Well I have been managing to get back on the mat on a regular basis again and I am working on incorporating some different tactics into my game. Re-incorporating might be a better term as these are moves which used to be a mainstay of my guard game but I haven't really been focusing on them recently.



First on Saturday I trained at the class on Bainbridge. Tim taught a technique that used to be my go-to sweep. I haven't been using it recently; I have been working on other guard positions, but I got some great details that made me want to invest more time in it.



Starting from a sitting up guard position you trap his lead leg (right) between your left shin and your left arm. Grab your lapel with your left hand. Grab his left sleeve with your right hand and feed it to your left hand. This will compromise his balance and cause him to lean forward. Reach over his shoulder as deep onto his back as you can, and fall to your right, kicking up your left leg like a butterfly guard sweep as you push his left knee with your right foot. It sounds complicated but it's basically a glorified butterfly guard sweep as Tim succinctly put it.



The second technique is one that I'm terrible at and would like to spend some serious time on. If the guy puts his knee on your stomach from the sitting up guard position, which he probably will try to do, you use your hook to lift his leg and go under his left leg, whcih will probably be posted out. Bring his leg up to your shoulder then bracing his right knee with your elbow bring your left leg up to put him in deep half-guard. It's hard. I sort of used it last night but my opponent wasn't putting much pressure on me.



Monday and Wednesday I trained at Maxercise. Both nights we worked on an arm drag from the butterfly guard. I like how John focuses on the same techniques all week, it really gives me an opportunity to get into them and practice them.

Basically if you're sitting in the butterfly guard andyour opponent grabs your left pantleg with his right hand make a pistol grip on his sleeve with your right hand, grab his tricep, break his grip by kicking his leg, then launch yourself backwards, pulling his arm. Post your hand on the ground, come up to the back.

Before I came to Maxercise I trained a lot of no-gi and I used armdrags all the time. I evenually kind of got tired of them because I relied on them so much. Last night I hit that armdrag so much it was almost unfair. I want to try it at the Bainbridge class on Saturday and see how it goes.

Update

Well only made it to class Wednesday and Saturday this week, which kind of sucked, but they were both decent classes. Wednesday we covered breaking the guard ala Saulo and did some positional training. I would really like the opportunity to train with him more. I really like the way he explained the positions he showed at his seminar.

I really have come to loathe breaking the guard from the knees. I don't think anyone that doesn't outweigh me by 50 pounds or more has successfully used that open against me in over a year. I much prefer to stand up, it puts you in a much better position to pass and it seems so much more effective.

We did some situational training which is always good. I was reminded how critical it is to position yourself when you're on the bottom, it a way that doesn't allow your opponent to control you, and to make your grips first and get to a place where you can fight. If you spend time fumbling around for grips, a quick opponent with a good bull pass with blast right through your guard.

Saturday's class was at Brian, Zak and Tim's club. Zak taught passing the half guard when your opponent has his knee across your hips. It was nice to cover this again; I've been having some issues passing the half guard recently, and I picked up some good details.

Training was excellent. I went with Tim several times and Brian, and Sam once during class then afterwards. She trained especially well, took my back several times. I like the way she comes in low to pass, it makes everything more difficult, and I've been emulating it.

Hopefully I can make it to class tonight, although I will be late for sure.

Bumps in the Road

Well my training in 2010 has gotten off to an uneven start. This is the onset of the busy time of the year for me, as an accountant, and my class attendance is starting to reflect that. I wasn't able to make it to Maxercise last night so I trained a little with my friend John at Bucks County Community College. We drilled some stuff mostly and did some cardio. I hope to be able to make it to class tonight.



Last Saturday was quite a fun day for me. I think I spent more time in my gi than out of it. I started my day training with Brian and Zak, and it seems that most everyone is back from their holidays as class was full. It's always impressive to see a long line up of the students there, I think there was five brown belts, and several purple belts. Also plenty of tough blues.



Brian went over a technique that was sort of a continuation of what we had worked on last week. Basically it was how to take the back if your opponent turtles to avoid your bull pass. We covered back attacks not too long ago at Maxercise so it was a nice comparison and review.



Training was absolutely awesome! I didn't touch anyone lower ranked than a brown belt all class. I trained with Brian, Zak, Dr. Joe, and Tim four times, as he's coming of an injury. Training with Tim so much really helps and gives you a different perspective on things. He was able to provide me with some insight as well.



After class I had my now traditional death match with Sam, who was especially fiesty and it was fun as per usual. Soaking in the hot tub was a perfect way to end the class.

I went from the class to the Saulo Ribiero seminar at Maxercise. I was pretty tired and starving so I hoped that it wouldn't be too strenuous, but actually we didn't really drill or train anything, mostly Saulo lectured about his history, his association, Jiu-Jitsu University, and some concepts about jiu-jitsu. I'm sort of processing everything but he did hit on some subjects that I've been thinking a lot about which I'll talk about later.

Thanks for reading.

End of Year Update

Ok so I'm the worst BJJ blogger in the world. I think about Jiu-jitsu all the time but I just don't have the dedication to put everything out there on the internet. I even have a ton of notes scattered around my house waiting to get typed up, and I'm sure it will never happen. But I'm a big fan of this time of year as a period of reflection and reaffirmation of goals so I'd like to take a second to discuss the progress I've made in 2009 and what I would like to focus on in 2010.

I feel that my game overall has improved this year. When I think back to where I was last December, I realize that I honestly couldn't say I had much of a game. I now have certain positions that I'm comfortable with, know some entries to, and can pull off on people my own rank or even higher.

I think one of the sweeps that I spent the most time on is what I call the knee open sweep, which I learned from Brian and Regis in a private early in the year. I worked that sweep practically the the exclusion of all others, and I feel it's my most powerful technique. I also feel that I've made a lot of progress getting to the x-guard and sweeping from the x-guard. Learning to pull myself under my opponent has helped a lot against bigger guys. I've also had a lot of success from the de la Riva guard.

Next year I would like to put together a flowchart of moves from me pulling butterfly guard, sweeping, getting the x-guard from the failed sweep, and sweeping or taking the back from the x-guard. I'd like to work on my butterfly guard game in general.

I spent a lot of time working on escapes this year, specifically the elbow escape which has helped me a lot. I'd like to work on the running escape more in 2010.

My passing game and top game overall has gotten tighter. I worked on the bull pass consistently, and I'm happy with the results, but certain situations give me problems still. There's some details that I need to get cleaned up. I've been working the crossknee pass, I'd like to focus on that in 2010, and also focus on the esgrima pass more. I got a solid underhook several times in my last tournament and couldn't complete the esgrima pass which frustrated me.

I feel that my side control has improved, but I haven't been landing many submission from anywhere really. Mostly I worked on collar chokes, and that's what I get more than anything in class. I'd like to work on taking the back more and finishing from there.

I've been getting into strength training recently, and I'd like to continue that. I've noticed it helps a lot in class against bigger guys who could just control my arms and hold me, even from inside my guard. I now have the strength to actually use the techniques against them that I may be able to do against someone my own weight, but couldn't use on someone who had 50 or 60 pounds on me.

So in general, I'm not dissatisfied with the progress I've made, and I have a pretty clear direction for where I want to go in 2010. I'd like to improve my posture, particularly when I'm in the guard, and my head placement, which I am coming to realize is a critical detail that beginners often overlook. I figure another year of working on training achieving and maintaining superior positions, then I'll start thinking more about submissions.

Oh look, an update.

Well I didn't make it to class last night, so I'm updating my blog so I don't feel quite so guilty.

I have pretty much been focusing on my bull pass in class. I've basically abandoned the cross knee pass, as I suck at it. I will probably try to work on it again when I can get back to training more than two or three times a week, but for now I am focusing on keeping what I can do sharp, rather than waste training time on techniques that I'm not thrilled with. So I've been working on the bull pass to knee to belly, and a few different passes from the half guard.

From the bottom, I feel like my game has kind of fallen apart. I've been focusing so much on survival and escapes from cross side that I've neglected my open guard. Every time I go to take the back from the de la Riva guard I end up in a crazy scramble. That needs to get cleaned up. I have been landing some pretty clean x-guard sweeps recently which is a trend I would like to see continue. I think I will continue to focus on x-guard and x-guard entries from the bottom, at least until tax season is over. On the top, I will continue to focus on the bull pass and the esgrima pass. I feel that these are good passes for people without a ton of weight or crazy athleticism.

I would also like to get better at the running escape, but I don't see that happening without a few privates on the subject.

That's it for now. Time to eat lunch.

I am a new unit of measurement.

So I was working on a sweep with one of the girls, and Brian comes over to correct her. He positions himself properly underneath me, and says, "See, now he's light, light as a Frank." Maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, I made it to the tail end of the open mat, and trained with this menace blue belt, who's super fast, and very technical. I find myself just watching what he's doing as he passes my guard effortlessly. It was a good train, but I can feel my cauliflower ears coming back. Need to get headgear. Got a bloody nose too, which made me feel all tough.

Class, which was taught by a certain tall skinny brown belt, was good. We've been working positions from pulling the arm across your body from the full guard, and we worked some of that, and cross chokes from the guard, which I enjoy. Too tired now to get into details. We did some limited training from the full guard, and I was happy that I've gotten better at standing up to break the guard. Full training was good, went with some Judo players, and the same guy as before, with similar results. I did get to work on some escapes from the underhook pass, and the elbow escape which I have been working on.