Idea

If my core is tired, I did good jiu jitsu; if my arms are tired, I did bad jiu jitsu.

Class 7/29/2010

Jeremy showed some guard pulls and open guard sweeps against a standing opponent. The most interesting bit for me was the possibility of using one leg x-guard against standing opponents who step one of their legs too far back to hit a sickle sweep on.

Sparring started off with Robin, a fellow white belt. He started by trying to pull guard, which I passed without too much trouble. Unfortunately, I spent most of the time languishing in sidemount. I really need to stop being lazy in sidemount and either be more aggressive about going for attacks or just giving it up altogether and putting myself in more bad spots. That being said, I was somewhat proactive about setting up far side armbars and kimuras. I had trouble finishing them because I did not effectively prevent him from turning into me, which is something I will need to work on.

-How can I prevent my partner from turning in during armbar setups?

My next roll was with Arlan, a white belt who is considerably less technical, but also a great deal bigger and stronger, so he presents a series of challenges all his own. He started trying to pass my open guard, and managed to get to half-guard once, but I hipped out and got back to guard. Nothing else of any real importance happened; I showed him some guard passes and that's about it.

-Control the sleeves and stretch standing opponents out more

Finally, I rolled with Kevin the gnarled purple belt. He passed my guard into sidemount where I secured an underhook early on and managed to create some good space, which was crucial as he was working to set up a gi-brabo. I eventually used the underhook to get to my knees and sit through for butterfly guard as he tried a 10 finger guillotine on me. I defended and eventually popped my head out. He stuffed one of my hooks and worked my favorite butterfly pass. Eventually he got a head and arm and I tapped as he was mounting because my nose was getting smashed.

We started again and I worked to pass his guard, but made a stupid error and pulled my arm out because I thought the other one was already out. He triangled me and then time ran out.

Mastery

I've started reading Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long Term Fulfillment by George Leonard. This book is the tits. Read it.

Mixed Class 7/27/2010

Today's noon class covered the hip-bump sweep and a kimura setup based on the most likely counter. The hip-bump begins with your partner basing with both hands on your stomach. You lift your hips without uncrossing your feet and as you drop your hips, sweep both of their hands off your chest by circling your hands under from the outside. An important note is to always maintain contact with your wrists; if you don't, there is a much smaller guarantee that their hands will end up on the mat. Will recommended the paw as a way to check their hands and also to make the circle as small as possible. Next, pick a side and control that wrist with your same-side hand. Sit up without uncrossing your ankles and cup their elbow with your other arm while coming up on the elbow of the hand that is controlling their wrist. Once you've cupped their elbow, post on your wrist controlling hand and uncross your ankles. The next step was new to me: in order to break their balance, push into them before starting to move sideways. This was tremendously useful because it makes their knees light and thus easier to sweep backward.

The kimura setup was predicated on your partner pushing into you to stop the sweep. Using their momentum, snag the kimura grip and move your hip out as described in the last post. It was good to review the kimura from last week, and I noticed a few details that I should remember to work on:

-really clamp with my elbows

-create as great a bend as possibly in their elbow

-really roll the wrists

-work especially hard on getting onto my side with my whole body and not just my hips; shoulders matter too

Sparring started with a three stripe blue. I started by trying to play some spider guard with one shin across the belly. I was hoping to bait the pass so that I could hit my sweep, but he did not go for it and I had to rethink. Eventually I ended up in butterfly with a deep underhook. I went for the standard sweep but did not manage to control his posting arm well enough initially so he fought me for it. Eventually I snagged it and managed to hit the sweep. It was kind of clunky, but he was considerably larger than me and I didn't feel myself muscling to get it. I spent some time in sidemount, working to set up far-side armbars and whatnot and transitioning to knee on belly, but to no avail. At one point I was in reverse scarfhold and I went to my favorite mount, but he snagged my leg as I was stepping over and pulled it into quarter guard. I tried to baseball slide out and set up a gi brabo, but his underhook was too deep and he had my belt, so I had to bail. Eventually he rolled me because I was getting experimental and he trapped one of my feet. We spent some time dicking around with him squishing one of my butterfly hooks and me trying to free it. We reset, and I wrapped an arm from spiderguard to go for the hilariously awesome omoplata I learned last summer, but I did not succeed. The round ended with some sort of halfway between open guard and side mount.

My next session was a real challenge. I rolled with a dude named brian. He pulled guard and I worked to pass, but I noticed him trying to set up a triangle, so I was very wary of getting to close and trying to ball him up. I managed to stave off his triangle, however, at one point he got up to his feet and started working a loop choke. I had his leg and was trying to scoop it with my foot to get into half-guard top, however, he unbalanced me and I ended up in his guard again. Eventually, he worked a scissor sweep and I was swept into guard, which he almost passed right away, but I managed to hang on to his calf with the tips of my toes and I ended up getting my top knee between us and securing z-guard. I went for an underhook to start trying to get some ball and chain action going, but my underhook must not have been tight enough because I blundered right into a kimura. Fortunately I was controlling his legs with my feet and an underhook by my head, so he was unable to position himself properly. We stalemated for a good while because my control of his legs prevented him from finishing the sub, and his grip on my arm prevented me from working a sweep. Eventually he freed his leg, took mount where I fought him with quarter guard, and then finished the kimura. We started again and he pulled guard again. This time I was very adamant about stapling his hips to the mat, so I began by nailing one of his knees down and posting on his pant leg. I sat on it and tried to work one of the passes that will taught in times past, and he put his knee across my chest to frame away. I put some good pressure and tied his legs together, but forgot to control his upper body. Fortunately, I was still able to underhook his framing leg and hit a double under pass as he tried to collar choke me. The round expired as played some extremely lazy sidemount.

Finally, I rolled with Adam, a newly minted blue belt. He came at me pretty hard so I pulled guard. I worked some feet on hips and spider guard nonsense, but he almost passed a number of times. Eventually I rolled into upside down guard and locked my ankles around his waist as he lost his balance. I walked up into reverse mount and went for a kneebar, which he countered by rolling and I was put in something that resembled 50/50. I went for a few sweeps as he bore down on me. At one point I was somewhat concerned about my knee, but I scooted my hips and managed to set up an ankle lock which I finished. (Side note: because I've been so manic about control and position of late, this is one of the few subs I've finished this summer. Go me.) We restarted in more or less the same fashion. At some point I ended up in his guard in a manner I don't entirely recall. He played spiderguard and I worked on just getting a knee up and stripping his hooks without setting myself up for a triangle. Eventually I underhooked both of his legs and got solid grips on his pants. From there I flipped him over his head to turtle. He rolled and I surfed to sidemount, where we spent the remainder of the round as I worked poorly to set up some armbars or whatever.

Mixed Class 7/20/2010

Today we covered the same guillotine escape as yesterday along with a kimura from guard.

It was a regular kimura setup, but Will covered a few details that were very helpful. First, he highlighted the importance of moving your hips to the same side as the shoulder you're locking. Second, he pointed out that you want to be on your side as you go for the finish. Third, it's important to climb your leg as high on the back as possible, keeping your shin parallel to the spine and using the knee to generate downward pressure as well as preventing the roll. Fourth, clamping down on the shoulder to increase torque. Fifth, rolling your hands in so as to create more tension in the arm. Finally, creating a more acute angle at the elbow to further create tension in the arm.

Sparring today was so-so. I can feel myself getting stuck in the pass guard-->hold sidemount holding pattern, so I think my goal will have to be to either avoid sidemount or be more proactive in looking for submissions or transitions to mount or the back.

My first roll was with a newly minted blue belt. He worked to pass my guard for a while as I tried to get some butterfly action going, however, his base and posture were excellent, so I was unable to get him moving around enough to effect a sweep. Eventually he ended up in my closed guard and I immediately started working for the flower sweep. I eventually set it up and swept to mount, however, after a botched armbar attempt I bailed and settled into sidemount. The rest of the round expired as I attempted to look for a lock or choke without giving up position and he tried to escape. Overall it wasn't a bad roll, just somewhat boring and conservative.

Second roll was with another fresh blue. He pulled guard and I passed without too much trouble. I started working my usual sidemount game, actively being more aggressive this time around so as to avoid a stale round. We spent some time transitioning between sidemount and north south as he worked for various escapes, but I was very diligent about keeping my head and shoulders planted on his stomach, so none of the escapes were very effective. Eventually I took the back by giftwrapping and getting a penn-state grip. I spent the rest of the round working for a clock choke, but then time ran out.

Final roll was with an older purple. When I say older, I mean waay older. Probably in his late 60's if I had to guess. Despite his age, he's rock solid. His game has zero holes for submissions and his base is phenomenal. Most of the first part consisted of me trying to play butterfly and him dominating my hooks. Eventually I got my hips underneath him and hit a sweep to sidemount. I spent some time trying to penetrate his defense from there, but as usual there were no holes to exploit. Eventually, I hit the penn state grip again and took his back, and the round expired as I worked for a collar choke and negated his escape attempts.

The big lesson was to look for the harness BEFORE taking the back. Despite having the back, it was a complete stalemate because I couldn't get anything under his arms. I was glad that I was able to effectively counter the scoop, but maintaining position was the best I could do. I was not able to mount a serious offense.

Beginner's Class 7/19/2010

Tonight we covered a standing guillotine setup, a guillotine counter, and a guard break and pass.

The setup was based on your typical underhook tieup, and also assumes that your opponent drops their level, presumably to shoot or set up a throw of some sort. The first step is to ditch the underhook and wizzer their underhooking arm, with the idea of giving you enough room to slip your free arm in for the guillotine. Danny prefers grabbing the chin, but my arms are to long for that to be practical for me.

Next, you step away from the wizzer in order to get the space to sink the choking arm deeper. At this point, I discovered that the standard guillotine may not be the ideal move for me. I kept sinking my arm too deep to hit an effective guillotine by grabbing my wrist. Instead, I think that the front-naked grip might be a better option for me. Regardless, the finish comes by lifting your wrist and rotating your elbow toward your own belly button. Also, performing the hard to describe tightening that is part of any choke.

If the opponent tries to counter, Danny showed a method for pulling them into your guard and killing the counter: basically, you step on their toes with one foot and lift the other to establish closed guard. Finishing from this position comes by scooting your hips in the same direction that you're trying to rotate your choking arm.

The guillotine counter was more or less standard fare: the hand on the choking arm side grabs their hand to relieve pressure while the other arm goes over the shoulder to help maintain shoulder pressure as you tripod onto their neck. Walk your legs and rotate your hips such that you prevent them from turning their hips in the right direction. Break the grip, slip your head out, and establish posture.

The guard break was based on a lapel grip in the solar plexus, and and additional grip further down the collar and a hidden elbow in the thigh. Stand up and use the knee on the side you have the higher lapel grip and rotate their hips. Pop with the elbow on the knee and open. Single stack pass, dragging the lapel through the legs.

My first roll was with a blue belt whose name I don't remember. Most of the roll consisted of my maintaining sidemount as he was in running-man posture. I was trying to get a collar to set up some sort of choke, but his defense was really tight, so rather than trying to muscle I made some attempts to head to KOB or take the back or mount, but his defense was still too good. Eventually, he attempted to roll to guard, but since I was well aware that that was his intent, I followed him and forced him to turtle. Once there, I worked on setting up a clock choke, but he defended well again and I was unable to pull it off. Fortunately I had a one-on-one on the far side and got my knee inside his shell, which made it very hard for him to roll me despite controlling my hand that had been going for his collar. Eventually I managed to scoop his arm with my leg with the idea of going for a crucifix, but he moved his arm to reverse omoplata position on his own, so I went for it. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish and he escaped because I neglected to secure his leg as I rolled. I will have to remember to do that next time I try this move. He ended up in my guard and we stalemated there until the end of the round.

My next roll was with a huge dude who was all kinds of abrasive. I swept him using butterfly guard and he tried to derp-press me off him. I armbarred him in short order and we reset. This time he passed my guard and made no attempt to do anything except smoosh my face from sidemount. I kept my leg up and before long he gave me space enough to recover butterfly guard. I went for a sweep, but through a combination of my sloppiness and his massive bulk, he passed and I had to scramble for closed. From there, he went right into more face-mashing, still without trying for a submission. I nearly set up a flower-sweep, but I was frustrated and tired and thereby failed to set it up nice and clean. I did not succeed, and with about a minute left in the round I tapped to face smashing/exhaustion.

I was severely miffed after this roll, and I realize that it's almost entirely because I'm frustrated with myself for not being good enough to lay waste to dumbasses who go out of their way to do bad jiu jitsu. I also realize that the only way to get better is to roll with said people. Sigh.

My third roll was with a fellow white belt. I started off by passing his guard without too much trouble. He also went right for running man (I guess people have been reading Jiu Jitsu University left and right) and I worked to set up a collar choke. At one point, I goofed up and played some open guard. I caught myself being super lazy and basically playing without my hands, at which point I gussied up and actually worked for a sweep, which felt like a total bullshit sweep; I grabbed his ankle, put my foot on the same knee, underhooked his other leg and rode into a guard pass. I started setting up the same choke, and I was certain I would get the choke, but did not. Instead I transitioned to the back and spent some time switching between triple attack position and back, eventually setting up an armbar and finishing it with a few seconds left on the clock.

First Post

This log will be where I keep all of my notes from jiu jitsu, along with all of my hopes and dreams.