Yes, it's overdue again. Was hoping to write something on the weekend. But I was away all day Sunday due to a trip to the far west of Victoria to pick up some horses. Nine hours in the car, one and a half catching, loading and looking at some other horses. A long day. No motivation to sit in front of computers afterwards...
So, back to last week, which was another marathon event with seven training sessions over six days.
Monday night's focus was on transitions. Part of the time I worked with blue belts, part of the time with brand new guys. So that included some time teaching a couple of them one of the basic drills.
Tuesday night I went to Geelong with one of the guys for another advanced class at John Will's Blackbelt Studios. We started with an interesting new (to me) warmup with partners consisting of 30 second intervals of activity broken up by a few seconds to change position. The activities were figure four (kimura) from guard, armbars from mount, armbar from guard, a sqat to lunge position with one hand on the floor, then jump up to both feet and straighten before coming down on the other knee and hand. The last activity was an awkward stand up in guard, sprawl, back to knees, stand again routine. Then it was the other partner's turn. We sure were warm at the end of it...
During the class we worked on guillotine chokes and the arm in variety. We drilled that from sprawl when the bottom person is turtled. First the no arm version, then the arm in version and finally how to change grips from one to the other. We also went over the guillotine defence (go to side opposite where the head is trapped, reach over the shoulder and behind the neck and drive shoulder into the throat), so that it was obvious why it's necessary to get one leg over our partner's back when we do the choke. It clarified the whole issue of which way the choked person should go and therefore which the choking person should prevent him from going. Cleared up a bunch of vague ideas in my head, and I found I could pull these chokes off well during drills. Definitily will add to my toolbox!
Rest of the class was rolling. Aside from a kick to my head from a petite blond lady (who profusely apologised), it went quite well. I managed to move around and go for subs, even if I didn't finish many. Some rolls were timed, and for some of the time we would go fast and hunt for new positions and then have a thirty second period to stall and hold position. That in itself was interesting and changed the way we rolled. I was pretty much manhandled by a purple belt during one of these rolls, but it was all good :-)
I stayed for the intermediate class after. Which means the 3-4 stripe white belts warmed up with any coloured belts who chose to stay. So I got a few more rolls in. As before, I felt good. Some of theses guys are very good and they are fun to roll with. I also had a roll with the brown belt instructor, who used to teach at our school. He destroyed me first roll and toyed while he set me up for a knee bar. But second roll didn't use all of his 100+kg weight and I managed some good escapes, attempted to theaten his limbs and had a ball.
The class concentrated on triangles. I was paired up with a sizeable white belt who was excellent to work with. We drilled a fair bit, concentrating on details, such as turning out the leg that's hooked over our ankle. Then we did some more rolling and then a movement/sensitivity drill working around triangles. We triangled our partner who would defend by coming around and trying to stack. With an arm on his hip and an arm on his shoulder, we hip out to escape, but then slide a knee under his armpit and the other shin under his neck. The knee squeeze traps his arm. To defend, he will straighten up, which allows us to swing the bottom leg over his back and set up a triangle on the other side. All we need to do is change our angle to him. And then we go round again.
One last lot of rolls saw me paired up with a 140kg bloke. Oh boy... I would have liked to have gone to his back, but his wingspan and his vice grips prevented that. Made the mistake of attempting closed guard but with all of his weight coming over, I soon saw the folly of that. So feet on hips, and get distance. For the first time ever, I saw the need and a value in spiderguard :-) So that's where I went, and back to feet on hips for a few times, until I saw a chance to go for a triangle. But yeah, it was an attempt only, no way did I look better than a necklace on him, when he postured up :-)) But it was fun. AND I didn't get squashed before time was up. I view that as a victory :-))
Wednesday's midday class was mainly about knee ride. I now know that I have to pour the pressure on. I can't hope to hold a semblance of a knee ride unless I pull up and stick that knee in. Doesn't stop me from feeling like an AH while I do it though. I worked with one of the big blue belts, who made me feel for his sternum and lower ribs and wouldn't let me rest until it was ugly for him.. Thank you :-) We also played with... wait for it... spider guard. Yeah! I'm really starting to see the value of open guard types with the bigger guys. And I'm starting to get the hang of going from one to the other and back to closed. It's liberating and it's expanding my game.
Wednesday evening was mostly rolling for all but the really new guys. Didn't do anything fantastic, mainly defended. Mind, I did wear one of the guys out ;-) But aside from getting someone's back once, and sinking one guillotine choke on someone else, I was mostly on the bottom. Hey ho, more chance to practice escapes!!
Thursdays's open mat was not huge. I really only rolled with white belts, including some fairly new ones. My goal was solely to get them to relax and roll. My constant: slow down! breathe! relax! stop, think! probably got on their nerves. But lo and behold, I managed to not only get them to slow down, but use less muscle. There were several rolls where we really just flowed through positions, they didn't go rigid when I swept them, and they didn't go rigid when they swept me. And in every case, little lights went on, they admitted they "saw" sweeps and submissions. And they felt they could keep going without gassing. So I hope that they will remember some of it and use it :-)
Friday's session saw three purple belts on the mat, a couple of blues and only a few whites. For our small school, that's unusual. It was great. We worked on guillotines and a variation of the grip which allows it to work even if we do it from guard bottom and our opponent passes our legs (to the correct escape side). The rest of the class was rolling which was totally enjoyable. I was accused of being aggressive (in a positive sense) and on the hunt for stuff. I thought that was a bit of an overstatement. But I really had fun!
Saturday was armbars and triangles. And the variation of armbar I've named "armbar from hell" because it's slow and methodical and really hard to escape (except if I do it, because I STILL can't get it 100% right).
Showing posts with label triangles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label triangles. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
open mat
After nearly six straight hours of lectures and lab sessions at uni, I was ready for some physical activity by the end of the day.
I'm still working on not giving my back and avoiding going to turtle. That's working pretty well now, and it's making me more active in re-guarding. Of course it means I get flattened more often. But that's a great incentive to get out, isn't it ;-) I have no choice but to have active hips. Interesting to see that I lacked strength there so I didn't ever use them effectively for shrimping and bridging. I don't know if they got strong first and so I improved my technique, or whether using better technique made them stronger. Probably both. Anyway, I feel much more effective now.
Yeah, so as usual I spent a fair bit of time under large white belts. Mostly, they get nothing on me, but every time I finally escape and get somewhere, I tend to get swept or otherwise manhandled and dragged floorside. I had a brief moment of frustration and had to remind myself sternly that BJJ = FUN. And that the only pressure is the pressure I put on myself. After that: cool. I even swept my large nemesis. Twice. I know I frustrate him endlessly, because he can't get much, and he pins me because that's what he knows. But once, he set up a figure four from mount with good base. I could not roll him and I couldn't get my arm back, and he really did it with perfect pressure. I absolutely complimented him for it!!
A bit later, he tried to triangle me, but as always, I just pass him at that point. So we worked on his triangles for a bit, which I think will help him.
I had several rolls with a purple belt. As always, I still walk into traps. I do recognise them a bit earlier now, so sometimes I can get out. But woe betide if he gets an underhook, no matter where you start, it's a one way street to an armbar.... I got swept and hated myself for being so easy to sweep. That was the bad bits. The good bits were me getting out of some armbar attempts. One roll started with him in my guard and as he was stepping over my leg, I snared his arm behind his back. I held on doggedly and we rolled twice, but I did pull off the figure four from half guard eventually. Then I had to tap to a few more armbars. A couple of times we stopped when he pointed out something. Like a sweep I just didn't see. Oh yeah, I did manage another submission. Can't remember how it came about, I think I was in sidemount and attacking his arm when I realised his neck was exposed. I moved more behind and put on an RNC. I think it's great that I sometimes see an alternative. Evidently, some things got stuck in the sieve which is called my brain.
As always, rolling with this guy is just the best thing. He had some time off, and I'm so glad he's back.
I was alternatively armbarred or triangled by our longlegged bluebelted king of triangles. I don't know, I'd recently been doing pretty good defending his triangles, but he has now found other ways of making them work. So I have to work out more ways of defending. Or better, not getting in there in the first place. But sheesh, he just has a knack of grabbing an arm and shove!, it's moved and his leg is over your shoulder and you just think: how in hell did he do that?? But in any case, I did thwart him several times, and once I had him in my guard, the boot was on the other foot. I can break him down well but I wasn't confident to try an armbar. So mission control worked a treat, then I went for omoplata. He tried to roll out. I decided to stop that and keep trying for the finish instead of allowing the roll and then sitting on his shoulder. But I stuffed up and then he stepped over and after some weird position I found myself in an ever so familiar triangle :-). One of the purple belts was watching and gave me a couple of pointers in finishing the omoplata. Also he said that while you should let go of stuff, sometimes it's good to keep trying because it helps you troubleshoot and work out how to finish. Basically, you have to make mistakes in learning how to make it perfect. And that's what open mat is perfect for.
I'm still working on not giving my back and avoiding going to turtle. That's working pretty well now, and it's making me more active in re-guarding. Of course it means I get flattened more often. But that's a great incentive to get out, isn't it ;-) I have no choice but to have active hips. Interesting to see that I lacked strength there so I didn't ever use them effectively for shrimping and bridging. I don't know if they got strong first and so I improved my technique, or whether using better technique made them stronger. Probably both. Anyway, I feel much more effective now.
Yeah, so as usual I spent a fair bit of time under large white belts. Mostly, they get nothing on me, but every time I finally escape and get somewhere, I tend to get swept or otherwise manhandled and dragged floorside. I had a brief moment of frustration and had to remind myself sternly that BJJ = FUN. And that the only pressure is the pressure I put on myself. After that: cool. I even swept my large nemesis. Twice. I know I frustrate him endlessly, because he can't get much, and he pins me because that's what he knows. But once, he set up a figure four from mount with good base. I could not roll him and I couldn't get my arm back, and he really did it with perfect pressure. I absolutely complimented him for it!!
A bit later, he tried to triangle me, but as always, I just pass him at that point. So we worked on his triangles for a bit, which I think will help him.
I had several rolls with a purple belt. As always, I still walk into traps. I do recognise them a bit earlier now, so sometimes I can get out. But woe betide if he gets an underhook, no matter where you start, it's a one way street to an armbar.... I got swept and hated myself for being so easy to sweep. That was the bad bits. The good bits were me getting out of some armbar attempts. One roll started with him in my guard and as he was stepping over my leg, I snared his arm behind his back. I held on doggedly and we rolled twice, but I did pull off the figure four from half guard eventually. Then I had to tap to a few more armbars. A couple of times we stopped when he pointed out something. Like a sweep I just didn't see. Oh yeah, I did manage another submission. Can't remember how it came about, I think I was in sidemount and attacking his arm when I realised his neck was exposed. I moved more behind and put on an RNC. I think it's great that I sometimes see an alternative. Evidently, some things got stuck in the sieve which is called my brain.
As always, rolling with this guy is just the best thing. He had some time off, and I'm so glad he's back.
I was alternatively armbarred or triangled by our longlegged bluebelted king of triangles. I don't know, I'd recently been doing pretty good defending his triangles, but he has now found other ways of making them work. So I have to work out more ways of defending. Or better, not getting in there in the first place. But sheesh, he just has a knack of grabbing an arm and shove!, it's moved and his leg is over your shoulder and you just think: how in hell did he do that?? But in any case, I did thwart him several times, and once I had him in my guard, the boot was on the other foot. I can break him down well but I wasn't confident to try an armbar. So mission control worked a treat, then I went for omoplata. He tried to roll out. I decided to stop that and keep trying for the finish instead of allowing the roll and then sitting on his shoulder. But I stuffed up and then he stepped over and after some weird position I found myself in an ever so familiar triangle :-). One of the purple belts was watching and gave me a couple of pointers in finishing the omoplata. Also he said that while you should let go of stuff, sometimes it's good to keep trying because it helps you troubleshoot and work out how to finish. Basically, you have to make mistakes in learning how to make it perfect. And that's what open mat is perfect for.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
I watched a purple belt grading
Last Saturday, we had a grading. I just went along for the fun. A few white belts got their first stripe. What was fun to watch was someone testing for purple belt.
He had to work hard, there were countless rounds of wrestling and then more and then some more... His technique is obviously good, as despite fatigue, he did really well. It really was impressive to watch. I was so pleased for him, too. He is one of the nicest guys in our school.
On the one hand it scares me to see what's expected, on the other hand, it's something to aspire to. Not that I need to worry about getting to that level for a few years yet....
I've been to four other classes.
Last Friday we warmed up as usual, but did some standing pummeling as well. Then we worked on the transition from lockdown to whip up to dogfight. Then attacks from dogfight, mainly electric chair and taking the back.
I had a couple of rolls. One with a heavy blue belt who tends to let me work instead of smashing me, but I have to work, so he's a great partner. The other roll was with a young guy who goes 110% every time. He doesn't seem to care for technique, it's all about forcing things with strength and speed, and he's always rattling on about some fancy killer technique he saw on youtube.... Gah. As one of the other guys said, thankfully Mr.110% doesn't come very often. I made a mistake, he got my back, and rather than having my jaw crushed, I tapped to his rnc. Before going home, I watched one of the blue belts taking him down a peg.
On Monday, we drilled four attacks from closed guard: armbar, triangle, take the back and a cross lapel choke. The choke setup is to overhook one arm and grab the far lapel. With this, we can control the posture of the person in our guard and the collar is anchored down. Also, he loses the use of one arm. With the other hand, we can then reach into the opposite collar and go for the choke.
Wednesday lunchtime, we also did cross lapel chokes. I worked with one of the very new guys, who was a bit timid and unsure to grab hold of my collar properly and choke hard. I assured him that I'd tap if it works, but he was still being super careful, when the instructor came over and gave him the "you should not be NICE to her" and "she will choke YOU" lectures :-) . After that, his chokes weren't bad. In all, we drilled the choke from mount quite a bit, then we did three variations of grips for the same choke from closed guard.
On Wednesday evening, we worked on rubber guard and drilled the transition from mission control to chill dog (bleh, I hate those stupid names!) and then jiuw claw. We also looked into how we can get an armbar from mission control or chill dog. And how to get the triangle from mission control. I'm getting the hang of this stuff and it helps to have long legs and reasonable flexibility. The only issue I have sometimes is that due to the length of my legs, it can be hard to get my feet on their hips. But maybe I'm just not in a good position, maybe I need to adust by scooting up a bit first. Of course, having broken them down, it's hard to move myself, being sandwiched between mat and my partner's body. I think this needs a bit more work. But I have had success with rubber guard, so I'll keep working on it.
I had a couple of rolls. One thing I saw in some instructional the other day was to deflect people's arms as they are passing one's guard, this denies them the abiltiy to settle and gives me room to hip escape and regain guard. I tried that when the opportunity came up, and I had partial success. So that's something else I'm going to work on.
I've also been watching Rigan Machado's instructional on triangles, and without being aware of it, I started buggerising around with open guard, spider guard even and looked for a triangle. Then my partner laughed and said: funny, that looks like a Rigan move. Well, he's the guy who lent me the dvd :-)
He had to work hard, there were countless rounds of wrestling and then more and then some more... His technique is obviously good, as despite fatigue, he did really well. It really was impressive to watch. I was so pleased for him, too. He is one of the nicest guys in our school.
On the one hand it scares me to see what's expected, on the other hand, it's something to aspire to. Not that I need to worry about getting to that level for a few years yet....
I've been to four other classes.
Last Friday we warmed up as usual, but did some standing pummeling as well. Then we worked on the transition from lockdown to whip up to dogfight. Then attacks from dogfight, mainly electric chair and taking the back.
I had a couple of rolls. One with a heavy blue belt who tends to let me work instead of smashing me, but I have to work, so he's a great partner. The other roll was with a young guy who goes 110% every time. He doesn't seem to care for technique, it's all about forcing things with strength and speed, and he's always rattling on about some fancy killer technique he saw on youtube.... Gah. As one of the other guys said, thankfully Mr.110% doesn't come very often. I made a mistake, he got my back, and rather than having my jaw crushed, I tapped to his rnc. Before going home, I watched one of the blue belts taking him down a peg.
On Monday, we drilled four attacks from closed guard: armbar, triangle, take the back and a cross lapel choke. The choke setup is to overhook one arm and grab the far lapel. With this, we can control the posture of the person in our guard and the collar is anchored down. Also, he loses the use of one arm. With the other hand, we can then reach into the opposite collar and go for the choke.
Wednesday lunchtime, we also did cross lapel chokes. I worked with one of the very new guys, who was a bit timid and unsure to grab hold of my collar properly and choke hard. I assured him that I'd tap if it works, but he was still being super careful, when the instructor came over and gave him the "you should not be NICE to her" and "she will choke YOU" lectures :-) . After that, his chokes weren't bad. In all, we drilled the choke from mount quite a bit, then we did three variations of grips for the same choke from closed guard.
On Wednesday evening, we worked on rubber guard and drilled the transition from mission control to chill dog (bleh, I hate those stupid names!) and then jiuw claw. We also looked into how we can get an armbar from mission control or chill dog. And how to get the triangle from mission control. I'm getting the hang of this stuff and it helps to have long legs and reasonable flexibility. The only issue I have sometimes is that due to the length of my legs, it can be hard to get my feet on their hips. But maybe I'm just not in a good position, maybe I need to adust by scooting up a bit first. Of course, having broken them down, it's hard to move myself, being sandwiched between mat and my partner's body. I think this needs a bit more work. But I have had success with rubber guard, so I'll keep working on it.
I had a couple of rolls. One thing I saw in some instructional the other day was to deflect people's arms as they are passing one's guard, this denies them the abiltiy to settle and gives me room to hip escape and regain guard. I tried that when the opportunity came up, and I had partial success. So that's something else I'm going to work on.
I've also been watching Rigan Machado's instructional on triangles, and without being aware of it, I started buggerising around with open guard, spider guard even and looked for a triangle. Then my partner laughed and said: funny, that looks like a Rigan move. Well, he's the guy who lent me the dvd :-)
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