Due to the silly season coming up and people being on holidays, we are having a shortened timetable for most of December. No day classes and no open mat. Pout!
I was roped into taking last Monday's class. After the warm up I made everyone roll for some ten minutes. My instructions were: no submission, look at moving a lot, going from position to position, making it at flowing as possible. Avoid muscling, gripping, smashing etc. I watched and made suggestions. I think maybe, just maybe, I saw some lighter, smoother rolling. It's something I think we must all work on.
I spent some time on teaching the technical stand up and made people do a drill where they have to hip escape, then do an open guard type butt scoot to the same side and then follow it up with a get up. After that, get back down and repeat on the other side. I find that a useful drill for mobility.
Lastly, I went through posture in guard, how to protect from chokes and to keep arms safe. How to close elbows and why, how to strip a grip to get posture. Also why it's unwise to sit back too far, to put hands on the mat or to cross the centreline. Hopefully, this will help some of the newer guys.
Finished off with more rolling. Sadly, I missed out myself. Oh well.
One of the purple belts taught Wednesday and Friday. We went no-gi and did rubber guard basics. It's been a while since we've done any of that in class, and some of the guys had never seen it. So it was all basic stuff on how to break down posture and get mission control. Next step was to get the arm to the floor using the zombie (the sound effects to demonstrate this move really were cool!). Then we got to New York and finally chill dog.
On Friday, we added the jiu claw setup as well. And a attack if our opponent postures up and then rolls forward. We let him start to roll but then hold his legs and transition to side control. That was neat.
Oh, I still detest the names, but wonder of wonders, I'm starting to remember them :-). The only thing I hadn't seen before was rescue dog. Say we can't get an arm to the floor using the zombie, we can threaten a sweep or put on pressure with the forearm on his collarbone in mission control. He may well put his other arm on the floor to brace. So we switch our legs and go straight to New York on the other side. We actually did a side to side drill to react to hands touching the mat.
I can't imagine rubber guard as a be all and end all or something to use exclusively. I also don't like it on big strong guys, as they just stack me up or bust out. But I've found I successfully mix it up with open and closed guard as another holding position, especially on people more my size. I have long legs and good flexibility, so it suits me. I'm also a happy guard player, so it fits into my game. I'm still working on having more knee pressure to avoid a guard pass on the side where me foot is on their hip. But that's getting better, and in any case, there is a neat shoulder lock (the Carney?) if they step over my leg to pass my guard while I have their arm trapped. I nearly pulled that off on a guy the other day, except the bell went off :-)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
grading
We finished off the week with a grading. Not for me, hehe. Like the other two coloured belts, I was just there just to help out.
13 guys turned up and tested for stripes. It was a bit hot and it was quite humid. Those of us who had attended the seminar the night before could all feel the pain a bit.... By the time we had a few rounds of rolling at the end, I and the other seminar veterans were a bit on the tired side :-)
But it was a great session. The guys did really well. Everyone put in a solid performance and worked their butts off. A great way to finish off the week.
It was the last session for the year with our instructor who is heading off on well deserved holidays. We have another couple of weeks of classes in December before we break off for holidays. The teaching will be split between the coloured belts. And yours truly is taking Monday evening's class. By then, I my legs should be working again properly!
13 guys turned up and tested for stripes. It was a bit hot and it was quite humid. Those of us who had attended the seminar the night before could all feel the pain a bit.... By the time we had a few rounds of rolling at the end, I and the other seminar veterans were a bit on the tired side :-)
But it was a great session. The guys did really well. Everyone put in a solid performance and worked their butts off. A great way to finish off the week.
It was the last session for the year with our instructor who is heading off on well deserved holidays. We have another couple of weeks of classes in December before we break off for holidays. The teaching will be split between the coloured belts. And yours truly is taking Monday evening's class. By then, I my legs should be working again properly!
Friday night seminar
Friday night was different. We had a visiting instructor for a combined BJJ and strength & conditioning seminar. Craig Robinson is a Will-Machado black belt from Geelong. He and his wife run Bring It On Fitness and are about to open Bring it On Combat.
I've met Craig before. First time was at John Will's Blackbelt Studios in early 2009. I was a two stripe white belt at the time and I'd come along for the ride with one of the guys who attended the advanced class down there. Craig generously allowed me to join his intermediate class afterwards (white belts 3 stripes and up). That was a bit of an eye opener at the time, but what most stuck in my mind was rolling with Craig. Well, who wouldn't remember the first time they rolled with a BJJ BB???
Anyway, one of our guys had organised Craig to come up and hold the seminar. Unfortunately, only 7 from our school could make it. But that was more quality time with Craig for those of us who came :-)
Craig brought medicine balls with him. We got a talk about the usefulness of balls and the need for core exercises to improve posture and for strength. We did some tabbata interval warmups involving squats and medicine ball throws. Then we went right into squats with medicine balls, burpess on the balls with a jump up and lots of mountain climbers. It was done in sets of 3, 4 and 5 (1,2,3 x 50 mountain climbers). And then we did it all over again.
We was sweating. :-P
Craig has a special way to be motivating, coaxing, praising, nagging, cursing. In the end, everyone succeeded.
We did some stuff on grips and controls from standing, using push and pull to control our opponent and get him off balance. From there we went on to an entry to a single leg takedown and a very simple takedown. We got a chance for everyone to try it on everyone else for quite a few reps. Then we looked at attacks flowing straight from that takedown. One being a legbar, the other an armbar. Both incredibly simple and effective. Last technique was a foot choke straight from the armbar.
After that, we did four minute rounds of rolling. Craig joined in so everyone had to wrestle seven other people, with no breaks inbetween. I'll admit I haven't wrestled so fatigued for a long time :-)
But we all got the chance to roll with Craig, which was fantastic. He got me in a nasty collar choke from a place I never expected. Haha. But it's fascinating how black belts can turn "it" on and off to adapt to the level of their training partners. Wouldn't it be great to possess such skill?!
We finished off the session with some more squats and burpees. How many I really don't remember.
Then it was question time. I asked if it was good to use kettlebells for the squats he urged us to be doing regularly. He said sure, as long as the technique is good. And to do the squats in all sorts of variations. Not only to keep in interesting, but also to challenge the body in different ways.
Another question asked was how to escape switch base side control (we all know a big brown belt who LOVES that position!). Craig showed us a different way to the escape we'd learned. It's one I will be trying out soon, seeing I get stuck in that position quite a bit, and the standard escape I can't pull off (yet??).
So, it was a great seminar. I was somewhat tired afterwards, and he promised sore legs. I can attest to that, he wasn't wrong... I hope he will come and do another one early next year. He is a funny guy. He doesn't spare the verbal whip but he is very inspirational and makes you feel good about your achievements.
I've met Craig before. First time was at John Will's Blackbelt Studios in early 2009. I was a two stripe white belt at the time and I'd come along for the ride with one of the guys who attended the advanced class down there. Craig generously allowed me to join his intermediate class afterwards (white belts 3 stripes and up). That was a bit of an eye opener at the time, but what most stuck in my mind was rolling with Craig. Well, who wouldn't remember the first time they rolled with a BJJ BB???
Anyway, one of our guys had organised Craig to come up and hold the seminar. Unfortunately, only 7 from our school could make it. But that was more quality time with Craig for those of us who came :-)
Craig brought medicine balls with him. We got a talk about the usefulness of balls and the need for core exercises to improve posture and for strength. We did some tabbata interval warmups involving squats and medicine ball throws. Then we went right into squats with medicine balls, burpess on the balls with a jump up and lots of mountain climbers. It was done in sets of 3, 4 and 5 (1,2,3 x 50 mountain climbers). And then we did it all over again.
We was sweating. :-P
Craig has a special way to be motivating, coaxing, praising, nagging, cursing. In the end, everyone succeeded.
We did some stuff on grips and controls from standing, using push and pull to control our opponent and get him off balance. From there we went on to an entry to a single leg takedown and a very simple takedown. We got a chance for everyone to try it on everyone else for quite a few reps. Then we looked at attacks flowing straight from that takedown. One being a legbar, the other an armbar. Both incredibly simple and effective. Last technique was a foot choke straight from the armbar.
After that, we did four minute rounds of rolling. Craig joined in so everyone had to wrestle seven other people, with no breaks inbetween. I'll admit I haven't wrestled so fatigued for a long time :-)
But we all got the chance to roll with Craig, which was fantastic. He got me in a nasty collar choke from a place I never expected. Haha. But it's fascinating how black belts can turn "it" on and off to adapt to the level of their training partners. Wouldn't it be great to possess such skill?!
We finished off the session with some more squats and burpees. How many I really don't remember.
Then it was question time. I asked if it was good to use kettlebells for the squats he urged us to be doing regularly. He said sure, as long as the technique is good. And to do the squats in all sorts of variations. Not only to keep in interesting, but also to challenge the body in different ways.
Another question asked was how to escape switch base side control (we all know a big brown belt who LOVES that position!). Craig showed us a different way to the escape we'd learned. It's one I will be trying out soon, seeing I get stuck in that position quite a bit, and the standard escape I can't pull off (yet??).
So, it was a great seminar. I was somewhat tired afterwards, and he promised sore legs. I can attest to that, he wasn't wrong... I hope he will come and do another one early next year. He is a funny guy. He doesn't spare the verbal whip but he is very inspirational and makes you feel good about your achievements.
Friday, December 3, 2010
life's good
After last Monday's low point, I had some really good training during the week.
Wednesday's class was small and I had mostly one on one time with the instructor. I asked some questions about problems I'm having with people using a low smashing guard pass on me, and he gave me several suggestions. As I thought, the main part of my tactics needs to be transitioning to open guard. I'm abandoning closed guard too late instead of being pro-active. So we spent a fair bit of time on that. He showed me ways to transition and to defend the smash and stack. Then we rolled a bit, always starting with him in my closed guard.
He has exactly the body type that gives me a lot of trouble. Solid and heavy. He ramped up the pressure to pass as we went on. And we did post-mortems when I failed. I failed a lot :-) But I was getting it, and towards the end, I was doing a much better job, in fact started threatening him, and once even getting his back.
Not only did that restore my faith in my own abilities (which had been sorely challenged on Monday), but it also addressed some of the issues I've been having which I needed help with anyway.
For Thursday night's open mat I decided to go no-gi. About half of us did, the rest wore a gi. I finally had a chance to roll with two purple belts. Hehe, I tapped a lot and learned a lot. I felt fluid and did some attacking, a sweep here and there. Good stuff, much fun.
Then rolled with two of the white belts and we all had a ball. I try to hit that balance between working my top and attack game and letting them have a play, too. As we all had a lot of fun, I must have succeeded at least partially :-)
One of them has a preference for the Peruvian Necktie, and although he is smaller than myself, once he gets his grips it, one better watch out, he catches people!! Both the guys have made huge progress and both are the right balance of aggressive without spazzing. They are pretty near my size, a bit lighter, so being a selfish sort of a person, I really like to roll with them. I get a chance to work sweeps and I can try new stuff. But as they are getting quicker and better, I can't let my guard down with them, or they'll have me :-)
Wednesday's class was small and I had mostly one on one time with the instructor. I asked some questions about problems I'm having with people using a low smashing guard pass on me, and he gave me several suggestions. As I thought, the main part of my tactics needs to be transitioning to open guard. I'm abandoning closed guard too late instead of being pro-active. So we spent a fair bit of time on that. He showed me ways to transition and to defend the smash and stack. Then we rolled a bit, always starting with him in my closed guard.
He has exactly the body type that gives me a lot of trouble. Solid and heavy. He ramped up the pressure to pass as we went on. And we did post-mortems when I failed. I failed a lot :-) But I was getting it, and towards the end, I was doing a much better job, in fact started threatening him, and once even getting his back.
Not only did that restore my faith in my own abilities (which had been sorely challenged on Monday), but it also addressed some of the issues I've been having which I needed help with anyway.
For Thursday night's open mat I decided to go no-gi. About half of us did, the rest wore a gi. I finally had a chance to roll with two purple belts. Hehe, I tapped a lot and learned a lot. I felt fluid and did some attacking, a sweep here and there. Good stuff, much fun.
Then rolled with two of the white belts and we all had a ball. I try to hit that balance between working my top and attack game and letting them have a play, too. As we all had a lot of fun, I must have succeeded at least partially :-)
One of them has a preference for the Peruvian Necktie, and although he is smaller than myself, once he gets his grips it, one better watch out, he catches people!! Both the guys have made huge progress and both are the right balance of aggressive without spazzing. They are pretty near my size, a bit lighter, so being a selfish sort of a person, I really like to roll with them. I get a chance to work sweeps and I can try new stuff. But as they are getting quicker and better, I can't let my guard down with them, or they'll have me :-)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
hmmm...
I'm still not totally back to "fighting fit". Felt pretty bleh! on Monday, but went to class anyway.
Dear oh dear, even the warm up felt tough... So I was pretty glad that we started with drills. Was assigned a pretty new white belt and worked through one movement drill he knows but needs to practice. And another drill he didn't know. He has a shortened forearm and a hand with less fingers, so we had to modify some grips.
I've worked with him a couple of times before. He's the nicest guy. Very tense and stiff, like all newbies of course. But I think that if he can stick out the hard yards at the beginning, he will make jiu jitsu work for him. I think it's fantastic that he's giving it a go. I have no experience at all with people who (I'm not sure if this is politically correct to say like this, but here goes...) are shaped different to how I am and I can't know how their shape changes/limits 'normal' movement patterns. So I have asked him to tell me if he has trouble doing what I ask and make suggestions on how we can modify it to achieve the objective. This is a learning curve for him, and for me, too.
Anyway, we worked through two of the drills and he made good progress until I was re-assigned.
I worked with another blue belt. We did some open guard stuff. I say stuff because it wasn't anything specific, it was more concepts and experimenting with positions of feet and knees and complementary grips. Instructor called it the glue that holds things together.
I re-discovered a limitation of strength in my lower back in a certain position and experimented with working around that. Helps to have a good partner!! We had a play with a sweep if our partner pushes forward into us. This I had a few problems with, mainly because I felt flat and the brain wasn't fully engaged. Still, I picked up a lot of valuable stuff, both the open guard options and transitions and the sweep.
And then we were told to roll. Well, well. That was where I really couldn't get my act together. Body said "go away" and brain went on vacation. Damn. In fact, I felt so powerless and unco that I virtually laid back like a limp sausage. I actually caught myself thinking: yeah, do it, get it over with, as he started to put on an armwrap from mount and set up a choke. And then I suddenly thought that wasn't good enough and I ought to be ashamed of myself. So I finally started fighting. And I got out of there. He let me work a little, but not without putting on a fair bit of pressure. No freebies. Still, I regained guard, but he was passing immediately by blocking my foot. I couldn't stop him and was getting pretty annoyed with myself. That's when our instructor stepped in (I hadn't realised he'd been watching). He showed me a really simple way to get the other foot in, on his hip and make space to negate the technique my partner was using to pass my guard. It was SO obvious that I was embarrassed :-(
So we went again. Similar deal, I didn't get a good position, in fact, as he dragged me forward, I bruised my right knee. That's what you get when you are too stupid to move well.... Oh boy. Then it went to switch back side control, where I ended up NOT being able to do the bump and sweep technique. It is one of those things I struggle with. And instead of saying I will learn and I will perfect this technique, I've been saying I can't do it and it's so hard against bigger people. So guess what? I can't do it. And I get caught. At that moment, I could have crawled into the cracks between the mats. Still, we reset and went on.
Ended up defending from bottom of side mount. Generally not a place which is too scary, but this time, I flopped and floundered and uselessly bucked around. Not really blue belt standard, that much was clear. We were stopped again, and the instructor pointed out what I was doing. He didn't call it useless or silly (though it surely was!), but he did a good impression of what my legs were doing... Which was bugger all. By this stage I was beginning to really want to be elsewhere. Then he showed us a really neat way of escaping that very position which I'd never seen before. He explained how it worked and why and then unfortunately, time was up.
Not my brightest day. I apologised to my partner for being useless and not being much of a partner. Oh, and for being a tad.... emotional. Oh, how I hate it when that happens. He told me not to be silly, and reminded me we all have shitty days. He's right, of course. I'm lucky to have nice, level headed people around me.
Well, all I want is for my body to return to normal operating levels, so that I can have fun and feel at least reasonably competent :-) I decided against a double session down at Geelong tonight, as I want to make sure my body recovers and I get back to normal. I'm going to class tomorrow, and we have a guest instructor for a two hour session on Friday night. I want to make sure I'm fit as a fiddle by then. On Saturday, there will be a grading. I'm only helping, but it's usually hard going, so I'd like to be fit for that one, too.
Dear oh dear, even the warm up felt tough... So I was pretty glad that we started with drills. Was assigned a pretty new white belt and worked through one movement drill he knows but needs to practice. And another drill he didn't know. He has a shortened forearm and a hand with less fingers, so we had to modify some grips.
I've worked with him a couple of times before. He's the nicest guy. Very tense and stiff, like all newbies of course. But I think that if he can stick out the hard yards at the beginning, he will make jiu jitsu work for him. I think it's fantastic that he's giving it a go. I have no experience at all with people who (I'm not sure if this is politically correct to say like this, but here goes...) are shaped different to how I am and I can't know how their shape changes/limits 'normal' movement patterns. So I have asked him to tell me if he has trouble doing what I ask and make suggestions on how we can modify it to achieve the objective. This is a learning curve for him, and for me, too.
Anyway, we worked through two of the drills and he made good progress until I was re-assigned.
I worked with another blue belt. We did some open guard stuff. I say stuff because it wasn't anything specific, it was more concepts and experimenting with positions of feet and knees and complementary grips. Instructor called it the glue that holds things together.
I re-discovered a limitation of strength in my lower back in a certain position and experimented with working around that. Helps to have a good partner!! We had a play with a sweep if our partner pushes forward into us. This I had a few problems with, mainly because I felt flat and the brain wasn't fully engaged. Still, I picked up a lot of valuable stuff, both the open guard options and transitions and the sweep.
And then we were told to roll. Well, well. That was where I really couldn't get my act together. Body said "go away" and brain went on vacation. Damn. In fact, I felt so powerless and unco that I virtually laid back like a limp sausage. I actually caught myself thinking: yeah, do it, get it over with, as he started to put on an armwrap from mount and set up a choke. And then I suddenly thought that wasn't good enough and I ought to be ashamed of myself. So I finally started fighting. And I got out of there. He let me work a little, but not without putting on a fair bit of pressure. No freebies. Still, I regained guard, but he was passing immediately by blocking my foot. I couldn't stop him and was getting pretty annoyed with myself. That's when our instructor stepped in (I hadn't realised he'd been watching). He showed me a really simple way to get the other foot in, on his hip and make space to negate the technique my partner was using to pass my guard. It was SO obvious that I was embarrassed :-(
So we went again. Similar deal, I didn't get a good position, in fact, as he dragged me forward, I bruised my right knee. That's what you get when you are too stupid to move well.... Oh boy. Then it went to switch back side control, where I ended up NOT being able to do the bump and sweep technique. It is one of those things I struggle with. And instead of saying I will learn and I will perfect this technique, I've been saying I can't do it and it's so hard against bigger people. So guess what? I can't do it. And I get caught. At that moment, I could have crawled into the cracks between the mats. Still, we reset and went on.
Ended up defending from bottom of side mount. Generally not a place which is too scary, but this time, I flopped and floundered and uselessly bucked around. Not really blue belt standard, that much was clear. We were stopped again, and the instructor pointed out what I was doing. He didn't call it useless or silly (though it surely was!), but he did a good impression of what my legs were doing... Which was bugger all. By this stage I was beginning to really want to be elsewhere. Then he showed us a really neat way of escaping that very position which I'd never seen before. He explained how it worked and why and then unfortunately, time was up.
Not my brightest day. I apologised to my partner for being useless and not being much of a partner. Oh, and for being a tad.... emotional. Oh, how I hate it when that happens. He told me not to be silly, and reminded me we all have shitty days. He's right, of course. I'm lucky to have nice, level headed people around me.
Well, all I want is for my body to return to normal operating levels, so that I can have fun and feel at least reasonably competent :-) I decided against a double session down at Geelong tonight, as I want to make sure my body recovers and I get back to normal. I'm going to class tomorrow, and we have a guest instructor for a two hour session on Friday night. I want to make sure I'm fit as a fiddle by then. On Saturday, there will be a grading. I'm only helping, but it's usually hard going, so I'd like to be fit for that one, too.
weird week
The whole last week was all over the place, for all sorts of reasons.
The weather varied from stinking hot and dry to wet and cool. Typical spring weather, I suppose. Not quite "four seasons in a day" but close to it. Lots of thunderstorms. Flash flooding. I picked up someone from the airport on Saturday, and on the way there was delayed by water over the road several times. It rained so heavily, at times the traffic on the freeway slowed from 110km/h to 80 or less.
I had visitors, got some work done around the horses and in the garden. Thankfully, with uni stuff over now, I don't have to worry about studying any more :-).
Oh, and my cold is still hanging in there a bit. I thought it was all done and dusted, but Saturday evening my voice went all funny. So in view of that, it's probably a good thing that I couldn't make it to training (because of trip to airport).
However, as I was fine during the week, I went to open mat on Thursday and class on Friday night. I had some stuff on my mind though. On the one hand I found it a bit hard to let go and concentrate, but on the other hand, time on the mat is MY time. And generally, once I step out of the change room with my gi on, the other 'stuff' is forgotten. Which is another reason why I really love BJJ.
Thurday night was another warm and humid night. I had planned on no gi, but a couple of the guys were getting ready to compete on the weekend (in gi), so I rolled in gi. Most of the session, I worked with the young guy. I gave him problems but made sure that he succeeded in his attacks if they were done properly. I tightened up a few loose bits while we ramped up from very light to a bit harder over several rounds. I've since heard that he came second in his division yesterday, so I'm really, really happy for him :-)
The rest of open mat I spent with the killer whale ;-) ... and I sure got killed. We went no gi, which meant that I had a bit more luck escaping, purely by slithering out of armbars and the like. After, he helped me work on armdrags, for which he has a nicer setup than what I was using. Also, I showed him one of my preferred set ups from closed guard, and he had a couple of recommendations. Just by getting a bit more on my side when I've pulled his elbow to the floor and reached around his far shoulder, I can actually threaten a figure four or a rear choke. So far I'd stayed flat on my back and tried for a cutting armbar (and an armbar if they try to pull that arm out). So I have a couple more options from the same starting point.
Friday night's class was huge. I had one of the new white belts. We worked on the defence to the cross lapel choke from guard, but I had to show him the choke first :-) It was really good actually, because I worked out what I'd been doing wrong with my defence. Instead of just putting my hand to my ear, I need to bring my hand to my forehead and then slide it around and towards my ear. The earlier I get my forearm in across his arms and my hand to my forehead, the better. Leaving it until he has both grips in for good makes it a lot harder. I also found that if he tucked his elbows down once he had his grips, I had a lot of trouble getting my arm in.
We also did some guard passing, starting with light resistance and then working up. All of us with coloured belts had to lie down and everyone else had to pass, taking turns. That was fun :-) And at the end, we did a little bit of rolling, too. Again, I had one of the newbies. Big guy. Nice guy, but oh, working soooo hard, breathing hard and groaning. Doesn't mean to be mean, but can't help but use all of his muscles and all of his weight. Bulldozed me over, I escaped. He grabbed my neck in an attempted front choke which I got out of easily, stepped over and wrapped my arm around his neck from north-south for a choke. He said he didn't even see it coming. Oh, I know just how he feels :-) Funny thing for me was that I rarely go to that position, so it's not one of my regular attacks.
I'm happy that I now have several attacks from all positions, without having to pause and think. I'm also happy that I'm consistently having more luck with dealing with the bigger guys.
I still struggle a lot with heavier guys. I don't usually beat myself up over it. If I have to tap to a heavy white belt, I figure there is no shame in that, not even now that I'm wearing a blue belt. When they are brand new to BJJ, I can have my way with them. But as soon as they learn some basic control techniqus and how to use their weight properly, it's so much harder. I get frustrated at times, because I think I ought to do better. I know I'm not the only one who has these problems, there have been a few posts about this in the blogosphere recently. I really, really need to work on my open guard. But overall, I can see a steady improvement in how I deal with strength and weight and I suppose that by the time I get to purple belt, I'll have a lot more answers than I have now. It's all part of the journey.
The weather varied from stinking hot and dry to wet and cool. Typical spring weather, I suppose. Not quite "four seasons in a day" but close to it. Lots of thunderstorms. Flash flooding. I picked up someone from the airport on Saturday, and on the way there was delayed by water over the road several times. It rained so heavily, at times the traffic on the freeway slowed from 110km/h to 80 or less.
I had visitors, got some work done around the horses and in the garden. Thankfully, with uni stuff over now, I don't have to worry about studying any more :-).
Oh, and my cold is still hanging in there a bit. I thought it was all done and dusted, but Saturday evening my voice went all funny. So in view of that, it's probably a good thing that I couldn't make it to training (because of trip to airport).
However, as I was fine during the week, I went to open mat on Thursday and class on Friday night. I had some stuff on my mind though. On the one hand I found it a bit hard to let go and concentrate, but on the other hand, time on the mat is MY time. And generally, once I step out of the change room with my gi on, the other 'stuff' is forgotten. Which is another reason why I really love BJJ.
Thurday night was another warm and humid night. I had planned on no gi, but a couple of the guys were getting ready to compete on the weekend (in gi), so I rolled in gi. Most of the session, I worked with the young guy. I gave him problems but made sure that he succeeded in his attacks if they were done properly. I tightened up a few loose bits while we ramped up from very light to a bit harder over several rounds. I've since heard that he came second in his division yesterday, so I'm really, really happy for him :-)
The rest of open mat I spent with the killer whale ;-) ... and I sure got killed. We went no gi, which meant that I had a bit more luck escaping, purely by slithering out of armbars and the like. After, he helped me work on armdrags, for which he has a nicer setup than what I was using. Also, I showed him one of my preferred set ups from closed guard, and he had a couple of recommendations. Just by getting a bit more on my side when I've pulled his elbow to the floor and reached around his far shoulder, I can actually threaten a figure four or a rear choke. So far I'd stayed flat on my back and tried for a cutting armbar (and an armbar if they try to pull that arm out). So I have a couple more options from the same starting point.
Friday night's class was huge. I had one of the new white belts. We worked on the defence to the cross lapel choke from guard, but I had to show him the choke first :-) It was really good actually, because I worked out what I'd been doing wrong with my defence. Instead of just putting my hand to my ear, I need to bring my hand to my forehead and then slide it around and towards my ear. The earlier I get my forearm in across his arms and my hand to my forehead, the better. Leaving it until he has both grips in for good makes it a lot harder. I also found that if he tucked his elbows down once he had his grips, I had a lot of trouble getting my arm in.
We also did some guard passing, starting with light resistance and then working up. All of us with coloured belts had to lie down and everyone else had to pass, taking turns. That was fun :-) And at the end, we did a little bit of rolling, too. Again, I had one of the newbies. Big guy. Nice guy, but oh, working soooo hard, breathing hard and groaning. Doesn't mean to be mean, but can't help but use all of his muscles and all of his weight. Bulldozed me over, I escaped. He grabbed my neck in an attempted front choke which I got out of easily, stepped over and wrapped my arm around his neck from north-south for a choke. He said he didn't even see it coming. Oh, I know just how he feels :-) Funny thing for me was that I rarely go to that position, so it's not one of my regular attacks.
I'm happy that I now have several attacks from all positions, without having to pause and think. I'm also happy that I'm consistently having more luck with dealing with the bigger guys.
I still struggle a lot with heavier guys. I don't usually beat myself up over it. If I have to tap to a heavy white belt, I figure there is no shame in that, not even now that I'm wearing a blue belt. When they are brand new to BJJ, I can have my way with them. But as soon as they learn some basic control techniqus and how to use their weight properly, it's so much harder. I get frustrated at times, because I think I ought to do better. I know I'm not the only one who has these problems, there have been a few posts about this in the blogosphere recently. I really, really need to work on my open guard. But overall, I can see a steady improvement in how I deal with strength and weight and I suppose that by the time I get to purple belt, I'll have a lot more answers than I have now. It's all part of the journey.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
back on the mat
Looks like I only had a bit of a cold, not a proper flu. I took it easy and by Wednesday I considered training again as I was feeling pretty good. I wasn't coughing or sneezing so I wasn't worried about spreading germs around the dojo.
All the same, I was hoping for a laid back sort of a warmup. Aside from still feeling a little unfit, it was very humid and quite warm. My prayers weren't answered. For the lunchtime class we did a 15 minute warmup including Tabbata intervals. I did last fine, and in fact, did better and moaned and groaned a lot less than some of the guys ;-) In class, we worked through all the basic movement drills and then had a play with two standing guard sweeps. Not a very hard class physically, but we all did sweat buckets because of the weather. I was working with one of the very new guys who couldn't get over how hot it was. I couldn't resist being mean by saying: wait until it gets really hot, then we'll be dripping on one another (like when you're on the bottom and you can see a drop of sweat forming on your partner's nose just above your face...). He wasn't grossed out. Ha, he will be!
Coming back to my condition... I guess that my base fitness level is such that even if I'm not 100% ok, I'm still good to rock and roll through the average BJJ session. For some reason I'm still in that beginner mindset where before every session I feared whether I would last through. And I always did. It's funny that, because when I'm OK, I easily last for 2 and 3 hour sessions. I know this from experience. The comp training I did in Melbourne earlier this year, and the back to back BJJ classes down in Geelong as well as long open mats back home are proof. Yet, I still doubt myself at times. Yesterday, that was really obvious again. When the lunchtime class was over, I wasn't even tired. So I don't know why I worry.
I had not planned on going to the evening session, meaning to take it easy, and make sure I'm recovered well after the cold. But I pulled up after the lunchtime session so well that I just couldn't resist. And yeah, that went well, too. Basic movement drills, then learned and drilled a new guard pass and finally some rolling, too.
I'm just so glad to be back :-)
Now I'm debating if I'll go to open mat tonight or head on down to Geelong. I heard that Richard Norton is doing the Thursday night classes. That'd be fun, I did a seminar with him about three years ago, and quite enjoyed that. Question is: am I fit enough to last the session?? Haha.
All the same, I was hoping for a laid back sort of a warmup. Aside from still feeling a little unfit, it was very humid and quite warm. My prayers weren't answered. For the lunchtime class we did a 15 minute warmup including Tabbata intervals. I did last fine, and in fact, did better and moaned and groaned a lot less than some of the guys ;-) In class, we worked through all the basic movement drills and then had a play with two standing guard sweeps. Not a very hard class physically, but we all did sweat buckets because of the weather. I was working with one of the very new guys who couldn't get over how hot it was. I couldn't resist being mean by saying: wait until it gets really hot, then we'll be dripping on one another (like when you're on the bottom and you can see a drop of sweat forming on your partner's nose just above your face...). He wasn't grossed out. Ha, he will be!
Coming back to my condition... I guess that my base fitness level is such that even if I'm not 100% ok, I'm still good to rock and roll through the average BJJ session. For some reason I'm still in that beginner mindset where before every session I feared whether I would last through. And I always did. It's funny that, because when I'm OK, I easily last for 2 and 3 hour sessions. I know this from experience. The comp training I did in Melbourne earlier this year, and the back to back BJJ classes down in Geelong as well as long open mats back home are proof. Yet, I still doubt myself at times. Yesterday, that was really obvious again. When the lunchtime class was over, I wasn't even tired. So I don't know why I worry.
I had not planned on going to the evening session, meaning to take it easy, and make sure I'm recovered well after the cold. But I pulled up after the lunchtime session so well that I just couldn't resist. And yeah, that went well, too. Basic movement drills, then learned and drilled a new guard pass and finally some rolling, too.
I'm just so glad to be back :-)
Now I'm debating if I'll go to open mat tonight or head on down to Geelong. I heard that Richard Norton is doing the Thursday night classes. That'd be fun, I did a seminar with him about three years ago, and quite enjoyed that. Question is: am I fit enough to last the session?? Haha.
Monday, November 22, 2010
not training tonight
I feel like I might be coming down with a cold. So I restrained myself and gave class a miss tonight. I'm not coughing and spluttering, but I'm a bit achy, with a vaguely sniffy nose. Last night it was a sore throat.
I knew it, I knew it, when I heard all the coughing and sneezing in the exam hall last week!! Anyway, I'm hoping that by taking it easy today, I will be good to go again soon. At least I'm not in bed or anything drastic.
I was visiting friends on Saturday and after dinner we sat around and talked. As often, I played with the cats and the dog, and Greg loves to take photos of all the silly rubbish I get up to. Here is me annoying poor long suffering Lilac.
I was thinking it's pretty hard to choke a cat from back control.
Aside from not being able to either get a proper seat belt grip or get your hooks in, you really have trouble closing your arm around that little neck.
Cats also didn't read the rules about no scratching...
I suppose if Lilac wore a gi, I could try a cross lapel choke ;-) Ever seen a cat tap?
I know, I know. I'm going to have another beer and watch some UFC. Enough sillyness for one day.
I knew it, I knew it, when I heard all the coughing and sneezing in the exam hall last week!! Anyway, I'm hoping that by taking it easy today, I will be good to go again soon. At least I'm not in bed or anything drastic.
I was visiting friends on Saturday and after dinner we sat around and talked. As often, I played with the cats and the dog, and Greg loves to take photos of all the silly rubbish I get up to. Here is me annoying poor long suffering Lilac.
Aside from not being able to either get a proper seat belt grip or get your hooks in, you really have trouble closing your arm around that little neck.
Cats also didn't read the rules about no scratching...
I suppose if Lilac wore a gi, I could try a cross lapel choke ;-) Ever seen a cat tap?
I know, I know. I'm going to have another beer and watch some UFC. Enough sillyness for one day.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
exams over :-)
Another week has passed. There is a load off my shoulders... uni exams are finished. The last few weeks have been crazy and it's nice to have that behind me. In the middle of that, two of my mares foaled down (all trouble free, like good girls!), and I had two lots of visitors. Really, I'd just like a quiet week now, thank you :-)
I've decided not to go to the Pan Pacs next weekend. I was going will I? / won't I? / will I? for weeks, but to be honest, I really can't be bothered. I guess it's a case of needing a mental rest. I also haven't particularly prepared for a comp. On the one hand, I'm wrestling well and I'm probably quite fit enough, but on the other hand, I don't have my head around it. I've competed three times this year and while I don't think that means I ought to sit on my laurels, I just don't have the fire for it at present. I'd rather set my sights on the Vics in March next year and do that properly.
The week just gone was mainly devoted to the guys who will be grading in a fortnight. Lots and lots of basic armbars, figure fours, lapel chokes and drills, drills and more basic drills. We've had a fair influx of new guys recently, so most classes there has been at least one guy who needed to be shown the essential stuff. I don't really mind, as I continue to pick up a small thing here and there which will make techniques work better for me. Sometimes, by helping someone troubleshoot a technique, I also get a better understanding of it, like was the case with armbars from mount the other day.
One of the guys is being groomed for blue belt, so he's under the master's eye (and the hammer) a bit lately. But it's good to see he's making real progress at the moment, there is more and more good technique and less reliance on strength. I had a couple of good rolls with him during the week.
Aside from that, I went to an enjoyable open mat on Thursday. Had a long roll with one of the purple belts. I thwarted his attempts to attack me from rubber guard and escaped an omoplata. Also got out of a triangle. So I was pretty happy about that. I attacked him with a D'Arce at some stage but didn't succeed. In the end, we did some complicated rolling maneuver which resulted in a perfect armbar (my arm of course!). Good fun.
I had another chance to work on flow rolling with a couple of the two stripe white belts. That's really starting to work now. Interestingly, these guys lasted the whole hour and a half of rolling, whilst a couple of other white belts wore themselves out in less than an hour. I'm not saying that's all my doing :-) And it's not like I was any different when I started. But I intend to keep pushing for going easy and rolling for position only, especially during the warm up part of rolls. And I certainly am quite prepared to pull the guys up mid roll and point out that tight muscles and held breath and bad for rolling light.
For myself, I want training partners who can dose their strength and who will rely on technique rather than muscle to get position and submission. When we do competition style rounds, then we can go hard, and I'll go hard with any of them. But not all the time. And I'll continue to do my best to help the newer guys roll like that. For their AND my benefit :-)
I've decided not to go to the Pan Pacs next weekend. I was going will I? / won't I? / will I? for weeks, but to be honest, I really can't be bothered. I guess it's a case of needing a mental rest. I also haven't particularly prepared for a comp. On the one hand, I'm wrestling well and I'm probably quite fit enough, but on the other hand, I don't have my head around it. I've competed three times this year and while I don't think that means I ought to sit on my laurels, I just don't have the fire for it at present. I'd rather set my sights on the Vics in March next year and do that properly.
The week just gone was mainly devoted to the guys who will be grading in a fortnight. Lots and lots of basic armbars, figure fours, lapel chokes and drills, drills and more basic drills. We've had a fair influx of new guys recently, so most classes there has been at least one guy who needed to be shown the essential stuff. I don't really mind, as I continue to pick up a small thing here and there which will make techniques work better for me. Sometimes, by helping someone troubleshoot a technique, I also get a better understanding of it, like was the case with armbars from mount the other day.
One of the guys is being groomed for blue belt, so he's under the master's eye (and the hammer) a bit lately. But it's good to see he's making real progress at the moment, there is more and more good technique and less reliance on strength. I had a couple of good rolls with him during the week.
Aside from that, I went to an enjoyable open mat on Thursday. Had a long roll with one of the purple belts. I thwarted his attempts to attack me from rubber guard and escaped an omoplata. Also got out of a triangle. So I was pretty happy about that. I attacked him with a D'Arce at some stage but didn't succeed. In the end, we did some complicated rolling maneuver which resulted in a perfect armbar (my arm of course!). Good fun.
I had another chance to work on flow rolling with a couple of the two stripe white belts. That's really starting to work now. Interestingly, these guys lasted the whole hour and a half of rolling, whilst a couple of other white belts wore themselves out in less than an hour. I'm not saying that's all my doing :-) And it's not like I was any different when I started. But I intend to keep pushing for going easy and rolling for position only, especially during the warm up part of rolls. And I certainly am quite prepared to pull the guys up mid roll and point out that tight muscles and held breath and bad for rolling light.
For myself, I want training partners who can dose their strength and who will rely on technique rather than muscle to get position and submission. When we do competition style rounds, then we can go hard, and I'll go hard with any of them. But not all the time. And I'll continue to do my best to help the newer guys roll like that. For their AND my benefit :-)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Home Bjj Workout
There is some really good stuff here. It will give me some idea for the summer break, where there won't be classes. And for any other day when I just can't sit still :-)
Monday, November 15, 2010
types of people
I just read this funny post at the The Bat Dojo blog.
It's about the types of people that can be found at dojos. I particularly like the token girl :-) (Not that I can identify in any way, shape or form!!).
But the brick shithouse and the fat guy and the spidery guy - I've met them all!
It's about the types of people that can be found at dojos. I particularly like the token girl :-) (Not that I can identify in any way, shape or form!!).
But the brick shithouse and the fat guy and the spidery guy - I've met them all!
got my fix... :-)
Due to exams, I missed training on Wednesday night and open mat on Thursday. Grr.
Friday night I was looking forward to class. After driving all the way to town, I found the school closed due to Ballarat Show Day. Double Grrr!
But Saturday afternoon, I finally got my BJJ fix! It wasn't a big class. We worked on D'Arce chokes. First, the simple version from side control when your opponent rolls into you, but also a setup from turtle top.
It was good to see the very big fella back after a few months away :-) I ended up drilling with him, including a more complicated, rolling version of the D'Arce. Have I said before that it's hard to get that choke on BIG guys? Firstly, there is the issue of huge shoulders. Although I'm blessed with long limbs, it's still a challenge to get around his shoulders :-) But I did have more luck with it than in the past. Where I had more issues was to finish it. He simply braced with his arm on the floor which prevented me from getting his top upper arm against his neck. And then he'd start to attack my legs... After consulting with the instructor, he showed a way to clear his arms with my knees to stop him bracing. He also showed us how to adjust if the bottom guy braces with a knee to prevent being rolled from turtle. Lots of technical small stuff.
In any case, I have a much better understanding of how to finish the choke now, regardless of the size of my opponent. Though in a live wrestle, I'd be more likely to use it on someone closer to my size. At least for now.
After that, we rolled, but always starting from turtle, taking turns in who was on top. We swapped partners a few times, but I always got the bigger boys :-) Still, I choked someone with a front choke and I armbarred someone from the high closed guard setup I'm working on. I was very happy about the latter, expecially since it's on a guy who generally busts out of my closed guard.
I did get done with a figure four by someone. Aside from that, I escaped several times from under big guys. That is true progress for me. Once, the big fella did one of his rolling, diving attacks on my legs. And before I could think "oh sh..", I had rolled with him, retracted/rearranged my limbs and came out to his side unscathed. I think that surprised me more than him ;-) It wasn't a conscious move at all, and it felt smooth and flowy. That alone made me happy, and I probably grinned like a fool. Although I did end up back under him, I defended successfully until the round was over.
Afterwards, one of the guys said that after not having a chance to roll with me for a while, he feels a definite improvement. He reckons if I can be such a threat to the bigger fellas, then the people my size had better watc out. Hehe.
So, while I had to wait until Saturday to get my fix, it was a good one :-)
Friday night I was looking forward to class. After driving all the way to town, I found the school closed due to Ballarat Show Day. Double Grrr!
But Saturday afternoon, I finally got my BJJ fix! It wasn't a big class. We worked on D'Arce chokes. First, the simple version from side control when your opponent rolls into you, but also a setup from turtle top.
It was good to see the very big fella back after a few months away :-) I ended up drilling with him, including a more complicated, rolling version of the D'Arce. Have I said before that it's hard to get that choke on BIG guys? Firstly, there is the issue of huge shoulders. Although I'm blessed with long limbs, it's still a challenge to get around his shoulders :-) But I did have more luck with it than in the past. Where I had more issues was to finish it. He simply braced with his arm on the floor which prevented me from getting his top upper arm against his neck. And then he'd start to attack my legs... After consulting with the instructor, he showed a way to clear his arms with my knees to stop him bracing. He also showed us how to adjust if the bottom guy braces with a knee to prevent being rolled from turtle. Lots of technical small stuff.
In any case, I have a much better understanding of how to finish the choke now, regardless of the size of my opponent. Though in a live wrestle, I'd be more likely to use it on someone closer to my size. At least for now.
After that, we rolled, but always starting from turtle, taking turns in who was on top. We swapped partners a few times, but I always got the bigger boys :-) Still, I choked someone with a front choke and I armbarred someone from the high closed guard setup I'm working on. I was very happy about the latter, expecially since it's on a guy who generally busts out of my closed guard.
I did get done with a figure four by someone. Aside from that, I escaped several times from under big guys. That is true progress for me. Once, the big fella did one of his rolling, diving attacks on my legs. And before I could think "oh sh..", I had rolled with him, retracted/rearranged my limbs and came out to his side unscathed. I think that surprised me more than him ;-) It wasn't a conscious move at all, and it felt smooth and flowy. That alone made me happy, and I probably grinned like a fool. Although I did end up back under him, I defended successfully until the round was over.
Afterwards, one of the guys said that after not having a chance to roll with me for a while, he feels a definite improvement. He reckons if I can be such a threat to the bigger fellas, then the people my size had better watc out. Hehe.
So, while I had to wait until Saturday to get my fix, it was a good one :-)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
rolling, awesome rolling
I succeeded in getting several good rolls in during last Thursday's open mat. I managed to convince another one of the newer white belts that rolling for position instead of submission and NOT going balls to the wall is a good thing. It was still a lot more muscly than it should have been, but it was useful to both of us. He had several AHA! moments. So I helped him with triangles afterwards.
I tried out a guardpass I saw on a youtube recently (sorry, escapes me at the moment, I will try and find it!). I showed it to one of the guys and we both had a few practice runs. We think it might work quite well :-)
At the end I had a long roll with one of the purple belts. I'm pleased to report that I feel I'm making progress. I pulled out of a lot of stuff he threw my way and I certainly had a go at a few things. I probably resorted too much to closed guard, but it's my best game, and he is ... well, a purple belt. And I did manage to frustrate him a bit, too. In the end, it wars armbar time for me, as usual. But an excellent roll with lots of opportunity to learn and grow.
Monday night's class also involved a lot of rolling. First I was fed a small whitebelt. So I practiced my attacks, and I let some stuff go and experimented a bit. Then I was fed a bigger boy. So I practiced my defence :-) Sorry, he's mucho bigger than I and mucho stronger, and if he's learned one thing it's how to use his weight effectively. Good for him, bad for me. I want the little one back again!!
Then they gave me a purple belt. This time I practiced being a ping-pong ball on top of a wave :-) We had the best and longest roll. One position after the next. He has perfected shoulder rolls and every time you think you get position on him, he's rolled away and all you have is legs in the damn way. Lots of new problems. But lots of chance to experiment. My brightest moment might have been when he picked me up for a standing guard pass, but I let go and went for a takedown :-) Instructor stood nearby and laughed. So we rolled and rolled and he pointed out a few things to me. Instructor walked past and saved us from tumbling into a wall. And commented "keep going, I like what I see". Whoa ho! It didn't just feel good, it must have looked good!!
What can I say. It was awesome.
And it was exactly the kind of diversion I needed. I've been flat out studying for uni exams. I really needed something to destress me :-) Anyway, first exam is out of the road, three more to go.
I tried out a guardpass I saw on a youtube recently (sorry, escapes me at the moment, I will try and find it!). I showed it to one of the guys and we both had a few practice runs. We think it might work quite well :-)
At the end I had a long roll with one of the purple belts. I'm pleased to report that I feel I'm making progress. I pulled out of a lot of stuff he threw my way and I certainly had a go at a few things. I probably resorted too much to closed guard, but it's my best game, and he is ... well, a purple belt. And I did manage to frustrate him a bit, too. In the end, it wars armbar time for me, as usual. But an excellent roll with lots of opportunity to learn and grow.
Monday night's class also involved a lot of rolling. First I was fed a small whitebelt. So I practiced my attacks, and I let some stuff go and experimented a bit. Then I was fed a bigger boy. So I practiced my defence :-) Sorry, he's mucho bigger than I and mucho stronger, and if he's learned one thing it's how to use his weight effectively. Good for him, bad for me. I want the little one back again!!
Then they gave me a purple belt. This time I practiced being a ping-pong ball on top of a wave :-) We had the best and longest roll. One position after the next. He has perfected shoulder rolls and every time you think you get position on him, he's rolled away and all you have is legs in the damn way. Lots of new problems. But lots of chance to experiment. My brightest moment might have been when he picked me up for a standing guard pass, but I let go and went for a takedown :-) Instructor stood nearby and laughed. So we rolled and rolled and he pointed out a few things to me. Instructor walked past and saved us from tumbling into a wall. And commented "keep going, I like what I see". Whoa ho! It didn't just feel good, it must have looked good!!
What can I say. It was awesome.
And it was exactly the kind of diversion I needed. I've been flat out studying for uni exams. I really needed something to destress me :-) Anyway, first exam is out of the road, three more to go.
Monday, November 8, 2010
weird
There are several of us taking turns teaching the Wednesday evening class at present. I've known for weeks that I'd be taking the class last Wednesday.
The weird thing is that I stressed over that. Why?
I've had to take other classes at short notice and it wasn't an issue at all. So why would I worry? Is it just my weird mind or is that a normal thing? Ok, don't answer that. ;-)
Anyway, it wasn't helped by the fact that I got there to find two guys more senior to me as well as a bunch of white belts. But they are my mates, and they were most helpful, but without interfering. So there were jokes and it was all cool. We did some of the basic drills, I showed the cross lapel choke from mount, and how to finish it off from guard if they roll. Then I went over a few general things relating to defending arms and neck when on the bottom, pointed out that it's bad to get flattened and that sort of thing.
Finished off with rolling. Got choked by one of the two stripers, who set it up beautifully! Then had a round with one of the bigger two stripers. Got flattened but got out, regained guard and then raced the clock to choke him before time was called. Had fun!
The weird thing is that I stressed over that. Why?
I've had to take other classes at short notice and it wasn't an issue at all. So why would I worry? Is it just my weird mind or is that a normal thing? Ok, don't answer that. ;-)
Anyway, it wasn't helped by the fact that I got there to find two guys more senior to me as well as a bunch of white belts. But they are my mates, and they were most helpful, but without interfering. So there were jokes and it was all cool. We did some of the basic drills, I showed the cross lapel choke from mount, and how to finish it off from guard if they roll. Then I went over a few general things relating to defending arms and neck when on the bottom, pointed out that it's bad to get flattened and that sort of thing.
Finished off with rolling. Got choked by one of the two stripers, who set it up beautifully! Then had a round with one of the bigger two stripers. Got flattened but got out, regained guard and then raced the clock to choke him before time was called. Had fun!
oh-oh omoplata
Last week we worked on omoplatas. Now there's a technique I'll not be owning for a while :-(
I just don't seem to get it. Firstly, my brain refuses to "chunk" stuff together, so I need to think and think about the setup every time. So I never get the feel right and I'm always starting from square 1. One day, I will "get it". But that day hasn't arrived yet. All the drilling last Wednesday didn't help. Ironically, I could assist the new white belt guy I worked with, but as far as getting it right myself? Fail.
Later on in the week, we did more, and though I was paired with a purple belt, I continued to feel and act like a klutz. We were looking at securing the omoplata, or what to do if they roll out of it, or try. So there was a sweep, or a forward roll to finish it off. For me: fail.
When safely out of the school, I vented my frustrations. :-(
But I promise: I will own omoplatas some day. Not tomorrow, not the day after, maybe not this year. But I will!
I just don't seem to get it. Firstly, my brain refuses to "chunk" stuff together, so I need to think and think about the setup every time. So I never get the feel right and I'm always starting from square 1. One day, I will "get it". But that day hasn't arrived yet. All the drilling last Wednesday didn't help. Ironically, I could assist the new white belt guy I worked with, but as far as getting it right myself? Fail.
Later on in the week, we did more, and though I was paired with a purple belt, I continued to feel and act like a klutz. We were looking at securing the omoplata, or what to do if they roll out of it, or try. So there was a sweep, or a forward roll to finish it off. For me: fail.
When safely out of the school, I vented my frustrations. :-(
But I promise: I will own omoplatas some day. Not tomorrow, not the day after, maybe not this year. But I will!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
the rest of October
As time got away from me again, here are just some brief notes...
On the 28th October, I went to John Will's school in Geelong again. I went with one of the guys from our school and we joined John's advanced class. We worked on front chokes from open guard. If we can't get the second hand in to finish the choke because he blocks with his arm, we can threaten him with a sweep. That way, either he keeps his hand in and we get the sweep or he braces with that arm and we get the grip for the choke. We also looked at an alternative where we sweep and then finishe the choke from the top.
We stayed on for the intermediate class as well, which was mainly on breakfalls and throws.
Got in lots of rounds of rolling with white, blue and purple belts. I felt good, with lots of movement happening. Even pulled off some subs with a couple of the blue belts. But then got dominated by a couple of the larger whitebelts :-)
The following Saturday, I took class as our instructor had an injury. It was basically going through the guard passing drill for the mostly newer white belts, but we also covered the simple sweep and a couple of chokes from guard. After that, I let them enjoy themselves with free guard passing but allowed the sweep and chokes we had just practiced. Aside from the white belts, we had a purple belt visitor. He kindly helped with the newer guys, and at the end he and I had a couple of fun rolls.
On the 28th October, I went to John Will's school in Geelong again. I went with one of the guys from our school and we joined John's advanced class. We worked on front chokes from open guard. If we can't get the second hand in to finish the choke because he blocks with his arm, we can threaten him with a sweep. That way, either he keeps his hand in and we get the sweep or he braces with that arm and we get the grip for the choke. We also looked at an alternative where we sweep and then finishe the choke from the top.
We stayed on for the intermediate class as well, which was mainly on breakfalls and throws.
Got in lots of rounds of rolling with white, blue and purple belts. I felt good, with lots of movement happening. Even pulled off some subs with a couple of the blue belts. But then got dominated by a couple of the larger whitebelts :-)
The following Saturday, I took class as our instructor had an injury. It was basically going through the guard passing drill for the mostly newer white belts, but we also covered the simple sweep and a couple of chokes from guard. After that, I let them enjoy themselves with free guard passing but allowed the sweep and chokes we had just practiced. Aside from the white belts, we had a purple belt visitor. He kindly helped with the newer guys, and at the end he and I had a couple of fun rolls.
Friday, October 29, 2010
front chokes revisited
Last Wednesday's lunchtime class was half blue belts and half white belts. Some of the guys had missed last week's sessions on front chokes, so we did another session on those. It gave me the chance to get in a fair few more reps and I picked up a couple more small but important details.
In addition, I managed to get the technique right on a variation where we lift our elbow to defend him coming over our legs to escape. Last time, I struggled with this, because I fell back to the mat. This made it near impossible to get the elbow into play. This time, I sat up and lifted the elbow. And found that the choke comes on almost immediately, with next to no effort on my part.
This youtube video shows Matt Arroyo using the choke. There are several variations, and the setup I'm talking about is seen after about 4 minutes.
In addition, I managed to get the technique right on a variation where we lift our elbow to defend him coming over our legs to escape. Last time, I struggled with this, because I fell back to the mat. This made it near impossible to get the elbow into play. This time, I sat up and lifted the elbow. And found that the choke comes on almost immediately, with next to no effort on my part.
This youtube video shows Matt Arroyo using the choke. There are several variations, and the setup I'm talking about is seen after about 4 minutes.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
omoplatas
That was Monday's theme: omoplatas.
First we drilled the movement, the change of direction our body needs to make to align correctly. Then we drilled the setup to get to the right position on our partner. And finally, the whole submission to where we switch the legs and apply the lock.
In addition we looked at how to flatten our partner in case he ends up with his knees under him. Sometimes, we end up next to him all flattened out and he is on his knees. In that case, it is really hard to sit up, and the same technique will flatten him and allow us to sit up. Say he is on our right side (I have his left arm trapped). I reach across his calves with my right arm and grab is far (right) leg/pants. With a stiff arm I hold his leg in place while I shuffle my feet and butt to my left and away from his foot. This stretches him out and with a few wriggles, it brings at least one, but probably both his hips to the mat. Now it's easy to sit up and reach across his back to finish the submission.
After that, we had a few rolls. I saw no chance for an omoplata, so I played with my new toy (open guard, esp.spider guard). Failed in a couple of sweep attempts, but finally got one. Mucho happy! Someone else tried to armbar me and then transitioned to omoplata. But somewhere in that, I got my lower arm free and when he rolled to omoplata, my arm was gone :-). And I managed a cool transition to mount, set up ready for a triangle, no less! Alas, we had to reset.. Can't remember the rest, other than that I talked one of of the new guys through NOT allowing me to pull his arms across while in my guard. Because I'm just going straight to his back...
I had a really great evening. I'm finding that since I've abandoned trying to get and hold closed guard at all cost, I'm actually much more free in how and when I move. I'm also much more proactive when I think my oppononet might succeed in opening my guard, I go to open guard and stuff him around :-) Obviously, something has clicked in my brain. Again :-)
First we drilled the movement, the change of direction our body needs to make to align correctly. Then we drilled the setup to get to the right position on our partner. And finally, the whole submission to where we switch the legs and apply the lock.
In addition we looked at how to flatten our partner in case he ends up with his knees under him. Sometimes, we end up next to him all flattened out and he is on his knees. In that case, it is really hard to sit up, and the same technique will flatten him and allow us to sit up. Say he is on our right side (I have his left arm trapped). I reach across his calves with my right arm and grab is far (right) leg/pants. With a stiff arm I hold his leg in place while I shuffle my feet and butt to my left and away from his foot. This stretches him out and with a few wriggles, it brings at least one, but probably both his hips to the mat. Now it's easy to sit up and reach across his back to finish the submission.
After that, we had a few rolls. I saw no chance for an omoplata, so I played with my new toy (open guard, esp.spider guard). Failed in a couple of sweep attempts, but finally got one. Mucho happy! Someone else tried to armbar me and then transitioned to omoplata. But somewhere in that, I got my lower arm free and when he rolled to omoplata, my arm was gone :-). And I managed a cool transition to mount, set up ready for a triangle, no less! Alas, we had to reset.. Can't remember the rest, other than that I talked one of of the new guys through NOT allowing me to pull his arms across while in my guard. Because I'm just going straight to his back...
I had a really great evening. I'm finding that since I've abandoned trying to get and hold closed guard at all cost, I'm actually much more free in how and when I move. I'm also much more proactive when I think my oppononet might succeed in opening my guard, I go to open guard and stuff him around :-) Obviously, something has clicked in my brain. Again :-)
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
the obligatory "what I did last week" post
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).
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).
two years up!
So, we're already into the last October week.
Which means....
I forgot all about my two year anniversary of my start in BJJ. That was in fact yesterday. I was so busy having fun in class, I clean forgot. Oh well. But I guess I'm up for a post where I can reflect on the last two years. I did promise! (but not right now..)
And as I'm in a hurry and have nothing really witty to say, go to Georgette's Blog and read all about why girls don't fart :-)
Which means....
2 YEARS!
I forgot all about my two year anniversary of my start in BJJ. That was in fact yesterday. I was so busy having fun in class, I clean forgot. Oh well. But I guess I'm up for a post where I can reflect on the last two years. I did promise! (but not right now..)
And as I'm in a hurry and have nothing really witty to say, go to Georgette's Blog and read all about why girls don't fart :-)
Friday, October 22, 2010
last week
I'm through most of my uni assignments now. Another one to go, but I have 9 days left, so I'm having a couple of days off :-) Which means I finally have time to do some updates, and I'll start with the round up from last week.
On Monday, I had a two hour no-gi session. We worked on a tight armbar which is set up from lockdown. The other move was called the Carney which is a neat submission if our opponent has managed to get over our leg and is on his way to pass. Only he gets caught with his shoulder pinned and in a figure four armlock... The rest of the session was some conditioning (lots of plyometric pushups, situps, squats, sprawls etc) and lots of rounds of rolling AFTER the conditioning. I had mixed success there. Or rather, not very much... But at least I seem to be making inroads in some areas, and I was attacking more often. I surprised myself with being able to keep up with the rolling although I felt shot after the conditioning. I must be fitter than what I think..
Wednesday's midday session was a surprise. Three blue belts only. We worked on the deep half guard game which we had worked on with John Will last week. How to get there and how to sweep to a low single. Wednesday evening was a big class with lots of new white belts, so it was basic drills with an emphasis on transitions. I think we drilled an escape from north/south. It's one I'm really useless at, and I'm sad to say that I'm still not much better... Right at the end, we did a few minutes worth of rolling and was fed a shiny, brand new guy. Smash, grab, push, strain! So I went into selfprotect mode and he wore himself out in my closed guard. So much so, he had to retire. Wow.
Thursday night's open mat was small, with just myself and about 5 white belts. I got together with my nemesis (oh, if he ever reads this blog, he'll kill me ;-) ), and we set to do do slow/flow rolling. Looking for positions and keeping moving. That worked really well. We warmed up that way but kept going along those same lines, stopping here and there to see where we could move on to or what subs were possible. Nothing against going hard some of the time, but we both got a lot out of that. We sniggered in a superior manner about the grunting and straining of the rest of the wrestlers on the mat. Well, the previous week one of the guys overdid it and made himself sick. But I noted he was going a bit easier. Good.
I had one good roll with a guy who only comes to class occasionally, but he moves very well. So as usual, we moved all over the place and after a while it ended when I caught him in an upside down armbar. Not sure exactly where that came from... But it was a fun roll. Then back to some more technique with my first partner. All in all, an excellent evening.
Friday night we basically rolled, except for the newer white belt guys who were taken aside by one of the blue belts and worked on some stuff. Don't really remember all that much. Tried for the evil armbar, but as before, I get to a certain point and then lose it. Still, must keep trying. Instead, I have more luck with armdrags and taking the back. Plodding along, having fun....
And that was it, as there was no class on Saturday. Which was probably not such a bad thing, as I think my body really could do with an extra day off.
On Monday, I had a two hour no-gi session. We worked on a tight armbar which is set up from lockdown. The other move was called the Carney which is a neat submission if our opponent has managed to get over our leg and is on his way to pass. Only he gets caught with his shoulder pinned and in a figure four armlock... The rest of the session was some conditioning (lots of plyometric pushups, situps, squats, sprawls etc) and lots of rounds of rolling AFTER the conditioning. I had mixed success there. Or rather, not very much... But at least I seem to be making inroads in some areas, and I was attacking more often. I surprised myself with being able to keep up with the rolling although I felt shot after the conditioning. I must be fitter than what I think..
Wednesday's midday session was a surprise. Three blue belts only. We worked on the deep half guard game which we had worked on with John Will last week. How to get there and how to sweep to a low single. Wednesday evening was a big class with lots of new white belts, so it was basic drills with an emphasis on transitions. I think we drilled an escape from north/south. It's one I'm really useless at, and I'm sad to say that I'm still not much better... Right at the end, we did a few minutes worth of rolling and was fed a shiny, brand new guy. Smash, grab, push, strain! So I went into selfprotect mode and he wore himself out in my closed guard. So much so, he had to retire. Wow.
Thursday night's open mat was small, with just myself and about 5 white belts. I got together with my nemesis (oh, if he ever reads this blog, he'll kill me ;-) ), and we set to do do slow/flow rolling. Looking for positions and keeping moving. That worked really well. We warmed up that way but kept going along those same lines, stopping here and there to see where we could move on to or what subs were possible. Nothing against going hard some of the time, but we both got a lot out of that. We sniggered in a superior manner about the grunting and straining of the rest of the wrestlers on the mat. Well, the previous week one of the guys overdid it and made himself sick. But I noted he was going a bit easier. Good.
I had one good roll with a guy who only comes to class occasionally, but he moves very well. So as usual, we moved all over the place and after a while it ended when I caught him in an upside down armbar. Not sure exactly where that came from... But it was a fun roll. Then back to some more technique with my first partner. All in all, an excellent evening.
Friday night we basically rolled, except for the newer white belt guys who were taken aside by one of the blue belts and worked on some stuff. Don't really remember all that much. Tried for the evil armbar, but as before, I get to a certain point and then lose it. Still, must keep trying. Instead, I have more luck with armdrags and taking the back. Plodding along, having fun....
And that was it, as there was no class on Saturday. Which was probably not such a bad thing, as I think my body really could do with an extra day off.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Psssst !! Oh no - I've been discovered!
Today, in class someone told me he's found this blog.
Oh-oh! So now I have to be careful who I bitch and moan about ;-)
They will probably tease me about my ramblings here, like they do about my many gis. Anyway, I'm sure I'll survive. If you are one of them: be careful or I'll write about you!! Haha.
Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates. I realised it's been ten days since my last updates. Blame it on uni assignments. And of course, I haven't sat on my butt when it comes to training.There is not contest when it comes to deciding if I'll go and train or write this blog. That's a no-brainer.
As I have another couple of assigment deadlines in the next two days, I'm settling in for an all-nighter right now and I will need to defer my BJJ reports yet again.
Soon, soon!
Oh-oh! So now I have to be careful who I bitch and moan about ;-)
They will probably tease me about my ramblings here, like they do about my many gis. Anyway, I'm sure I'll survive. If you are one of them: be careful or I'll write about you!! Haha.
Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates. I realised it's been ten days since my last updates. Blame it on uni assignments. And of course, I haven't sat on my butt when it comes to training.There is not contest when it comes to deciding if I'll go and train or write this blog. That's a no-brainer.
As I have another couple of assigment deadlines in the next two days, I'm settling in for an all-nighter right now and I will need to defer my BJJ reports yet again.
Soon, soon!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
that was....
... an amazing week! Phew.
I trained every day except today (Sunday), racking up some 10 hours on the mat. It was a busy week anyway, as I'm back to uni after the break. And I still managed to sneak in a few horse rides when the weather was good. At least with spring on the way now, it is nice enough to go outside. I am soooo glad the winter is over!
So, on Monday, I trained no-gi for nearly three hours with a few guys. It was mainly 10th Planet stuff. A bit of a change for me, althougth we've gone over a some of that stuff in the past. So it was some review and some totally new stuff. We drilled various combinations for a bit over a couple of hours and then rolled for several rounds. Didn't do anything spectacular. Hadn't done no gi in ages and felt a bit overwhelmed. About the only positive thing I can say about the rolling was that I succeeded in breaking someone down in my guard who is twice my size. Not that I escaped the inevitable outcome of getting owned... :-)
Tuesday evening I met with one of the guys and we went down to Geelong to John Will's Blackbelt Studios. John had recently returned from overseas, followed by a quick trip to WA. But he was back on the mat on Tuesday and taught the advanced class. We drilled three sweeps from open guard if our partner stands up, and then one sweep from open guard, where we go to deep half guard and then roll over and finish with a single leg.
I had a few interesting rolls with different blue belts. Nice to be challenged without getting mauled by the big guys. I was the most junior of the blue belts on the floor. To be honest I thought I'd get a hiding, but I actually fared reasonably well. There was in fact a blue belt woman. We had an entertaining couple of rounds and I did well. Not so well against the guys, but at least I moved and things happened and I didn't feel like a dimwit. Actually, I really had fun.
At the end of the class, they let in the white belts whose intermediate class was on next. They had the chance to roll to warm up, we had the chance to roll to warm down :-) I chose to stay, although I was somewhat buggered at that point. Didn't do too bad. That is, until one of the black belts who had stayed behind waved me over. That's when I was back to feeling like a little mouse who is being toyed with by a big cat ;-)
Ah, it was awesome. Of course I was destroyed. But he let me work and I actually managed some half decent moves, including some useful hip movements which led to escapes. He commented later that he thought I did well and that I made it difficult for him to get some positions and subs. What more could I ask :-)) And then he asked me aside to show me some of the open hooks in guard stuff he was working on and gave me some tips how to make that type of guard work for me. As I said: awesome.
I attended two classes (lunchtime and evening) on Wednesday. And I'll say that I was beginning to be a little bit on the tired side. I also had a full day at uni. We worked on knee ride both classes which is good, as it's something I am not good at. At all... But I think I have a fair idea now why it's not been working for me. I was being too nice. Not enough pressure down, and not enough pull up on the arm and leg. By Wednesday evening, I was making half decent entries and I got groans out of my partner when the knee went on. Also, I din't fall off after .01 of a second when he wriggled. In the lunchtime class, I got my lip caught between my partner's gi collar and my teeth and actually lost some skin. Bled like crazy at first, but with some vaseline, I could carry on after a bit.
Thursday night was open mat. I was tired before I started. And that was after a good nine hours of sleep for the previous two nights :-) I'd had the whole day at uni, which is all sitting down, but of course I had to pay attention. Rolling went ok, did some good stuff, got flattened by a couple of the bigger guys and all in all had a pretty good time.
One of the guys managed to accidentally kick me with his knee. And where did he connect? My bottom lip. Next to the cut bit. So I ended up with a huge blood blister. He was so apologetic :-) My answer: if it's not bleeding, who cares? And kept going. He promptly caught me with a leg bar twice. Must watch them legs...
We were pretty much done and sitting there stretching when one of the guys came in late. He'd been training at another place earlier but was looking all hopeful to get in a roll or two. Some had already packed up and gone, and I nearly declined. But then thought why not. He usually armbars me. Or whatever. But I was that tired I didn't care, and it it was another opportunity to do some no-gi. And then something weird happened. I armdragged him, got his back and got him in a rear choke. He tapped. Second round, I went for the armdrag again and pulled him to turtle. Went for an anaconda, rolled over but somehow couldn't finish it. I know it was tight (which he later confirmed), but my brain went numb and I forgot to walk into him. So I let it go and went after him. Shortly after, secured an armwrap from mount and a choke from there. By now he was laughing and saying that I'm doing good considering I'd already cooled down.
He wanted to go again, so we did. I deliberately did not go for the armdrag this time. He pulled guard and tried for a triangle/armbar. Didn't let him have it, passed his guard. Was busy attacking his arms, got mount and then he rolled me. Then it was my world: get arm across, take back, latch on and choke! Third tap for the night. He seemed to think it was awesome, I was more like speechless.. But it was rather a good finish for the evening all the same :-)
Friday night's class was essentially rolling. My bloody lip (pun intended) tore open again and I had to sit out the first few minutes to wait for it to stop bleeding. The rolls started from various positions. And to my great disgust, I got the killer whale, and our starting point was bloody side control. Sheesh. So when he started on top, I was history immediately. I can't escape by way of any technique, an experienced guy who is twice my weight!! So he cheerfully ripped my arms out. When it came to me on top I didn't fare too much better. The man can just bench press me off. Aside from that, I find it diffucult to keep any sort of control, let alone try for a sub on a huge barrel chested person. Luckily, after that I scored the small guy. He's getting good, very quick and he'll try stuff. He got me fair and square with a Peruvian Necktie. The rest of the time I beat his arse, mostly with chokes, although I let him start in mount or side control top most of the time.
Saturday we had a small class of newish guys and a surprise visit from a purple belt guy from some school in Sydney. I scored him as partner and found him great to work with. On the menu was torenanda pass to knee ride, armbars and spinning choke from knee ride and then a bit of rolling. We didn't got real hard, it was mostly positional and then some playful sort of seeing where we'd end up. Good stuff. Hope he comes to visit again.
I lasted the whole week though I will say I was ready for a break today. What was interesting about the experience is that I felt I was better technically than usual. Several times during the week, I actually started class feeling a bit tired. That feeling always vanished during warm up and I was never gassed. But I think it made a difference to how I rolled. I know it didn't help me keeping the big fellows at bay, but I felt more smooth in my transitions with the others. Maybe more economy of movement?? And in several cases, I know I started a submision during a transition, so that by the time we "arrived", the sub (usually a choke) was already locked in. I hadn't been able to do that before.
Next week will be a bit more sedate :-) No trip to Geelong and apparently no class on Saturday. Oh well, might use the free Saturday to finally go for a long drive and pick up some horses I bought and give the body a slightly longer rest to recover from wrestling.
I trained every day except today (Sunday), racking up some 10 hours on the mat. It was a busy week anyway, as I'm back to uni after the break. And I still managed to sneak in a few horse rides when the weather was good. At least with spring on the way now, it is nice enough to go outside. I am soooo glad the winter is over!
So, on Monday, I trained no-gi for nearly three hours with a few guys. It was mainly 10th Planet stuff. A bit of a change for me, althougth we've gone over a some of that stuff in the past. So it was some review and some totally new stuff. We drilled various combinations for a bit over a couple of hours and then rolled for several rounds. Didn't do anything spectacular. Hadn't done no gi in ages and felt a bit overwhelmed. About the only positive thing I can say about the rolling was that I succeeded in breaking someone down in my guard who is twice my size. Not that I escaped the inevitable outcome of getting owned... :-)
Tuesday evening I met with one of the guys and we went down to Geelong to John Will's Blackbelt Studios. John had recently returned from overseas, followed by a quick trip to WA. But he was back on the mat on Tuesday and taught the advanced class. We drilled three sweeps from open guard if our partner stands up, and then one sweep from open guard, where we go to deep half guard and then roll over and finish with a single leg.
I had a few interesting rolls with different blue belts. Nice to be challenged without getting mauled by the big guys. I was the most junior of the blue belts on the floor. To be honest I thought I'd get a hiding, but I actually fared reasonably well. There was in fact a blue belt woman. We had an entertaining couple of rounds and I did well. Not so well against the guys, but at least I moved and things happened and I didn't feel like a dimwit. Actually, I really had fun.
At the end of the class, they let in the white belts whose intermediate class was on next. They had the chance to roll to warm up, we had the chance to roll to warm down :-) I chose to stay, although I was somewhat buggered at that point. Didn't do too bad. That is, until one of the black belts who had stayed behind waved me over. That's when I was back to feeling like a little mouse who is being toyed with by a big cat ;-)
Ah, it was awesome. Of course I was destroyed. But he let me work and I actually managed some half decent moves, including some useful hip movements which led to escapes. He commented later that he thought I did well and that I made it difficult for him to get some positions and subs. What more could I ask :-)) And then he asked me aside to show me some of the open hooks in guard stuff he was working on and gave me some tips how to make that type of guard work for me. As I said: awesome.
I attended two classes (lunchtime and evening) on Wednesday. And I'll say that I was beginning to be a little bit on the tired side. I also had a full day at uni. We worked on knee ride both classes which is good, as it's something I am not good at. At all... But I think I have a fair idea now why it's not been working for me. I was being too nice. Not enough pressure down, and not enough pull up on the arm and leg. By Wednesday evening, I was making half decent entries and I got groans out of my partner when the knee went on. Also, I din't fall off after .01 of a second when he wriggled. In the lunchtime class, I got my lip caught between my partner's gi collar and my teeth and actually lost some skin. Bled like crazy at first, but with some vaseline, I could carry on after a bit.
Thursday night was open mat. I was tired before I started. And that was after a good nine hours of sleep for the previous two nights :-) I'd had the whole day at uni, which is all sitting down, but of course I had to pay attention. Rolling went ok, did some good stuff, got flattened by a couple of the bigger guys and all in all had a pretty good time.
One of the guys managed to accidentally kick me with his knee. And where did he connect? My bottom lip. Next to the cut bit. So I ended up with a huge blood blister. He was so apologetic :-) My answer: if it's not bleeding, who cares? And kept going. He promptly caught me with a leg bar twice. Must watch them legs...
We were pretty much done and sitting there stretching when one of the guys came in late. He'd been training at another place earlier but was looking all hopeful to get in a roll or two. Some had already packed up and gone, and I nearly declined. But then thought why not. He usually armbars me. Or whatever. But I was that tired I didn't care, and it it was another opportunity to do some no-gi. And then something weird happened. I armdragged him, got his back and got him in a rear choke. He tapped. Second round, I went for the armdrag again and pulled him to turtle. Went for an anaconda, rolled over but somehow couldn't finish it. I know it was tight (which he later confirmed), but my brain went numb and I forgot to walk into him. So I let it go and went after him. Shortly after, secured an armwrap from mount and a choke from there. By now he was laughing and saying that I'm doing good considering I'd already cooled down.
He wanted to go again, so we did. I deliberately did not go for the armdrag this time. He pulled guard and tried for a triangle/armbar. Didn't let him have it, passed his guard. Was busy attacking his arms, got mount and then he rolled me. Then it was my world: get arm across, take back, latch on and choke! Third tap for the night. He seemed to think it was awesome, I was more like speechless.. But it was rather a good finish for the evening all the same :-)
Friday night's class was essentially rolling. My bloody lip (pun intended) tore open again and I had to sit out the first few minutes to wait for it to stop bleeding. The rolls started from various positions. And to my great disgust, I got the killer whale, and our starting point was bloody side control. Sheesh. So when he started on top, I was history immediately. I can't escape by way of any technique, an experienced guy who is twice my weight!! So he cheerfully ripped my arms out. When it came to me on top I didn't fare too much better. The man can just bench press me off. Aside from that, I find it diffucult to keep any sort of control, let alone try for a sub on a huge barrel chested person. Luckily, after that I scored the small guy. He's getting good, very quick and he'll try stuff. He got me fair and square with a Peruvian Necktie. The rest of the time I beat his arse, mostly with chokes, although I let him start in mount or side control top most of the time.
Saturday we had a small class of newish guys and a surprise visit from a purple belt guy from some school in Sydney. I scored him as partner and found him great to work with. On the menu was torenanda pass to knee ride, armbars and spinning choke from knee ride and then a bit of rolling. We didn't got real hard, it was mostly positional and then some playful sort of seeing where we'd end up. Good stuff. Hope he comes to visit again.
I lasted the whole week though I will say I was ready for a break today. What was interesting about the experience is that I felt I was better technically than usual. Several times during the week, I actually started class feeling a bit tired. That feeling always vanished during warm up and I was never gassed. But I think it made a difference to how I rolled. I know it didn't help me keeping the big fellows at bay, but I felt more smooth in my transitions with the others. Maybe more economy of movement?? And in several cases, I know I started a submision during a transition, so that by the time we "arrived", the sub (usually a choke) was already locked in. I hadn't been able to do that before.
Next week will be a bit more sedate :-) No trip to Geelong and apparently no class on Saturday. Oh well, might use the free Saturday to finally go for a long drive and pick up some horses I bought and give the body a slightly longer rest to recover from wrestling.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
so much to think about
We haven't covered a lot of new stuff (=techniques) in class lately. Which is good, because my head is quite full enough as it is.
Lately, I see so many more details in the so called basics, details which I've been missing. Which is probably why some of my basic techniques have been somewhat ineffective. Especially since I don't get away with crappy technique as they are mostly bigger than I. So that's good, it forces me to get the basics right.
I'm beginning to understand that I should not give up on something simply because it seems difficult. Giving up is easy. Blaming the technique is easy. But what I need to do is buckle down and try and try again and troubleshoot what is the part or parts of the technique that I do incorrectly. I'm lucky to have an instructor with a great eye for small things and who can dissect things down. So he can pinpoint where I make mistakes and find a way to show me how to do it successfully. He has been quite inventive in thinking up ways to not only explain but to give me little drills that allow me to feel and understand what I need to do.
I know now, more than ever, that my hip movement has been woefully inadeqate. That explains why my escapes aren't that great and why sweeps aren't happening too well. Awareness is the first step to improvement. Then comes a plan. For example, during open mat on Thursday I had a couple of plans. One was to go for arm drags. The other was to use my hips. Basically, I tried to remember to make a bigger effort to hip out or bridge up. As a result, I had better success in regaining full guard. And I finally pulled off the escape from side mount, where I get both arms on the far side, bridge and then rotate around his forearm until I'm head to head. I had never been able to make that work before. So I think I'm on the right track there. Incidentally, I've lately found it much easier to do laps of hip escapes (during warm-ups), and I've been getting much bigger and freer movment. They feel powerful and fast now. On the one hand I'm amazed that it's taken the best part of two years to get decent hip escapes happening. On the other hand, I'm glad that they are happening!
Other stuff I've been working on some more are hooking sweeps. We did some work on setting up an arm drag from sitting (hooks in ) guard and then transitioning to a double hooking sweep if they resist the arm drag. Vice versa, if the sweep fails, I move my weight to the other butt cheek, hip out a bit and can either try for arm drag or for a sweep to the other side. It all involves such fundamental stuff that I desperately need to work on, mainly the hip movement and effective hooks.
We also did some work on arm drags from standing and from closed guard. That, coupled with the guard transitions we practiced a fair bit after the Rigan seminar, is yet another set of related basic stuff. Basic, but fits right into what I've recently been working on, if only from closed guard.
So, without covering much new stuff at all, my head is buzzing :-)
I have a bunch of instructional dvds and books. But at the moment, I refuse to look at anything that doesn't tie in with the stuff I'm working on. I think I finally am starting to have some sort of game plan. Which is nothing like what I anticipated it to be. It's growing in an organic sort of a fashion out from where I feel powerful and have the most success. Guard.
BJJ was always fun, but I'm astonished to see it's more and more fun all the time.
BJJ is a bit like a fractal. Any part of it you happen to investigate is intricate and interesting. You try and get an overview and see the whole thing and make the areas you know fit together. Then you realise that every branch has lots more intricate details. Many of them fit in with other branches. And the more you zoom in and look, the more you see yet more intriguing and interesting details.
I've had an offer to tag along and go to classes down in Geelong, maybe as often as once a week. That means classes with John Will or one of his black belts. I'm sure it will be fun as well as tough going, especially since I now have to attend the advanced classes. I shudder at the thought of a room full of experienced coloured belts. They'll have me for breakfast ;-) Maybe I should have a "fragile - handle with care" sticker on my gi?? Naw, it'll be good and the learning will be well worth it.
Lately, I see so many more details in the so called basics, details which I've been missing. Which is probably why some of my basic techniques have been somewhat ineffective. Especially since I don't get away with crappy technique as they are mostly bigger than I. So that's good, it forces me to get the basics right.
I'm beginning to understand that I should not give up on something simply because it seems difficult. Giving up is easy. Blaming the technique is easy. But what I need to do is buckle down and try and try again and troubleshoot what is the part or parts of the technique that I do incorrectly. I'm lucky to have an instructor with a great eye for small things and who can dissect things down. So he can pinpoint where I make mistakes and find a way to show me how to do it successfully. He has been quite inventive in thinking up ways to not only explain but to give me little drills that allow me to feel and understand what I need to do.
I know now, more than ever, that my hip movement has been woefully inadeqate. That explains why my escapes aren't that great and why sweeps aren't happening too well. Awareness is the first step to improvement. Then comes a plan. For example, during open mat on Thursday I had a couple of plans. One was to go for arm drags. The other was to use my hips. Basically, I tried to remember to make a bigger effort to hip out or bridge up. As a result, I had better success in regaining full guard. And I finally pulled off the escape from side mount, where I get both arms on the far side, bridge and then rotate around his forearm until I'm head to head. I had never been able to make that work before. So I think I'm on the right track there. Incidentally, I've lately found it much easier to do laps of hip escapes (during warm-ups), and I've been getting much bigger and freer movment. They feel powerful and fast now. On the one hand I'm amazed that it's taken the best part of two years to get decent hip escapes happening. On the other hand, I'm glad that they are happening!
Other stuff I've been working on some more are hooking sweeps. We did some work on setting up an arm drag from sitting (hooks in ) guard and then transitioning to a double hooking sweep if they resist the arm drag. Vice versa, if the sweep fails, I move my weight to the other butt cheek, hip out a bit and can either try for arm drag or for a sweep to the other side. It all involves such fundamental stuff that I desperately need to work on, mainly the hip movement and effective hooks.
We also did some work on arm drags from standing and from closed guard. That, coupled with the guard transitions we practiced a fair bit after the Rigan seminar, is yet another set of related basic stuff. Basic, but fits right into what I've recently been working on, if only from closed guard.
So, without covering much new stuff at all, my head is buzzing :-)
I have a bunch of instructional dvds and books. But at the moment, I refuse to look at anything that doesn't tie in with the stuff I'm working on. I think I finally am starting to have some sort of game plan. Which is nothing like what I anticipated it to be. It's growing in an organic sort of a fashion out from where I feel powerful and have the most success. Guard.
BJJ was always fun, but I'm astonished to see it's more and more fun all the time.
BJJ is a bit like a fractal. Any part of it you happen to investigate is intricate and interesting. You try and get an overview and see the whole thing and make the areas you know fit together. Then you realise that every branch has lots more intricate details. Many of them fit in with other branches. And the more you zoom in and look, the more you see yet more intriguing and interesting details.
I've had an offer to tag along and go to classes down in Geelong, maybe as often as once a week. That means classes with John Will or one of his black belts. I'm sure it will be fun as well as tough going, especially since I now have to attend the advanced classes. I shudder at the thought of a room full of experienced coloured belts. They'll have me for breakfast ;-) Maybe I should have a "fragile - handle with care" sticker on my gi?? Naw, it'll be good and the learning will be well worth it.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
mental toughness
I just came across this classic post on sherdog, posted by HomerPlata in the thread Mental toughness challenged by BJJ?:
"I agree that grappling challenges your mental toughness but, like some others have said, not in terms of resisting locked-in submissions. It's more about whether or not you can drag yourself to class when you feel like the weakest, most talentless turd on the planet. Everyone has those days, and if you can still get to class, listen well, and train hard, then you do have mental toughness."
I can't vouch for being mentally tough, but I certainly have that weak, talentless turd feeling at times... Haha.
"I agree that grappling challenges your mental toughness but, like some others have said, not in terms of resisting locked-in submissions. It's more about whether or not you can drag yourself to class when you feel like the weakest, most talentless turd on the planet. Everyone has those days, and if you can still get to class, listen well, and train hard, then you do have mental toughness."
I can't vouch for being mentally tough, but I certainly have that weak, talentless turd feeling at times... Haha.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
rolling, rolling... and gear gripes
Well, another whole week has passed. Lots of classes, lots of rolling.
Nothing much new. Still stuggling against the bigger guys. That's so frustrating, knowing I must stay out from under them, and somehow not succeeding in achieving that objective. They know that all they need to do is get hold of some part of me and then move their bulk over the rest rest of me. I seem to have little success with open guard, they are able to just grab my legs and then I might as well give them a written invitation with gold edges to please take side control. Bah. Even with grips on their sleeves I seem to be doomed. On the positive side, at least I'm able to slow them down and my slowly improving hip mobility is helping.
Anyway, that just means I'l have to work on it more. I have absolutely no intention on giving up!!
Due to a couple of pretty small classes, I had more opportunity to work one on one with my instructor. Been working on two things. Firstly, a defence against a knee through guard pass, where I switch out my hips to face them, go to turtle and then fade right back to guard. I had a few issues with the hip switch, but I'm starting to get it. We drilled that numerous times with more and more pressure. The principles will also help me with my other escapes, so it will hopefully help address the issue with the bigger guys, too.
The other thing I had a thorough play with was the double hooking sweep. The first few attempts resulted in my poor training partner being propelled right up, which probably made for a tough landing :-). Then I got the body mechanics more under control and was able to do it smoothly and with next to no momentum, putting him precisely where I wanted him. That felt good. It's a great sweep, and now that I have the necessary coordination to make every one of my four limbs do different things simultaneously, I think I'll be able to use it. There are also a lot of principles behind this sweep which it helps me understand better.
Last night I had a quick reminder that as a blue belt, I need to be aware of leg locks. Haven't tapped to one of those since I was doing no-gi grappling at another school.... That's going to make open guard an even more dangerous territory for me. But on the positive side, I'm allowed to go for legs on blue belts and above.
I've had several rolls in my RDA gi. It is better fitting than my other gis and I like the material of the top. The pants are awesome. My two favourites are the Fuji Kassen and the RDA. Still not sure about the Shoyoroll. For starters, the sleeves are way too long, so I'm going to shorten them. I have an A2, and the sleeves are considerably longer than in my A3 Atama and Fuj gis. That irritates me so much I haven't even thought about whether I like the rest of it enough to hang on to. Maybe I should just stick it on ebay. From what I hear people pay stupid prices. With the proceeds I could buy a new blue Fushida (or maybe two!) ... Don't know yet.
I've been trying to hunt down another pair of compression shorts. I have a pair of BSCs (full quad ladies) which are THE thing. Perfect fit, and no niggles or pinching in unmentionable places. They are going on two years old now and have seen on average six training sessions every week. There is just a tiny bit of wear showing in a couple of spots. I wanted another pair only to discover that model is no longer made :-(. I checked out their "hot shorts". Too short and different design which pinches. No way!
I have a pair of 2XU shorts. They are a different design. So although very similar in size, they do tend to ride up on my legs a little. And they pinch in the nether regions, too. Oh yes, and the fancy big silver logos and stripes are all coming off, so they are not one of my best purchases...
Recently, I went to a sports store and tried on every pair of women's shorts and found: nothing. All the damn things are designed for discomfort. I don't have a big butt, or strange anatomy, so it shouldn't be that difficult. Maybe these things are ok for the occasionall half hour of bouncing around a gym or a little run. But for wrestling, they need to fit like a second skin, not have seams in stupid places and not ride up the middle and pinch my soft tissues. They should also have a draw string, and maybe need to be designed less for a low rise good look than functionality. But my biggest beef is why on earth they are made with a seam right along the middle. Think about it, the shorts are stretchy, with the seams being the least stretchy. So a seam up the middle will do what??
I don't know, maybe they are cheaper to make this way. Though when I look at how many extra unneccessary seams many of these shorts have, just to look fancy, I can't see the problem. But why don't they make them to actually conform to a human body?
Anyway, I have ordered a cheap pair from Korea on ebay. They cost a quarter of the ones in the shop, and they have no seam up the middle. So I'll see how they go. And I hope that my BSCs will last for a long time yet!!
I got my Rupture RG in the mail today. I ordered an old style one, because I think they look really classy. A men's small size fits me perfectly. Well, hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out tomorrow.
Nothing much new. Still stuggling against the bigger guys. That's so frustrating, knowing I must stay out from under them, and somehow not succeeding in achieving that objective. They know that all they need to do is get hold of some part of me and then move their bulk over the rest rest of me. I seem to have little success with open guard, they are able to just grab my legs and then I might as well give them a written invitation with gold edges to please take side control. Bah. Even with grips on their sleeves I seem to be doomed. On the positive side, at least I'm able to slow them down and my slowly improving hip mobility is helping.
Anyway, that just means I'l have to work on it more. I have absolutely no intention on giving up!!
Due to a couple of pretty small classes, I had more opportunity to work one on one with my instructor. Been working on two things. Firstly, a defence against a knee through guard pass, where I switch out my hips to face them, go to turtle and then fade right back to guard. I had a few issues with the hip switch, but I'm starting to get it. We drilled that numerous times with more and more pressure. The principles will also help me with my other escapes, so it will hopefully help address the issue with the bigger guys, too.
The other thing I had a thorough play with was the double hooking sweep. The first few attempts resulted in my poor training partner being propelled right up, which probably made for a tough landing :-). Then I got the body mechanics more under control and was able to do it smoothly and with next to no momentum, putting him precisely where I wanted him. That felt good. It's a great sweep, and now that I have the necessary coordination to make every one of my four limbs do different things simultaneously, I think I'll be able to use it. There are also a lot of principles behind this sweep which it helps me understand better.
Last night I had a quick reminder that as a blue belt, I need to be aware of leg locks. Haven't tapped to one of those since I was doing no-gi grappling at another school.... That's going to make open guard an even more dangerous territory for me. But on the positive side, I'm allowed to go for legs on blue belts and above.
I've had several rolls in my RDA gi. It is better fitting than my other gis and I like the material of the top. The pants are awesome. My two favourites are the Fuji Kassen and the RDA. Still not sure about the Shoyoroll. For starters, the sleeves are way too long, so I'm going to shorten them. I have an A2, and the sleeves are considerably longer than in my A3 Atama and Fuj gis. That irritates me so much I haven't even thought about whether I like the rest of it enough to hang on to. Maybe I should just stick it on ebay. From what I hear people pay stupid prices. With the proceeds I could buy a new blue Fushida (or maybe two!) ... Don't know yet.
I've been trying to hunt down another pair of compression shorts. I have a pair of BSCs (full quad ladies) which are THE thing. Perfect fit, and no niggles or pinching in unmentionable places. They are going on two years old now and have seen on average six training sessions every week. There is just a tiny bit of wear showing in a couple of spots. I wanted another pair only to discover that model is no longer made :-(. I checked out their "hot shorts". Too short and different design which pinches. No way!
I have a pair of 2XU shorts. They are a different design. So although very similar in size, they do tend to ride up on my legs a little. And they pinch in the nether regions, too. Oh yes, and the fancy big silver logos and stripes are all coming off, so they are not one of my best purchases...
Recently, I went to a sports store and tried on every pair of women's shorts and found: nothing. All the damn things are designed for discomfort. I don't have a big butt, or strange anatomy, so it shouldn't be that difficult. Maybe these things are ok for the occasionall half hour of bouncing around a gym or a little run. But for wrestling, they need to fit like a second skin, not have seams in stupid places and not ride up the middle and pinch my soft tissues. They should also have a draw string, and maybe need to be designed less for a low rise good look than functionality. But my biggest beef is why on earth they are made with a seam right along the middle. Think about it, the shorts are stretchy, with the seams being the least stretchy. So a seam up the middle will do what??
I don't know, maybe they are cheaper to make this way. Though when I look at how many extra unneccessary seams many of these shorts have, just to look fancy, I can't see the problem. But why don't they make them to actually conform to a human body?
Anyway, I have ordered a cheap pair from Korea on ebay. They cost a quarter of the ones in the shop, and they have no seam up the middle. So I'll see how they go. And I hope that my BSCs will last for a long time yet!!
I got my Rupture RG in the mail today. I ordered an old style one, because I think they look really classy. A men's small size fits me perfectly. Well, hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
looking at the line up
Today, I had my first opportunity to look at the line up from the front. Over the last couple of years, I have worked my way from the left side of the line over to the right. Recently, depending on who was at class, I've been the top end, taking warm ups for the instructor. I knew the day would come when I'd be the one in front. Well, that came on Monday.
For some reason, a lot of people are away at the moment, especially the senior guys. Some on holidays, some are sick or busy with family matters. Being a small school, all the coloured belts stand in and teach. And it doesn't take too many absences to feel pretty lonely up that end. So there was a room full of white belts (some were there only for their second class), and myself. But to be fair, I had some help and moral support in the form of a fourth stripe lady who is a Karate BB at our school.
I'm pleased to report that I didn't stress too much and as a result didn't have the dry mouth and sweaty palms like I get with public speaking. Phew! I guess part of the reason is that 1. I LIKE BJJ and 2. I'm reasonably confident in my knowledge and skills. I know it sounds stupid, but walking around with a blue belt gave me more confidence. I guess I finally worked out that I should have confidence because others have confidence in me. What a strange and difficult and emotionally challenging journey this is!
Anyyway, coming back to the class....I did a standard warm up but threw in a few stretches which I find easy but know others don't. Nothing like a bit of showing off ;-). Ahem, not really! They were mainly glute/hamgsting stretches and others which I think are good for developing flexibility for closed guard. But I sure heard some exasperated groans.
With mostly total newbies, I put basic drills on the menu. I told the guys they had to put up with my efforts and if I made stupid blunders, because it was my first time. But it all went pretty well. I demonstrated the positions and transitions with the lady and sent everyone off in pairs to go and drill. Then I went around and checked, encouraged, corrected where necessary and slowed people down (guys!!). I took turns with the other lady. She happend to be partnered up with a really big guy, so I made sure it wasn't too hard on her back (she's my vintage... ) by giving her a break. And to keep warm :-)
At the end of the class In know that even the two stripers picked up a few things and everybody had kept busy, looked nice and hot and said they'd learned something. I guess I couldn't wish for more than that. They looked happy and said thank you.
Personally, I'm still not sure what to make of the experience. It didn't faze me, and I wouldn't have issues doing it again. That in itselt is a surprise. But I would wish to have a bit of notice and make a plan. Something to fit in with our instructor and the theme/s he's working on. I was lying awake in bed that night thinking what I could have done differently or better. I know I forgot to mark the attendance sheet :-) Guess I better figure out everyone's names, too...
I'm sure I will learn from watching and helping others. From trying to see and understand and correct their technique to make it work, especially when they have a vastly different body type to me. But hey, I'm only a beginner myself, and my biggest worry it that I make a mistake which is propagated through teaching to others. So I'll do my best for everyone and learn as much as I can in the process.
But I'm most looking forward to classes where I'm just a student :-)
For some reason, a lot of people are away at the moment, especially the senior guys. Some on holidays, some are sick or busy with family matters. Being a small school, all the coloured belts stand in and teach. And it doesn't take too many absences to feel pretty lonely up that end. So there was a room full of white belts (some were there only for their second class), and myself. But to be fair, I had some help and moral support in the form of a fourth stripe lady who is a Karate BB at our school.
I'm pleased to report that I didn't stress too much and as a result didn't have the dry mouth and sweaty palms like I get with public speaking. Phew! I guess part of the reason is that 1. I LIKE BJJ and 2. I'm reasonably confident in my knowledge and skills. I know it sounds stupid, but walking around with a blue belt gave me more confidence. I guess I finally worked out that I should have confidence because others have confidence in me. What a strange and difficult and emotionally challenging journey this is!
Anyyway, coming back to the class....I did a standard warm up but threw in a few stretches which I find easy but know others don't. Nothing like a bit of showing off ;-). Ahem, not really! They were mainly glute/hamgsting stretches and others which I think are good for developing flexibility for closed guard. But I sure heard some exasperated groans.
With mostly total newbies, I put basic drills on the menu. I told the guys they had to put up with my efforts and if I made stupid blunders, because it was my first time. But it all went pretty well. I demonstrated the positions and transitions with the lady and sent everyone off in pairs to go and drill. Then I went around and checked, encouraged, corrected where necessary and slowed people down (guys!!). I took turns with the other lady. She happend to be partnered up with a really big guy, so I made sure it wasn't too hard on her back (she's my vintage... ) by giving her a break. And to keep warm :-)
At the end of the class In know that even the two stripers picked up a few things and everybody had kept busy, looked nice and hot and said they'd learned something. I guess I couldn't wish for more than that. They looked happy and said thank you.
Personally, I'm still not sure what to make of the experience. It didn't faze me, and I wouldn't have issues doing it again. That in itselt is a surprise. But I would wish to have a bit of notice and make a plan. Something to fit in with our instructor and the theme/s he's working on. I was lying awake in bed that night thinking what I could have done differently or better. I know I forgot to mark the attendance sheet :-) Guess I better figure out everyone's names, too...
I'm sure I will learn from watching and helping others. From trying to see and understand and correct their technique to make it work, especially when they have a vastly different body type to me. But hey, I'm only a beginner myself, and my biggest worry it that I make a mistake which is propagated through teaching to others. So I'll do my best for everyone and learn as much as I can in the process.
But I'm most looking forward to classes where I'm just a student :-)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
put that boy down!
I still feel weird stepping out on the mat with a blue belt around my waist. Not only because it's new and slippery and wants to come undone. It's just... strange :-)
On the one hand I feel like maybe I have more responsibility. On the other hand, I'm pretty relaxed. I don't feel (so far) that I have a target on my back, that I need to prove anything or that there are sudden higher expectations which I must fulfill. The guys have been great. Oh, I get teased. How much the belt suits the colour of my eyes. One guy keeps saying he wants to roll with the champ. And there's the "now that you are a blue belt.." sort of stuff :-)
To be honest, it worried me to begin with, but now that I know the sky isn't falling on my head, I'm enjoying myself. With the comp over, I can experiment to my heart's content. Both with new techniques and with modifying ones I already know. Rolling is more fun all the time.
Keeping up with the theme of basics, we worked on guard passing on Friday night. For a change, it was only a very small class. One of the senior blue belts took it, then there was myself, and three guys. One of them with only a couple of classes behind him. I had the new guy for a while and was reminded how much people rely on muscles :-). We went from some drills to free guard passing against minimal resistance, then to guard passing against more resistance with the bottom person really working on breaking down posture. And finally free rolling. I mainly rolled with the two more experienced white belts. When it came to rolling, one came in grinning, called me champ and ran around to my back to attack. Silly bastard :-) We had a lively roll. I had him in a crucifix which I lost when I was experimenting. From then it was a tangle of arms and legs with several sub attempts from both of us, because this guy is pretty fast. I had a ball. He kneed me in the back of the head on an armbar attempt. We stopped to check for damage but it was time anyway.
Then we did a warm down. Oh yeah. 100 crunches. Push ups. Hold pushup position with arm/legs off the floor. Hold halfway down. Just hold for two minutes. Ha, that was funny, too. Hold the position came last, with arms & backs already tired. First he said let's hold for a minute. Cool. Two of the guys were groaning. Then he said how about two minutes? I said cool. That instantaneously led to the collapse of one of them :-) Another failed seconds later. Hehe. I don't know why, but I really find that quite easy.
Then he said, ok, let's wrestle some more. Arrright. I will say I wasn't too fresh by this stage... But the two guys I wrestled were my size or smaller, so I was going quite well. Finally, the blue belt wanted a roll. And then it was kick my arse time :-) Oh well. He always explains stuff after he catches me out and he's shown me loads of stuff. But I did feel I was getting it dished out to me. I think the best bit was when he decided to congratulate me on the new belt whilst applying a pretty nasty crossface and then ripping my arm out. Haha, fun times.
Saturday class was also reasonably small. Before the class, one of the brown belts showed me a couple of new things which he picked up from John Will and Rigan Machado down in Geelong. He couldn't stay for class, but we had a few minutes before it started.
First thing was a refinement of the standing open guard pass to knee ride. That was one of the passes we had worked on in Rigan's seminar last Sunday. Then he showed me a way to break the gable grip around the legs if someone is doing a double underpass. It's combination of making heavy legs and arching up. Next technique was a defence against the standing pass to attempted knee ride. You have to do a bit quick for this one. As he steps around my legs on my right side, I roll onto my left elbow, rock back onto my left shoulder and get my legs up. I then swing the legs in a circular motion to the right, rocking onto the the right shoulder and then the right hip, which either gets him back in my closed guard or a triangle. But you have to be quick, otherwise....
The last technique he showed me was a side control escape straight to d'arce. We didn't have a lot of time, so I only tried that one once. I'm mulling it over in my head and will have try it again a few times. But very interesting!
When class started, I took the warmup. Then I was partnered with the young, small guy. We drilled guard passing again, and the new guys were shown and drilled the figure four from guard. Then we went on to free guard passing with a bit then more resistance. And finally the bottom person was allowed subs. My partner and I were the most experienced pair on the mat, so we were sent up one end and mostly left to our own devices.
On the suggestion of our instructor, I worked on standing guard passes. With a light guy like that, it doesn't tax my back too much, and I can actually pick him up. When on the bottom, I made sure I gave him lots of problems to solve, but I ensured that he had some successes when he did something correctly. I showed him some of the several things one can do to slow down guard passing, such as move aside when the passer puts the knee in the middle, stiff arming, heavy leg on the under pass and such things. I showed him one of the crushing guard passes and then how if you don't control the arm, the bottom person will climb on your back. He's very ego free and thinks it's really cool when you catch him in something. But then I always show him what I did and what he might do to avoid it. And he picks stuff up fast. I was busy having a good roll with him and was busy taking his back, when I was told to "put that boy down!" :-). I made disappointed noises and we all laughed. End of class.
On the one hand I feel like maybe I have more responsibility. On the other hand, I'm pretty relaxed. I don't feel (so far) that I have a target on my back, that I need to prove anything or that there are sudden higher expectations which I must fulfill. The guys have been great. Oh, I get teased. How much the belt suits the colour of my eyes. One guy keeps saying he wants to roll with the champ. And there's the "now that you are a blue belt.." sort of stuff :-)
To be honest, it worried me to begin with, but now that I know the sky isn't falling on my head, I'm enjoying myself. With the comp over, I can experiment to my heart's content. Both with new techniques and with modifying ones I already know. Rolling is more fun all the time.
Keeping up with the theme of basics, we worked on guard passing on Friday night. For a change, it was only a very small class. One of the senior blue belts took it, then there was myself, and three guys. One of them with only a couple of classes behind him. I had the new guy for a while and was reminded how much people rely on muscles :-). We went from some drills to free guard passing against minimal resistance, then to guard passing against more resistance with the bottom person really working on breaking down posture. And finally free rolling. I mainly rolled with the two more experienced white belts. When it came to rolling, one came in grinning, called me champ and ran around to my back to attack. Silly bastard :-) We had a lively roll. I had him in a crucifix which I lost when I was experimenting. From then it was a tangle of arms and legs with several sub attempts from both of us, because this guy is pretty fast. I had a ball. He kneed me in the back of the head on an armbar attempt. We stopped to check for damage but it was time anyway.
Then we did a warm down. Oh yeah. 100 crunches. Push ups. Hold pushup position with arm/legs off the floor. Hold halfway down. Just hold for two minutes. Ha, that was funny, too. Hold the position came last, with arms & backs already tired. First he said let's hold for a minute. Cool. Two of the guys were groaning. Then he said how about two minutes? I said cool. That instantaneously led to the collapse of one of them :-) Another failed seconds later. Hehe. I don't know why, but I really find that quite easy.
Then he said, ok, let's wrestle some more. Arrright. I will say I wasn't too fresh by this stage... But the two guys I wrestled were my size or smaller, so I was going quite well. Finally, the blue belt wanted a roll. And then it was kick my arse time :-) Oh well. He always explains stuff after he catches me out and he's shown me loads of stuff. But I did feel I was getting it dished out to me. I think the best bit was when he decided to congratulate me on the new belt whilst applying a pretty nasty crossface and then ripping my arm out. Haha, fun times.
Saturday class was also reasonably small. Before the class, one of the brown belts showed me a couple of new things which he picked up from John Will and Rigan Machado down in Geelong. He couldn't stay for class, but we had a few minutes before it started.
First thing was a refinement of the standing open guard pass to knee ride. That was one of the passes we had worked on in Rigan's seminar last Sunday. Then he showed me a way to break the gable grip around the legs if someone is doing a double underpass. It's combination of making heavy legs and arching up. Next technique was a defence against the standing pass to attempted knee ride. You have to do a bit quick for this one. As he steps around my legs on my right side, I roll onto my left elbow, rock back onto my left shoulder and get my legs up. I then swing the legs in a circular motion to the right, rocking onto the the right shoulder and then the right hip, which either gets him back in my closed guard or a triangle. But you have to be quick, otherwise....
The last technique he showed me was a side control escape straight to d'arce. We didn't have a lot of time, so I only tried that one once. I'm mulling it over in my head and will have try it again a few times. But very interesting!
When class started, I took the warmup. Then I was partnered with the young, small guy. We drilled guard passing again, and the new guys were shown and drilled the figure four from guard. Then we went on to free guard passing with a bit then more resistance. And finally the bottom person was allowed subs. My partner and I were the most experienced pair on the mat, so we were sent up one end and mostly left to our own devices.
On the suggestion of our instructor, I worked on standing guard passes. With a light guy like that, it doesn't tax my back too much, and I can actually pick him up. When on the bottom, I made sure I gave him lots of problems to solve, but I ensured that he had some successes when he did something correctly. I showed him some of the several things one can do to slow down guard passing, such as move aside when the passer puts the knee in the middle, stiff arming, heavy leg on the under pass and such things. I showed him one of the crushing guard passes and then how if you don't control the arm, the bottom person will climb on your back. He's very ego free and thinks it's really cool when you catch him in something. But then I always show him what I did and what he might do to avoid it. And he picks stuff up fast. I was busy having a good roll with him and was busy taking his back, when I was told to "put that boy down!" :-). I made disappointed noises and we all laughed. End of class.
Friday, September 17, 2010
help - am I turning into a gi whore?
Ha, I know I'm not as bad as some, but I'm worse than many :-)
There isn't any help for this addiction, but there is a support group on Facebook, called BJJ Gi Addicts Anonymous. Sigh. I've signed up.
After reading about the RDA gi on Meerkatsu's blog and on on Jake's The Ground Never Misses blog, I couldn't resist. Well, the fact that the price dropped substantially also helped. I don't think I would have parted with over $200. In any case, Seymour had posted the exact measurements (pre and post washing/shrinking) and that helped me choose my size. So I ordered one from Budovideos.com, which didn't take long to get here.
It's arrived and it looks fantastic. It's been washed, has a bit of shrinkage and now it's ready to roll (pun intended!). Can't wait to try it out. It certainly fits beautifully.
I've managed to sell two of the gis that didn't fit me so well. I'm also going to sell my huge and bulky judo gi and my Fuji gi. The latter I actually like, but it really is a tad big and I find I move around in it too much. That will then leave me a rather battered Atama, a newish Fuji Kassen, a new blue Shoyoroll (batch 6) and the RDA gi. That should keep me going for a while.
Two are reasonably lightweight and will be perfect for summer. The Kassen is a bit on the thicker side and will be good for winter. And I love the fit on that one, too. The only one I'm not sure of is the Shoyoroll. The sleeves are very long compared to the other gis. I have yet to use it at the school as I wasn't allowed a blue gi as white belt. But as of now, I can wear it, so I'll give it a good workout and see how it feels. By feel and fit, I think the RDA and the Kassen will be my favourites.
The only other gi I'm still tempted to get is a Fushida. Well, maybe I can talk myself into buying myself a birthday present ;-) .
There isn't any help for this addiction, but there is a support group on Facebook, called BJJ Gi Addicts Anonymous. Sigh. I've signed up.
After reading about the RDA gi on Meerkatsu's blog and on on Jake's The Ground Never Misses blog, I couldn't resist. Well, the fact that the price dropped substantially also helped. I don't think I would have parted with over $200. In any case, Seymour had posted the exact measurements (pre and post washing/shrinking) and that helped me choose my size. So I ordered one from Budovideos.com, which didn't take long to get here.
It's arrived and it looks fantastic. It's been washed, has a bit of shrinkage and now it's ready to roll (pun intended!). Can't wait to try it out. It certainly fits beautifully.
I've managed to sell two of the gis that didn't fit me so well. I'm also going to sell my huge and bulky judo gi and my Fuji gi. The latter I actually like, but it really is a tad big and I find I move around in it too much. That will then leave me a rather battered Atama, a newish Fuji Kassen, a new blue Shoyoroll (batch 6) and the RDA gi. That should keep me going for a while.
Two are reasonably lightweight and will be perfect for summer. The Kassen is a bit on the thicker side and will be good for winter. And I love the fit on that one, too. The only one I'm not sure of is the Shoyoroll. The sleeves are very long compared to the other gis. I have yet to use it at the school as I wasn't allowed a blue gi as white belt. But as of now, I can wear it, so I'll give it a good workout and see how it feels. By feel and fit, I think the RDA and the Kassen will be my favourites.
The only other gi I'm still tempted to get is a Fushida. Well, maybe I can talk myself into buying myself a birthday present ;-) .
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
da basics!
A comment made by Rigan at the seminar was that he saw too many people make mistakes with basic stuff. People got stuck in the guard. People got armbarred a lot. And people were slow to transition or didn't transition well.
His coloured belt seminar addressed some of those basics. Ironically, the subject had been chosen before the comp, but the theme certainly addressed what he and some others felt was lacking on the mats at the comp.
Out of our school's contingent, two guys got stuck and a couple got caught in swift armbars when their opponents pulled guard.
So the topic at our school for this week is to go over the same basics which Rigan took us through at the seminar:
guard - transition between closed and butterfly and hooks in and spider guard
guard passing - grip fighting, getting posture, negotiating legs in open guard
That's what we worked on today and will be doing for a while longer. We have a large influx of new guys, they need the basic anyway. But everyone else will benefit from a revisit. Myself included!!
The lunchtime class was very small indeed and consisted of myself. Well, I don't mind one on one time with our instructor :-) . It gave me plenty of time to go over the aforementioned basics and address a couple of little problems. He also showed me a way to defend a knee through guard pass, where I deflect my opponent with my arms, switch my hips and get to my knees. I retreat to turtle, but fade back right away, pulling him back into my full guard. Nice.
After that, we had a bit of a chin wag about life in general and how my journey as a blue belt might pan out from here. I'm under strict instruction not to feel obliged to prove anything to anyone, and not to stress out over the new belt and put myself under pressure. I'm to hang loose and not try to tap anyone, rather go easy, experiment and be tapped. When I read what pressure people seem to put themselves in when they get a new belt, I can well understand why I've been given this advice. And I'll do my best to heed it.
This evening, we had a fairly decent sized class with mostly beginners and moderately experienced whitebelts. We went over the same basics again. I was able to help the guy I was partnered with quite a bit, but I picked up a point about breaking open the legs in closed guard. That aside, I value the opportunity to work on and get better at the basics. I am much more aware of where my weight is, and I am trying to make my guard passes and transitions more "waterproof".
There was a time when I (foolishly) used to hate doing basic stuff, but that is no longer the case. There is always some small bit I pick up, and extra reps will develop my technique and general feel.
Da basics rule :-)
His coloured belt seminar addressed some of those basics. Ironically, the subject had been chosen before the comp, but the theme certainly addressed what he and some others felt was lacking on the mats at the comp.
Out of our school's contingent, two guys got stuck and a couple got caught in swift armbars when their opponents pulled guard.
So the topic at our school for this week is to go over the same basics which Rigan took us through at the seminar:
guard - transition between closed and butterfly and hooks in and spider guard
guard passing - grip fighting, getting posture, negotiating legs in open guard
That's what we worked on today and will be doing for a while longer. We have a large influx of new guys, they need the basic anyway. But everyone else will benefit from a revisit. Myself included!!
The lunchtime class was very small indeed and consisted of myself. Well, I don't mind one on one time with our instructor :-) . It gave me plenty of time to go over the aforementioned basics and address a couple of little problems. He also showed me a way to defend a knee through guard pass, where I deflect my opponent with my arms, switch my hips and get to my knees. I retreat to turtle, but fade back right away, pulling him back into my full guard. Nice.
After that, we had a bit of a chin wag about life in general and how my journey as a blue belt might pan out from here. I'm under strict instruction not to feel obliged to prove anything to anyone, and not to stress out over the new belt and put myself under pressure. I'm to hang loose and not try to tap anyone, rather go easy, experiment and be tapped. When I read what pressure people seem to put themselves in when they get a new belt, I can well understand why I've been given this advice. And I'll do my best to heed it.
This evening, we had a fairly decent sized class with mostly beginners and moderately experienced whitebelts. We went over the same basics again. I was able to help the guy I was partnered with quite a bit, but I picked up a point about breaking open the legs in closed guard. That aside, I value the opportunity to work on and get better at the basics. I am much more aware of where my weight is, and I am trying to make my guard passes and transitions more "waterproof".
There was a time when I (foolishly) used to hate doing basic stuff, but that is no longer the case. There is always some small bit I pick up, and extra reps will develop my technique and general feel.
Da basics rule :-)
Monday, September 13, 2010
eventful weekend
So I went to the 2010 Gathering. That's the Will-Machado Nationals, held in Melbourne every September. It was my second Gathering, and my fourth competition in all.
I had two fights, one in my weight division. Well, actually, they combined three divisions, so I fought at over 74kg, while I weighed in at about 68. But there was only one other woman. The second fight was the absolute and it was against the same woman.
I won both fights by submission. One armbar and one from pressure (I had her back and flattened her out, and while I was going for an arm, she tapped). What made me happy were several things. I felt I had time. I had the initiative pretty much all the time and was racking up points and advantages. While I couldn't finish a couple of the chokes I tried for, I went straight for something else. I had a bit of a game plan and I followed it. The attacks from closed guard which lead off an arm drag worked perfectly.
I had lots of team mates to cheer me on, which was fantastic. They sounded very excited :-) I hope someone took some pictures.
A couple of strangers came up to me after and said they enjoyed watching and it was very technical. Someone said it was good to see that at white belt level, rather than the usual ripping and smashing.
My instructor watched and said a few nice things afterwards. But the nicest thing he said was that I'm now a blue belt. Woooohoooo! It still hasn't quite sunk in, to be honest.
On Sunday, Rigan Machado ran a couple of seminars, one for coloured belts and one for white belts. So I borrowed a blue belt and went to the morning seminar. I've never seen so many black belts in one room! It was awesome. The seminar was great and I was lucky to score a super nice black belt guy to drill with.
So all in all, a weekend I won't forget in a hurry.
I had two fights, one in my weight division. Well, actually, they combined three divisions, so I fought at over 74kg, while I weighed in at about 68. But there was only one other woman. The second fight was the absolute and it was against the same woman.
I won both fights by submission. One armbar and one from pressure (I had her back and flattened her out, and while I was going for an arm, she tapped). What made me happy were several things. I felt I had time. I had the initiative pretty much all the time and was racking up points and advantages. While I couldn't finish a couple of the chokes I tried for, I went straight for something else. I had a bit of a game plan and I followed it. The attacks from closed guard which lead off an arm drag worked perfectly.
I had lots of team mates to cheer me on, which was fantastic. They sounded very excited :-) I hope someone took some pictures.
A couple of strangers came up to me after and said they enjoyed watching and it was very technical. Someone said it was good to see that at white belt level, rather than the usual ripping and smashing.
My instructor watched and said a few nice things afterwards. But the nicest thing he said was that I'm now a blue belt. Woooohoooo! It still hasn't quite sunk in, to be honest.
On Sunday, Rigan Machado ran a couple of seminars, one for coloured belts and one for white belts. So I borrowed a blue belt and went to the morning seminar. I've never seen so many black belts in one room! It was awesome. The seminar was great and I was lucky to score a super nice black belt guy to drill with.
So all in all, a weekend I won't forget in a hurry.
Friday, September 10, 2010
comp tomorrow!
I have been so busy with work for uni and a plethora of other things (mainly farm and horses), that I honestly have hardly had time to think about the comp. I don't know if that's good or bad :-)
I had a class on Monday night. We basically did our last lot of rolling before the comp. Some rounds from standing, some rounds from knees. I had a couple of very long rolls and one where I caught some weird surprise sub on one of the blue belts. I wanted an omoplata but he got his leg across my body. Yet, I hung on to his arm and managed a shoulder lock. Has us both scatching our heads ;-)
Wednesday lunchtime, there were only three of us, including a total newbie. The instructor had a cold and wanted to not share it with us, which I found commendable. So there was no rolling with him, or even demos, it was instruction by distance. The other senior guy and I took turns working with the new guy, teaching him basis stuff. Otherwise, we basically talked strategy with the instructor, and had a chance to troubleshoot a couple of small things in our respective games. We then practised them on one another while the newbie guy did some stuff on his own (hip escapes etc). So I went over how to use my whole body to effect an arm drag. I need that set up for the armbar, to get the back or to sweep. Lately, I've had trouble getting their arm across because they know what I'm up to and they'll muscle their way out of it. But as the instructor said: firstly, that's a good thing, if they worry so much about it they resort to muscle. Secondly, they may expose something else, like the other arm, so afte the comp we'll work on what might lead off that.... Goody.
So that was a really useful session for me. Both from a motivational and a technical point of view.
I missed the Wednesday night class because I needed to finish off two assignments for uni.
Thursday night, I did go to open mat. Not a big turnout. And mainly guys who are not going to the comp. I worked for a bit with one of the blue belts, who was all happy to help me with whatever. So I suggested flow rolling, simply to move and get position. Got stuck in half guard bottom. Had lockdown, but because he was across my upper body, found I couldn't do my usual stuff. And then remembered that this had puzzled me before. So he showed me a way to trap the foot, get a hook under his thigh and then lift him to get full guard or sweep. I'm sure I've been shown those things before, but they must have fallen out of the sieve...
So that was very useful to me. We did roll lightly for a bit more, which was also good.
Then I had several rolls with my heavy white belt friend. He held right back on squashing hard, and he toned down how much muscle he used, giving me a chance to work, work. Good, lots of effective escapes, mainly getting back to guard. He knows I like to work from guard, so he worked in with that. Didn't give me anything, but sort of saw to it that I had lots of chance to try. And things were happening.
Then we sort of had an idea exchange about armbars from guard, armdrags, the setup I've been working on. He showed me a good armdrag with a hand in the collar which sets up a choke, and if they manage to get their arm out, and are busy thinking of it, getting the second hand in for a choke is easy. I showed him a couple of things I was experimenting with and we both played with different ways to get to the setup and then the subs that would come off it. Very useful for both of us.
I had a good workout without going too hard and with the help of the guys, a couple more little pennies dropped.
I'm going to the Will-Machado Nationals in Melbourne tomorrow. I had a call asking if I'll got against a heavier girl in the absolute. For sure! Apperently, there is only one other girl in my weight division. So that means I'll get two fights. That sounds good to me. The draw isn't up yet, so this could be on any time tomorrow. The comp starts at 10am. That's an early start for me, as it's nearly 2 hours drive to the place.
I had a class on Monday night. We basically did our last lot of rolling before the comp. Some rounds from standing, some rounds from knees. I had a couple of very long rolls and one where I caught some weird surprise sub on one of the blue belts. I wanted an omoplata but he got his leg across my body. Yet, I hung on to his arm and managed a shoulder lock. Has us both scatching our heads ;-)
Wednesday lunchtime, there were only three of us, including a total newbie. The instructor had a cold and wanted to not share it with us, which I found commendable. So there was no rolling with him, or even demos, it was instruction by distance. The other senior guy and I took turns working with the new guy, teaching him basis stuff. Otherwise, we basically talked strategy with the instructor, and had a chance to troubleshoot a couple of small things in our respective games. We then practised them on one another while the newbie guy did some stuff on his own (hip escapes etc). So I went over how to use my whole body to effect an arm drag. I need that set up for the armbar, to get the back or to sweep. Lately, I've had trouble getting their arm across because they know what I'm up to and they'll muscle their way out of it. But as the instructor said: firstly, that's a good thing, if they worry so much about it they resort to muscle. Secondly, they may expose something else, like the other arm, so afte the comp we'll work on what might lead off that.... Goody.
So that was a really useful session for me. Both from a motivational and a technical point of view.
I missed the Wednesday night class because I needed to finish off two assignments for uni.
Thursday night, I did go to open mat. Not a big turnout. And mainly guys who are not going to the comp. I worked for a bit with one of the blue belts, who was all happy to help me with whatever. So I suggested flow rolling, simply to move and get position. Got stuck in half guard bottom. Had lockdown, but because he was across my upper body, found I couldn't do my usual stuff. And then remembered that this had puzzled me before. So he showed me a way to trap the foot, get a hook under his thigh and then lift him to get full guard or sweep. I'm sure I've been shown those things before, but they must have fallen out of the sieve...
So that was very useful to me. We did roll lightly for a bit more, which was also good.
Then I had several rolls with my heavy white belt friend. He held right back on squashing hard, and he toned down how much muscle he used, giving me a chance to work, work. Good, lots of effective escapes, mainly getting back to guard. He knows I like to work from guard, so he worked in with that. Didn't give me anything, but sort of saw to it that I had lots of chance to try. And things were happening.
Then we sort of had an idea exchange about armbars from guard, armdrags, the setup I've been working on. He showed me a good armdrag with a hand in the collar which sets up a choke, and if they manage to get their arm out, and are busy thinking of it, getting the second hand in for a choke is easy. I showed him a couple of things I was experimenting with and we both played with different ways to get to the setup and then the subs that would come off it. Very useful for both of us.
I had a good workout without going too hard and with the help of the guys, a couple more little pennies dropped.
I'm going to the Will-Machado Nationals in Melbourne tomorrow. I had a call asking if I'll got against a heavier girl in the absolute. For sure! Apperently, there is only one other girl in my weight division. So that means I'll get two fights. That sounds good to me. The draw isn't up yet, so this could be on any time tomorrow. The comp starts at 10am. That's an early start for me, as it's nearly 2 hours drive to the place.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
looking back at the week
I felt a bit flat and useless at the end of last week, but this week has been better. Don't know what it was, but I'm pleased I'm ok now.
As we have the Will Machado Nationals coming up next weekend, we've been doing a lot of rolling. I missed the Wednesday lunchtime class as I had to go to a meeting, but had lots of rolls on Monday, Wednsday, Thursday and Friday.
There seems to be not much pattern or logic to where I go or which submission to try. Of course, I still like the closed guard, and my most effective attacks seem to be collar chokes. But that aside, anything goes from anywhere, as long as I get out from under people. I suppose it's a good thing that there is always something I know I can go for, and it's always several things in a row. The stringing together of techniques is starting. But as yet, there is no set game plan and therefore no setting up of techniques. It's all a bit ad hoc, so to speak.
I had a few really good rolls with a purple belt during Thursday night's open mat. I hit a couple of sweeps, passed his guard and actually threatened him a few times. I also had a lot of success in breaking him down inside my guard and going for things (not that I succeeded...). And then we ended up in all sorts of weird positions which were way off the map and needed serious rearranging of limbs to go back to known positions. Well, I suppose that's not all bad. Let's call it experimental :-)
I nearly did a dummy spit on Wednesday night. We went from standing and I just couldn't get my act together. So I was frustrated with myself. I got pinned under a large white belt and just couldn't bloody well get out. I just expect that I can do better than that by now! At the end, I had two rolls with a purple belt. First roll took some time and though he took me down, I did at some time get a top position. It took several minutes before he could armbar me, as I escaped several of his submission attempts. So I should have been happy. I mean - do I really expect an experienced purple belt NOT to beat me up?? So then we start again, and he took me down with a textbook double leg. He was worried it was too hard, but no, it was very controlled. Then he made short work of me seeing we landed with him in such a good position. And that was totally fair enough. Still, I was grinding my teeth. Sometimes I'm such an idiot.
I came home and reread all the stuff about just shutting up and training. And found this post on dealing with frustration on Liam's blog. I needed that reality check. Three cheers to my fellow bloggers, they have saved my day many times :-)
So instead of spending any more time thinking about how well things didn't go for me, I started planning on how to deal with specific problems I've been having.
For example, a big strong whitebelt is one of the few people who simply mows through my closed guard. So instead of hanging on to a lost position, I need to be pro-active. Go to open guard, get feet in. Control his arms and put feet on his hips and make space. Or at least get a knee in. And guess what, Friday night I did exactly that. I also paid particular attention to using my hips more. And lo and behold, I not only held him off for about ten minutes, I got top positions a coupe of times and actually threatened him several times. That would have been advantages :-)) Did I feel good about it? You bet.
Inbetween rolls with him, I had the little guy. What a strange feeling, going from one opponent who outweighs me by 30kg to one who is half his weight, and about 15kg less than I.
Today, Saturday, we drilled an escape from turtle where you trap an arm as you sit out and then go to back control. I was paired up with a young guy who has only had a few classes. Hihi, he was making comments like: "I'll go light on you because I don't want to hurt you", "I can be really heavy", "oh, I could try THIS instead" and "AU - your elbow" :-) .
Oh, and then we were told to roll, with the usual caution not to break the newbies, and the newbies to take it easy and not to use muscle. Haha. Well, I broke him three times. Gently.
I hit sweeps all over the place, and choked him. Well, I guess that's what I do, so I might as well resign myself that that's my goto move for the comp.
But while we rolled, I helped him and pointed out when to go for a bridge and roll, why not to try and choke me from within my guard, and to keep his elbows in when mounted. Then it was time. Ah, and he did point out he could have armbarred me, from within my guard. Ok. Right.
But it was fun :-)
We had a visiting brown and purple belt on the floor. Sadly, there was no chance to roll with either of them. But there will be a chance another time. And the brown belt showed me a knee bar from switch base side control. Well, once I'm a blue belt, I can and will use leg attacks. I did learn some a while ago when I did some no-gi grappling at another school, but here we don't use leg techniques until blue belt, so I haven't thought about it much.
As we have the Will Machado Nationals coming up next weekend, we've been doing a lot of rolling. I missed the Wednesday lunchtime class as I had to go to a meeting, but had lots of rolls on Monday, Wednsday, Thursday and Friday.
There seems to be not much pattern or logic to where I go or which submission to try. Of course, I still like the closed guard, and my most effective attacks seem to be collar chokes. But that aside, anything goes from anywhere, as long as I get out from under people. I suppose it's a good thing that there is always something I know I can go for, and it's always several things in a row. The stringing together of techniques is starting. But as yet, there is no set game plan and therefore no setting up of techniques. It's all a bit ad hoc, so to speak.
I had a few really good rolls with a purple belt during Thursday night's open mat. I hit a couple of sweeps, passed his guard and actually threatened him a few times. I also had a lot of success in breaking him down inside my guard and going for things (not that I succeeded...). And then we ended up in all sorts of weird positions which were way off the map and needed serious rearranging of limbs to go back to known positions. Well, I suppose that's not all bad. Let's call it experimental :-)
I nearly did a dummy spit on Wednesday night. We went from standing and I just couldn't get my act together. So I was frustrated with myself. I got pinned under a large white belt and just couldn't bloody well get out. I just expect that I can do better than that by now! At the end, I had two rolls with a purple belt. First roll took some time and though he took me down, I did at some time get a top position. It took several minutes before he could armbar me, as I escaped several of his submission attempts. So I should have been happy. I mean - do I really expect an experienced purple belt NOT to beat me up?? So then we start again, and he took me down with a textbook double leg. He was worried it was too hard, but no, it was very controlled. Then he made short work of me seeing we landed with him in such a good position. And that was totally fair enough. Still, I was grinding my teeth. Sometimes I'm such an idiot.
I came home and reread all the stuff about just shutting up and training. And found this post on dealing with frustration on Liam's blog. I needed that reality check. Three cheers to my fellow bloggers, they have saved my day many times :-)
So instead of spending any more time thinking about how well things didn't go for me, I started planning on how to deal with specific problems I've been having.
For example, a big strong whitebelt is one of the few people who simply mows through my closed guard. So instead of hanging on to a lost position, I need to be pro-active. Go to open guard, get feet in. Control his arms and put feet on his hips and make space. Or at least get a knee in. And guess what, Friday night I did exactly that. I also paid particular attention to using my hips more. And lo and behold, I not only held him off for about ten minutes, I got top positions a coupe of times and actually threatened him several times. That would have been advantages :-)) Did I feel good about it? You bet.
Inbetween rolls with him, I had the little guy. What a strange feeling, going from one opponent who outweighs me by 30kg to one who is half his weight, and about 15kg less than I.
Today, Saturday, we drilled an escape from turtle where you trap an arm as you sit out and then go to back control. I was paired up with a young guy who has only had a few classes. Hihi, he was making comments like: "I'll go light on you because I don't want to hurt you", "I can be really heavy", "oh, I could try THIS instead" and "AU - your elbow" :-) .
Oh, and then we were told to roll, with the usual caution not to break the newbies, and the newbies to take it easy and not to use muscle. Haha. Well, I broke him three times. Gently.
I hit sweeps all over the place, and choked him. Well, I guess that's what I do, so I might as well resign myself that that's my goto move for the comp.
But while we rolled, I helped him and pointed out when to go for a bridge and roll, why not to try and choke me from within my guard, and to keep his elbows in when mounted. Then it was time. Ah, and he did point out he could have armbarred me, from within my guard. Ok. Right.
But it was fun :-)
We had a visiting brown and purple belt on the floor. Sadly, there was no chance to roll with either of them. But there will be a chance another time. And the brown belt showed me a knee bar from switch base side control. Well, once I'm a blue belt, I can and will use leg attacks. I did learn some a while ago when I did some no-gi grappling at another school, but here we don't use leg techniques until blue belt, so I haven't thought about it much.
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