Getting schooled

Before I went in for my private lesson with Marco, he had me write down some of the things I wanted to work on so that he could develop a plan for me. The first thing we worked on was some escapes from side-control. Since I’m a pretty big guy, Marco told me that it’s probably a better idea for me to escape to my knees and work the single-leg from there. Drilled that for a bit. One detail that he mentioned was that I should find the opponent’s leg before I go to the knees. This helps avoid the problem I sometimes have where I go to my knees and people spin around to my back.

Then some half-guard bottom stuff, mostly conceptual. One idea I liked involved extending the opponent’s leg using the lockdown and then pulling it under you while you come to your knees. Also important was the concept of framing with both hands to remove the shoulder pressure if you get stuck underneath without an underhook. You hip escape out and then press with both hands on the shoulder that’s trying to smash your face. This should give you enough room to snake the underhook in and start working a normal replacement/sweep game.

Marco finished the lesson by working a bit on my spider guard game, polishing up some sweeps and guard retentions. One error he corrected was my habit of reaching my legs out to try to lasso people back into my guard. He recommended that I just contract my limbs like a bug and keep my legs toward the opponent. This prevents them from pressing the legs down and passing right away. We also worked on a couple of basic spider guard sweeps, just tuning up my body position and weight distribution while executing the techniques.

I took evening class shortly after the lesson’s conclusion, and I was able to apply it directly in sparring.I noticed a big difference in my effectiveness on the bottom. Yay for good instruction! I suprised Jared with the improvement in my bottom game in such a short time, as I prevented him from passing my usually slack guard.It’s amazing the difference it can make when you know conceptually what you should be working for in a position.

Also, it’s October now, so I was thinking about setting a new goal. However, I think I still need more work on my bottom game, so I’m going to keep focusing on that area for improvement.

I suck at takedowns.

Today we worked on a Judo takedown called kata guruma, or shoulder wheel. It’s kinda like a fireman’s carry, except that once you pick them up, you chuck their legs over their head for the takedown. We worked on the entry first, an armdrag into what looks kinda like a high single leg, with attacker’s head under defender’s armpit. You’re basically trying to get their weight balanced on your shoulders so that you can control their balance. It turns out that this is somewhat more challenging when your partner is around 270 lbs. I could get the entry, but once I had Jared on my shoulders I had a tough time finding his center of gravity to finish it. It’s something I’ll have to practice more with someone smaller, I think, then work my way up to the bigger guys.

We also worked a variation of the armdrag where you dive your elbow over his same-side arm while maintaining sleeve control. It definitely gave more control over the arm and made it easier to get them over. Then some sparring.

First roll was with Jared, spent most of the time on top working. Tried knee on belly, side-control and mount. Eventually caught a kimura from north-south, but I think I need a better attacking plan from the top. Currently I work a lot for the near-side arm for armbars, and the far-side arm for kimuras. I do some cutter chokes, but those are low percentage. My mount game is pretty much all collar chokes, but I’d like to get more into armbars from there, maybe work on going to s-mount more.

Next (and last) round was with Cesar, student Marco’s brother. He’s a decent blue belt, but he’s been recovering from a bad knee injury. Again, I mostly ended up on top, controlling. I went for a north-south kimura setup and he grabbed his belt to defend. I posted my left knee on his side and went for the armbar transition, but he was able to push my leg off his head and pop up to my closed guard. He put his knee in my butt to break my legs, but I switched to scissor guard and was able to sweep him over to mount. Worked cross-collar choke and finished him from there. We started again and I pulled guard to work spider, but time was called before we could get anything going.

Before I left for the evening I talked to instructor Marco about sharpening up my bottom game. So I’m doing a private lesson tomorrow, working on escapes from side-control, open guard sweeps, and plans from half-guard bottom. Should be fun, and I’ll pick up some pointers for my next two tournaments coming up soon. Cesar Gracie Open on the 10th of October, and the U.S. Open a week from then on the 17th. Good times!

Hurts to swallow.

We’ve been doing a lot of sparring lately, and not a lot of drilling or learning new techniques. While this isn’t my preference, it does give me a chance to work on my defense, which I desperately need. So first round is against Jared. We do some hand fighting, and then Jared sucks me into his closed guard and starts grabbing for my collar. I’m able to pass to half-guard top, but he’s active underneath and it takes me awhile to get to side control. I’m working for his opposite side arm when time is called.

Now that I’m warm, I roll with a stocky blue belt. I don’t know his name, but he’s an M.D., so I’ll just call him “Doc.” He pulls guard right away, but he’s a bit loose on the left side, so I’m able to pass pretty easily. I try for knee on belly, but he hips away from me and starts to roll over. I have to transition to side-control on the opposite side, and I start working for the collar choke. He has a really thick and short neck which makes it tough to submit him, so I release the grips to reposition–bad idea. He immediately rolled into me, grabbing my legs and forcing me into my closed guard. I’m able to hip out and almost take his back when time is called. Not bad, but I need to be careful when changing grips on top so as not to lose position.

Next round is with a white belt named Santiago, whom I’d never met before. He’s a fair bit smaller than I am, but very fast. He pulls guard immediately, which is frustrating, since I want to practice my guard on the smaller guys. I reach under his left leg for his opposite collar, baiting the triangle. Apparently, he doesn’t do triangles, so I just end up stack passing on that side. I establish knee-on belly and he rolls oddly allowing me to take his back. Collar choke from the back does him in eventually. We reset and he pulls guard again, which I pass again. This time he explodes out from under side control and is on my back like a limpet. He has a tight RNC locked on before I know what’s going on and I’m tapping. Also, now it hurts to swallow!

I’m thinking about heading home and icing up, but Dan offers to roll. I try to never pass up the chance to roll with purples and above, so we square up. He must be working his top game and submissions, because he just rolls right over me and taps me twice really fast, once to a quick choke and once to an armbar. The third time we reset I grab a leg and shoot straight into him. I’m passed now, but he’s got my collar in some odd grip and–choked again, this time from side-control top. Doh!

By this time my neck is really aching, but I figure I can go one last round with Will, a solid blue. We mess around on the knees for a bit and he rolls me over. I’m able to get half-guard and sweep him over. His half-guard bottom game is really tough, and I spend the majority of the round working to pass, and executing some lame ezequiel and americana attempts. I’m finally able to worm my knee through and over into mount, but before I can get set he brings his legs over his head to my shoulders and levers his way out the back-door. Sad for me, because by now I’m too tired to scramble effectively and he grabs side-control. It takes me a while to peel myself off the floor when time is called, but I manage somehow. Time to ice the ol’ trachea!

Tournament Report

I should have known something was awry when I got an email the night before the tournament was scheduled to begin. Apparently they had to change the venue at the last second, something about insufficient bathroom/locker facilities. So the next morning I arrive at the new (decidedly more inconvenient) venue, and check in for my division. There were about 20 competitors there from my school, and maybe 40 or 50 others. I’m chatting with my instructor and some friends from class when the tournament organizer calls my name and three other blue belts from my school to his table.

It turns out that there is nobody in any of our divisions, so he calls over our instructor, Marco, as well. He offered to enroll us in the no-gi side, where there are apparently a few competitors, but we don’t actually train no-gi so we politely decline. Thanks to the intercession of Marco, we eventually got a refund of our entry fee, got to keep our awful, gaudy t-shirts, and also had an exhibition match against one another.

I was paired up against Lord, who I outweigh by about 20 lbs but is close to getting his purple belt. I have never done well in a roll with Lord, but I gamely slapped hands and started working for takedowns. I tryfor an armdrag into single-leg, but he’s a fair bit faster than me and deflects my attempts. He then initiates by pulling guard into an armbar attempt. It’s a near thing, but I’m able to work my arm free and start trying to pass. I end up in half-guard top and we play the pummeling for underhooks game while I try to set up head-and arm chokes to cover my passing attempts.  I am just passing to mount when he bucks me over and ends up in my guard, but with his arm crossed in front of his chest, me on my hip and a grip around his back grabbing his lat. I try for the pendulum sweep but he’s solidly anchored. I can hear Marco yelling, “Take the back! Take the back!” but Lord has a deathgrip on my other arm so I can’t get all the way around him. He yanks really hard on the arm he has control of and squares up to me in my guard. As previously discussed, my guard is not superb, so he passes to half-guard pretty quickly. I reach up too far with my arm to control his crossfacing arm and he grabs it and finishes me with a straight armbar. Sad, but I thought I put up a decent fight for my first match as a blue.

It turns out to be double elimination, so next round is against… Lord again. There’s still nobody but us to fight for our division. I’m still out of breath, but we lock up again. This time Lord tries some kind of Judo throw, but flubs it so we end up in a heap with me on top of his turtle. I try to work the clock choke but he rolls to half-guard and takes my back quickly from there. I manage to spin back to his guard, but it takes me a lot of energy, and I’m pretty much spent at this point. He steals an arm for an armbar and I tap.

It takes a lot of effort to stand up, but I manage somehow, and someone hands me a silver medal. Hilarious, I know. I wish I’d been able to compete against people I didn’t know, but at least I went at a tournament pace. It was a good experience overall, despite the slightly annoying venue change and lack of competition. I know I need to work on my cardio and guard/half-guard more, and to protect my arms a little better.

On a side note, my buddy Lucas won gold at Nationals in the ultra-heavyweight white belt masters division, so go Lucas! I’ll get that gold yet!

Just sparring

Sparring class today. Warmed up with abs and stretching and then right into rolling. First roll was with a newish white belt. He was pretty tense and spazzy, so I let him play for a bit in my guard. I worked my spider game for a bit, threatened a couple armbars and a triangle. He wasn’t figuring it out though, so I just worked my sweep setups. I finally got bored and swept him to mount. I played around a bit with transitions and cross-choke stuff, but nothing too exciting. I finished an armbar as time was called.

Next was student Marco. He let me get to side-control pretty early, he must be working his escapes too. I transitioned around to north-south, scarf hold and knee on belly. He wasn’t giving me any openings for subs, and when I tried to get from knee on belly to mount, he caught my ankle and pulled me into his half-guard. He powered a sweep into half-guard top and I tried to roll into another one, but didn’t quite make it all the way. He passed into side-control and dominated the top for the rest of the round. I tried a few escapes but his transitions were too fast for me. Good practice!

Round three was Jonathan, a solid blue belt with a tough guard game. I tried to pull guard right away but bungled my entry and got passed. I rolled to turtle, but when I tried to roll back around to my guard, he was able to take my back. I defended a few chokes and was able to spin back to his guard, where I got stuck for awhile. Every time I would start to pass, he’d invert or spin somehow and his legs would be back in my way. Finally I baited a triangle which he went for. I already had my hand deep in his collar, though, and I was able to execute the stack-pass to get to side-control. He bucked and scrambled for awhile, and got to half-guard bottom, but I was working a head and arm choke from the top. Somehow in the ruckus, my gi top had come completely off and was tangled around us, so we stopped to re-dress ourselves. Time was called before we were done retying our belts.

After a short break for water, I matched up with Ron, a brown belt. I’d never rolled with Ron before, as he doesn’t train at our school that often. I pulled half-guard right away and tried getting in deep. He was very strong and technical, though, and he passed me quickly. I tried to fend off his cross-face, but he trapped my arm between us for a wristlock. Weird! We squared up again, and this time he bowled me straight over into side-control. I tried to keep my arms tight, but he worked at my collar for a baseball bat choke. I defended, but he slid his knee onto my arm to stop the defense and finished the choke. He let me pull closed guard to start the next engagement, and I started working a sweep setup. He grabbed under my legs for a double-under pass and just shucked me over into turtle. I tried to roll back, but he had already taken my back. Looks like I really need to work on my transitions from turtle back to guard. I tried to spin back to his guard, but he switched hands with the choke mid-spin, and I ended up spinning into the submission. After that pummeling, I thanked him and headed to the locker room.

Notes from today’s class: Be more active on the bottom, don’t expose your wrists to be locked(!), and work turtle transitions. Also, control the near side arm when in side-control. Don’t forget to be heavy.

Also, I’m apparently going to compete this weekend at the GrapplingX tournament in Morgan Hill. It will be my first time competing as a blue belt, so I’m kinda nervous, but it should be fun.

Ow, my perineum!

So I got sick of running for cardio workouts. My friend Ben is a triathlete who’s always promoted cycling for cardio fitness, so I thought I’d give it a shot. We went down to the local bike shop and picked up what’s called a hybrid bike. It took way longer than I had anticipated–they had to measure me and do adjustments to the bike and my riding posture for thirty minutes before I was able to teeter nervously out of the store, new helmet on my head.

In case you haven’t been on a bike in awhile, there is a big difference between a kid’s gearless bike and a 23 speed sport hybrid bike. Shifting constantly takes some getting used to, and if you forget to downshift before a stop, you get to look like a moron while everyone in cars stares at you wondering why you can’t cross the street.

Ben suggested I start with a 10 mile loop starting and finishing at my house, which didn’t sound bad. And it wasn’t, at first. Cycling is actually a pretty fun way to work out–your perceived exertion is much lower than when you’re running, which is cool. My heart rate was hovering in the high 160s to low 170s the whole time, which is great for working cardio. Even on the hills, I managed to make it up without getting off and pushing, which was something I was worried about. And on the downhills, I broke 20mph, which is pretty exhilarating when you’re not surrounded by a car. My muscles were nicely tired but not sore. But one part of my body did lodge a complaint–the sensitive tissue that makes contact with the hard, unyielding saddle.

It wasn’t so bad on the way up, but about thirty minutes into the ride, while heading back, it felt like someone was hammering a hot spike up my chute. By the time we got within a couple miles of my house, all I could think about was getting off the bike and icing my tender bits. Apparently I’m not doing it right, because plenty of people seem able to ride a bike without feeling like a victim of the Inquisition.

I’m skipping bjj till I heal up a bit more, because I don’t think I could bear someone using their knees to pry open my guard. Time to replace the icepack!

All toe up

By the time I got to class on Thursday evening, everyone was rolling already. I was running late and hadn’t had time to warm up properly, so naturally I jumped right in. My first partner was Jared, a good friend of mine. We started training together and received our blue belts at the same time.  Since my toe was still pretty messed up, I mostly played from the bottom. Jared started applying pressure to my guard right away, so I opened it to try to work my spider game. Unfortunately for me, he had control over my right leg, so I couldn’t get proper leverage into his biceps or hip. With my leg pinned to the floor, I tried to push his knee out to disrupt his base and potentially take his back. Instead, he stepped over my leg and passed to half-guard. Immediately, I tried to sit up and take the left side underhook, but again he anticipated me and dropped his considerable weight on my chest and started to work a pass. Right before he landed, though, I was able to secure his left wrist in a kimura grip. Jared has exceptionally flexible shoulders, so I didn’t get to submit him before time was called, but I think I had it sunk pretty deep. Not a terrible roll, although maybe I should have been looking for more ways to replace guard.

Second round was against student Marco (our instructor is also named Marco). He’s a fast, strong and aggressive ex-wrestler who’s had his blue belt for about as long as I’ve been training. I could tell he was taking it a bit easy on me, both because of my injured toe and his own damaged elbow. I tried to pull guard right away, but he was having none of it, and pressed both my legs hard to the floor and scooted around them to try and take side-control right away. I was able to sneak my right leg loose and thread it through for half-guard, but it was short lived. He exploded through into side-control and started working on my right arm. I escaped to my knees and tried for the single-leg, but he still had hold of my arm and finished the armbar from there. We reset and I spent the rest of the time on my back in guard and half-guard.

Next I got tossed around by a purple belt. I tried for guard, but he passed and was then somehow on my back. I tried to spin into his guard, but he rolled with me and kept working the collar choke. We basically stayed like that the whole round, with him on my back and me defending and in turtle. I almost worked out once, when he went for an armbar, but he rolled with me and ended up in mount as time expired. Someday I’ll be that good!

Then I had an easy round with a high-school kid named Trevor. I submitted him a few times from guard and then let him play around for awhile on top. The last two rounds were against a couple of other blue belts. Mostly I ended up on top or with them in my guard, so I felt pretty good about those rolls.

Not a bad day, overall. I got to practice a lot of being on the bottom, escaping and replacing my guard. My toe survived mostly intact, too!

Look Ma, no hands!

Tough night! Wauriman, our senior purple belt, stepped in for Marco
(family emergency) and warmed us up with jogging around the gym,
shrimping,  front and back rolls, and a drill where we lay flat and
then popped up to knee on belly posture with our knee between our hands
and our backs vertical. As if that wasn’t enough, we then did some
plyometric wheelbarrows where a partner holds our legs and we do a
push-up motion to propel ourselves forward across the floor. And
finally, frog jumps. After this, I was completely out of breath.

Skipping our usual technique training, we went straight to a new (to
me) guard passing drill. Bottom partner works with one hand out, one
hand tucked into the belt. Having never worked this drill before, I
hadn’t realized just how dependent I am on my left arm to keep my
opponent’s head and arms under control. Hernan, one of our better blue
belts, passed my guard effortlessly the first two times, driving his
knee into my tailbone to open guard and step quickly around my legs.
Without the instinctive grab with my left hand of his leg or sleeve to
pull him back into guard, I wasn’t effective in achieving any kind of
open guard game. Wauriman called time at three minutes just as I was
starting to get the hang of it. Then it was my turn to pass. Every attempt was
countered by Hernan’s legs hooking everywhere and his steel claw for a
right hand gripping deep in my collar. Once I almost got there, but
Hernan just inverted guard and kept on keeping on. Even though I
failed to pass his handicapped guard, I learned a lot about the use of
legs and feet to hook and thwart your opponent.

Time for the next drill. We switched partners and I got a white belt
with about six months of training. I figured I’d be able to relax and
play a little bit with this guy, but then Wauriman announced, “Okay,
now we do mount. Top guy submit, bottom guy escape. With one hand.”
Whaa? We start, and the white belt, let’s call him “Bill” (I’m
terrible with names – sorry “Bill”), starts working aggressively for
the armbar. Probably a good choice, since I can’t defend with the
other arm. I bump and roll him over, but he’s got my arm and I move to
tap –whoops! – my arm is still tucked into my belt. “Tap,” I call out
but he apparently is too focused on my arm, because I have to repeat
myself three times, the last one loudly enough to catch the whole
gym’s attention. Fortunately, my elbow only popped once, which is
fine. Unfortunately, one pop was enough to scare Bill, and despite my
reassuring, he was too scared to do anything as we resumed the drill.
I reversed him pretty much at will. Disappointing, but he’ll
eventually learn that: (a) BJJ is a rough sport; (b) sometimes you
accidentally hurt other people; (c)  that’s okay; and (d) training
goes on. And so it did.

To end the evening, we had a few rounds of sparring. Nothing specific
to report other than my ongoing practice of my goal for the month –
working on escapes and guard replacements. I’m getting better, but I
still have a long, long way to go. Oh, and I hurt my toe, so that’s
awesome. I’m looking forward to training injured, woo-hoo!

Planning my escape

Since I didn’t make it to class tonight, I thought I’d do some more thinking about how to get out from under people. When I’m under side-control, the first order of business is to bridge up and then hip-escape to my side using my forearms for additional leverage. Preferably, I’m facing my opponent at the end of this maneuver. Getting flattened out is the first step toward getting submitted or mounted, at least in my limited experience.

Next step, I try to sneak my bottom side knee back underneath my opponent and around him to replace closed guard. To do this, I need to use my hips to scoot back the way I came from, under my opponent. My other leg should already be in position to close around my opponent’s torso. If it isn’t, then I need to hip-escape a bit to the opposite side to give my leg room to get around.

Hopefully, I’ll remember all these details the next time I’m pinned.

Rolling uphill

Friday night is usually pretty sparsely attended, and tonight was no exception. There were even fewer people around than normal, probably owing to the encroaching Labor Day weekend. My friend Lucas, a Cesar Gracie white belt with a little over a year of training, was already there warming up when I arrived. He’s a big guy, standing about 6′3″ tall  and weighing 260lbs. Also in attendance were 3 other white belts whose names I can never remember, and Gil, a lightweight purple belt.

We warmed up with a standard passing drill: one partner in guard trying to pass to side control or mount, the other partner attempting to sweep or submit. I managed to sweep the other whites with not much difficulty, but Lucas gave me some trouble. I finally managed to send him over with a hip-bump into kimura sweep.

After we got warm and stretched for a bit we paired up for some sparring. I went with Lucas and basically failed to execute on my plan for September–escapes and guard replacements. I just found myself on top the whole time hunting for submissions. I managed to tap him with an Americana from side-control and a cross-choke from mount. This is what I have to avoid, though– rolling to win and camping my A-game.

My next roll was against a white belt who’s around 185 lbs. At 245, I can muscle him around pretty easily, so I tried to stay disciplined and work on the bottom. I managed to escape side control and get to half-guard pretty consistently against him, so that was good. I was able to replace guard a few times from half-guard as well, but I also got my back taken and collar choked. Ew. At least I worked what I had planned on.

I had to leave early today to meet some friends for dinner, so that was the end of training. I plan on working with some tougher partners on Monday, so we’ll see how my improvement plan holds up under real pressure!