November 12, 2009 - Thursday

Did the day class at the Westin. roled with John and Chris Delpi. Nice sets, but oddly enough the yellow belt Dan I find more difficult than either of them.

Open mat BJJ that night. Extensive training with Eli Worked on a few problems that came up while training. He is a very quick study and has a ton of potential. Rolled with Ramundo, if I train with Him I hope I can get him to actually get in the game. whenever I roll with him I understand the frustrations Urso had with him.

Taught the right vs. left uchi mata the hopping/rolling finish for it. It went well and helped some of the guys make progress on the Uchi Mata in general.

Randori I had Lee and tried a Te guruma on the left side and hurt my shoulder a bit. I don't think its injured as much as it just hurts. I am beginning to wonder if it will ever not hurt or be back to a useful percentage of functionality.

Did some more X guard work covered the one and three finishes.

November 10, 2009 - Tuesday

BJJ at the Westin

Looks like John is going to pull the plug on Regis.

November 9, 2009 - Monday

Took Beth to see Bob Dylan so Alma covered class.

November 6, 2009 - Sunday

Decent Sunday class. The tournament the previous day was rather small, but several people attended. Eric coached as he had no division. Scott took third including pinning a BJJ guy.

I am behind on the classes due to the inordinate amount of chaos in the club(s) right now, so I won't fake what exactly happened as I don't recall.

I will catch up on the relevant chaos as I get to the best days to describe it.

November 7, 2009 - Saturday

RapeEscape/Fight Like A Girl self defense seminar

Alma and I taught our first FLAG seminar. 12 women attended. All in all it went well, partiularly considering it was our first one. A few things to improve on, but, a good first effort.

November 5, 2009 - Thursday

Tiny Judo class tonight. Lawrence, Arianna and White Scott. Had Alma teach Tai Otoshi. Did some flat turtle attacks (leg lever and a flat turtle clock choke, mentioned the idea of sliding the back of the hand along the neck to get deep on the choke.

November 5, 2009 - Thursday

Went to the BJJ open mat. Small turnout and had little hope for much. I started with ramundo (god help me). He has gotten a little better, but ultimately his problem remains that he seems afraid of training. He refuses to engage actively and is constantly pawing at your grips. every time I swept him he would just try to scramble away back to his knees. I let hom a few times and then just smashed him daown. He is so helpless, I feel a little guilty until the irritation overcomes my guilt and i wipe him out.  Rolled with the blue belt Zack, who is pretty good. Not that big but scrappy and tries things. Quite a change from the prior set. He went over easy for a few sweeps and couldn't take the Uke Gatame very well. i caught him from there with a stangle, and then armlocked him from the same position the next set. The following set I was lazy and he got behind me and attacked my back very effectively. I had to avoid the choke for several minutes.. If I would have made a mistake he would have caught me. I finally got back inside his guard passed him and caught him. Next set swept and rolled Oma Plata, he tried to roll so I blocked him, but did it lazily and he got the Oma Plata position back on me. I paused and got ready to smash him for taking advantage of my laziness. He went rigth for the wrist lock on my trapped hand and almost caught me. It was a smart move and I will remember it. I finally got away but kept the Oma Plata, so I then wrist locked him back as payback. I congratulates him on the smart play and we talked strategy about attacking bigger slower guys with speed and subs rather butting heads. He came at me hard the next set and scrambled so I had to bail. He took my back and worked to the top corner choke position when I turned the wrong way and almost put me to sleep.Told him it was the first time I had been caught by a blue belt in years. We rolled one more so I turned it up mounted and did a particularly punishing Uke gatame and then caught him.. Probably 30 minutes of training. It was fun as something new happened. he was appreciative of the coaching and I think he took some of my suggestions to heart. Good for me to have to pay attaention and stop being lazy and over confident.  

November 3, 2009 - Tuesday

Day class at the Westin. John covered some badly needed elbow escape work. I rolled with Chris D. Decent set. He can't stop the Regis sweep and can't get me off or get away from me once I am on top. Makes for a tough set for him. John had me roll with a white belt who had been playing a little dirty. tapped him a few times to calm him down. decent class.

November 2, 2009 - Monday

I did the training in the first BJJ class. 3 sets I avoided being tapped by Zak, but was never in a good position. Rolled with Chaz. Decent set, spent the whole time trying to pass. Got 1/2 guard and almost completed but he regained the half guard several times. and time ran out.

Judo was good. Continued covering Harai Goshi with an emphasis on keeping the elbow down. The class did well and improved. Art was complimentary of the teaching, he thoguht I was making good practice on the technique. ^ guys did randori, I put them through 5 - 3 minute sets without break. They did well and got through it.

We did some X-Guard sweeps (1-4). A lot of this was for Lex who hadn't seen it. A few sets of  Ne Waza. I did longer sets, 6 minutes. Nothing of note.

November 1, 2009 - Sunday

Good class today, with a good group. We continued the study of Harai with the continuing focus being keeping the elbow down and fighting from a lapel grip. Throwing it from that grip as opposed to the high collar grip felt so good and right when i did it Thursday, I made myself theo it again several times. I probably threw 4-5. My should hurt, but not as bad or as long as on Thursday. Maybe the answer is to force the issue. Several good sets of randori. White Scott, who had a very good Uchi mata attack on me. It failed but it was a good attack and he continues to show excellent commitment to the attack. He is the next brown belt at this point. Good set with Lee also. He hit a a good Ouchi Gari, but zI threw a Soto Makikomi that felt good. finally randoried with Eric Johnson. Forgot that he was a good training partner. He fights left and fights hard. He is surprisingly safe to train with as well. Not too much happened but I got a good soto makikomi with him as well.

We talked about bringing a team to nationals this year to fight Masters. It's in Myrtle beach SC the first weekend in May.

On a terrible note, I spoke to Cyrus today. He was teaching some white belts Judo at Kurt Pellegrino's BJJ club. He was teaching the belt grip Sumi Gaeshi and let a white belt throw him. The guy dropped him on his head and his neck is broken at C6. Could have been much worse. He isn't paralyzed and should suffer no permanent damage, but, he might have to retire from BJJ. He is almost certainly retired from Judo. Scary.