Kettlebells - Still hiding behind the hand injury. that is about to change.
BJJ - Pretty good class of people. 12-13 or so. I remain pleased with the retention rate of the new people coming to the club. We are seeing a slow trickle of people, but we keep a higher percentage than any time I have been here. We did the hook sweep position that I use quite a bit. John had some points that were different than I stress, so it was good to get a different take on it. He uses a slightly different hand position. I like mine a little more but it was interesting to see the subtle difference. It took awhile for most of them to get it, but several were doing quite well by the end. Jason in particular will be hard to stop once he figures out the first position a little better. The next variation we did was just riding over the stepped up defensive leg by continuing up. There are a lot of good positions that evolve from here. Not sure how many we will do this week, but, there are a lot of good classes from the beginning of this position. I did two sets. I took the two stripe blue belt who has joined us, Evan. He is a bit of a head hunter, looking guillotine and grabbing the head a little more than I like but he fought hard and didn't seem to mind when I raised the level of play after he grabbed my head the second time. He will be a decent training partner and a nice change of pace from some of the same sets I always see. I rolled with the purple Mike B next. Pretty good player. He plays hard but not crazy tries a very technical approach to passing and the guard when he is on the bottom. I swept, he defended, we scrambled and I ended on top. Passed the halfguard and worked and caught an Ude Garame (it was a lot harder than it sounds, there were several near escapes where he almost made it back to guard or to the turtle). When we stated again, i went for the hook sweep and after some positional movement I rolled him backl over for it, but his head was caught and his neck twisted. Not too bad, but we had to stop. I thought we should call it but he wanted to continue so I pulled again. I went to the De La Riva position and was able to take him backwards before the set ended.
Judo
Good sized class but there are a lot of injuries right now. Alma did warmups and a few drills form the clinic she attended. I focused on the one handed (lapel hand) tsurikomi Goshi because I find that many, including myself are struggling with this part of the hip throw. It took a while for most of them to get to where I thought they were making progress, but by the end there was some improvement. I emphasized going deeper and lower to get the hips to the correct position, so this works two problems, bending the knees more and keeping the lapel grip in the proper place. I am going to do this quite a bit I think this summer.
Randori was unremarkable except Greg, one of the few healthy players injured his ankle with Roman. He was just settling in for a good summer of training. i hope this doesn't discourage him after the injury lay off he just had.
We did the anatomy of a choke class for Ne waza. Most of them made some progress on being able to properly apply a choke
Friday, May 28, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
5/23/2010 - In House Tournament
John had the In House tournament at Josh Saper's School in New Jersey. Josh is becoming an affiliate after years of training both BJJ at Maxercise and rising to a Brown belt in Judo with me at the Philadelphia Judo Club. His space is larger, there is a parking lot, the club is a little difficult to find but overall it went well. It was actually so big and attended by enough other clubs that it would be better to call it a local tournament than an in house. All 6 Maxercise associations were in attendance, plus another 4-5 non affiliated clubs came as well. The total number of competitors was by far the largest we have done. I actually saw very few matches as I was making brackets and running the 4 mats. I kept things moving quickly and we got through everyone by 3:30. I think the model we stumbled on of one person managing the matches and keeping the mats utilized works well, if they have a good idea how to make brackets and run the divisions. Information for the tournament, results, videos, etc can be found at www.maxerciseinhouse.com (or at least I am told the pics and vids will go up).
Again I was surprised by how much of the push for all of the clubs to come and support the tournament was part of an anti Regis backlash. Half a dozen purple brown and black belts who led teams to the event came and were enthusiastic about coming to the tournament and wanting to come to the Chestnut street club to train in both BJJ and in Judo. Several of them have already been back and more are promising to come. One of them had just returned from training at Saulo's main academy in San Diego and talked about how great the training there was. I'm looking forward to being able to go and take advantage of that myself.
Unfortunately this is an example of how Regis burned so many bridges with good players and good people in the east coast BJJ community. He is a marvelous instructor and an incredible technician, but there are a lot of good, highly ranked players who won't have anything to do with anything involving him strictly for personal reasons. It has been good to see so many old friends who are so supportive. Just seeing so many new (old) training partners and the opportunities that are now available is a good thing.
Again I was surprised by how much of the push for all of the clubs to come and support the tournament was part of an anti Regis backlash. Half a dozen purple brown and black belts who led teams to the event came and were enthusiastic about coming to the tournament and wanting to come to the Chestnut street club to train in both BJJ and in Judo. Several of them have already been back and more are promising to come. One of them had just returned from training at Saulo's main academy in San Diego and talked about how great the training there was. I'm looking forward to being able to go and take advantage of that myself.
Unfortunately this is an example of how Regis burned so many bridges with good players and good people in the east coast BJJ community. He is a marvelous instructor and an incredible technician, but there are a lot of good, highly ranked players who won't have anything to do with anything involving him strictly for personal reasons. It has been good to see so many old friends who are so supportive. Just seeing so many new (old) training partners and the opportunities that are now available is a good thing.
Friday 5/21/2010
Open mat at the Weston - Good group, this is becoming one of my favorite classes during the week... no instruction just good hard training. 1 black, 2 brown, 1 purple, 1 blue, 1 white in the class.
I did 5 sets, 6 minutes each, one with each person. The black belt set was good. Steve B is a very technical fighter and shows some things I haven't seen before or recently. I pulled but he wanted the bottom so he pulled from my guard which is points but, not really important as I think high rank should get to choose top or bottom to begin, so i just give him the credit for selecting the bottom. I think he would be better served retaining the top and attacking my weaker position. We went back and forth from half to open guard as I worked to pass. I was able to lock him tight in a half guard that i immobilized and managed to pass. I worked to knee in the belly and then mount. Came close to a mounted choke but he escaped back to half guard. I was working the pass as time expired. The set with John was good and I am learning to watch for something. I pulled and went for a sweep which led to a scramble, and I ended on top. We reset after we were near to out of bounds. I pulled and he went one leg in on the standing pass. he spun across the outside leg and went for the knee lock and caught it. This is the second time he has caught me this way... I am going to go ahead and call it enemy action at two rather than waiting for the third time. I am going to start watching for this in particular and defend it hard. When we started up again, I pulled and went underneath the hips reversed him the bottom. I worked and passed and made it to side control and caught an Ude garame. The other three sets were pretty standard. Good workout and good sets.
I did 5 sets, 6 minutes each, one with each person. The black belt set was good. Steve B is a very technical fighter and shows some things I haven't seen before or recently. I pulled but he wanted the bottom so he pulled from my guard which is points but, not really important as I think high rank should get to choose top or bottom to begin, so i just give him the credit for selecting the bottom. I think he would be better served retaining the top and attacking my weaker position. We went back and forth from half to open guard as I worked to pass. I was able to lock him tight in a half guard that i immobilized and managed to pass. I worked to knee in the belly and then mount. Came close to a mounted choke but he escaped back to half guard. I was working the pass as time expired. The set with John was good and I am learning to watch for something. I pulled and went for a sweep which led to a scramble, and I ended on top. We reset after we were near to out of bounds. I pulled and he went one leg in on the standing pass. he spun across the outside leg and went for the knee lock and caught it. This is the second time he has caught me this way... I am going to go ahead and call it enemy action at two rather than waiting for the third time. I am going to start watching for this in particular and defend it hard. When we started up again, I pulled and went underneath the hips reversed him the bottom. I worked and passed and made it to side control and caught an Ude garame. The other three sets were pretty standard. Good workout and good sets.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thursday 5/20/2010
Westin day class - Same as Tuesday class, technical drills and positional training. I came in cold and got an OK, sweat with sets with Blue John and Craig. Still no stand up.
BJJ Open mat was Lex, Peter and myself. We worked on chokes with peter and some passing drills with Lex.
In Judo we did some work on the Sasai Tsurkomi Ashi like Muneta threw on the Youtube clip. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCF3CvSzCnE) this is one of my all time favorite throws to watch and I would love to work on it. Hitting it in competition would be the kind of thing you could walk away from and then retire. I was working in on the pad with Lex and Greg throwing it and taking it. Then we had a visitor. I ended up spending the rest of the stand up time talking to him. If he hadn't had such an interesting story I would have been annoyed with losing the time I was actually practicing for a change. The Sasai practice for everyone went well though everyone had difficulty with the change in the angle from an outside perpendicular entry as we normally use to more of a forward up the gut entry Muneta used. This actually may be a project i work on alone.
Back to the visitor. He was a 68 year old man (Bruce) who practiced with Senseii Ishikawa at the Philadelphia Judo club in 1964 (that is not a typo). He moved and never returned to judo. He was in incredible shape for someone his age and still had his gi and brown belt from 1964. He dressed out and I had him do a little randori. He was so excited it was a great experience to see the joy he was taking in being on the mat and being thrown. He was just visiting but, I am convinced that if he was in town he would rejoin the club and get his Black Belt. It's incredible how much he still remembered after a 46 year break in terms of falling and the basics of some throws. he was a little crazy as you would expect form anyone willing to do randori after a 46 year hiatus, but was a pleasure to have with us.
In Ne Waza I talked about the elbow escape and bringing the leg over to avoid the pass. I think this is crucial and use it all of the time. It only went so so. I will have to see if anyone can actually use this.
BJJ Open mat was Lex, Peter and myself. We worked on chokes with peter and some passing drills with Lex.
In Judo we did some work on the Sasai Tsurkomi Ashi like Muneta threw on the Youtube clip. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCF3CvSzCnE) this is one of my all time favorite throws to watch and I would love to work on it. Hitting it in competition would be the kind of thing you could walk away from and then retire. I was working in on the pad with Lex and Greg throwing it and taking it. Then we had a visitor. I ended up spending the rest of the stand up time talking to him. If he hadn't had such an interesting story I would have been annoyed with losing the time I was actually practicing for a change. The Sasai practice for everyone went well though everyone had difficulty with the change in the angle from an outside perpendicular entry as we normally use to more of a forward up the gut entry Muneta used. This actually may be a project i work on alone.
Back to the visitor. He was a 68 year old man (Bruce) who practiced with Senseii Ishikawa at the Philadelphia Judo club in 1964 (that is not a typo). He moved and never returned to judo. He was in incredible shape for someone his age and still had his gi and brown belt from 1964. He dressed out and I had him do a little randori. He was so excited it was a great experience to see the joy he was taking in being on the mat and being thrown. He was just visiting but, I am convinced that if he was in town he would rejoin the club and get his Black Belt. It's incredible how much he still remembered after a 46 year break in terms of falling and the basics of some throws. he was a little crazy as you would expect form anyone willing to do randori after a 46 year hiatus, but was a pleasure to have with us.
In Ne Waza I talked about the elbow escape and bringing the leg over to avoid the pass. I think this is crucial and use it all of the time. It only went so so. I will have to see if anyone can actually use this.
Tuesday 5/18/2010
Westin day class - John did drills (armlock, Oma plata etc.)and positional training (back, mount, side)to get people ready for the tournament. They liked it and it helped them, though I despise positional drilling I do recognize the benefits. I would liked to have seen some repetitions on some more stand up, as I have some concern about the ability of several of them to start off of the feet. But, the positional drills went well.
2 sets of training - decent sweat, but otherwise unremarkable.
2 sets of training - decent sweat, but otherwise unremarkable.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Monday 5/17/2010
BJJ - I taught the class as John was running the team training in Delaware. The classes are starting to consistently rebuild by the end of the class there were 14 people in it. the new people are staying steady an the regulars are consistent. 2 new women were in there which is always a good sign. Both did well and seem like they have a chance to stick.
I covered the half guard sweep rotating to the other side and then kipping up between the knee and hip while controlling the foot. Half had done the sweep half hadn't. first we had to fix the way everyone defended. Until uke defends properly tori, can't use the technique. Once we got that corrected, the rest went well. I had the ones who had done it do a positional drill from the position on their backs with the leg controlled. I saw some good sweeps and people reacted well to uke losing their balance and just came up. The ones who hadn't done it continued repeating. By the end everyone had done well.
We did 4 7 minute sets. I had Shannon first. He pulled, I managed to pass and he bumped. I ended up in the closed guard. He tried to split with both hands next to one another and I broke him down. we moved around but ended the set in this position. I mentioned his hand position and he seemed receptive. I also did a Dave O set. I swept him, and passed he wrapped the gi around me and held me in side control. a tactic I have never understood.
Judo We did 2 switches, the classic Harai Goshi to Tani Otoshi and then we did Osoto Gari to Harai Goshi. I emphasized not over committing to the Harai when you attack with the switch. I believe in just showing the beginning of the movement and looking for the hip cut from uke to set up the technique. I had to work to get the foot down for toris, but other than that it went well. The Osoto Gari switch to Harai was tougher, as I expected. The idea of attacking the Osoto then making one hop to change direction to Harai when Uke pushed back is a little tougher but some of them did particularly well. I saw some things that registered for me and helped some of the ones who were struggling. In terms of the angle of the attack, I emphasized hopping to where uke's hips were pointing after he cut his hip and defended, as opposed to where it was before he cut the hip. The other thing was to make sure the knee is bent after the hop to allow for power driving into the Harai. It is almost more of a bounce than a straight hop to a locked/stiff leg. We did several sets of randori.
In Ne waza we worked on the basic Guard split, posture, hand position and hip position. We did 3 sets of Ne Waza and called it a night.
I covered the half guard sweep rotating to the other side and then kipping up between the knee and hip while controlling the foot. Half had done the sweep half hadn't. first we had to fix the way everyone defended. Until uke defends properly tori, can't use the technique. Once we got that corrected, the rest went well. I had the ones who had done it do a positional drill from the position on their backs with the leg controlled. I saw some good sweeps and people reacted well to uke losing their balance and just came up. The ones who hadn't done it continued repeating. By the end everyone had done well.
We did 4 7 minute sets. I had Shannon first. He pulled, I managed to pass and he bumped. I ended up in the closed guard. He tried to split with both hands next to one another and I broke him down. we moved around but ended the set in this position. I mentioned his hand position and he seemed receptive. I also did a Dave O set. I swept him, and passed he wrapped the gi around me and held me in side control. a tactic I have never understood.
Judo We did 2 switches, the classic Harai Goshi to Tani Otoshi and then we did Osoto Gari to Harai Goshi. I emphasized not over committing to the Harai when you attack with the switch. I believe in just showing the beginning of the movement and looking for the hip cut from uke to set up the technique. I had to work to get the foot down for toris, but other than that it went well. The Osoto Gari switch to Harai was tougher, as I expected. The idea of attacking the Osoto then making one hop to change direction to Harai when Uke pushed back is a little tougher but some of them did particularly well. I saw some things that registered for me and helped some of the ones who were struggling. In terms of the angle of the attack, I emphasized hopping to where uke's hips were pointing after he cut his hip and defended, as opposed to where it was before he cut the hip. The other thing was to make sure the knee is bent after the hop to allow for power driving into the Harai. It is almost more of a bounce than a straight hop to a locked/stiff leg. We did several sets of randori.
In Ne waza we worked on the basic Guard split, posture, hand position and hip position. We did 3 sets of Ne Waza and called it a night.
Sunday 5/16/2010
Judo class - a little smaller group than i like for sundays, but they worked hard and we did some good stuff. Lex, Scott, Mike did particularly well. We worked on Kouchi Gari, for awhile. Very basic stepping pattern for it, but there were mixed results. It's a timing technique that requires a lot of reps, so that is not entirely unexpected. Next we added the concept of working for an ashi Waza technique and then following up with Drop Seoi Nage. The is went well. It actually made their ashi waza better and the drop looked very good for some of them. The concept was it's better to turn and drop if a technique fails rather than backing out of it and being countered. We did our randori sets with this rule and they went well.
We did some rubber guard into Oma Plata in Ne Waza. Some could do it easily others struggled. The flexibility requirements make it not necessarily for everyone, but it's good to see it.
We did some rubber guard into Oma Plata in Ne Waza. Some could do it easily others struggled. The flexibility requirements make it not necessarily for everyone, but it's good to see it.
Friday 5/14/2010
BJJ open mat training at the Westin. We had me, a black belt Steve K., a purple Chris, Blue John and Craig in the sets. Very good training. I had Chris twice and each of the others once. The set with Steve was the most interesting of course. He plays a very solid half guard and pulled to it. He managed to get under my hips and was trying to set me for the sweep where he goes flat on his back, then to his opposite side, catches the foot, Kips his hips up and sweeps with pressure between the knee and hip. It's a good technique but i defend it well, so I was interested to see how he did it. Very fundamentally sound and patient, I blocked it the first time but he stayed after it. Eventually I was unable to better my position and he hit the sweep. I did well in the transition, almost making it to X guard. To avoid the X guard he sacrificed his elbow discipline and I was able to use pressure on his arm to come up and take side control. I got to knee in the belly and went for a mount, but he made it to half guard again. I was able to pass this time and worked back to knee in the belly. final score was 7-2 but it was a very interesting and entertaining set. His game is tight and patient and he will make me better by working with him. Other things of note were that I later used the same sweep that Steve hit on me to Chris. it reminded me to work for it and that i like the position. Steve asked a question about my impression of kouchi Gari at the end of the time and we covered it a little. Good training today, if we add John d, Dave O and Mike B, the training level will improve even more.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday 5/13/2010
BJJ Open Mat
My hand/wrist is still bothering me so no Kettlebells.
Got there and it was Eric, Peter and myself. Peter is doing a good job developing his game. He asks the right questions and pays attention to the answers. He has a limited ceiling just due to when he started but he has the tools to get his Judo Black belt and win matches, have a good time and stay physically fit. Not a bad thing to aspire too. He plays hard but has some glaring technical flaws that we can address. he is coming to the class and getting focused practice with Eric and myself, so he will get better. We rolled a couple of times.
Good set with Eric. He had good pressure and base when I pulled and after some good movement and trying several different positions, he passed. He put a few points up and I was on the defensive as time was ticking he maintained his aggressiveness and went for the armlock. I avoided it and put him on the bottom. I was able to pass and then put points up with knee in the belly, mounts and passed again. The final score may have looked a little lopsided but, he had me in a bad spot and went for the kill rather than sitting on his lead.
Judo classes have returned to there more familiar levels of 12-16 people. We did several Right on left attacks. first we took a hard right with a back grip against a hard left with a lapel grip/high grip. We puled in and stepped across for the O Goshi. Then we used the back grip to keep uke from turning to the front right, which is what makes this grip position strong against strong right sided techniques. Next we worked on the Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi from the back grip. You step around in front to generate a strong circular pull while you prop the foot.
For Ne Waza We did a stack triangle defense and pass. i reiterated that I don't encourage anyone to pick up their opponent for the technical break in class, as its more important to improve than to win. Good class.
My hand/wrist is still bothering me so no Kettlebells.
Got there and it was Eric, Peter and myself. Peter is doing a good job developing his game. He asks the right questions and pays attention to the answers. He has a limited ceiling just due to when he started but he has the tools to get his Judo Black belt and win matches, have a good time and stay physically fit. Not a bad thing to aspire too. He plays hard but has some glaring technical flaws that we can address. he is coming to the class and getting focused practice with Eric and myself, so he will get better. We rolled a couple of times.
Good set with Eric. He had good pressure and base when I pulled and after some good movement and trying several different positions, he passed. He put a few points up and I was on the defensive as time was ticking he maintained his aggressiveness and went for the armlock. I avoided it and put him on the bottom. I was able to pass and then put points up with knee in the belly, mounts and passed again. The final score may have looked a little lopsided but, he had me in a bad spot and went for the kill rather than sitting on his lead.
Judo classes have returned to there more familiar levels of 12-16 people. We did several Right on left attacks. first we took a hard right with a back grip against a hard left with a lapel grip/high grip. We puled in and stepped across for the O Goshi. Then we used the back grip to keep uke from turning to the front right, which is what makes this grip position strong against strong right sided techniques. Next we worked on the Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi from the back grip. You step around in front to generate a strong circular pull while you prop the foot.
For Ne Waza We did a stack triangle defense and pass. i reiterated that I don't encourage anyone to pick up their opponent for the technical break in class, as its more important to improve than to win. Good class.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday 5/13/2010
BJJ at the Westin - I taught again, though John should be back today. I covered the drop kata guruma. Mostly went pretty well, though I saw some consistent problems some of the newer guys had that I will have to watch for in the future when I teach it. Particularly holding on to the lapel too long which ruins the angle of the entry which leading to taking the Uke straight back from back to front rather than across the yoke of the shoulders.
I did some mount attacks including the baseball choke and trapping ukes arm if he goes from the underneath the leg escape from knee in the belly.
I rolled with Mike's GF (blue belt) who was in class. She rolls well and is fundamentally sound. mentioned a few things to her i would fix, but it would be good to see her around more often and blue John who rolls fine but persist in trying to sit up too much instead of working on a more technical back game.
I did some mount attacks including the baseball choke and trapping ukes arm if he goes from the underneath the leg escape from knee in the belly.
I rolled with Mike's GF (blue belt) who was in class. She rolls well and is fundamentally sound. mentioned a few things to her i would fix, but it would be good to see her around more often and blue John who rolls fine but persist in trying to sit up too much instead of working on a more technical back game.
Tuesday 5/11/2010
Day class at the Westin - I taught class while John is away. I covered a few random things that I think were important. In particular I did the Squirt armlock from underneath which is such an important response to big guys defending the armlock by smashing the guy down. This is where you use the low hand to pull yourself through and squirt out the backside as uke continues to try to smash you. This leads to a strong armlock when he drops flat on his face as he tries to maintain the smash and pass. This looks like it will be particularly useful for Mike B.
I did the smash pass when Uke goes for the armlock, using the naked choke arm position to keep from being locked, then extricating the arm and passing. This is oen of my bread and butter techniques. I give guys shots at the armlock because I have the confidence in this technique to trade the pass opportunity for the armlock risk.
Jack is still banged up so there was an odd number and my hand/thumb is still giving me trouble so I sat out and had the others train. We only had time for two sets.
I did the smash pass when Uke goes for the armlock, using the naked choke arm position to keep from being locked, then extricating the arm and passing. This is oen of my bread and butter techniques. I give guys shots at the armlock because I have the confidence in this technique to trade the pass opportunity for the armlock risk.
Jack is still banged up so there was an odd number and my hand/thumb is still giving me trouble so I sat out and had the others train. We only had time for two sets.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Monday 5/9/2010
Taught the BJJ class tonight while John was away. decent sized group in the class including a new blue belt and a new white belt girl as well as a new white belt guy who has some solid wrestling experience. The recovery continues in the membership. The ranks are slowly rebuilding. The competition for BJJ people in Philadelphia is so fierce due to the extremely high density of BJJ programs. It's been interesting to see new people come to the club. I do notice that we are keeping a high percentage of the people who come through the doors and do some classes. This a good sign. It's hard enough to get people on the mat, when you do you hate to see them go away. It's gratifying to get positive feedback on the classes and see so many people sticking with it.
I covered the drop Kata Guruma which is no longer legal in Judo but still a very effective technique. Mike B was lights out with it and did very well. Jason also looked good doing it. some of the others had some trouble with the correct angle to finish the technique as they were going a little too much over their head instead of across their shoulders but I think by the end, everyone was looking pretty good.
From there I had them work on taking the mount and then working for the choke. We went for the choke like I do with a thumb in first grip and a low second grip. After everyone did that, I worked on the next defense when Uke blocks the tori's elbow from descending which blocks the choke. I showed popping out to knee in the belly and using the high knee to scrape off the grip of the uke and then applying the choke. We did 3 sets of training. I trained with the new white belt girl who has great spirit but is pretty tiny. I wanted to see how she rolled before I put her with too many of the guys in class. She did fine and fights hard so will be OK, with good partners.
Judo
Smaller group than we have recently had, 12-15 people. James did his Sankyu promotion to begin class. He did very well (as did Scott as Tori) His gi ripped and he had tape stuck to his foot but, he stayed focused and did a good job. I gave a strong discussion of the benefits of doing Kata. I would like to get Lori into kata and see some of the guys do it and compete. It would be good for Alma to have more students and it would be good for all of them to improve their Judo. I would be happy to have some national kata competitors. Arianna did very well and is really improving right now. to bad it's about to be her summer away as this is a good time for her to get better. I had Alma cover the second set of the nage No Kata for Standup for everyone.
In Ne Waza I did how to reverse headhunters who attack the Sode Jimi from inside the guard. I warned them that people like Roman who attack from the position can be dangerous if you don't defend correctly. I rolled with Scott and had a good set with him, changing positions and moving through things. This was important considering how I had to smash him the last time we worked. Good class but I would like to get more consistent attendance. We peaked last year going into Am-Can but I don't think we will do that this year.
I covered the drop Kata Guruma which is no longer legal in Judo but still a very effective technique. Mike B was lights out with it and did very well. Jason also looked good doing it. some of the others had some trouble with the correct angle to finish the technique as they were going a little too much over their head instead of across their shoulders but I think by the end, everyone was looking pretty good.
From there I had them work on taking the mount and then working for the choke. We went for the choke like I do with a thumb in first grip and a low second grip. After everyone did that, I worked on the next defense when Uke blocks the tori's elbow from descending which blocks the choke. I showed popping out to knee in the belly and using the high knee to scrape off the grip of the uke and then applying the choke. We did 3 sets of training. I trained with the new white belt girl who has great spirit but is pretty tiny. I wanted to see how she rolled before I put her with too many of the guys in class. She did fine and fights hard so will be OK, with good partners.
Judo
Smaller group than we have recently had, 12-15 people. James did his Sankyu promotion to begin class. He did very well (as did Scott as Tori) His gi ripped and he had tape stuck to his foot but, he stayed focused and did a good job. I gave a strong discussion of the benefits of doing Kata. I would like to get Lori into kata and see some of the guys do it and compete. It would be good for Alma to have more students and it would be good for all of them to improve their Judo. I would be happy to have some national kata competitors. Arianna did very well and is really improving right now. to bad it's about to be her summer away as this is a good time for her to get better. I had Alma cover the second set of the nage No Kata for Standup for everyone.
In Ne Waza I did how to reverse headhunters who attack the Sode Jimi from inside the guard. I warned them that people like Roman who attack from the position can be dangerous if you don't defend correctly. I rolled with Scott and had a good set with him, changing positions and moving through things. This was important considering how I had to smash him the last time we worked. Good class but I would like to get more consistent attendance. We peaked last year going into Am-Can but I don't think we will do that this year.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sunday - 5/8/2010
Judo - rather small group of 6-7 people. We did some testing on a few techniques by name to see if the brown and green belts knew them and could demonstrate them. The results were disappoint. They were pretty basic throws from the first two queues. We need a better result for this.
In Ne waza we covered the dropping arm lock then talked about the yoko tomoe nage from the same attack. I' interested in doing some work on this armlock. I also ok'ed it for use in randori. I did a set with Zweli. He is doing better, but needs to play tighter. He is playing fast and loose which is hard to do against a more skilled player. He would be well served to use his strength more.
In Ne waza we covered the dropping arm lock then talked about the yoko tomoe nage from the same attack. I' interested in doing some work on this armlock. I also ok'ed it for use in randori. I did a set with Zweli. He is doing better, but needs to play tighter. He is playing fast and loose which is hard to do against a more skilled player. He would be well served to use his strength more.
Friday - 5/6/2010
Westin Open Mat - 6 of us were there including two black belts Steve B and Steve K. also myself, Chris, blue john and craig. all in all an excellent group for training. I set it up into 5 - 7 minute matches. The matches with Craig Blue John and Chris were fine albeit fairly standard. Chris remains very susceptible to a whizzer butterlfy sweep done from the left side. Blue John tries to hard to scramble back to his feet rather than working on his back game as much as he should. Craig struggled with the knee in the belly and tapped before he should. Steve B has a very solid technical game. he moves well, though had a little trouble with the size differential. I managed to pass and get to knee in the belly. He went for the escape I think is a mistake going under the knee, I dropped and trapped it, the managed to catch the Ude Garame. Steve K was last. a bit smaller than me, but good and more athletic than Steve B, I think. I pulled and he worked to pass. He tore my pants as I was coming up which screwed us both up. I bailed and went trap and roll. My hand was caught in his pants and I had to stop when my fingers were twisted and crackled. I didn't really have much use of it the rest of the set. He pulled and I worked the pass, until time expired. Good set, despite the torn pants and the jacked up fingers. looking forward to training with them next week.
Thursday 5/5/2010
Open Mat - BJJ
I did a Kettlebell work out on the mat upstairs. I like doing it there with my IPOD playing, I think. I am going to try to get there early enough to do my thgursday work out in this format. The work out was good. I emphasized strength and endurance over flexibility, but, it's a good fit for me right now.
Sarah came up and Eric S arrived. We both rolled with Sarah several times as she was getting ready for a big tournament and needed to sweat a few pounds. Covered a few fundamental technical mistakes she was making, but, she is a pleasure to coach. She listens and learns easily. He flexibility is almost too good and her fighting spirit is excellent. She could use some focus on her strength training for power and we will continue to fix some Ne Waza flaws, but her ceiling is very high and she has a great attitude.
Judo class is returning to it's more typical numbers of 12-15 rather than 18-20. I love having the bodies in class and prefer that, but it is easier to teach the smaller group particularly when there are mostly advanced players in the group. I covered some Ukemi, namely taking essentially a Kota Gaeshi fall to work on keeping the hip closed to the fall and not pancaking out of it. Better for tori to throw and much better for uke to take. Then, we transitioned to working on the basic tai otoshi. This is clearly not my best technique but, everyone needs to understand it and while I may not use it much I do have a good grasp of the fundamental elements of the technique. Falling better helped everyone throw better as well.
We did some Tokui Waza, for about 10 minutes then 3 sets of 5 minute randori. All in all, good sets, pretty hard competitive play without being too crazy.
We worked on taking the choke when uke turns away from you in Ne waza. Anticipate the turn, and as uke turns away, drive your hand deep across and secure the choke grip use the second hand to tighten the choke, then do a shin roll and pull uke up into your lap. Use the leg on the same side as the choking hand to peel off the defending hand of uke, grab the pants at the knee of uke with the non choking hand, arch your back and get the tap. I use this quite often and consider it a fundamental part of my game. They had, what I thought was surprising difficulty executing this. In general, there was a failure to get deep enough grips with the first hand. Tori didn't anticipate and react to the turnout by uke quickly and aggressively enough, which led to shallow grips and difficulty finishing the strangles. There was also confusion in executing the shin roll to get to the final choking position. I think this is an easy technique that will serve everyone well, so we will revisit it soon.
3 sets of ne waza and we called it a night.
I did a Kettlebell work out on the mat upstairs. I like doing it there with my IPOD playing, I think. I am going to try to get there early enough to do my thgursday work out in this format. The work out was good. I emphasized strength and endurance over flexibility, but, it's a good fit for me right now.
Sarah came up and Eric S arrived. We both rolled with Sarah several times as she was getting ready for a big tournament and needed to sweat a few pounds. Covered a few fundamental technical mistakes she was making, but, she is a pleasure to coach. She listens and learns easily. He flexibility is almost too good and her fighting spirit is excellent. She could use some focus on her strength training for power and we will continue to fix some Ne Waza flaws, but her ceiling is very high and she has a great attitude.
Judo class is returning to it's more typical numbers of 12-15 rather than 18-20. I love having the bodies in class and prefer that, but it is easier to teach the smaller group particularly when there are mostly advanced players in the group. I covered some Ukemi, namely taking essentially a Kota Gaeshi fall to work on keeping the hip closed to the fall and not pancaking out of it. Better for tori to throw and much better for uke to take. Then, we transitioned to working on the basic tai otoshi. This is clearly not my best technique but, everyone needs to understand it and while I may not use it much I do have a good grasp of the fundamental elements of the technique. Falling better helped everyone throw better as well.
We did some Tokui Waza, for about 10 minutes then 3 sets of 5 minute randori. All in all, good sets, pretty hard competitive play without being too crazy.
We worked on taking the choke when uke turns away from you in Ne waza. Anticipate the turn, and as uke turns away, drive your hand deep across and secure the choke grip use the second hand to tighten the choke, then do a shin roll and pull uke up into your lap. Use the leg on the same side as the choking hand to peel off the defending hand of uke, grab the pants at the knee of uke with the non choking hand, arch your back and get the tap. I use this quite often and consider it a fundamental part of my game. They had, what I thought was surprising difficulty executing this. In general, there was a failure to get deep enough grips with the first hand. Tori didn't anticipate and react to the turnout by uke quickly and aggressively enough, which led to shallow grips and difficulty finishing the strangles. There was also confusion in executing the shin roll to get to the final choking position. I think this is an easy technique that will serve everyone well, so we will revisit it soon.
3 sets of ne waza and we called it a night.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Thursday 5/5/2010
I taught the day class at the Westin. I did some stand up due to the upcoming tournament and took advantage of John being away to do a little off of the feet. I did a belt grip attack for the crouching lurker, which how all too many bjj people fight off of their feet. The first one was essentially a low Georgian throw, without the pick up part. I more just rotated the Uke to his back over his left shoulder. I then did a belt grip Ouchi Gari. I reminded them to make sure they square back up as this will make the back take harder for the uke who has been thrown. Lastly we covered a basic Kimura from the straddled head position, breaking the grip free then applying the arm lock.
2 sets of Ne Waza - Chris D and blue John. I am feeling a little sluggish and heavy. Need to get back to the diet. 10 lbs. is just the tip of what i need to lose but it's a real tipping point in how I feel in terms of mobility and cardio.
2 sets of Ne Waza - Chris D and blue John. I am feeling a little sluggish and heavy. Need to get back to the diet. 10 lbs. is just the tip of what i need to lose but it's a real tipping point in how I feel in terms of mobility and cardio.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Need to do some catching up. I missed a few classes due to attending the draft for my "Spring Break" then missed back to back Mondays to support Beth and her need for time to complete her Calculus course. So I am just going to bang out the classes i made and any special notes.
4/26 Monday
No class - Baby duty.
4/27 Tuesday
Day class at the Westin - Check
4/29 Thursday
Day class at the Westin - Check
4/29 Thursday
Kbells - I think my new routine will be to do Kettlebells on my own on Thursday. I devised my own work out. I didn't make it through the workout as designed so i will have something to work towards. If I get to the point that i can complete it, then I can add an exercise or raise the weight.
This stupid blog program won't let me copy and paste it so I will have to add the workout later.
BJJ Open Mat - Check
Judo - This was Miguel's last class with us. He has graduated and will be returning. We promoted him to Sankyu. He has been a great asset to us during his time at the club. We went out afterwards and I was pretty hammered.
We promoted Miguel to Brown belt. He deserves it quite easily and his throwing skills are on a black belt level. to celebrate his promotion and bid him farewell. We all took turns throwing him. Our new tradition for all of our promotions.
Friday 4/30 Open mat at the Westin
Good work Chris left early, and Steve B. came in and joined. so he will add a lot to the training. I did some sets and had a few nice rolls. The sets with Steve were good as his game is very solid and a little different than I am used to seeing. I didn't catch him but scored a few times and avoided giving up any points. It will be good to see how the games develop as I work with him more. I also hit a few flippies on Craig. he was shocked as a 200+ pounder doesn't expect to get flipped.
Sunday 5/1 Judo
I did some fits and throws with Lex. I felt pretty good and felt good taking some throws. I worked on the hikikomi Gaeshi with him as I think I realized what the trouble was for his execution of the technique.
I tested them Nick, Sarah, Lex and James) on several throws to see if they knew what they were by name. They did poorly so we will have to work on this.
I did the over-under pass in Ne waza as Lex wanted to work on passing directly to side control rather than to half guard.
Monday - 5/2 Judo
No class - baby duty.
Tuesday Day class at the Westin.
2 sets of training -Chris and blue John.
4/26 Monday
No class - Baby duty.
4/27 Tuesday
Day class at the Westin - Check
4/29 Thursday
Day class at the Westin - Check
4/29 Thursday
Kbells - I think my new routine will be to do Kettlebells on my own on Thursday. I devised my own work out. I didn't make it through the workout as designed so i will have something to work towards. If I get to the point that i can complete it, then I can add an exercise or raise the weight.
This stupid blog program won't let me copy and paste it so I will have to add the workout later.
BJJ Open Mat - Check
Judo - This was Miguel's last class with us. He has graduated and will be returning. We promoted him to Sankyu. He has been a great asset to us during his time at the club. We went out afterwards and I was pretty hammered.
We promoted Miguel to Brown belt. He deserves it quite easily and his throwing skills are on a black belt level. to celebrate his promotion and bid him farewell. We all took turns throwing him. Our new tradition for all of our promotions.
Friday 4/30 Open mat at the Westin
Good work Chris left early, and Steve B. came in and joined. so he will add a lot to the training. I did some sets and had a few nice rolls. The sets with Steve were good as his game is very solid and a little different than I am used to seeing. I didn't catch him but scored a few times and avoided giving up any points. It will be good to see how the games develop as I work with him more. I also hit a few flippies on Craig. he was shocked as a 200+ pounder doesn't expect to get flipped.
Sunday 5/1 Judo
I did some fits and throws with Lex. I felt pretty good and felt good taking some throws. I worked on the hikikomi Gaeshi with him as I think I realized what the trouble was for his execution of the technique.
I tested them Nick, Sarah, Lex and James) on several throws to see if they knew what they were by name. They did poorly so we will have to work on this.
I did the over-under pass in Ne waza as Lex wanted to work on passing directly to side control rather than to half guard.
Monday - 5/2 Judo
No class - baby duty.
Tuesday Day class at the Westin.
2 sets of training -Chris and blue John.
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