When I returned from my trip, I skipped Monday night to support my wife who had taken the hit to let me go away for two days, despite having a nasty flu. It was definitely the right thing to do. She needed to rest and recover. I was invited to go out to BJJ United and take part in their team training. Lex and I made the journey out to Jenkintown. It was a bit of a haul getting out there through traffic but it was well worth it. The training was excellent and the facilities are incredible. The mat space is nearly perfect for a regular club... a large open mat space with tatamis, spotlessly clean.
Old friend and training partner Jared Wiener invited us and ran the session. I was reminded that I do too much instruction and not enough hard training lately. The warm ups and drills were killing me, but, in a good way. I need to be reminded that if I am ever going to compete again, i need to be were I used to be which was setting the pace against guys my age not being dragged along, struggling to keep up with everyone else. That was never my way, but, I have been getting lazy and when I train. I need to be pushed as I hate pushing myself to do anything that isn't "fun" i.e. rolling/randori. Then we did some positional drills defending the pass without sweeping while the opponent tried to pass, defending the pass with subs and sweeps while opponent tries to pass (3min each) and defending the Omaplata position while opposition tries to sub or sweep (1 min each arm). The first non sweeping set was with a blue belt. He worked hard and I was gassed from the drills/warmups, but, I avoided the pass. When it was my turn I was able to pass a few times and actually recovered my energy as i wasn't working 100%. For the set with sweeps and subs back i worked with one of the bigger purples. He was tough and was able to pass me several times. I was able to complete some passes against him as well, though. The last set was the OmaPlata set. It was an interesting idea. The premise is 1 minute left in the match bottom man is up by one point but top man has an Omaplata and needs to sweep or sub to win. I like it as the focus becomes learning to survive the position. I worked with a good purple belt. I was able to defend my spot fairly well, though he did manage to get me over for a sweep on one arm. I managed to come up enough submit him once or twice on each side. The last time i went for the the wrist lock once Jared confirmed that they were legal to use and was able to convert it as time expired. I will definitely steal this concept, I like it a lot. It was good to be reminded that there are a lot of different positional drills rather than just the obvious i.e. mount, side-control, etc.
We did 5 sets of 6 minute training next. I sat out the second, as I was still feeling gassed. I felt a lot better after the quick break. After the first set I did with Jared, I needed the break. The first observation that I loved was that everyone started off of the feet for each set. this is great for competition and safe as long as everyone is smart and understands the basics of stand-up and doesn't do anything stupid. I haven't trained with Jared in years but knew him well back then and he knew me well. I expected him to jump guard. We grip fought a little then he faked the guard jump and when i reacted his a beautiful cross ankle pick. It was identical to the takedown he used at his Rupture Superfight. Despite having seen the video, it surprised me and took me down. Once I was down I made it to halfguard for awhile but he was tight enough so I didn't have much space to come up. Eventually he passed and went to mount I turtled but still couldn't come up. He controlled the space and didn't allow any holes. He went for hooks and I avoided the second hook. But he was able to make it to a bow and arrow choke and tap me as the time expired.
I sat he second one and then had the purple belt who I had trouble with in the passing drill. He was pretty big albeit not as big as me. I gripped up and went Ouchi and followed it up with a Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi, directly into side control. I worked from the top for awhile and made it to mount. I worked my X Choke from their and submitted him. We started from the feet again and he pulled guard. I worked my pass and made it to side position. I worked from there until time expired. I had a smaller brown belt, Chris, who I knew from training at Daddis' place in South Philly. He has come along way since i saw him last. He pulled and i worked the pass for awhile until I got to a good position. He reguarded and I repassed a few times. He avoided the mount but gave up the knee in the belly. The next set was with a smaller purple belt who Jared encouraged me to pressure. He pulled and i passed and went knee in the belly. I rode it but he was in some physical distress as I was quite a bit bigger than him. I mounted and eventually accepted the bump. He postured up and I worked some sweeps coming back to the top.
All in all it was a hike getting down here, but the workout was very good and was another reminder to me how much there is out there still to learn. I will look forward to getting back here again soon and bringing a few more of my BJJ folks. Jared was very hospitable and the facilities were fantastic now if the subway could be extended to go straight to the school it would be even better.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
12/04/2010 Saturday BJJ
I was leaving town to see a friend but made the first hour of the morning class before I left. With smaller classes we have had for the holidays plus a GrapplersQuest plus the Drexel Judo open mat, I wasn't sure who would be here, but, I don't believe in canceling classes unless their is no other choice. As I arrived Lori was sitting on the steps ready to go. I believe in rewarding the supports so, when no one else was there, we did a very focused hour class on Oma Plata, which i think will be a good technique for her. We discussed entries into the technique from various positions, including the key element you need to go for it. We discussed the hip movement to best utilize it. We discussed how to avoid some of the pitfalls that can happen when the Uke defends. We talked about finishing the technique with both submissions and sweeps, and then how to finish the sweeps with submission. It was a lot of information to throw at her in a relatively short amount of time, but she kept up and did well as we drilled the positions. This was essentially an hour private on one of my best techniques for her. I'm hopeful that she will be able to make a real jump in her game if she can get the further repetitions needed to add the Oma Plata to her repetoire.
12/02/2010 Gripping day at Osagame
Judo - We did a full class on gripping. It was an advanced group and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to work with the more senior people on this important skill. We did the basic 1,2,3 grip system and several variations. We also talked about cutting off the mat with movement of the feet/hips and not chasing and reaching with the hands. We talked about how gripping and strategy can be technically superior players. It may be even more important for BJJ players as good grip fighting can be learned and utilized faster than 100,000 throws can be accomplished. Plus if your gripping is good enough you can often get BJJ players who lack confidence on their feet to jump, sometimes to jump guard poorly rather than lose the stand up fight.
We did randori sets. Marco mixed in well and is showing a greater willingness to engage more aggressively. The Judo idea of imposition of will both through grips and forcing a technique against a 100% resisting opponent is very important. Throwing opportunistically is great, but walking to someone and throwing them in something they know is coming but can't stop is more fun for me. Robert got Tani Otoshi and had a little crackle but fortunately seemed uninjured.
For BJJ we worked on getting to and submitting the opponent from the mounted position. We covered several entries to the mount and the basic X choke I use as well as several ideas about holding the mount. I like it because it's a big scoring position and allows an easy transition to the bottom if I choose to allow the transitions, but, it's also, in many ways the final expression of dominance in the chain of BJJ techniques. Takedown, pass the guard, knee in the belly, mount, submit. This is the technical chain i would aspire to achieve. If you get to mount and they can't get away, then you have dominated them, and if you can submit from their, then you controlled the match.
I trained with Sarah, who continues to improve. Being the smallest and the lowest ranked does wonders for people who are competitive and really want to get better. they are constantly challenged to improve and the learning curve in this type of situation is quite steep. I had a set with Eric. After the way he was so far ahead of me in our last set, I ha a much better set, this time. Finally I did a set with Marco, Usually we start with a little bit of flowing through positions, and then the competitiveness increases and we play harder. The flowing time as we warm up is decreasing so we start playing harder a little earlier. It feels good to be pushed and have a chance to train hard, so these Thursday sets are becoming some of my favorites. Wit Marco, Eric and Sarah in the class, if we can Allessandro back who was unavailable this class and maybe get Lex into it, the training quality will be very good. I think I would like to try to make this the key BJJ class of the weekdays. It starts later and has a good lead in from the Judo class. We will see how it develops.
For BJJ we worked on getting to and submitting the opponent from the mounted position. We covered several entries to the mount and the basic X choke I use as well as several ideas about holding the mount. I like it because it's a big scoring position and allows an easy transition to the bottom if I choose to allow the transitions, but, it's also, in many ways the final expression of dominance in the chain of BJJ techniques. Takedown, pass the guard, knee in the belly, mount, submit. This is the technical chain i would aspire to achieve. If you get to mount and they can't get away, then you have dominated them, and if you can submit from their, then you controlled the match.
I trained with Sarah, who continues to improve. Being the smallest and the lowest ranked does wonders for people who are competitive and really want to get better. they are constantly challenged to improve and the learning curve in this type of situation is quite steep. I had a set with Eric. After the way he was so far ahead of me in our last set, I ha a much better set, this time. Finally I did a set with Marco, Usually we start with a little bit of flowing through positions, and then the competitiveness increases and we play harder. The flowing time as we warm up is decreasing so we start playing harder a little earlier. It feels good to be pushed and have a chance to train hard, so these Thursday sets are becoming some of my favorites. Wit Marco, Eric and Sarah in the class, if we can Allessandro back who was unavailable this class and maybe get Lex into it, the training quality will be very good. I think I would like to try to make this the key BJJ class of the weekdays. It starts later and has a good lead in from the Judo class. We will see how it develops.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
11/29/2010 Monday
Monday BJJ and Judo. It was the days before Thanksgiving. We had solid if unspectacular turnouts. It was primarily more experienced people. We continued the X-Guard practice we had been doing several Saturdays ago. We worked on improving the entry and then worked on sweeps number 1, 2 4a and 4b. The 4 b option for sweeping when uke brings their far hand down to engage the top hook went well for several who were having trouble lifting the Uke with 4a. The sweeps went decently but need some more work to get near where i will be satisfied with the execution. I did see improvement in keep the head up to keep the leg toward the head trapped which towards the beginning of the class had been a problem.
We did 10-15 minutes of X-Guard positional training and then we did several sets of training.
For Judo it was nearly all brown and black belts, so we did a training night. We did sets of pulling the uke down the mat and then throwing. The Uke gradually increased their resistance. I was happy with how hard they went for this. The power of the throwing was good. When the uke resisted, the catastrophic failure and the beautiful throws that were then evidenced was vary impressive. We then did three man back and forth running drills. It was a little shorter than the normal distance so we raised the sets to 12 from 10 with a 10 push up incentive to the slower group. the group who won made it first but the slower group had clearly better technical execution of their throws. But, tactics wins sometimes over skill.Just have to make sure the tactics doesn't get too sloppy. We then did long sets of uchikomis to build muscle memory when fatigued. We did several sets of randori. I don't recall the ne waza technique, I will have to see if I can get a reminder from some fo the participants.
We did 10-15 minutes of X-Guard positional training and then we did several sets of training.
For Judo it was nearly all brown and black belts, so we did a training night. We did sets of pulling the uke down the mat and then throwing. The Uke gradually increased their resistance. I was happy with how hard they went for this. The power of the throwing was good. When the uke resisted, the catastrophic failure and the beautiful throws that were then evidenced was vary impressive. We then did three man back and forth running drills. It was a little shorter than the normal distance so we raised the sets to 12 from 10 with a 10 push up incentive to the slower group. the group who won made it first but the slower group had clearly better technical execution of their throws. But, tactics wins sometimes over skill.Just have to make sure the tactics doesn't get too sloppy. We then did long sets of uchikomis to build muscle memory when fatigued. We did several sets of randori. I don't recall the ne waza technique, I will have to see if I can get a reminder from some fo the participants.
11/28/2010 - Sunday Judo
Have to catch as things have been crazy lately. We had an excellent Sunday class with 10+ people, which for the Sunday after Thanksgiving was a good turnout. We had several new people including Nate (again) and a first timer who had done some Judo before, mainly just learning to fall. We covered Tsurikomi Goshi from the feet. then did some Tokui waza. The class did pretty well with the technique. I noticed that Peter was doing some coaching of the new guy and did a good job with him. I like the selection as a building block for other major techniques. I then gave them time to work on their tokui waza. Next we did some randori. The new guys I limited to Hop randori. I worked in and did a few of the sets.
For Ne Waza I shod three pins, Kesa gatame, Kazure Kesa Gatame and Kata Gatame. I learned that Peter doesn't get squished from these pins as much as some people. We did some Ne Waza training and called it a day Good class... fundamentally sound and the more experienced guys got what they needed and the newer guys got the fundamental techniques they needed.
For Ne Waza I shod three pins, Kesa gatame, Kazure Kesa Gatame and Kata Gatame. I learned that Peter doesn't get squished from these pins as much as some people. We did some Ne Waza training and called it a day Good class... fundamentally sound and the more experienced guys got what they needed and the newer guys got the fundamental techniques they needed.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
11/27/2010 Saturday class
The Saturday class, I think, is a key date on the weekly class schedule. It hopefully is a time when different members on different schedules can begin coming together and training together. . I am committed to making this class work. the BJJ program in general is being built more slowly than the Judo program because we don't really have any BJJ people only right now. Hopefully we will develop them and more people will cross train. Several of the cross trainers I am counting on having as regulars are injured or sharing time so unable to make every class. I consider Eric, Lex, Sarah, Peter and Mike the most regular so far, so it was good to see Peter joined by Lori and Lee in the class.
The theme of the class was passing the guard with a focus on maintaining posture. We covered the basic split and pass as well as several other positions. We talked about and reviewed maintaining posture to avoid sweeeps as well. We did the standing split as well and the basic pass dropping down, to block one side. There was an inquiry about sweeping the person who stands and they were interested in something cazy, so we did the sweep, where you hook the leg and flip to a turtle, a la Saulo.
We trained with everyone and had a good class. I worked with everyone and i was very happy with the technical skills that Lori and Peter demonstrated. I was especially happy with Lee, who, despite his injury played hard and did well. He has no stripes on his white belt despite making classes and winning BJJ matches. Regis indicated he would promote him when his attendance was a little more consistent. I will ahve to watch for it and do the same. I did some things that this specific group particularly needed and I think they all improved in some important areas.
It's vital to build the program and it will build with time and patience. However, I'm not great at patience so it will be good when the class size jumps a bit.The classes will be better for everyone and grow faster as we have a little more consistent attendance.
The theme of the class was passing the guard with a focus on maintaining posture. We covered the basic split and pass as well as several other positions. We talked about and reviewed maintaining posture to avoid sweeeps as well. We did the standing split as well and the basic pass dropping down, to block one side. There was an inquiry about sweeping the person who stands and they were interested in something cazy, so we did the sweep, where you hook the leg and flip to a turtle, a la Saulo.
We trained with everyone and had a good class. I worked with everyone and i was very happy with the technical skills that Lori and Peter demonstrated. I was especially happy with Lee, who, despite his injury played hard and did well. He has no stripes on his white belt despite making classes and winning BJJ matches. Regis indicated he would promote him when his attendance was a little more consistent. I will ahve to watch for it and do the same. I did some things that this specific group particularly needed and I think they all improved in some important areas.
It's vital to build the program and it will build with time and patience. However, I'm not great at patience so it will be good when the class size jumps a bit.The classes will be better for everyone and grow faster as we have a little more consistent attendance.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
11/26/2010 - Roadtrip!
The day after thanksgiving Marco invited us to train at his main club and work off some of the previous days feasting. Eric, Lex and I took advantage. The drive was easy and we made good time. Eric met us there. We had a slight snafu because the address we had was the old address, but the new location was just down the street so it was easy to go there. Marco has an excellent spot. Big facility with plenty of mat space, lots of windows, and right on a corner, so he gets plenty of traffic. He uses very high quality puzzle mats which are good for falling but a little tackier than I have become used to using. The surface was very consistent though and had plenty of give. Taking a lot of falls would have been fine.
When we got there, it was all no gi training. Lex and Eric both had theirno gi kits with them. I, being a gi person never thought to bring even a short sleeved t shirt. I will in rare instances roll no-gi, but my preference is clearly for the gi game. I do think I should do more no gi training jsut top more round out my game. There are a few things i am slow recognizing because they are so much more prevalent in no-gi training.
Marco went and grabbed his gi and we rolled. we warmed up by just kind of flowing through positions. As we got warm it became a bit more competitive and we started playing harder. One of the times I pulled he managed to catch a guillotine. I tend to be a little slow defending guillotines as I usually escape them easily with a gi on. I rolled to come to the top and he was ahead of me. I tried a few different ways to unwind it but he had too tight of a bite and I tapped.
We started again and were moving through positions for awhile. We exchanged top and bottom several times. once I managed to get to the top and passed to the mount. I dug in and caught a choke from the top. We broke after that. It was a good set. I get lazy defending some positions and the only way I get better at escaping/avoiding them is to pay the price getting caught. It was a 10+ minute set or so. I like open mat training - doing long sets until you feel like stopping.
There was another senior player there. A brown belt named K. I think he was a little younger than me, though not too much. I would have pegged him as about my weight. He admitted to 245 so i may have ahd a couple of pounds on him, but he felt heavier than that. Regardless of his actual weight he was extremely strong, definitely isometrically stronger than me. I pulled and played my sweep game. I was satisfied with the results. I had to grip fight to keep him from crushing me and keep him in front but then I swept with the hook sweep I use as my preferred start position. I managed to pass and work to the mount. I went for a strangle and he reversed me to inside my guard. I stayed closed. He didn't go to pass as much as I would have. He went for several strangles from inside my guard, mainly a thrusting choke but, i was able to keep him from putting too much pressure on me. We worked from here for awhile I avoided the pass several times and was able to sweep once or twice more. I hit the De La Riva entangled arm sweep. It was really tough getting him over, but, I managed to do it. He almost crushed me but i was able to take the squish long enough to get an off balance and hit the sweep. Felt good hitting a good technique against a big, strong, skilled player. I came up and had the arm trapped like I like to do from this sweep. I attacked the other arm, going for the ude garame from 2 on 1. I'm pretty good about maintaining base, but I let myself get a little high and he tossed me off and came up. I turned away from the side control position and defended the mount. He attacked some subs and mount attacks that I had to scramble to avoid. we were here for awhile him on the attack and me defending. I made it back to turtle for awhile and he attacked me there. I went for a couple of trap and rolls, but finally had to settle for coming out from underneath. I passed in the transition and made sure to go to a top corner hold down as I had no desire to be dwarf tossed to the bottom all over again. I stayed for awhile there and ground out a papercutter choke. The set was long probably 15 minutes or so. I think we were both surprised the other guy wasn't more fatigued. Big older guys are used to other big older guys getting tired and making mistakes, when you run into another one that can do long sets it's a bit of a surprise.
All in all, it was a great time. Eric and Lex both had some excellent training. Marco gave Lex some attention and good advice in his no gi training. Saw some old friends and had a good day. Looking forward to doing it again some time soon. It was suggested that we organize some back and forth training between the Judo and BJJ players at Osagame to have fun and help us all get better. Sounds good to me.
When we got there, it was all no gi training. Lex and Eric both had theirno gi kits with them. I, being a gi person never thought to bring even a short sleeved t shirt. I will in rare instances roll no-gi, but my preference is clearly for the gi game. I do think I should do more no gi training jsut top more round out my game. There are a few things i am slow recognizing because they are so much more prevalent in no-gi training.
Marco went and grabbed his gi and we rolled. we warmed up by just kind of flowing through positions. As we got warm it became a bit more competitive and we started playing harder. One of the times I pulled he managed to catch a guillotine. I tend to be a little slow defending guillotines as I usually escape them easily with a gi on. I rolled to come to the top and he was ahead of me. I tried a few different ways to unwind it but he had too tight of a bite and I tapped.
We started again and were moving through positions for awhile. We exchanged top and bottom several times. once I managed to get to the top and passed to the mount. I dug in and caught a choke from the top. We broke after that. It was a good set. I get lazy defending some positions and the only way I get better at escaping/avoiding them is to pay the price getting caught. It was a 10+ minute set or so. I like open mat training - doing long sets until you feel like stopping.
There was another senior player there. A brown belt named K. I think he was a little younger than me, though not too much. I would have pegged him as about my weight. He admitted to 245 so i may have ahd a couple of pounds on him, but he felt heavier than that. Regardless of his actual weight he was extremely strong, definitely isometrically stronger than me. I pulled and played my sweep game. I was satisfied with the results. I had to grip fight to keep him from crushing me and keep him in front but then I swept with the hook sweep I use as my preferred start position. I managed to pass and work to the mount. I went for a strangle and he reversed me to inside my guard. I stayed closed. He didn't go to pass as much as I would have. He went for several strangles from inside my guard, mainly a thrusting choke but, i was able to keep him from putting too much pressure on me. We worked from here for awhile I avoided the pass several times and was able to sweep once or twice more. I hit the De La Riva entangled arm sweep. It was really tough getting him over, but, I managed to do it. He almost crushed me but i was able to take the squish long enough to get an off balance and hit the sweep. Felt good hitting a good technique against a big, strong, skilled player. I came up and had the arm trapped like I like to do from this sweep. I attacked the other arm, going for the ude garame from 2 on 1. I'm pretty good about maintaining base, but I let myself get a little high and he tossed me off and came up. I turned away from the side control position and defended the mount. He attacked some subs and mount attacks that I had to scramble to avoid. we were here for awhile him on the attack and me defending. I made it back to turtle for awhile and he attacked me there. I went for a couple of trap and rolls, but finally had to settle for coming out from underneath. I passed in the transition and made sure to go to a top corner hold down as I had no desire to be dwarf tossed to the bottom all over again. I stayed for awhile there and ground out a papercutter choke. The set was long probably 15 minutes or so. I think we were both surprised the other guy wasn't more fatigued. Big older guys are used to other big older guys getting tired and making mistakes, when you run into another one that can do long sets it's a bit of a surprise.
All in all, it was a great time. Eric and Lex both had some excellent training. Marco gave Lex some attention and good advice in his no gi training. Saw some old friends and had a good day. Looking forward to doing it again some time soon. It was suggested that we organize some back and forth training between the Judo and BJJ players at Osagame to have fun and help us all get better. Sounds good to me.
11/23/2010
BJJ at the Weston - John announced he will be ending the Weston classes as of sometime in December. There is some debate about the timing of that. He encouraged people to go to maxercise, but, honestly for most of us, I expect that will be too far. It may be just 11 blocks but it will add a minimum of 1/2 an hour and most of us can't get away for any longer than we already do. For me the only class i will miss is the Friday open mat. the rest of the classes I did more to support the club than because they were very useful to me. The class became a cardio conditioning class with just 5 minutes of training at the end. Chris and John are hoping to find a way to keep access to some mats at the Weston. If they can, then I will try to still come and train. Otherwise it will be back to being just a night time person for me. It was fun while it lasted.
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