Tuesday 2/2/10

BJJ at the Westin - Check

Monday 2/1/2010

Kettlebells - check
BJJ - Check
Judo - Check
Don't recall much other than that I made it to the class.

Sunday- 1/31/2010

Good class. Eric J. was back. He agreed to go for his Shodan. He knows what he needs to do, now just have to make sure he makes it. last class for Mark Eckenrode. I will really hate to see him leave. He has been a p[leasure to coach and would be a great fit with our club if he could have stayed around town. Hope he makes it back some time.
We did some Harai and we worked on stepping across their hips from Kenkai Yutso right on left gripping for an O Goshi. . I did Randori with Eric. He's tough to get down. I would have drawn penalties on him, but he's tough to throw.  I took Z for a set and got him down a couple of times but he is vey explosive  and throws hard. He will be good as he gets more experienced. Took Mark for the last set. threw him some and went over for a couple of ashi waza techniques.

 

 Marks last class with us. 1/31/2010

  

This is a picture took of my daughter going for her first throw ever. I like the BW/color effect.

 

Here is the throw funny how she is totally gone except for her feet.

 

Thursday - 1/28/2010

BJJ open mat - Still mostly Judo people coming to the open mat. We will move the Judo class to 7 and the open mat will be 6-7. This is enough time for the open mat and the Judo class can begin and end early which is good for us. It seems win-win.

Judo - Don't recall the class to well. I hit 45/45 in the Kettlebell snatch challenge. just need to make 50/50 to go up in weight.

Thursday - 1/28/2010

Day class at the Westin. Ran the guys through some competitive drills working on armbars, triangles, and oma platas. Then did some positional training (back, mount, side)
2 sets of training.

Tuesday - 1/26/2010

Westin day class. Looks like we will be losing Hugo who is moving to Australia. Shame for us as he has been a very promising student. I love the added training I get, though it's usually little but, getting back with Chris D, has been a pleasure, both for training and as to getting to renew acquaintances with one of the genuinely nice people I have met. The Blue belt, John, whose last name still escapes me has been fun to get back with him also. They can't take me, but, they are still fun to work with them as they fight hard regardless of the result or situation. getting the 2 sets with them every few days makes the effort of going to the Westin worth it.

Monday 1/25/2010

Did Alma's Kettlebell class. Mostly I like it. some of the sets seem a little quick for my taste. I would like fewer movements for longer sets. Particularly true of the Turkish Get Up. Good to be back in Kettlebells though.

BJJ is moving to a 1.5 hour class next week on Monday with Judo moving to 7:30. this will be good for both classes I think.

Class was fine, though I didn't do much until the training. I trained with most everyone in class. very good set with John. he made me work hard to catch up to him. as long as he is on top assuming I concede the top to him, then he gives me trouble, if I get him tot he bottom, I become a bad match up for him and can keep him down. I am improving against Eric's cross spider guard. As i start to find the holes I am passing a higher percentage of the time. Still an interesting technique, though as he has swept and caught me from it. Seems particularly effective the first few times someone sees it. One other note, I hit the sweep I use when uke is inside my closed guard and they decide to headhunt me on Shannon. shows how well it works as he is very difficult to sweep. Have to remember to teach this.

Judo was solid did the speed throwing drills. Class is filling up. Christine is getting better which is good. Paula hurt her back with Josh S. He went for an uchi mata and she catted out of it but landed on her face and hurt her back. She is stupidly tough sometimes. We talked her into calling her mother and going to the emergency room. She wanted to just go home despite being in so much pain she couldn't really move.

Chris ran the rest of class as Alma and I worked on her.

Sunday - 1/24/2010

Small class Judo class but spitited. we got good Tokui waza in and then some randori.
Lee covered the Kosoto gake he has been throwing. Right sided stance strong pull a la right sided seoi nage, but, without turning at all. deep cross step with the left foot as you pull, right foot follows with a kosoto gake. You have to stay tight to avoid them turning out. he has hit it on me, so I know it will work. works best when you make them respect/fear the from throw and they hip cut. Crash on them.

In Ne Waza I did the Flick and whip entry to a clock choke from the Inoue DVD. Good stuff, I like it and will try to incorporate it to my entry.

Thursday 1/21/2010

BJJ open mat and Judo - Worked on the hook guard (formerly caled the De La Riva position by us) with Katie. she wanted to see it and I went through the way i use it with her. katie is tough but would be well served to return to Judo. She shoud be a better top player and needs to be stronger at the takedowns. she and Max would both do well in Judo. Eric trained with Zach Green who I think is excellent. He nearly caught Eric, which isn't easy to do, especially giving p size and rank. i will continue to try to get him to some Judo classes.


Judo was good, Good numbers and we worked at a fast pace. I gave some time for indiviual Tokui Waza and worked with different individuals on some elements of their throwing. Solid if unspectacular randori. Z and Scott as well of course as Lex are standing out among the sub brown belts as the guys to watch.

More Juji Gatame turnover work for Ne waza. The new white belt who has dome some sub grappling did OK with this which is a good sign for him. It's not an easy technique but the club ia handling the difficulty level well and we might get a few who actually use it. I like Lex and what he is doing there.

In the Kettlebell snatch challenge After switching to a right side first approach (which is amazing to me that I have to protect my right side - pre surgery taking my right side second I woudl still always do significantly more reps on the right, now its my weaker side) I hit 40/40 with the 20KG. I won't go up in weight to the 24 kg until I hit 50/50.

Thursday 1/21/2010

Day class at the Westin. Worked more on the arm drag but emphasized keeping the arm trapped and then sweeping. It was similar to what we did at the Marcelo Garcia seminar, but some small changes in grips etc. I actually prefer the Marcello variant, but, the guys here did well with this one.

Tuesday 1/19/2010

Tuesday Day class at the Westin. Numbers are consistent here but not really growing. We really need to find a way to get a few new faces here. We will lose Hugo to Australia, which is a shame as he has shown a good aptitude and attitude.

John did more of the Arm drag work here. Good for the guys who haven't seen it. I like the way he emphaiszed rising up on your feet slightly from the seated position to get more momentum and pull on the arm drag. Seemed to have very good effect and clearly added to the strength of the technicque.

The training here is steady with Chris and John (The blue belt) but would be nice to see a little more rank to vary the sets for me.

Monday 1/18/2006

BJJ class atb 6. John has been working the arm drags this week. It's a good technique and a bit underutilized by our club in general. He has a nice trick when he cross grips the sleeve he blocks the trapped arm from regripping with his forearm. I like this and will work on it as well as keep an eye out for people doing it as it makes for a more difficult techniques to defend.

Judo - Post tournament class - did some movement drills for staying light on the feet and advancing with your hips rather than with your hands to cut off the mat and get into your grips. trying to minimize the frankenstein plodding and chasing while over reaching with the grips.

Randori  - I have been hitting the soto makimomi but i still hate settling for it and consider it a poor substitute for the Harai.

Ne Waza - continued working on the Juji Gatame turnover. - Emphasizd the Adams version of the turn and capturing the head with the leg tp prevent uke from coing up.

Sunday 1/17/2010 Liberty Bell Developmental Tournament.

6 competitors

Lex 3-0 in one division (good Juji Gatame turnover attack, got into it but didn't know how to finish as we haven't practiced the finish enough.
1-2 in the other (win over Eric s and loss to Eric J)

Nick 0-3 two losses against strong russians who just kind of threw him around and then hurt his rib against a beatable guy and withdrew.

Z 2-1 threw and ippon and a good matwork win and was countered from a lazy uchi mata for a loss. very good first tournament.

Eric J. - bad loss in first match back as he was up 3 penalties to 0 and then was ipponed, but he was just getting back used to it. good win over a game Lex, throwing for a yuko and then holding a pin for another, then was clock choked out by Eric S. Very happy to see him back on the horse.

Eric S. Tough loss to Lex and a brown belt the clock choked Eric J. out. Need to work on making him faster to fight younger guys. he seems a little slow into his attacks and is having trouble catching up to them.

Arianna - very good 0-3. Fought adult as 13 years old foought well and scored several times was mugged a bit by adults who overpowered her, nearly/should have caught an armlock on an adult woman just refused to tap and Arianna couldn't or wouldn't pop her arm.

Good day but would like to do a bit  better.

Thursday - 1/14/2010

BJJ open mat - Zack G. was in along with Eric and Lex, Zack is good and nearly caught Eric again. I like training with him and take him very seriously becasue I know he has the chance to catch me. As long as I keep him in front of me I snuff what he does, but if he gets behind he is dangerous. Trained with lex a bit also as well as Eric. Invited Zack to come to Judo. he would be a good addition to the team. He is considering comeing tot he class on Thursday... I will wait and see, as I have heard that before.

Class was good We did an Ouchi Gari attack that I like, working on stepping off and then lunging back for the attack. Tokui waza then randori. Zwelthini is doing well and having good classes. He and Lex will be good training partners of they both stick.

Did some clock chokes in response to the drop seoi nage. mixed sucess, which is surprising considering they do a straight clockchoke well. But the attack off of the drop confused the issue.

Tuesday 1/12/10

Day class at the Westin. John worked on the splits Saulo covered.. Decent supplemental training. I would like a little more variety in the training but, I am having good classes and enjoying my situation more than i was.

Saturday 1/9/2010

Saulo Ribeiro Seminar -  huge number of guys came to the seminar 70+,  way to many to actually drill anything. Saulo spent much of the time taling about the way the Ribeiro brothers system works, why it is such a good approach to BJJ and the benefits of staying with it. It was sort of a Ribeiro Brothers BJJ Infomercial.. It was good to hear and reminded me how kmuch i respect Saulo and and admire how he conducts himself and how he runs things. he talked about some splits and passes that on their face seem basic but, the details make them very interesting. I would love to make it to San Diego to work with him. Could do a lot worse than staying in the Ribeiro Bros. Syatem and getting promoted there. He didn't make any promotions but he awarded a silver star to several of us (John, Dave Oh, the Terry bros and myself). It is supposed to represent important members of the system who contribute to the greater good.

Saulo spoke to Zak and i guess the part line is that the whole fault of the split lies with John and everyone should apologize to Regis. The truth always lies somewhere in the middle so I am surprised that this line is selling as well as it seems to be. Still no idea how this will play out in the next 6 months.

Monday 1/11/10

Did my first Kettlebell class since the shoulder surgery. It was fairly hard and there were some different movements, but it was good. I think some of the exercises should have gone longer but it was a good class.

BJJ- Solid training, if not spectacular. In class, we worked on the splits and then passing that Saulo showed.

Judo class did some hard cardio work with the guys. After randori we continued the Juji Gatame Turnover, some were here for both days but we just recapped the entry and then attacking the arm rather than going for the turnover.

Weigh in was 254, not a great weight cut beginning but its a start.

Sunday - 1/10/10

Good Sunday class. Worked on Harai a bit then had everyone proctice their tokui waza.

Reintroducing the Juji Gatame Turnover. Went as far as the entry and attacking the arm. They did better than I expected with it, to be honest. We spent a lot of reps on it and they improved  a lot. Might be able to actually make this into a usable technicque for some of them.

Thursday 1/7/10

BJJ open mat. just the Judo guys are coming, me Eric S., Lex and Shannon are the most consistent. Eric and I worked on his cross spider guard. I played it from the bottom for the first time. Still ahve to figure out where the offense is from it but, it is difficlt to pass once I settle into it. More bodies will help this time, but these are all good training partners. Particularly enjoyed working with Shannon lately. His back game is just in the nascent stages but he has great base and is difficult to sweep. He puts pressure on my turtle though he hasn't cracked it open yet.

Judo - I emphasized power drills, i.e. three man drills and runing drill. worked on clock choke against the drop seoi nage.
Good randori set with Lee, hit a good soto Makikomi, but I hate settleing for that rather than the Harai. My shoulder doesn't hurt as much but it still fails me when I put it to the question.

had a Kbell challenge for snatches after class - as many as you can do left and right without putting the bell down and only switching once. Did 40 left and 30 right with the 20 kg. decent start but I have a long way to go to get back the power I had. Back in the day I would have done 1-15 more with my right than my left, so that is where the weakness is.

Thursday 1/7/10

Day training at the Westin. the classes are steady but we really need to add a few more people.

Tuesday 1/5/10

Day class at the Westin. Decent training over here with Chris Delpi and John. would be better if Dan Francis was still here but some of the white belts are improving enough so it's OK working with them, they do well enough so I can work on something hard and they don't just fall over. Will be better if John d and I start training together more, or if we can get another 15 minutes in this class. Regardless, its ood to put the gi on as mcuh as possible.

Monday 1/4/10

Similar class as sunday worked them hard with speed drills to see who needs to get back in shape and how bad it is. All in all, it's not too bad. they aren't that far off from being in acceptable shape. We are a long way from back in the day when our condictioning and strength was a battle we normally won, particularly in the Masters divisions.

Did vlub weigh in on Monday. My number is 257. Could be worse, could be a lot better.

Sunday 1/3/2010

First class of the new Year. I am going to try to get back to this but with the time issues I am just going to hit the high lights until I get current. Did a lot of speed drills with push up penalties for the last team to complete the drill. Emphasized that it was an incentive not a punishement. Obviously need to hustle some of them back into shape for the new year.

This will be a telling month in the Maxercsie BJJ world. Most of the ones leaving will be gone this month. Sad to see them go, but the idea the idea that they are leaving for better instruction demonstrates how little they actually know about BJJ. We'll see how it all plays out. I know what my moves will be in any event. My primary concern will be protecting the Judo club and continuing BJJ somewhere I will enjoy it. Hopefully it will be here. I am beginning to think John might be able to pull this off.

November 21, 2009 - Sunday

Good Sunday class. Went fine nothing to note, things are pretty quiet as we head for the Thanksgiving holiday.

* did a FLAG seminar yesterday afternoon. Only 2 women were there, but it went well. This is building slowly and as much as I enjoy it and am glad to help these women get ready to resist a sexual assault, It isn't feasible to do it for this small of a group, it just takes too much time and effort to justify it.

November 20, 2009 - Saturday

I di the Saturday BJJ class for the first time in a long time. John had me go through several X-Guard posistions, 1-5. It was amazing to me how so many of the people in the class didn't seem to to be familiar with them. These are the fundamentals of the position, and the easy ones to execute. For as often as Zak taught the X-Guard psoition, he had a bad habit of teaching the advanced versions that he used, which require too much flexibility and practice for most people, particularly when they could be having success with easier, more fundamentally sound techniques. The training was decent nothing special but I enjoyed it.

November 18, 2009 - Thursday.

Did a lunch class at the Westin and open mat and Judo at Maxercise. Classes ahave been fin but the implosion of the BJJ program continues. Zak, tim and Brian have left to follow Regis sice John has cut ties with Regis They are going to open a competing club. They don't all realize it yet (though I am sure Regis does) but they will all soon be trying to burn the other sides club down as that will gove them the best chance to succeed. The three who left are the best competitors and will take many of the better competitors, but, most of the students have such limited experience with different instructors they don't realize what barely competant instructors the ones leaving are. Regis is fantastic but, he won't be around much. The three who will be teaching are very limited ans aren't prepared to lead a club. Its a shame it working this way. they would all be good secondary instructors but no one has taught them to teach and they don't seem to have an instinct for it. I think they will continue on with the momentum of the students who leave, but, they don't seem geared to be a club that will grow. Not sure honestly how Maxercise will do, honestly, but they are in a good position to survive, better actually than they were before the split. My main if not only goal will remain protecting and nurturing the Judo club. Both sides have great risks and limited upside right now, but they could turn the corner. I will have to wait and watch the developments. sucks because they are all my friends but, I have to take care of my guys and myself first. Interesting though that John and I have been more in touch with each other than in quite a while.

November 16, 2009 - Tuesday

Lunch class at the Westin. We did some half guard work. Trained with Marty and John. They are bad match ups for me but nice guys and fun to train with them.

November 15, 2009 - Monday

Did the Monday class to support John. Intersting that the classes seem better geared for the students and more since Zak and Brian have withdrawn from teaching. They are good/excellent competitors, but are actually rather limited instructors. Neither has enough experience as an instructor and tend to focus too much just on what they are good at doing. Just as importantly neither has learned how to lead and inspire a class, those are the bioggest reasons I haven;t been going to BJJ for awhile except to train... I found their classes tedious.

Covered som X guard  for the class.

Judo was good. We did some Uchi mata and then X Guard as well.

Looks like Lex will be moving under the Philly Judo banner which is good. I like him and he is a good competitor and willing fighter.

November 14, 2009 - Sunday

Small sunday class covered Some Harai Goshi fits and throws. then released them to Tokui Waza. Randori ran long as it has tended to lately and re did some brreviated Ne Waza and sets.

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.

October 29, 2009 - Thursday

Thursday day class at the Westin. John did a few sweeps including a butterfly sweep and the hook sweep (sort of like) I do. and then rolling for Oma Plata. I think it's too advanced for this class. Thier fundamental positions need too much work to teach this. For example, one of the students asked what the elbow escape was after class.
Rolled with the blue belt John. decent player albeit a bit clingy. Caught him once. He goes over for sweeps too easily and can't escape the mount, but, he is more fun to train with than many others.

October 27, 2009 - Tuesday

No class last night as I was on baby duty. Covered the day class at the Westin today. Taught the standing pass and 2 sweeps against the standing pass, knockig them backwards if they stand without a sleeve and the 2 footed tomoe nage. all of them did well 7 people in class. classes there are not growing much but, have been steady. Trained twice once with Marty and once with a white belt named Eric.

* This past Saturday, I was on the way to BJJ. Beth was going to drop me off and then go shopping with the baby. I was thinking about the class looming ahead of me and told Beth to just go ahead and I went with her. Not a good sign about my feeling for class when I pass on it and go shopping with my family instead. Bad classes, bad training and bad matchup aren't good.

October 22, 2009 - Thursday

Day class at the Westin. John covered some basics from Kne in the belly. I trained with Chris Delpi. Decent set,but, he is a bit of a bad matchup for me. The classic guy I give trouble a middle/light heavy weight power player is a bad matchup. They can't overpower me and it messes them up. He also can't stop the basic Butterfly sweep so that's bad news for him.

Open mat for BJJ that night. I trained with Eli, who still has a very high ceiling. He learns and pays attention and asks the right questions. Good set 10+ minutes. I also did a set with Ramundo, who is much better than i ever imagined he would be but still is so defensive and fearful of engaging its hard to have a good set with him.

Judo was sparsely attended Lee, Chris S., Nick and Alma, We did more pulling drills for Harai and Ouchi Gari. The three guys did king of the hill. Lee won the most but Chris won some. Nick came close to some scores but couldn't quite finish them.

We covered some flat turtle attacks with the front sankaku then attacked the turtle live. Did the Yamashita turn for Alma and she covered the front arm triangle from the Royler seminar she covered on sunday.

* Not as sure abt the BD option as the classes might not meet my needs. I am reconsidering going full circle. In some ways it would be the smartest thing, just hard to bite the bullet. Not sure if i would be welcome anyway. We'll see.

October 20, 2009 - Tuesday.

Day class at the Westin I did some more basics with Craig while John instructed. I rolled with John and Dan. the sets were pretty standard for what we have had lately. John can't stop me but Dan can be difficult.I think Craig wants to order a Gi, which is a good sign for him joining.

October 19, 2009 Monday

I went tot he second half of the first class. As good as zak is I find him a boring instructor and too much of what he teaches is better for him than other body types. He needs to teach other approaches and styles than just his own.

I did some training. It was OK. It's a shame that is the best I can say about it.

Judo class was smaller than i like. We did some three man throwing drills that were well received. Zak let his class run late so it ate up 10 minutes of my very limited randori time. which irks me.

Randori was good albeit too short. Lee continues to stand out. I want Josh s. to be more aggressive in his throwing attempts rather than settle for sacrifices. He also does too much Kosoto Gake and he gets tossed too much in Uchi mata. Nick looked good and William was hot and throwing people around.

Ne Waza we did front sankaku attacking a flat turtle. It's getting better but still not there. We did some live attacking the turtle drills, had some success but need to do better. A few Ne Waza sets and we went home 5 minutes early.

October 18, 2009 - Sunday

Sunday class was very well attended 11 participants. We did drills Pulling down the mat for harail and Ouchi Gari, hopping to finish the Ouchi, we did a lot of gripping in the air to work the forearms. Made people count in Japanese by the last set or pay pushups. For the second set of pushups Eric S. jumped in and got the whole class to join in as a show of solidarity. Several randori sets. I jined the last one and took Lee. He rocked me several times but I threw a big Te Guruma to make it worthwhile.

Alma showed some techs from the Royler seminar. The one I was interested in attacked a turtle from the frontyou grab around the front like a guillotine with the arm in but use your right leg to press the right arm across Ukes face, sit back and pull guard like a guillotine, but it is really a head and arm triangle/brabo.

October 15, 2009 - Thursday

Day class at the Westin. John did the clock choke while I covered the basics with a guy I brought from my office. 2 sets of training with Dan and John, Despite being a Yellow I find Dan tougher than many of the blues or even purples. His wrestling and competitiveness make him tough and hard tp put on his back. I even went kneeling program and had trouble. No class tonight. Royler is doing a seminar. No class on Saturday. Beth is in NY to be with Mara Post-Op, so I have the baby.

October 13, 2009 - Tuesday

Tuesday class at the Westin. Ok, beginner class with a few training sessions.

October 12, 2009 - Monday

Went to part of the first BJJ class. Feeling very out of tune with the BJJ program right now. Seems very stale to me. Very few interesting sets and when Zak runs the class he doesn't give me even the few sets I might enjoy. On a the plus side he managed to grind my ear. I knew as soon as he did it it would be a problem. fortunately it turned purple but had minimal swelling, so it didn't get much worse than it already was. The other sets were lame. skipped the second class.

Judo class was solid with respectable numbers. Did the harai switch combination. and then did randori. The first half of the class in the back/small room is grating on me. with our limited time for stand up. it pisses me off to have to be (over)stuffed into a room really too small for stand up.

The step over Juji practice went better. they are almost ready to move on and go to the juji turnover. We did ne waza in two lines with one line moving. Good group. Hopefully we can keep the numbers up.

October 11, 2009 - Sunday

Good Judo class today Big guys and little guys Both Erics Lee and a new Orange belt, Mike. Christine, Nick, Joe and Alma. We did some Uchi mata which was a good fit for this group. Everyone did pretty well. Randori was similar.

We did the step over Juji Gatame again. as a group they did a little better. Ne waza was fine Eric Johnson hasn't gottne back to Ne waza yet. Hope he starts working back in soon.

Joe C. Nick, White Scott and James did the Naval academ team tournament. the team finished second Joe, 1-1 Nick, 1-1, Scott, 1-1, James 0-2. Good to see them going to compete and they did fine.

October 8, 2009 - Thursday

Did some open mat with in BJJ. Rolled with Eric S. Last time he trained he got me down and managed to get a pass and put some points up against me, so I had to look for some payback (is it wrong to be so petty?) I swept him and was all over hime before catching him in a corner choke (what we are designating the choke Miles calls the reach around, a name I decline to adopt) . Good to make sure I can still take him.

In Judo we had a good class, including another Mike appearance. We did some more Uchi Mata and then did some randori. I gave Mike good partners and he did fine but his body was clearly feeling it. Similar randori sets for me. Fun but frustrating. I am hitting the Soto Makikomi as a switch from an Osoto. I consider this a poor substitute for the Harai but it is working so is better than nothing.

We did some choke work with the group. We did the clock choke, the Advanced Paula, and the corner choke. Good ne waza again. Lee broke my little toe during randori so I took him in Ne waza and adminstered a beatdown, which was fun (note the continuing pettiness) Another set with Mike, sweep, pass pin, let him reguard, pass-pin repeat. Not like the old days.

October 6, 2009 - Tuesday

Day class at the Westin. Steady numbers here. John did a little passing work. There was a 2 stripe blue belt here who was at Maxercise then was out with Noah. He knew me (us) but I don't recall him. He reminds me of Wes in looks and style of play. I rolled with Him and Chris Delpi. decent training, competant guys and much better than nothing.

October 5, 2009 - Monday

Not in the mood for BJJ.

Good sized class Judo. I am getting irritated being stuffed in the back in the small room for the first half of class on Monday. It's quite difficult to run a class there with any decent amount of people. We did hani goshi and broke out the crash pad for Hani Makikomi, which was a big hit.

Did some solid randori. I am enjoying the randori but am frustrated by how much worse i am than I used to be. Good training with Lee and Eric s. among others. I am going to try to work more and more ashi waza to relieve the stress on my shoulder. some surprising sucess with Kouchi gari. I am coming close repeatedly with it, just have to work harder on the finish.

We covered the step over Juji Gatame. They struggled mightily early but were making some headway by the end.

October 4, 2009

Sunday class. Was lightly attended. Alma was working the pool but, Joe C. came in which helped. Would have been a frustrating class but, it was almost all guests. John the big junior green belt from S. Philly came and Mike Ancona made a special guest appearance. We cover Uchi mata in pretty good depth as this was Mike's thing and could be a good fit for John. Did mostly fits and throws and then a little light randori standup went long then we covered the Ancona roll and trained a bit. Mike still feels strong but he is so far behind the technicque curve after years of not training he struggled. He still wants to play hard and his body will do it, but his techniques are rusty and he is a beat late with everything. I would think it was just me as I have improved and am bigger than him, but, John gave him fits also. John is pretty good, but back in the day Mike would have gone through him without trying.

Just goes to show you can slow down but never stop or everyone else will overtake you.

October 2, 2009

Open training at Main Line Judo. first time I mad eit to the open training here. Had a good time. 30ish people all ranks and sizes though mostly lower ranked guys. I did 6 - 3 min sets. would have liked a few more. they were all brown belts and down. They fought hard and weren't too dangerous. I also did 5 sets of Ne Waza. Mostly the same people though I rolled with a few of the girls that were there also. They were OK on the ground but some had glaring fundamental flaws that should be fixed. I was senior black belt so bowed the lines in and out.

Hopefully will get more people next time and a little higher ranked guys. With more people they will stick to randori and skip Ne Waza.

Saw Aaron from a few years ago there. He is assisting the Penn club and threatens to come back and train once a week. Hope so, but, I will believe it when I see it.

October 1, 2009

Did the day class at the Westin. Covered Ouchi Gari with the group. Had to keep the child tonight so no class for me.

September 29, 2009

Westin class for BJJ. Did closed guard work

September 28, 2009

Monday night class. did the BJJ training and then first half of the second class and then taught the Judo class.

September 27, 2009

Sunday Judo class. Has been going well covered Kouchi Gari and seoi nage and the front sankaku. Good to see Eric Johnson in class. Hope we keep him. The new green belt John was there and is doing fine but I think the mat work is a shock for him. He was a 225 lb+ blue belt/green belt and I think was used to dominating. Not so much happening here.

September 26 2009

Saturday classes taught by Zak. typical except that I rolled with Brian for the first time in awhile. He managed to sweep me and once on top he kept me kn the run. Have to be ultra committed to keeping him down if I want to beat him. Had flashbacks to the injuries he has inadvertently caused me and had to fight to keep my temper. Not really his fault, but still bothers me.

September 24, 2009

Did the open mat and then taught Judo class. Have been covering the front sankaku attack to turn the flat turtle. Good to kick the dust off of it, every now and then.

September 22, 2009

Tuesday class at the Westin. John taught 4-5 people I covered the sit up sweep for him. John and I had some tension after class during a meeting to discuss the club, particularly the Judo club.

Note that night ne texted me that he would be covering the S. Philly class. I think I am done there. Too bad.

Monday September 21, 2009.

Made half of the first BJJ class and the second and then taught Judo.

Sunday September 20, 2009

Taught the Judo class this morning.

Saturday Sepember 19, 2009

Did the first BJJ class this morning.

September 17, 2009

Falling behind due to work issues. so I will just keep up with the classes I attended and catch up on any notes later.

Taught Judo class tonight.

September 16, 2009

Taught at S. Philly. Good class (10 people 3 too young to be relevant so 7) taught some claosed guard attacks. Did the opposite grip Bump over the leg with the underhook, the same side grip keep their posture broken and roll them forward over the shoulder, then did the armlock if the resist being rolled.

The big green belt John was there who along with Kyle and Chris are very good juniors that you could build a good program around them. Trying to get them all as well as John's brother into Judo on Sundays. John Housed Mike Deuber. at least three taps maybe four in a 6 minute set. I rolled with him to give him some better work. He is competitive and has a decent triangle guard game. Told him afyer class how impressed I was with his potential.

September 15, 2009

Tuesday day class at the Westin. - Johntaught the class. He covered some closed guard attacks when Uke stands to split. He did the initial one where uke stands without a grip on the sleeve and you push with the turned in knees and pull the heels for the sweep. He did the cross grip pulling the heel with the underhook while arching over the hooked leg. He did the roll to the Oma Plata. and, he did the Saulo underhook to the turtle outside the leg and pressure him down. forgot how much I liked these and that i do them well as I play open guard or against people kneeling almost exclusively now.

Trained with Dan who should be promoted past yellow belt. He playes hard and is (very) hard to sweep. He still can't come close to passing but he is doing well and has a good idea what he is trying to do. Mauled Chris Delpi next. He is one of those guys who is particularly bad match up for me. He is fun to train with, though. I hit the Saulo turtle sweep among others and afterwards he laughed because he said he was just telling the guy he was practicing with that he thought it was a very low percentage sweep.

2 notes - Told John that I would have to bail on the S. Philly classes, if I didn't get what every one else gets to teach. its not much money but the princinple of it has begun to bother me more than I am comfortable with accepting. He texted later that he would pay me for it if it continued but that the program might change at the end of the month. He also mentioned paying me for teaching the Judo classes which would make me feel a lot better about lot of things.

also another old school brown belt Gouldash Mike Palinquas came and joined Judo. I harassed him a few times on facebook. Good to see him in class. IN three days we got back Eric Johnson (Ikkyu/BJJ brown belt) Nick Terry (Nikyu/BJJ blue belt) and Mike Palinquas (Sankyu/BJJ purple belt) thats a good run. Gene has told me he is coming back which would be outstanding and I will see Bean this weekend at his wedding. I will bug him about at least coming back to sunday. This would defintiely solve my concerns about some weakness in the Brown belt ranks and would add BJJ rank of 2 blues a purple a brown and a black, not too shabby.

September 13, 2009

Sunday Judo class. Good class that was well attended. Eric Johnson came in. I think he will try to join for sundays for awhile. Hope he can make it back and be consistent. He will be an excellent addition to the club. Another new Green belt John was there. He has done some BJJ also. 230+ so getting a bit of size in the class. Cyrus made it in to the class for the first half. We trained the Belt grip osoto gari and the Ouchi Gari with a little Belt grip Harai Makikomi on the pad at the end.

We did old school Judo into ne waza. when you wnet to the ground you had to fight there and submit them or fight your way back to your feet. Mainly did it so Cyrus would have his shot at Lee but, it was fun. I think we will do this more in the future. I took Cyrus for the second set. His drop is still a good technique. He threw me, but then I trap and rolled him and he tapped to the pin. Knocked him down a few more times and rolled. It was good to see him in class. still hope that he can be regular again one day as he is one of my favorites to train with and/or have in class. In Ne waza we did the belly down escape, emphasizing freeing the point of the shoulder to complete the escape. Trained afterwards for 20 minutes or so. Everyone looked good and the training went well. Eric was a little winded but to be expected. If he can stick it out he will round back into form quickly.

September 12, 2009

Saturday BJJ class - Urso taught the class. some useful guard passing work was done. The position which causes me so much trouble the open half guard with the knee up was addressed. He took the take them to the other side approach to the next level. He grabs the outside of the bottom knee and brings them all the way to the other side, and then goes hips down across their knees compressing the half guard, then kicking the leg back and passing. I like it if you can get them to the other side. His initial position is with one knee up and in the middle. Uke does a good job of keeping the high knee inside tori's elbow to prevent advancing to the knee cut pass. this was followed up by practicing the knee cut pass. If Uke resists being pulled across to the other side in the first pass, tori slips the elbow inside the high knee of the ukeand advances to the traditional knee cut. I should invest some time in this as it may address the position that gives me such trouble. Problem is I only need it for the best guys and they are much better at it than I am. Might need to force the position against some of the blue and purple belts to pratice it.

4 sets of training. Randy, Eric, Jack and Dave Oh. Good sets. worked hard but wasn't fatigued which is good. Jack continues to impress me He attacked my arm aggressively by pushing up under the lebow and using that to attack the oma plata. I resisted the oma plata but he managed to break my posture and caught me. Thinking back, I believe when he broke my arm loose and controoled it, it was from the bull pass position. I woudl like to see exactly what he did as I liked it quite a bit. restarted and attacked the pass more aggressively. got to half guard and pressued him. He was fatigued and nearly passed several time but, he regained the half before I could settle. He couldn't escape, but time expired before I completed the pass. The other three sets were typical of the the normal sets with each of them.

September 10, 2009

Thursday day class at the Westin. John taught and I took a frst class white belt through the basics. Rolled with Dan sho continues to be surprisingly tough. He can't do much with me, but, he is difficult to sweep. He desperately needs a bottom game, but, the potential to be tough is there. Rolled with a couple of other white belts also. This class seems to be doing well. I hope it continues to expand.

Note- John said to go ahead with minor promotions. Also I have to keep the baby tonight so Alma covered the class. It seems to have gone well by all reports.

September 9, 2009

Taught class at south Philly Karate. had three blue belts (including a new guys who was doing his first class with us the green belt young guy John and a few others. Isaac won his division at the tournament on saturday and apparently used the belly down turn out to good effect.

Taught some turtle attacks. We did the clock choke and an inverted Oma Plata and taking the back properly. I did the 4 sets of ne waza witht he 3 blue belts and John. decent sets. Not hard but worth doing. John is still the harder of the 4 for me. If he stickes he could end up being very good. Mike asked me about promoting Mark to Yellow belt. I support that and will inquire.

September Fourth, 2009

BJJ open mat and Thursday night Judo class. Decent open mat with 2 good sets of training. I housed a blue and Purple but then had Zak. I scored a few times and had good pressure but, he was all over me. Best I can say is he only caught me twice in 15 minutes. That's a long set to have Zak.

Class taught the belt grip Osoto Gari and Sumi Gaeshi. still seeing a few new faces, though none of them are regular enough yet for me to think they will stick, but, I have hopes.

Will be in cincinnati this weekend, so no class.

September 1, 2009

Tuesday 11 AM class at the Westin taught by Urso. Urso covered the closed guard hip bump sweep. He taught it from using the open guard (feet on hips, knees wide inside the elbows, grips on both sleeves for control) to going to a closed guard then when there posture breaks going over the top and grabbing the belt. then doing the traditional hip bump sweep to the mount if the pull away to posture up. He then did the Kimura from there. He showed me how to do the Kimura from a tightly clamped arm right below the shoulder joint on the upper arm as an alternative entry to the Kimora. then do a big elbow escape to dump them on their face and take the arm lock.

Rolled with Dan who is difficult to do anything to him. He is hyper resistent to being put on his back so I have to come up and attack his turtel. Caught him in a choke from there. He will be tough as he gets more skilled as he is very strrong with good base. Reminds me of Dave Dawson though not as dangerous. I continue efforts to get him to Judo.

Then rolled with Chris Delpi, who has a non stop mouth, but in a good way a la Cyrus. He has too many no-gi instincts that screw him up like going for guillotines etc., that put him in bad position for gi training. Caught him a few times and moved him to bad positions. Still he it's fun to roll with him.

Just to remember alma and I had a good discussion with one of the Westin guys regarding a womens self defense class. He is enthusiastic and wants to have us do a presentation at an upcoming event and set up some classes. He will be a good resource.

August 30, 2009

another small Sunday class. Lee, Alma, Christine and Scott S. We did some Harai work including the Down the line variation. Randori with Scott and Lee. It was OK, but I still can't hit a good Haria, though I hit a mediocre one that was more Soto Makikomi than Harai, but it was fun to land on Lee as he has been giving me trouble lately. His high grip has been keeping me on the defensive, have to work on attacking and defending it better.

Took questions for mat work. covered the scissors sweep and the entrance to the X-guard.

August 29, 2009

Saturday BJJ class. Urso covered turtling and getting back to guard. He locks the arm on the outside knee of the uke when they try to move to a side to attack the turtle. Then sits over the opposite hip while keeping the weight on the elbowand the knee up to allow tori to sit to the guard. I voiced concern with using the free leg to attack an inverted Oma Plata or a belly down arm lock. He focused on sitting throough and pulling the arm free if they take the weight off and attack the arm. It was hard to catch him from there, so i have to remember the focus is to get out of the turtle and get to guard, and this worked pretty well.

Had Amir, Dave Oh, Tom and Randy for training. They were all pretty clingy especially in half guard once I put them on the bottom. typical sets with all of them, except Randy. It was going as it usually does when he tried to trap my shoulder from the bottom which annoyed me. When i got free I passed aggressively as time was running out. I got outside his legs and launched a knee in the belly that knocked the wind from him, then rode on top of the knee for a few seconds and he tapped as time expired. Does this make me a jerk? Ronnie would say yes, but at least he was uninjured.

August 27, 2009

I was sick last night so missed my class to teach at S. Philly Karate. I covered the 6 pm class at the Westin. 4 white belts, Maggie and Myself. I covered the old school one arm in Rorion pass. works very well against people without triangles which will define most of the older stouter white belts in the Westin program.

Then off to BJJ open mat which was sparsely attended.

The Judo class was large but an odd mix. Lee, Chris s. and Paula from my black belts then a few of my lower ranks plus a japanese white belt with limited english in his 4th class, a guy in his second class who takes himself and aikido way too serously, a guy who was excited by the class but had only done Capoeira, and a Korean black belt who spoke very little english was good but in terrible shape. Tough class to make work. Warmed them up hard then did Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi. Send the new guy to the back to do some Ukemi, Osoto Gari and Ogoshi. Randori was good. Lee threw the Korean twice big and was thrown twice big, but, I thought he would toss his cookies he was so tired. He did one more set with Chris S and then left. Hope he comes back as he will be a good addition if he can get in shape. The new Japanese fellow Taki, did well and might stick. The aikido guy I will take in class, but he takes himself too serously and has a little "keepin it real" vibe that irks me. The other white belt Carlos was excited by Randori and did the last set with Scott S. who played light and did well.

Matwork, we did the arm lever turn over and waka gatame if there arm should be unsecured. We covered the anatomy of the armlock so everyone would understand what they are trying to do with the armlock. Then covered the anatomy of a strangle for the new guys. Did Ne waza and called it a night. Good class despite the challenges.

August 25, 2009

Tuesday day class at the Westin. Urso wasn't there today, so John taught and I assisted. 9 white belts, a purple (delpi), and a blue ( Marty) John covered the bull pass. I rolled with Chris and marty. The training ws fine albeit a little short.

The program is doing pretty well, there. I hope to continuing to make it there once per week, or so, but, I need to remain cognizant to the fact that I am getting tired. The little extra training is grinding me down a bit, but it is very good for my dieting..

August 24, 2009

BJJ class for Monday night. I made it for the second half of the first class. Urso worked on the bull pass. I did 2 sets of training. Once with Eric Silverman. I swept but Eric managed to sweep back and then kept me down for the rest of the set. moving through positions as I tried to escape. Final score was bad 12-2ish. Did a set with Tom, who was playing hard and forced me to turtle. I trap and rolled him and tapped him from the pin. As soon as he went over I could tell he would tap if I pressured the pin and wound it tight.

second class Urso continued with the bull pass. using it to pass several positions including the spider guard. Cup your hands under the calves of the uke and sit back to protect your baselever the ukes feet up, if he doesn't resist throw them over his head. If he does, switch to the bull pass.

Good sized Judo class. We did Soto Makikomi, the kneeling practice version then the big version on the crash pad. 4 sets of randori. I did 2. A hard set with Lee first. He is doing a good job screwing me up with the high collar grip, I need to fight that better. He hit a Ouchi Gari that was good, it was the only really good score. a set with white Scott. He is improving but still needs to change direction on his attack better.

Mat work we did some X-Guard sweeps. We covered #1, the get up and #4 the far sleeve. The class then did positional drills starting in the X-Guard and then playing. All in all they did pretty well.

Side note- Lee's black belt certificate finally came back from the USJA, so we were able to present it to him tonight.

August 23, 2009

Sunday Judo Class. Disappointing turn out, I thought we were turning the corner, but, I will have to get on some cases. 4 of us were in, Lee, Christine, and Kyle, the 13 year old I teach at S. Philly karate. He has a lot of potential, if he keeps up the work. His BJJ is solid for his age and amount of training and he learns well. Would like to keep him coming to Judo.

Taught Ouchi Gari first. did it a classic entry with a lot of reps and throws. Good for me too, as this used to be my primary technique and, while I am entering well, I need to finish better. Good number of throws and fits for me and Lee, while Christine and Kyle worked. Everyone did well.

Taught Yoko Tomoe Nage from a hunched posture (as if Uke is breaking you down with a high grip) went very well. I forgot how well, I threw this and have to break it out more often. I was really hitting it as was Kyle. Chris did pretty well, and Lee had some promise but, he has never been a Tomoe Nage player.

Randori - I did a long set with Lee. Hit a few tomoe Nages and a few things. Almost nailed a big Harai, but not quite far enough through the zone with my hips, but it was a little improvement. Lee had another good Sasai. It is his best technique right now, I think.

Kyle and Chris had a nice set. She struggled with his posture but began to figure it out by the end. He threw a few good Morote Garis and a few other things.

For Matwork we did X-Guard sweeps. We did 1, 3 and 4. The three of them did a good job on it. Chris and Kyle had a good matwork set. He pulled and worked for a triangle and finished with aminute to go. she pulled then and I think surprised him with an excellent arm bar and tapped him.

August 22, 2009

Saturday BJJ class. - Urso covered a pass of the butterfly guard for most of the students but had me and 3 other brown belts work on something else. (I like that he is willing to give the upper ranked guys a little individual attention). The isea is to do a knee up inside the guard and work the pass from there. so, right knee up, left leg out wide for base and looking to step over. Next he knelt forward and actually knelt in the belly of the uke. the right hand went for a deep collar choke gripKeep the uke turning to the side you are choking. look to pass but be patient most importantly maintain the position and keep the pressure on. If the chance arrives throw the second hand on and choke. This choke worked well and was very tight for me. He also did a looping/lariat variation of the choke that was strong. As you are choking always be looking to pass. Defending the choke, which is a dangerous choke can open the pass opportunity.

3 sets - Dr. Joe, Dr. Eric and David Oh. Decent sets, nice sweat. They are all cling more than I like but they are improving though Dr. Joe fell backwards when he stood up to pass and I pulled myself up to him, thus pulling me on top into the mount...not one of his shining moments.

August 20, 2009

Thursday BJJ open mat. - Rolled two sets with a couple of blue belts, Steve and Tom. Both are among the better blue belts. Decent sets without anything of real note. Worked some X-guard sweeps a bit. did 75 Harai fits with Lee. its killing my shoulder trying to get my hip across for it. I can feel why I am failing to throw the Harai. The pain in my shoulder is keeping me from getting my hips across to the correct position to throw. I will have to do a lot more fits to see if I can get it to loosen up. giving some thought to trying a little Uch mata. It wouldn't require quite as deep an entry with my hips. Be tough to change primary techniques at this point but, I can't throw the Harai effectively right now, so the question becomes try to force the shoulder to cooperate or learn a new primary technique. Neither is an attractive option.

Judo Class - 8 people including a new white belt, who does kettlebells. Tattos like a bike messenger but turns out to be a dea agent. Jim crandley was in also, so law enforcement was well represented. Covered standing Seoi Nage. Lee took the new white belt and he continues to be invaluable. Being both willing and able to give instruction. He is well on his way to being the next assitant coach. 10 minutes of Tokui Waza. then randori. The sets were fine. I took Paula as there were limted good match ups in the room for her. I really need some smaller technical players and women as the club is very top heavy with heavier brawlers right now. The next set was with Eric Silverman. He is doing well and hit me with a good Tani Otoshi when I tried to back out of a failed Harai. Good way to make remember to never back out of a throw though its hard right now as the Haria is both painful to try and likely to fail. Threw a good Ouchi Gari which may have to become my primary technique for awhile.

Matwork the white belt left so I had a reasonably experienced group so i threw some more complex stuff at them. We attacked the person wh is trying to stand up and pick us up for a technical break from the guard. First I opened up and did the two foot in the hip flip over the head. They did fine. Next we did closing the guard and pinching the knees together, lifting up the uke with your guard and sweeping him to the side. they did Ok with that. Then we slid underneath to an X-Guard. Here we got into trouble. Eric was fine and helped Paula, so she was fine. Lee was Ok, Chris S, James and Jim all struggled. I did dropping the low hook and sweeping the foot, taking them backwards first, this was Ok, though some of them can't seem to grasp the need to open the knees wise. We then tried to do the Get Up sweep, which is normally the very forst one. Lots of trouble with this. Biggest problem was getting them to sit up on to their elbow. Next trouble coming out from beneath the Uke. By the end they began to get it but it took so long we didn't do Ne Waza. I was a little disappointed that they had so much trouble.

Next day the good news was i hit 243 on my home scale, Maxercise usually weighs 2-3 lbs. lighter than mine. The bad news is that my shoulder hurts so much I have been taking painkillers all day.

August 19, 2009

Wednesday night class at S. Philly Karate. 6 people (4 adults/2 kids one good one useless) 3 white belts and a blue (Mike Deuber). The Brad Daddis tournament is around the corner so i taught drop seoi nage and using the kouchi to square their stance. the covered the basic split and bull pass. 3 sets of ne waza for the class, did one with Mike as he was the toughest in the blue belt. He tries and is improving but, still not able to push me at all.

August 18, 2009

Tuesday day class at the Westin. Urso ran class decent mix of rank. Dave Oh and I reviewed the 7 X-guard sweeps from the previous night. Urso then showed us a way to defend the position biggest idea is to not push with the hands, this gives a chance to expose the hips and secure the pass. If they run to the back side pinch the knees high on the still controlled leg to prevent/block the pass. Move the uke back with your hands and knee then regain the X-guard. If they run to the front side, come over the top and use the leg that he was passing to put the foot in the hip and push him away, then you can regain the X-guard or go over the top for a straight knee lock.

3 training sets- Dan (yellow belt) is pretty good and competitive and is very resistant to going to his back and doesn't like to accept sweeps or the pin. Very difficult to sweep with the regular butterfly/Regis sweep, now I want to hit it on him as he blocked it twice.He is coming to Judo on Sunday (supposedly) Swept him twice. He will do better once he accepts going to his back more.

A set with Dave Oh. He actually did pretty well, gave up two point by losing his balance and not scrambling back up, but then worked from the bottom and got a sweep.

Last set was Chris Delpi who I haven't worked with in years. he chatters a bit, but is ok, once I reminded him no knee locks in purple belt. swept him a couple of time and he fought hard, but it was fine.

August 17, 2009

Monday BJJ class first class came late, stretched and observed. Urso was teaching some guard pulling. I did work in to the training 3 sets, Mike Light is a good blue belt, touogh decent technique and trains hard. He is in a tough spot as a good reasonably tought training partner he gets picked by the upper ranks. In a "beginner" class his three sets were Brian Rago, Zak and me. It will make him good or kill him. Good set, he is a sucker for the butterfly/regis sweep. can't stop it. he fights hard after that but he can't get away. Justin was next. His half guard is hard to pass, but once I got around it, he has a rib injury and it was quickly aggravated by me flattening him out. Then Tom, who I have trained with quite a bit lately. Like Mike he is a pretty good training partner, so gets the upper ranks for most sets. slightly better technique than Mike but, doesn't fight quite as hard.

Second class was good as Urso recapped the last few weeks by showing 7(!) X-Guard sweeps.

1. Get up sweep - key element to remember is to take the top leg /hook out to prevent them from running to the backside pass and come up away from them not into them.

2. sweep backwards by dropping the bottom hook, no new information.

3. catching the near sleeve - pass the leg over the head by really pushing uke with the hooks to make the leg toward the head light, he is grabbing the whole foot by the toes most of the time now to pass it. the grip the belt and take him backwards. If he runs forward keep the grip on the sleeve and come up behind him. Smash him to the ground or take his back.

4. Catch the far sleeve - He does this a little differently than me. He drops the top hookto the front of the ankle of the uke and scissors him down. this works well if you can't lift uke because he is too big or heavy. Not quite as clean as the one I do, but works well for all sizes.

5. you use when uke pushes towards you. Lift them straight up and straighten your legs. As uke slides down the leg keep the knee up and don't let him past it. catch the foot and sweep him backwards with pressure with the inside of the knee.

6. push the near sleeve and flip. - catch the near sleeve and push it towards ukes feet. This works best if uke has his hands down and is trying to push himself on top. but, you can force it by pushing the near hand towards the feet and lifting uke straight up and over his blocked shoulder, do a shaolin style backwards roll to the top side position.

7 Uke has his low knee down and pulls the low leg of tori up, so that you can't do the get up sweep. - Only saw this tech as I had to go to Judo. grab ukes far lapel with the hand towards uke's front. with the back hand block (don't grab) the hip of uke. you don't need the top hook. strong elbow escape movement underneath uke nad lift with the bottom hook and take him backwards.

Monday Judo
10 people
Covered Uchi Mata- They did well with it all in all. I can several of the lower ranks being Uchi Mata players. Chris S. tries but he won'tcan't make the adjustments I suggest and his technique suffers. Greg crashed on Z once badly. Greg thought he was clinging but regardless it was a bad fall to have to take. Flat and he landed on his nuts.

Randori. 3 sets Had Will first still late on the Hrais, but I threw several good belt grip sumi gaeshis. knocked each other down a few other times. next set had William. Never had a guy who has trained as long as he has and be a black belt as long as he has, grip so painfully. He catches skin on every sleev grip and spazzes quite a bit. border line dangerous if you can't control him. Threw him a few times but nothing too big. Last set was Eric S who has been training well. I hit a few good Ouchi Garis and a good yoko tomoe nage. he got a nice left drop seoi nage. all in all 3 good sets in that I trained hard and did ok, but still not hitting the harai.

Mat work we did getting the mount and escaping the mount. Went fine. 2 ne waza sets. I had will who is a sucker for any type of X-guard. He also has terrible technique for escaping depending on flexibility and effort rather than good technique. His matwork is solid and I enjoy working with him but regret he never did BJJ as he could be a purple by now without a doubt and be much better than he is. Second set had William. Just as annoying and spastic on the ground. He actually twisted my neck a bit and made me lose my temper. Upped the ante and began to play ugly forced an ugly armlock twice and ground on him. Not sure if I should say anything as he has been a black belt long before he was with us and may just think this is how to train, but playing like that will make me dangerous to him. I also will keep feeding him to tough guys as I don't have confidence that he is safe for the women and less experienced guys.

Side note - Greg and Z had an issue in ne waza. were arguing about it after class. Will monitor their behavior for awhile and see how they do. no history there fo either of them, so I am assuming an isolated incident. Won't put them together for a few months.

August 16, 2009

Sunday Judo Class

Seven people, Me, Lee W., James G., Mike Temkin, Z and his two freinds Al and Nova, who is a woman who took 6 classes at balance a few years ago, but is new to Judo. Lee was a huge help. He started the warmups and was uke and worked with Nova most of the time.

We did Kouchi Gari and Kouchi Makikomi from the feet. Class did reasonably well considering they were mostly novices. Some randori, but only 2 sets, considering the inexperience of the participants and limited time due to so much repetition on the techniques. Lee and Z both did well.

Matwork covered a clock choke and the trap and roll. Continuing to try to give everyone at least one techniques for all of the psotions. 2 sets of Ne waza. Decent class, but would have been helped by more numbers particularly in the green belts. I didn't do much except teach.

a tech I need to remember from 8/6/9

Urso covered some information on the 50/50 half guard. the idea is to wrap your right leg behind the right leg of the uke, over the top of it then lock the right ankle behind the left knee. This is the position. He showed a sweep from there which seems hard to stop and he has become very good at it. However he considers the position dangerous, doesn't like it and believes it will soon be illegal.

the sweep is done by turning your hips away from uke and rocking your body after you have secured a grip on the far ankle, then using almost a de la riva movement to take ukes directly across your body.

More importantly to me is the defense. Most importantly you MUST keep you weight away from uke as far as possible to avoid the sweep.

Then the Urso defensepush the shin knee of the tori down below your own knee and work to step out. works faster but has a higher rate of being swept than...

The Zak defense - If your left leg is trapped grab the left sleeve and the left collar, you can release the collar in a pinch but you must hold the sleeve(!). Then your right foot into the arm pit of the tori. Now work to get you left foot to the other side of the tori (from his left hip to his right hip) push up and across his body which will kill the 50/50 position. Pass normally, by flattening the hips.

August 13, 2009

Arrived at open mat for BJJ. 2 sets of training 10 min with Zak - started off of our feet. he hit a nice single. I normally defend them well, but it was very well done. He didn't catch me, but I was on the run for the whole set. I really can't stop the Uma Plata, both because it is so good and because it makes my surgically repaired shoulder nervous. Final score was about 12-2. 15 mnutes with Eric Silverman who is one of the better trainingpartners i have right now. Last week he won the set 3-2, but, if I can get to the top early I can put up points and give him a hard time. the final was around 16-2 but the set was much closer, i barely avoided an arm lock and several scores, before we called it.

Urso showed me an interesting half guard pass. You go for the facing the waste pass, uke defends by reaching under to block, you then go around his arm with you high hand so your forearm is just beneath the point of the elbow and secure the grip on your own lapel. if uke doesn't grip to protect his arm you go for a strainght arm lock. if he does you work the pass. the key element is to stay low on the hips of uke. if you pass, keep the arm trapped and go north south, this will usually break los his grip and you can attack the straight arm lock.

10 people in judo including 3 of the new white belts. I taught the 3 feet on a line Osoto Gari, and the Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi. Then Randori my set with lee was frustrating. my stand up is not coming back. I can't get my hips through the zone on the harai Goshi as my shoulder problem jams me up on the turn. My grips are competant, but no better. I MUST force myself to start working into the uchikomi. I have resigned myself that my techniques will not come back on their own and to fight quality heavy weights, I am going to have to stop coasting and wishing and start working.

Ne waza I continued to teach escape and pins. Taught the Kesa Gatame and the Kazure Kesa Gatame and explaing the escapes and why I prefer the Kazure version. Good to see the white belts but need to get the green belts back in consistently.

August 11, 2009

Returning to this blog after several years. In the past 3 years. I have had multiple surgeries Knee which went well and solved the aforementioned problems and shoulder to address a chronic dislocation problem which hasn't gone nearly as well. I have gotten married (again) , had a daughter which takes up an inordinate amount of time and working a different job. Regis has moved to San Diego and Ronnie has moved to Hawaii. John has taken over Maxercise. Urso has left and returned. Zak has become almost unstoppable, Brian has become very good, and Tim has stopped and recently restarted training. I have assumed the duties of head instructor of the Judo club with Alma as my assistant instructor. Will is the head instructor of the Drexel club so is only with us sporadically. Alma has been runing a kata class on Tuesday that has been well received and given our club something that very few clubs hve, a class devoted to kata and an instructor who is good at it and wants to teach it.

I try to make class 5 times/week including 3 BJJ classes (one I instruct at S. Philly Karate) and one open mat and 3 Judo classes all instructed by me. I might try to add a BJj class during the week att he Weston depending on how the classes are.

I haven't the time to go into detail of the classes anymore, but, I want to chronicle the techniques I see and what I teach In Judo and BJJ as well as any other things that strike me.

BJJ class last night was a guard pull. drop for a yoko tomoe nage from a right sided grip with the left foot to the hip to prevent uke from grabbing the leg as you drop. Then do a scoot under to the x guard. do it by switching from the sleeve grip to the grip behind the foot closest to the hand, far leg (right) hooks behind ukes left knee, lift the hips, point the left knee down and aggressively scoot under the uke to secure the x guard. first tech was to drop both hands to Ukes heels and sweep him straight backwards, come up holding both his heels to keep him from coming up too. this is important. next did the get up sweep - push uke away with both legs, take out the TOP leg and come up in base. if uke won't turn go for a calf crush in brown belt divisions, ust pressure it in lower divisions to get him to accept the sweep. Urso covered the x guard sweep where you catch the near hand and pass the leg over your head, reach up and grab the belt and sweep him back or if he runs, come up with his arm between his legs and finish. Interesting point of emphasis was when getting the x guard from the entry, you have the leg trapped in your arm pit holding down with your elbow, other hand turns the knee in and you go under the leg to achieve the x guard. now Urso cups the knee can and puts a lot of pressure on it to control Ukes efforts to defend. Urso also showed how Zak will jump into the x guard from a position where he is being swept with the get up sweep.

trained with Tom, Mike Light and David Oh. Mostly bad matchup in the room for me. few good training opportunities anymore.

Judo had 3 novices who are desperately needed right now. Had 12 total counting Alma, Will and myself. Taught the de ashi harai when uke steps behind himself (the Will mistake). Had everyone do Ashi Waza of choice for awhile then forward Tokui Waza. 3-5 minute randori sets. Need to get my stand up back, have to push myself to be willing to fail when I attack. Used the Koga armpit grip to screw up will in his grip fighting.

Covered the Bull pass and then did elbow escaping from side control.

On a side note John has begun a BJJ class at the Weston health club (1835 Market St.) across from where I work. I might try to get there and train every so often.

Thursday 4/20/06

We worked on holding and escaping the side position last night. I trained with Cyrus who is very suceptible to uma plata, and Pete who is getting btetter and better.

Art ran the judo class. Jim was in and there were 5 white belts, so the classes continued to be very novice oriented. He mostly did basic throwing and falling for the whole class. Christine did come in and she worked with the japanese girl.

Monday 4-17-6

Regis covered a good position that he learned from Rickson while he was trainng there in Ca. the sweep is a response to the over under pass that John and I use. when the Uke trise to pass and keep your hips down, you reach up and grab his belt with the hand that is on the same side as the hand uke is using below the leg i.e. the side he is keeping his head. now with your free hand you must try to come up. you try to drive yourself up with your hips facing way from the direction that your arm grabbing the belt is on. If uke allows you to come up from his pass, you come oout and run to his back. however, everyones resonse who uses this pass is to try to drive your hips down. when uke tries to force your hips down, form the upwards position that you are holding yourself with your posting hand throw yourself to the other side of the uke. jump your hips and body position to the side away from where it was facing. use your legs to complete the sweep, but the real impetus of the sweep, comes from the hip switch. Trained hard with regis. he only caught me once. Rolled through Eric and Pete.

Judo was good. Several of the BJJ white belts were in class. i covered the seoi nage from the turtle and the trap and roll.
we then did the sticky foot kosoto gari and a same sided seoi nage on the crash pad. Cyrus did a nice job working with the new girl cherry. lots of whte belts in class and not much rank, lately. hate to admit how much easier it is to teach a cohesive class with this group that the hodge podge that we have had recently, but its true.

Sunday 4/16/6

I taught the Judo class. Again it was mostly novices, so I kept it simple. We did a clock choke and the trap and roll.

From the feet we did Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi and then osoto gari and discussed combining the two. It went well and did a little randori at the end. Lee is showing good improvement and seems to have a good future if he sticks.

Thursday 4/13/6

Urso just did an open mat. I trained but mostly Light and protected my knee.

I taught the Judo class. i hate to say it but sometimes it is nice not to have any distractions for the other instructors who can be a loose cannon (i.e. Art and Timone) It does give the class a little more cohesion when everyone is doing the same thing. I did the pedro style Jjuji gatame turnover. and then did harai oshi and osoto gari. it was mostly novices, but the did well and improved so it was a good class.

Tuesday 4/12/6

BJJ taught by Urso. he did a very interesting X guard position. From the conventional X guard position to get the sweep he dropped the high hook around the low hook and rehooked on the ankle. He pulled the ankle and scissored the top hook to get the sweep. You don't want to pushat all, just scissors the takedown.

Unfortuantely my knee popped right away from the X guard and I was forced to sit out of the drills. I rolled with a few of the guys. Jay is a particularly bad match up for me. I caguht him repeatedly. it is a good example of a good player who just matches up poorly against another player.

i also had Jen and Amir. i did more coaching during the set than actual training.

I taught the white belt class. We had 6 and I taught the Regis Half butterfly sweep.

Saturday 4/8/6

skipped class unitl today to prepare for Pan-Ams in BJJ. I am fighting the +214 division in senior 1 (35-40). We have a good contingent of around 10-12 competitors in LA. The tournament was up and down. i technically won my division but it wasn't contested. I fought the open division and fought a small (145) guy in the first round, named Clint Crabtree. He was a wrestler and despite the size diffeerence, wouldn't pull guard as I expected. I snaped him down and forced him to pull. I wnet to the Bull pass and drove my shoulder in his belly as I passed. He tapped and complained of a rib injury. The referee allowed him to start the match again even though he tapped. he squirled back to his feet and Ijust held him off for the rest of the match as he tried to take me down. i waited adn threw him with Osoto Gari in the last few seconds to win 5-0.

The next match was against a Brazilian 190 pounder. he also wouldn't pull, and i was leary of throwing foreward and missing. he broke my balance with a decent Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi, but didn't throw or get vantage. I waited until the last few seconds to try to throw. He stayed behind me and I missed the throw. The idiot ref actually gave him 2 for it. Regis said he should have had a vantage. I don't really understand that, but, it tells me that I have to reevaluate how and what I throw in BJJ. I think that I am going to work on Sasai and sumi gaeshi. i watched him fight and i really think that my matwork is better but I am having trouble with the transition, if i fail to throw. I don't want to leave him behind me, so i have to make some decisions about what I throw. I also need to get over the fear of the throw and just attack and if I miss, continue with matwork. I am trying to hard to make it a Judo match and just throw in the last few seconds to win. i need to attack early and then just play the rest of the game. One thing that I notcied was that Senior 1 brown belts do not pull. Sean Basfield was the only guy who pulled at all, and he only did it occaissionally.

Ronniw ent 1-1 in his divisiona nd took bronze. he wrecked a guy, submitting him from behind and then lost a winnable match when he mistook the score and thought that he was winning. He was manhandled in the Open division.

John looked good with and exellent sweep to win his first weight division match. then lost in the finals to take silver. He fough the open of my division and got 2 byes to the semis. He threw Bansfield but was choked across his face. he took bronze in that division.

The rest of the team did OK. particularly Tim S., who took a bronze in his purple belt Pan Ams. in a 30 plus man division going 4-1 with 3 submissions.

Wednesday 4/5/6

242.

On a personal not as it will effect my training, I received 6 weeks notice on the job front. This is anything but unexpected as the office is moving towarfds closing for some time. but now I will have a definate date, May 15.

Tuesday 4/4/6

242.

Regis did the 2 point scoring class. after a couple of sets he put just the competitors into the mix. I am still not feeling as shrp or fresh as i would like, though, part of it is the competition is better in this group. (me, ron, Diego Moraeis, Tim, John P. and Brian R. a tough group). I mostly won. I almost passed diego but he started to Zoo and i accepted the sweep. I passed him a few more times and threw him big once. Tim caught me once, and Brian stalled with me until Regis put him out. I won the rest.

The downside is my knee was locking and bothering me. Everyone clinging to the half guard has put some strain on it the last few days.

I taught the white belt class. Urso is fed up with it after the incident with Shawn last week. He was forced to kick Shawn out of class for the way he was playing with another white belt. John was there and said that Shawn created the problem, but urso said he was blamed by the powers that be. So, as a result, he does not want to have to work with the white belts . I'm not sure if this will continue, but, it seems that we will be teaching again. I continued with the class that he had planned. I covered escapes from cross side and pulling guard from a turtle after you escape. Good class and several of the guys show a lot of potential. Unfortunately it seems that we will lose Darryl in a few months.

Tuesday 4/4/6

242.

Monday 4/3/6

No kettlebells this week. I want to feel as fresh as possible for pan ams. I will do class, though.

BJJ with Regis. The class was tough. I am working my weight down so I only had some peanuts all day before class. I would have been better having nothing. Regis did the 2 point drill for an hour or so. I stayed in for awhile, then Cyrus managed to knock me down. I found the sets more fatiguing than usual. Even the small guyus were just clinging to me, so it was tiring just to pry them off of me. Regis gave me a little grief about letting them jump and close the guard, but my thinking was that this would make it as hard as possible. After I was out I got Zak and passed him. As i became more fatigued I began to stop letting guys jump and throwing them. Zak was expecting me to let him jump but I hooked him in an Osoto Gari and hammered him. i then threw Pete and let him bump me over. This should be 2 and vantage so i should win. Regis gave him the points, I think to get me to stop accepting the bump. I came back in and passed Zak again. Only other note was that Brian Rago stayed in for the whole set. He is clearly the best blue belt.

I stayed for Judo but only coached.

Sunday 4/2/6

No class today. I went to coach the clubs players at the Liberty Bell tournament. The tournament was well run as always with 6 mats going, 3 of which are tatamis. I was generally happy with the performances of the group. Lee somehow went 0-2 despite dominating both matches. Jim went 1-2 and took third. He had an injury bye against a guy he would have wrecked, or he would have gone 2-2. Taku went 0-3 in the black belt division. he was competitive, but should have been in masters. Alma went 1-2 in a 2 person round robin format and took a second. Lawrence went 1-2 and threw a convincing Ippon, in his first tournament. he was 45 and fought adult. Mike Korzinsky went 2-2 in his first tournament in years. Timone fought adult and masters and went 4-4 overall. Sharon made a return to Judo and went 1-1 in masters women. Joe Chiu went 0-3 in masters, he is better in class that a tournament. All in all a solid showing, though i remanin frustrated that people who are purportedly in leadership positions within the club continue to do little to nothing to support the club outside of the rare class appearance. They barely find time to go to an occaissional class and do nothing else. Sometimes I think that they look on themselves as Jiu Jitsu players who used to do Judo rather than actual active members of the club.

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Saturday 4/1/6

BJJ this morning. Urso taught a way to avoid the double underleg pass. Keep tension and make yourself stiff and heavy so that it will be difficult to lift you to throw the leg over and get the collar. Anticipate the side that will reach for the collar and catch the bicep with the hand on that side. You drop the knee inside on the same side that you catch the bicep, pass the foot down and back inside to make space and regain the guard. This is the last way to avoid the pass.

The bettter way is to anticipate that the uke is attempting the pass. When he drops his hands to go under the legs, sit up strongly and grab the beltwith one hand. the hand that grips the belt pulls the ukes head down strongly. use the elbow of that hand in the back of the neck of the uke, driving it down to the mat, past the hip, on the same side as the arm that reaches for the belt. If uke passes his haed across to the other side, then you can't use this defense. Now, scoot you butt to the side away from ukes head, until you can reach around the back of the htigh of the uke. You can cup it, ot (ronnie did this and I liked it) grab the belt or lapel under ukes belly to secure the grip. Now, tuck your foot on the side towards where you are scooting, underneath you. Block the far knee of the uke and essentially Kharabelli him over on to his back.

I had 10 minutes with Dr. Joe. and then I took the big white belt from Miles Moffits club, Jack for 10-15 minutes. he was strong but he tries to play like he is small instead of just tossing guys off of him. But, he moves well and has good potential.

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