Thursday 3/11/2010

BJJ open mat - Eric and I covered a few things with Lex who had severaal questions. Eric also worked on another few attackes from his cross spider position that were fun. I want to get back to working on this position a bit. There was a particularly cool response to the Uke ducking their under the high leg.

Judo smaller class but still 11 people. sets of 25 uchikomis and the we did speed throwing. I did this with everyone else and was the second fastest finished along with eric S, who was my partner. We lost to Chris and arrianna, but finished ahead of everyone else. I felt good doing it but have to admit it tired me more than it should have. I was also a bit sore from all of the falls which I haven't taken lately. We did the outside Sumi Gaeshi and the class did well with it. I liked the way paula was doing it as she was throwing well and then riding the momentum to the mount. I'd like to see her incorporate this into her technique set.

Good randori sets. I am working in, though my stand up still hasn't come back to what I want it to be. 

We did some ne waza tokui waza which seems to be a good idea. htere isn't enough drilling done on the ne waza techniques for my taste. Having a good matwork technicque requires repetitions like stand up techniques.

Ne waza - We had 10 people training so I did the play to resolution style approach. Everyone had 9 matches 3 min each. The intensity level was disappointing. Not sure if the room was tired from the hard work in randori and nage komi, but the ne waza wasn't as spirited as I would have liked. I switched from my normal guard pull approach to a more competitive kneeling program approach. I backdropped and pinned everyone except arriana and Eric S. They both pulled. I caught Eric in a guard transition and passed him. I went 9-0 and encouraged everyone to raise the level of their efforts to win the set. Couple of suggestions were that there were too many sets, so people were saving their strength and there were too many draws, will try fewer longer sets and institue a ti breaker rule of lighter person wins a draw.

Thursday 3/11/2010

John is in Florida so I coveered the day class at the Westin.
i covered the mount escape for Craig and everyone needed the reps on it. I showed how I take and hold the mount, bu closing my feet and then working for a choke. With the pairs i had I ran one long set of Craig and Mike and Chris and John. Hopefully will do an hour of training tomorrow with them.

Tuesday 3/9/2010

Taught the westin class for John as he was being tatooed. Crig had asked about closed guard submissions. Rather than revisit the basic cross choke or the juji gatame or triangle, I introduced the Oma Plata. I did it like I taught the judo class last week, elbow escaping to one side, while freeing the far knee while simultaneously brining the near side leg up for beginning of the Oma Plata position. bring the foo over the near shoulder, close the triangle and stay there. I did the breakdown that Xandre showed at the seminar a few years ago, which I have success and even showed the wrist lock (Kota Mawashi - sp?). I trained with john and Craig. Good class but would be nice to have a few more people and a few more minutes.

Monday 3/8/2010.

Kettlebells - a couple of minutes late but a good class anyway. Not as tough as last week, but still good.

BJJ tired so I didn't work in much. decent numbers with 10+ people including several new white belts one of which is a promising woman. John worked on Ude Gatame from the butterfly guard and then from closed guard. They did better with the second one. We debated was it because the closed guard version is easier to learn or did the work on the butterfly version help them with the closed guard. Kind of a chicken and the egg arguement but next time I teach it I will switch the order and see how they do.

I only did one set with Dave Oh. He will be OK on top at Pan Ams, but his guard game still needs work. He clings tightly with the half guard but still needs to improve his offense there. He really needs to win the takedown fight.

Judo 17 people. (2 bjj people - Frank and Dave)I am getting spoiled with the 20+ people per class lately but his was a good group. We did speed throwing with a 20 pushup incentive not to finish last. Lex is a brilliant thrower but usually loses this as he tends to be a little deliberate between his throws and get ups. he is in such good shape he doesn't feel any urgency to win speed contest.

We did ashi waza tokui waza for 15 minutes, with 4 fits and a throw bakc and forth.

Then I worked on the Sumi Gaeshi from the belt grip. Good for everyone to see this but I especially wanted to tweak how Lex is doing it after he was ipponed at the Spatak tournement from this technique the past weekend. This went well and I saw some solid improvement.

4 randori sets. Lots of good randori all across the board. Isidor is going to be a huge addition if he sticks it out, good for everyone that works with him. Sarah has also been a godsend. Exactly waht i needed as a solid ccompetive woman as a bridge between the ones coming up and the black belts.

We did Kesa Gatame escapes. Then we did Ne Waza. I did 4 groups of 4 fighting to a resolution. They liked it, but the only concern was the down time for people who win their matches early and have to wait around for the full 5 minutes to expire. I might try 4 minutes next time Will also suggested 5 man groups with a floater coming in to replace the loser, as losses are suffered. I will noodle on this as i like the idea, but have to find the format I like the best.

Sunday 3/7/2010

I missed the team training, too much baby duty to make it in time. Too bad, as there was a very good turnout including several purple belts with whom I don't normally get to train.

Judo was solid with 10 or so of us. I worked on Ashi Waza drills and then for Randori I did golden score king of the hill. Happy to have a very competitive 4 girl group. Alma, christine, Paula and Sarah. Not many clubs could bring 3 good black belts and a good brown belt to their womens group.

I worked in the men's side. I got through most of the group but then Joe and I did 90 scoreless seconds so we went to the back. I came in on Lex and he did a good job getting me to chase him and he hit a good Kouchi Gari. i won a few more but as time was going to expire I chased Joe too hard and he threw me with a drop seoi nage. Fun stuff good group for it I will do more of this.

We did the flip from the open guard. I brough the baby in demonstrate how you should be able to control the roll all fo the way to the bottom and you should go over the top to take the mount. Fun her first class participation. I did the helicopter armlock too. The idea was that this is a difficult technique that flows from the flip and makes the flip seem easy and gives you confidence. they actually did pretty well with it. It was also helping some of them do a better job capturing the hear for the armlock from the side a bit earlier. Later I told Beth, it's a tough technicque but the focus was getting them to have confidence and try the flip more than the helicopter. i compared it toteching them a calculus problem and then the the algebra II problem trey just tried seems easy by comparison. we'll see if anyone actually uses it.

I experimented playing matwork sets to a resolution. Each 4 person set did round robing and when someone caught an armlock, choke or pin, the set was over. I like how competitive this makes things. It also gives everyone incentive to work on winning. the girl's group had three 2-1 with Chris winning as the lightest (tiebreaker) she also hit a wicked armlock on paula and actually popper her arm a little, but they all played well. Sarah will do better and better in this group as i refine a few of her techniques.

Lex won the men's group with a 3-0 record. His pins looked good.

Saturday 3/6/2010

Made it too Saturday class, but John and I spent the class working on some takedowns with some of the potential Pan-am competitors. Didn't do much myself, but, at least I was there this week. A few different faces came to the second class but, I had to leave.

Thursday March 4, 2010

BJJ Open mat - Me, Katie, Lex and Greg. Eric came in a little late due to some traffic issues.Greg asked about playing some half guard.. I covered the basic cross the arm and rolling reverse them. Pretty simple but effective. Had to tweak them a bit to get them to go underneath uke as aggressively as I wanted. Then I did burrowing underneath them swinging the legs to the opposite side, catch the foot with your free hand. Then Kip up and sweep them backwards. As you would expect, they had a little trouble with it but got better. Rolled with Katie and Greg. Katie is playing pretty well. sometimes she gets competitive enough that I can see her get frustrated. As long as she can channel this into staying focused and improving her technique and not let the frustration make her impatient and have her technique break down, she will do well. Greg is making a sound decision in looking at half and open guard games. He isn't well built to play closed and is so physically overpowering he can force the sweep game as long as he keeps himself from being flattened out. Once he is on hhis back he is hard to hold but he has a hard time coming up.He would be well served by improved flexibility but he's smart, has solid instincts, his takedowns can be devastating and it never hurts to be the strongest guy in the room.

Judo - 20 people again, haven't had a run of classes this size since I have been at the club (15 years) And it's been different faces so we could really hit some big numbers. 2 very good prospects. Paul Lattimers daughter Laura was in with her boy friend Marty. She trained for 6 years as a juvenile, he has 6 classes or so. They are students and seem interested in getting back into it. Also had a Secret Service agaent who will be in town for a week or so. He is a recently promoted shodan.
I covered Harai as i had promised Katie that I would. I entered from the cross grip sequence. We did 15 minutes or so of Harai then another 15 minutes of Tokui Waza. Then 4 or 5 sets of randori. Good sets. I did 5 pairs so a few had to sit each round. Greg hit an  Ippon against Eric as Eric was going for a belt grip attack. Eric wnet for a belt grip Harai and Greg attacked the standing leg with a Tani Otoshi/Kosoto Gake attack. It was very well timed and is an interesting counter to the Belt grip attack.
For Ne Waza I went back to the Oma Plata from Monday, but, covered taking the Uke backwards for the sweep when they pick you up. Had a little trouble at first but they got it by the end. Then we did the stepping over the head for the Ude Garame armlock.
I jumped into the Ne waza, took Migel and swept and worked him, wnet for the back and choke but he really buries his chin, when he turtled i switched to the juji turnover, Got the reversal and took the arm. he didn't want to tap but I forced it, and he held on a touch too long and maybe tweaked his elbow slightly. Rolled with the SS guy. Pretty good, but too many situations he hasn't seen. One other set I don't recall.

For Kbells, I did 33/31 with the 24 Kg.

Tuesday 3/2/2010 (out of order)

Oops. Missed the report on the Tuesday class at the Westin. John covered the De La Riva open guard position and did the first two techniques from the previous night, i.e. standing up with the leg hooked to the single and catching the second leg and coming up to essentially a modified double. 2 sets - Chris and blue John. The sets are solid and they are becoming more difficult as I am making some small alterations in their games to be more effective against me.

Thursday 3/4/2010

Day class at the Westin - Craig has become one of the usual suspects here. I saw a blue belt in the locker room I hadn't seen in quite awhile (he is also a brown belt in Judo) he has begun working out here and I am going to ride him about getting into class. It will be good to see a new face. Classes are consistent here but not as large as I'd like. John worked again on the De La Riva position. He ddd a leg hook to what he did earlier in the week. Against a one knee up opponent, he hooked with the inside knee (without gripping) and stepped back like he was standing in base to pull the knee out from under them. Then hip into them, free the leg and pass. Nice variation. I think I don't use these variations that much, primarily because I'm lazy and the ones I use work well for me, but, from a technical perspective, I am not far enough to the outside of the advancing knee of Uke. This can be big, as when i fail to sweep and Uke puts pressue on me, I could solve it by rotating further to the outside.
3 sets of training. The blue belt John (hereinafter, blue John)was first. He was still staying on outside and trying to find away past my open guard, I got grips, and sucked him in and hit the two footed tomoe nage flip sweep. Fun technique and always feels good because no one wants to take the ride. Passed him and worked him, but didn't catch him.
Chris was a good set - swept and mounted then caught him once. Next time I swept but he nearly went under neath for a half guard pass successfully, but I managed to shift out of it. Set ended there working to pass the half.
John and I did a short set. He plays me pretty well, better now than he used to, in fact. I managed to hit the hald butterfly hook sweep, but he swept back as I was passing the half guard. Good technique ad I am prety stable on top half guard. He has been working hard to get a strong grip on a sleeve and working to cross it, have to watch more closely for this and not take it lightly. After he swept, I worked from underneath. and nearly swept he scrambled out of it and seemed to pasue for a second in the scramble, I didn't and bulled him down. Passed the half guard from the escrima and we finished the set there.

Monday 3/1/2010

Kettlebells - Best workout I have had with Alma. This was really the first one I couldn't have made myself do. Cardio intensive with a solid strength component.I noticed she changed the Turkish Getups from switching to one side and then the other. i think this is more efficient and prefer it.

BJJ - Good class. 2 new guys were in plus the usual suspects minus Max and Dave. John did some of the de La riva guard position. Emphasized getting to the side. He used the inside leg as a hook to stand up to the single leg. This is a good technicque that I don't use (much). He then stayed down and sucked the legs in for a double. I had 4 sets of training, Lex, who is doing a good job staying focused on working the armdrag series. I encouraged him to watch for the sweep when he has the arm trapped and then roll and mount them. it made sense to him as soon as he saw it.Decent set with Frank who is training well right now, though he did end up on the wrong end of an elbow to the belly and was impressed by how painful it was. I guess this is a good thing, but even if it's not good, it's funny. Eric and I had an excellent set. I pulled and we worked. I ended up in half guard and was working the sweep as he was working the pass, I went for the sweep and thought I had it, but i think he glanced off of the wall. He stabilized and worked a good pass, I was able to bail but it was after he would have had points. when i turtled he went for the Juji turnover and I cam to the top, managed to pass his legs and catch him with a choke from the side. I needed the finish or to score as he was up a vantage by the score in my head. Took Maggie next and had some fun throwing her around a bit and catching her.

Judo - Biggest class in a long time. 22 or 23 people - I did the one step ashi waza attack drill then some Forward Tokui waza. Then Randori. The back room had some new people working so I had to break up the break up the randori into light and heavy groups. Very solid training across the board, lots of good sets. The March Highlight film will be long if this is any indication. Greg looked good, almost too good. he might have to pull it back just a touch or he will retire some people. If he had a vicious streak like Mark K or John Z or Rich C had he would be too dangerous to have in the club. Wish we could get Gene back, they would be a fun match.

I am going to cover some basics in ne waza. I did the basic hip bump up sweep, then did the basic shrimp away and do Oma Plata.3 sets of Ne waza and we called it a (very sucessful) night. Several new prospects were in including a blind women Laura, who did well. Alma did a fantastic job teaching her the Ukemi basics. Mike was back and did well. I will mix him into the regular class next time he is in. We also had a Balance blue belt named John who came late due to the time change. He seems very interested and seems to have a decent chance of coming back around. Good to see some new faces.

252 - back to moving in the correct direction.

Here is the link to the February randori High Lights.

Sunday 2/28/2010

BJJ open mat team training - I arrived a bit late. there were 10 there ahead of me. they were doing drills off of the back and then did positional training. The older I get I find the less I enjoy drills and positional work. I know it's importance, but, I really find the transitions to be of more importance for me. The only way to drill transitions is to train live. In all honesty I enjoy it more, but, I really believe that training transitions is more important than drills onc you reach a certain level of technical profiency.
I joined in the two point training. My group was Eric, Lex Jason and Max. a big fgroup of bodies. I had Jason first. He and some of the others are working almost exclusively from a 2 hands on one side grip. I think this is very limiting and only works for a few technicques. The failure to control the backside shoulder as in a more conventional grip dooms this grip for most technciques. It can be a little difficult to attack as the distance id a little off but, attacking from it for Osoto Gari, or Uchi Mata, I don't think is a good idea. He tried that for a bit and then tried the drop to the knees and then try pull the person down and then go for a double, like Regis used to teach. I think this is a terrible technique. It's the same thing the guy at PanAms tried a few years back, and the rtesult was the same. I immediately took him down for two points.
Eric was next and pulled guard. I worked to half guard and managed to complete the pass. Max pulled and held me off with his length for a bit until I got to position to bull pass then i passed. He needs to refuse to accept surrendering points more than he needs any technical improvement. Lex and I wnet back and forth. I got to whizzer and was holding him from it, then jumped to a butterfly guard with the whizzer and swept him.

we did several sets of training. I had Jason, who is definitely becoming dangerous as he gets better at playing like a heavyweight instead of a lightweight. I had to bail from a pass, but I came up and caught him from the side. I went kneeling program next and passed h9m forward so i took his back and worked a clock choke.

Max played well, but I was bale to pass him and keep him down. Passed him again when he elbow escaped, which he does well. He needs to have bit more offense from there but, played well overall. Mike D was next. I find him suffers from Chung Li syndrome sometimes. He tapped from a knee in the belly and then from two elbow in the belly's. Part of it is willingness to tap out there. Part of it is lack of confidence on his escape from the position.

The team training was useful, but, will be better when there are more members of the team there.


Judo - Another big group, very heavy with green belts was in the room.  I went back to the Osoto Grai, Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi, De Ashi Harai series. James did this pretty well as well as a few of the others. This ashi waza work has been good for them and we will keep working some of the drills into the equation. We did 4 five minute randori sets.

I covered Escaping the mount by means other than rolling to the flat turtle. finally, 2 short ne waza sets. I have been doing extra Tachi waza lately as we have had more time dues to the class time changes. This is the right thing for now. I think that we will get more ne waza once summer arrives and the tournament season is over.

Thursday 2/25/2010

BJJ open mat - Eric took the lead here and did nice job keeping things moving. He ran some drills off of the back and then we did some training. Katie has been working hard and showing good improvement. She will be helped by her renewed committment to coming to Judo. She needs to be on top and with Sarah who has been doing great, in more often they will have excellent training for one another. had a few sets of training, Eric, Dave, were solid. The snowicane ma have kept the numbers down for the open mat.

For Judo, we had another good number, with 13 in class despite the weather. Again there were a large numbers of green and brown belts. We did standing and drop seoi nage ane then worked on Tokui waza. 4 sets of randori. allessandro returned in his rehab from the double knee surgery. Great to see him back, just have to make him stay patient and get healthy before trying to do too much too soon.

I broke the ne waza into two groups of 6 round robin players. I did the round robin with Dave, Eric, Chris S., Shannon and Migel. Good sets. Shannon got to my half guard from on top and caught an ude garame. from there as I was trying to get my guard back. He's a very solid player, not crazy, fundamaentally sound, as he commits to improving his back game, he will be even better. The rest of the sets were unremarkable.

Kbell challenge -  I did 32/26 with a 24 kg.

Tuesday 2/23/2010

Day class at the Westin. Not the best class to see for the club, but the best possible class for me. Me, John D., Chris and John (Blue belt) were the ones who came. We did a few drills and then trained 3 long sets. Perfect for what i wanted to do after no class the night before. First set was with BB John. Fun, but it was what you'd expect, I caught him a few times. He still bounces around a bit much and sits guard but then scrambles back up, I think he'd be better served to pick a position and commit to it. My set with John d., was fun. first two sets, i managed to get to the top off of a sweep and then pass and catch him. He has a hard time escaping me when i make it to a side position. the third set was good. We were scrambling and he jumped to the leg lock program and worked a series of switches from the foot to the knee and back a few times. I couldn't quite come up and couldn't get my leg free. he managed to catch the knee bar just before time expired. Really fun set and reminded me how effective the leg lock system is. i should go for it even if i just work the straight footlocks against the lower ranks. Last set was with Chris. He managed to make me bail from his pass attempt, but I got bakc to the top and kept pressure on him.  Fun training.

AQ reported we had 15 in Judo last night, including a few more new people who could stick. Good classes there right now.

Sunday, 2/21/2010 - In House Tournament

The In-House tournament that was postponed by Snowpocalypse came off today. it went much better than I had anticipated. The light classes recently had me concerned about the turn out, but, if anything, there were too many people there. Beth had a funeral that night and I refereed all day after doing a lot of bracketing. I had to leave before the No gi division happened as I was running very late.We had 5 purple in round robin division, a fair number of blues and a lot of white belts. I was disappointed that more girls weren't there, though. At least 8 clubs were represented if you count the Judo club as separate. The refereeing was a grind and really more than I wanted to do (my back was killing me for the next few days) but, it was good to see the club so well supported.

I saw a few old friends who came to show their support which was good. I didn't realize so many people had a problem with Regis. I think that was big part of the turn out from the other clubs, people felt they were treated unfairly or worse by Regis and wanted to show some support. I don't know all of the details for all of them of course, or how true some of it was, but I was a little surprised to hear so many people tell me different versions of the same story. I renewed some relationships and had a lot of requests to come train with other clubs, which was good to hear. I think I am going to start making a circuit visiting some of the other clubs. It will be good to see some different faces and training partners and be welcomed back into the BJJ community.

Not going to comment on any of the matches. I had 4 Judo people fight, Lex won his white belt division, Eric took second in Purple and Will and Shannon lost their first match in Blue (both losses shocked me. I didn't see Will's match, but Shannon was working on pulling guard, if the match was important to him, it would have been different, I think.) I saw some good ones and some bad ones and saw some things that need to be addressed as coaches.

The most common question I heard was about Zak and how good he really is. I told them he might not be the next American to win worlds at black belt, but that he will do it. Their was a lot of doubt. I actually bet one of the balance guys I know pretty well, $50 Zak will win a black belt mundials in the next 5 years. I also told him my idea if I was his manager. I always thought its a shame to see one of the best Americans in the sport living in his mom's basement and teaching white belts and blue belts when guys who aren't as good as him are making a crap load of money and flying all over the world competing and making dvds. The shelf life for a competitor to make his reputation and make some real money is short. One injury or missing some time or just failing to convert the opportunity and it's gone. I see JT Torres, Mike Fowler, and before JT, Ryan Hall  flying all over competing in Japan, Brazil and Europe and doing super fights with the top guys in the weight class, making DVDs and a ton of money and fame. I don't think any of them are any better than Zak, but they are marketed and supported properly. Competitors are supposed to compete. I wish I had Zaks chance I would go to Lloyd and join his system. Lloyd is a good coach especially for competitors and is the best businessman in the sport and has made a career out of taking brown belts and making them into BJJ rock stars and those guys weren't as good as Zak is. JT has a DVD line out on taking the back. Zak should be doing one on the Oma Plata with videos all over  the internet, signing autographs, beating off the BJJ groupies and fighting all over the world. Instead he's scrounging for sponsorship money to fly to San Diego and teaching white and blue belt classes in someone else's club. Youth is wasted on the young.

No sunday Judo class due to the In-House touornament. I have to skip Monday class because I spent so much time at the club on sunday so Beth will hve some time to get her work done.

Friday 2/19/2010

open mat at the Westin - I wnet over and rolled with Chris D. the more time I spend with him the more I like him. I had forgotten what a really good guy he is. His game is solid and I can help him get better which will make thtraining better. I caught him twice but we trained for 20-25 minutes. I hit one really pretty sweep, kind of a shaolin variant going over backwards, needed it to get out of a poor position. Its good when he plays better and puts me in a bad spot as that makes me play better and keeps me from being lazy. We might start doing this even more often. Maybe on wednesdays too.

Thursday 1/18//2010

BJJ Open mat
Me, Lex, Eric S., Peter, Katie and Max. We did a round robin training. Decent training. Katie played well, though she can still gat a little too excited. Max played pretty well and really shows great potential. peter was OK, and is a good student. If I ever offered a full program somewhere i would get him to do BJJ also. It would loosen up his body and he shows some decent aptitude. Lex is doing a good job working on the arm drag. He just needs time for his game to develop. Eric started with his cross spider. He nearly swept, but i managed to hold the top and spent the balance of time in his half guard.. Peter asked about escaping knee in the belly, and i explained the same side hand defense i use. they all seemed to get it and likeit.

Judo
Good class. only 4 black belts but good number of Kyus (again). Had a brown belt in for two weeks, "Joe". Big guy (6'3" 300lbs.) trained for a year n japan and will be going back. They seem to promote faster than we do as he has potential but needs more seasoning and time before i would put him up for a Dan rank.He mentioned having trouble withthe stiff arm in Osoto Gari. I covered the three feet on the line Osoto and turning inside of the stiff arm, then combo'ed the technicque to a Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi, then to De Ashi Harai. I expected them to struggle with the foot sweep, but they did well enough that I let them continue to an Ashi Waza drill where you must attack on each step or you switch uke/tori. went pretty well. I might revisit this drill on Monday.

Good randori sessions. high lights included Eric hit a beautiful harai on the big guy Joe. Arianna his a excellent Kouchi makikomi on Nick. Z hit a beautifu Harai. All in all very spirited randori and was well played.

Ne Waza - I did the Yamashita turn and then did Ne Waza sets. I rolled with Scott who is improving and fighting hard. Still needs to work on his technicque and he is a little too willing to turn to his belly for my taste, but that works in Judo for awhile. Has Migel next, very athletic and is a little too dependent on that worked him into a choke and had to work it under his chin. it took some time but I got it there. Pinned him a few times and he tapped to it a little faster than I'd like, but the maximum effort ne waza guys tend to give up if they can't get away from a position early enough. Took the big guy Joe next. He is pretty massive and I am always concerned about having a huge guy fall on me, but I pulled anyway. Went rubber guuard first and made it to the Oma Plata and tapped him swept a few times and held him then caught the choke when i let him turn. He tried to choke me from inside my guard, i gave him a few chances to give that up but, when he didn't i choked him back and he tapped. He has good potntial but is over ranked, by my standards and his ground training is quite minimal. wish we had him long term as we could do a lot for and with him.

Kettle Bell challenge time - I have gone strict Warrior Diet/Atkins Diet the last few days to jump start the weight loss. I felt good the first two days. not as good today and i ran out of steam in the Kbells. I did 31 rightsided and then 23 left sided before I hit the wall hard and had to stop. first time I didn't do more than the previous week. On the plus side I am down 8 pounds in the last three days.

Thursday 2/18/2010

Thursday day class at the Westin. Covered for John again. Covered some gripping and seeming to be a takedown player to convince the other guy to pull, then did drop knee Ouchi gari. Then did the head control pass. 2 short sets of training. this class needs 10 more minutes of time desperately.

Tuesday 2/16/2010

BJJ class at the Westin - Taught the class for John. I covered jumping guard, then droppiing to the kosoto gake. i like this technique quite a bit, though of course I would never jump guard. I think it's a strong effective technique and relatively easy to learn. then we did the underhook half guard pass straight from the takedown. they did well. this class would be vastly improved by being 10 minutes longer.

Monday 2/15/2010

Taught the BJJ class. thankg god for Max, Katie and Dave Oh. As far as I can tell they are the entire BJJ program. I covered sweep attacks to defend the standing split. I did when uke stands without a sleeve, underhooking the leg and pressuring it by jumping the hips and flipping over to a turtle and pressuring the knee to take uke down. I did 3-6 minute sets and 2-7 minutes sets 32 minutes of training. I should have been more fatigued.

Katie and Dave stayed for Judo. They would be good addtions to the prgram. Hopefully they will come more often. Max staryed and watched but I nudged him. He wants to get a purple before starting Judo. I think that's stupid as Judo would help him get his purple. I mentioned that Saulo won't promote to purple without a green in Judo. We'll see.

Covered Osoto Gari and followed up with Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi. Decent Randori. Hit some soto Makikomis, a good Tomoe Nage and a some ashi waza. Still no Harai.

Did the head control pass for the half guard wihile holding the lapel. Good class. New white belt, Mike was in and did well. Had a long novice line and a short (3 person) Dan line. I like having the people on the other side and will be good when both sides of the line are filled.

Note Isidor made contact and finished school. He is threatening to return. We will see.

Sunday 2/14/2010

Better turnout for Judo than the BJJ class. I covered Harai. Sarah came in and will be an excellent addition to the club. it will be agreat fit to have another competitive girl in class with rank. she is good but, I think I can help her with some things. Now if I can get Paula and Christine back from injury with Alma, Arianna Katie who is threatening to come to class, the womens program will be rebuilding. Eric Johnson was also in and confirmed his commitment. Will be good when Greg and Eric S., Lee and a few others are there. The heavy/lt heavy training will be solid.

I covered the same thing in Judo as i did with the BJJ people the proceeding day (open half guard with the knee raised. It went pretty well, they made decent progress for a position most of them hadn't seen. Rolled with Sarah, among others to feel out her game. It's pretty fundamentally sound, just need to polish some positions.

Saturday 2/13/2010

BJJ - i covered the 11-1 classes for John while he is away. I was barely on time, but there was no one there. I was going get my book when Max showed. A few more wandered in, but all in all a poor showing for a Saturday class even considering the weather.

I covered the open half guard witht he high knee position like Xandre showed at his seminar I showed using the elbow to stack the knee to prevent being flattened and passed, going for the choke, then if they pull away, coming up for the underhook, then either coming up behind them, attacking the Ude Gatame, or sweeping them over by pulling their knee. Everyone seemed to get it and have some success with the idea. I dodn't train in the first class but trained with everyone in the second class. Max could be good, but he isn't instinctively competitive. He works too much on being good from bad positions (which is a good thing some of the time) and not enough on forcing his way to good positions. The training was adequate, in that I broke a sweat, but, I am thinking more and more that i need to have more and better training. When Eric or John or Shannon aren't there, it is disappointing.

Thursday 2/11/2010

Snowpocalypse continues. The Westin classes are cancelled.

The BJJ open mat was useful as Katie, Max, Lex and another Judo person were in the class. I fielded questions from them and worked on various positions. They seemed to find it useful. Katie is threatening to come to the Monday Judo class. We will see.

11 people in Judo which shows some real dedication.

I had Lee cover the Kosoto Gake he has been doing.

Right sided stance strong left handed lapel pull while cross stepping with the left foot. the arm enters like an Ippon Seoi Nage. Key note on the entry is to keep the hips faced directly at Uke. Then Take the Kosoto Gake against their left leg. makikomi down on them from the Seoi grip. I am intrigued by this and did some. I think I might be able to make something of it. I did several sets of randori. I am getting a little better but the Harai is still dead in the water.

I did the hook guard position in Ne waza talking about the sweep and the bicep cutter in response to head control.

I rolled with Migel. He is quite athletic but if I slow him down and make it a technical match he is food for the gun. there are just too many positions he hasn't seen.

Note we had the first hit from Lee's judo club web site. a promising prospect came in and seems like he will join. (Mike)

Friday - 2/5/2010

Quick entry out of order - I went to the Westin and trained with Chris and the blue belt John.We rolled for an hour. I took each of them in turn and then they would roll. I enjoyed the training, thois could be some of the most productive BJJ training for me during the wekk (whihc says something unfortunate). We would roll until I caught them and then switch. I caught them each 4 times. Chris scored a vantage and that was it. the training was much better than the score reflected, and they will improve against my game faster than I will improve against theirs, so I expect the training to improve.

* note I mentioned the training on Friday to Dave Oh, who works in my building and he wants in on it. I also happened to see Steve Bowers on the street, he works across the street from me, and he was interested as well. so the training could get even better. (fingers crossed)

2/9/2010

Tuesday day class at the Westin - John was there late so I started the class. I taught the Double underhook like I did the night before. They did fine with it. I made the sets and ran the class. I will cover some classes for John while he is in Austin and New Orleans.

2/8/2010

Kettlebells - check. Alma asked my opinion of the class. I told her I liked most of it but don't like switching back and forth for the Turkish get up, and that I prefer a left sided set and then a right sided set.

BJJ - John asked if i wanted to teach anything so I did the double under pass and I showed how to use it as a submission when you stack them.I realized that i do it like I defend a triangle, and tap people from it the same way I tap them from my triangle defense. It went fine, though, I am concerned by how lightly attended the evening classes are. The weather is bad, but we are still pulling our numbers for Judo.

I trained with the usual suspects. Frank is training well, bbut not good when i have to take him as one of the tougher guys for me to have in the room.

Judo
Reasonable numbers for Judo. there has been a Greg sighting which is very good. He is bigger than before, but still leaks potential and he will get back to 100 kgs. 
No weigh in tonight, taking a mulligan from the superbowl feast.

Sunday 2/7/2010

Sunday Judo class - made it through the snow and ice to class it was decently attended with 6 of us there. I think we mostly all needed to escape cabin fever of the snowed in existence of the last few days.

Made it it an open mat with everyone working at their own pace. I did quite a few fits with Lee. We threw some as well. i need to get a lot more of this.

Thursday 2/4/10

Open Mat - Peter came in and I rolled with him for 40 minutes or so. We worked on some fundamental mistakes he was making. I think it was very productive time for him.

Judo class begins at 7 now which is good for the Judo class but doesn't bode well for the BJJ program as it mostly reflects a lack of participation in the open mat by the BJJ people.


The in house tournament is being moved to 2/21 dues to Snowpocalypse.

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.