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.