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.