When I returned from my trip, I skipped Monday night to support my wife who had taken the hit to let me go away for two days, despite having a nasty flu. It was definitely the right thing to do. She needed to rest and recover. I was invited to go out to BJJ United and take part in their team training. Lex and I made the journey out to Jenkintown. It was a bit of a haul getting out there through traffic but it was well worth it. The training was excellent and the facilities are incredible. The mat space is nearly perfect for a regular club... a large open mat space with tatamis, spotlessly clean.
Old friend and training partner Jared Wiener invited us and ran the session. I was reminded that I do too much instruction and not enough hard training lately. The warm ups and drills were killing me, but, in a good way. I need to be reminded that if I am ever going to compete again, i need to be were I used to be which was setting the pace against guys my age not being dragged along, struggling to keep up with everyone else. That was never my way, but, I have been getting lazy and when I train. I need to be pushed as I hate pushing myself to do anything that isn't "fun" i.e. rolling/randori. Then we did some positional drills defending the pass without sweeping while the opponent tried to pass, defending the pass with subs and sweeps while opponent tries to pass (3min each) and defending the Omaplata position while opposition tries to sub or sweep (1 min each arm). The first non sweeping set was with a blue belt. He worked hard and I was gassed from the drills/warmups, but, I avoided the pass. When it was my turn I was able to pass a few times and actually recovered my energy as i wasn't working 100%. For the set with sweeps and subs back i worked with one of the bigger purples. He was tough and was able to pass me several times. I was able to complete some passes against him as well, though. The last set was the OmaPlata set. It was an interesting idea. The premise is 1 minute left in the match bottom man is up by one point but top man has an Omaplata and needs to sweep or sub to win. I like it as the focus becomes learning to survive the position. I worked with a good purple belt. I was able to defend my spot fairly well, though he did manage to get me over for a sweep on one arm. I managed to come up enough submit him once or twice on each side. The last time i went for the the wrist lock once Jared confirmed that they were legal to use and was able to convert it as time expired. I will definitely steal this concept, I like it a lot. It was good to be reminded that there are a lot of different positional drills rather than just the obvious i.e. mount, side-control, etc.
We did 5 sets of 6 minute training next. I sat out the second, as I was still feeling gassed. I felt a lot better after the quick break. After the first set I did with Jared, I needed the break. The first observation that I loved was that everyone started off of the feet for each set. this is great for competition and safe as long as everyone is smart and understands the basics of stand-up and doesn't do anything stupid. I haven't trained with Jared in years but knew him well back then and he knew me well. I expected him to jump guard. We grip fought a little then he faked the guard jump and when i reacted his a beautiful cross ankle pick. It was identical to the takedown he used at his Rupture Superfight. Despite having seen the video, it surprised me and took me down. Once I was down I made it to halfguard for awhile but he was tight enough so I didn't have much space to come up. Eventually he passed and went to mount I turtled but still couldn't come up. He controlled the space and didn't allow any holes. He went for hooks and I avoided the second hook. But he was able to make it to a bow and arrow choke and tap me as the time expired.
I sat he second one and then had the purple belt who I had trouble with in the passing drill. He was pretty big albeit not as big as me. I gripped up and went Ouchi and followed it up with a Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi, directly into side control. I worked from the top for awhile and made it to mount. I worked my X Choke from their and submitted him. We started from the feet again and he pulled guard. I worked my pass and made it to side position. I worked from there until time expired. I had a smaller brown belt, Chris, who I knew from training at Daddis' place in South Philly. He has come along way since i saw him last. He pulled and i worked the pass for awhile until I got to a good position. He reguarded and I repassed a few times. He avoided the mount but gave up the knee in the belly. The next set was with a smaller purple belt who Jared encouraged me to pressure. He pulled and i passed and went knee in the belly. I rode it but he was in some physical distress as I was quite a bit bigger than him. I mounted and eventually accepted the bump. He postured up and I worked some sweeps coming back to the top.
All in all it was a hike getting down here, but the workout was very good and was another reminder to me how much there is out there still to learn. I will look forward to getting back here again soon and bringing a few more of my BJJ folks. Jared was very hospitable and the facilities were fantastic now if the subway could be extended to go straight to the school it would be even better.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
12/04/2010 Saturday BJJ
I was leaving town to see a friend but made the first hour of the morning class before I left. With smaller classes we have had for the holidays plus a GrapplersQuest plus the Drexel Judo open mat, I wasn't sure who would be here, but, I don't believe in canceling classes unless their is no other choice. As I arrived Lori was sitting on the steps ready to go. I believe in rewarding the supports so, when no one else was there, we did a very focused hour class on Oma Plata, which i think will be a good technique for her. We discussed entries into the technique from various positions, including the key element you need to go for it. We discussed the hip movement to best utilize it. We discussed how to avoid some of the pitfalls that can happen when the Uke defends. We talked about finishing the technique with both submissions and sweeps, and then how to finish the sweeps with submission. It was a lot of information to throw at her in a relatively short amount of time, but she kept up and did well as we drilled the positions. This was essentially an hour private on one of my best techniques for her. I'm hopeful that she will be able to make a real jump in her game if she can get the further repetitions needed to add the Oma Plata to her repetoire.
12/02/2010 Gripping day at Osagame
Judo - We did a full class on gripping. It was an advanced group and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to work with the more senior people on this important skill. We did the basic 1,2,3 grip system and several variations. We also talked about cutting off the mat with movement of the feet/hips and not chasing and reaching with the hands. We talked about how gripping and strategy can be technically superior players. It may be even more important for BJJ players as good grip fighting can be learned and utilized faster than 100,000 throws can be accomplished. Plus if your gripping is good enough you can often get BJJ players who lack confidence on their feet to jump, sometimes to jump guard poorly rather than lose the stand up fight.
We did randori sets. Marco mixed in well and is showing a greater willingness to engage more aggressively. The Judo idea of imposition of will both through grips and forcing a technique against a 100% resisting opponent is very important. Throwing opportunistically is great, but walking to someone and throwing them in something they know is coming but can't stop is more fun for me. Robert got Tani Otoshi and had a little crackle but fortunately seemed uninjured.
For BJJ we worked on getting to and submitting the opponent from the mounted position. We covered several entries to the mount and the basic X choke I use as well as several ideas about holding the mount. I like it because it's a big scoring position and allows an easy transition to the bottom if I choose to allow the transitions, but, it's also, in many ways the final expression of dominance in the chain of BJJ techniques. Takedown, pass the guard, knee in the belly, mount, submit. This is the technical chain i would aspire to achieve. If you get to mount and they can't get away, then you have dominated them, and if you can submit from their, then you controlled the match.
I trained with Sarah, who continues to improve. Being the smallest and the lowest ranked does wonders for people who are competitive and really want to get better. they are constantly challenged to improve and the learning curve in this type of situation is quite steep. I had a set with Eric. After the way he was so far ahead of me in our last set, I ha a much better set, this time. Finally I did a set with Marco, Usually we start with a little bit of flowing through positions, and then the competitiveness increases and we play harder. The flowing time as we warm up is decreasing so we start playing harder a little earlier. It feels good to be pushed and have a chance to train hard, so these Thursday sets are becoming some of my favorites. Wit Marco, Eric and Sarah in the class, if we can Allessandro back who was unavailable this class and maybe get Lex into it, the training quality will be very good. I think I would like to try to make this the key BJJ class of the weekdays. It starts later and has a good lead in from the Judo class. We will see how it develops.
For BJJ we worked on getting to and submitting the opponent from the mounted position. We covered several entries to the mount and the basic X choke I use as well as several ideas about holding the mount. I like it because it's a big scoring position and allows an easy transition to the bottom if I choose to allow the transitions, but, it's also, in many ways the final expression of dominance in the chain of BJJ techniques. Takedown, pass the guard, knee in the belly, mount, submit. This is the technical chain i would aspire to achieve. If you get to mount and they can't get away, then you have dominated them, and if you can submit from their, then you controlled the match.
I trained with Sarah, who continues to improve. Being the smallest and the lowest ranked does wonders for people who are competitive and really want to get better. they are constantly challenged to improve and the learning curve in this type of situation is quite steep. I had a set with Eric. After the way he was so far ahead of me in our last set, I ha a much better set, this time. Finally I did a set with Marco, Usually we start with a little bit of flowing through positions, and then the competitiveness increases and we play harder. The flowing time as we warm up is decreasing so we start playing harder a little earlier. It feels good to be pushed and have a chance to train hard, so these Thursday sets are becoming some of my favorites. Wit Marco, Eric and Sarah in the class, if we can Allessandro back who was unavailable this class and maybe get Lex into it, the training quality will be very good. I think I would like to try to make this the key BJJ class of the weekdays. It starts later and has a good lead in from the Judo class. We will see how it develops.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
11/29/2010 Monday
Monday BJJ and Judo. It was the days before Thanksgiving. We had solid if unspectacular turnouts. It was primarily more experienced people. We continued the X-Guard practice we had been doing several Saturdays ago. We worked on improving the entry and then worked on sweeps number 1, 2 4a and 4b. The 4 b option for sweeping when uke brings their far hand down to engage the top hook went well for several who were having trouble lifting the Uke with 4a. The sweeps went decently but need some more work to get near where i will be satisfied with the execution. I did see improvement in keep the head up to keep the leg toward the head trapped which towards the beginning of the class had been a problem.
We did 10-15 minutes of X-Guard positional training and then we did several sets of training.
For Judo it was nearly all brown and black belts, so we did a training night. We did sets of pulling the uke down the mat and then throwing. The Uke gradually increased their resistance. I was happy with how hard they went for this. The power of the throwing was good. When the uke resisted, the catastrophic failure and the beautiful throws that were then evidenced was vary impressive. We then did three man back and forth running drills. It was a little shorter than the normal distance so we raised the sets to 12 from 10 with a 10 push up incentive to the slower group. the group who won made it first but the slower group had clearly better technical execution of their throws. But, tactics wins sometimes over skill.Just have to make sure the tactics doesn't get too sloppy. We then did long sets of uchikomis to build muscle memory when fatigued. We did several sets of randori. I don't recall the ne waza technique, I will have to see if I can get a reminder from some fo the participants.
We did 10-15 minutes of X-Guard positional training and then we did several sets of training.
For Judo it was nearly all brown and black belts, so we did a training night. We did sets of pulling the uke down the mat and then throwing. The Uke gradually increased their resistance. I was happy with how hard they went for this. The power of the throwing was good. When the uke resisted, the catastrophic failure and the beautiful throws that were then evidenced was vary impressive. We then did three man back and forth running drills. It was a little shorter than the normal distance so we raised the sets to 12 from 10 with a 10 push up incentive to the slower group. the group who won made it first but the slower group had clearly better technical execution of their throws. But, tactics wins sometimes over skill.Just have to make sure the tactics doesn't get too sloppy. We then did long sets of uchikomis to build muscle memory when fatigued. We did several sets of randori. I don't recall the ne waza technique, I will have to see if I can get a reminder from some fo the participants.
11/28/2010 - Sunday Judo
Have to catch as things have been crazy lately. We had an excellent Sunday class with 10+ people, which for the Sunday after Thanksgiving was a good turnout. We had several new people including Nate (again) and a first timer who had done some Judo before, mainly just learning to fall. We covered Tsurikomi Goshi from the feet. then did some Tokui waza. The class did pretty well with the technique. I noticed that Peter was doing some coaching of the new guy and did a good job with him. I like the selection as a building block for other major techniques. I then gave them time to work on their tokui waza. Next we did some randori. The new guys I limited to Hop randori. I worked in and did a few of the sets.
For Ne Waza I shod three pins, Kesa gatame, Kazure Kesa Gatame and Kata Gatame. I learned that Peter doesn't get squished from these pins as much as some people. We did some Ne Waza training and called it a day Good class... fundamentally sound and the more experienced guys got what they needed and the newer guys got the fundamental techniques they needed.
For Ne Waza I shod three pins, Kesa gatame, Kazure Kesa Gatame and Kata Gatame. I learned that Peter doesn't get squished from these pins as much as some people. We did some Ne Waza training and called it a day Good class... fundamentally sound and the more experienced guys got what they needed and the newer guys got the fundamental techniques they needed.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
11/27/2010 Saturday class
The Saturday class, I think, is a key date on the weekly class schedule. It hopefully is a time when different members on different schedules can begin coming together and training together. . I am committed to making this class work. the BJJ program in general is being built more slowly than the Judo program because we don't really have any BJJ people only right now. Hopefully we will develop them and more people will cross train. Several of the cross trainers I am counting on having as regulars are injured or sharing time so unable to make every class. I consider Eric, Lex, Sarah, Peter and Mike the most regular so far, so it was good to see Peter joined by Lori and Lee in the class.
The theme of the class was passing the guard with a focus on maintaining posture. We covered the basic split and pass as well as several other positions. We talked about and reviewed maintaining posture to avoid sweeeps as well. We did the standing split as well and the basic pass dropping down, to block one side. There was an inquiry about sweeping the person who stands and they were interested in something cazy, so we did the sweep, where you hook the leg and flip to a turtle, a la Saulo.
We trained with everyone and had a good class. I worked with everyone and i was very happy with the technical skills that Lori and Peter demonstrated. I was especially happy with Lee, who, despite his injury played hard and did well. He has no stripes on his white belt despite making classes and winning BJJ matches. Regis indicated he would promote him when his attendance was a little more consistent. I will ahve to watch for it and do the same. I did some things that this specific group particularly needed and I think they all improved in some important areas.
It's vital to build the program and it will build with time and patience. However, I'm not great at patience so it will be good when the class size jumps a bit.The classes will be better for everyone and grow faster as we have a little more consistent attendance.
The theme of the class was passing the guard with a focus on maintaining posture. We covered the basic split and pass as well as several other positions. We talked about and reviewed maintaining posture to avoid sweeeps as well. We did the standing split as well and the basic pass dropping down, to block one side. There was an inquiry about sweeping the person who stands and they were interested in something cazy, so we did the sweep, where you hook the leg and flip to a turtle, a la Saulo.
We trained with everyone and had a good class. I worked with everyone and i was very happy with the technical skills that Lori and Peter demonstrated. I was especially happy with Lee, who, despite his injury played hard and did well. He has no stripes on his white belt despite making classes and winning BJJ matches. Regis indicated he would promote him when his attendance was a little more consistent. I will ahve to watch for it and do the same. I did some things that this specific group particularly needed and I think they all improved in some important areas.
It's vital to build the program and it will build with time and patience. However, I'm not great at patience so it will be good when the class size jumps a bit.The classes will be better for everyone and grow faster as we have a little more consistent attendance.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
11/26/2010 - Roadtrip!
The day after thanksgiving Marco invited us to train at his main club and work off some of the previous days feasting. Eric, Lex and I took advantage. The drive was easy and we made good time. Eric met us there. We had a slight snafu because the address we had was the old address, but the new location was just down the street so it was easy to go there. Marco has an excellent spot. Big facility with plenty of mat space, lots of windows, and right on a corner, so he gets plenty of traffic. He uses very high quality puzzle mats which are good for falling but a little tackier than I have become used to using. The surface was very consistent though and had plenty of give. Taking a lot of falls would have been fine.
When we got there, it was all no gi training. Lex and Eric both had theirno gi kits with them. I, being a gi person never thought to bring even a short sleeved t shirt. I will in rare instances roll no-gi, but my preference is clearly for the gi game. I do think I should do more no gi training jsut top more round out my game. There are a few things i am slow recognizing because they are so much more prevalent in no-gi training.
Marco went and grabbed his gi and we rolled. we warmed up by just kind of flowing through positions. As we got warm it became a bit more competitive and we started playing harder. One of the times I pulled he managed to catch a guillotine. I tend to be a little slow defending guillotines as I usually escape them easily with a gi on. I rolled to come to the top and he was ahead of me. I tried a few different ways to unwind it but he had too tight of a bite and I tapped.
We started again and were moving through positions for awhile. We exchanged top and bottom several times. once I managed to get to the top and passed to the mount. I dug in and caught a choke from the top. We broke after that. It was a good set. I get lazy defending some positions and the only way I get better at escaping/avoiding them is to pay the price getting caught. It was a 10+ minute set or so. I like open mat training - doing long sets until you feel like stopping.
There was another senior player there. A brown belt named K. I think he was a little younger than me, though not too much. I would have pegged him as about my weight. He admitted to 245 so i may have ahd a couple of pounds on him, but he felt heavier than that. Regardless of his actual weight he was extremely strong, definitely isometrically stronger than me. I pulled and played my sweep game. I was satisfied with the results. I had to grip fight to keep him from crushing me and keep him in front but then I swept with the hook sweep I use as my preferred start position. I managed to pass and work to the mount. I went for a strangle and he reversed me to inside my guard. I stayed closed. He didn't go to pass as much as I would have. He went for several strangles from inside my guard, mainly a thrusting choke but, i was able to keep him from putting too much pressure on me. We worked from here for awhile I avoided the pass several times and was able to sweep once or twice more. I hit the De La Riva entangled arm sweep. It was really tough getting him over, but, I managed to do it. He almost crushed me but i was able to take the squish long enough to get an off balance and hit the sweep. Felt good hitting a good technique against a big, strong, skilled player. I came up and had the arm trapped like I like to do from this sweep. I attacked the other arm, going for the ude garame from 2 on 1. I'm pretty good about maintaining base, but I let myself get a little high and he tossed me off and came up. I turned away from the side control position and defended the mount. He attacked some subs and mount attacks that I had to scramble to avoid. we were here for awhile him on the attack and me defending. I made it back to turtle for awhile and he attacked me there. I went for a couple of trap and rolls, but finally had to settle for coming out from underneath. I passed in the transition and made sure to go to a top corner hold down as I had no desire to be dwarf tossed to the bottom all over again. I stayed for awhile there and ground out a papercutter choke. The set was long probably 15 minutes or so. I think we were both surprised the other guy wasn't more fatigued. Big older guys are used to other big older guys getting tired and making mistakes, when you run into another one that can do long sets it's a bit of a surprise.
All in all, it was a great time. Eric and Lex both had some excellent training. Marco gave Lex some attention and good advice in his no gi training. Saw some old friends and had a good day. Looking forward to doing it again some time soon. It was suggested that we organize some back and forth training between the Judo and BJJ players at Osagame to have fun and help us all get better. Sounds good to me.
When we got there, it was all no gi training. Lex and Eric both had theirno gi kits with them. I, being a gi person never thought to bring even a short sleeved t shirt. I will in rare instances roll no-gi, but my preference is clearly for the gi game. I do think I should do more no gi training jsut top more round out my game. There are a few things i am slow recognizing because they are so much more prevalent in no-gi training.
Marco went and grabbed his gi and we rolled. we warmed up by just kind of flowing through positions. As we got warm it became a bit more competitive and we started playing harder. One of the times I pulled he managed to catch a guillotine. I tend to be a little slow defending guillotines as I usually escape them easily with a gi on. I rolled to come to the top and he was ahead of me. I tried a few different ways to unwind it but he had too tight of a bite and I tapped.
We started again and were moving through positions for awhile. We exchanged top and bottom several times. once I managed to get to the top and passed to the mount. I dug in and caught a choke from the top. We broke after that. It was a good set. I get lazy defending some positions and the only way I get better at escaping/avoiding them is to pay the price getting caught. It was a 10+ minute set or so. I like open mat training - doing long sets until you feel like stopping.
There was another senior player there. A brown belt named K. I think he was a little younger than me, though not too much. I would have pegged him as about my weight. He admitted to 245 so i may have ahd a couple of pounds on him, but he felt heavier than that. Regardless of his actual weight he was extremely strong, definitely isometrically stronger than me. I pulled and played my sweep game. I was satisfied with the results. I had to grip fight to keep him from crushing me and keep him in front but then I swept with the hook sweep I use as my preferred start position. I managed to pass and work to the mount. I went for a strangle and he reversed me to inside my guard. I stayed closed. He didn't go to pass as much as I would have. He went for several strangles from inside my guard, mainly a thrusting choke but, i was able to keep him from putting too much pressure on me. We worked from here for awhile I avoided the pass several times and was able to sweep once or twice more. I hit the De La Riva entangled arm sweep. It was really tough getting him over, but, I managed to do it. He almost crushed me but i was able to take the squish long enough to get an off balance and hit the sweep. Felt good hitting a good technique against a big, strong, skilled player. I came up and had the arm trapped like I like to do from this sweep. I attacked the other arm, going for the ude garame from 2 on 1. I'm pretty good about maintaining base, but I let myself get a little high and he tossed me off and came up. I turned away from the side control position and defended the mount. He attacked some subs and mount attacks that I had to scramble to avoid. we were here for awhile him on the attack and me defending. I made it back to turtle for awhile and he attacked me there. I went for a couple of trap and rolls, but finally had to settle for coming out from underneath. I passed in the transition and made sure to go to a top corner hold down as I had no desire to be dwarf tossed to the bottom all over again. I stayed for awhile there and ground out a papercutter choke. The set was long probably 15 minutes or so. I think we were both surprised the other guy wasn't more fatigued. Big older guys are used to other big older guys getting tired and making mistakes, when you run into another one that can do long sets it's a bit of a surprise.
All in all, it was a great time. Eric and Lex both had some excellent training. Marco gave Lex some attention and good advice in his no gi training. Saw some old friends and had a good day. Looking forward to doing it again some time soon. It was suggested that we organize some back and forth training between the Judo and BJJ players at Osagame to have fun and help us all get better. Sounds good to me.
11/23/2010
BJJ at the Weston - John announced he will be ending the Weston classes as of sometime in December. There is some debate about the timing of that. He encouraged people to go to maxercise, but, honestly for most of us, I expect that will be too far. It may be just 11 blocks but it will add a minimum of 1/2 an hour and most of us can't get away for any longer than we already do. For me the only class i will miss is the Friday open mat. the rest of the classes I did more to support the club than because they were very useful to me. The class became a cardio conditioning class with just 5 minutes of training at the end. Chris and John are hoping to find a way to keep access to some mats at the Weston. If they can, then I will try to still come and train. Otherwise it will be back to being just a night time person for me. It was fun while it lasted.
Monday, November 29, 2010
11/22/2010 - Judo and BJJ at Osagame
For BJJ, I picked up where we left off on Saturday, working on the entries and some basic X-Guard sweep. I did several basic chokes from the butterfly position to get a sub obviously, but also to disrupt the base of the uke. Assuming they avoid the choke, I did the sweep where I break their base backwards and pick the knee. I did the basic entry I use of breaking their base and then pulling the uke up the body, while blocking them with the right knee and pulling their right knee to tori's ear with tori getting the underhook. Then pressuring the blocked leg and inserting the second hook to complete the X-Guard entry. The actual sweeps will have to be covered in greater detail in another class. We did three sets of training and then ended class to transition to Judo.Some high lights of the Ne Waza between Lex and myself and his set with Eric are here.
I hit a jump pass over Lex's butterfly guard that was cool to see at the 11:15 minute of the video. I was happy with everyone's training. Lex did well with Eric and myself, two bigger more experienced players. Sarah fought hard ina room full of bigger guys and scored some good techniques. Peter and Mike P trained twice and had a couple hard fought sets. Mike hit a triangle sweep to a mount and blew me away with how flexible he is. His triangle armlock game with be exceptional if he keeps up the hard work.
Judo - I did some Uchi Mata practice. I focused on the entry and execution of the outside Uchi Mata which I don't practice as often. I focused on the downward movement of the hands and then hopping either towards the opponent or in a tight reverse circle. I didn't think about it but this actually bother the sprained ankle more than I would have liked. I think they got the technique and improved but I don't like executing anything sloppily.
For Ne Waza, we revisited the front sankaku turtle turnover where you don't insert the heel, but, rather block the far knee and spin the uke to his back to create a scramble.
We then did the 1 minute top and bottom turtle turning drill. The class seemed to have a lot of fun with this everyone was cutting up but playing hard and getting there work dont. This is a good result when you are talking about an advanced group.
Here is a very cool video of some high lights from the randori and then some of the turtle turnover high lights. One thing we seemed to have learned is that for the partner system the anchor must be on a corner. I also saw something very cool about the Tomoe Nage used by allesandro in this video that I need to explore. It could be a great help to Kake of the technique after it has been somewhat blocked and defeated by the uke.
I hit a jump pass over Lex's butterfly guard that was cool to see at the 11:15 minute of the video. I was happy with everyone's training. Lex did well with Eric and myself, two bigger more experienced players. Sarah fought hard ina room full of bigger guys and scored some good techniques. Peter and Mike P trained twice and had a couple hard fought sets. Mike hit a triangle sweep to a mount and blew me away with how flexible he is. His triangle armlock game with be exceptional if he keeps up the hard work.
Judo - I did some Uchi Mata practice. I focused on the entry and execution of the outside Uchi Mata which I don't practice as often. I focused on the downward movement of the hands and then hopping either towards the opponent or in a tight reverse circle. I didn't think about it but this actually bother the sprained ankle more than I would have liked. I think they got the technique and improved but I don't like executing anything sloppily.
For Ne Waza, we revisited the front sankaku turtle turnover where you don't insert the heel, but, rather block the far knee and spin the uke to his back to create a scramble.
We then did the 1 minute top and bottom turtle turning drill. The class seemed to have a lot of fun with this everyone was cutting up but playing hard and getting there work dont. This is a good result when you are talking about an advanced group.
Here is a very cool video of some high lights from the randori and then some of the turtle turnover high lights. One thing we seemed to have learned is that for the partner system the anchor must be on a corner. I also saw something very cool about the Tomoe Nage used by allesandro in this video that I need to explore. It could be a great help to Kake of the technique after it has been somewhat blocked and defeated by the uke.
11/21/2010
I had a sprained ankle and baby duties, Alma covered Judo. New student in today who did well. He has some prior experience in Aiki Jitsu styles. So he falls well and was great in class. Big guy so he will mix well with some of my heavyweights in the Kyu ranks.
11/20/2010 - BJJ at Osagame
BJJ class at 11 - We had three people plus me, but they were the core of the BJJ program i am hoping to build. Eric S., Lex and Sarah came to the class. We worked on passing the half guard. We worked on the Head control pass, the underhook pass and using the free foot to pry open the half guard and pass to the mount or jump to the side. I then took a question that i intended to cover briefly, bu it took on a bit of a life of it's own. I covered a lot of the elements of my X-Guard entry series. First starting in a butterfly position, then going for a choke to get them off of their base and then pulling the knee forward to slide to the X-Guard. There was more to it than that and it took a more time than I intended. As a result we did just 2 sets of training and I'm afraid I sent them away (at least the blue and white belts) with a bit of information overload. I find that i am enjoying teaching BJJ again and sometimes I get excited about a topic and lose track of time. i also need to teach less and have them drill more. even the more experienced students will be better served with more reps and fewer techniques. I see things I think they should know and try to rectify too much of it at once.
We just had time for two sets of training. I had sets with Eric who got to a good intial positiona nd had me on the run for the balance of the set. I think the practice and teaching he is doing is very good for his technique. I know he has never been ahead of me for the whole set like he was in this one. The other set was with Sarah, who continues to impress me with her spirit and most importantly her back game. I wold like to see her get physically stronger. For years Ronnie and I avoided outside strength and cardio training, devoting ourselves to improving technique. it took us a long time to accept that being as strong or stronger than the other guy is a good idea and nearly as important as technical training. While I hate this idea because I don't really enjoy the outside kettlebell/weight lifting/running etc., I have become reconciled that it's true. Hopefully as she has more time in her schedule she will be able to add some outside training time which will help her reach her very high ceiling.
I have to keep it in my head to cut back on the technique, raise the reps, and get more positional training in BJJ.
We just had time for two sets of training. I had sets with Eric who got to a good intial positiona nd had me on the run for the balance of the set. I think the practice and teaching he is doing is very good for his technique. I know he has never been ahead of me for the whole set like he was in this one. The other set was with Sarah, who continues to impress me with her spirit and most importantly her back game. I wold like to see her get physically stronger. For years Ronnie and I avoided outside strength and cardio training, devoting ourselves to improving technique. it took us a long time to accept that being as strong or stronger than the other guy is a good idea and nearly as important as technical training. While I hate this idea because I don't really enjoy the outside kettlebell/weight lifting/running etc., I have become reconciled that it's true. Hopefully as she has more time in her schedule she will be able to add some outside training time which will help her reach her very high ceiling.
I have to keep it in my head to cut back on the technique, raise the reps, and get more positional training in BJJ.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
11/18/2010 - Judo and BJJ
Judo at 6 on Thursday and BJJ at 7:30.
I was a little disappointed in the Judo class from my own perspective. I had an idea of working on some Tomoe Nage entries and then following up with some drop seoi nage. The class was mostly relatively inexperienced. When i saw the composition of the group I should have called an audible, as I usually do when the plan in my head doesn't match the class. instead I went with it. It proved to be a little too much and I felt they struggled with the technique. I covered the traditional Tomoe Nage over the length of the body and then why it isn't as effective as the Yoko Tomoe Nage, we practiced next. To be honest, they tride it and got better on it, but, i am always nervous teaching this technique to relative novices. it seems easy in practice but proves difficult in application with a resisting opponent. The drop was OK, but in this group Sarah was the only one who was as tight on the drop as I wanted. The rest did improve. If the students leave better than when they arrived its a good result. But, I should have audibled to more conventional technique. The randori was good. The body types and experience levels were all over the board, but they played well together and I worked into the sets to get time with everyone. I am still waiting for the intensity level to rise. Between the same number of students spread over more classes and the holiday blahs beginning to appear, I think it will be a battle to raise the intensity to a level that will make me happy. I think I will intensify the warm-ups and make them more directly Judo focused. Perhaps throw some push ups as incentive in to the mix as well.
BJJ - Marco stayed but didn't dress. He gave some good advice and suggestions on the techniques we practiced. I worked on pulling guard from turtle which i use more in response to the Uke trying to attack the turtle. He dropped the hand to the outside of leg that I usually block with the knee and sit into the guard. He grabbed behind the knee with hand and pulled them into guard (most often half-guard). I twas a little different than how I normally do it but made the technique more aggressive and less reactionary. We also worked on the basic half guard sweeps once we pulled them into the position. We came up and shucked them forward with the underhooked arm. this let's you take your head out and leaves you behind the person for 2 points. From the underhook position my favorite is to control the far knee of the uke and dive him down. Marco also suggested using the far hand/elbow if you can't reach the knee. I usually have good success with the knee but this helped a couple of people who were having trouble controlling the knee quite a bit. It might be a function of size and the ability to bulldoze them over (which I do pretty well) making it easier to grab the knee, so this was a good addition to the technique chain. We also swept the uke who wizzered the underhooked arm by using the Power To The People grip and sweeping them across the body.
I had some excellent training with allessandro and Sarah. Allesandro continues to impress me. He will be a terror against white and blue belts. I think it will take good blue and purple belts to slow his game down enough to capitalize on a few positions he still needs to see.
Sarah continues to play well. She has a nice flair for the triangle and has the physical skill set to do well with it. We moved through positions until I ended in her guard after a sweep. I gave her a small window to attack the triangle and she swarmed all over it. against me at least her left sided is more dangerous. she still can't finish it, but she was attacking my posture and had it locked tight enough so I was a little sore in my neck and shoulder from fighting it off. The small classes irk me but, I think the the people in them are going to reap some excellent benefits form the focused attention.
I was a little disappointed in the Judo class from my own perspective. I had an idea of working on some Tomoe Nage entries and then following up with some drop seoi nage. The class was mostly relatively inexperienced. When i saw the composition of the group I should have called an audible, as I usually do when the plan in my head doesn't match the class. instead I went with it. It proved to be a little too much and I felt they struggled with the technique. I covered the traditional Tomoe Nage over the length of the body and then why it isn't as effective as the Yoko Tomoe Nage, we practiced next. To be honest, they tride it and got better on it, but, i am always nervous teaching this technique to relative novices. it seems easy in practice but proves difficult in application with a resisting opponent. The drop was OK, but in this group Sarah was the only one who was as tight on the drop as I wanted. The rest did improve. If the students leave better than when they arrived its a good result. But, I should have audibled to more conventional technique. The randori was good. The body types and experience levels were all over the board, but they played well together and I worked into the sets to get time with everyone. I am still waiting for the intensity level to rise. Between the same number of students spread over more classes and the holiday blahs beginning to appear, I think it will be a battle to raise the intensity to a level that will make me happy. I think I will intensify the warm-ups and make them more directly Judo focused. Perhaps throw some push ups as incentive in to the mix as well.
BJJ - Marco stayed but didn't dress. He gave some good advice and suggestions on the techniques we practiced. I worked on pulling guard from turtle which i use more in response to the Uke trying to attack the turtle. He dropped the hand to the outside of leg that I usually block with the knee and sit into the guard. He grabbed behind the knee with hand and pulled them into guard (most often half-guard). I twas a little different than how I normally do it but made the technique more aggressive and less reactionary. We also worked on the basic half guard sweeps once we pulled them into the position. We came up and shucked them forward with the underhooked arm. this let's you take your head out and leaves you behind the person for 2 points. From the underhook position my favorite is to control the far knee of the uke and dive him down. Marco also suggested using the far hand/elbow if you can't reach the knee. I usually have good success with the knee but this helped a couple of people who were having trouble controlling the knee quite a bit. It might be a function of size and the ability to bulldoze them over (which I do pretty well) making it easier to grab the knee, so this was a good addition to the technique chain. We also swept the uke who wizzered the underhooked arm by using the Power To The People grip and sweeping them across the body.
I had some excellent training with allessandro and Sarah. Allesandro continues to impress me. He will be a terror against white and blue belts. I think it will take good blue and purple belts to slow his game down enough to capitalize on a few positions he still needs to see.
Sarah continues to play well. She has a nice flair for the triangle and has the physical skill set to do well with it. We moved through positions until I ended in her guard after a sweep. I gave her a small window to attack the triangle and she swarmed all over it. against me at least her left sided is more dangerous. she still can't finish it, but she was attacking my posture and had it locked tight enough so I was a little sore in my neck and shoulder from fighting it off. The small classes irk me but, I think the the people in them are going to reap some excellent benefits form the focused attention.
Monday, November 22, 2010
11/15/2010 - Monday BJJ and Judo.
I made it in time for Kettlebells. I was able to get Alma to focus on the strength component that I wanted, so it was a good workout.
BJJ was me, Eric, mike, Sarah and Lex. We worked on pulling guard from the turtle again. I like this class and thingk they did a good job. getting from the turtle and back to guard, either by pulling directly to it, or sitting back when the uke pressures your turtle. We did a few variations o it then did several sets of training.
In Judo we did more ashi waza techniques. We did some Harai Tsurikomi Ashi and Kosoto Gari. Then we did the ashi waza drill where you attack on every step. It went well and they seemed to improve and enjoy it. We did some randori sets. and then did Ne Waza. For Ne Waza we did the snakaku entry where you can't get your heel into the entry. Instead, blocking the knee and pulling to create the scramble when the Uke is pulled over. I emphasized using the grips on the belt and elbow to control the scramble and then come to the top. We several Ne Waza sets. I rolled with Drew and he did a nioce job of blocking the sweep and then forcing me to bail to a turtle. He got his hooks in and it took me a while to pry him off and come to the top. By then time was expiring. He has a nice pass and back attack. It wouldn't have been any score in Judo but for BJJ scoring he woudl have won 4-0.
BJJ was me, Eric, mike, Sarah and Lex. We worked on pulling guard from the turtle again. I like this class and thingk they did a good job. getting from the turtle and back to guard, either by pulling directly to it, or sitting back when the uke pressures your turtle. We did a few variations o it then did several sets of training.
In Judo we did more ashi waza techniques. We did some Harai Tsurikomi Ashi and Kosoto Gari. Then we did the ashi waza drill where you attack on every step. It went well and they seemed to improve and enjoy it. We did some randori sets. and then did Ne Waza. For Ne Waza we did the snakaku entry where you can't get your heel into the entry. Instead, blocking the knee and pulling to create the scramble when the Uke is pulled over. I emphasized using the grips on the belt and elbow to control the scramble and then come to the top. We several Ne Waza sets. I rolled with Drew and he did a nioce job of blocking the sweep and then forcing me to bail to a turtle. He got his hooks in and it took me a while to pry him off and come to the top. By then time was expiring. He has a nice pass and back attack. It wouldn't have been any score in Judo but for BJJ scoring he woudl have won 4-0.
11/14/2010 Sunday Judo class
Sunday Judo class. Smallish group but we good class. One note, I did top and bottom turtle turns with this group and I think it went well. I need to remember to do this more as it is very Judo specific and improved and important skill. Ihave to catch up a bit so I will have to minimize some entries.
11/12/2010
BJJ at the Weston - Just noting that I made the open mat. There 6 of us there and we did 5 sets. 35 minutes of training.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
11/13/2010 Saturday 1 on 1
I will officially begin the Saturday classes for BJJ next week, but this week, to see how the felt, Lex and I went to Osagame and trained. I also did some work on the club as we are still settling into the space. We had a productive session. I like the quality of work that you can get in small or 1 on 1 sessions. They are particularly useful to try to address particular problems a student may be having. Lex and I worked on some ways to attack and pass the De La Riva position. It was some fairly fundamental ideas, but they seemed to help him. We also talked about pulling guard from a turtle position. I think this will be particularly useful for him in BJJ. It will take a little time for him to get his flexibility to the point where it really is easy for him, but the drills and practice on this technique will make that happen quickly.
We trained for awhile next. it was a good workout and it's good to see how fast his BJJ is improving. Like most Judo people his top game is ahead of his bottom, but he has committed himself to pulling guard so that will make him better. It took me a lot longer to commit to improving my bottom game. I had to be forced to do it and it totally changed my skills and style of play. The commitment to using the techniques, trying and failing as well as succeeding is the way to improve. Hiding from the bottom byu assuming you will just always be on top is a sure way to limit your skills.
The training was good, and I had to work pretty hard. He has a few habits that will improve. I would catch him in chokes from the top partially because he relaxed after the transitions and change of positions. When I attacked before he began playing from the next position, it gave me a huge advantage as I was way ahead. I also thought about it and noticed on the video he took of some of the training he tends to allow too easy access to his neck for the choke. I think this part of the moment of relaxation he had after the transition and before he went into the next exchange of techniques gave me a head start and grabbed a deep bite on the choke a few times. We also talked about how to apply a one handed choke and use the body and hip position to make the uke unable to turn and unwind the choke position. this also works because the uke often doesn't expect the choke to be able to work until it's too late.
Lex was taking some video while we worked. We didn't pay much attention to it, and, therefore didn't stay centered at all, but here are a few scenes.
We trained for awhile next. it was a good workout and it's good to see how fast his BJJ is improving. Like most Judo people his top game is ahead of his bottom, but he has committed himself to pulling guard so that will make him better. It took me a lot longer to commit to improving my bottom game. I had to be forced to do it and it totally changed my skills and style of play. The commitment to using the techniques, trying and failing as well as succeeding is the way to improve. Hiding from the bottom byu assuming you will just always be on top is a sure way to limit your skills.
The training was good, and I had to work pretty hard. He has a few habits that will improve. I would catch him in chokes from the top partially because he relaxed after the transitions and change of positions. When I attacked before he began playing from the next position, it gave me a huge advantage as I was way ahead. I also thought about it and noticed on the video he took of some of the training he tends to allow too easy access to his neck for the choke. I think this part of the moment of relaxation he had after the transition and before he went into the next exchange of techniques gave me a head start and grabbed a deep bite on the choke a few times. We also talked about how to apply a one handed choke and use the body and hip position to make the uke unable to turn and unwind the choke position. this also works because the uke often doesn't expect the choke to be able to work until it's too late.
Lex was taking some video while we worked. We didn't pay much attention to it, and, therefore didn't stay centered at all, but here are a few scenes.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday 11/11/2010 - Tonight's Special Guest Star...
Judo - The movement of the judo class to 6 and the BJJ class to 7:30 continues to be a little shaky as people are getting used to the new time and the BJJ class is being rebuilt. People are a little slow getting to the Judo class, but I did kettlebells at 5:30 (really 5:40). it was an abbreviated work out focusing almost exclusively on a strength component though the cardio was there as well. i warmed up while Alma signed people in at the desk. Then we did 3 sets of Clean and press, Rows and Squats. All were done with the 24kg. I have been shirking the Kettlebell workouts as things have been so busy and I have to admit I felt soreness from the workout for several days. But, it feels good to be sore and know that its productive soreness. Need to stay with it and get back in better shape. Hopefully i will be a good example to everyone who comes and stretches. All of us, particularly the light people we have right now need to be stronger. The kettlebell work out will be huge for improving their Judo and cutting down on injuries. Technique is paramount, but being stronger and better conditioned than your opponent is also crucial.
It's taken some time for things to start feeling at home at the new place. the smaller class sizes and missing faces as well as the unfinished feel of things just the sense of being uprooted has been impacting the relaxed feel of being home. Just like it takes time to feel at home in a new apartment it is taking time to feel at home here. I think this will happen and it will happen pretty soon. We have had some volunteers offering to help complete a few of the remaining projects and that will help. Plus just settling in to the new space and getting used to the schedule and who is in the different classes is the biggest thing.
The Judo class had a solid number of people in it. The numbers includes another appearance from Drew, who is doing great. He will be an excellent addition to class and will progress both technically and in rank quickly if he is reasonably consistent in attendance. I would love to see him become a regular competitor for us. We also had one of my oldest friends in Philadelphia as well as the Martial Arts come in with us. Marco Perazzo who is the head instructor at two successful schools in New Jersey stopped in for the class. I met Marco back when I first came to the Philadelphia Judo club in 1996 as well as when I first went to Maxercise around the same time. He mostly committed to BJJ and I focused on judo, though I cam back to BJJ in 1999. He has had his BJJ black belt for over three years as I recall and has always threatened to return to Judo. Now that we have opened a new space in South Philadelphia, the stars are aligning and we have had a Marco sighting.
We covered several variations on Ouchi Gari in the Tachi Waza portion of class. We covered the basic traditional version, the version of the drop knee Ouchi Gari that I use and the circling version. The class did well and I think this is one of the best technique selections for BJJ. The most difficult one, as you wold expect, was the circling version that requires quite a bit more timing than the first two versions.
We did some randori and I jumped in to fill out the sets. Everyone seemed to have good sets and stayed safe. I think just encouraging Drew to engage in more grip fighting improved his Judo by several 100%. When he was giving up perfect grips to his opponent it was making things way too easy, but, the grip fighting made it much more difficult. Marco felt good in his movement. He switches and reacts to what his opponent is doing more than I would like but, his style tends to be reactionary and opportunistic. My preference is to dictate the technique to my opponent, but he was grip fighting and launching attacks. I could tell he was a little reluctant to attack with reckless abandon but, that is something this club does well, so I think he will have fun when he lets his attacks really fly.
The rest of the randori sets were good and despite being a little smaller than I prefer the vibe on the mat was good.
In BJJ Marco offered to teach the class. It's great to feel supported by him and a lot of other old friends and training partners. who have stopped by and emailed and called with support and encouragement. He covered some side control and submission attacks. The first was similar to the way i walked around the head to attack the underhooked arm with a straight arm lock. he emphasized using it when you get the Uke to react by trying to pull his arm free and staying tighter to the head with your hips than i normally do. This was good for me to see as it was a better entry than I normally use. I also like using it opportunistically rather than forcing it. He also walked around the head and used the elbow on the ribs to step up and attack the juji gatame on the underhooked arm. I like this as it was a good transition and I like anything that allows me to put an elbow into the ribs. (I would say that I was just kidding about this but, people who train with me know I actually do like to do that). Then if Uke defends or fails to react you turn back and control the hips for side control again.
He also, in response to a question from Alma, did a half guard sweep. He used the power to the people grip (or as he called it the soul brother grip) which is thumb grip to thumb grip instead of the cats paw grip on the sleeve to attack the whizzer grip from the top guy who is responding to the bottom player having the underhook.
Marco and I rolled a couple of time. Lots of movement and exchanges of position for both of us. We had some points scored on passes and sweeps, high lights included me hitting the hook sweep I like and Marco doing a nice back escape that forced me to give up the top position and force myself to roll over to avoid the arm lock as the second set expired.
I also rolled with Allesandro who has a few technical flaws from some positions he hasn't seen that often but whose ceiling is so much higher than my own its depressing. His stand up is excellent, his fundamentals are very good, he is competitive and athletic. all he needs is some time and he will wreck guys in BJJ. I would be shocked for him not to win nearly any white belt division right now.
Had a very productive set with Sarah. I don't always get to roll with her as I often have to take some of the potentially dangerous people. I swept and and pressured her she attacked a triangle and I nearly passed a few times giving her pressure but not overdoing it. she was actually quite difficult to complete the pass against her because she used her flexibility and competitiveness so well. I was passing again when she switched to a left sided triangle and surprised me. I defended but she locked it in tight. I think it was the first time someone has been able to successfully lock a triangle since Urso left. I had to legitimately defend and fight my way free from it. It was a tight bite. If I wasn't so stupidly much bigger than her I would have been in even more trouble when time expired.
Good night of classes.
It's taken some time for things to start feeling at home at the new place. the smaller class sizes and missing faces as well as the unfinished feel of things just the sense of being uprooted has been impacting the relaxed feel of being home. Just like it takes time to feel at home in a new apartment it is taking time to feel at home here. I think this will happen and it will happen pretty soon. We have had some volunteers offering to help complete a few of the remaining projects and that will help. Plus just settling in to the new space and getting used to the schedule and who is in the different classes is the biggest thing.
The Judo class had a solid number of people in it. The numbers includes another appearance from Drew, who is doing great. He will be an excellent addition to class and will progress both technically and in rank quickly if he is reasonably consistent in attendance. I would love to see him become a regular competitor for us. We also had one of my oldest friends in Philadelphia as well as the Martial Arts come in with us. Marco Perazzo who is the head instructor at two successful schools in New Jersey stopped in for the class. I met Marco back when I first came to the Philadelphia Judo club in 1996 as well as when I first went to Maxercise around the same time. He mostly committed to BJJ and I focused on judo, though I cam back to BJJ in 1999. He has had his BJJ black belt for over three years as I recall and has always threatened to return to Judo. Now that we have opened a new space in South Philadelphia, the stars are aligning and we have had a Marco sighting.
We covered several variations on Ouchi Gari in the Tachi Waza portion of class. We covered the basic traditional version, the version of the drop knee Ouchi Gari that I use and the circling version. The class did well and I think this is one of the best technique selections for BJJ. The most difficult one, as you wold expect, was the circling version that requires quite a bit more timing than the first two versions.
We did some randori and I jumped in to fill out the sets. Everyone seemed to have good sets and stayed safe. I think just encouraging Drew to engage in more grip fighting improved his Judo by several 100%. When he was giving up perfect grips to his opponent it was making things way too easy, but, the grip fighting made it much more difficult. Marco felt good in his movement. He switches and reacts to what his opponent is doing more than I would like but, his style tends to be reactionary and opportunistic. My preference is to dictate the technique to my opponent, but he was grip fighting and launching attacks. I could tell he was a little reluctant to attack with reckless abandon but, that is something this club does well, so I think he will have fun when he lets his attacks really fly.
The rest of the randori sets were good and despite being a little smaller than I prefer the vibe on the mat was good.
In BJJ Marco offered to teach the class. It's great to feel supported by him and a lot of other old friends and training partners. who have stopped by and emailed and called with support and encouragement. He covered some side control and submission attacks. The first was similar to the way i walked around the head to attack the underhooked arm with a straight arm lock. he emphasized using it when you get the Uke to react by trying to pull his arm free and staying tighter to the head with your hips than i normally do. This was good for me to see as it was a better entry than I normally use. I also like using it opportunistically rather than forcing it. He also walked around the head and used the elbow on the ribs to step up and attack the juji gatame on the underhooked arm. I like this as it was a good transition and I like anything that allows me to put an elbow into the ribs. (I would say that I was just kidding about this but, people who train with me know I actually do like to do that). Then if Uke defends or fails to react you turn back and control the hips for side control again.
He also, in response to a question from Alma, did a half guard sweep. He used the power to the people grip (or as he called it the soul brother grip) which is thumb grip to thumb grip instead of the cats paw grip on the sleeve to attack the whizzer grip from the top guy who is responding to the bottom player having the underhook.
Marco and I rolled a couple of time. Lots of movement and exchanges of position for both of us. We had some points scored on passes and sweeps, high lights included me hitting the hook sweep I like and Marco doing a nice back escape that forced me to give up the top position and force myself to roll over to avoid the arm lock as the second set expired.
I also rolled with Allesandro who has a few technical flaws from some positions he hasn't seen that often but whose ceiling is so much higher than my own its depressing. His stand up is excellent, his fundamentals are very good, he is competitive and athletic. all he needs is some time and he will wreck guys in BJJ. I would be shocked for him not to win nearly any white belt division right now.
Had a very productive set with Sarah. I don't always get to roll with her as I often have to take some of the potentially dangerous people. I swept and and pressured her she attacked a triangle and I nearly passed a few times giving her pressure but not overdoing it. she was actually quite difficult to complete the pass against her because she used her flexibility and competitiveness so well. I was passing again when she switched to a left sided triangle and surprised me. I defended but she locked it in tight. I think it was the first time someone has been able to successfully lock a triangle since Urso left. I had to legitimately defend and fight my way free from it. It was a tight bite. If I wasn't so stupidly much bigger than her I would have been in even more trouble when time expired.
Good night of classes.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday 11/11/2010
Day class at the Weston - Me John and 4 white belts. John did some basic sweeps. I had two sets with Eric Daly and Azeez. Unremarkable, except azeez kept trying to standing pass by going into my De La Riva, which was disastrous for him. Better than not training at all, but considering the recent pressure at work, I will need to keep the T-Th weston classes down a bit.
Monday - 11/8/2010
The BJJ class began and it was again lightly attended. Sarah asked about maintaining side control, so Eric and I worked on this. More people came in as the class progressed until we filled out at 6 people. I talked about controlling opposite corners ie right shoulder and left hip and vice versa. I talked about walking higher up the body off of the hips to avoid the bump. this is particularly true of lighter/smaller people holding larger/stronger. I talked about trapping the elbow outside of the hip, because allowing it inside makes the elbow escape too easy. We then progressed to several subs from the side position. We walked around the head after starting with the underhook on the far arm. Keeping control of the arm and attacking the straight arm. we did the papercutter choke I use when i can't keep their elbow from blocking me, so I go over it and trap it with my low (right) arm and choke with the left. this is one of my most frequently used subs and I would like to make it a club staple.
My knee was still giving me some trouble but we did 3 sets of training. The vibe in the room is getting betetr as things are settling down. I think the intensity level needs to rise a bit and it will help. It will also be good as we are able to filter in a few more of the MIA folks.
Judo
Little larger group with both Erics and some of the other regulars plus a new white belt Bobby who is Eric J.s nephew who did very well. We also had a new Judo white belt Drew, who is a brown in BJJ checking it out. Both of the white belts did great. We did some seoi nage work and then switched to the underhook (seoi nage arm position) Osoto Gari. I wasn't sure how Drew would do. You never really know how people with a lot of rank will do when they put on a white belt and go to a new spot. He did great. He ukemi was very good. he had some throwing fundamentals and had a great attitude. I had him with the guys only at first, but after watching him I had him do sets with Sarah, who has a very technical throwing game. I rarely let new people go with her because you never know if a white belt guy might get too competitive and try to force something, which is dangerous. But he quickly proved to have a very egoless technical approach that is perfect for improving. Bobby did very well. considering he hasn't done anything like this he had very respectable ukemi and took some big falls during randori. i don't usually let new people do randori the first few classes, but he jumped right in a did well. we cold have used a few more of the regulars in class to roound out the sets, but I was happy with the class.
For Ne Waza we did the front sankaku. with an emphasis on staying tight rather than the open spin them as you turn version that i feel has given people trouble. The tight bversion of getting tight and staying tight from the beginning requires more adjustments after the turn, but seems to be easier to learn. The class did well with it and I think I will continue with this version.
We did a couple of sets of Ne Waza. I had Drew in the second set and he was very good to roll with him. He is a little small for me, I'm guessing 150ish. I swept and came to the top he played open and went for sweeps. I kept good pressure and maintained balance, but he did a good job avoiding the pass, until right before the end. I was able to pass and maintain top until time expired.
Good class. glad to see the bigger numbers and the addition of Drew and Bobby will be good if they become consistent.
My knee was still giving me some trouble but we did 3 sets of training. The vibe in the room is getting betetr as things are settling down. I think the intensity level needs to rise a bit and it will help. It will also be good as we are able to filter in a few more of the MIA folks.
Judo
Little larger group with both Erics and some of the other regulars plus a new white belt Bobby who is Eric J.s nephew who did very well. We also had a new Judo white belt Drew, who is a brown in BJJ checking it out. Both of the white belts did great. We did some seoi nage work and then switched to the underhook (seoi nage arm position) Osoto Gari. I wasn't sure how Drew would do. You never really know how people with a lot of rank will do when they put on a white belt and go to a new spot. He did great. He ukemi was very good. he had some throwing fundamentals and had a great attitude. I had him with the guys only at first, but after watching him I had him do sets with Sarah, who has a very technical throwing game. I rarely let new people go with her because you never know if a white belt guy might get too competitive and try to force something, which is dangerous. But he quickly proved to have a very egoless technical approach that is perfect for improving. Bobby did very well. considering he hasn't done anything like this he had very respectable ukemi and took some big falls during randori. i don't usually let new people do randori the first few classes, but he jumped right in a did well. we cold have used a few more of the regulars in class to roound out the sets, but I was happy with the class.
For Ne Waza we did the front sankaku. with an emphasis on staying tight rather than the open spin them as you turn version that i feel has given people trouble. The tight bversion of getting tight and staying tight from the beginning requires more adjustments after the turn, but seems to be easier to learn. The class did well with it and I think I will continue with this version.
We did a couple of sets of Ne Waza. I had Drew in the second set and he was very good to roll with him. He is a little small for me, I'm guessing 150ish. I swept and came to the top he played open and went for sweeps. I kept good pressure and maintained balance, but he did a good job avoiding the pass, until right before the end. I was able to pass and maintain top until time expired.
Good class. glad to see the bigger numbers and the addition of Drew and Bobby will be good if they become consistent.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Friday 11/5/2010 - Peter and me
Tonight was the first open mat. Mainline Judo had there open mat tonight and most of the guys went there. I don't believe in canceling classes, so I went to Osagame. Peter came and he and I worked for a little more than an hour. We focused on what he was interested in doing. We worked on transitioning to avoid the pass and escape the pin by turtling. Primarily by unscrewing the shoulder and turning inside or going outside as a last resort. We also talked about hitting the trap and roll once you make it to turtle correctly and turtle properly.
Fear the turtle!
Fear the turtle!
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