Some rolls are simply magical. That might sound silly, but anyone who rolls knows what I mean. Tonight was no exception.
We rallied up for some local rollage in the gym, just me, Henry, and Lee, and worked on drills for a LONG time. It was great -- exactly what I needed. Since there were 3 of us, we kind've went in rounds.
Drill 1:
One person would stay on the ground, and the other two would switch off being in their guard. The person on the bottom would work any sweep they wanted, while the person on the top would resist at about 10%. Just enough to be more than a training dummy.
Drill 2:
The person on top would be standing, and the person on bottom would work on sweeps. The deal was, the person on top would decide [randomly] what to give them -- 2 legs? An arm? A collar? And the person on the bottom would react accordingly.
Drill 3:
Pass guard! Someone else showed up so Henry worked with him, and Lee and I just worked pass guard drills. Good shit. Then I switched out and showed the new guy (the wrestler from last week) some stuff on how to open up the feet, then what to do from there.
I'm not sure how long we worked these, but it was a while, as it should be. Then on to rollage. We trained for a total of 3 hours. It was awesome. We all had a go at one another, and I had the interesting of experience of rolling with the wrestling guy who wasn't wearing a gi at all. It was cool to see that I wa able to manage my game, which is on my back and playing a lot of legs. He was being overly wrestler aggressive, and I still managed 2 or 3 armbars, an RNC (on our feet, however that happened), and some kneebaring and a toe hold. I didn't finish the kneebar or toehold because they're dangerous. I never finish those moves because I'm not confident enough using them, so I just get the position and usually ask whoever I get em on if it was tight.
Rolling with Henry was good -- he's starting to feel a lot like Phil, our British phenom training partner, which is a little unnerving. Props to Mr Henry for tapping a brown belt last weekend, too.
All together, it was a great night of 3 solid hours of rollage. Since I tore up a treadmill at lunch today too, I'm gonna sleep like a baby and don't feel quite so guily about my caloric indiscretions over the past weekend.
Bonus: Here's Christiano (a blackbelt from our school that I talked about last post) fighting in Deep. Also worth checking out is Murilo Bustamente's fight where he picks apart Sakurai. Good shit!
Tony -- Here are some schools in Chicago. Maybe Henry can suggest one 'cuz he's more in the know than I am. Even once a week of no-gi training at a school would rock though, then drill with your homies locally. Anyway, I've read a lot about the gi/no-gi debate, and I like what Marcelo Garcia said. Something like, "If you think gi is fun, use a gi. If you think no-gi is fun, go no-gi. I think both are fun, so I use both." One thing I will say about nogi is that it's a lot faster and more dynamic, but I like the gi because it gives me big forearms and, I dunno, it's just fun. :D If I were in a situation where I didn't have a gi, but had a training partner who rolled no-gi, I'd definitely do it though.
I kind've had a chuckle at the end of the night tonight, when a bright eyed soldier came over and talked about being interested in rolling. He started off being very unsure, didn't know anything, etc, but I kinda pumped him up and told him that his wrestling experience would be a major plus with us, and we'd really like him to come out. Henry was on the mat rolling with someone else, and I said something about Henry being much stronger than he looks. The guy kind've looked at me in disbelief and said, "Him?" Ohhh, the only thing that gives me more pleasure than people talking to Henry like he's a weakling (happens a lot for some reason) is telling him about it. Anyway, he said, "Well, if he's the best, I'll go after him." I just smiled and continued encouraging him to come out. Maybe I should have given him the straight scoop and said, "Cool, he'll destroy you, you know that right? You'll feel like a toddler." That mighta gotten him to come out. But after a few moments he was talking about this and that technique and "...so do you guys do this?" and "...do you guys do that?" He asked about pressure points, and if it would be OK of he did this and that. I gave him my stock answer: "Pressure points hurt, but they won't make me let go. Another thing they'll do is make the person you're rolling with stretch your shit out, so I really wouldn't recommend it." He looked like a strong kid though. Hope he comes out.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
...jew no wadda ah mean?
Let's kick it off with some humor. I've always wondered when someone would make this (click for bigger pic):
Here's one that had me giggling at first, but then had me feeling bad at the end.
Anyway, rolled at Axis on Wed. Can't roll today or Monday because I'm getting married (!) and it probably would be unreasonable to request a furlough at this time. :) So up at Axis we went over some very gi-heavy guard passes and a way to pull someone up and take their back from north-south. I could tell Henry wasn't really feeling the first pass, but I know he liked the back taking mov from north south. I don't think it can be done in no-gi, so I wont bother explaining it. It's very simple though and I'm sure he'll bust it out on me at some point.
The instructor ws Christiano, who is an enormous ethnic Japanese Brazilian (maybe half?) who has been competing in deep. Here's his fight before last, which was unfortunately ruled a no contest. I heard that if he'd won it, he would have been in Pride next, but the no contest was sad because he destroyed this guy. He won last weekend too though so maybe in a couple fights he'll make it there.
On to the Rollage!
I rolled with Christiano first. I'd rolled with him when he was a brown belt but never a black, so I guess he was my first black belt. *blush* As you can see from the video, he's a big boy, but his technique is really clean and even if you're a white belt he'll make you feel like you're having a really good roll with him. It makes him terrifying on one hand, but even as a white belt I felt like I got a lot out of rolling with him. Obviously the guy has nothing to prove when he rolls, and since I don't come at him like a rabid little dog, the roll ends up being really relaxed. He lets you try stuff, and when he grows tired of your impetuousness he'll tap you out. It's a funny coincidence that Tony mentioned that arm triangle in the last post's comments, because that's exactly what he submitted me with. He was on one side, hopped over, and Paully go nigh-nigh. (I didn't actually go to sleep, but you know what I mean).
Next I rolled with Sujo, who is a Korean-American we roll with and is a good friend of mine. We started jiujitsu around the same time, though I think I've been training a lot more than him lately because he moves around with work so much. I always have good rolls with him though because he knows all my go-to moves and he's a really strong dude. I managed to get him with an Ezekiel choke, which seemed to irritate him a bit because he knows I always try it.
After that, I rolled with a Japanese purple who weighs about 135 lbs. These guys are cool to roll with because they are SOOO technical, and they don't let you get away with aything. They also force me to use nothing but technique, because muscling them around is kind've a dickhead thing to do (and I know the instructors wouldn't like that either). I've been having really good luck with something Henry uses a lot, which is where you trap a foot between your knees and come in really close with an under-over hold on either leg, pass the foot inside their legs back and around their leg, and pass. It was working pretty well on this guy, but if there was a millimeter of space anywhere in my game, he'd get a leg in it. These guys are like water. Either way he ended up getting me with a wicked cross choke from the bottom, which is usually how the little guys get me. I got no problem tapping though, he's good, and I have to admit that he's really improved over the last few months even since he got his purple. I can learn a lot from these little sunzabitches.
Next I rolled with Lee which was nice, because I can do pretty much whatever I want to do and not worry about him doing anything to prevent it. :D I worked on knee on belly some more, and choking him out with his own gi.
After class I rolled with Sujo some more on the open mat, and it felt awesome. Like I said before, move move move! That's my new battle cry. I felt light and mobile against him and managed to get him with my most favoritest choke from side-pinch mount. Then Henry and I worked on the side-switcheroo-arm-triangle choke that Tony mentioned before. I plan to work on that a bit more in the future because it kicks so much ass.
As always, awesome roll at Axis. I asked the girl at the front desk how many times I'd logged in, and she said 127, but it's probably a little more because sometimes they miss it or whatever. Not too bad -- I didn't realize I'd gone so much..!
Here's one that had me giggling at first, but then had me feeling bad at the end.
Anyway, rolled at Axis on Wed. Can't roll today or Monday because I'm getting married (!) and it probably would be unreasonable to request a furlough at this time. :) So up at Axis we went over some very gi-heavy guard passes and a way to pull someone up and take their back from north-south. I could tell Henry wasn't really feeling the first pass, but I know he liked the back taking mov from north south. I don't think it can be done in no-gi, so I wont bother explaining it. It's very simple though and I'm sure he'll bust it out on me at some point.
The instructor ws Christiano, who is an enormous ethnic Japanese Brazilian (maybe half?) who has been competing in deep. Here's his fight before last, which was unfortunately ruled a no contest. I heard that if he'd won it, he would have been in Pride next, but the no contest was sad because he destroyed this guy. He won last weekend too though so maybe in a couple fights he'll make it there.
On to the Rollage!
I rolled with Christiano first. I'd rolled with him when he was a brown belt but never a black, so I guess he was my first black belt. *blush* As you can see from the video, he's a big boy, but his technique is really clean and even if you're a white belt he'll make you feel like you're having a really good roll with him. It makes him terrifying on one hand, but even as a white belt I felt like I got a lot out of rolling with him. Obviously the guy has nothing to prove when he rolls, and since I don't come at him like a rabid little dog, the roll ends up being really relaxed. He lets you try stuff, and when he grows tired of your impetuousness he'll tap you out. It's a funny coincidence that Tony mentioned that arm triangle in the last post's comments, because that's exactly what he submitted me with. He was on one side, hopped over, and Paully go nigh-nigh. (I didn't actually go to sleep, but you know what I mean).
Next I rolled with Sujo, who is a Korean-American we roll with and is a good friend of mine. We started jiujitsu around the same time, though I think I've been training a lot more than him lately because he moves around with work so much. I always have good rolls with him though because he knows all my go-to moves and he's a really strong dude. I managed to get him with an Ezekiel choke, which seemed to irritate him a bit because he knows I always try it.
After that, I rolled with a Japanese purple who weighs about 135 lbs. These guys are cool to roll with because they are SOOO technical, and they don't let you get away with aything. They also force me to use nothing but technique, because muscling them around is kind've a dickhead thing to do (and I know the instructors wouldn't like that either). I've been having really good luck with something Henry uses a lot, which is where you trap a foot between your knees and come in really close with an under-over hold on either leg, pass the foot inside their legs back and around their leg, and pass. It was working pretty well on this guy, but if there was a millimeter of space anywhere in my game, he'd get a leg in it. These guys are like water. Either way he ended up getting me with a wicked cross choke from the bottom, which is usually how the little guys get me. I got no problem tapping though, he's good, and I have to admit that he's really improved over the last few months even since he got his purple. I can learn a lot from these little sunzabitches.
Next I rolled with Lee which was nice, because I can do pretty much whatever I want to do and not worry about him doing anything to prevent it. :D I worked on knee on belly some more, and choking him out with his own gi.
After class I rolled with Sujo some more on the open mat, and it felt awesome. Like I said before, move move move! That's my new battle cry. I felt light and mobile against him and managed to get him with my most favoritest choke from side-pinch mount. Then Henry and I worked on the side-switcheroo-arm-triangle choke that Tony mentioned before. I plan to work on that a bit more in the future because it kicks so much ass.
As always, awesome roll at Axis. I asked the girl at the front desk how many times I'd logged in, and she said 127, but it's probably a little more because sometimes they miss it or whatever. Not too bad -- I didn't realize I'd gone so much..!
Monday, April 16, 2007
Wrasslin'
It's funny that the last post I talked a lot about working knee-on-belly and choking people out with their gi, because that's exactly what we worked on at Axis on Friday. It's a little bit hard to understand, but I was able to retain it and go over it again today during our local rollage session. Now, as with all moves that I've absorbed, I just have to recall it when the time is right. That seems like a big issue when learning moves -- how many moves can you keep at the "tip of your tongue" to bust out whenever the opportunity shows itself? I think that's where a gameplan comes in -- a gameplan involving strings of "go-to moves" and transitions that can build momentum and if unsuccessful, can still give you a dominant position.
My rolls at Axis were good -- went against Simon, a British bluebelt that started about the same time as I did. He trains a lot of muy-thai and is in really good shape, and just a good all around "bloke". I never felt in danger of being submitted, and we reversed each other a lot and switched dominant positions a lot. Excellent workout. After that I rolled with Phil, which is always a nightmare, then with a 12 year old orange belt. That's fun just because I can "give a little back" and help him out a bit while also working positions and some subs without using an ounce of strength. I ended it off with Henry which is always a learning experience.
Today during local rollage, Henry and I worked a lot of standup and it was awesome. He's waaay better than me but it was definitely good good good training. We worked some judo techniques and some double legs. After working takedowns, I rolled with a guy who'd never done BJJ before, but he had a lot of mat sense from wrestling (Henry and I were both a little surprised) and I was a little disappointed that I couldn't do more. That's aiiight though. I still don't really like rolling with spastic new folks because I don't want to get slammed. It seems like whenever I remind them "Hey, we're all friends here," they always come back with something like "Well I'm used to playin' dirty and bangin'" or something like that. I always try to explain to them, "Everyone can pull dirty shit, and if you're new it's best that you don't, because a more experienced person will be able to bring the pain more than you." This always gets a "Yeah but.." ... It's the same argument as "Well if I were in a street fight, blahblahblah". Yeah yeah. I can do it too. Anyone can. But we don't, so just leave it at that. Everyone's a toughguy I guess.
Anyway, it was a good time. More later.
PS: Does TUF 5 seem like a meathead high? It's pretty embarrassing how some of those guys are conducting themselves.
My rolls at Axis were good -- went against Simon, a British bluebelt that started about the same time as I did. He trains a lot of muy-thai and is in really good shape, and just a good all around "bloke". I never felt in danger of being submitted, and we reversed each other a lot and switched dominant positions a lot. Excellent workout. After that I rolled with Phil, which is always a nightmare, then with a 12 year old orange belt. That's fun just because I can "give a little back" and help him out a bit while also working positions and some subs without using an ounce of strength. I ended it off with Henry which is always a learning experience.
Today during local rollage, Henry and I worked a lot of standup and it was awesome. He's waaay better than me but it was definitely good good good training. We worked some judo techniques and some double legs. After working takedowns, I rolled with a guy who'd never done BJJ before, but he had a lot of mat sense from wrestling (Henry and I were both a little surprised) and I was a little disappointed that I couldn't do more. That's aiiight though. I still don't really like rolling with spastic new folks because I don't want to get slammed. It seems like whenever I remind them "Hey, we're all friends here," they always come back with something like "Well I'm used to playin' dirty and bangin'" or something like that. I always try to explain to them, "Everyone can pull dirty shit, and if you're new it's best that you don't, because a more experienced person will be able to bring the pain more than you." This always gets a "Yeah but.." ... It's the same argument as "Well if I were in a street fight, blahblahblah". Yeah yeah. I can do it too. Anyone can. But we don't, so just leave it at that. Everyone's a toughguy I guess.
Anyway, it was a good time. More later.
PS: Does TUF 5 seem like a meathead high? It's pretty embarrassing how some of those guys are conducting themselves.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Butterfly Sweep
Yesterday I cruised up to Axis with Steve and Henry for our normal Wednesday training session.
Technique
The tech part of the class was a modified butterfly sweep, as seen HERE.
It was modified because instead of getting the simple underhook, you'd grab the gi behind their back. I didn't really understand why we were doing this, until at teh end the instructor added a little wrist trap with the gi to set up a wrist lock. I don't really play with submissions using my opponents' gi, but based on how many times I'm submitted in some form with my own gi, it certainly is worth looking into. Either way the butterfly sweep works beautifully with no-gi too, and since I'm very comfortable on my back and play a lot with two hooks inside the legs (I love x-guard), I get into this spot a lot and have been pretty successful using it against people who are around my same level. As with most of our tech portions of class, we did a counter-to-the-counter, which is where the opponent puts one leg up to avoid the sweep. In that case, you hip out a little, hook your bicep underneath their thigh, and dump them. It's very intuitive. (I'm not sure if this makes sense -- I'm pretty visual and sometimes have problems picturing moves when people explain them.)
Rolling:
I got 4 rolls in during the 25 minutes or so of rolling after tech.
First Roll:
This was against a Japanese white belt named Yusuke (I think). I hadn't seen him in over a year and we were talking when sparring started, so we went ahead and kicked it off. This is an interesting sport because some people just don't get it. And I'm not saying that because I'm a prodigy or because they're stupid, but maybe it doesn't make as much sense to some people as it does others? I'm slow to pick up on things sometimes too and I'm sure the same has been said about me, so I'm not trying to sound judgemental. Anyway, it was nice to roll with him because I could go easy and work pretty much anything I wanted to work, namely:
- Knee on belly
- Triangle from the spider guard
- Sweep from closed guard
- Sweep from spider guard
- Transitioning to his back
- Transitioning from mount, side, knee on belly, north south, etc
Second Roll:
Another Japanese white belt, who came right up to me on the mat and asked me if I wanted to go. At risk of sounding paranoid (and Henry can back me up here), whenever this happens it means they are going to take it to you hard and want to prove themselves. I like relaxed rolls and I'm not afraid to tap, but these guys make me a little nervous because if they get an arm, they're gonna spaz on it and I don't really want to get hurt.
Anyway, this guy seemed to have some other rolling experience -- maybe judo (based on how he was trying to sweep me) or he'd been a white belt for a while, and he had some sneaky go-to moves that he kept trying, but he was relying on strength entirely too much. After he tried to do some "get the opponent to move by hurting him" moves, I made the rest of his 6 minutes with me completely miserable. It was fun though because I was able to work on the same stuff I worked on with the first guy, only against a little more resistance and spazzyness, so it was a little more difficult. The guy was a definite spaz though and needs to chill.
Third Roll:
Against Phil. He's our British friend who is a bit of a phenom (got his purple in 2 years) and, well, I really don't have an answer to anything he does. Even higher level people marvel at his ability to constantly attack, attack, attack relentlessly, and he gives even the more experienced brown belts at our school a run for their money (I once saw him tap one of them 4 times in 6 minutes). Another guy we train with said that rolling with Phil is like being on an amusement park ride -- you just kinda fly around and don't have any control where you're going. I know he goes easy on me and tries stuff out, and he gives me a lot of pointers when I roll with him.
Fourth Roll:
Against Henry. I like rolling with Henry at the end because we're both pretty tired and I know I can relax without having someone spazzing out on me and trying to rip my arm off. I think Henry said "75%, working on smooth transitions." We both agree that "light rolling" is way more useful than people give it credit for.
In the last post's comments, Tony had a question, so I'll answer it here (and I'd like Henry to give an answer in the comments !). Here was his question:
Paul, I've got a question for you to think about. I spar on a regular basis with a close friend of mine named Ian who has kind of a unique style. He's short and thick, doesn't have much of a neck and he's amazingly powerful. He was a good wrestler in highschool and played college football at Stanford. He prides himself on his power and he can't really past the mental block in his head to quit relying on it.
The trouble is that I haven't been able to figure out a good strategy as to what to do with him. He basically sits in my guard and tries to work against my neck to tire me out and he just kind of holds me down. His balance is incredible because of his low center of gravity so all of my guard sweeps are pretty much useless.
I thought it was just me but last year he competed at NAGA and none of the purple belts he was competing with could really sweep him either. Submitting him is pretty much out of the question most of the time too, until he gets really tired that is. He's just got too much power to get caught up in tradition guard submissions and whenever anyone tries one he just stacks them up and uses it as a pass. His stack is very hard to deal with and it what I meant when I said he works against my neck the whole time.
Just wondering if you've ever had to deal with this style of grappling and if you had an answer for it.
I'm not sure if this would work in no-gi, but when I roll against Steve (who is also a bull), I'll let him make the first move from my closed guard and then work off that (i,e. I don't try and force anything). If he stands up I'll try and work an x-guard/sweep, and if not I'll start playing my normal open guard or spider guard game. I guess the latter wouldn't really work with no-gi. Another thing that you might want to try is disengaging and standing up, then trying to work something? I don't always have an answer for it either, because Steve does the same thing to me all the time. I'm not sure if he'll go for this one, but it's worth a try:
From closed guard:
- Hook your left arm underneath his right arm pit
- Open up your guard; put your right knee on the ground and keep your left leg over his back
- If he takes the bait, he'll step over your right leg with his left leg
- Bring your right leg in and hook him while propping yourself up on your right elbow (You're basically in half guard now)
- Swing around underneath his arm while pushing him fowardish and take his back
That's one technique that might work once if at all..? If it doesnt work on him, it's still fun to work on new folks, and you practice the ultra-important fundamental move of "sliding out the back door" from half guard, which I have done to me all the time.
I guess the only person that can de-strengthify your friend is your friend. Either way, if he forces himself not to use strength and focus on techniques and staying light, he will be all the more stronger.
Technique
The tech part of the class was a modified butterfly sweep, as seen HERE.
It was modified because instead of getting the simple underhook, you'd grab the gi behind their back. I didn't really understand why we were doing this, until at teh end the instructor added a little wrist trap with the gi to set up a wrist lock. I don't really play with submissions using my opponents' gi, but based on how many times I'm submitted in some form with my own gi, it certainly is worth looking into. Either way the butterfly sweep works beautifully with no-gi too, and since I'm very comfortable on my back and play a lot with two hooks inside the legs (I love x-guard), I get into this spot a lot and have been pretty successful using it against people who are around my same level. As with most of our tech portions of class, we did a counter-to-the-counter, which is where the opponent puts one leg up to avoid the sweep. In that case, you hip out a little, hook your bicep underneath their thigh, and dump them. It's very intuitive. (I'm not sure if this makes sense -- I'm pretty visual and sometimes have problems picturing moves when people explain them.)
Rolling:
I got 4 rolls in during the 25 minutes or so of rolling after tech.
First Roll:
This was against a Japanese white belt named Yusuke (I think). I hadn't seen him in over a year and we were talking when sparring started, so we went ahead and kicked it off. This is an interesting sport because some people just don't get it. And I'm not saying that because I'm a prodigy or because they're stupid, but maybe it doesn't make as much sense to some people as it does others? I'm slow to pick up on things sometimes too and I'm sure the same has been said about me, so I'm not trying to sound judgemental. Anyway, it was nice to roll with him because I could go easy and work pretty much anything I wanted to work, namely:
- Knee on belly
- Triangle from the spider guard
- Sweep from closed guard
- Sweep from spider guard
- Transitioning to his back
- Transitioning from mount, side, knee on belly, north south, etc
Second Roll:
Another Japanese white belt, who came right up to me on the mat and asked me if I wanted to go. At risk of sounding paranoid (and Henry can back me up here), whenever this happens it means they are going to take it to you hard and want to prove themselves. I like relaxed rolls and I'm not afraid to tap, but these guys make me a little nervous because if they get an arm, they're gonna spaz on it and I don't really want to get hurt.
Anyway, this guy seemed to have some other rolling experience -- maybe judo (based on how he was trying to sweep me) or he'd been a white belt for a while, and he had some sneaky go-to moves that he kept trying, but he was relying on strength entirely too much. After he tried to do some "get the opponent to move by hurting him" moves, I made the rest of his 6 minutes with me completely miserable. It was fun though because I was able to work on the same stuff I worked on with the first guy, only against a little more resistance and spazzyness, so it was a little more difficult. The guy was a definite spaz though and needs to chill.
Third Roll:
Against Phil. He's our British friend who is a bit of a phenom (got his purple in 2 years) and, well, I really don't have an answer to anything he does. Even higher level people marvel at his ability to constantly attack, attack, attack relentlessly, and he gives even the more experienced brown belts at our school a run for their money (I once saw him tap one of them 4 times in 6 minutes). Another guy we train with said that rolling with Phil is like being on an amusement park ride -- you just kinda fly around and don't have any control where you're going. I know he goes easy on me and tries stuff out, and he gives me a lot of pointers when I roll with him.
Fourth Roll:
Against Henry. I like rolling with Henry at the end because we're both pretty tired and I know I can relax without having someone spazzing out on me and trying to rip my arm off. I think Henry said "75%, working on smooth transitions." We both agree that "light rolling" is way more useful than people give it credit for.
In the last post's comments, Tony had a question, so I'll answer it here (and I'd like Henry to give an answer in the comments !). Here was his question:
Paul, I've got a question for you to think about. I spar on a regular basis with a close friend of mine named Ian who has kind of a unique style. He's short and thick, doesn't have much of a neck and he's amazingly powerful. He was a good wrestler in highschool and played college football at Stanford. He prides himself on his power and he can't really past the mental block in his head to quit relying on it.
The trouble is that I haven't been able to figure out a good strategy as to what to do with him. He basically sits in my guard and tries to work against my neck to tire me out and he just kind of holds me down. His balance is incredible because of his low center of gravity so all of my guard sweeps are pretty much useless.
I thought it was just me but last year he competed at NAGA and none of the purple belts he was competing with could really sweep him either. Submitting him is pretty much out of the question most of the time too, until he gets really tired that is. He's just got too much power to get caught up in tradition guard submissions and whenever anyone tries one he just stacks them up and uses it as a pass. His stack is very hard to deal with and it what I meant when I said he works against my neck the whole time.
Just wondering if you've ever had to deal with this style of grappling and if you had an answer for it.
I'm not sure if this would work in no-gi, but when I roll against Steve (who is also a bull), I'll let him make the first move from my closed guard and then work off that (i,e. I don't try and force anything). If he stands up I'll try and work an x-guard/sweep, and if not I'll start playing my normal open guard or spider guard game. I guess the latter wouldn't really work with no-gi. Another thing that you might want to try is disengaging and standing up, then trying to work something? I don't always have an answer for it either, because Steve does the same thing to me all the time. I'm not sure if he'll go for this one, but it's worth a try:
From closed guard:
- Hook your left arm underneath his right arm pit
- Open up your guard; put your right knee on the ground and keep your left leg over his back
- If he takes the bait, he'll step over your right leg with his left leg
- Bring your right leg in and hook him while propping yourself up on your right elbow (You're basically in half guard now)
- Swing around underneath his arm while pushing him fowardish and take his back
That's one technique that might work once if at all..? If it doesnt work on him, it's still fun to work on new folks, and you practice the ultra-important fundamental move of "sliding out the back door" from half guard, which I have done to me all the time.
I guess the only person that can de-strengthify your friend is your friend. Either way, if he forces himself not to use strength and focus on techniques and staying light, he will be all the more stronger.
Monday, April 9, 2007
First real post, Local Rollage
I have to admit I've been on a hot streak lately. I been doing pretty well at Axis and feeling my mojo, but as any practitioner of BJJ or grappling will tell you, you have your on days and your very much off days. Or off weeks. Yesterday was no exception.
I started rolling with Steve, who was Admiral von Leglocky. Sometimes he comes in and lays on the Sombo pretty thick, and again, yesterday was no exception. I think he sensed my frustration (he must be very sensitive, interpreting the complex signals of me screaming "shit" and "fuck") and stopped doing that crazy Russian bullshit, but to be honest I don't really have an answer for his style of rolling. It's very tight and wrestley. I felt like I held my own, but sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm actually earning the position through technique or whether he's letting me have it so he can play with something.
Notes with Steve:
- Practice "ankle denial" because he can pull ankle locks out of the ether
- Concentrate on establishing position, position, position.
- Play more standup -- yeah he's awesome at it and it hurts a lot but it's well worth it, especially if I ever want to compete in the future..
- Chill. Use technique because he's way stronger than you.
Rolled with Lee next. I need to make better use of my time with Lee and not go for my usual go-to submissions just because I'm mad that Steve nad Henry destroyed me. Things to concentrate on with Lee:
- Work knee on belly more
- Give him the dominant position and practice escapes using good technique
- Hone X-guard skills a bit
- Work more technical sweeps
- Use zero strength
Next was Henry. This was when my day fell apart, because I'd felt pretty good against him the last couple weeks. Last week Henry suggested trapping one leg with an over-under hold when starting out on our knees, and I was doing it at Axis all last week and it was working beautifully. I guess I should have realized that since it's Henry's favorite move, he'd probably know what to do against it, and he repeatedly dumped me and passed to my side. He was playing a tight top game (as usual) and denying any open guard, so I was pretty miserable. Things to concentrate on with Henry:
- Be aware of what I'm doing in half guard -- don't give him a straight arm
- No funny business -- stick to basic escapes and try to establish position, because he knows everything I know
- Force the open guard / x-guard -- This is the only time I can really give myself time and a little breathing room
- Always be moving somewhere, because his transitions are usually immediate, smooth, and they hurt
In General:
- Chill the fuck out and have a good time
I started rolling with Steve, who was Admiral von Leglocky. Sometimes he comes in and lays on the Sombo pretty thick, and again, yesterday was no exception. I think he sensed my frustration (he must be very sensitive, interpreting the complex signals of me screaming "shit" and "fuck") and stopped doing that crazy Russian bullshit, but to be honest I don't really have an answer for his style of rolling. It's very tight and wrestley. I felt like I held my own, but sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm actually earning the position through technique or whether he's letting me have it so he can play with something.
Notes with Steve:
- Practice "ankle denial" because he can pull ankle locks out of the ether
- Concentrate on establishing position, position, position.
- Play more standup -- yeah he's awesome at it and it hurts a lot but it's well worth it, especially if I ever want to compete in the future..
- Chill. Use technique because he's way stronger than you.
Rolled with Lee next. I need to make better use of my time with Lee and not go for my usual go-to submissions just because I'm mad that Steve nad Henry destroyed me. Things to concentrate on with Lee:
- Work knee on belly more
- Give him the dominant position and practice escapes using good technique
- Hone X-guard skills a bit
- Work more technical sweeps
- Use zero strength
Next was Henry. This was when my day fell apart, because I'd felt pretty good against him the last couple weeks. Last week Henry suggested trapping one leg with an over-under hold when starting out on our knees, and I was doing it at Axis all last week and it was working beautifully. I guess I should have realized that since it's Henry's favorite move, he'd probably know what to do against it, and he repeatedly dumped me and passed to my side. He was playing a tight top game (as usual) and denying any open guard, so I was pretty miserable. Things to concentrate on with Henry:
- Be aware of what I'm doing in half guard -- don't give him a straight arm
- No funny business -- stick to basic escapes and try to establish position, because he knows everything I know
- Force the open guard / x-guard -- This is the only time I can really give myself time and a little breathing room
- Always be moving somewhere, because his transitions are usually immediate, smooth, and they hurt
In General:
- Chill the fuck out and have a good time
Intro
I'm going to try and keep this as real as possible, and while it might seem like a lot of self-absorbtion, it is very much about my own progress in the sport of BJJ. If you've found this page it's probably because I personally told you about it. If you're training a lot and think you might like to contribute, let me know, because it's nice to get as many perspectives about training as possible. First of all, let me introduce some of my training partners, because I'll be referencing them a lot:
Henry
- Purple Belt, BJJ
He is a solid BJJ purple who got me into this game, and has won a lot of tournaments. Won. He medals a lot when he doesn't win anyway. He's bigger and stronger than me and has better technique than me, and could probably make rolling with him a lot more mierable than it already is. That aside, he's taught me almost all of what I know and I thank him for it. Getting me into the game wasn't an act of altruism though -- he needed a training partner so he made one!
His strengths are:
- Half guard attacks and escapes
- Top game
His weakness are:
- Open guard
- Bottom game
OK, when I say "weaknesses" let me qualify that by saying that it's against people of equal or better level than him, because he can annihilate me in either one. I can kind've hang if he let's me pull open guard on him, which he does a lot for practice, but my life sucks when he denies it.
Steve
- Black belt Judo
- Black belt Sombo
- Blue belt BJJ
- Wrestling coach
Steve has more mat time than anyone I know. He's about 5'8 and about 220, and I've never been able to choke him or tap him out. He has a combination of old man/former powerlifter/had-been-rolling-for-the-last-35-years strength, in addition to mean submissions. He's always been incredibly patient with my little hissy fits, probably more patient than I'd be when dealing with a spaz such as myself.
Lee
- White belt BJJ
Lee is on our little crew that trains here and continues showing up pretty regularly. I feel bad for him sometimes because after Steve and Henry make me feel like it's my first day on the mat, Lee tends to find himself on the business end of my re-affirmation that I know how to do anything whatsoever. Still, it's good to have someone around that you can actually try stuff on. He's about 5'8 and a little heavier than me I think.
There are a lot of others who I will be mentioning throughout, but I just thought I'd start with the "local rolling crew" that consistently comes on Mondays.
At the time I write this I'm 5'9 @ about 178 lbs.
If I refer to a rolling session as "local", it's taken place around my home with one or more of the above crew (and maybe some others). If I say Axis, it's at Axis Academy in Tokyo, my rollage home away from home, where I was awarded my blue belt.
- Purple Belt, BJJ
He is a solid BJJ purple who got me into this game, and has won a lot of tournaments. Won. He medals a lot when he doesn't win anyway. He's bigger and stronger than me and has better technique than me, and could probably make rolling with him a lot more mierable than it already is. That aside, he's taught me almost all of what I know and I thank him for it. Getting me into the game wasn't an act of altruism though -- he needed a training partner so he made one!
His strengths are:
- Half guard attacks and escapes
- Top game
His weakness are:
- Open guard
- Bottom game
OK, when I say "weaknesses" let me qualify that by saying that it's against people of equal or better level than him, because he can annihilate me in either one. I can kind've hang if he let's me pull open guard on him, which he does a lot for practice, but my life sucks when he denies it.
- Black belt Judo
- Black belt Sombo
- Blue belt BJJ
- Wrestling coach
Steve has more mat time than anyone I know. He's about 5'8 and about 220, and I've never been able to choke him or tap him out. He has a combination of old man/former powerlifter/had-been-rolling-for-the-last-35-years strength, in addition to mean submissions. He's always been incredibly patient with my little hissy fits, probably more patient than I'd be when dealing with a spaz such as myself.
- White belt BJJ
Lee is on our little crew that trains here and continues showing up pretty regularly. I feel bad for him sometimes because after Steve and Henry make me feel like it's my first day on the mat, Lee tends to find himself on the business end of my re-affirmation that I know how to do anything whatsoever. Still, it's good to have someone around that you can actually try stuff on. He's about 5'8 and a little heavier than me I think.
There are a lot of others who I will be mentioning throughout, but I just thought I'd start with the "local rolling crew" that consistently comes on Mondays.
At the time I write this I'm 5'9 @ about 178 lbs.
If I refer to a rolling session as "local", it's taken place around my home with one or more of the above crew (and maybe some others). If I say Axis, it's at Axis Academy in Tokyo, my rollage home away from home, where I was awarded my blue belt.
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