Talk on the Mat, Broham

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.