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..!
1 comment:
That choke is such a sweet move. What I like about it is that, when you dig your head under that arm a lot of guys instinctively try to take that guillotine choke from the side-mount bottom. Then you just tighten up your grip and choke them out with that shoulder. Basically you've got two sweet-ass submissions once you get your head in the pocket there.
I found a new guy to roll with on Saturdays. He insists on being absolutely chill and using only technique and no strength, despite being quite strong. He also chooses to give up position to be in his weakest positions so that he can work on them. I hope he shows up this afternoon because that's really the perfect training partner for elevating my jiu jitsu game.
I've finally got all my paper work through for my new job so I'm going to be making a little more money now. This means that in the next few months I'm going to be joining a jiu jitsu gym rather than just scrapping around with students here. I'm really excited. There are two different Gracie gyms in Chicago but as well as a gym that's run by a Rickson Gracie blackbelt. Those seem good but I really don't want to use a gi. I understand that it changes the game quite a bit and offers a lot of new moves and strategies but I'm just not into gi training.
Do you have an opinion on this Paully? Obviously you train with a gi frequently so I'd like to hear your perspective.
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