Broken record time!!

What have I said in like every post on here so far? "BJJ, what a sport! You never know what kind of day you're going to have! blahblahblah!"

Yeah, well, for every one awesome day, there are a few bad ones thrown in there. The type of days where you think to yourself, "Why did I make the 1 hour train trip up here? What am I doing with my life? Where am I going? What is my future?" And then a 1 hour train trip back to continue thinking about why you're such a pussy.

My Australian friend said, as I was lamenting these things to him, "Well, you didn't fight any mugs tonight, mate, and I've been doing this for 10 years." True, true. And he weighs about 220. Maybe more? He's a big dude. But yeah. It's all about perspective, mainly like he said, I didn't go against any white belts. I had my obligatory roll with Phil, which is always a nightmare, and then strong blues and purples for about 45 minutes straight of rolling. How can I look at that as bad, really? Aside from the fact that I wasn't really able to do anything, that is. Whattevs. These guys are fucking assassins, and I didn't sit on the edges and shark white belts. :)

I'm a little bummed out because I haven't been able to train as much or as consistently as before. I don't regret getting married, but it's going to require some adjustments to my training regime, and I'm going to really need to start using my time wisely and searching for opportunities to train, rather than sticking to my set schedule that I had before. I'm also going to be in the states for a couple weeks, but if I'm lucky, I sneak off with my cousin and check out Big John's gym, which is like 5 minutes from my uncles house.....!

Anyway, more later after I get back. Peace--

What the crap?

In keeping with what I've said a few times about BJJ, you never really know what kind of day you're doing to have.

On Monday, we suited up for some local rollage, and a bunch of people came out. Again, more of the same weird newbie posturing that always happens when people come out. Why are people so insecure about grappling/boxing/whatever? If you don't know how to do it, shut up, listen, and don't worry about it.

I was showing a new guy techniques, and he kept trying to prevent me from doing them. I patiently explained, "OK now, I'm just showing you how to do this, OK? You don't need to resist", to which he responded, "Yeah, but I don't want to just lay here and let you do it like some kind've pussy, because I'm not a pussy."

What the fuck is that? You're not a pussy? Questionable. Goofus? Definitely.

I think Henry and Steve and I should institute a new rule: No egos on the mat. Shut up and learn. I dunno. Fuck.

All in all it was fun showing the new guy stuff, but again I just kind've wanted him to shut up and do what I was telling him to do without hearing his comments. It was cool to have that many people come down, but as always, we'll see how many of them actually stay for the duration! It's hard to get people to stick it out.

Last night was a weird night at Axis. Henry was having crazy eyed Pollack issues, dealing with insecurities that he has no right to have!! Not with that half-guard game. Sheeit. Just one of those nights I guess.

I rolled with this old guy that goes to Axis. He's a blue belt, and judging from how light his blue belt is, he's been there for a while, and judging by how he rolls, he will always be a blue belt. I absolutely hate rolling with this guy. He refuses to engage and if he can, tries to get you in his open guard and just push you away from him with his legs. He did this for about 4 minutes, and I swept him a couple times and used weight and balance to avoid whatever the hell it was he was trying to do, and finally passed into side control. But get this-- as soon as I completely passed his guard, he said "I'm out of gas, I need a break." Fucking weak. So I sat there for a couple minutes while he put his belt on and we re-engaged, and he started doing the same bullshit. So I just got my grips, got one leg in, and sat there looking at him. He sat there looking back. He ain't trying anything. He ain't improving. Another reason I don't like rolling with him is because if he happens to get an arm, he'll attack it like his life depends on it. It's really bizarre and frustrating and irritating. They play all coy and scared, but when they go for something it's like they're trying to kill you. If you do the same thing, they look at you like you're a big roundeye asshole. I think next time I'm just gonna start armdragging the shit out of him and making shit hurt really bad. Damn!!!

Next was Lee, which is always fun, because like I mentioned before, I can do whatever I want. It's good practice. Then I'll show him some stuff, let him try stuff, etc.. Like after I tapped him and we restarted, I just turned around and let him take my back so he could work on it.

Next I rolled with a female blue belt named Miwako, aka Henry's girlfriend. Not really, but it's funny to say. She weighs about 95 lbs, and it's hard to do anything with her and not feel like a jerk. Use any power? Jerk. Use no power and just your weight? Jerk. Get a submission? Jerk. Let her pass to a dominant position? Jerk. The funny thing is she gets really fired up. One night, her sparring consisted of me, Henry, and Christiano. I felt bad for her. The instructor was trying to tell her how to get a sweep on Henry, and she got all pissy and said, "HE'S HEAVY" (OMOI!) in Japanese. Henry looked up and said, "OMOI?!" and I about lost my shit. A few months later an older purple belt refused to roll with Henry (cuz Henry'd been tolling on him), and Henry looked at him and said, "OMOI?" and everyone in the academy started laughing. The purple belt then attacked Henry with a sword for making him lose face.

Just kidding.

Anyway, after Henry's girl was Phil, which is a nightmare as always. I've got nothing for him. Jiujitsu just makes sense for him, and he doesn't really have any explanation for how he does the moves he does or where he learns them. "Oh, I saw it somewhere. That sucks doesn't it?" His approach to rolling is so cruelly pragmatic that I can't help but smiling when he explains situations where he hurts someone. "So and so was complaining that I kept cranking his chin when I went for a RNC. So I told him to move his chin."

Either way, I'm bruised today. Last night I was pretty immobilized, as I have been following the last few rolling sessions. I'm in pretty good shape at the moment, so it's nice that I can push myself like that several times a week and continue to be pretty wiped out by the end of training.

More later・

...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..!

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.

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.