Trust issues?

Mon and Wed of this week was local rollage -- now that I've gotten married I'm not making the trip up to Axis much, though once my wife gets some stuff started around here, I'll start going up there once or twice a week. The sessions around here are awesome tho -- Henry usually comes up with some drills, I help out the new guys with their techniques, then we roll for a really long time. Great workouts. Two and a half solid hours of BJJ is immeasurably good on so many levels.

Last night a bluebelt came -- big dude, maybe 215, but rusty. Super awesome guy though and confident enough with himself to have a nice, smooth roll and not use his 35 lb weight advantage against me in a caveman sorta way, which I really appreciated. I'm not used to rolling with guys that big so it was cool. Things I did well:

He wasn't really able to pass my guard

Worked a couple good sweeps to mount

Took his back

Ever since I started constantly hunting for the underhook, my game has changed dramatically. I don't know what it is about jiujitsu -- you'll add one element that will totally revolutionize your game, and it makes you wonder why the hell you weren't doing it the entire time. This was also true when I started working a lot of open guard. Henry mentioned that I was going for a lot more opportunistic sweeps and being more proactive with my game -- these are all a result of constantly trying to get that underhook. It's funny too, because when I started really focusing on it, Matt Hughes was on TUF5 and said, "I'm going to show you the most important thing you need to know," and demonstrated the underhook. I guess he would have some insight eh?

Admittedly, I should have worked open guard on the big guy more. I did it a little bit, but he was really good at killing my legs and passing, so I kept him in closed guard and worked attacks from there and pulled X-guard when he stood up -- just really focusing on my bottom game, which is where I live anyway. Good shit.

I had a good time showing the new folks some stuff. I really love teaching (it's in my blood!) and it's really no wonder that people who can make a living teaching BJJ do it and love it. The tough thing about explaining stuff is that it's really important not to overwhelm the guy you're explaining it to, because you want to add so many details in there that are of utmost importance. It's also hard not to go off on tangents -- "Or you can work this here, or transition to an armbar, or work knee on belly like this, or switch up to this collar choke, etc etc", all of which have a whole laundry list of subtleties contained within them. Simplicity is best, I suppose.

It's funny -- Henry and I have been trying to get people to come out for so long, and now after almost two years some people have finally decided to stick around. This has given me a lot of perspective on "n00b behavior" -- namely, the psychology of people who are just getting into jiujitsu, particularly Americans, because I'm only really used to rolling with Japanese dudes. This also brings us to the reason I entitled this post what I did.

I think a lot of guys really really need to trust who they're rolling with in order to feel comfortable. And I'm not talking about being "roll dawgz" or whatever, I mean they need to trust that you won't make them feel like a pussy or treat them like a bitch if you beat them. I don't really feel like I had that kind of baggage when I started -- maybe because of the amount of "mantrust" involved in the job I had in the Marines, and the fact that I knew Henry came from the same kind of unit. I also didn't really give a shit if I got tapped out, because I fully acknowledged the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and had never done any martial arts outside of what we did in the USMC, which I knew was retarded.

In any case, the newer guys who showed up (that I talked about before) are getting waaay more comfortable with BJJ in general, and are actually being moderately responsive and receptive to instruction without feeling the need to throw their own two cents in. That's another thing I've noticed about new folks -- they always feel the need to add something based on whatever experience they have, even if it's nonsensical or bullshit. Sometimes it makes me miss the military, where telling someone that "it's shut up time, and I'm the one talking" was acceptable. I guess I've harped on this before. Maybe I'm just irritated because I feel I've put in more time than them and I don't really like them telling me "how it is" on their first day. Maybe I'm the one with the ego problem. Who knows.

Anyone else have some insight into the "new guy" phenomenon?

Anyway, while I miss going up to Axis twice a week, rolling locally with our crew has been completely awesome. I'll start getting back up to Axis once things settle down, because the 5 hour trip (get home from work, change real quick, run to the train station at 4pm for the 4:18 train, get back at 9pm) would leave my new wife bored and probably irritable when I got back, especially since I'd be tired and wouldn't feel like doing anything but sitting on the couch and drooling.

More later--

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・

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.

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.

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

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.