October 25, 2010

Quick

Beginner
Side control to mount
Basic defenses from mount
Armbar, keylock

Intermediate
Gaining deep half guard
Coming out the back
or Spinning around the leg and coming up

I'll update this later on with details. I just don't want to forget to elaborate later on.

October 24, 2010

Phil Migliarese and Belt Testing

This weekend I traveled back to my old BJJ school in Syracuse, NY for a Phil Migliarese seminar and a belt testing ceremony. Phil showed us a couple moves and I would like to outline one move quickly before I forget:

From kneeling, get an under hook on one side
Place one foot on the inner thigh of opp
Use your over foot to kick opp knee out while elevating your foot for the sweep

It's pretty simple and basically sums up all of the moves Mr. Migliarese showed up. He's a however many degree blackbelt and all of his moves were generally pretty simple and yet were still effective. That just further reinforces the importance of basics in this game.

Ding Dong... the witch is back!

Don't ask where I come up with these titles. No really, don't ask.

I'll start off with saying, "I'M ALIVEEE!!!" This is probably a surprise to you. It has been quite a while since I updated my blog and things have changed quite a bit (which may actually be the understatement of the century). Since I have last updated, I moved back to my hometown, changed jobs, changed colleges and changed my jiu jitsu school. After an almost 8 months break from BJJ while I got my life back together, I am now with a school affiliated with Ricardo Almeida out of Saratoga, NY. I'm very excited to be getting back into the swing of things again.

There are major differences between my old school and the one I attend now. The biggest to me was going from mostly gi training to half or maybe a bit more without the gi. Another one that can't help but be noticed is the actual size of the gym itself and the number of people who train regularly. I could go on and on about the similarities and the differences but I'll just wrap it up by saying that I think I'm going to benefit more from training at this school.

Anyways, obviously with such an extended break I need to get back into shape again. My schedule so far is Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday doing BJJ. Tuesday is Boxing and Thursday is MMA. My goal is to lift on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday inbetween BJJ. I hope to get into MMA again soon but we will see how it goes. I'm working a lot more than I previously was before I moved back home so my energy level is a lot lower. I think I'm doing pretty well though considering my schedule so I'll just keep pushing through until I reach the level I was at prior to all the changes.

I couldn't help but read back a little bit and see what my old goals were. Surprise surprise, while I'm rolling I'm running into the same issues I had previously. Passing the guard and triangle escapes. Again, my focus for the next few weeks will be these two things. I'll update again shortly on what I have been learning.