BJJ Obsession

2 down, 1 to go

2011-03-23T13:29:00.003-04:00

Classes this week have been pretty informative. Last nights class was filled with passes and takedowns. One pass from guard, two passes from butterfly guard and a few takedowns.

Pass from guard:
1. Grab same side lapel low (allowing your elbow to sit right on the pressure point above opp knee), grab pants
2. Put one knee right against center of opps butt, with other knee pointing outwards
3. Push with lower back and elbows to pop opps guard
4. Grab both legs, gable grip
5. Pull opp towards you and scoop onto your legs to stack them
6. Grab across opp collar, thumb in
7. Sprawl and step towards one side, side control

Butterfly guard:
1. Squish legs together, with bull fighter style pin to one side with chest
2. Grab collar, while grabbing bottom ankle with other hand
3. Sprawl and pass towards opp knees while holding their ankle, side control

Second butterfly guard:
1. Control legs, pin together upright
2. Sit on opps shins like a seat with posture up
3. As you feel opp push you away, use the momentum guiding their legs underneath yours
4. Pop up and land in mount

Uchi Mata
1. Start facing opp, break opp grip on gi by swimming arm through high and using your shoulder
2. Go underneath their arm, grabbing opposite lapel
3. Hip to hip, check opps free hand
4. Place nearest foot to opp on the inside of their thigh
5. Bend over while quicking upwards
6. Place hand on mat, if needed

Uchi Mata

Obviously the Uchi Mata can be set up a number of ways, this was just one example.

Choke defense to takedown?:
1. Opp wraps on arm around your throat, begins to pull you back with one leg under yours
2. Grab opps wrist and drop your base
3. Step back wide with one foot, catching opps shin/ankle when you do
4. Pivot 180 degrees, still controlling arm
5. Using opps arm as a lever, twist the other way bring them to the ground
6. Hold wrist and arm control where you then have a few different options (arm bar, knee on belly, etc.)

Needless to say, there's a lot of cool stuff floating around in my head from the two classes last night.

I rolled afterwards with a young female (14) who is about 30 pounds lights than me. I did pretty well and her older brother (16, blue belt) followed up with me. He was pretty calm for the most part during our roll. I was able to sub him with an americana until he came back again later on and got me with a triangle. I'm glad to see people starting so young and I can't help to be jealous that I didn't!

I'm off to Pittsburgh this weekend for a few softball games so unfortunately tonights class will my week ender.

Back into things...

2011-03-20T15:36:00.002-04:00

Once again, I took another break. I'm hoping this time I can find my BJJ bug and become an addict once again. This week I attended 3 classes despite being on antibiotics for a sinus infection. The schedule changed and it actually works out a lot better for me. It leaves me with Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday Gi classes. Tuesday and Friday for no gi. I'm excited that I'll be able to get 5 days of quality training in.

My goal right now (besides attending 5 classes a week) is to compete in the NAGA East Coast event coming up in June. Not only is it a short distance from me, I think it's just enough time to shake the rust off. I'm very excited to get back into the swing of things again.

Quick

2010-10-25T23:09:00.004-04:00

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.

Phil Migliarese and Belt Testing

2010-10-24T19:02:00.003-04:00

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!

2010-10-24T18:48:00.004-04:00

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.

Shultz tells all!

2010-02-02T16:19:00.003-05:00

I rolled with one of my instructors today Scott (black belt) and he really pointed out some of my weakness and helped me realize some advantages that I've been missing.

- More pressure, get heavier and use every part of the gi available
- Work fasted and move quicker for submissions/transitions

He said my technique is very tight and that I just need to work on moving my transitions a lot faster. He also showed me a cool armbar transition from the regular position. Once they start passing me after I attempted the arm bar from guard, I should move my hips and put my other leg over while I go for the other arm. Things like that get me excited to continue grappling for years an d years to come...

Just a quick update. NAGA is coming soon, I'm excited to compete again.

So many resources... so little time.

2010-01-26T12:09:00.002-05:00

Yukinori Sasa (Paraestra Jiu Jitsu) Guard Instructional
Jiu Jitsu University
Passing the Guard

I really need to spend more time outside of training looking at these things and setting more specific goals for myself. I'm always finding myself getting muscled into triangles and I really need to work my escapes. Here are my next focuses for a while:

- Triangle Escapes
- Passing the Guard

Passing the closed/open/butterfly guard really isn't a hard task for me on people of my own skill levels but often times I find myself in these weird positions with my opponents legs in knots. That's usually when I'll resort to just grabbing one of their angles and doing a shimmy towards that blocked side. I really just need to read more.

Anyways, NAGA is coming up on the 6th. I'm excited and very eager for it to come. It's at the Twin Rivers Casino so it should be really fun afterwards too!

Off to training I go.

Shoyoroll

2010-01-19T11:02:00.002-05:00

See my review here: Shoyoroll Superlite Review

Overall, it's been a pretty good training week.

2010-01-11T12:57:00.003-05:00

Monday - MMA/BJJ plus Open Mat
Tuesday - BJJ plus OM (both afternoon and evening sessions)
Wednesday - MMA/BJJ plus OM
Friday - BJJ plus OM

I had planned to go Sunday but between work and training, I needed a break. Work is pretty spontaneous right now and working outside in the cold is exhausting.

I'm happy with my training other than the spike of injuries I've experienced. I banged my knee up on a sprawl during MMA on Wednesday and hurt my hand during grappling. They're both feeling better after my weekend off but it's still something I have to think about.

I wish I blogged earlier about what I learned during the week but it's all pretty cloudy. Friday, we worked a lot of open guard sweeps when your opponent stands. The first sweep:

1. Starting with both feet on opp hips
2. Grab a the right ankle and drop your leg foot around your opp right foot leg wrap/hook
3. Push and pull

The second sweep we worked was when we attempted the first sweep but our opponent stepped away from our leg wrap/hook.

1. Switch your left foot to their left hip
2. Use your leg that you attempted the hook/leg wrap with to sweep out the opposite leg as you push with your left foot

The last sweep we worked was a De La Riva sweep. I had a tough time getting my leg around and moving myself behind them on this one. I think it's because my legs aren't super long.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu & Submission Grappling:
Taking The Back From The De La Riva Guard

The video explains it better than I can. Now that I watched this, I see I was just being too nice getting around to take their back. I was going to them instead of making them come to me.

After class during open mat, I rolled with an older blue belt who is pretty experienced in BJJ and a black belt in Judo. He was getting me with all kinds of weird wrist locks and he flowed really nicely. One thing I noticed, every time I got to his back when he turtled, he would grab my arm, pin it and make roll with him until I ended up with him on my side mount. I should have asked him about it but I'll look into it later on. He gave me a couple tips here and there. I found rolling with him to be really helpful, probably the most helpful roll I've had lately.

MMA/BJJ plus OM tonight. Looking forward to it.

X-Guard

2010-01-04T11:05:00.006-05:00

Just as I decide that I'm going to put all of those fancy guards and flashy moves away, my MMA instructor decides to teach us everything X-Guard this month. It has been something I have been interested in (being a big fan of Marcelo) and I was pretty excited to get into it.

He started with how to get to the X-Guard itself. Apparently, there are thousands of ways to get into it but he showed us where someone puts one leg up and with one knee down. We simply grabbed their leg (while keeping a butterfly hook into the down knee) and pulled it over our shoulder and listened to it like we were on the phone. Then, with our free leg, we kicked to gain moment and pushed our partner back to stuff our other hook in (on top of their leg, above our hook, making the 'X').

It seems pretty simple but it took me a couple tries to figure it out. I was hooking the wrong leg at first but I made adjustments and figured it out. I didn't get to practice any sweeps with it yet but it does seem like it would be pretty effective since we are holding one of their legs. It pretty much just leaves us with the option of grabbing an arm and taking them any way their weight provides. It's pretty interesting.

I jumped right into Judo afterwards. We did our usual warm ups and footwork drills. The throws we practiced both involved a 'T', stepping behind our forward foot, twisting and pulling our partners sleeve and lapel forward. Step in front of the foot with our free foot and twist like an owl, throwing our partner to the ground with an arm controlled.

The second throw was essentially the same but from a side tie up, with either an overhook/underhook or a whizzer.

I feel like Judo will help my stand up a lot in the beginning of matches in tournaments. I'm glad I'll have that throw to use.

A new year and a new post

2010-01-02T17:20:00.004-05:00

Everyone knows that with a New Year comes New Years Resolutions. Everyone also knows that most people will never actually do what they said they would do or even set any. I was the girl in the later group, never setting any resolutions simply because I knew I wouldn't follow through with them. Welps, I have decided to be different this year... zomg!

- Attend all classes Monday through Friday and Sunday afternoon. These classes are mostly BJJ (good), about 3 hours of MMA a week, an hour of takedowns and an hour and a half of Judo! This also includes 4 hours of open mat which is absolutely aweeeesome.
- Eat healthier. I started today with an egg for breakfast and tunafish with apple slices for lunch which makes me very hungry at the moment.
- Compete in all tournaments possible. Now, there are 4 Grappler's Quest events in New Jersey, each roughly 3 hours away. There is a NAGA in Rhode Island and a Submission Only in Rochester. I really really want to compete in all of these events.
- Work on my strength and conditioning. I have a gym membership which has seldom been used lately. I need to change that.
- Save as much cash as possible. So this isn't fighting related... POOP!

On that note, I was also promoted again a couple weeks ago. I'm now a two stripe white belt. I have high hopes of being a blue belt by the end of 2010. Wish me luck! :)

1000 flighthours

2010-01-02T17:14:00.004-05:00

I'm a thief but let me explain!

I've been reading Zhoozhitzu do Graugardo and he came up with this great idea of tracking 1000 hours of sparring and evaluating himself at certain stages of the project. I think this is an excellent way to analyze my game. However, instead of focusing on my hours of rolling, I would rather do it on my hours of instruction. So, enjoy the journey. I'm sure I will!

My focuses:

- As always, my bottom half guard game. It's something that has came very natural for me. I would like to learn more sweeps from here and work on pressuring my opponent from this position.
- Passing the guard. This has been my focus for quite a while. I have gotten a lot better but I can still see holes in my technique.
- Agression. Again, it was a focus before but it will remain one. I need to be more offensive rather than relying on having to be defensive. I need to go for AND finish submissions more often while keeping pressure on for the best position.
- Sweeps. I feel as if my sweeps are lacking. Not necessarily my knowledge of sweeps but actually using them SUCCESSFULLY while rolling would be a step in the right direction.

There you have it.

A couple random side notes since I haven't updated in a while:

I have been provided with some awesome instructional recently. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is so diverse and I love it but I need to start narrowing my focuses down. I've decided to put all of the Eddie Bravo techniques to the side until I'm a higher rank. I keep hearing that white belts really need to focus on the basic techniques and I would like to do just that. I have Roy Dean's Blue Belt Requirements, Damian Maia's Science of Jiu Jitsu and Jeff Glover's Deep Half Guard. Naturally, I am very interested in the deep half guard DVD so I shall make an exception. Other than that, I won't be focusing on anything fancy (no x-guard, no cool submissions or sweeps). I just hope to pick up little hints here and there about mount, passing the guard, escapes, etc.

Marcelo Garcia Seminar: Day 1

2009-10-17T17:15:00.005-04:00

Okay, so I saw Marcelo last night during open mat and he seemed SUPER friendly. Sometimes you should judge a book by it's cover.

There were a ton of people for day 1 with the gi. I saw a lot of people from our gym and plenty of others that I didn't know from our affiliates. Marcelo started with a quick stretch to warm us up. It wasn't anything tiring but he explained why he doesn't warm up hard saying that he sometimes has 5 matches in a tournament and doesn't want to wear himself down. Completely understandable.

Shortly afterwards, we got into technique. We started with a basic butterfly sweep with both hooks from sitting position. He noted that whenever he scoots forward his hands follow, protecting his legs/feet. One under hook and one over hook, sitting back on the under hook side (shoulder only touching the mat!) and sending the person over landing in side. Next, we moved to a sweep to use when the person bases with their leg. We switched our feet and took him over to the other side. If they blocked that second sweep by posting out their hand, we simply scooped underneath the arm for the straight arm lock (or telephone pole?). THEN, if they tucked their arm follow with a butterfly sweep to the tucked side. It was cool to see so many things stringed together.

Next, we learned a sliding collar choke from the seat belt position. Grab the collar with the over hand and pull it with the under hand. If they're blocking their collar, peel their hand away from the top with the palm of your hand. Reach your free hand under their arm, over their head to your own bicep (kind of like the RNC). Finish from there. Same position, but this time the person is pulling their collar away to relieve pressure from the choke. Lay them down on their side, take the s-mount and lay on their arm. Now, reach down and hook under their leg going all the way up and going behind to your bicep again. I can't remember the third one!

Finally, we did a defense to someone in side bridging and going for your far leg from the outside. First step is to sprawl that leg out far, putting your weight on them. Get seat belt, and switch your hip around to their side. Up on your toes, and shoot your left leg inside for the hook. Roll them over to their side and secure your final hook.

Afterward, we had open mat. I rolled with a few people from my gym and two people from other gyms. One female green belt. She was scrappy. I also rolled with a blue belt (quite a bit bigger than me) and did really well. I'm happy with my performance as of late.

That's all I can think of right now but I'm looking forward to no gi tomorrow.

Big update to match my big achievements!

2009-09-28T14:00:00.004-04:00

It's been a LONG time since I updated my blog. I've been lazy when it comes to writing stuff down like I used but that's partially because I started a new job and have less free time. I've still been training almost everyday and if not at least 5 or 6 times a week. Since I last updated this is what has happened...

- I was promoted and given my yellow belt (or a stripe for those of you who are familiar with those)
- I attended Grappler's Quest in Lancaster, PA this past weekend and placed 3rd in no gi and 4th in gi

Not much to say about being promoted, just that I was super excited! :)

Grappler's Quest was an awesome experience! I didn't win the whole thing like I had wanted but I think I did extremely well considering the amount of time that I have been training and that it was my first competition. I received a medal for 3rd place in no gi and couldn't be happier about it. The first match, I was guillotined in about 2 seconds and it came on fast! Honestly, I was not expecting it all and I have realized that I have been underestimating women a lot! I didn't let the first match get to me and came back to win my second match by arm bar to place 3rd! I didn't do well in gi but it was an all around learning experience. My teammates from Tai-Kai all did awesome and it was great to compete with everyone.

I am ready to take my training to a new level.

Keep everything tight!

2009-08-03T09:17:00.004-04:00

I had to blog about yesterday's class because I'm feeling very high right now about it.

There were five of us, one green belt and the rest white. Naturally, I worked between both groups but not before I had to have Joe as my warm up partner so by the time we were learning things, I was very warm.

We went over the double arm bar which was to be executed while in high guard (which I loved) and then tweaked it so we could easily transition from the double to a single if the opponent stood up.

The best part of the class was when Joe put the green belt out on the mat and me! This means two things. He knows that out of the other 3 white belts, I have the most skill. Second, he realizes how hard I have been working which was confirmed later on.

So basically, the green belt and I were on the mat the entire time while everyone else cycled through us. I did extremely and surprisingly well. We began with them in our guard and their job was to survive (and basically do anything) while ours was to submit. I worked the double arm bar on the bigger guy and tapped him out. Another skinnier guy came and I submitted him with a kimura. A few other times, I was able to get both of the opponents arms on the other side so their back was available but I was having trouble getting it. After the drill, class ended and Joe pulled me off to the side to show me how to take their back in that instance.

He dragged my arm all the way over which I was doing but he secured the wrist AND the elbow which made it a lot easier for him to drive me to the ground so that he could easily take my back. He congratulated me on doing well in the drill and added that he was very impressed that I wasn't tired at all. He also noted that I came to the gym often.

It's amazing how just a small talk can boost your confidence to 200% and make you feel awesome!

Starting with the most recent

2009-07-29T11:19:00.007-04:00

Last night, we worked the handstand sweep. It took me a couple tries at first but I started to really get it down.

1. When opp stands up while in your guard, post with right hand (like a handstand DOH!) and wrap around their ankle with left hand
2. Push opp with your legs to the left while pulling their ankle towards you
3. Come up with them as they go down, taking the mount

A little extra pop with the 'handstand' hand is helpful. After drilling, we worked a counter.

1. Drive right knee into opp, while grabbing their belt
2. Reach under their leg and grab their right side lapel
3. Drive all your weight down and gain side control

I was able to work this sweep once while rolling with Brian. I've been working my half guard really well and I can tell that I have been frustrating bigger guys. I'm putting up a hell of a fight to pass my guard now! :)

Monday night was very constructive during open mat. We relearned the triangle choke during class beforehand. It's nice to work the basics again. I find that every time we go over "obvious" moves that I see different aspects which I once missed.

I rolled with a few blue belts. The first one significantly out weighed me (at least 60 pounds) but he let me work a little bit. I was usually on the bottom but I worked my half guard game a lot. He also showed me a sweep from half guard that I hope to use sometime. The next blue belt I worked with still out weighed me but decided to flow with me even more than the last one. We flowed from position to position and he let me work the arm triangle from the mount. I remembered everything (even hopping off to the side) except I didn't put my head to the ground. He reminded me of that. All in all, pretty good rolls.

During MMA, we did a lot of ground work. We went over a position called the Pyramid. I believe it's an Eddie Bravo thing. All you have to do is control an arm (wrapping around the outside) and open the guard. Throw one leg over so that it is around the back of the opp head. Bring your other knee up so that your legs are touching. You can get a triangle from here, gogoplata,or an omaplata. We played with it for a little while and it was pretty enlightening. I wanted to try some rubber guard things due to my flexibility but held back because I was never formally taught anything. I hope to work it in a little more now.

It's a little different on the video but same concepts.

We also did a cool little variation of the triangle choke called the tipee. Bascially, you have both legs straight up and crossed. You sit up and grab behind the legs while squeezing your knees together. It's a VERY affective blood choke.

Got my new gear!

2009-07-24T20:08:00.007-04:00

Well, I had been saying how I was waiting for my new blue Gameness Pearl gi and my Combat Sports sparring gloves. I've received them both. I knew from my Gameness single weave that my new one would fit very well and it does. It has held up 2 days of training so far. Once thing I did notice, the knot on the end of the drawstring on the pants came undone which struck me as odd. I haven't had an issue with my other Gameness pants. The gloves are super comfortable but I haven't had a chance to spar with them yet.

On to Jiu Jitsu!

Wednesday and today were both spent passing half guard using a few different methods.

1. Gable grip, tripod up while drive your shoulder into opp face
2. Use free leg/foot to help get your knee past their grown
3. Switch your hips and drive your knee towards the mat
4. Enjoy side control

1. Gable grip, tripod up while drive your shoulder into opp face
2. Secure the opponents arm (same side that has you in half guard)
3. Switch your hips and drive your knee towards the mat
4. Enjoy scarf position

Next (the case that the first pass was too difficult)...

1. Gable grip, tripod up while drive your shoulder into opp face, secure the back of the gi
2. Rotate your hips out, away from your opp
3. Free your leg either by pushing with foot or pulling opp leg away
4. Hit side control

Now, from there, you can grab your foot (as long as you control the back of their gi) and put it over them to secure a tight mount. After we drilled these a few times, we did a live drill. Bottom was responsible for sweeping us and we were responsible for passing their half guard. I need to work on my weight placement when I'm doing the tripod. It took me a couple tries to get it but when I went against a yellow (who had to be 200 pounds AT LEAST) and I used my shoulder drive, I was actually able to pass his guard. I was quite proud of myself.

Thursday class was spent drilling every sweep we know and then grappling. I drilled my scissor sweep, the flower sweep, and the sit up/roll sweep from half guard. I have been able to pull off the scissor sweep during live grappling quite a bit. The flower sweep not so much. I had the sensei should be the sweep again so hopefully I can perfect that a little more. I was unsure about the half guard sweep so I will be waiting for them to teach us more sweeps from that position.

I have found that even when training with people who are significantly larger than I, that I am doing very good at escaping bad positions and regaining some type of guard. I've always caught people trying to mount or switch sides with my legs aswell. I LOVEEE that I can see a specific improvement in my game. I am also very proud of my cardio and the amount of stamina that I have gained. It is a great ability to be able to use against people who are gased.

MMA

We worked a way to escape the clinch and did our normal stand up and ground sparring. I need to focus on my punching technique more. I find myself waiting for them to strike and just blocking so I need to work in some counter punches too.

Hopefully, Brittany starts MMA this week. I will feel a little more comfortable beating on the noobie!

Aggression is my new best friend.

2009-07-21T14:57:00.002-04:00

We worked a few different moves last night and finally strung them together. Starting from standing...

1. Take double underhooks and widen your base, sit and bring the opp into your guard
2. When opp goes for choke and stands to apply pressure, redirect arm across their body and gable grip behind their head
3. Open guard, sweep the knee and get a hook
4. Grab opp lat and gain back mount

That was really about it and now that I typed it out, it doesn't seem like we did much.

I was really happy with my rolling last night. I was able to work what we learned in class a couple times and I also worked the triangle choke from the mount that we learned Sunday. I rolled with sensei and he told me in order to get my next belt, I need to be more aggressive so I will definitely work on that! I'm looking for that next belt.

2009-07-20T11:31:00.005-04:00

Friday
We worked a few different gi chokes .

1. Grab the v of the gi
2. Bring it around the opp arm and switch grips
3. Grab the top of the gi on the other side for the choke

I can't remember what else we did! That's what I get for blogging so late.

Saturday
We did a lot of fancy things on Saturday again too. Thanks Scott. The first was getting the opp out of the turtle position. It's the same way to take the back as rolling them to their side but instead flipping over them and carrying them with you. The next thing was a shoulder lock from when the opp takes a failed shot on your leg. Scoot to the side with their arm in between your legs, chances are, opp will straighten it. Keep it, roll (opp should roll with you or it will hurt their arm), hold them down, and take the omaplata. We also did some weird calf lock. I don't really remember it so I will have to research it. I rolled afterwards and I tweaked my neck really bad.

Sunday
We worked a lot of drills from the mount during this class. All the escapes we know and all the submissions followed by some live drilling. We also learned the triangle choke from the mount and the "gangsta" lean. I had Brittany adjust my neck so that helped me a little bit.

Hopefully, I get the blue Gameness Pearl I ordered today. I need a clean gi for class tonight! I also ordered some new Combat sparring gloves (sale for $24.99!!!) so I will not longer be hurting my partners with padless gloves.

More fancy armbars and some take downs

2009-07-16T10:23:00.002-04:00

For Thursday evening, we worked a couple take downs for the beginning of class. We did a standard single leg and then we worked one from behind.

1. Grab opp waist
2. Drop down on one knee, sliding grips down to opp thighs
3. Slide your arm and head underneath their legs as you drive your knee towards their ankle
4. Grab and pull down the same leg that you are sweeping
5. Come up with their leg into side control, etc.

The next thing we did was another fancy arm bar. I wish I knew the name of it so I could post a video but I will try my best to describe it. Starting with your opp in turtle positon and your hooks in...

1. Drop one knee and leave the opposite hook in
2. Wrap around your opp arm from their shoulder in and wrap your other arm around the inside of their leg
3. Tuck your head and roll underneath your opponent, extending your free leg to aid in the flip
4. Bring your leg around their head as opp is flipped over so you can take the usual arm bar

I rolled afterwards with Brittany. She has me constantly defending, even if I'm on top. It makes it extremely difficult to try to work out of her guard. She always gets good grips on me so I need to work on evading those and bettering mine. She always pulls guard a lot in the beginning, which is what I'm used to. I tried to dominating and attempting to gain side mount but I was unsuccessful. She's fast and strong. I'm not even sure what I need to work on more in order to gain the upper hand on her. I need to lift more! I'm going to focus on gaining more control from now on. I find myself defending a lot because most of the people I roll with are bigger/stronger than me. I'll update after noon class today.

2009-07-14T16:28:00.002-04:00

I wanted to update on my progress with the two things I decided to work on a couple weeks ago.

1. Passing Closed Guard
I started to work with Brittany on passing her closed guard since she has really strong legs and she helped me with the elbow drive method. I was trying to drive my elbows out more than down to hit that 'spot'. I've been remembering that and I've also been using the knee in the butt method more. For some odd reason, it didn't strike me that actually breaking the guard was important. I was trying to work the techniques without even separating the legs and strictly using my elbows (not even backing up). I can't understand why I missed that as it seems really obvious but I've got it down now.

2. Controlling in Mount
I haven't had much time to consciously work on riding out the mount in live situations. However, I went to a class that Dennis was instructing and we did a drill where we executed all of the submissions we new from mount. He also gave a tip about being able to stay in control when the person is bucking a lot. He said the head acts as a counter weight. When the person bucks, the head should go up and back. Very similar to bull riding.

I will continue to work both of these.

First half of training today finished!

2009-07-14T16:14:00.005-04:00

Scott showed us a move called the 'Helicopter' armbar. If you've ever done it or seen a video, you know that it is a super flash move but it is reallllly cool! Would I ever pull it off? Probably not. However, if I am ever in this situation, I can use it. It feels good to learn a new way to incorporate a basic move. For those of you who have absolutely no clue as to what I am talking about...

After working this for a while, we worked a normal armbar from closed guard sweep. Been there, done that but I love working the basics.

Scott wanted us to roll after class so he could see technique and evaluate people towards belt promotions so I stayed. I rolled with him and he let me work any submission I wanted.

Back to class tonight at 6:45 and open mat following!

Oh, I also got another book in the mail today. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Theory and Technique by Renzo and Royler Gracie. I've only briefly looked through this one but I'm liking it more than my other book.

Slacker!!!

2009-07-13T15:04:00.003-04:00

I'm not a slacker when it comes to training or working out but I am a slacker when it comes to writing all the things down that I learn!

Let's see... picking up from my last post and the class I went to right after, the 9th during the day. We did a lot of drilling today and did not go over any new techniques. Actually, we barely even did a warm up. We just focused on rolling and flowing with each other for a while. Afterwards, we worked some basic escapes from under the mount.

On Friday, we definitely made up for the lack of warm up. We had to carry our partner across the gym a number of times (in a number of different ways) and it was freakin' exhausting. Joe taught us a couple basic collar chokes so we drilled that for a while. We also did a umpa/bridge drill to scissor sweep with our partners.

Saturday was no gi jiu jitsu and open mat. We worked a lot of open guard stuff and a couple chokes afterwards. I rolled with a blue belt and was able to submit him with my triangle choke but he really let me work it. It still felt good to finish though.

Sunday, we did a couple chokes and worked all the submissions we know from the mount.

I can't go to class today as I have work and traded it off so I could go to friday Jiu Jitsu and wrestling/take downs. I'm going tomorrow though, twice!!

Passing the guard

2009-07-08T09:35:00.005-04:00

Both the noon class and the evening class covered passing the guard. It was great because 1) I really need to work on this as it is one of my weak points 2) it was taught by two different instructors so not only did I learn a few different ways to do it, I learned vastly different techniques.

The first one was taught by Scott after we did some yoga to open our hips up. It began similar to the elbow drive but isn't of just pushing with our elbows, we posted one leg out and broke the guard by semi-standing.

1. Grab their belt, ready to drive the elbows down
2. Post out far from the opp on one leg, quickly switch the legs so the post is down and the other is up over opp knee
3. Keep toes hooked around opp calf while holding their leg down
4. Hook the opposite leg and push over to keep control as you slide the free leg through, gaining side control

We worked the same one for pretty much the entire class.

In the evening, we focused on the completely standing up break.

1. One hand on the belt, one controlling the sleeve
2. Stand and thrust forward to break open the guard
3. Grab the opp legs and throw them over to one side to gain side control

We also did closed guard to butterfly guard pass.

So you do the standing break, the opp switches to butterfly guard and you immediately sit down. Simply slide your right knee to their right leg and sprawl to pass their butterfly guard to side control.

Overall, it was a pretty constructive day for me. I didn't stay to roll afterwards though which I am feeling a little guilty about since I can't go to class today. However, I will be going to work out again.

I have been looking through Submission Grappling by Royler Gracie so hopefully that will aid me in passing the closed guard. I've also watched about 10 minutes of Demian Maia Science of BJJ.

Catchy titles are overrated...

2009-07-07T09:02:00.004-04:00

Last night, we broke down the arm bar again step by step from the mount. Ken says that he is seeing a lot of sloppy arms bars in open mat and he was really emphasizing getting it as tight as possible. We also went over a few escapes for the arm bar as well!

1. Remove the opponents leg
2. Pull elbow to ground and roll into the person
3. Point thumb down and move around to your knees

It was a pretty simple class but I really think getting the basics down is super important and I've heard for MANY people that the basics simply work. No flashy flying arm bar necessary.

During open mat I worked a sweep, pass or submit drill with Nicco and Kevin. Throughout open mat and MMA, I really worked the scissor sweep well. I was pretty proud when I pulled it off while a kid was punching me in the face. I also tried staying in mount longer than usual. I'm used to just getting bucked off so I need to work on that. I found myself in half guard a lot too so it would be nice to learn some submissions or sweeps from there.

In MMA, we worked some slipping again and added a takedown. It wasn't too tough to grasp but I'm always looking to improve my sparring which we always end up doing at some point.

This morning, I will be going to the gym to get cardio and lift some weights. Afterwards, I'm going to the noon class and the evening class later on.

Weekends ruin me!!!

2009-07-06T12:31:00.005-04:00

Friday night we worked half guard escapes and a submission. The cardio beforehand was really soft for Joe and I was really surprised by that. Anyways, to the half guard escape...

1. Take the opposite side of the gi and wrap it behind their arm (aids in controlling their upper body)
2. Overhand grip and pass to other hand
3. Push with newly free hand while dragging knee out
4. Post knee on ground, make foot skinny to slide it through
5. End in mount! :)

The choke we learned was pretty simple, front naked choke. Fun though. Wrestling was cancelled afterwards so I just rolled around with Brittany for a few minutes.

I was feeling really guilty about drinking this entire weekend so I ran for 30 minutes. Tonight I shall be going to BJJ, rolling at open mat, and doing MMA. I'll update tomorrow.

Noon ends too soon

2009-07-02T15:16:00.005-04:00

Day time classes always seem to go very quickly.

We started off with some yoga and stretching. I enjoy yoga. Today we drilled the arm bar from mount. Scott teaches the day time classes so the moves we do are always very "flowy". We did the arm bar in the instance that our opponent is pressing up on our chest.

1. Post on their chest, snaking around their arm left arm
2. Put all your weight on their chest as you swing your left leg over their head
3. Pinch everything tight and go for the sub

The next variation:

1. Post on their chest, controlling their arm by their elbow
2. Scoot your left knee to their head so you are in the s-mount
3. Put your leg leg over their head and pinch for the sub

Often he who does too much does too little

2009-07-02T11:20:00.004-04:00

I wanted to make one more short post before I go to class outlining what my focus is this week. I will try to set a new focus at the start of every week. This week is almost over but my focus has been passing the closed guard and controlling more while in the mount position.

1. Passing Closed Guard
It is very tough for me to break the closed guard on anyone. I have a really tough time keeping balance while trying to the 'knee in the butt maneuver' and it has been really tough for me to dig in with my elbows. I have been told by a few people that it helps when they put your elbows right into that soft spot on top of the knee. I have worked that a little but not as much as I would like. My main focus when trying to pass the guard is the elbow drive and the knee in the butt.

2. Controlling in Mount
I find myself constantly getting bucked off my opponent when I gain mount. I have been trying to dig my feet into their sides/underneath my opponent more and it seems to be helping. I still find it very tough to control my opponent if they are significantly larger than me.

Since I am so new to Jiu Jitsu, there is obviously a TON of things that I need to work on. Through my reading and experiences talking to people, I have learned that it is important to pin point only a few things at a time. Hence the blog title.

Where do I start?

2009-07-02T10:43:00.005-04:00

That was the question of the day when I first started my training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was feeling very overwhelmed and not quite sure what to do. I find that this is often the epic question whenever I start anything new, including this blog.

I began about a month and a half ago at a place called Tai-Kai Jiu Jitsu, which is a Relson Gracie Team Balance gym. I'm still a white belt as I write now (which was to be expected). I usually try to train at least five times a week. I go as often as my schedule allows. I'm also attending MMA classes and a wrestling class regularly. My gym does teach Thai and Boxing but unfortunately, they run at the same time BJJ does.

I'm not going to back track and try to explain everything that I have learned so far so I will jump right into what we learned last night.

Joe (purple belt) ran the class last night. After our conditioning and warm-ups, we went straight into learning the omaplata from the guard position. The set up was pretty similar to the arm bar we worked last week so it came pretty natural to me.

1. Control the bicep
2. Drop the left foot to the ground
3. Shrimp out, post right foot on opp hip
4. Pinch shoulder with knees
5. Throw leg/foot over opp head
6. Sit out and raise hips

After we all 'mastered' that, we strung together a collar choke, arm bar, and omaplata from the same position. Pretty fun stuff.

For the end of class, we did a pass or sweep drill. The higher belts started out on the mat and the lower belts proceeded to try to pass. I was swept more than I passed but I did manage to pass a green belt and a white belt, both of the men being significantly larger than I. I'm really not exceptionally 'speedy' but I managed to gain significant control of their legs and be patient enough to pass at the right moment instead of jumping right into it like I tend to do sometimes. I've also been trying to stack more often during drills and rolling. It has been working pretty well for me!

After that, open mat began.

I rolled with a newer girl who tends to gas herself out really quickly. I did my best to give her tips on some basic positioning and let her know that pacing herself is a really good idea. I worked on the cobra choke that a friend had showed me later that night because I find I only think of the arm bar and the kimura when I get mount.

I went to MMA after that and got my butt kicked a little but hey, it was fun. We worked on creating angles and just did some general sparring and clinch work. It was one of the kid's 18th birthday and we made a huge circle around him and took turns beating on him a little bit! It was playful and I can honestly say that I can't wait for my birthday to come up.

That's all for now. I'm off to the noon class.