2 down, 1 to go

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...

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

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

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.

Shultz tells all!

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.

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.