Tonight we did more of the transitionary stuff from the guard. Armbars and what not. It was more of a review.
I was having a really off night, submitting to crap I shouldn't have. I wasn't nearly as good as I was on Tuesday. I'm going back tomorrow for open mat to see if I can work some of this out.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Another good night
It was another excellent night. Joe wasn't able to make it, so Bobby, the Children's instructor, ran the class. Started out with the standard warm up and drills, then we went into scarf hold submissions and escapes. We went over the bow and arrow and a straight arm lock from the position. Good stuff.
After that, we went into escapes. The first was s-gripping the back, hipping up and driving them over. The other was creating space and driving your shoulder towards the mat.
Anyways, we rolled a bit at the end of class. My first roll was with Ken, an Irish blue belt. He's a super cool guy. Anyways, to my surprise, I instinctively pulled the scarfhold escape during our roll. It completely caught Ken by surprise, and we had a good laugh.
Then I rolled with Hayden, the 14 year old kid. he's really good at defense, and I couldn't get any submissions in. I did, however, stay on top nearly the whole time. He is, of course, like 70 lbs lighter than me.
My final roll was with a new girl named Alex. She is coming to us from a no-gi school here in tow, where she's gone for three years or so.(we've been getting a lot of students from there). Anyways, rolling with her was interesting because she's not as aggressive as Amber, but she's pretty good at defense as well. Anyways, during the roll, I caught her in an Omplata. This is the first time I've submitted somebody for real!
I know submissions don't really matter, and that she's a new student. I don't view it as a victory over her or anything, I just am happy that my training is paying off! Joe showed me the Omplata for the first time a week ago, and I didn't even set her up or anything...I just saw a hole and took it!
Anyways I'm just excited that I had a good night with good rolls. Every time I roll, I try to learn something.
After that, we went into escapes. The first was s-gripping the back, hipping up and driving them over. The other was creating space and driving your shoulder towards the mat.
Anyways, we rolled a bit at the end of class. My first roll was with Ken, an Irish blue belt. He's a super cool guy. Anyways, to my surprise, I instinctively pulled the scarfhold escape during our roll. It completely caught Ken by surprise, and we had a good laugh.
Then I rolled with Hayden, the 14 year old kid. he's really good at defense, and I couldn't get any submissions in. I did, however, stay on top nearly the whole time. He is, of course, like 70 lbs lighter than me.
My final roll was with a new girl named Alex. She is coming to us from a no-gi school here in tow, where she's gone for three years or so.(we've been getting a lot of students from there). Anyways, rolling with her was interesting because she's not as aggressive as Amber, but she's pretty good at defense as well. Anyways, during the roll, I caught her in an Omplata. This is the first time I've submitted somebody for real!
I know submissions don't really matter, and that she's a new student. I don't view it as a victory over her or anything, I just am happy that my training is paying off! Joe showed me the Omplata for the first time a week ago, and I didn't even set her up or anything...I just saw a hole and took it!
Anyways I'm just excited that I had a good night with good rolls. Every time I roll, I try to learn something.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Really good night.
Well, I arrived at class tonight to find out that the power was out. Apparently, the church we borrow the space from just changed ownership, so the utilities weren't transferred over. It was no big deal, as it was a beautiful day. We just opened the doors, so we had enough light to train by. It wasn't hot out either, so we didn't really need the fans going.
There were only four students. Two blue belts (Adam is testing for purple in June, I think) and a two or three stripe white belt. Of course, our main instructor (the brown belt) was there. Joe informed me that I really needed to work transitions, since we've never gone over them since I've been in class. He dedicated most of the hour completely to me. I felt really honored that Joe would do that for me, since there were other students there. He kinda just said "you guys go roll over there, I'm gonna work with greg." We just drilled moving between positions. From mount, to knee on belly, to side control, to scarf hold, reverse scarf hold, back to mount. Joe told me to visualize this when I got the chance.
The last ten minutes of class, I rolled with a couple blue belts. I focused on just moving between positions. Adam is a good partner to roll with. He let me stay on top the whole time, and would only gain the dominant position whenever I fucked up.
Which was often.
Still, it was a good experience. I train with a bunch of great people
There were only four students. Two blue belts (Adam is testing for purple in June, I think) and a two or three stripe white belt. Of course, our main instructor (the brown belt) was there. Joe informed me that I really needed to work transitions, since we've never gone over them since I've been in class. He dedicated most of the hour completely to me. I felt really honored that Joe would do that for me, since there were other students there. He kinda just said "you guys go roll over there, I'm gonna work with greg." We just drilled moving between positions. From mount, to knee on belly, to side control, to scarf hold, reverse scarf hold, back to mount. Joe told me to visualize this when I got the chance.
The last ten minutes of class, I rolled with a couple blue belts. I focused on just moving between positions. Adam is a good partner to roll with. He let me stay on top the whole time, and would only gain the dominant position whenever I fucked up.
Which was often.
Still, it was a good experience. I train with a bunch of great people
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Walkin' on Sunshine
I'm in an amazing mood this morning, that may or may not have anything to do with BJJ. My dog woke me up at 4:30am, and I was like "screw it, I'm up". I'm in a good mood and feel great. This is such a rare occasion, because of my chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm taking advantage of it today. I can't go do BJJ tonight, because its my best friend's last night in town and I have to take him to dinner.
Anyways, last night's class was pretty cool. We did more transitioning from guard positions. We practiced the armbar from guard again, and then we did a pretty cool sit up transition. I don't know what its called, but bascially if your armbar fails, you're still in a position to move. I really like the aggressive focus our school has. I think aggression is something that some BJJ schools lack, from some of the videos I've seen on youtube and around the net. That isn't a bad thing, I just personally like agression.
One of our guys, the big dude that crushes me everytime we roll, got a stripe last night. It was good to see. However, I prefer to roll with his 15 year old son. The kid is very technical, but not very large. This makes him a good partner because if you screw up, he's going to catch you. His dad just kinda crushes me into submission. The kid got his third stripe on his white belt a few weeks ago, after he won his division in NAGA. I'm always happy to see team mates get promoted, even if its just a stripe.
The best part of the night is Darrin, our black belt instructor, asked me if I wanted to stay behind and roll a bit after we bowed out of class. Darrin is, quite literally, the only blackbelt in our town. Because of his work schedule, he can only come two days a week. He is a very good instructor, and roughly the same size as me. He walked me through several chokes as we rolled, including the cross collar choke. We are lucky to have Darrin, as well as Joe (our brown belt instructor).
I'm still trying to find a bit more about Darrin's lineage. I know that he was promoted to at least Blue belt by Carlson Gracie Sr. He's has often talked about the late Grandmaster with reverence. I know he got his blackbelt from Carlson Jr., who he refers to as a "beast." I don't know who he got his purple and brown belts from.
So, I'm going to get off here and go back to work. Have a great day!
Anyways, last night's class was pretty cool. We did more transitioning from guard positions. We practiced the armbar from guard again, and then we did a pretty cool sit up transition. I don't know what its called, but bascially if your armbar fails, you're still in a position to move. I really like the aggressive focus our school has. I think aggression is something that some BJJ schools lack, from some of the videos I've seen on youtube and around the net. That isn't a bad thing, I just personally like agression.
One of our guys, the big dude that crushes me everytime we roll, got a stripe last night. It was good to see. However, I prefer to roll with his 15 year old son. The kid is very technical, but not very large. This makes him a good partner because if you screw up, he's going to catch you. His dad just kinda crushes me into submission. The kid got his third stripe on his white belt a few weeks ago, after he won his division in NAGA. I'm always happy to see team mates get promoted, even if its just a stripe.
The best part of the night is Darrin, our black belt instructor, asked me if I wanted to stay behind and roll a bit after we bowed out of class. Darrin is, quite literally, the only blackbelt in our town. Because of his work schedule, he can only come two days a week. He is a very good instructor, and roughly the same size as me. He walked me through several chokes as we rolled, including the cross collar choke. We are lucky to have Darrin, as well as Joe (our brown belt instructor).
I'm still trying to find a bit more about Darrin's lineage. I know that he was promoted to at least Blue belt by Carlson Gracie Sr. He's has often talked about the late Grandmaster with reverence. I know he got his blackbelt from Carlson Jr., who he refers to as a "beast." I don't know who he got his purple and brown belts from.
So, I'm going to get off here and go back to work. Have a great day!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
April 16th
Tonight was a good class.
We didn't do any drills or anything, because we didn't have many people. We just rolled the entire hour. I was the only white belt in class. It was very hot in the gym, so they decided to do no gi.
Needless to say, I got thrashed up and down the mat, but I can tell I've made a lot of progress. It seems that the guys I haven't rolled with in a month were very impressed. I have mat burn on my forehead and a bruise on my face.
Awesome.
We didn't do any drills or anything, because we didn't have many people. We just rolled the entire hour. I was the only white belt in class. It was very hot in the gym, so they decided to do no gi.
Needless to say, I got thrashed up and down the mat, but I can tell I've made a lot of progress. It seems that the guys I haven't rolled with in a month were very impressed. I have mat burn on my forehead and a bruise on my face.
Awesome.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
First Night Back
Ok, so I was off three weeks, so tonight back was bag smoker.
We started off with some warmup drills, consisting of front and back rolls and a bunch of other funny ways to move. I was sweating by the end of that portion, because our gym isn't air conditioned. It was 80 degrees today, so that many people in an enclosed area made it hot pretty quickly.
After that, we drilled armbars from the guard. I had a lot of fun doing this. Its a move we did in combatives, so I picked it up pretty quickly.
About forty minutes in, we started rolling. I rolled with the teenager (15 or so) again. He good to roll with, because he's just pretty good. He and his little brother both won their division at NAGA Nashville earlier this month. Luckily, I'm bigger than him, and he's not strong enough to really get me in anything I can't get out of. But working with him forces me to focus on my defense because he's aggressive and he's good.
Everybody else I rolled with really just toyed with me. However, I did roll with our blackbelt and got a lot of good info from him. He said I was progressing really well, and I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was last time I came in. Its always good to get positive enforcement, especially since I wasn't feelin 100% when I came in today. I've just been falling behind at work and school.
Oh, I forgot to mention, my Gi came in today. I got a black Fuji Victory in A2. Unwashed, it fits perfect, so I need to be careful not to shrink it.
I'm tired and sore, but i"m happy we had a good class. I also found out that our NAGA Nashville team did really well. We sent six competitors and brought home medals in every category we had an entry in, including four golds.
We started off with some warmup drills, consisting of front and back rolls and a bunch of other funny ways to move. I was sweating by the end of that portion, because our gym isn't air conditioned. It was 80 degrees today, so that many people in an enclosed area made it hot pretty quickly.
After that, we drilled armbars from the guard. I had a lot of fun doing this. Its a move we did in combatives, so I picked it up pretty quickly.
About forty minutes in, we started rolling. I rolled with the teenager (15 or so) again. He good to roll with, because he's just pretty good. He and his little brother both won their division at NAGA Nashville earlier this month. Luckily, I'm bigger than him, and he's not strong enough to really get me in anything I can't get out of. But working with him forces me to focus on my defense because he's aggressive and he's good.
Everybody else I rolled with really just toyed with me. However, I did roll with our blackbelt and got a lot of good info from him. He said I was progressing really well, and I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was last time I came in. Its always good to get positive enforcement, especially since I wasn't feelin 100% when I came in today. I've just been falling behind at work and school.
Oh, I forgot to mention, my Gi came in today. I got a black Fuji Victory in A2. Unwashed, it fits perfect, so I need to be careful not to shrink it.
I'm tired and sore, but i"m happy we had a good class. I also found out that our NAGA Nashville team did really well. We sent six competitors and brought home medals in every category we had an entry in, including four golds.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
I'm not dead
As I previously wrote, I've been out of town doing military crap. It was, as predicted, a complete waste of time. The only good thing is that my employer went ahead and paid me my full monthly salary, so I double dip a little. Well, and I also got my medical records examined, and the Army says I don't have to run anymore...which is good. I suck at running, and have a genuine illness that makes it extremely difficult for me. That is actually one of the reason I got into BJJ.
While I was gone, I got a copy of Saulo Ribero's excellent Jiu Jitsu University. This is, by far, the best martial arts book I've ever read. It is fully colored, with step by step pictorial instructions and methodology. I like that he explains the "why" behind the moves. In many martial arts books I've read, they have grain pictures with captions saying something like "punch to the face." The book is also organized in a concise, logical manner, where the foundations are built upon as you progress through the book. Professor Ribero goes in depth, and I actually learned quite a lot just by reading through the first section.
Still no gi. I ordered a black Fuji from MMAoutlet.com. Apparently, Fuji messed up their shipment and didn't send in any A2s. MMAoutlet, however, has been very responsive and did offer me a slight discount for my trouble. They promised to have it in the mail by tomorrow afternoon. I'm hoping to be able to wear it to class monday, because I'm tired of being the only guy without a gi. Eventually, I hope to become one of those bloggers that is qualified enough to give a product review...but it will be my first BJJ gi. In the future, I'll see if I've earned that qualification.
I am back at home, but decided to take this week off of training. While I was gone, I got severely behind on school work, house work, husband work, father work, and all other work. Plus, I don't have my gi. There is a local tournament in June that I'd love to get into, but it coincides with my daughter's first birthday. A man has to have his priorities.
While I was gone, I got a copy of Saulo Ribero's excellent Jiu Jitsu University. This is, by far, the best martial arts book I've ever read. It is fully colored, with step by step pictorial instructions and methodology. I like that he explains the "why" behind the moves. In many martial arts books I've read, they have grain pictures with captions saying something like "punch to the face." The book is also organized in a concise, logical manner, where the foundations are built upon as you progress through the book. Professor Ribero goes in depth, and I actually learned quite a lot just by reading through the first section.
Still no gi. I ordered a black Fuji from MMAoutlet.com. Apparently, Fuji messed up their shipment and didn't send in any A2s. MMAoutlet, however, has been very responsive and did offer me a slight discount for my trouble. They promised to have it in the mail by tomorrow afternoon. I'm hoping to be able to wear it to class monday, because I'm tired of being the only guy without a gi. Eventually, I hope to become one of those bloggers that is qualified enough to give a product review...but it will be my first BJJ gi. In the future, I'll see if I've earned that qualification.
I am back at home, but decided to take this week off of training. While I was gone, I got severely behind on school work, house work, husband work, father work, and all other work. Plus, I don't have my gi. There is a local tournament in June that I'd love to get into, but it coincides with my daughter's first birthday. A man has to have his priorities.
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