I’ve had a good past few days. I went to open mat on Saturday, and had some really good rolls with Mike. I managed to pass his guard 3 or 4 times, and got the compliment that he’s “starting to not want to be on the bottom” rolling with me. I rolled with Josh too, who gave me a rough half hour roll last week until I finally triangled him. This week though, I passed his guard basically at will and submitted him 3 or 4 times. Something seems to have clicked with my passing, because last night I rolled with Ben for the first time in a while, and it wasn’t a struggle at all to pass. Before, I couldn’t pass at all, and if I did somehow, I couldn’t hold top position. I had also only submitted him like once or twice ever, and they were freak things. After I passed I held side mount and north south until I got an armbar with a kimura grip. It seems to be all coming together a bit, now I just need to work on my takedowns and sweeps so I can use my passing haha. I have to teach at the club all week because Adin’s out of town until next Thursday, so I plan to add a bit more structure to practice.
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Well, I was right. Last night a couple people got stripes, and Logan was one of them. I think he got his second stripe on his purple belt, and Casey got his third stripe on his white belt. Well deserved on both counts. Then, surprisingly, I saw Casey this morning when I was handing out fliers at the shipyard, apparently he works there. I felt like I got hit by a car last night after jiu jitsu. I got up at 5:30, handed out fliers like usual, then napped for a while, went to class, found out one of my other classes was cancelled, and went to New World.
I went to the new class Mike is doing from 6-8:30, then immediately drove to the club’s practice until 10:45. We’re still going over stuff from bottom half guard at New World. I’m really not a fan of half guard, at all, but it’s helping me make sure that I get up on my side all the time. We only rolled for like 30 minutes, but I was still exhausted. I was trying to pass Jason’s spider guard, and I couldn’t even bend my arm enough to get a grip on his pants.
At the club practice, we did some stuff from back mount, and then I taught the sneaky choke. As an interesting twist, Gigi almost choked me unconscious with it later hahaha. I knew it was coming, but I was planning on rolling her as she turned. Unfortunately, we were at the edge of the mat, so I waited, and she almost got me. I didn’t really want that to happen, so I trapped her arm and rolled and just made sure her head didn’t hit the floor. I practiced a bit with my handstand where I start up on my shoulders like I’m stretching my back, then kick up and push into a handstand. I’m to the point where I can do it most of the time, pretty much anytime I can do a handstand itself haha. I’ve been so exhausted recently because Russell and I have been texting each other once or twice a day with a quick little workout to do. It’s usually 100 pushups or squats, sometimes crunches. This week I’ve done probably…600 ish pushups and squats, which my lazy ass isn’t used to. Plus 6 or 7 jiu jitsu practices, 2 and a half hours each.
On a different note, I just found out that Jacare is fighting next weekend and I’m a little sad about it. I love Jacare, he’s actually the background on my phone, on both the lockscreen and home page. The lock screen is him after winning a fight doing his alligator jaw thing, and the homepage is Roger Gracie breaking his arm in that 04 Mundial match. Unfortunately, next Friday is Valentine’s Day, and the 15th is my girlfriend and I’s one year anniversary. I think I might be able to swing watching the end of the fights after I take her to dinner, hopefully. Jacare is fighting Francis Carmont, then Lyoto Machida and Gegard Mousasi are fighting. I think Jacare is going to dominate Carmont, because Carmont’s pretty limited, mostly just a strong wrestler. Jacare’s striking has improved so much, and he’s obviously explosive and great at jiu jitsu and judo as always. I’m predicting Jacare by second round TKO, and I’m calling the upset, Mousasi over Machida by decision. That’s just a random call, no real interest, but I’d like to see Machida lose. I don’t really want to see him fight for another title.
Just a quick update about today’s practice. I’m back to my normal work schedule because the snow’s gone, so no Monday or Wednesday day class at New World. It kinda sucks, but oh well, I still have the club practices at night. Today I taught the leg drag and some related concepts, and we rolled for a good amount of time. I rolled with lacrosse balls in my hands (no grips), and it was fun. It wasn’t too detrimental except in terms of collar chokes, obviously, and defending some stuff. I might start doing it more often.
Today I went to open mat. I got some decent rolls in, and got gi burn all over my face. I rolled some with Andres, who’s a purple belt, and shorter than me, but massively muscular. One of the strongest guys I’ve ever rolled with. Even if I manage to pass his guard, I can’t break his grips haha. I almost got him in a sneaky choke, and I think he armbarred me once or twice and got me in a papercutter choke. He’s got great control from the top, but doesn’t play guard very often. I also rolled with Richard, and one of the other purple belts, whose name I can’t remember for the life of me. Rolling with Richard was fun because he wanted to work on his guard some. He’s probably 6’3 and 220-240 pounds, so that’s not his usual game. He’s improved a lot in the past few months since getting his blue belt. I had a lot of fun getting to work a different kind of pass than I’m used to, more of a fast paced, normal light guy passing style. I usually prefer pressure passing, and idolize Rodolfo Vieira and Gui Mendes’ passing, but with Richard I used more of a Rafa Mendes style. It’s fun, but I think pressure is more impressive. I think Richard cross choked me from top half guard, and I got him in a sneaky choke or two, and an armbar. That’s all I can remember, but it was fun, and I sweated off 4 or 5 pounds haha.
Ugh, I’ve been so lazy about writing on here. I need to start doing it again more. This week was basically all snow days, meaning no practice with the club team, so I went to New World more often. Yesterday was a great day because I went through the fundamental and advanced classes and rolled with Logan and then Mike, and Mike and I sat talking for a while. Mike told me that he thought I was young enough and good enough to be really successful in jiu jitsu and said that he thinks I should commit to it fully while I can. He told me I should move to California or Brazil after I graduate. It was a pretty amazing moment because it provided some sort of validation to my dreams of doing jiu jitsu full time. I would absolutely love to go to Brazil and teach English and do jiu jitsu for a while, but it’s a bit impractical, and I’d have to leave behind Augusta. It’s really unfortunate to be tied down like I am when it comes to jiu jitsu, but she’s pretty great. I don’t know yet what I’m going to do, I guess it’ll depend on how the next year or so goes, but I would really really love to go to Atos in San Diego. Also, Gustavo Machado is coming to our gym on March 1 to give a seminar. Mike said there would be promotions and stuff too, so that’ll be fun to watch. I think Logan and some of the others may be ready for some stripes.
Well, I’m finally back! I was so excited to get to go back to jiu jitsu for the first time. I went to the day class and the no gi class at night. The day class only had one other person in it, some new white belt with maybe 2 months of experience, so I got to roll with Mike too. We did mostly basic standup techniques and then some rolling. In the night class we did a pretty decent warmup, and a breathing drill. Then we did a transition from bottom half guard to sit-up guard with the underhook, and the transition to the other side sit-up guard. Then we drilled the hook sweep, and we did 3 or 4 rounds of rolling. I rolled with Quinn first, who’s 14, because I was drilling with him. I let him do what he wanted, playing guard, then swept him and I was in his guard when the round ended. The next roll was Andres, who’s a very strong purple belt. I hadn’t rolled with him in a few months, and I was pretty pleased with how I faired against him. He attempted a triangle, but I had my knee inside. I passed his open guard to half guard, then I went to pass to side and he rolled to a sprawled position. I considered going for a choke, but he had his hands in and defense ready, so I just pulled guard. I almost triangle-armbarred him, but he defended well. My last roll was with some brand new guy, and I just played around in guard. I let him do what he wanted until he made some serious mistake, so I triangled him a couple times and armbarred him once or twice too. I helped mop up after class and talked to Mike while Andres and another guy worked on takedowns off the cage. Oh, and I found out that I could do that thing where you do a back roll into a handstand, which I had never tried before, so that was cool.
I went to New World tonight for the 7:30 advanced/all levels gi class. I wanted to make it to the 6:00 one too, but I got hung up doing a study guide with my anthropology group. We drilled takedowns at the beginning, and I was paired up with Brandon. He has some nice seio nage’s. Mike then covered various mounted armbar defenses, including the one where you figure four with a hand under their knee, and push it off of your head and sit up. That’s my favorite escape. He also talked about the hitchhiker escape and how to properly stack to the side in order to change the angle to avoid being caught by the armbar or omoplata counter on the other arm. Then we rolled for a while, and I rolled with Mike, then Josh, then Albert. Mike submitted me with an inverted armbar because I messed around and went for a baseball choke from bottom side. I don’t think I got any submissions and didn’t get submitted otherwise, but one of the things I definitely need to focus on is always staying on my side in bottom half guard. With all the white belts I roll with at the CNU club, I let myself get lazy and don’t bother sometimes. It was cool to see Ezra get the second stripe on his yellow belt tonight. Ezra is a 14 year old autistic kid that Mike has essentially adopted, Mike calls him his son, and I’m not sure of the exact situation. I really admire the way that Mike interacts with him, because he tries hard to treat him like any other kid. I think it’s been really beneficial to Ezra’s development. He’s a good kid, and it was nice to see how excited it made him to get that stripe, and you can be sure Mike made him earn it. I was watching the end of the 6:00 class and I knew from the way he was watching Ezra that he was going to give him a stripe. They were practicing armbars from back mount, and he was doing really well.
Today was reading day of finals week, so there were no classes. I took advantage of my day off to go to the noon class and the 7:30 class at New World. The noon class was gi and the 7:30 class was no gi. There were only 4 of us for the day class, me, Richard, Jason, and a new guy named John. Jason and Richard both just got their blue belts, and they’re both pretty big, so they’re getting to be more difficult to deal with. I rolled with Mike at the end, and he gave me an awesome compliment. He said in front of everybody that out of everybody at the academy, he has the most trouble passing my guard. That felt pretty good to hear. I don’t remember what we learned, but it was nothing new. In the night class, there were a lot more people there. We shrimped and then drilled takedowns for a warmup. Then we went over a counter to the hip bump sweep. If they attack your right side to sweep, you place your left hand on their hip and your forearm along their thigh. When they place their foot on the ground to base for the sweep, you backstep with your left leg, step over their leg on that side, and put your hook in and get your seat belt grip to take the back. It was working pretty well for me, and it’s smooth. Then we rolled for a while. I rolled with Don first, which consisted of him trying to pass my guard standing and me playing around in DLR. Don and I got our blue belts on the same day, and I think I’ve seen him maybe twice since then. He’s big, around 240, but hasn’t progressed much. I didn’t feel threatened at all by his passing, so I went inverted and played some seated guard, which is rare for me. I managed to get a single leg from a technical standup from seated guard, and then blocked his other foot and he went down. It ended with me on top in guard. Then I rolled with Mark. I guess Mark’s about 16 or 17, because he’s still in high school. He’s a blue belt and a little bit smaller than me. I let him dictate where the roll went, and he tried to pass my guard. I think he wrestles too, and I triangled him once or twice. I ended the roll trying to finish an armbar, but he was defending well and a bit slippery, so he escaped. My next roll was against Phillip. It was kind of odd, because he was going really hard and doing some quasi-legal things. I sat back to play guard, and he tried to pass for a little while, then just tried to toe hold me from standing. I wasn’t really worrying about a possible toe hold, considering it’s never legal for me at blue belt, but I guess we were playing to his rules. I managed to escape, and he dropped down to half guard. I turned to roll to recover guard and he gripped around my face from the side and just neck cranked the hell out of me. I turned more so that it would at least be a choke, but he still didn’t go for a blood choke, he just put his wrist in my throat and gable gripped and crushed my neck. I tapped, and looked at him to see if it was an accident or anything, but he didn’t say anything about it. My neck’s a little messed up, but whatever. Then I rolled with Logan, one of the other purple belts, and he immediately got me in a triangle, which I didn’t even try to defend considering my neck. He asked if I was okay and I told him it was just a little sore and he said he’d avoid it. Then our roll turned to what it usually consists of if I play open guard, him passing to half guard, then turning his back to pass, and kimura-ing me. He tried a few times, then got my arm free, and finished the straight armbar. He worries me sometimes in no gi, because he’ll rip a kimura trying to break the grip so I usually tap early. Logan’s gotten a lot better recently, because when I was still a white belt, and he’d just gotten his purple belt, we submitted each other about equally. We’re about the same size, he has maybe 5-10 pounds on me. He’s been working hard and training a lot, and makes me feel bad about not training all summer. I hope he gets another mma fight soon, it’d be cool to go watch. My last roll was against Rod. Rod’s the Muay Thai instructor, and a brown belt, and it’s always fun to roll with him. He’s a little, very quiet, bald guy with a big beard. He’s only about 135 pounds, and ridiculously quick. He tried to pass my guard for a while, and I managed to hold him off for a bit, but then he slid to side mount. I tried to defend from there, but he mounted. I worked on getting the mount survival posture from Saulo Ribeiro’s Jiu Jitsu University, like I do against everybody that’s a lot better than me, and eventually did. I escaped to half guard, then full guard, and the roll ended. I haven’t rolled with Rod in a long time, since before I got my blue belt, so that was fun. He was trying some armbars from an overhook in butterfly guard, but I expected them and was able to defend until he swept me.
Today was the first day of exam week. I only had one today, and it wasn’t an exam, just presentations in a class that I had already presented in, so I went to New World at noon. We drilled some collar chokes and armbars and back escapes, then rolled some. There were two new white belts there today. I rolled with one of them and got a triangle off of the foot in the lapel. He was new and overly aggressive, so that guard worked well. I really like the foot in the lapel against big or aggressive people. It works well to keep the distance. Mike (my instructor) told me today that it seems like this year something has really clicked for me and I’ve improved a lot really quickly. It was pretty cool because I was fairly excited about my progress before the loss in no gi Saturday, but the gold in gi helped return my confidence a bit. We also had a voluntary practice at the club tonight, but only 3 other people showed up. I rolled with Lindsey and Dom a bit, and just hung out. Dom’s another blue belt, and has fantastic defense, and is very strong. He doesn’t attack very much though, except with no gi chokes like anacondas and guillotines. I submitted him with an armbar from guard, after he’d escaped from two arm triangles, a kimura, and a rear naked choke. I also found out that the guy that I beat in the semifinals of the USGrappling submission only tournament is the guy that runs the zegrapplez blog. That was really cool because I had never met him and didn’t realize until I saw his post today, but I’ve been a longtime follower of his blog.
If you decide to only watch some of them, watch the gi ones haha, they’re better. The 4th through 6th links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb-vmf1KHgs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ZD6tWXBEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpTujiqp5Gs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDnbBZ3U5AQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm0ihBp0nFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2NlGAJBkU
BJJ and Stuff 