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.
mount
All posts tagged mount
Weight:
Monday morning: 165 – I ate whatever I wanted until practice time, and then I was too lazy to cook after practice.
Tuesday after practice: 160 – I went after my 9:30 class to grab some lunch at the dining hall. I got some grilled salmon and two apples. I ate the apples later on, and baked two chicken breasts, a pound total. Late that night, I had half a pomegranate, some star fruit, and a kiwano melon.
Wednesday after practice: 156 – I ate an orange and some grapes throughout the day, and drank a bunch of water. I actually ate a clif bar before coming to the library because I wasn’t sure if I could make it through a 15 page paper without anything to eat. About 5 hours into working in the library I had some unsweetened tea because I was sick of water. Man, I hate unsweetened tea.
I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been ridiculously busy. I was home for Thanksgiving from last Wednesday until Sunday, then came back to school and had to immediately start working on a paper. The paper was a 10 page paper on pirate ships of all things. It was miserable. I went to practice with the club Monday night. It was a gi day, and Brendon and Christian came to practice with us. I think I only got to roll with Adin. I swept him at the beginning of our roll, then quickly passed to half guard. I transitioned frequently between half guard, side mount, mount, and back mount throughout the roll. I briefly ended up on bottom at one point because I attempted a north south choke and got rolled, but I rolled him back, I think before my hips even hit the ground. I came close to submitting him twice with arm triangles, then attempted an armbar, but finally caught a bow and arrow choke. I could tell that it was really tight. I started pulling and then felt his fingers slip out of his collar and it got even tighter. He held out surprisingly long, but I guess I wasn’t pulling all that hard. Tuesday we taught some mount and back mount escapes to review for the new guys for the tournament this Saturday. We figured that since it’s submission only, they should probably be refreshed on how to escape so they don’t end up in mount for an hour. I rolled with a few people, including Gigi for a while. Gigi’s getting good, but she’s still a bit overaggressive. It’s really easy to sweep her because she pressures forward too much. Nobody else put up much of a challenge unfortunately, so I didn’t sweat as much as I was hoping, despite wearing a sweatshirt and long underarmour tights. Tonight was a striking practice. Ben, one of the other coaches, was back for the first time in a while. He’s a senior and applying to law schools, so he’s been busy. After the warmup, I went over uppercuts, then walked around and corrected for a while. Afterward, I had everyone go four 3 minute rounds on the pads with 30 seconds of rest in between, then switch partners. Then I had anyone that had them get on their 4 oz mma gloves, and showed some mma grappling techniques. I talked about space and tightness when it comes to mma, and how space is your enemy on the bottom, because people can posture up and punch you. I showed a basic transition from closed guard to butterfly to a technical standup, then an escape from bottom mount. Then we grappled a bit with 4 oz gloves and light punches. I rolled with Ben. He’s taken almost a month off of any physical activity, but he’s ridiculously strong, as usual. He’s about 155-160 pounds like me, but he has that lanky strength, and he’s like grappling with a pile of tension bridge wires. The first roll, I tried something stupid to escape and ended up giving up my back. He ended up getting me in a triangle from the back, but my other hand and wrist were still in it. He pulled my arms apart, trying to go for an armbar, and I tapped. Both of my arms were stuck, and I didn’t think I’d have time to tap once he started actually trying for the armbar. Our second roll, I managed to sweep him with a DLR sweep. I’ve been experimenting with DLR in mma, and it works pretty well. I’ve heard that there was a variation of it used in early Vale Tudo and they’d throw upkicks to the face while maintaining distance, and I can believe it. It’s pretty easy to keep them from punching you if you have any sort of sweeping ability and control the ankle and use your free hand to keep their hands away. Once I got on top, I went for an arm triangle as a way to pass half guard, and eventually slid out. He turned to try to escape the arm triangle and I turned it into a seatbelt grip from backmount. He was doing a good job of turning into me, so I stayed in technical mount for quite a while, kimura gripping his arm, threatening the back take, armbar, and arm triangle. Eventually I got his arm isolated from the other one and changed my figure four grip so that I was gripping the back of his hand, bending his wrist. I used that quasi-wrist lock to make sure he couldn’t grip his other hand, and threw my leg over for the armbar. We only had a few minutes left of practice after that, so we just sat and talked, and he filled me in on all his law school applications. He’s a smart guy, and applied to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Crazy stuff. Gigi also told me that I should go do hot yoga with her to lose my last few pounds. I’m considering it, but I don’t really feel like paying the money for it, and I’ve never done yoga. I’m sure it’s great, but I’m pretty busy and poor. I’m currently in the library, it’s 6 am, and I’m taking a break from writing another paper. This one’s a 15 page paper about the environmental policies of Brazil and Canada. It’s brutal. I think I’m about 8 or 9 pages in, and it’s due at 3 pm. I’ll probably finish it no problem, but it’s rough coming up with more to write. I also have class at 9:30, so unfortunately I’ll probably have to skip the noon class at New World. I’d like to finish in time for it, but I don’t really see it happening. 7 pounds to go for the tournament Saturday. It’s USGrappling’s submission only tournament in Ashland, VA.
I tried to go to the gym today at noon, but realized when I went to pack my bag that I didn’t have a clean gi. After that disappointing failure of the day, I put a couple gis in the washer and went back to bed. Later on I had gi practice with the club. We had a pretty mediocre turnout today, but Brendon came and visited. He’s a friend of ours that goes to my gym, and is a purple belt and police officer. I think Brock and Skyler know him from high school. Skyler started the club and Brock is his younger brother and the current president. Brendon showed some stuff from half guard for the new guys, then we just rolled for an hour or so. I think I only rolled with John today, but I can’t remember for sure. I gave him some reminders and tips that I’ve noticed he’s consistently struggled with, like giving up when being swept and not breaking grips. I submitted him with a bunch of armbars from mount, a few arm triangles, a few actual triangles, and a couple collar chokes. I’ve noticed recently that a lot of people don’t defend the arm triangle because of how I set it up. I usually do it as I’m passing from side mount or half guard, and I put heavy pressure on the face. Brian told me last week that he always felt it coming but couldn’t move to do anything about it. It’s probably my highest percentage move, as I’d guess I finish it 90-95% of the time when I get it locked. I also finish palm down, without clasping my hand, keeping my other hand for base and adjustments. I like this way because it ensures that you won’t neck crank them, and it’s a lot tighter. I try to finish by thinking of sinking my shoulder down and pressing in on their arm with my chest in a perpendicular direction. My instructor, Mike, also fixed a problem I’d been having with finishing the arm triangle with people with really skinny necks. I’d been looking at my hand or their arm to make sure they were positioned correctly rather than keeping my head tight up against theirs. I’m going to try to go to a class at the gym tomorrow before I head home for Thanksgiving break, because it’s been a while since I got to go because of Keith’s Bellator fight last week, and I don’t want to wait another week.
BJJ and Stuff 