Friday, February 7, 2014

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.

Friday, January 31, 2014

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.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

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.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

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.  

Links to my matches at USGrappling Richmond

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

 

Saturday, December 7, 2013

USGrappling’s submission only tournament in Richmond was today. I competed at blue belt 149. For the record, all of my accounts are from memory, I might mess some up. I’ll try to post the videos that I have later on. My first match in no gi I won in about three minutes with an armbar from guard. My second match, unfortunately, was against a strong and athletic wrestler. He didn’t take me down, I pulled guard, and he was actually really clueless, he must’ve been new. I almost armbarred him once, almost triangled him twice, almost got a Peruvian necktie, a guillotine, and a rear naked, but I screwed up and didn’t finish. No excuses, he did well, I can usually compensate for athleticism with skill, but he legitimately only knew one move haha. He won all of his matches by kimura. It was about a 15 minute match, I went for an armbar and he slipped out (ridiculously hard to hold onto for some reason, I had wrist and tricep control) and passed to side, where he kimura’ed me. He actually lifted me off of the ground with the figure four grip while trying to break my grip haha. My next match for third place was only 5 minutes later and I was so spent from the first match. I almost scratched but I figured I’d just do it for the experience. My legs were shaking from the other match. He pulled guard immediately and tried an armbar, I defended, passed to half guard, he escaped back to full guard, I let him put his knee in because I was trying to pin it as a butterfly hook and pass, but he threw up a triangle. I had my hands gable gripped and both hands inside, but he swept me to mount. I kept my hand inside, but he smashed the hell out of my jaw and I tapped. Several hours of waiting later, I had my gi division. My first match was actually against the same guy as in the first round of no gi. I don’t remember much of it, but he pulled guard and I passed to half, then he swept me. He passed to side or mount and went for an armbar. I got his leg off of my head and sat up into his guard. Then I passed to half, then mount, and he turned so I went to technical mount. I got my shin against his side and rolled him over into back mount. I went for a bow and arrow choke, but he was doing a good job of keeping his leg away so I switched to the loop choke from back and he tapped. My second match was in the semifinals against a guy that I honestly didn’t think I was going to beat. I watched him win his first match and he dominated the guy, it wasn’t even close. He pulled guard immediately, and I passed to half guard. He went to deep half, and I tried to counter with a kimura, but he had his arm under my leg. I tried to slide around to his back but he came up onto the top. He tried to pass with a double under pass, but I managed to get get one knee in and turn toward him. I noticed that his elbow was really close to my knee so I started shrimping away and pushing his hand back and threw a quick triangle. I adjusted, then went under his leg, and he tapped. They had the third place match (the guy I triangled beat the guy that lost to the other guy in the finals) and then my match in the finals. He was really tall and lanky, and I’d seen him pull guard in almost every match all day, so I decided to pull before he could. I played around with some armbar and triangle attempts, and chained a series of kimuras and hip bump sweeps, but he was stronger than I expected so I gave it up rather than risking wearing my arms out. Then he tried to stand and pass , and I grabbed across at the bicep and caught the arm, then went for the armbar. He defended well, he got his hand to his bicep and stacked, but then I swept him and I got his arms separated as he fell. I ended up belly down, and it was really tight. I knew he was going to tap eventually, and there was no chance I was letting go. He eventually tapped verbally, and I won the gold. It was pretty sweet. I really prefer gi to no gi, it’s so much easier to handle faster or stronger people. So yea, when I get home I’m going to try to put those videos up, I might have to put them on YouTube first to do it, I’m not sure. I’ll update this later.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

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.  

Monday, November 25, 2013

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.