Mizblog

Pam’s Saturday morning class started with shadow boxing, interspersed with squats, push ups, sit ups, squats, push ups, and sit ups. We then paired up and got straight into focus mitt combos. I was in a group of 3 with Susan and a new guy named Jose, so we swapped out with the heavy bag.

After that, we got kick shields and got one person in the middle. Then, for 2 minutes straight, the person in the middle was kicking the pad of the person who called their name. All angles. Front, back, and side kicks. Moving in with step kicks. It was exhausting!

Then we put on shin guards and did a couple short rounds of kick boxing sparring. I did a half round with Susan and half with Jose, then I went a whole round with Ray. It went okay. We didn’t have head gear on so we didn’t hit very hard to the face.

Once that was done, we put away our gear and practiced straight knife defense. It’s a wrist redirection with the outside hand, pinning it to the abdomen while the other hand comes under the knife grip hand. Pull the knife wielding forearm vertical and throw some lower body combatives while you keep straight arms to control the knife, then do the ol’ wrist roll takeaway. Push forward toward the knife, then unroll the fingers as you strip the knife out.

I woke up after a bad night’s sleep, still very sore from Tuesday morning’s double leg circuit. When I got to SVKM, I was glad to find out that even Dave and coach Greggo were very sore after that training, so I didn’t feel so inadequate. Rick also brought up the experience of walking out of a martial arts class so wrecked that a kid could take you out, and how you have to question yourself in those situations. It got a laugh.

Warm up went quick under coach Mark. 10 minutes and we got down to business. We were visited by coach Drago from the main academy, and coach Mark put him on the spot for Q&A. Rick asked him how you deal with someone who’s got a knee-elbow shield against your guard leg. Drago ducked under his arm and pulled him past, taking his back. I got to practice with Brandon Sherman. He was messing me up by getting a cross collar grip and putting his forearm in my face so I couldn’t duck under. I guess it was my bad for not getting an underhook on that side so I could boost his arm up and over my head as I pulled him back and across.

The next technique we learned was the arm drag. Break posture with the collar grip, then relinquish it to pull the arm across, then take the back. Again, Brandon made my life difficult by gripping my gi above my shoulder. Much more amenable to the previous technique, but this time I had to break down his arm by folding it downward and rotating my body away while I ripped it across with my opposite hand. Very dangerous and violent technique.

After that we learned the baseball bat choke from side control top. Use your cross face arm to grip thumb-in the back of the collar. Then rise up to knee-on-belly, lift their head with your collar grip and sink the other hand into the far side collar, palm-up thumb-out. Bring your far hand over the neck and your elbows together as you step around and lower your head to their near-side hip. Very effective!

After that, we rolled.

I started with Andrew. I think I ended up on top but he recovered guard. I tried to pass but he scrambled to turtle, then when I was attacking he scrambled and I had to turtle. He almost got my back! I had to really work to get out of that, but I did. He got mount, I upa’d him over and again passed his guard. Round over. It was a good one!

Next was Ryan. I had my way with him, pretty much. I got him in an Americana and an arm bar before I decided to coach him a little bit.

Next was Matt. Again, a good roll. I got the better of him positionally but he put up a good fight and had good defense.

Next was Cosmo. I was scared of being crushed, to start off, and I told him so. He went to knock me over at an angle, and I rolled under to get into side control, stopping him from getting on the concrete. We restarted. I mounted and set up a collar choke, which was impossible to finish because Cosmo does not have a neck. I eventually got bucked off and we scrambled to me on the bottom of half guard, where we ended.

After that I rolled with Ryan again, and I just basically talked to him about BJJ and the early learning process. I gave him tips on what to do when mounted, like protecting your neck and tucking your elbows. At the end of the roll, I sunk in the baseball bat choke that we’d learned earlier in the class.

After we lined up, coach Mark thanked Drago for teaching. He chastised some of the people for not showing up. Then he gave me another stripe, as well as Andrew and Matt and maybe Brendan? The first stripe took me 21 classes, and the 2nd one took me 33 classes. At that rate, it would have taken me 44 classes to get another stripe, but I did it in only 9 classes. I’ve been getting better very quickly lately, like it was all pent up and it’s finally starting to come together.

After class, coach Mark told me I looked good on the mat today. He again complimented me on losing weight, which according to the scale I have not done. He also told me “Your daughter is going to be a beast!”

Christian’s morning BJJ class after Memorial Day weekend. I took the weekend off, and coming back to training left me sore. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We started with a normal warm up, then some somersaults, then fall break practicing. I’m definitely getting better, but I don’t think I can do the stand up after the roll yet.

As soon as the warm up was over, we went into the back room and did a double leg takedown circuit for 10 minutes. All lunges and lifts, nonstop, for 10 minutes. My toes hurt when they bent back. My whole posterior chain got blasted out and I didn’t feel it until I got up after sitting down in my car. But again, I’m getting ahead of myself.

After that was randori. One minute rounds, nonstop. Dave took me down hard on my back. Greggo got me down once, but I got him once too. Same with Macy. Kelly went easy on me. Ari and I stalemated. It was tiring.

Then we got on the mat and paired up and did some guard passing and sweeps for practice. Just whatever we know. That went for a few minutes before we started sparring.

I sat out the first round.

I rolled with Dave, who tapped me with a gi choke from guard. Then he got me down in side control, but I bench press swept him and locked up an arm bar but couldn’t finish it by the buzzer.

I rolled with Phil, and he again tried to get me in a baseball bat choke from below, but he wasn’t able to roll out far enough to lock it up. I got on his back and gi choked him for the tap. We restarted, and I got on him in side control and was working for a bow and arrow choke, and he started coaching me toward the arm bar. I told him that was option B. I then switched it to option C as I tried for the Americana, but when that didn’t work I locked up the arm bar, but again was thwarted by the buzzer.

Then I rolled with Greggo. He went easy on me, and I paid him back by choking him almost unconscious before he tapped. Then he tapped me with a bow and arrow choke.

Next I rolled with TJ. He was cramping the whole time, and tapped me with an omoplata.

I sat out the last round.

I got to class late because of lingering issues following a server Ubuntu LTS upgrade that went pear shaped last night and into this morning, plus insufficient sleep from being woken up to try to help a bratty daughter who didn’t want help but instead wanted someone to do her homework for her. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up when the girls left, got coffee, burrowed back into work, and didn’t finish until 10:40am.

Got on the mat while Dave was warming up the class. We did shrimping and tumbling and fall breaks until coach Mark stopped us and told us that our fall breaks sucked, and that we should practice them right from the beginning so we don’t get addicted to bad technique. I was guilty of the following sins: crossing my feet on the fall break stand up, coming up to my elbow on the fall break, not cupping my hand when slapping the mat, and slapping the mat too far away from my body to be effective. I have to work on all of those bad habits. Oh, and not rounding my body and rolling a little to dissipate energy when I land. That too. Especially on the side fall break, which I barely learned in Krav Maga for my orange belt test.

Then we did some broken down practice drills solo before going back to trying the shoulder roll fall break again. I found it very awkward to get back to my feet without crossing them, so I guess I just need more momentum.

Anyway, that took a half hour, and then we were on to side control and far arm isolation. Use your underhook arm to make a shelf under their shoulder. Use your other hand to backhand windshield wiper their far hand and staple it onto the mat. Then turn that hand over to a monkey C grip as your underhook turns over and hooks your own wrist under your opponent’s arm, and then pull the elbow down toward the hip and lift.

For side control, it’s all about controlling the hips and maintaining an over/under of some sort. I learned two new grips. One was pants grip at the butt cheek, and the other was between-the-legs pants grip. Both of them, you grip the fabric and pin it to the mat. I also learned how to control the hips in reverse kesa.

Then we rolled. I got regular top-ups from the Goo tube I brought, so I was ready to roll. I started with Greggo and he gently dominated me for the first 4.5 minutes before tapping me with a fist in my jaw. Very excellent hip control from top side control on his part. No more letting me have dominant grips to start off. I’m moving up!

I next rolled with Cowboy. I again got him in the bow and arrow choke, and coach Mark thought I was closer to finishing than I was, so he urged me to just keep cranking on it. My grip gave out after a couple minutes and Cowboy escaped.

Then I rolled with Cosmo. I frustrated him a lot in my closed guard, but he did eventually break it and I tried to turtle and go for a single leg on him. I don’t know why I try to do that to him, because it never ever works.

Then I went with Ryan, who I took down from the knees and tapped with an arm bar. As we restarted, he expressed frustration at being taken down so much, and he swore I wouldn’t take him down again. 3 seconds later, I had taken him down again, and he was laughing. I can relate. I used to get taken down regularly too. Now I’m doing my share of the takedowns.

After that was Phil. He let me get top side control and then tried to lock up a baseball bat choke. Instead of mounting him, though, I rotated to north-south and un-twisted his grips for him. When he tried to switch them up, I secured one of his arms for an arm bar, and applied consistent pressure to try to get him to let it go and give me his arm. He eventually did, but as I was trying to lock up the arm bar he went belly down, so I followed, and he did a sky cartwheel to escape and end up on top of side control. Wow.

I took my gi in to the tailor’s shop on Saturday to have the 805 patch re-attached after Dave ripped it loose last week. It was supposed to be ready for me this morning, but when I went to pick it up, it was still on the TODO rack. Oops. I raced home and pulled out my old (too-small) gi from the UCLA course I took back in 2011. The sleeves are too short and it barely covers my belly. Anyway, I got Costco gas and still made it to class 30 minutes early. Time enough to warm up and socialize as others strolled in. Also time to try the Defense foam that Christian got. I dispensed way too much and had it all over everything for a while until I managed to rub it into all my exposed skin. Then I practiced my rolling break falls in the back room. Getting better!

When 11am came, Krav Maga moved into the small room and all us pajama-wearing folk lined up in the big room and bowed in before Greggo got us running, shuffling, shrimping, and doing somersaults and break falls. Then Christian went through his standard of joint mobility movements to get us loosened up before lessons.

First lesson was Ouchi Gari – major reap. Also known as an inside trip. You pull your opponent forward so their weight is on their front (let’s say left in this example) leg, then shuffle in to get your right leg behind their left leg, turn them with their gi, and lean on them with your shoulder, tripping them down.

Second lesson was Kouchi Gari – minor reap. Suppose they see the first one coming and move their foot back? Well, now all their weight is on the other foot, and you can scoot that back with your left foot as you push them forward and they go down.

Then we did a randori of non-stop 1-minute rounds. I defended every takedown attempt in every round, even against Christian and Greggo (twice). However, I also did not land any takedowns of my own, so that’s the balancing negative.

Then we had an awkward lesson about over-under guard passing from the knees, going either way. But Christian only showed one way (the front way).

I rolled with Dave first and we had a good battle.

I rolled with Cowboy and I kimura’d him. Then he baseball bat choked me. Good fight.

I rolled with Cosmo and gassed with 1 minute left. However, before that I established deep half guard and got a sweep on him! The youtube lessons paid off!

Coach Mark told us to leave off our gi tops and just wear the rash guards. I suited up in time to bow into the class after doing Krav immediately prior. No time to sweep the mat, so it was filthy.

We did a good warm up. I was already warm but not tired. I ate one of Sangeeta’s caramel goo energy gel packets, and it powered me pretty well through the warm up. My rolls were pretty good, and so were my break falls. I’m getting better!

Finally the warm up was over and we circled around for the lesson, which was all about how to get grips when you’re not wearing the gi. Neck hook on the ear, overhooks and underhooks and foot hooks. We also learned a no-gi butterfly sweep. This went on for a long long time. Over an hour.

I had 2 rolls at the end – both with John. He tapped me with a guillotine and a neck crank from inside my guard, which I had defended twice before but that time he just nailed me with it.

Brandon taught this Saturday morning class. We started with shadow boxing, then the usual warm up circuit, then stretching. Quick and easy. Then we got a drink and gloves and thai pads and a partner. My partner was Susan.

We started with just combos followed by whatever kick the pad holder set up. Susan was anticipating my patters, so I broke them at the end and had her stumbling and laughing a little bit. :) When it was my turn to strike, I had a lot of little steps to try to get lined up for my kicks. I was not very competent in the footwork department, but not too bad either, I guess.

After that it was throwing combos across the mat and back. Bursting jab jab cross, first pass left left right, second pass right right left. My southpaw stance was hard to maintain, because I don’t have a good feel for how far apart my feet should be, and how straight my feet are pointing.

The next drill was to add onto the burst-left-left-right combo with a front-leg push-kick, a bursting in right cross, and a left hook to the body. I found my bursting cross did not put me close enough to land the body shot.

For defenses, we did front groin kick defenses, which Brandon taught us as like inside punch defenses but against the leg. It felt useless. We did a stress drill against it, and it was stupid.

I got to class very early, like 25 minutes early. Krav Maga day class was doing round kicks. I changed and took over room 2 to warm up and practice my rolls. Got kicked out 5 minutes before BJJ class. Felt I got better.

Greggo started the warm up because Mark was going to be 5 minutes late. We did a long warm up, including lots of running and lots of rolling. Near the end of it, Mark tells Greggo “Teach them upa.” so he did.

The big new upa tip I learned today was to shrimp a little to pull your head away from the shoulder you’re rolling over, because it facilitates the roll. When you come up, stay tight and control the arms, otherwise you could get punched or (more likely in a BJJ setting) arm barred. We also practiced it from when the top person has a collar grip already, which stays dangerous the whole time you’re rolling them.

Just like that, we were ready to roll. I started rolling with Matt, and he’s gotten a lot better. I was able to do better under his half guard, including a successful sweep. I found I’d forgotten how to take the back reliably from top turtle, and forgot how to choke from there too. Got to brush up on that!

Next I rolled with Phil. He kept trying to get a baseball bat choke from bottom side control, and it really limited my options on top. That’s something I need to research, for sure.

After that I tried to roll with Andrew, but he was snapped up by Christian, so instead I rolled with Cowboy Josh. I was able to get on top of him and stay there the whole round, but he kept trying to gi choke me from kesa gatame bottom. He didn’t, but I had to stay heavy on him, and it really saved his hand from the arm bars and Americana attacks I usually go for from there.

Next round I tried again to roll with Andrew, but coach Greggo snapped me up instead. He wanted me to start in mount, and he fed me a collar grip. I stayed on top, locked in a choke, lost position, and ended up trying to choke him while I was standing and gripping his neck/collar between my legs and behind my back. Before I got dumped on my face, I let go. “Position before submission.” I sighed. He told me that I should have sat down on him to keep the pressure and finish the choke. Next round started with me mounted again. He tried upa and I switched to S-mount. He shrimped out and stood up, so I tried de la Riva guard. He coached me on how to tip him over with it. I got side control and locked up a kimura, which he fought for a bit before finally tapping. We restarted neutral, and he was entangling my legs when the round ended.

After that I took a round off and rested. The following round I again went with Matt, and we had another good roll.

Last round was with Dave, who was exhausted after rolling with all 3 black belts, and only having 1.5 hours of sleep last night. I was able to pretty much dominate him – he didn’t have energy to fight. I was able to mount, stuff the upa, and sink a collar choke for the tap. Poor Dave. He’s really good, he just ran out of gas today. At one point, he tore the 805BJJ patch off the back of my gi. Gotta get that fixed!

I left the house today and got onto the freeway just as I realized I forgot my mouthguard. Oops. Turned around and went home to fetch it.

Still made it to class on time. Early enough to change and watch the end of TJ’s Krav Maga class. After they cleared off the mat, we got on and lined up. Class started with a breathing instruction. In through the nose, out through the mouth. We did some running, interspersed with partner grip finding, then grip fighting.

First technique of the day was the fireman’s carry takedown. From the standard judo grip, take the overhook on the steering hand, push your partner back, and when they push forward to recover, you duck under the overhooked arm (keeping it tight to your body) at the same time your opposite side leg kneels and you duck your head under their arm pit and reach down and underhook their leg. Then, you stick out your overhook-side leg and rotate your upper body over it, taking your opponent over with you, and you end up on top in side control.

I drilled the takedown with Greggo, and accidentally got my eyeball scraped. I was so awkward. It was terrible.

After that, we got into randori. I survived against Aaron and Matt, getting them to turtle after failing takedowns. Greggo might have gotten me down once but I got a good sprawl on his single and stayed up. Sean launched a 5-throw combo that ended with me crashing down into the ground. Very impressive! Cosmo and I mostly stalemated, though I did end up on the back of his turtle. I wasn’t trying many takedowns, actually. At the last, I went vs. Ashish, and I was able to turn his osotogari and just push him over, and I ended the randori with a fireman’s carry takedown just like we did in drills!

Then it was back to the classroom, where we learned the de la Riva guard and a basic sweep from that guard. I practiced it with Christian, and it was pretty easy. The hardest part was getting into that guard, wrapping my big left foot with the sore big toe around the forward leg. Not fun!

After that, we rolled.

Who did I roll with?
Cosmo – heavy on top but I survived
Matt – good top half guard and good bottom side control. I submitted him with an Americana after a very slow tightening.
TJ – I stayed in his guard for about 4 minutes before getting bored and letting him arm bar me. Then he almost passed my guard but I swept him.
Sean – I got mounted and arm triangled, tapping early. He was surprised I tapped, but I realized he’d passed all my defenses and I wasn’t getting out.
Cosmo – we were both tired and he ended up on top, being hard to move off
Aaron – we flowed at about 30% and it was a good recovery round while he was having heart problems

After class I bought the new 805BJJ rash guard (size XXL) and also got one for Saranya, to gift her on her birthday (so don’t tell her!)

Kurtis taught this Saturday morning class. At first, I thought it might turn into a private lesson for me, but a couple people stayed from the StrikeFit class (Susan and Dave) and then Ray showed up in the middle of warm ups. Anyway, warm ups started with running around the mat for a few minutes. The usual. Broke into a few bouts of shoulder tag (Susan poked me in the nose) and then the stretching bit.

Gloves and focus mitts on, we paired up and did basic combos on the focus mitts. I paired with Dave, and coached him on how to throw his punches. He tends to lower his hands before throwing the punch, rather than throwing it straight from his fighting stance. So I coached him a little bit. Curtis did too, about twisting his body for the hook punch. On my turn, my punches were quick, crisp, and efficient (mostly). I had a little trouble throwing the upper cut after the hook on a 4, because I had to un-twist my body and that action didn’t load the upper cut.

After that, we took off the gloves and got a tombstone pad, into which we threw front kicks and round kicks. Then we learned a new technique – spinning round kick! Dave started, and he was having a hard time getting the whole rotation. I had a much easier time of it, and was landing some very good kicks!

Once we were done with the kicks, we put on headgear and gloves and mouth guard and got to boxing sparring. I started with Dave, and he immediately started bull rushing me so I put my jab in his face over and over, backing then circling. He was pawing at my hands, and Curtis had to stop us to tell him to commit to knocking my hands away and following with a punch. We got back to it and I mostly was lighting him up, but he did land a good right hook to the side of my head that hurt.

My next opponent was Susan, and we went very light. She landed a couple good body shots on me, and I landed several head shots on her.

Last opponent was Ray. He was surprised that I faced off with him in a southpaw stance. I asked him if he was used to fighting against southpaws, and he explained patiently to me that he’s a natural southpaw. I clarified that I was asking him if he was used to fighting southpaw opponents, and he said he was not. We got after it, and I noticed he has a habit of ducking way down, and then standing up with a left straight punch that was hitting me regularly. I told him it was serving him well, and he admitted it was a bad habit. I told him I was trying to time it, but he was hitting me anyway. By the end of the round, I was able to put some pressure on him and keep him busy dodging and not attacking, but I was getting tired and was forgetting to move my head. Still, I felt I improved.