Mizblog

KM106 ended 5 minutes early, and I was already wearing my knee pads and shorts for nogi BJJ, so I was lined up in time for class start. The mat was filthy after Krav Maga class.

We did a quick warm up and then we learned how to attack the turtle. Keeping your weight on the head/neck in the north-south orientation, it’s important not to clasp your hands around the turtle. That would allow the turtle to roll you and end up on top. Instead, adopt “Lego” position, which involves turning the hands/fingers back toward you next to the head. Keeps you from being tipped.

So coach Mark taught us the anaconda, which involves shooting your forearm between the neck and arm, then out beneath the far armpit. Lock that up with a RNC grip, tip their head to the mat, and walk to fold their head into their bellies.

Then a guest purple belt taught us the D’arce choke, whereby you reach one hand into the turtle between neck and hand, and the other reaches through below the far arm pit. Clasp the hands and push them out next to the head, so the top arm can make a bar behind the neck. Use this bar to dump them over their shoulder while you stay on your knees. Reach your bottom hand through and grip the RNC grip, then step over to mount in order to finish the choke.

Then we learned about the C-dump. I don’t know what the wrestling term is for it, but you get a C-grip on the neck of the turtle, reach your other hand under the arm pit and grip your C-grip’d wrist, then push their head down to dump them over their shoulder. From there, you can sit back into kesa gatame.

Then we learned a shoulder lock from kesa. Get the elbow at a 90 degree angle, then reach under and S-grip your fingers. Pull for the tap. I never felt good about it.

Then we learned the head and arm choke from kesa. If you can get their seatbelt arm across their face, trap it with your head and get your headlock arm’s elbow snug to the neck. Grip your headlock arm with your other hand somehow and walk your hips away from them to tighten the choke.

We also learned how to take the back from side control. Get a kimura grip on the far arm and use it to turn the person on their side. Move toward their head, and take your bottom leg and windshield wiper it right under their side, then pull them up onto you with that arm as you slide the windshield wiper’d leg under and around them for the hook. We practiced it and it was pretty disastrous.

Then we rolled.

I started my roll with Corey, who’s been training Krav Maga for the last 8 years or so, and is a brown belt. We started pretty slow, and I was able to make him uncomfortable in my guard, and then sweep him. He’s new to BJJ. I let go of a guillotine that I wasn’t sure how to finish without cranking his neck.

Next I rolled with Matt. He’s getting really good. He was attempting the moves we learned in class. He was able to mount me but I immediately upa’d him. Good fight.

After that I rolled with Andrew, who is also getting really good. He immediately smashed me in half guard, eventually passing to side control. He put some good pressure on me in kesa, but I rolled him. He attempted to roll me again but got stuck holding my head and eventually let go out of mercy for my neck, similar to what I did with Corey. Team!

I sat the next round out until Cowboy couldn’t roll anymore due to exhaustion. Then I jumped in real quick against Sean, and managed to not get submitted for 2 minutes because I was slippery.

Last round I went with Matt again, and he again tried moves from class. The dude is getting good faster than I am, that’s for sure. He’s easily as good as I am now.

Started on the mat with just me and Rick as students, and Greggo teaching. Oh shit.

Stragglers started arriving as we did our warm up. Chris showed up, as did Eric and Ras. Also a couple of cops came in looking like pro MMA fighters. Oh shit.

Techniques demonstrated were half guard sweeps. Get the underhook and staple your shoulder/head to the top person’s chest. Then you can scoot to the side, switch feet and pull their trapped leg out to wreck their base, and then either get their back or tip them over and pass their guard. You may also be able to roll them over you.

Anyway, after that we rolled. I paired up with Ras first, and he calmly crossed his arms in front of his chest and sat down. Anything I tried to do, he weathered. Then when I got frustrated or bored, he’d come after me and make me move.

Next roll was with Rod, the bald MMA fighter looking guy. I actually did pretty well against him, though I’m sure he went easy on me because I’m old. I managed to recover my guard rather a lot.

I sat out the next round, then paired up with Rick. He sub’d me about 4 times before he just started giving me pointers.

Then I rolled with Brendan, who’s the new college student and who’s been doing BJJ for about 2 years on and off. Probably about the same amount of experience I have. I caught him in a kimura, which he didn’t recognize until I named it. I told him a few techniques you can hit when sitting up and reaching over a planted arm, and he was fascinated.

Then was Chris, who just started giving me pointers to enter his seated guard. Thanks, buddy. I’ll use that against you! He still got me in a good sweep though, and the landing hurt my left floating rib, which sticks out farther than my other ribs, and which I landed on. I’m okay though. I found myself continually turtling and getting D’arce choked. Guess that was last night’s class lesson. :P

I was about to roll with Eric, but Greggo had us line up and ended class 5 minutes early instead.

I came in a half hour early to warm up. TJ said I looked slim, but it was just the rash guard holding everything in.

I went in the room and warmed up slow. I also practiced some break-fall rolls in my rash guard, until TJ and his Krav Maga class took it into the back room. Cosmo and I swept the big mat with damp brooms, then lined up, bowed in with coach Greggo, and did our standard warm up.

Then we circled up and got into no-gi side control bottom escapes. The first was against the over-under position. Frame and push them toward your hips, then you can shrimp out and bring your knee in to recover guard. If they go under-over, you can again frame them and push them down toward your hips, then hook your leg over their head to push them down and get back to guard. From kesa gatame, you can push them down against your upraised knee, then when you remove it and hip out, their back support goes away and you can get up on kesa gatame!

Then we learned how to control the back with over-under control, tucking the head to the under side.

Then we rolled. I started with Daniel, who has a very crafty guard. Working without the gi is tricky. Next was Rick, who pressured me and submitted me eventually a couple times. Then Greggo, whose knee went out once before submitting me. Then TJ, who submitted me but said I get harder to roll with every time. Then Cosmo, who got on top of me and smashed me for the entire time. Then Daniel again, and we spent a good amount of time cuddling in guard. Then Greggo again, who just about broke me in half and then choked me out.

By the end, we had left lakes of sweat on the mat (usually the gi’s soak up a lot of it, I guess) and we were pretty tired. I know I was!

I got on the mat after KM105 just after the circle run. Finished the warm ups and coach Mark sent us to just roll. Ten 5-minute rounds. First round 50% I went with Shabbar (strategically – 50%!) and he dominated me pretty well. His knee on belly pressure is intense.

After that it was full combat. I rolled with Matt, and it was a good battle all the way through. His hip mobility has improved greatly.

I took a round off after that.

Next was Sean, who tapped me repeatedly. Effortlessly.

After that I rolled with Richard (big blue belt) who wrecked me in half guard. He gave me some pointers.

The next round we ended up together again, and he locked me down in half guard some more.

Last round I paired up with Desi. She’s a little orange belt. I went really slow, and she smartly played an open guard. She tried a scissor sweep on me, and I told her she needed to pull my weight over her more to break my posture before it would work. Later she tried the waiter sweep, and again I reminded her to pull me forward to get my weight over her to roll me over. Then in side control I tried the chewjitsu sweep I saw on youtube yesterday. It was rough, so I asked if I could try it again. I explained what I was doing, and the second one landed her slowly on her head before she flopped over. We continued rolling and she got me in kesa gatame, so I reached behind to grab her belt, shrimped my hips next to hers, and rolled her over again. I explained what I did to her, and she thanked me for the tips.

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.

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!