Mizblog

Coach Greggo taught this Thursday morning class. I was apprehensive going in (what’s new?) because I’d been sick for 5 days, and started 3 new meds in the last 2 days. Not sure how my body would react.

Standard warm up. Collar choke from closed guard. Cross collar grip deep on the label, wrist to the neck. Other hand sneaks under to get a corresponding palm-up grip right next to the first hand. Pull your elbows to the mat as you push your wrists/thumbs into the neck for the tap.

Next variation was the thumb-in version. Same first cross grip, but you pull their head down to your chest in guard, keeping their posture collapsed. Reach your second hand thumb-in to the collar, then shuck their head over toward the cross grip as you pull the thumb-in hand across their neck. Similar finish.

Collar choke from the mount involves again getting that first cross collar grip deep, then putting your hand across the neck and resting your elbow on their sternum to get their head off the mat. Reach your other hand around and shave their chin with your elbow and forearm as you slide your hand up to the shoulder with your forearm/wrist on the other side of their neck. Put your head down to the mat on the side of the top hand. Lower your hips and push your wrists into the neck for the tap. To do it extra hard, you can push yourself forward with your toes. This tends to raise their chin and expose their neck more, which is what you’re after.

Then we rolled.

I first rolled with Professor Pat. He got on top of me and pinned me in side control, trying to isolate my arm a bit before I got free. He took me down again and again got on top. The end.

Next I rolled with Dave. As usual, it was a fun roll. Dave got me in his guard. I started passing and he got that Z-guard that he’s been working on. I went to pass and he swept me and mounted. I upa’d and started another guard pass. We got into a bit of a scramble and I got into a triangle position from the top, but Dave countered it and used that to pass my guard. Again on top, he defended future upa’s so I started to shrimp out while he sunk the cross collar choke. I was able to sweep him and get top half guard while he was still trying to finish the choke, but he didn’t have good leverage or a good angle, so I felt pretty safe. That’s where we ended.

Next I rolled with a new guy. I had him show me the techniques he’d learned in the class, and I gave him a tip on how to be heavy in side control top. He wanted to see the arm bar from mount, so I walked through the steps on him, but it’s too complicated to drill in a 4 minute round. I then gave him a crash course in guard passing before time ran out.

Next I rolled with Matt, the recently promoted blue belt. I had a hard time passing his guard, as I kept getting stalled in half guard (I guess that was last night’s lesson, which I missed because of work) and I tried the Escrima pass but I’m terrible at it and he was able to sweep me. We had a nice scramble. I ended up again in half guard, only this time he tried to collar choke me from half guard bottom, which is where Dave had ended up too. The round ended there with Matt as well. I guess my defense from half guard top is solid.

I sat out the next round. Last round was with Daniel. We had an easy, flowy roll where I just tried to chill within his guard, and pass if he gave me anything. I again ended up on half guard top, only this time he locked up a kimura and actually finished on me. I feel I should have been able to get out of it but I didn’t think to posture up and back away until after I tapped. Almost survived the day untapped!

Greggo taught the Saturday morning class, with Mark watching and occasionally chiming in with details and refinements. We did a few laps and then a 10 minute flow roll to warm up. I got paired with a new kid named Christian. He had goofy eyes and told me me has seizures. He was floppy, and this was his 4th BJJ class ever. I talked him through some basics, and we got warmed up.

The technique of the day was arm bar from mount. We started for the case where the bottom person was keeping the elbows nicely tucked, but that enables you to get a collar grip across the neck with your thumb in the gi. It’s kind of an overhand grip, and you can use it to start a paper cutter type choke to turn their head. Once they reach up to prevent the choke, you can slide your knee up under the arm and tuck it behind the head. On the other side of them, you slide your foot forward and under their arm to make sort of an underhook with your leg. You squeeze your knee toward your foot to hold them in place, keeping a hand free in case they try to tip you over forward, and keeping your hips pressed forward so they can’t roll you over your own knee (that’s how Greggo’s knee got damaged).

If they’re protecting their neck, you don’t need the collar grip. You can just scoot your knees up under their elbows and it makes them a gift wrapped present with an elbow bow. Hold their wrists or their elbows to collect them as you scoot up. Sit on them and PUSH THEIR FACE/JAW AWAY as you shift your weight to switch your leg position. I guess you ideally want their shoulder on the mat, your legs jamming your groin into the upper arm to keep it there, and that gives you the best leverage to finish the arm bar.

Then we rolled a little, to try to flow through the positions. My training partner was newly minted blue belt Carlos, and he’s a little wisp of a guy, but he was able to take my weight with no complaints. We went back and forth with the roll but settled eventually on trying to finish it with minimum resistance.

After that, we got to the real rolling. Mark paired me up with new guy Natan, who’s a 17 year old high school wrestler. He wanted me to give him an easy roll, but he changed his mind and told us to wrestle hard but no submissions. It took the pressure off me, and I let myself try things, give up good positions, and then recover from bad positions.

Next I rolled with Jose, who gave up submission after submission. I got him with the arm bar of the day, an Americana, and a mounted guillotine after I used the guillotine from guard to get the hip bump sweep and finished in mount.

Next roll was with Cowboy. He tried the kimura sweep on me but I postured up to defend it, and he cursed that it didn’t work like they said it would. He basically then coached me through an Americana. He also repeatedly chastised me for not being heavy enough. He said it was stunting my game, and that I shouldn’t be scared to put weight on people. They’ll tell you if it’s too much, especially if you cue them at the beginning. Not only side control, but also north-south. I should be laying my belly on their face to smother them, and they should be very uncomfortable being down there.

My next roll was with Leo in the back corner. He’s such a little guy, I didn’t even realize. Anyway, he was trying to do some weird half guard stuff to me that he learned from videos, but it wasn’t working. I had to stop him from pulling my finger off at one point as well, as he was ready to use it to get me off him. I started feeling guilty for using my weight on him too.

Well after that I got paired up with Shabbar. Haha! Here’s my test for using my weight. I got a good takedown from the knees, he turtled and I put him back in side control a few times before somehow we got a scramble and I tried a takedown from turtle but he sprawled and underhooked me away and ended up mounting me. I was then able to employ defenses against the arm bar of the day, finally upa’ing him over. We ended with me passing his guard after a failed triangle attempt which led me to a double under pass.

My last roll was with noob Christian again. I talked him through general concepts, and let him do a collar choke on me from the guard. I emphasized for him that he needed to use his legs and his arms and his whole body to crunch up and choke me. I actually don’t think he was strong enough to choke me out even if I let him have my neck unimpeded, but he needs technique first and the strength will come with practice and use of the muscles.

It was a good practice. Mark told me I was firming up. Rick told me and the other guys around me that I was way tougher than when I first started training. Jose told everyone that he wants to be like me when he grows up. I told him “2-3 more weeks of training and you’ll be there.” It was funny.

Christian ran this Thursday morning class, and he made us work hard. We started running, doing high knees and buttkickers, then the shuffling and backwards running. Reverse, do it again, and then sprints around and around, trying to touch the shoulder of the person in front of you. Then it was tandem drills across the mat. First you’d lie flat on your back as your partner stood over you. You’d both get sleeve grips, and the bottom person would do 15 pull ups, then shrimp across the mat with the top partner stepping to your armpit each time to give you something to push off of. I paired with Christian. The next exercise was pulling our partner up and balancing them on our hands and feet above us, doing a squat to lower them and raise them back up, then return them to their feet. After that we did double leg takedown entries, where we’d step in, lower level, drop step, head up, shoulder drive into the waist, grip the legs together, hooking behind the knees, step in, and drive with the head in the torso over the blocked leg/knee. My toes don’t bend backward without serious pain, so no drop steps for me.

Then it was just double leg drills. I paired with Andrew. I actually did alright with shuffling in instead of doing the drop step.

Then we did ABC Randori. It was me, Andrew, and Rick. Haha! Yeah. That went well. At least I never got thrown, though I did get put on the bottom a few times.

After that we learned what Christian does when he’s turtled. He crosses up his arms to grab the pants of his opponent’s back leg, to limit their mobility. I did not find this at all useful. Then he lays down and spins like a lawnmower blade to recover half guard or guard. I found that when I do this on the left side, it hurts my ribs A LOT! None of that for me, thanks.

Then we rolled. I started with Andrew. He started in bottom turtle, and I pushed him over into side control. He recovered half guard and I passed to mount. I threatened arm bars and such, and at one point he rolled me, but I defended well and ended up sweeping him and getting back on top, where I ended the roll.

Next was Matt, who just got his new blue belt last night. I again started on top and got side control. I locked up a kimura but couldn’t finish because 1) he kept dropping to his back, and 2) he kept holding onto his gi, and 3) I wasn’t strong enough to separate his grip and finish the kimura while maintaining him in the position.

Next was Dave. He started on the bottom and I went for side control right away again, but he got me in half guard. In fact, he got me in a really interesting half guard, where he pinched his legs on my trapped leg, and kept his knees in my torso so I couldn’t close the distance. I figured out how to get out by lifting my leg out of that mess, but it was enlightening. Dave swept me and got kimura control, but when he went to lift it and finish, I spun out of it.

Next was Dave again, only this time I started on bottom. I don’t remember this roll, as it blended in with the previous roll.

Next I rolled with Rick, and my goals were 1) don’t get injured, and 2) don’t panic. I did well. Got tapped about 5x but maintained composure.

Finally I rolled with Daniel. I started on top and tried to push him over. He recovered guard and swept me. I turtled. He tried to sink his hooks but I shook him off the front and slowly slid on top while controlling his leg to prevent triangles and arm bars. Good roll.

Got up early for a fasting blood draw, and came back to find out that tomorrow’s meeting had been rescheduled for this afternoon at 1pm. Well, that impacted my training schedule, but I decided to go anyway. I’ve been missing a lot of rolling lately, but at least I got to drill today.

We warmed up with a very brief set of laps and shrimping, followed by a 10 minute flow roll. I got paired with Coach Greggo, and found out that I don’t know how to flow roll. Over 2 years and nobody ever told me that flow rolling is just allowing sweeps and releasing submissions and minimal resistance.

We learned more details of the kimura. From the closed guard, pull them with your legs ans you swim your hands in and pull his elbows out, getting him to put his hands on the mat to stop his forward collapse. Grab one wrist (monkey grip no thumb) as you shrimp away and out a little, then reach the other arm over his shoulder and grip your own wrist from behind his arm. This grip secured, clamp it is you roll back onto your back, turning your torso perpendicular to your opponent’s, keeping their elbow bent to 90 degrees, and clamping their upper arm tightly. Bring your near side leg over their belt line to immobilize their hips, and rotate their shoulder joint to get the tap.

From the half guard, I learned a couple of important factors in establishing a half guard. First, block the cross face. Second, make the knee shield with the other knee to keep their torso from smashing you. I really need to practice those two things. Anyway, when you’re blocking that cross face, you can grip it and reach over it and lock up the kimura grip just like from guard. Roll back onto your back and control their hips by pinching your thighs together on their leg that’s in your half guard. Put your feet on the mat to scoot your hips farther under them to let you rotate your torso farther. Keep their arm bent 90 degrees and throttled down. Rotate their shoulder to get the tap.

The last technique we did was to counter the defense of grabbing their own belt. From bottom half guard, you don’t really have the leverage to break that grip, but you can turn it into a sweep and get the finish from the top. Let them pass to side control, and as they do, you walk your feet to north-south, use your kimura grip to roll them over, and you come up on top and in position to finish the kimura from the top, same as Saturday. Cool!

Then I had to leave before I could roll.

I came in early to watch Saranya’s class. She did really well. I was impressed.

We started our class with a half-assed warm-up as the kids finished off in the corner. Then we paired up to learn how to do a kimura from closed guard. I already knew how to do this, so I worked on refining my technique. Specifically, grip the arm HARD by doing a motorcycle rev grip, and make sure their elbow is bent and locked, and keep your arms clamping their upper arm tight, and use your legs to lock down their hips. My training partner was Professor Pat, and he gave me pointers that were opposite to what Greggo was teaching. Greggo came over and straightened us out eventually. I can do a kimura pretty well.

Next was Christian showing a kimura from bottom half guard. The idea, he said, is to distract them with your underhook (though later Greggo said you more typically get it when blocking the cross face) and get a no-thumb wrist grip on their cross face arm, while maintaining an inner leg hook. Sit up on your wrist-gripping elbow as you reach the other arm over and lock up the figure 4 grip. Bend the arm to 90 degrees and twist your hands to push bone to bone and make it uncomfortable. Squeeze your legs together as you roll under, keeping your tight grip on their upper arm, and rotate their shoulder until they tap.

We also learned how to finish it from top side control. Take the near arm, pin the wrist to the belt with your top hand, slip your bottom hand under the elbow and lock up the kimura grip. Now you want to step over them to go to a north-south orientation. Roll them up on their side with their locked arm up. Brace your knee in their back to keep them from lying flat. Hug their arm to your chest. Twist it away from their body to break a belt or gi grip, then sit up while keeping it locked to your body, then rotate the shoulder to put their hand in their own back pocket for the tap.

Rolling started slow. I rolled with Carlos, and he quickly gave up the hip bump sweep and I got mount. He got his feet up high to pull me over backward, but then he didn’t get on top. Huh. I could have submitted him all over the place just by throwing my weight on him, but I didn’t.

After that, Mark told me to go roll with “Mad Dog” Mark. We went off in the Adam corner and got to it. I started on the bottom, and somehow got on top and mounted him. He was doing push ups on me and trying to lock up a kimura from bottom mount, and I wasn’t able to sink an arm bar on him. He almost recovered half guard on me but I maintained mount and just ended up smashing him.

Next round was with Ray. I managed to do pretty well against him, and didn’t get submitted, but he was also secure from my submission attempts. He did pass to side control once, but I was able to get him to take kesa gatame, and when I threatened to take his back he retreated and broke contact.

The round after that I rolled with Joel, the little hispanic kid from Saranya’s class. He was going to roll with Aiden but Johnson was off doing other stuff so Joel jumped at the chance to roll with me. We started with me in his guard, and I let him work. He locked up a good arm bar. Tap. Then we went to Joel in my guard, and I wiggled around to test his base (he was wobbly and he somehow leg locked himself once) but eventually he passed and I turtled. He was working on something that I didn’t recognize and I was coaching him to get his hooks which he finally did and sunk in the choke just before the end of the round.

Last round was with Sean. I started in his guard and he started doing spider guard on me. I tried sliding him between my legs but he just slid right out again when I tried to sit on him. He then went to a De La Riva guard and tipped me over onto the wall. I barely got out of that when Mark called a pause in the action to hand out Carlos’ blue belt! Then we went back to rolling. Sean again did the open guard, and I started passing. He set up the bait baseball choke, but I saw it coming and prevented it, which impressed him.

Then we all hip tossed Carlos onto the crash pad and class was over.

Afterward, Saranya and I went to Chipotle!

Finally hit my 100th class. Greggo taught triangle defenses.

The first defense is controlling the latch leg with your in-arm. Grip the pants of the leg across your neck, press it to the mat, then look up as you posture up. If they pull your head down, good luck!

Next defense was to grip the cross leg and turn it out to try to survive. Good luck!

Next was a pass/submission based on getting your posture and removing your arm. Once you get your arm out from between, reach your free arm forward and across to grab the collar thumb-in. Then you can stack them and press that forearm into their neck for the submission, or let them fall to the side and establish side control.

We did some situational rolling where we practiced either finishing the triangle or getting out of the triangle. I finished Phil once and Andrew twice. Jen finished me twice, but I couldn’t get a tight triangle on her at all. Shabbar finished me at will, and crushed me with stacking pressure when I tried to triangle him. Then I had to leave to pick up Saranya from her short school day.

Greggo’s Saturday morning class. I had to leave early to get cleaned up and go to the valley, so only an hour of training, but it was good.

We started with a basic spider guard break and pass, but it included some very important concepts for approaching someone’s spider guard. For instance, spider guard is pretty useless against a standing opponent, unless they’re really short and you’re really tall. Another idea is that being on your knees is useless against spider guard. You should at least get up to one foot.

So the first pass involves getting tight grips on the outside of the pants, right near the knees, so you can also control them and move them around. They want to lift you and tip you over, so you want to move over toward the lifting side and roll them onto that side, so their extended leg is more horizontal than vertical, nullifying their advantage. You can then break their grip by lining their heel up with your knee to slide their foot off your bicep, allowing you to slip your hand under their leg and pin it down to the mat, then break their other grip somehow (I forget how) and pass under their other leg while you keep the original leg pinned to the mat.

The next pass involved standing and pulling back (again with the knee grips) and then getting into the pass we did last week, where you hold their feet to the mat as you step around them and slide into side control. You can also leapfrog their legs into mount, if you’re feeling spry.

The last pass was seriously brutal, but fun. Again, grip and stand, but this time you want to aim your grip to the back of the knee. Step back and pull your elbows together, and yank them forward so their butt slides down between your legs. You then sit on their hamstrings, which are pressed to their chest below you. From the bottom, it really sucks, and my sore rib was crying as Greggo used me to demo the move. Anyway, once you’re sitting heavy on them, you reach across their feet to push their shin away from you as you kind of body surf down onto them and into side control.

We then did a guard passing drill from spider guard, where 4 people were in the middle and the rest lined up to try to pass their spider guard. If they got passed, the passer stayed in the middle and the middle person had to get back in line. If they swept, the passer got back in line. I gave and got a bit. Good fun.

Then we did top-bottom-out. I got grouped with TJ and Jared the blue belt. I actually did very good in that drill. TJ again got frustrated when his lasso sweep didn’t work on me (I was able to reach over with my free hand to keep him from tipping me over.) Before that fun was done, though, it was noon and I had to run.

TJ gave me his extra copy of Texas Holdem with Zombies, so I get to learn how to play that.

Coach Mark taught this Thursday morning class. TJ led the warm up, and then we got into the drill. First drill was just the standard cinching up the gi choke from behind. I paired with Ed, who’s kind of a new guy. Lots of reps.

Next drill was finishing the choke with the chicken wing. Put the back of your hand into the crook of the elbow, pull it back, then lift it over their head before sliding the arm behind their neck to tighten the choke. It’s devastating.

Mark then switched me from training with Ed to training with Eric, who’s just back from knee injury after 5 months off. Mark showed us how to tip the turtle over and take the back, and how you usually aren’t able to get the bottom hook in, so you can get the top hook in and use it to pull them over so that it becomes the bottom hook. Lots of neck exercise there with all the choking. I’m going to be stiff later, I bet! Mark went outside to talk on the phone and left us to drill for about 15 minutes. Eric had to take a break because of his neck, and I guess it was a good idea. I didn’t start feeling my neck until after I got home…

Mark came back in and had us put in mouth guards. TJ set us up for 6 minute rolls. I started against Eric, who’s both big and skilled. He’s like 90% of a Brandon, without all the Krav Maga. Anyway, he choked me with a one handed clock choke, which he then showed me. Come to think of it, that’s probably how my neck got tweaked! Anyway, you get the gi grip across the throat, and then you sit forward, sort of holding yourself up with the gi slack, and it makes for a really nasty choke. We rolled again and he got me in a really uncomfortable north-south but when he went for the arm bar I was able to slip out of it by the end of the round.

Next roll was with Ed. I was able to get out of an arm bar attempt from him and then get on top, but he swept me and he ended up in my guard. I was able to slide out the side and take his back. He rolled to his back so I took mount, and then took his arm, and finished an arm bar slowly and cleanly.

Next roll was with Matt. I started in turtle and Matt got me me down, but I got half guard, blocked the cross face and got the underhook, and was able to use that to scramble on top. From there, I kept passing to mount and he kept recovering half guard until I took his back. He could have slid me off his head but he didn’t, however I couldn’t finish because I was out of energy.

Next round I was back with Eric. I got on top, but he folded my leg over and got on side control over me, and I tapped from pressure. Not sure the rib can handle his pressure, so I was being safe. I sat out the rest of the rolls.

EDIT: My neck stiffened up when my body cooled down after training. It made for an uncomfortable night’s sleep.

We had 3 black belts on the mat this morning. It was the school’s first day of 0530 class, so there was some discussion about its utility and proper form. I can’t take advantage of it, the same way I can’t take advantage of the MWF evening classes.

Anyway, I limped into class and walked out later. Warm up was fine. Drilling paired me with Greggo, and we went over guard passing by holding the knees and walking around, then diving into half guard. That’s what got my rib separated at UCLA in 2011, but I wasn’t as nervous as I should have been. Turns out, my rib wasn’t my problem.

So I sucked terribly at the drill. We were supposed to grip the INSIDES of the pants at the knees, hold the legs down with the feet on the ground, walk around to the side, slide your farthest knee into the apple of the hip AT THE SAME TIME as you reach your front side elbow over their opposite shoulder. Then you press them down to the mat and take your lower and and grip their pants to control their hips.

We had a little competition drill to do this. I was pretty good on bottom. Jen elbowed me in the face twice when trying to do the move. Oops.

Then we rolled. I rolled with Phil first. In a scramble, he hit me in the cheekbone with his elbow, so that was 3 elbows in the face during this class before the first roll was over. I managed to stay on top of him.

Next roll was with Christian. Mounting him is like mounting a medicine ball full of oiled midgets on speed. He got me in an arm bar and I almost got out. He complimented me on one scramble where he had to try three different things to get me rolled over on my back. I guess that shows that I’ve got good movement.

After that I rolled with Dave. He started out by passing my guard. I fought and nearly recovered a few times, but he secured side control. I inched my way to recovery, ended up sitting up and sweeping, and finished on top.

I sat out the next round, coming back in to roll with Greggo. He did his sit-up guard and he let me roll around with him. I did alright.

The final round was with Dave again, because everyone else left. It was pretty even.

At the end of class, we did 3 rounds of sit-ups. 240 individual sit-ups.

First day back after gout and flu. First training day this entire month. I’ve been wrecked lately, and have been doubting my ability to get back on the mat. But I tried it today, and it went pretty good.

I wore my new hemp gi today. It’s so soft and pliable. Turns out it makes for an excellent weapon for my opponents to use against me!

Anyway, warmup was standard and not that hard. Coach Mark taught us the collar choke from behind, then the chicken wing, then the chicken wing on the rack. Stuff from a year and a half ago that I had kind of forgotten.

Then we rolled. I started with Joe, the hippy purple belt guy. He got me with a one handed clock choke.

Next was Ray, who mounted me and stayed there.

Then I rolled with Leo, who I kimura’d from the top after a long fight. Coach Mark was appreciative.

Next round I took off before rolling with Cowboy. He choked me out 3x with my new gi before he started coaching me to keep my elbows in tight.

Next roll was with Matt, and we were pretty even.

I took the last round off. Then I got my 5th stripe on my white belt. 17 classes in 4 months since my last stripe.