Cardio Mayhem

Let it be known that Tuesday December 30, 2008 was the hardest cardio day ever. Sprints, run, crawl, sprint, squat, move, sprawl, squat, pushup, situp, mountain climb, sprint, shrimp, squat, shoot, shoot, sprawl, sprawl, sprawl, shoot, jump, sprint.


It was awesome, even though I can't stand up!

old skool

Today we did half guard escapes and focused on what some call the "old school". You get on your side as always and secure the underhook. Shrimp back so you move your body down towards his legs as much as you can. Use your top hand to grab his foot. Open your gward and put your bottom leg up so you are sitting on it. pick the guys back knee with both hands and drive.

Simple, but very effective. Clint said that Jorge, Marcus, etc are very successful with this sweep.

comp class

Only me and 2 others showed up for competition class, braving the horrible road conditions. Luckily it was Mr. Hyde and Jeff "crazy legs" W. They both worked me for 90 mins. We did all no gi again. At the new place we are going to have two no gi classes a week, which I think will help a lot. The last Naga we rocked in the gi, but definitely need some no gi work.

I worked guard all day, and actually got Jeffy in x-guard for a second. Go me.

escape week

Tuesday and Thursday Big Dawg had us drilling half guard passes and escapes. Nothing fancy here, just good tight tech.

Sao Paulo/Tozi/Godoi Pass redux

A while back I talked about the Sao Paulo pass that Clint showed made famous by Roberto Tozi and others.

Ladies in gentlemen...thanks to my random internet friend:



Variation Cesar Tozi likes to use, throwing your weight back:




Tozi's favorite version:



Tozi likes to use this variation against strong guys, or guys who don't want to open their guard:

Comp Class

Competition class was a blast as always! This is turning into my favorite class of the week, as it's pure unadulterated rolling.

It was just myself, Mr. Hyde, and Crazy Bob who showed up. We decided to work no-gi and rolled for 90 or so minutes straight, switching up partners every time.

After the roll we broke down our games, mistakes, holes, and discussed what we are working on. Hyde showed a little bit of his impassable guard game.

Cobrinha

Rubens Charles aka "Cobrinha" might be the best BJJ player on the planet right now.

Hip Bump Sweep/Kimura/Guillotine

We worked on a series of moves from the hip bump sweep position. This is when your opponent is in your full guard, but is leaning too far back in an attempt to thwart your dangerous game.

You start by swimming your opponents arms off your chest. You then grab the same side wrist and thrust your hips up hard into the man. Clint noted that with correct form, you will end up 180 degrees from where you start.

We also worked the kimura from this position. The key details presented were to use your body momentum to take the arm...not just arm strength. You also want to pin the arm TIGHT to your body. Use your whole body to move the forearm for the tap.

If they hide their arm for the kimura, then you can switch to the guillotine. Grab the guys chin with your free arm. Then scoot your butt back a little bit, giving you room to get other hand to grap the wrist of the "chin holding hand". It can be arm in, or arm out..doesn't matter. Pull guard but don't just lay back...do a sit up type movement to pressure towards him to finish the brutal choke.

Basics Class

I went to my first basics class today. I always wanted to try it out, and today was the day to pop my cherry.

C did a little recap of what they had been working on the last month or two (the kneeling game, hand fighting, knee lead) and announced they were going to switch to guard passing in January.

We then started drilling the knee lead pass with no resistance. We then switched up to guard pulling if there was too much resistance (or we wanted to pull guard). He then changed it up to dynamic learning where both people were trying for the knee lead pass or guard pull. We went through several rounds of drilling with different partners. Brandon was kind of the king of the drill as he has been working on this with C for some time now.

Before you know it, it was time for live rolling and my day was done. 3.5 hours of bjj=awesome!

Private on preventing guard passing

I did my first private lesson with Clint today! It was nothing short of awesome as it filled a few basic holes in my game.

Getting my guard passed:

When someone is passing my guard to my right, I want to make sure I have hand control with my left hand grabbing his right sleeve (pulling it towards me). I want to put my right leg on his left hip (vital detail). I then extend him with a push/pull with his arm and hip, and switch my hips so instead of facing right I am facing left. There could be a triangle available here, but the worst case scenario the opponent will have to start his guard pass over.

The other issue I had was rolling to turtle too easy to protect myself from getting my guard passed. This is not a horrible strategy, but must be executed with purpose. I was keeping turtle too long, allowing for my opponent to start to break me down or take my back. It's OK for me to roll to turtle guard, but what I need to work on is not staying there but instantly rolling through back to guard. Putting my arm in between my legs facilitates this, as it puts my shoulders insto position for my body to roll.

Defense against knee lead:

This one I will need to work on but did have some success in live rolling at the end of practice. Clints defense is simple. Open your guard up and put your feet on both hips. Lift your ass in the air above the guys knee that is leading. This totally negates the guys position. It is not an easy guard, as you are lifted up the whole time, but it is effective as he will have to move his knee back to maintain balance if you move him laterally; or you can work normally guard attacks (triangle, armbar, oma plata, etc) from this position.

Passing open guard:

I found this problem when I was trying the standing guard pass. 99% of guys will drop into open guard. I am not getting pwned from this position, but I'm not too succesful in beating it either. The key part of the game is to keep your opponent from getting his feet on your hips. That is his control point. You defeat this by putting your elbows on the insdie of his thighs/knees. Grip the inside of his pants and move your elbows somewhere under his legs and stack him a little. It doesn't matter if you stay standing up or go to your knees as long as you block his feet from going on your hips.

Now I just need to practice all this stuff until it becomes automatic! I used most all of it right away in live rolling and it definitely works for me!

Crampton Sundays

We went over Cramptons north south keylock series.

-kimura. Lift the arm straight up and then turn.

-head scissors. Extend your bottom leg and fall to your side keeping the keylock postion. Slowly extend your top leg from the knee to the foot, tightening the lock.

-belt grab. With the keylock grip, dig your hand under the guys belt securing his arm. Use this to control opponent, leaving chokes available since he only has one arm to defend.

This is what I want my half guard to look like someday.

Wilson Reis x Daniel Aguilar

Competition ClassS

Clint ran comp class tonight. Myself and two other students showed up. We paired up and drilled 4 minute matches starting from side control. I got a lot of good rolling in and had an awesome time!

Since side control was the main topic I got to practice escapes from bottom and control from top. I have been working hard lately just to maintain side control to keep people from re-guarding.

After an hour or so Clint and Kurt had to leave, so Luis and I rolled and worked some positions. Good times were had by all!