Sunday Class: to gi, or not to gi?

Decision time. Should I go to gi class, or no-gi class? Yes. The answer is clear that you go to both.

Chris's class was excellent as always. We did an insane amount of cardio. Longer mats and Chris don't make a good combination. We then went over a few techniques, most of which were reviewing the side control "immobilization" from the Carlson Jr. seminar. There was a decent amount of free rolling after which is always a good time.

Next was the first no-gi class of the D.A.'s life. Mr. Hyde did his thing with the small group of people. I like his no-nonsense, intense teaching style. And i'm not just saying that because he just subscribed to my blog =).

We earned a sweeeeet lockflow going from kneebar, to different kneebar, to heel hook. This is going to be very helpful in my noobful education on leglocks. He then showed a few other no-gi specific submissions including a bicep slice from full guard and a calf crush.

Kneebars are great, but you have to know the rules before doing a KNEEBAH

Carlson Gracie Jr. Seminar

I am spoiled.

Clints good friend and mentor Carlos Gracie Jr. came up from Chicago for a seminar tonight. His old school, technical, deliberate but unstoppable type of jiu jitsu was on display for everyone to see.

He started off with side control basics. We started out in scarf hold position, learning subtleties for keeping the opponent immobilized. From there we learned two different ways to take the back from the position, and a sweet inverted armbar.

Junior then showed us a ridiculously sweet back take when your opponent turtles. You fake a clock choke and end up rolling them to their back in perfect position to pull the gi acrossed their neck. Way cool!

We finished up with a standing guard pass combined with a knee lead pass, which was similar to the basic pass that I have already learned. We finished the class by watching Clint and Junior roll. They were just flowing from position to position like water, using very little energy. It was an impressive display of what true BJJ is. We then took 2 rounds of live rolling. I got to roll with Dan-o and Jorge-o. The flow wasn't exactly up to the two impressive black belts levels, but It was fun!

Comp class (sort of)

Competition class today consisted of just me, myself, and Hyde. This is disappointing, except for the selfish fact that basically I get a free private lesson with Ryan, and get to roll with a purple belt for the good part of 2 hours.

He rolled at like 20% of his ability, meaning I was only tapping like every 3 minutes. He showed me a couple of things he does from the guard with foot and knee placement since that is primarily what I am working on. It was awesome!

private and basics

I had the privilege of spending an hour on the mat 1:1 with Clint before class today. We continued where our last shortened private stopped. Big Dawg discussed some movement theory with me, and noticed that I need to work on my push/pull a lot with my arms and legs. He showed me a "drill" of putting your legs on the guys biceps, then shoulders, then hips, then behind the knees....going up and down the body. This is to get used to the foot placement in open guard, which is directly what I need help with.

One of my issues is when on my right hip, I correctly use my bottom (right) leg to press the opponent and thwart his passing. What I don't do is use my top (left) leg. It just kind of sits on the guys back. What I need to do is get it on the hip. This gives much more control, and makes it dramatically easier to move my hot girlish hips.

We finished up rolling for like 20 minutes or so which was truly awesome. We worked several positions but Clint kept putting me back in my open guard to work on the concepts we went over. This is most definitely helping me build my game!

After the private I went to basics class with Funk Master C. It was the first class in a 5-6 week series of guard passing, focusing in on the knee lead. The concept C presented was to not end up in someones closed guard, but to beat them to the transition and stick your knee lead in between you and the enemy. Although I have heard this before, this reminder struck a bell and I certainly need to practice this more.

A New Era

Tonight was very special as it was the first class in our new school. The place is huge with tons of mat space, weight equipment, boxing pads, and sweet decoration.

I think this is what heaven looks like.

In the midst of my awe Clint showed a very useful back escape.

Can you pass BJ Penns guard?

New Year New Goals

I need to start weight training.
I need to eat cleaner.
I need to kick ass at the Arnolds.
I need to make my teammates better.
I need my teammates to make me better.
I need to continue forming my game.
I need to suck a little less.

Here is a post holiday performance that sums up my goals: