TGIF Training: Xande Sweeps and Back Takes

(instruction)

Self-Defense/Standing:

Double Leg drill / Morote Seionage drill

Ground:

Armbar from mount drill / Armbar from guard drill / Xande sweep / Taking the back from closed guard

Live Training:

Five minutes

Training Day: Monday

Standing/Self-Defense: Pull guard from standing / Pull guard from standing - tripod sweep

Ground: Back take from closed guard with arm drag

Live Training: Study hall with Robert: Bravo half guard Old School Twist Back, Xande closed guard sweep, scissors sweep

Scale: 169.2

Training Day: Monday

Ground: Armbar counter to scarf hold / Two collars choke / Take the back from turtle

Live Training: 5 minutes

Scale: 171.2

Training Day: Monday

Self-Defense/Standing: Double leg takedown drill / Single leg takedown drill

Live Drilling: Mount/Escape Mount to Specific Training

Scale: 170.6

TGIF Training: Escapes

(instruction)

Self-Defense:

Headlock escape: Frame escape

Headlock escape: Hook escape

Ground: 

Mount bridge escape: Front choke

Live Training:

5 minutes

Training Day: Wednesday

Self-Defense/Standing: Stepover Headlock counter to shoulder lock

Ground: Mount escape

Live Drilling / Specific Training: Mount/Mount Escape specific alternating with Mount start to Sparring

Live Training: 5 minutes

Scale: 168.2

Training Day: Wednesday

Live Drilling: Double-leg drill / Single-leg drill / Double-leg specific / Single-leg specific / Guard Pass drill / Double-leg drill / Single-leg drill / Double-leg specific / Single-leg specific / Side Control King of the Hill

Scale: 169.4

TGIF Dawn Training: Enter the Katagatamezekiel

(instruction)

Ground:

Scissor Sweep

Hip Bump Sweep

Katagatamezekiel from the back

Live Training:

18 minutes

TGIF: Dawn Training

Ground:

Top control vs turtle / Top control vs turtle to spinsit to back / One arm choke from back control / Armbar from back control / Bow and Arrow choke

Live Training: 

six minutes

Scale: 

166.0

Training Day: Wednesday

Ground and Live Drilling: Replace guard from turtle / Knee on belly escape to turtle / Replace guard from turtle / Single leg takedown from turtle guard replacement counter / Escape from back control to recover full guard



Live Training: 14 minutes

Scale: 170.0

Training Day: Wednesday

Self-defense/Standing: None

Ground: Wedge guard open from the knees / Double unders pass / Pass choke / Asymmetrical choke / Specific training: Submit from Closed Guard Pass Guard

Live Training: None

Scale: 166.5

Training Day: Wednesday

Self-defense/Standing: Jump to closed guard from standing

Ground: Jump to closed guard from standing / Pendulum sweep with leg / Armbar from defense of Pendulum sweep with leg / Specific training: Guard Pass Guard (12 minutes)

Live Training: Robert (six minutes)

Scale: 165.6 lbs

Training Day: Monday

Self-Defense/Standing: Punch block to safe clinch. Safe clinch to hip throw. Hip throw to knee on belly with wrist control.

Ground: Pull feet sweep (feet on hips). Pendulum sweep with and without leg.

Live Training: Prof Carlos, Prof Maeda (eight minutes each).

Scale: 170.0 lbs

Training Day: Tuesday

A good night of Fundamentals training with Jesse teaching. Every time I think about just going to the Live Training session at 7, I can't help but feel as if I'm just not going to get my time's worth unless I'm at the class at 6, as well. It doesn't really matter much to me if it is fundamental or advanced. If you're only going to get one bite of the apple on any given day, you might as well make it as big a bite as possible.

A lot of things to like about tonight's training. The headlock throw, the kind of judo that almost everybody can pick up after a few good reps. And then the armbar and the triangle from the guard. Nothing fancy or elaborate, but it was great to work two techniques that are both absolutely fundamental attacks from the full guard as well as being submissions I almost never use.

Very fun also to work with a white belt during the instructional part. There's no better way to be reacquainted with the fundamentals than to train and drill with someone who is really just learning them for the first time.

That said, I'm filing the finale of tonight's training under "could have been worse."

Some folks are always dealing with knees, others elbows, others backs. For me, apparently, it's all about the eyes.

There are a few things I'm going to have to do differently. I'm convinced that part of my subsequent left eye injuries years ago were at least in part due to my obsession with playing the half guard on my right hip, overexposing the left side of my face while I was still very much trying to learn the position. I've torn through three gi pant cuffs using a grip break that works perfectly well against legal grips, but not so well against illegal grips. So I've had to toss that otherwise very effective way of getting my legs back in exchange for something else.

And now, the posture break that sets up my Guy LaFleur sweep has started to become more dangerous than it is worth. Although I don't do a whole lot of flying around on my own dime, some of my set-ups and deceptions that encourage sudden and unexpected expenditures on the part of my training partners during sparring are starting to be plenty rich for my blood. Literally.

We'll see how much healing up takes place overnight. I'd love to get back on the mat tomorrow - even if I can't spar I can at least get some drilling in.

162.2 on the scale, post-train. It's amazing how much less energy I expend during training compared to three or four years ago. I used to routinely lose 2-3 pounds back at GB Seattle 2.0 ("The Treehouse") after a hard night's training. But despite doing my explosive-repeat conditioning earlier today, it seems as if I never shake the low 160s for the high 150s for long.

Training Day: Wednesday

Working on guard passes as part of the Fundamental lesson right now, the single underhook pass with collar slide or Fundamental 3B for those of you playing the home version.

Trained with Jesse and Nick for Live Training. I'd been thinking about how best to deal with someone like Jesse for the past few days, so it was nice to get a chance to roll with him. With his length, things like the 2 on 1 seem not to provide me with enough control. But I did better with the 2 on 1 than with the deep half I'd thought might be a better approach, so you never know. I still want to work a lot more on the deep half - I'm seeing more and more guys attack with it, but I still think I might have an edge relatively speaking.

Rolling with Nick was especially good insofar as his strength meant that I'd have to focus all the more on technical solutions to problems I found myself dealing with. I've been a little sheepish about rolling with bigger, stronger guys since my shoulder started bugging me a month ago or so. But there are a lot of guys like Nick who are only a weight class or two above mine that it would probably do me good to spend more time working with - from both a training and a "teaching" perspective.

Had a couple of very interesting conversations about jiu jitsu today, one before training with Lance and one after training with Jesse. More about that tomorrow.

160.8 on the scale post-train.

Training Day: Tuesday

It always surprises me to see so many white belts when I train on Tuesday nights. I have no idea how big the academy is growing. But it seems as if every week I train on Tuesday nights, I see 4-5 white belts I've never seen before.

More work from the back tonight. Rodrigo had us working turtle escapes from the front (cross grip. step up), the back (sameside grip, sit), and the side (far knee straightarm, sit and hook with sitting leg) and it was nice to train with Clint like back in the olden days. Good training partners are worth their weight in gold and I've been pretty lucky over the past several months to train and drill with a lot of good teammates who are also good training partners (not always one in the same, unfortunately).

Advanced training was good tonight. I got to roll with Benny, Clint and Rodrigo and it felt good to see some development along planned lines. I'd still like to see more movement from dominant positions on top (side control to mount, side control to knee on belly) from the top and more work on the Stomp Guard from 1/2. But there was a lot to like in tonight's effort, including the first effective hook sweep from Rap Star in what are literally months.

157.0 on the scale post-train.

Training Day: Monday

159.4 on the scale, post-train.

Watching Elliott, Nate and Brock do the takedown training before today's class got me more than a little jealous. But the truth of the matter is that training takedowns would probably be the absolute worst thing for my shoulder right now.

Still working on the back as part of the Big Fundamental (Week 10a, for those of you with the home version). Prof. Carlos provided some nice tips on both the self-defense (adding the osoto gari in case the attacker in the rear choke steps forward to pressure with the knee) and on the escape from rear mount (when bridging back, put your head on the far side of the opponent's head to create some distance and space against the choke).

Some nice things in Live Training today. I'm continuing the "Two Generals" philosophy with better and better results. I'm trying the more aggressive, Marcelo Garcia approach to passing the guard, aggressively going for the 1 on 1 and then looking for the knee cut/Royler for the pass. From the guard, I'm controlling the hands and looking for hook sweep off the eagle grips (far collar/sleeve) or the two-on-one. That continues to be a great way to get things started. It also makes me feel less like a hack when I end up ultimate getting one of my go-to half guard sweeps; if that's how the game unfolds, then I should take the best option available.

I like the omoplata-bait counter to the triangle for now. Not only does it actually take the shoulder - or at least the injured side delt - out of the equation, but also it gives me the opportunity to work on that omoplata escape to side control that Mike Fowler shows in his video.

I also got caught in a version of the slingshot sweep. As far as I'm concerned, that's a reminder that now is a great time to work that sweep into my game (a long, long time goal). I think the trick is to start setting it up very deliberately, at first, bait the trap and see what moves are required in order for the guy to take the bait. More or less, that is what is working for the hook sweep attacks right now. So why not bring that bait strategy over to another field of operations and see what happens?

Very good performance from my shoulder. It's been a few hours and it really feels better than it has in days. I still plan on doing the full Super Cissus treatment in about a week's time. But I'll take any improvement in the meantime, for sure.

Training Day: Tuesday

Starting to put Tuesday night back into the rotation. In the olden days, I used to train Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. Of late, Thursdays have become more of an off-day, and the Monday training has shifted a few hours earlier, but Tuesday has been the odd date out. No more - at least as of this week.

Worked guillotine and guillotine escapes tonight, sort of a refresher of the Monday lesson. There were a lot of new people I've never seen before, which is always a little amazing, as well as some familiar faces like Jeff and Benny, who I got to drill with today.

I also got to roll with Rodrigo for a good little while. I did a halfway decent job of pressing the attack at the beginning with the two on one and trying to keep active foot in hip and hook pressure. Rodrigo passed, of course, but it was good to at least work some of the grips and to work on something that I'd been wanting to work on.

I also got to roll with Igor, a much smaller white belt who was a nice continuous-aerobic, HICT type workout after the grueling session with Rodrigo. There was some good work for both of us I think and I'm especially grateful for the first opportunity to try the slingshot sweep in years.

156.6 on the scale-post train - a credit to some (relatively) clean eating and 50 minutes on the treadmill earlier today.

Training Day: Monday

A smallish class compared to what's been the case for much of the summer - vacations and the heat of August seem to be taking a little toll. That said, I got to train with new fellow brown belt "Chopper" Jeff for the first time in years, and then with Elliott, who is becoming one of my regular training partners these days.

The lesson was back control, for the most part, with Prof. Carlos showing us a version of taking the back from turtle using the same grips that Givas Santana showed us in his seminar earlier this summer. I get the sense that Carlos and Rodrigo are really starting to put their own imprint on the GB Fundamentals now that we've gone through the whole course once. That will only be for the better down the line.

BTW, today was Week 9a: Guillotine. Hooks v.s. Turtle. Rear Two Collars Choke.

With Jeff, I worked pretty much out of half guard. I did a good enough job of staying on the attack, even from half, but should have converted the kimura attack to the kimura sweep, since the kimura sweep is high on my list of training priorities. Unfortunately, I was too self-conscious about missing the sweep and winding up on the bottom.

With Elliott, I was mostly dealing with his ever-ready triangle attack - that and his youth. After spinning around and around for what seemed like half an hour, I finally had to stop - partly due to time constraints, partly due to exhaustion. Elliott looked like he could have gone another 10-20 minutes, easy.

So, not a great training day in some ways. I'm still struggling to implement my post-train skills work - hopefully adding some late classes on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday will give me more opportunities. Between the heat, my shoulder, and general August laziness, I've backed off my conditioning save for finishing off the explosive-repeat sessions I've been doing since the July 20th. I'm trying to make up for some lost training time from last week, so maybe I'll give myself a bit of a break on the off-mat conditioning - maybe explo-repo tomorrow and some cardiac output work on Thursday will do the trick.

158.8 on the scale post-train. Summer on the mat.

Training Day: Wednesday

A hard training day - especially for a Wednesday. Coursework consisted mostly of mount escapes - elbow escape with hipblock to guard recovery ("flatleg hipscape" in Burien Top Team-ese) and the bump and roll counter to the collar choke.

Ground Fundamental 4: Mount Control and Escape: Week 7b for those of you playing the home version.

Prof. Carlos made a big point about recovering full guard rather than half guard when escaping the mount. His warning was that if you recovered half guard and guy still had a good crossface pressure, it might be easy for him to to the half guard wedge pass back to mount and get another set of points.

Food for thought to be sure. At the end of the day, though, half guard is my bread and butter, and the idea of abandoning it for another position that I am less comfortable with - all to avoid a known danger - is hard to accept. At this point, I'm more likely to walk into the fire forewarned than strike out on a different less familiar course where the challenges may be no less formidable and harder to anticipate.

Got to do some live training with both Lindsey and Elliott. I need to spend some time working on my half guard recovery from turtle. It's a switch that I feel pretty comfortable with physically. I just need to get my circuits wired properly so that I can make the transition seamlessly.

The Flat Pass continues to work for me at high levels. I should do a better job of moving all the way through instead of settling for a half guard battle. But a large part of my game is turning everything into a half guard battle - where I think I have an edge since I'm the biggest half guard cheerleader this side of Jeff Glover - so I'm finding it a little hard to break the habit.

Rolled with Carlos for about 20 very intense minutes. Wristlocks, anklelocks, a choke or two: you name it, he got it. What was most rewarding about the experience (beyond a tip on the arm cross choke) was a reminder of what black belt pace is like. Not just a matter of "speed" or "rate of techniques", but a deliberateness, a "shoot to kill" sensation that every grip, every switch of the hips, every pause, is the prelude to something significant.

When I first began to roll with Rodrigo, I used to think of this as "the acceleration" - like something you'd see in a Formula One racer or a Blue Angels jet slipping out of formation to take the lead. After some movement here or there, it was as if a button had been pushed and into hyperspace we went.

Between my off-mat conditioning and commitment to an aerobic pace until an edge appears, I'm doing a better and better job of training at a faster and faster clip. I'm not necessarily moving as fast as my opponents - most of the time, I'm not. But I'm able to make my adjustments at a clip that is faster and faster. At the end of the day, jiu jitsu is an infinite set of tiny movements that make the difference. And both deception and "being first" are excellent alternatives to being fast.

157.6 on the scale post train. I'd thought about doing another explo-repo workout tomorrow, but the way my quads, hams and calves are feeling that would not be a great idea. That might provide a nice little opportunity to do some core work (hip flexors!) instead.