Me and my mat time tonight ...
Showing posts with label tripod sweep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tripod sweep. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Monday, March 31, 2014
Training Day: Monday
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
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Positive Jiu-Jitsu Space? Priceless
Another nice night on the mat. I still weigh a ton, and can feel it every time I try and move to keep up with some of our young guns. But there are few things in life right now that compare with the joy of a good night on the mats. Coach Ed said it best after we finished a sparring round after class: "I wish I could live here."
Wednesday was tripod sweep and taking the back from closed guard. Tonight, we worked the scissors sweep and the scissor sweep transition to the armbar. Five black belts on the mat helping the class. Awesome.
To do for me: work on deep half defense, lose some #(*%&@ weight, finish the ICP4 course by Saturday and start the technique essay.
Really appreciated being in a good jiu-jitsu space. If I let my mind wander, I end up in the "desert of the real" to steal a phrase, so I'm trying to keep busy, stay occupied and, quite frankly, avoid Facebook and anywhere else I'm likely to encounter news that makes me want to move to Mercury.
163.4 on the scale post train. That's not so good. On the other side of things, I'm teaching the am class at 6:30 tomorrow and the new "Over 40" class at 6 pm tomorrow evening. It will be a long day, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly excited to have this kind of responsibility.
I really want to make sure I take advantage of the incredible training partners I've got right now. The golden age of training (May-October 2012) may have ended, but there's still plenty of prospecting to do on those night and nooners I am able to return to the tatame.
Wednesday was tripod sweep and taking the back from closed guard. Tonight, we worked the scissors sweep and the scissor sweep transition to the armbar. Five black belts on the mat helping the class. Awesome.
To do for me: work on deep half defense, lose some #(*%&@ weight, finish the ICP4 course by Saturday and start the technique essay.
Really appreciated being in a good jiu-jitsu space. If I let my mind wander, I end up in the "desert of the real" to steal a phrase, so I'm trying to keep busy, stay occupied and, quite frankly, avoid Facebook and anywhere else I'm likely to encounter news that makes me want to move to Mercury.
163.4 on the scale post train. That's not so good. On the other side of things, I'm teaching the am class at 6:30 tomorrow and the new "Over 40" class at 6 pm tomorrow evening. It will be a long day, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly excited to have this kind of responsibility.
I really want to make sure I take advantage of the incredible training partners I've got right now. The golden age of training (May-October 2012) may have ended, but there's still plenty of prospecting to do on those night and nooners I am able to return to the tatame.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Training Day: Monday
I don't usually train open guard. But when I do, I train tripod sweep.
That's how I felt during today's training. After a few sessions feeling out of my element (especially the closed guard work last week), it was nice to find myself in a pretty comfortable pedagogic space: training and drilling the open guard pull and switch to the tripod sweep.
Several months ago I developed a little coordination drill to help me move quickly from orthodox grips and feet on hips to the cross grip, ankle hook, and ankle grip of the tripod sweep. And while I've never made the transition to the sickle sweep alternative to the tripod sweep defense with any fluidity, the drill has given me an open guard sweep that I'm pretty comfortable with - something that was not likely to emerge whole from my permanent half guard campaign.
Got a lot of opportunity to work on said open guard during an extended open guard King of the Hill. It was also a great chance to work on passing open guards, getting rid of the hooks and securing the grips you want in order to pass. Professor Carlos has been especially big on emphasizing open guards - sweeping and passing. Today was a good example of getting that work in.
A little chubby 160.7 on the scale post-train. For a Monday, and with only one sparring session in Live Training (though I did some pre-class conditioning including a matwork round, a pair of aerobic power rounds, sprints, straddles, throws, trips, and takedowns ...), I'm going to give myself a break.
That's how I felt during today's training. After a few sessions feeling out of my element (especially the closed guard work last week), it was nice to find myself in a pretty comfortable pedagogic space: training and drilling the open guard pull and switch to the tripod sweep.
Several months ago I developed a little coordination drill to help me move quickly from orthodox grips and feet on hips to the cross grip, ankle hook, and ankle grip of the tripod sweep. And while I've never made the transition to the sickle sweep alternative to the tripod sweep defense with any fluidity, the drill has given me an open guard sweep that I'm pretty comfortable with - something that was not likely to emerge whole from my permanent half guard campaign.
Got a lot of opportunity to work on said open guard during an extended open guard King of the Hill. It was also a great chance to work on passing open guards, getting rid of the hooks and securing the grips you want in order to pass. Professor Carlos has been especially big on emphasizing open guards - sweeping and passing. Today was a good example of getting that work in.
A little chubby 160.7 on the scale post-train. For a Monday, and with only one sparring session in Live Training (though I did some pre-class conditioning including a matwork round, a pair of aerobic power rounds, sprints, straddles, throws, trips, and takedowns ...), I'm going to give myself a break.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Training Day: Wednesday
Good training today. Worked with Nick on pulling guard and going to the tripod sweep as part of our return to the curriculum, as well as the armdrag to the back from the closed guard off 2-on-1 control.
Live training was two good sessions with Glenn and Brian. Glenn is always good to train with insofar as he gives me the same half/deep half treatment I like to deliver to the doorsteps of others. Eight minutes of pressure - both standing and ground - but no pass. Very tough guard game in the making there.
To the same end, Brian and I have similarly tight games that also lend themselves little in the way of enduring advantage. Here, my mousetrap struggled against his especially disciplined arm/shoulder defense which is a reminder that I'm going to have to do a better job of provoking more movement instead of just trying to pry my way into a mountainside.
Movement is the weakest part of my game - in part because I'm not the youngest rooster in the yard and in part because I've tended to associate movement with the kind of flashy, ninja-jiu jiujitsu that I really wanted to avoid. But movement doesn't mean flying around. It just means selectively creating space and removing space, one step at a time.
166.6 on the scale, everything but the coat. That's about as heavy as I need to get going into the end of the year.
Live training was two good sessions with Glenn and Brian. Glenn is always good to train with insofar as he gives me the same half/deep half treatment I like to deliver to the doorsteps of others. Eight minutes of pressure - both standing and ground - but no pass. Very tough guard game in the making there.
To the same end, Brian and I have similarly tight games that also lend themselves little in the way of enduring advantage. Here, my mousetrap struggled against his especially disciplined arm/shoulder defense which is a reminder that I'm going to have to do a better job of provoking more movement instead of just trying to pry my way into a mountainside.
Movement is the weakest part of my game - in part because I'm not the youngest rooster in the yard and in part because I've tended to associate movement with the kind of flashy, ninja-jiu jiujitsu that I really wanted to avoid. But movement doesn't mean flying around. It just means selectively creating space and removing space, one step at a time.
166.6 on the scale, everything but the coat. That's about as heavy as I need to get going into the end of the year.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Training Day: Wednesday
I've always had a very strange synchronity with jiu jitsu. I would be fixated on a certain problem, and then out of nowhere Mamazinho or Rodrigo would be basing the lesson of the day on that problem. In reality, it's probably simply a matter of most of the problems I had as a white belt and a blue belt were pretty common and always good for a lesson. But the experience was always exhilerating - making me think all the more that jiu jitsu "was for me."
Today was another episode in that series. I've been studying the 2 on 1 and looking for ways to deal with standing opponents. Right now, I'm looking at setting up the single X. But it was very nice to have Carlos teaching the cross guard (a relative of the 2 on 1) and the tripod sweep. There were some good details, like checking the ankle rather than the knee, and some more details that Brian picked up about using a torreano style pass to clear the legs after you "technical lift" to the top position. Now, out of the cross guard or 2 on 1, I've got the tripod sweep, the transition to the single X and, hopefully one day, the split back roll from Jiu Jitsu University.
Very good post-class training with Mark. We got in three sets of 10 armbars each, reviewed some side control escape fundamentals, and took another look at the pendulum sweep that he's said is one of his favorites. During a brief sparring session after, I made sure to attack with the pendulum sweep every opportunity I got to help give him a well-rounded sense of the position. One of the ways to get good at a position is to defend against it a lot. So as long as he has the pendulum sweep on his "A" list, I'm going to make sure I keep it in heavy rotation on mine whenever we get a chance to roll.
This is what it is going to take. I'm going to make something really special out of the time I spend at faixa marrom in terms of my own development and my own personal sense of contribution to the guys I train with every other day. I have a pretty good sense of what I need to do in order to be, one day, the kind of black belt I want to be and, with a few willing teammates, there's no doubt that I'll be able to get there. And any white belt or blue belt who's starting to feel a little lost in the mix and wants to roll along for the ride is more than welcome.
158.8 on the scale post-train after a good, but not especially rough training. I haven't figured out how I'm going to negotiate the final week of training leading up to the October tournament. There are potentially some training options that don't necessitate braving Seattle/Bellevue's notoriously terrible weekday highway traffic. But there's no way I'm going to take off the week before a tournament when I'm far more used to training four days the week of a tournament - including the Friday morning 24 hours beforehand. Maybe if I'd been a more successful tournament competitor, I'd feel differently. But I haven't been, so I don't. I need my mat time as much as, if not more than, just about everybody else I'm likely to face in the brown and brown/black belt divisions.
Today was another episode in that series. I've been studying the 2 on 1 and looking for ways to deal with standing opponents. Right now, I'm looking at setting up the single X. But it was very nice to have Carlos teaching the cross guard (a relative of the 2 on 1) and the tripod sweep. There were some good details, like checking the ankle rather than the knee, and some more details that Brian picked up about using a torreano style pass to clear the legs after you "technical lift" to the top position. Now, out of the cross guard or 2 on 1, I've got the tripod sweep, the transition to the single X and, hopefully one day, the split back roll from Jiu Jitsu University.
Very good post-class training with Mark. We got in three sets of 10 armbars each, reviewed some side control escape fundamentals, and took another look at the pendulum sweep that he's said is one of his favorites. During a brief sparring session after, I made sure to attack with the pendulum sweep every opportunity I got to help give him a well-rounded sense of the position. One of the ways to get good at a position is to defend against it a lot. So as long as he has the pendulum sweep on his "A" list, I'm going to make sure I keep it in heavy rotation on mine whenever we get a chance to roll.
This is what it is going to take. I'm going to make something really special out of the time I spend at faixa marrom in terms of my own development and my own personal sense of contribution to the guys I train with every other day. I have a pretty good sense of what I need to do in order to be, one day, the kind of black belt I want to be and, with a few willing teammates, there's no doubt that I'll be able to get there. And any white belt or blue belt who's starting to feel a little lost in the mix and wants to roll along for the ride is more than welcome.
158.8 on the scale post-train after a good, but not especially rough training. I haven't figured out how I'm going to negotiate the final week of training leading up to the October tournament. There are potentially some training options that don't necessitate braving Seattle/Bellevue's notoriously terrible weekday highway traffic. But there's no way I'm going to take off the week before a tournament when I'm far more used to training four days the week of a tournament - including the Friday morning 24 hours beforehand. Maybe if I'd been a more successful tournament competitor, I'd feel differently. But I haven't been, so I don't. I need my mat time as much as, if not more than, just about everybody else I'm likely to face in the brown and brown/black belt divisions.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Training Day: Friday
Make that a Tuesday, Thursday, FRIDAY, Saturday schedule. I managed to make the early class today on Friday for some good review as well as coverage of some of the material I missed in the "A" class like the guard pull to closed guard from standing.
It was nice to review the armdrag to the back move. It's not quite an armdrag as it is an "arm cross". Again, the real keeper of this move is the lift action to get your hips out of the closed guard. The lift is a jiu jitsu fundamental for a reason. I'm finding it a great way to do the Laimon sweep, which is something I've wanted to master ever since I first started training jiu jitsu and reading Grappling magazine years ago. I also think that it's a good set-up to switch to half guard. I'll probably add this guard lift to Matwork, maybe at the beginning with the full "lift to standing" at the end. The move is that fundamental.
There were some other good things, top among them a tripod sweep from cross guard, with the move to the top including the Lift and the knee block.
I've decided to start focusing on the flip sweep from deep half rather than the Homer. Jesse caught me in an triangle when I went for the Homer Thursday night, mostly because I lost control of his leg. While I want to work on that, I've liked both the Flip and the Back Take more than the Homer and should probably start working them into my competition game.
Some very good work on both PTMU and the Roger Gracie. I was pleasantly surprised how readily the Roger Gracie came back to me. It has been at least a year if not more since I've gone with it. Both PTMU and Roger Gracie will be competition keepers.
I got to do a little practice after training with Clay, who helped me work on the Cobrinha spider guard pass with the switch step and knee press. I've been doing much of the pass correctly, but I'm not stepping deep enough to get my hips in control of the one leg I need to force lower. I need to bring the legs as much back as over to the side, slide my inside knee in between and collapse on top of the pancaked legs with my outside leg and drive lower - outside to inside - with my hip.
Must do more of that after class over the next few weeks. It felt very nice to get some of that movement down.
Traded some of my tips on closed guard sweeps: pendulum, scissor and crossover and set-ups. More than a fair deal, IMO.
GB Seattle Invitational tomorrow morning. Let's see where the baseline lies.
It was nice to review the armdrag to the back move. It's not quite an armdrag as it is an "arm cross". Again, the real keeper of this move is the lift action to get your hips out of the closed guard. The lift is a jiu jitsu fundamental for a reason. I'm finding it a great way to do the Laimon sweep, which is something I've wanted to master ever since I first started training jiu jitsu and reading Grappling magazine years ago. I also think that it's a good set-up to switch to half guard. I'll probably add this guard lift to Matwork, maybe at the beginning with the full "lift to standing" at the end. The move is that fundamental.
There were some other good things, top among them a tripod sweep from cross guard, with the move to the top including the Lift and the knee block.
I've decided to start focusing on the flip sweep from deep half rather than the Homer. Jesse caught me in an triangle when I went for the Homer Thursday night, mostly because I lost control of his leg. While I want to work on that, I've liked both the Flip and the Back Take more than the Homer and should probably start working them into my competition game.
Some very good work on both PTMU and the Roger Gracie. I was pleasantly surprised how readily the Roger Gracie came back to me. It has been at least a year if not more since I've gone with it. Both PTMU and Roger Gracie will be competition keepers.
I got to do a little practice after training with Clay, who helped me work on the Cobrinha spider guard pass with the switch step and knee press. I've been doing much of the pass correctly, but I'm not stepping deep enough to get my hips in control of the one leg I need to force lower. I need to bring the legs as much back as over to the side, slide my inside knee in between and collapse on top of the pancaked legs with my outside leg and drive lower - outside to inside - with my hip.
Must do more of that after class over the next few weeks. It felt very nice to get some of that movement down.
Traded some of my tips on closed guard sweeps: pendulum, scissor and crossover and set-ups. More than a fair deal, IMO.
GB Seattle Invitational tomorrow morning. Let's see where the baseline lies.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Training Day: Monday
Thought I'd try the early class to get the week off to a quick start.
We worked on more Fundamentals today. Escape from rear bear hug (turns into a double leg takedown by squatting down and then turning into the guy and going for the leg), then two sweeps from the guard: the pendulum sweep (with the guy's knee up as if going to standing) and the tripod sweep. With the tripod sweep, we did the full move from on the ground in the guard all the way through to the finish.
We spent the entire class on those three elements. I think about half the class was white belts. Afterward, Rodrigo had us pair up on our own and do live training. I managed to get in a few minutes with Tom, a white belt I hadn't seen in a little while, before I had to go.
Last Friday, Bryan told me that he wasn't going to compete at the March revolution because he didn't feel ready. Funny thing was, I felt the same way.
Bryan was talking about a different sort of readiness. He's got a rib that's one good knee-on-belly away from putting him back on the shelf for a couple of weeks. And, combine that with his relative newness as a purple belt, and you can understand that reticence.
So why did I feel the same way - that I "wasn't ready"?
In part it probably has to do with the hangover from my worst competition year ever in 2009. As much as I'd like it to be otherwise, there's always a creeping sense of futility whenever I think about competing again. What if I just end up continuing to lose matches, going from 0-9 to 0-10 to 0-11 ... ? I'm not going to pretend that that wouldn't have some pretty damaging effects on my psyche - and my enthusiasm, if not fundamental willingness, to continue training.
But the other thing has to do with the new class structure. Because just about everything we've been doing for the past month has been based on the new fundamentals curriculum, I don't feel as if I've been able to spend much time doing the sort of work that will really prepare me for competing. I remember one night when we did some very good mixed up specific training. But that's been relatively infrequent as the new curriculum is increasingly woven into the program.
In the long run, it will be fine, I'm sure. And I do think that the curriculum changes will make for better classes and faster improvement for the average student - two big pluses. Still, I can't shake the sensation of being lost in the shuffle, neither in the world of competition superstardom, nor in the beginner world for which most of the recent class time has been designed.
163.4 on the scale. More to cheer about. I've got plenty of time. But it's getting a little tiresome on this side of 160.
We worked on more Fundamentals today. Escape from rear bear hug (turns into a double leg takedown by squatting down and then turning into the guy and going for the leg), then two sweeps from the guard: the pendulum sweep (with the guy's knee up as if going to standing) and the tripod sweep. With the tripod sweep, we did the full move from on the ground in the guard all the way through to the finish.
We spent the entire class on those three elements. I think about half the class was white belts. Afterward, Rodrigo had us pair up on our own and do live training. I managed to get in a few minutes with Tom, a white belt I hadn't seen in a little while, before I had to go.
Last Friday, Bryan told me that he wasn't going to compete at the March revolution because he didn't feel ready. Funny thing was, I felt the same way.
Bryan was talking about a different sort of readiness. He's got a rib that's one good knee-on-belly away from putting him back on the shelf for a couple of weeks. And, combine that with his relative newness as a purple belt, and you can understand that reticence.
So why did I feel the same way - that I "wasn't ready"?
In part it probably has to do with the hangover from my worst competition year ever in 2009. As much as I'd like it to be otherwise, there's always a creeping sense of futility whenever I think about competing again. What if I just end up continuing to lose matches, going from 0-9 to 0-10 to 0-11 ... ? I'm not going to pretend that that wouldn't have some pretty damaging effects on my psyche - and my enthusiasm, if not fundamental willingness, to continue training.
But the other thing has to do with the new class structure. Because just about everything we've been doing for the past month has been based on the new fundamentals curriculum, I don't feel as if I've been able to spend much time doing the sort of work that will really prepare me for competing. I remember one night when we did some very good mixed up specific training. But that's been relatively infrequent as the new curriculum is increasingly woven into the program.
In the long run, it will be fine, I'm sure. And I do think that the curriculum changes will make for better classes and faster improvement for the average student - two big pluses. Still, I can't shake the sensation of being lost in the shuffle, neither in the world of competition superstardom, nor in the beginner world for which most of the recent class time has been designed.
163.4 on the scale. More to cheer about. I've got plenty of time. But it's getting a little tiresome on this side of 160.
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