Old Minotauro Interview

I stumbled across this old interview with Rodrigo Nogueira from Sherdog.com right after his last fight with Fedor.

And as someone who has run into his own "Fedor" - and may cross his path yet again - I have to say that there was something about this passage from Minotauro that really moved me, that really spoke to the reality of what it is to compete.

Sherdog.com: You must have watched your last fight against Fedor many times, what you can say about it?

Nogueira: I did not watch the fight very much, one or two times only. Strategically the man is good; he has a fast entrance, designed to strike and to attack the legs or give a straight punch … then I never knew when he was going for the straight punch or for the legs. So it was very difficult to defend the takedowns, which complicated the fight. He took me down some six times, very fast. He is very explosive. I was able to box with him OK, but I didn’t find myself in the first round. In second, more or less, I was not [fighting] with a good distance so I wasn’t able to take him down. In the end of the first round I had a good moment, obtaining the top position, but the round was over. He made a difficult fight and strategically he is very good. I’m going to have to train more and improve my game. Each time that I make a fight like this, I learn something. With certainty this fight was better than the first one. The second fight was good. In the third he dominated the fight, with takedowns and on the ground. He was smart, did not want to work the ground with me; you saw that he did a little ground-and-pound and then stood back up. It is difficult because he did not want to be in the ground to pass the guard, and this was pretty confusing for me. He was more worried about punching from the guard. He took me down, pounded a little and stood up. It was difficult.

The Wheel

The other night at training I was standing under the clock watching the minute hand and checking my RHR (resting heart rate). Angela joked to Clint that I was "contemplating my own death" which, given my focus on the cardio, wasn't all that far off the mark.

I'm doing some more death contemplating, specifically thinking about the cycle and birth, death and rebirth that is at the center of my way of seeing the world and, perhaps, at the center of my goal of developing a coherent guard passing game by the end of the year.

My wheel, my little bardo of guard passing, needs to look like this: base in guard, stand in guard, get swept, scramble to half guard, reverse, base in guard, stand in guard, get swept, scramble to half guard ... I need to go through this routine over and over and over again over the next few weeks to lose the mystification of getting swept (which, as I've said, is still a far better fate than getting submission) and get used to attacking the guard from standing.

I still like what I'm doing (or should be doing) when it comes to passing the half guard - though I need to focus more on sharpening up my watchdog passes. But when it comes to first approach, SRO has to be the rule from here on out.

Standing Room Only?

"Mastering the half guard allows you to be more aggressive in the mount and side mount because the fear of getting reversed and placed on your back is gone."
--Eddie Bravo, "Jiu Jitsu Unleashed"

For all the talk about Eddie Bravo and the rubber guard, it was his thesis on the half guard that provided me with the confidence to make the half guard my go-to position from the bottom.

And amid a bunch of convincing reasons why the half guard might be the solution for me guard-wise was the above idea: that mastering a position on the bottom should translate into greater confidence - or at least greater risk-taking - when on top.

Bravo applies it to being in mount and side mount. But I'm wondering if the same shouldn't apply to standing to pass the guard.

With competition time approaching, there's nothing more important than bringing some coherence to my guard passing attack. Like I've said before, my fights can almost always be divided into two outcomes: losses by submission when I get stuck in the guard, wins by decision when I pass. It's like clockwork.

Choosing the half guard was the greatest thing to happen to my jiu jitsu (well, one of many, but you get the point). That gift might continuing giving insofar as my biggest fear about standing to pass the guard is getting swept. Never mind that getting swept is better than getting triangled or armlocked or chokes. Never mind that Tommy told me years ago when I asked him about the danger of getting swept: "so what? Then you fight for the scramble." Never mind that Rodrigo had said more than once: if you can't pass the guard on the ground, then you are going to have to stand.

I hate the amount of time I spend in the guard. Saulo has this line, if you in the guard spending all your time fighting off submissions, you're not passing, you're drowning. Often, that's how I feel. And in that fog, I get into trouble time and time again.

Standing to pass will alleviate at least two things that are killing me in the guard right now: submissions and the fog. And standing is largely a function of will: you're tired, it would be so much easier to be able to pass without having to get up. But a "standing pass only" rule between now and the July revolution might be both the HICT training my legs need to attack from standing relentlessly, as well as the providing me with the skill-specificity that has proven to work in the past when I sold my soul to the half guard.

Wednesday Training

A good session tonight. While I had a few lapses, like getting flattened in half guard, there were a few bright guard passing moments and other assorted top game success that makes the evening's training a Gentleman's C at least.

Rodrigo had us working on spider and DLR guard passes tonight after about 8 minutes of stand up conditioning work. It's a really nice addition to our training, helping warm us up for the rest of class as well as making sure that we are always getting some live or semi-live work from the feet. It's the kind of thing that will pay off big time come tournament time.

The spider guard pass had you circle your arms, fanning them out wide then bringing your elbows in, in order to cup the guy's calves and drive him backward head over heels. Rodrigo focused on getting tight body-to-body contact in order to control him as he rolls. Giving too much space can result in him rolling to a kneebar, as well as recomposing his guard.

The other technique we drilled had the guy switch from spider guard to DLR with sleeve control on the other side. Here, the pass called for stepping forward with your free leg to go to a parallel stance (remember that this is the default combat base against the DLR, to be square up) and, while putting pressure on his legs with your hips, spin in the direction of the trapped leg while reaching across with the arm on the trapped side and hooking your hand behind the leg on the other side that still has a spider guard bicep control in place.

As you press forward with your hips and twist, you should be able to fold the guys legs forward, so that they are lying perpendicular to his body like a big L. Pass to the back.

Like I said, some good things in the tatame and some not-so-good things. More than anything else, it seems like Tuesday was my Monday and I'm getting back into the groove of things just a little bit.

I think for me that I will achieve the fastest growth if I can make sure that no more than one day passes between training. In a perfect world, I'd train MTRSa. An only slightly less perfect world would grant me MTRF, which would still leave two days in a row off the mat, but I think a regular 4-day a week clip would make up for it. Two days on, one day off, two days on, two days off is a pretty reasonable split when you think about it.

This is worth considering when I start worrying about plateauing and other assorted maladies of the mat. The corollary to my belief that trouble in jiu jitsu is always and everywhere a technical phenomenon (to steal and mangle Milton Friedman's famous quote about inflation and monetary policy) is a conviction that mat time solves all ills. And after looking at my training calendar, it is clear where my fix lies.

I trained 17 times in April, but only 10 in May. Over the past four weeks, I've averaged only 2 classes a week(!). During the four-week period before that, my weekly average was 3.25. And the four-week period before that? 4.0.

The source of my frustration is simple: my training pace has plunged by 50% since late March. No wonder it feels as if I'm not progressing the way I should be. Not only has my training frequency not kept pace, it has declined dramatically as spring gave way to summer.

So my plan right now is pretty simple and straightforward: get my training frequency back to at least 3.25 per week. Arguably, a lot should start to fall into place if I can just get that done.

In other news, my post-train weigh-in remains absolutely perfect at 154.8. My right knee is still aching from that leg-to-leg collision with Chris and that Brazilian black belt whose been training with us lately and I'll probably buy a compression brace for it this weekend.

The best feature of the invitational this weekend increasingly looks like the open mat from 12-3 p.m., though I'm slated to have a match as one of the Revolution competitors. At any rate, I'm a lot less likely to arrive at quarter of ten, unless Rodrigo encourages otherwise.

Royler on Cobrinha

Royler Gracie will be giving a seminar here in Washington (Tacoma) next weekend (July 27th, more info is here.)

Royler, a former multiple-time time jiu jitsu champion at featherweight, was interviewed by Gracie Magazine on the recent win of the current featherweight jiu jitsu phenom, Cobrinha.

The interview is here.

I always root for attacking, beautiful and forward-moving Jiu-Jitsu, and I saw Cobrinha being crowned four-time champion as something really great for the sport. He, Bruno Frazatto, runner-up, and the other kid, Rafael Mendes are really technical, they’re all to be congratulated, but Cobrinha’s fourth just makes the sport all the greater.

Kimbo Slice at Gracie Barra

Good for him - though I'm really waiting for the gi shot ....

Focus

What is going through Marcelo Garcia's mind as he goes for the 1,000th armdrag, the 500th mata leao? What is Roger thinking as he sets up his 8th finish by collar choke from the mount in a single event?

I always thought that the secret of success in anything was finding something that worked for you and then maximizing it, going both deep (extreme proficiency) and wide (extreme applicability). That's what Marcelo Garcia did for years with his armdrag-take the back-choke jiu jitsu. It's what Roger has been doing of late. It is almost word for word what Rodrigo was telling me as I was flailing around in what I can only call "Fog of War" guard where I'm alternately pushing on the hip here, pulling on the collar there, but with little regard for strategy beyond those (ultimately) defensive tactics: go with what works for you.

The last big surge in my development on the mat came when I started focusing on the toe grab sweep from the half guard. When I was able to combine it with the twist back sweep, increasingly becoming patient enough to wait for the opponent's shift in momentum before making the transition, my guard game was born. There is nothing in jiu jitsu that I do better than that toe grab/twist back combo from the half guard.

Part of what I'm struggling with is whether to devote more time to reaching that black belt level with my best technique, or more time to broadening my game, even if just broadening my half guard game to include the other seven sweeps from the half guard that I've had success with.

A basic rule I set out for myself was what I was calling "the White Belt Rule." That rule said that when I was rolling with white belts, I could - and should - work on broadening my half guard game. But when rolling with anyone who is blue belt or higher, I must focus on refining my "A" stuff which, from the half guard, means the toe grab/twist back combo.

At least once I'm inside of four weeks of competition. Outside of that I can dial it back a bit. But in order to be able to react properly under the pressure of competition, I need to be only doing those techniques that I'm going to relying on when points are being counted. From the bottom, that means getting to half guard and the tackle/twist combo. From the top, to be blunt, it means the Zeke.

I'm not sure what it means in terms of passing the guard - which is not good. Actually, it might be worse than "not good." The glow is wearing off of the Flat pass a bit, and the 101 still seems too intimidating (I tried to stand inside Clint's guard Tuesday night and got hit with a vertigo moment that would have made Hitchcock proud.)

That leaves the Saulo - and maybe the combat base wedge as its alternate.

In any event, the point is that I've got to focus on the small things, the effective things, and attack with them shamelessly and relentlessly. Get to the familiar place, and welcome all comers to my world.

Tuesday Training

Best part of tonight's training was my post-train weigh-in: 154.4. That's half a pound below where I need to be on July 11th.

My performance on the mat tonight, however, was pretty damn far from where I needed to be. Although doing a better-than-average job of standing out of my closed guard and getting the reverse a couple of times, very little of what I tried to do worked.

I wasn't training against chumps. Both Benny (the one not from San Diego) and Clint are tough training partners, and I am grateful for anything I am able to get on them. Tonight, however, there was precious little need for gratitude.

There were a couple of factors working against me tonight, I suppose. I banged my big toe during the takedown conditioning drills and was a little preoccupied with it all night, particularly if I was looking to put any weight on my left foot. And while I put in 2 1/4 miles on the treadmill earlier in the day, I really don't think that had a lot to do with it. I got a little leg cramp once, but still managed to finish the position (a move to mount). And the fatigue wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

I suspect/fear that it is a case of hitting a plateau. I'm noticing it especially in my half guard passes, which seem to be neutralized like never before. I know that part of it has to do with backing off my watchdog ballerina pass in favor of trying the Royler and Cross Wedge passes. And I will be trying to put the half guard pass that Rodrigo showed me (getting low on the legs, bear hugging them and kicking your trapped leg straight back) - one that Clint has been using to pretty good effect against my half guard. But a part of it just feels as if the edge I had a few months ago has faded - or is starting to fade. And that I'm going to have to do some work to get back ahead of the game.

Not my favorite set of thoughts going into a tournament weekend - though it is just an invitational AND there is the additional news that the event will really be a glorified open mat, with Rodrigo saying that they want to have the competition start at 10 am and end at 11:30 am (instead of 1:30 or later as has been the case in most previous events) so that at least a few hours can be dedicated to an open mat. It half makes me not want to attend; I would love a weekend without any obligations whatsoever. But the fact of the matter is that I've already carved the time out of the day and, perhaps more importantly, I need all the practice I can get.

So a C- effort on the tatame tonight. No submissions. Very few sweeps and my guard passing was horrible. "Plateau" may be putting it kindly.

Maia, Rickson, Renzo, Royler and Royce in Japan

What I would have given to have been a fly on the wall of this hotel room ...

Maia Mines Gracie Knowledge

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"I'm really impressed with Renzo's knowledge of jiu-jitsu, as applied to MMA," Maia said. “Besides very important tips to correct my positions, he also showed so many important details about positioning that I needed to write down on paper and not forget."

Saturday Training

It was a rare treat to be able to train this Saturday - even if my sparring session was cut short by a cut: a relatively small mole that got torn in a scramble and managed to produce a disproportionate amount of blood. No chainsaw massacre, but it was enough to end my day on the mat prematurely.

Rodrigo ran us through a basic warmup before having us do about 8 minutes of alternating ankle pick takedowns. I got to work with Clint who like Stephen and a couple of other guys are perfect for me to train with by being just a division or two bigger and a just a couple of years better. The ankle pick is increasingly looking like it is going to be my go to takedown. It's got just enough of a role for both technique and athleticism that I think it is something I can both train frequently (unlike throws, which I am still too nervous about to use very often in training) as well as use in actual competition. I still want to focus on takedowns like the drunken single. But if I get into a grip fighting battle, the ankle pick is probably my best option for now.

We worked mostly passes against the butterfly guard. There were three variations that Rodrigo showed us, but all three had the same key element of controlling the upper body either by reaching over the shoulder or grabbing the pass side collar, and controlling the hips by grabbing the pants at the knee on the non-pass side.

The idea is to put the guy's back on the mat, while either backstepping around and over the legs or, in later variations, squeezing your knees together to bunch the guy's legs, and then putting your stomach on top of the legs and pancake them to the mat.

Again, I didn't get a lot of sparring time at all, maybe four minutes before the cut. But there were some things that I did like out of my brief stint in the open mat. I hit my first hook sweep from the butterfly guard in, like, ever. It was a complete blast - in part because I wound up in mount and in part because we had been working on the butterfly guard that day (though from the point of view of the passer rather than the guard player). And though I still FAILED to attack with the inside arm drag from the half guard, I did like my movement in general in getting out of an occasionally flattened half guard, avoiding the crossface, and using my knee both as a wedge and to set up half-moth guard.

I also got a nice scissor sweep, which was almost as rare as the butterfly hook sweep I got. The real trick with the scissor sweep for me is to get the guy's momentum going: pull soft, push hard, then pull hard. There's a drunken aspect to the scissor sweep too, if you want to exaggerate the movements a little bit to both distract and to make sure that you are on point with your mechanics. This sweep landed me in a very nice knee on belly and I tried to go immediately for the armlock and missed it - ending up back in guard. Here, I think the problem was that I never really controlled his upper body with my weight and allowed far too much space for him to escape.

Still, it was very nice to be getting these sweeps, sweeps I rarely use, and to wind up in dominant positions like mount and knee on belly. Of course, the devil is in the details of finishing from these dominant positions. But you've got to get there to be there and, Saturday was a pretty good travel day.

Alliance Takes Mundial Team Title - Again!

Gracie Barra second, Check Mat third.

Complete tournament results are here.

Roger Gracie has joined a very select group of martial artists who have won the Mundial absolute championship twice. Here's coverage of his victory against fellow Gracie Barra competitor, Romulo Barral.

Wednesday Training

Beginner's class tonight with Rodrigo - and my last before I take another week off to spend with Rebecca's parent who are in town for a few days (a tradition we've kept since moving here from Tucson). Course work focused on the ankle pick - another key, key piece of what needs to be a part of my takedown game. I really like the ankle pick. For some reason, it seems to fit me better than the wrestler's shoot, which I've been trying to incorporate to no avail. The ankle pick assumes the lapel grips, which are what stymie my shoots typically. And I suspecct by attacking with that lapel grip early and keeping my opponent dancing on the end of it, I'll have the advantage of a deliberate takedown game, the ability to take the initiative or play defense against an especially aggressive competitor.

I think it was Grappler's Guide creator Jayschuls who said that he used his jiu jitsu training log to focus on answering specific questions that arise out of training. Right now, I want to think of what I learn as potential building blocks for my game: the 101 Tuesday night, the ankle pick tonight ... I've got index cards with these takedowns on them, 1-2-3-4 step flash cards that break down each move into easy to remember, one-word commands. I need to make sure I spend some quality time with them between now and July.

Another aspect of training tonight was working against the open guard and defending the pass from the sitting guard. We worked at less than 50%, and it was really good training to be able to slow down and focus on the technical aspect of what you are doing. The open guard pass that really seemed to work well for me was the one I used to call the Butler, though I had some good success with the step around, knee to belly toreano, as well. Again, I need to make these moves a mainstay of practice.

Tatame was good. I'm trying to refine the Ezekiel to make it as clean as possible. A clean Ezekiel is one of those most beautiful chokes in jiu jitsu. A dirty one is worse than getting one at all - at least in training. I was doing a bit better job of switching from mount to S-mount, but I'm not establishing the choke grip in the collar until after I make the S-mount transition, and that's too late because I tend to miss getting under the arm.

A good class. I ended up buying an official GB gi tonight after frustration with my ripped patches at reached its limit. Rodrigo was able to give me a great price in part because he had bought a few gis awhile back and had one left. I'd been nervous about getting a non-HCK gi, since I was so sensitive about sleeve length. But this A2 is just a tiny bit big, which means that a little laundering might make it close to perfect.

Tuesday Training

First class with Rodrigo in weeks due to his vacation and my trip to Pasadena. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to the Worlds while in Southern California. But I did spend Friday night at a nice little outdoor wine bar in a plaza across the street from the Convention Center, munching on pepperoni and mushroom pizza, sipping a nice pinot noir from Monterrey, and reading the Gracie magazine coverage of the World Pro Cup - as well as every other article in the issue. I even spent some time wandering through the Portuguese. You'd never believe I actually did my master's thesis on Brazilian history as hideous as my spoken Portuguese is. But written, I actually don't do as bad as I'd thought.

I'd done a 4 mile stretch on the treadmill. My most intensely aerobic session ever in all likelihood, 63 minutes with my HR in the low 140s, 600 calories burned. I think it's the kind of thing I need to do twice a week in order to have the sort of cardio I'll need to maximize my jiu jitsu and compete better.

I was drinking water all day, better than I usually am because I knew there was a pretty good leg cramping risk late in training tonight. And I ended up ending a roll with Elliott because of a hamstring cramp I'd been fighting off for awhile but succumbed to eventually. But I lasted pretty well in what was a characteristically vigorous Rodrigo training session.

I really appreciate the way he pushes us. He has a very good sense of how to bring us right to the edge of conditioning, when we can go one more round. I remember thinking that years ago as a white belt during one of those existential moments when I didn't think I could do another jiu jitsu burpee (the backroll to knees to standing move). It turns out that I need something else, the extended additional cardio that Joel Jamieson talks about and, more than that, the HICT (high intensity continuous training) that will help make these power-oriented glycolytic muscles of mine into something more efficient and oxidative. But the training on the mat is certainly doing its part.

Rodrigo had us work on the 101 tonight. I needed the tutorial. The one thing that has dogged me about the 101 guard opener is whether you hold on to the sleeve or the lapels. The verdict? The sleeve.

I need to make sure I drill this guard opener so that I have it as a legitimate option come July, rather than as a set of steps I sort of remember doing once. I'm still interested in the Flat Pass, and the novelty of it might work well in competition. But there is a world opened up to me if I can get the 101 going when I need it. So now's as good a time as any to put it in the fire.

Tatame ... Wellington caught me with a bicep slicer as I was defending an armlock. I actually spent quite a bit of time defending his armlocks. He was good and persistent about getting into position and I was fuzzy on the details of how to turn the defense into a real counter. Essentially, you want to pancake the legs and then once they are neutralized, reach over and crossface with your free hand. I think I managed something like that in one armlock defense. But I ended up getting reversed after passing the guard. And then on to more armlock defense.

I was a little disappointed in myself for forgetting the counter, and for feeling as fatigued as I was. On reflection, of course, I have to point to the 4 miles I did earlier today - and the fact that I haven't been training for a week - as perfectly reasonable factors working against me. That's to take nothing away from Wellington, who is moving very quickly toward a faixa roxa of his own, if you ask me.

All for now. This will be another truncated training week with my wife's Mom and Dad visiting from Arizona. I'll get on the mat again on Wednesday and then call it a week.

Monday Training

Last training before going out of town for a few days. Lindsey had us work on a lot of takedown/takedown defense, particularly with the single leg. This is all basic building block stuff, the kind of thing that I will be grateful for drilling over the weeks and months to come. If my single leg defense had been better at the last GB Seattle Invitational, I might have won my match against Jeff.

Lindsey has shown us the uchi mata counter to the single leg. But tonight he added a double leg follow-up if the uchi mata doesn't get the takedown. It's a little awkward, and you'd want to drill your footwork pretty intensely so that the odd stepping you have to do (your penetration leg in the uchi mata is also your penetration step for the double leg.

Tatame wasn't bad. I got caught by a nice sweep from a visiting blue belt when trying to pass in the half guard. I'm not a fan of north-facing half guard passes, at least not as initial attacks. And I got caught with my free knee up too high, making it vulnerable for the underhook and the sweep. Not only was it good to see a weakness in my north-facing half guard pass game, but also I've picked up something else to add to my pretty solid war chest of half guard sweeps.

In other news, I turned 42 today. I've got a goal of getting my black belt by the time I'm 45 (or, rather, in my 45th year, so I guess that means before I turn 46 ...). Bringing home some tournament hardware this year (summer or fall) would make me feel that I am at least on pace.

The Worlds: Right Around the Corner

Here's coverage of the preparations for the Gracie Barra team from Gracie Magazine.

How’s preparation of the Gracie Barra athletes in California going? How did you organize things after the 2009 Pan?

We’re training every day, seven times a week, at 1pm, with two-hour sessions and we’ve revamped the leadership in training. I lead some days, Roberto Tussa others, Phelipe Furao helps too, as well as Flavio Cachorrinho. Yesterday Renato Babalu came over and taught the standup part, the double leg, the single leg, because he has good experience in that from wrestling and MMA. And on Monday Carlinhos Gracie came down and took over. He’ll be leading training throughout this final stretch.

Cameron Diffley

Here's his recent superfight with Johnny Hendricks

And here's a recent interview with On the Mat.

Interview with Cameron Diffley

Thursday Training

I expected Cindy to teach the no gi class Thursday, but while she was there for the kids class - and to help do a little impromptu striking instruction with Angela - she ended up taking off and Steve led the class.

Steve did another great job. I forgot that he used to teach in China - it makes sense that his classes are so well-structured. After a moderate, but full-body oriented warm-up, we did a crossover sweep/situp drill with a partner (50x each), then worked on the crossover sweep, the kimura off the crossover sweep, and a counter to the crossover sweep that has you hug the body tight between your arm and shoulder, stuff the knee inside with your other hand, take a big deep step with that leg and slide around to the back with the harness/seat belt grip.

It's a great move, and even though my leg cramped massively when I went for the crossover during the sparring, it is still one of my favorite sweeps and one I'll be sure to incorporate more into my game from the bottom.

A good day on the mat. I'm feeling better and better about my conditioning even if my weight has remained higher than I'd like (161.2 after training!). I'll start tightening things up in June.

Wednesday Training

About halfway through the Blackhawks/Red Wings first period, still 0-0 (I DVR'd it) ... Hoping the Blackhawks can at least make a series out of it ...

It's been a week since I was on the mat, taking a little time off on both ends of the Memorial Day holiday weekend to soak up some extra rest and recreation. It was nice to be back. Stephen taught what I thought was a very well-structured class from warm-up to finish. Good pacing, a nice steady aerobic pace ... hopefully he'll join the cadre of GB Seattle instructors teaching regularly once he gets his black belt.

The instruction was the balloon sweep, pulling on both sleeves near the elbows and pushing up with both feet on the hips to roll the guy head over heels. One detail Steve highlighted was how you want to rotate your grip on the elbows to help bring the guy's head down to the mat, a rolling motion that reminded me of the way you'd flip-roll a towel if you wanted to snap it at someone like a whip. It really helped.

From there we worked on an armlock attack from the balloon sweep. Essentially, say you are attacking the guy's right arm. Once you've got him "ballooned", you want to rotate him slightly so that you are moving his head a little away from you and his legs a little closer. This is to improve the angle of the armlock by getting him more perpendicular to you. Actually, it's kind of the only way to rotate him - go the other way and you see that the armlock becomes almost impossible.

Again, attacking the right arm you would then drop your left foot off the hip, which will make his right side start to fall first. Push a little on the other hip with your right foot to help turn him more if necessary.

As he drops, swing your left leg over the face and your right leg up under the arm. Keep it tight. Grip the wrist. Thumb up. Hips up.

We did a sort of specific drill with this (I was working with both Reuben and Jared). Then Stephen had us do a king of the hill drill with side control/side control escapes where everyone remained down for an 8 minute session. I felt more and more comfortable swimming for the underhook. The more aggressively you attack with one escape, the more others open up. I saw this in particular during the sparring with my half guard. But more on that later.

After the side control specific we did some paired sparring and some open mat. My cardio was in pretty good shape given not being on the mat for a week. I think the LSD work - and the fairly regular training - has started to pay off. I feel like I'm thinking a little more clearly when I'm rolling - another huge benefit from cardio improvements.

No gi tomorrow and hopefully I'll get on the mat Friday, as well.

Return of the Dragon

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There was no point at which I thought that Rashad Evans was likely to beat Lyoto Machida this past Saturday. As I said to a teammate a few days before, I just don't find any reason to bet against Machida.

Thinking about it in the wake of Machida's dominating victory, I wrote at one message board that Machida's most challenging opponent would be either one with a comparably effective long-range striking game (a la Anderson Silva) or a top, close-the-distance oriented strike/clinch/takedown game (a la Fedor or, arguably, vintage Couture). I still pretty much feel that way.

Watching Machida's karate reminds me of the tae kwon do I grew up with at Jhoon Rhee's D.C.-area karate monopoly, the point fighting tournament circuit of the early 1980s ... I always resented point fighting for the same reasons I grew to resent boxing: it seemed to be a game rigged for the length, the long-limbed rangy fighter I would never be. To me, the ultimate point fighter was a guy, Hakim Alston, who I remember from my Jhoon Rhee days: a long, Praying Mantis-bodied guy with super-fast reflexes who fought with a sidekick like a jousting pole and a backfist like a whip.

But hats off to Machida, who if nothing else is bringing back the art of kicking as a way of creating space, determining range and establishing tempo. I still have enough karate in me to see the difference in between Machida's kicking game and the leg-kick centric kicking game of Muay thai and the powerkick mentality of the kickboxers. It's fun to see.

I like Machida to defend against Rampage, who will try to stand with Machida and will lose, and matchup with Shogun. I still like Machida over Shogun. But right now, Shogun presents the most interesting stylistic matchup - assuming he's on his game. That's the one I'm really looking forward to seeing.

Elsewhere, Forrest Griffin has a number of rematches lining up: Rampage, Evans, Jardine, Shogun ... all of which make his upcoming bout with Anderson Silva even less sensical. The UFC is in a bit of a panic mode over its MW division, which is encouraging them to "make fights" instead of simply continuing to build the division.

Bitten by the Holiday Bug

I didn't make it to the academy Thursday night. I would have loved to - I haven't been to one of Cindy's no gi classes since she opened up shop over at the Bellevue location. But the long days and late spring sun - and the bliss of a three-day weekend - were calling to me HARD.

So that's my excuse. The weather was just too damn nice and I was too ready for a three-day weekend.

You'd think I worked at coal mine or something, rather than the occupational heaven-on-Earth that is life at The Daily Planet over the past year and a half. But liberation from the samsara of punching a time clock - however otherwise wondrous that time clock might be - has been a goal of mine for many, many years. And a three-day weekend spent reading, writing, gardening, and working out was - save the absence of jiu jitsu - a mighty incentive to stick to the path.

I've been working on elements of my conditioning routine, simplifying the tabata, trying out the armoplatas (verdict: excellent). I think I've got an HICT (high intensity continuous training) routine to alternate with my LSD cardio work that is based around the tabata, armoplatas and the 360s. It's not HICT in the strictest sense that Joel of 8 Weeks Out. But I suspect that it will serve a similar purpose in increasing muscle endurance.

In fact, what I'm thinking is that what the matwork might lack in intensity (read: resistance, since it is all bodyweight work), it definitely gains in sport-specificity. At root, I can't see any other way for it not to improve my muscle endurance and muscle memory in some of the key movements I need to improve my fundamental jiu jitsu.

Uchi mata and Seoi nage

Wednesday Training

Stephen led Wednesday's class, with Rodrigo on vacation. He had me do the warm-ups, and I took the opportunity to take us once around the track lightly, as it were. One of these days, I'll have my own jiu jitsu conditioning class and I'll get to do some of the routines I'm working on for myself. In the meanwhile, it's all about the squats, pushups and crunches.

Steve's instructional was simple but something I'm definitely going to be looking for when it comes to guard passing. Essentially it's a push-stuff move where you've got both grips on the knees and you want to drive one leg/knee back toward the guy's face (the push), while pushing the other knee laterally across (the stuff).

The push is the critical part. That's what get the guy back on the small of his back and more vulnerable to being moved. After all, that's where he wants to be when he's attacking from the guard, for example. But when used against the guy, it gives us the opportunity to spin him around.

So, push with the one knee grip and then "stuff" the other knee underneath, across your body. As you do this, you want to twist your body, toreano-style, lowering your shoulder into the guy's hip as you pass the guard.

It's a real basic "concept" kind of pass, the kind that you can leverage into a lot of different situations. It's not as acrobatic as the Leite passes I've been working on, which is a plus.

Tatame was brief but intense. I rolled with Nate for about 20-25 minutes or so. It was pure survival mode, as I fought off a barrage of chokes for nearly the whole time. I would have liked to have been more effective with guard replacement, or even half guard replacement. The roll reminded me of my last roll with Lindsey in some ways. I wasn't "successful" in any conventional sense. But I negotiated the "survival" and (to a lesser degree) "escape" modes fairly well. The next step is to have a guard that keeps me from being so often in survival and escape modes against bigger and better guys.

Probably should have stuck around for another roll after taking a breather. But I'd done some LSD work earlier in the day (4.26 miles) and was starting to feel it after rolling with Nate. That and the fact that after a brutal northwest winter, the long days and sun are calling to me like the days of old back in Tucson. If it keeps this up, I'll be lucky to make it on the mat before the full 3-day weekend euphoria kicks in.

Monday Training

ATM hit its sixth week in a row today. That streak may or may not be broken next weekend, with the Memorial Day holiday and all. Then again, there's a halfway decent chance that I'll take the early class on Monday (if its available). Lindsey said tonight that the Monday evening class will be an open mat, probably starting around 5 p.m.

The instructional part of today's class had us working on three different counters to the single leg. The first was the turn and kick counter. The second was the figure four lock and stomp, where you reach into the space between his arm and your leg with your inside arm (all the while stiff-arming the back of the guy's head with the far arm). Hook your inside arm on the back of the wrist of your stiff-arming arm and, with that lock intact, stomp down with your trapped leg as you pull up with the lock.

The third move was my weakest. Here, Lindsey had us use the trapped leg to do a sort of uchi mata throw. I've never been good with the uchi mata, and this exercise actually helped show me why. I never swing my leg high enough backward with the uchi mata. In Gene Lebell's book, he talks about even going up on your toes to get all the elevation you can. I also remember someone else saying that your uchi mata "kick" should be so deep and high that the top of your body, your head, should swing toward the mat, almost like the top of a pendulum.

I remember when I first sparred Sauleh years ago he caught me with an uchi mata. He put so much of himself into the throw that we both tumbled to the ground. The uchi mata isn't a sacrifice throw. But when executed at full force, with the full pendulum action, a lot of movement can take place.

Tatame wasn't bad. I rolled with Benny and Lindsey. The biggest thing out of the tatame was my crossover sweep from half guard, which worked when I had an opportunity to use it today. It is definitely a keeper and going right into the "competition game plan", as the kids call it.

160.8 on the scale. It could have been 158.8 if I had another 5-10 minute roll, I suspect. All in all, not a terrible Monday weight for the beginning of Week 3 of a 10-week training camp.

Women's MMA Update

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Jewels 3rd Ring Results and Review

TOKYO -- Former Smackgirl open-weight champion Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka defeated Shannon Hooper, an understudy of Josh Barnett, by decision in the main event Saturday of Jewels 3rd Ring at Shinjuku Face.

Hooper's biggest obstacle was Yamanaka's length, as the CSW product wanted to keep the fight on the feet. The American could not get in close enough to tee off on the Japanese fighter with her quick, tight punches. Yamanaka stayed on the outside, circling just out of Hooper's range while throwing the occasional crisp jab between countless cracking low kicks that made Hooper's left leg red and purple. Yamanaka also caught Hooper in the Thai plum several times, where she delivered knees to the body, though the American deflected most of the blows.

Thursday Training

I've said before that I've thought Rodrigo and Mamazinho were mind readers. I can't tell you how many times I've been thinking about a certain position or escape, only to have that exact situation be the topic of the class that week.

I had been struggling against Rodrigo's de la Riva guard on Wednesday - and had been spending some time studying counters to the DLR guard in Saulo's Jiu Jitsu University. But, as things would turn out, Rodrigo was already working on the lesson plan.

Rodrigo showed us two different counters to the DLR guard. In both instances, the trick is to collar tie the neck and pull up, crunching the guy's body and making it harder for him to have the leverage he wants to stretch your base out with his pushing leg.

Also here you want to squat down into the DLR guard. This strengthens your base and puts pressure on his hook.

The actual pass had you step back a bit with your far leg (the one not being hooked). This will get the guy's legs and knees lined up so that you can do a knee through pass between his bended legs. With the hand on the far side you want to shoot for the underhook to keep the guy from circling to your back.

The guy may still have a grip on your heel as you slide through. If this is the case, then what you want to do is this: kick your leg backward to break the grip, then drive the knee of that leg inside (as if preventing a guard replacement) and then backstep your other leg free.

The other version is in case he doesn't give you the angle to slice the knee through. If this happens, then instead you want to do a knee-through, Royler style pass to the other side.

Be careful because you likely won't have an underhook when you shoot to the opposite side. Because of this, you want to square yourself perpendicular to his body as soon as you escape the legs. Knee-through, pass, and then swing around to control the upperbody and avoid losing the position.

A good night of training as Thursday's tend to be. Still a little weak on the sprawls, but I felt like I had good energy throughout.

Rodrigo's vacation starts tonight. He'll be in Hawaii for a couple of weeks I think. In his absence, Lindsey, Jessee, Andrew, Stephen and Cindy will be teaching classes. After three weeks of training three times a week, I'm tempted to really turn it up a notch heading into the three-day, Labor Day Weekend. Four classes, at least, and maybe give.

155.3 on the scale after training. Cool beans. I'm up to 4 miles on the LSD, adding a quarter of a mile each time I go out. This week, probably on Thursday, I'm hoping to add in mat work as a cardio routine to breakup all the LSD monotony. Trying it out a little bit on Thursday morning, some of the routines are going to work better than others as a part of mat work - and there's no way that I'm going to be able to start with a full minute each. I may have to make each station shorter and just rotate through the whole circuit twice as many times. Sixty seconds worth of sitouts - at least at this point - is just asking too much.

Wednesday Training

Wednesday was all about deep half guard - another position that is going to be a fundamental part of my guard game. Rodrigo focused on getting deep, your head should be on or under the hips, to avoid the crossface. This is something that I've struggled with from time to time with my own half guard: letting the crossface get through.

For the most part, I've been blocking the crossface with the sticky paw grip. The sticky paw is also a great entry for the sweep I'm calling Aesopian, even though I don't know if he uses it. Actually, the set-up kung fu move is the Aesopian, the actual sweep is still the crossover.

I want to keep evolving away from the toe grab sweep. I don't want to lose that sweep, but I want to make sure that I've got a couple of other nice sweeps from the half guard as well: the twist back, the crossover, deep half to the back, kimura sweep ...

Some nice Tatame tonight. I tried to get that brabo choke with the collar going in my roll with Rodrigo (guard/pass guard specific) but, unsurprisingly, it didn't work out so well. I should have tried it on some of the other guys I rolled with. I was trying to avoid going to half guard as much as possible since I ended up rolling with a couple of white belts and have promised myself to work on broadening my game whenever I'm rolling with white belts: traditional closed guard, open guard, spider guard, even butterfly guard. Anything that I'd be terrified to do in a tournament, basically.

Feeling increasingly comfortable with the Flat pass (Rodrigo actually turned the tables and passed to half guard with that pass on me!). It's still a very new pass for me, so I'm giving myself a little leeway in trying it on white belts. But it is getting better. I'm doing a better job of getting to the side and staying there after the dive. One weakness is that I'm still "wrestling" the ankles open instead of using my legs the way that Justin Garcia shows in his absolutely vital Flat pass instructional.

Another technique of note was the crossover sweep from the full or closed guard. I was reading a point that Saulo made in his book that he likes to attack with the crossover at the elbow rather than at the shoulder. This adds a little whip to the sweep, which I liked when I attacked with it today. It also seems to require a little less control over the guy, meaning that it is easier to set-up without telegraphing your sweep.

My Zeke choke was working well tonight, very well in at least one instance. I want to make sure that my Zeke choke is as clean as possible. Nothing but blood. I can't think of a faster way of becoming THE asshole on the tatame than by hitting guys with trachea Ezekiel chokes ...

A good night. I'm in a weird drifty mode with the next tournament still a month away (the next GB Seattle Invitational on June 20th). And I'm not yet at the nervous stage about my appearance at the L.A. Trader's Expo (the weekend of the Mundials - and my birthday). This is the time when I think I can make some stealth gains: tightening up my toe grab sweep, bringing the crossover up to speed, developing some go to attacks from the mount and maybe, just maybe, developing a coherent guard passing game - before the final month leading up to the July Revolution event. A little focus now may go a long way.

158.6 on the scale. Not bad. I had a breakfast of leftover cod with tomatoes and green olives and a cheese quesadilla, about 6 ounces of chicken and an arugula salad for lunch. Some snacking on walnuts and almonds during the day. That's about the speed I want to maintain. With the cardio back on line starting tomorrow (my right quad was fine tonight in training), I should see the south side of the 150s on a consistent basis before too long.

Mundial 2009

I'll be in southern California during the Mundial. But instead of being in Long Beach on the tatame, I'll be in Pasadena at the L.A. Trader's Expo doing workshops and panel discussions on ETF trading.

It looks like I might have Friday free (workshop Thursday, panel discussion Saturday). How easy is it to get from Pasadena to Long Beach and back again?

World BJJ Pro Results Are In

Tarsis Humpreys takes black belt absolute. Cobrinha, Marcelinho finish second in respective divisions

Here's the Cobrinha final against Rafael Mendes.


Here's the Humpreys final against Braulio Estima


And here's the Garcia final against Michael Langhi


Too much good stuff.

Monday Training

Monday Lindsey had us working from standing. No instructional techniques, per se, though he showed us some of his favorite throws, knee picks and ankle picks. It was more of a "specifics" session, which I didn't mind for a bit. There's something about Monday training that makes you want to jump in and starting rolling as soon as the warmup is done.

I worked with a couple of guys, including Stephen. It's good training to see how well your takedowns work with the resistance and stiff-arming a gi provides. I still feel far more comfortable with ankle picks and countering leg throws with hip throws and kubi nage (headlock throw) of my own than with most other takedowns. And there's always the infamous half guard pull ...

We also did some specific king-of-the-hill work from the half guard. It was nice to have complete license to attack from the half. I worked my standard toe grab sweep well, but should have probably taken the opportunity to work the underhook guard or the high half. Then again, it was Monday.

Speaking of the half guard, my crossover sweep from half guard continues to work. It is definitely something to add to the competition gameplan, so to speak. I do need to work on passing the half guard as soon as I get the sweep, capitalizing on the suddenness of the reversal to stay yet another step ahead. But otherwise, that sweep is the best new thing to happen to my half guard.

I've been wrestling for it and using the Aesopian kung fu move to get into position. I'm starting to think that a kimura attack would also work. Just when the guy feels like he has escaped the kimura by pulling his arm out, he exposes and opens up the whole side of his body for me to overhook and then pull into me for the crossover.

My mount escapes are the main area I want to tighten up, in large part because if I can get to half guard from mount, then feel like I'll have the tools to go all the way from being on the bottom in mount to being on top in side control (i.e., escape mount to half guard, half guard sweep and guard pass to side control ...). Rear mount is pretty important, also. But at least with rear mount I feel like I have my procedures set but just aren't executing them consistently. With mount, there is still a little mix up in how I want to attack and escape (probably calls for a flashcard ...)

Mat Work

One minute each exercise. Two trips through series. 10-minute rest. Then another two trips through the series.

Keep a moderate pace throughout. Constant precise movement is more important than quick imprecise movement. Full coil. Full extension.

hipscapes
upas
sit outs
hip splits
crossovers
360 drill
hook sweeps
armoplatas
scissor pulls
back rolls