Nine Eighteen

Trying to integrate a lot of what I've been thinking about over the past week or so. In a way not unlike what Angela predicted, much of my initial return-to-mat success is tapering off as old habits from the spring and last fall start to creep back into my game. No time like the present to deal with them.

For one, I need to reorient my psychological reward system so that proper effort is rewarded more greatly than convenient achievement. In other words, keylocks are good, but kimuras and armlocks are better. Half guard sweeps are good, closed guard sweeps better and open guard sweeps ... well, talk about "make me wanna jump back and kiss mah-self ..."

So here's the list. From the top:

1. Stand to pass the guard. No more excuses. Get posture, grab a sleeve, fade back, step, stand and step back. If I don't have posture, then get it. Then start all over again. If necessary, PTMU. But "Get Up, Stand Up" is officially now job one.

2. Pass the half guard. I've got two solid half guard passes: the tripod and the reverse sit. I need to use them. Don't allow guys to tie you up for four minutes running in a half guard you know how to escape.

3. 360 drill. I've actually done a halfway decent job of moving through side control to Watch Dog to mount. I need to better incorporate scarf hold and north-south stages into my top movement.

And from the bottom:

1. SWEEP! SWEEP! SWEEP! For right now, let's focus on sweeping to regain top position. Sweeps out of closed guard (Saulo Roll, crossover, flower), sweeps out of butterfly/cobra guard, sweeps out of de la Riva guard (including with the Saulo hook), sweeps out of spider guard, sweeps out of half guard.

2. From the full or closed guard, I must break posture. Get a rear collar grip and, as I pull down, pull forward with my legs. Use that rear collar grip to help keep him low.

3. Hooks and hips. Let's keep the left foot either planted in the hip to set up swings with the right leg, OR butterflied under the guy's right thigh. We either want to push off with the left foot or lift with the left leg. The right leg will be either around the guy's back (in the first, Hilo guard, instance) and used to swing up under the guy's armpit OR will be used to block or scissor the guy's other knee/leg in a hook 'n' lift sweep to that side. Also let's not forget the de la Riva and Saulo hooks, as well as the vine guard for sweeping.

With regard to escapes, enough fooling around. I know exactly how to escape from rear mount (duck, shuck 'n' roll), side control (throat, swim, walk, knees, pull, boom), scarf hold (bridge in to get hips close before the belly roll), north/south (upa 'n' roll), mount (bridge and roll OR hipscape and knee up), and knee on belly (bridge and stuff knee into half guard). So what is my excuse for staying in these bad positions?

Don't answer that. One thing I need to get in the habit of doing is launching the escape as soon as I recognize the bad position I'm in. For the love of god, I need to stop leeting the guy "settle in" to his dominant position. I know I hate it when the guy is already escaping before I'm good and ready to keep him trapped. Time to serve up that same medicine.

Critical Thinking in Jiu Jitsu, Part V: The Guard

Here, after a little absence, is the latest installment of the "Critical Thinking in Jiu Jitsu" series over at On the Mat.

It is not Gumby's best written work, which I think has something to do with the complexity of the topic. But his focus on posture and his technique of reverse engineering (explained best in his "Hierarchy and Duality of Position" essay available here) alone remain worth reading.

Critical Thinking in Jiu Jitsu: The Guard

I've been thinking a lot about my guard, ever since my fairly pitiful effort last Thursday. And as it always happens, the jiu jitsu gods send along a little help in the way of Gumby's latest. Gumby's "homework" includes this assignment:

Assess your personal version of the guard. Figure out what your favorite grips and hooks are in the context of how you are going to break your opponents posture.

Which goes to the heart of what I've been struggling with guard-wise. What hooks do I want to use and for what purpose? What do I need to do to get the guy to react in the way I want? What position to I need to put my body, legs and arms (in that order) in order to make all of this happen?

One thing I've definitely decided on doing for the rest of the year is focusing on open guards, especially sitting/butterfly and spider (Tommy Gun). I think my legs are built more for hooking and lifting for sweeps than a lot of the swinging that makes up the great attacks from the guard (and not a few submissions). This means using a lot more hooks on one side and traps on the other. Load the guy's weight and then flip him over. If he won't come, then drive him back (code: Poosh tha Guy).

The other part of the hook strategy is to use double hooks and kick the guy out while pulling on the collar and sleeve. There's actually an abs routine that mimics this movement. If I break the guy down with this move, there are all kinds of attacks, from chokes to take-the-back, that I can use.

The point being this: I don't want to get so focued on my problems with the basic foot-in-hip closed guard that I forget there are other alternatives, especially when sparring. I only get so many opportunities a week to work on my guard and if I can find something that works for me right now, that will make the experience of fixing what I'm not so good at that much more enjoyable.

It's an extension of my Lloyd Irvin theory, a theory that makes more sense the more I think about it. If jiu jitsu, as Gumby was writing not too long ago, is about safety first, position second and submission third, then the first thing a person needs to do on the mat is figure out where he or she feels safest: on top or on bottom? The second thing is to figure out which position on the top or bottom is the most natural, most comfortable. The third thing is to figure out which way of finishing the fight, of getting the submission, is best from the position that has been determined to be the best.

This doesn't preclude learning about other positions. If anything, it is a perfect roadmap to learning everyposition. But what it definitely does is allow a person to achieve some level of talent in a part of jiu jitsu relatively quickly, a talent that, over the years, can grow into mastery while other part of his or her jiu jitsu game are allowed to improve at their own pace.

For me, the signature set was pretty easy: on top, side control, Americana. It is still the most comfortable, most natural way for me to finish a fight. But developing a talent with this set has also helped me develop a pretty quick "step" from side control (or Watch Dog, south-facing side control) to mount. That led directly to me determining that I need to learn more about how to maintain the mount, which I've gotten a lot better at. Developing this signature set has also helped me develop a halfway decent Americana from the bottom in closed guard, as well as the first few kimuras from side control that I've ever gotten in sparring. Unintended side benefits that have nonetheless become key parts of my game.

I've got a halfguard set that is starting to come into its own from the bottom. The twist--much more than the tackle--has been my main half guard sweep for the past few weeks. But I need to figure out a signature set for the full guard, and previous plans notwithstanding, that set may not originate with the traditional closed guard.

Omoplatas and Armlocks at the Shoulder

Was out sick on Monday and decided against training on Tuesday night. So my first class of the week was Stefan’s Wednesday night class.

We worked on the omoplata from the closed guard, one of Stefan’s signature moves. I’m trying to adopt and include the omoplata in my game because it seems to be one of the few hip movements in jiu jitsu that come relatively naturally—unlike the “swing” move in armlocks from the guard which is still something I struggle with.

A nice detail Stefan added was a move he showed us many, many months ago in a Saturday training. You enter the omoplata. But rather than just pinning down the guy by the waist, your reach over and grab his far leg near the knee or calf and roll him over in the direction of your knees.

It’s the same sort of roll someone might try to do to escape an omoplata. But as the one precipitating the move, you have time to get to the next step, which is to turn AWAY from the roll so that you are sitting on the guy’s chest with his arm trapped.

Be careful here, because there is a very tight shoulder lock right around the corner. Keeping everything tight, you want to slide off to the side so that you are sitting on the mat with the arm and shoulder still trapped. Squeeze the knees and lean back gradually to get the submission from the shoulder lock.

Thursday night was an interesting class. The first 90 minutes or so is all for beginners (though advanced students can participate, of course), which is followed by 30 minutes of pretty constant rolling just for advanced students. We finished the first 90 minute session with some specific work from the closed guard, and a lot of guys who didn’t roll in the first 90 minutes showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the second 30-minute session. That’s how it goes. But I always find it “interesting” to roll with guys who are fresh after I’ve been working for a good hour.

Rodrigo seemed a bit perplexed at the difficulty a number of us were having with the armlock from the closed guard he was showing us. Maybe more than a bit perplexed. I was no master of the move myself, which I think requires more hip dexterity than Rodrigo realized. And all the more so in a class made up largely of new and very new white belts.

Here’s the armlock. What you want to do in this move is to trap the shoulder of the arm you are going to lock. Once you do this, you have the option of attacking with an Americana type of armlock and then, if the guy moves to relieve the pressure, finishing him off with a more traditional armlock.

So, using an attack on the guy’s right arm as the example, Rodrigo had us plant our left foot on the mat, and scoot your hips just a little bit to the side. This, I should point out, was one of many points of difficulty insofar as too many of us were making the mistake of taking a big huge HIPSCAPE and sending our hips flying away from the guy. All you want to do is open things up enough so that you’ve got an angle on the guy’s shoulder with the leg on that side.

Once you’ve got your lock side leg up over the shoulder, you want to “swing” with your other leg up under the armpit, breaking his posture toward the lock side. This was problematic for me because I’ve been working so much on using the “swing” to set up the armlock from the closed guard in the first place that hitting the “swing” AFTER I’ve already got my other leg up on the shoulder seemed awkward.

If my lock side leg is up on the guy’s shoulder, then how do I get the leverage to swing my other leg up? Usually, with an armlock from the guard, you plant the lock side foot on the hip and push off against that hip to help “swing” your off leg up and over. One time when Rodrigo showed the move, he attacked with both legs at the same time—which in some ways only confused the issue for me. Doing both legs at the same time requires that hip dexterity I was talking about, it seems to me.

Maybe I’ve got the moves backward and Rodrigo did do the swing first. It would certainly be a lot easier to get your lock side leg up on the shoulder if you had already broken the posture with the swing ...

So I’ve got to work on it. There is no position where my guard game is more exposed than when I’m working from the closed guard. As the specific and advanced sparring revealed, I am still awful at breaking posture and terrible about moving my hips. One glimmer of hope came when I was rolling with George (good to see George in the gi, by the way). We were doing a closed guard specific and although George passed my guard about 20 times, I did switch up to a spider guard at one point which helped me ward him off longer than with my basic closed guard approach.

I’ll talk about that more later. I’m going to spend some time this weekend with Saulo’s instructional on the guard, as well as Peligro’s ,The Essential Guard. One thing I’m starting to be convinced of, though, is that I need to treat my guard game the way I’ve decided to treat my passing the guard game: very regimented, very simple and very consistent.

So in the same way that I’m trying to adopt a "Stand or Be Damned" approach to passing the guard, I think it’s time to adopt an "Open or Nothing" attitude when it comes to the guard. By that I mean opening my guard and switching to Tommy Gun, the vine guard, Hilo guard, or, if their base is rock solid, butterfly and Cobra guard.

I’m thinking that opening my guard and moving my legs more might actually help "trick" me into better and more natural hip movement. We’ll see.

Gracie Barra Seattle group photo the Saturday after next, the 22nd at the Tully’s location. Same day as "GATZ". I’ll have to break out my new Gracie Barra gi for the picture. Thankfully the new shiny red patches didn’t bleed when I washed the gi for the first time this week.

Saulo Closed Guard Sweep #2 Unplugged

Grips.

Plant.

'Scape.

Crunch.

Swing.

Roll.

Lost Ryan Hall Video

Ryan Hall in the Advanced Welterweight Division of the East Coast Grappling Championships

The guillotine--crossover--kickover triangle choke combination in the second match is especially nice.

Another Open Guard Sweep

Precious little to say about the jiu jitsu, or lack thereof, in last night's otherwise entertaining UFC event. So here's a nice De La Riva sweep that should be a nice compliment to Saulo's #8 "Oito" open guard and sweep.

De La Riva Sweep

In Defense of Points

A popular refrain among jiu jitsu people, a compliment often granted a particular performance or performer, is that so and so “goes for the submission, not just the points.” The inference is that there are jiu jitsu people whose time on the mat is an endless and incessant quest for the holy grail of the submission on the one hand, and jiu jitsu people whose time on that mat is characterized by “going for points” on the other.

Maybe so, maybe so. But I think we are starting to see the discontents of this “go for the sub” at all costs mentality. These discontents are not showing up so much in the sport arena, but in mixed martial arts where world class jiu jitsu guy after world class jiu jitsu guy has come up short against tough competition.

In particular, I’m thinking of Alberto Crane’s performance against Roger Huerta in the UFC and, to a greater extent, Rani Yahya’s performance against Chase Beebe in the WEC bantamweight title match. In both instances, the jiu jitsu fighter had a clear advantage on the ground. And in both instances, the jiu jitsu fighter had numerous opportunities to gain and maintain control of the fight on the ground. Yet in both cases, the jiu jitsu fighter came up short, losing by TKO in the later rounds in Crane’s case and by unanimous decision in Yahya’s contest.

What characterized the jiu jitsu of Crane and Yahya, in my opinion, was “going for the sub.” Both fighters threw submission attempt after submission attempt—with an unfortunate focus on leglocks—at their opponent. From the bottom, from the side, from the scramble, wherever Crane or Yahya was positioned, there was some submission attack that could be launched. That is definitely to their credit, their encyclopedic knowledge of submission attacks.

But a mixed martial arts contest, a Vale Tudo match is not a spelling bee of techniques. I think back on the “Gracie in Action” tapes, the sampler videos of members of the Gracie family fighting challenge matches against various opponents. The recipe in those contests, like the Gracie streetfighting recipe, is almost banal in its simplicity: take the fight to the ground, secure dominant position, attack with submission attempts based on what the opponent gives you.

To me, it seems as if too many jiu jitsu fighters in MMA are forgetting the middle step, and are attacking with submission regardless of position. This tends to mean a lot of attacking from the guard. And while we have seen some impressive work from the guard recently (Diaz v. Gomi and Aoki v. Hansen come immediately to mind), the fact of the matter is that the guard is an inferior position relative to others such as the mount or rear mount.

This is all the more so in mixed martial arts. We can all remember watching Fedor plunge through Minotauro’s guard in their three contests. And while reasonable people can argue about how good Nog’s guard game is (Rickson Gracie, famously, was not impressed), if ever there was evidence that the guard, as good as it is, remains an inferior position to attack from compared to other positions such as the mount or rear mount, those contests between Fedor and Minotauro proved it.

Over-reliance on the guard—which arguably cost BJ Penn his fight with GSP and his rematch with Matt Hughes—is one problem of the modern jiu jitsu fighter in mixed martial arts. The other tendency is leg attacks.

What is it about mixed martial arts that turns talented jiu jitsu fighters into catch wrestlers? Obviously, if a leg lock falls into your lap, then you should exploit that mistake. But to attack the legs as a primary objective in a mixed martial arts contest is madness. As I have said in conversations about jiu jitsu and MMA, losing position is very expensive. And there is no surer way to lose position than to build a gameplan based on attacking an opponent with kneebars.

There have been plenty of close kneebar finishes: Stevenson v. Neer, Mishima v. Florian, Barnett v. Nog I, and now most recently Yahya v. Beebe. But the emphasis is on “close.” None of those leglocks finished the fight. In fact, I think Kevin Randleman might be the last top contender finished by kneebar in recent memory. Jiu jitsu fighters—who shouldn’t be preoccupied with kneebars in the first place as far as I am concerned—should pay closer attention to this.

Paulo Filho takes a lot of crap from some fans. But I’ll tell you what: Filho knows the importance of position before submission. Filho will take you down, pass your guard, mount you, and pound on you until you give him your arm or your back. That’s jiu jitsu 101 and while a number of people have professed this, Filho is one of the few to consistently approach his contests with this fundamental jiu jitsu in mind.

So what does this have to do with points? Compare two fighters. One pulls guard, and then begins working for submissions. The other takes his opponent down, passes his guard, takes dominant position, and then begins working for submissions. Which fighter is more likely to be successful—all else equal?

In my opinion, the second fighter has a number of advantages. Not only is the second fighter way ahead in terms of scoring (2 for the takedown, 2 for the pass of guard, 3 or 4 for the dominant position), but the fact that he is as many as eight points ahead puts tremendous pressure on his opponent to do something or risk losing the match. That pressure, that urgency, makes it much more likely for him to make a mistake and leave himself vulnerable to a submission attack.

Additionally, there is a psychological advantage. The second fighter's jiu jitsu is completely in control. He has already shown an ability to impose his game--in three different contexts--on his opponent. That's the kind of thing that can increase the sense of desperation on the part of the opponent, and make him that much more vulnerable to submission.

I haven’t seen it quoted, but apparently Mario Sperry encourages fighters to pursue this “point-oriented” approach to fighting—and for exactly the reasons I’ve suggested. The goal of fighting is to put your opponent in the worst position possible so that, in his desperation to avoid defeat, he makes a mistake. I’ve always said that the point of jiu jitsu isn’t to test your jiu jitsu. It is to put the other guy in a position to test HIS jiu jitsu. I’m reminded of the line from the movie, PATTON: “The point isn’t for you to die for your country. The point is to get some other poor son of a bitch to die for HIS country.”

And in the context of mixed martial arts, as in most fights, that test means putting the other guy on his back, not inviting your opponent to test how good you are from your back.

Obviously, if an opportunity to submit an opponent from your back exists, then sure, take it. But the more I watch MMA, the more I realize that jiu jitsu guys don’t necessarily have the time it takes for an opponent, particularly one content to attempt to strike from within the closed guard, to make a big enough mistake to get submitted. Obviously it happens. But the issue is one of probability.

In a sport with five minute rounds, with a bias toward “standing fighters up” when the action on the ground is not sufficiently chaotic, the jiu jitsu guy cannot afford, in my opinion, to lie there on his back waiting for the guy on top to make a mistake. He instead needs to change the game, by working more to take a dominant position, so that the biases and rules of the sport of mixed martial arts—which rewards takedowns and positional dominance as much or more than failed submission attempts—can work for him instead of against him.

Think about it: the most dominant jiu jitsu fighter, in sport jiu jitsu, no less, almost stereotypically finishes fights from a dominant position. Isn’t that lesson enough for the rest of us?

Cobrinha Sweeps = Rodrigo + Stefan?

There was a thread over at the jiu jitsu gear forum the other day asking if Ruben Charles, aka Cobrinha, was the most dominant black belt. What I know of Charles, other than his unbelievably cool nickname, is that he fought an amazingly technical match against Marcio Feitosa and has been one of the toughest guys around at the featherweight division (or “pena”), which is 154 pounds or less in the gi.

[Cobrinha v. Feitosa]


By comparison, competing right now, I would be “leve” or 167.5 pounds or less in the gi. I wouldn’t be a big “leve” or lightweight. But a five pound gi means weighing about 160 naturally (to be on the safe side) and that’s about as light as I feel I can maintain without having to “weight cut”—which I’m just not into.

Anyway, Cobrinha was described elsewhere in the forum as “Tinguinha on steroids” or “like a mini-Terere.” Here are some clips of both Tinguinha and Terere in action.

[Tinguinha]



[Terere]


I’ve found a section of one of his instructionals, taught in Portuguese and subtitled in Japan where he uses some sweeps and setups from the guard that are very similar to what I’ve seen Rodrigo do and, in one specific part, Stefan, as well. The Rodrigo-esque aspect of Cobrinha’s game is the way he will grapevine an arm and then work to sweep toward that grapevined arm (either over to the side or in a backward roll).

The Stefan-like part is how Cobrinha typically wound up on top in position to do the same shoulder lock Stefan likes to do if the guy rolls out of the omoplata. It involves a sort of “sitting-step” in a backwards circle so that you wind up in mount and in perfect position for the shoulder lock. You can see how Cobrinha finishes with it in a number of these sweeps.

[Cobrinha instructional]

Errata 1,2,3

1. The Scarf Hold Blues

Last night I spent another inordinate set of minutes struggling under Andrew’s all-too-effective (at least against me) scarf hold. Andrew’s positioning reminds me of exactly what Saulo talks about in controlling from the cross body. He is completely locked on my hips and, as such, doesn’t need to use his arms or his legs (much) in order to maintain position.

I’ve been struggling against this before. In fact, I was having a harder time that I wanted against Brandon’s scarf hold during our roll. Brandon may be no brown belt, but he’s a real-live judoka and that scarf hold is something near the beginning of the newaza playbook.

There are a couple of approaches, such as throwing the leg up and over the guy’s head and pulling him backward with it, that I could try. But the main thing I need to do is to bridge up and into the guy in order to get his hips (really, both our hips) off the mat. That will give me room to either reverse sitout with my near leg, or to get the underhook with my outside arm and work for the belly lock and roll.

Don’t waste energy struggling. Get yourself ready and do the escape properly. Bridge up and into him. Then pummel for the underhook or do the reverse sit-out to knees.

2. Hip Movement and H. Rap

I tried the arm wrap attack on Brandon last night. I was eager to try out the Jersey Shore stuff from closed guard, and when the opportunity came for me to take closed guard and go for the arm wrap, I went for it.

Unfortunately, Brandon simply leaned back and pulled his arm out.

What I need to do when attacking with the armwrap is to turn into the guy and move the guy’s shoulder downward toward the mat. The only way to do this is to hipscape out and turn into the guy as I’m wrapping the arm. That torques the arm at an angle and makes it much, much harder for the guy to be able to just straight pull his arm out.

3. "They pass with their hands."

I’m pretty sure that’s a quote from Marcelo Garcia talking about defending guard passes—especially against his “butt scoot” sitting guard, a guard I have adopted for training. One thing that has been unnecessarily frustrating has been the way I’ve let guys get grips and stand to pass my sitting guard. It’s been just terrible. Mostly I’m left to vainly try and stretch my not-particularly-lengthy legs out and trap them in half guard. Most of the time, this does not work—in part, because by stretching out my legs, I’ve given up an ability to be mobile and the guy can continue running around.

The solution? There are three really. One is to go for a single leg takedown. Another is to go for a front headlock and possibly a guillotine if I get my arm in deep enough. Last, you guessed it, ARM DRAG!.

Far Side Armlocks and Kimuras

Wednesday night with Stefan … we worked two moves from side control: the farside arm lock and the kimura in the event the guy is able to bend his arm out of the armlock. After that, we did a little specific sparring from side control—starting with the arm and without—before ending the class for general sparring. I rolled three times, I think: Brandon the Judo Guy, Andrew and Stefan.

A few key details with the far side arm lock, which has been a very difficult submission for me to finish with. Starting with the north hand on the collar and the south hand on the far side of the guy’s body checking the hip, the first thing to do is to trap the guy’s arm (assuming he makes the mistake of putting his arm on the north side of your head. If he put it on the south side of your head, then you would look to switch to Watch Dog and attack with bent arm locks).

Trap the arm by reaching around the arm with your north hand and grabbing your own lapel. Take your south hand and put it on the near side right by his hip. This is the block. In order for the block to work effectively, you have to put your weight on it. It might be better to think of it as a post.

That block or post will also help you lift yourself up and walk around to north-south. The farside arm lock is really set up from north-south. By the time you get to the far side, the arm lock should be pretty much ready to go.

Here are some very important details that Stefan emphasized. As you are coming around from north-south, put your “lock-side” knee right into the guy’s ribs as you roll him away from you. This will help keep him from rolling into you to escape the arm lock, as well as help set your legs up for a tighter lock. Another detail was to make sure your “trailing foot” was right by the guy’s head. You should almost be sitting right on his head (a point I’ll come back to in a later post) before you spin into the arm lock.

The kimura variation happens if the guy is able to slip his arm out a bit and bend it to avoid the armlock. In this instance, you want to reach down and grab the wrist and go for the kimura. Some details here include sprawling out your south leg and hooking your north leg around the guy’s head as you increase pressure on the lock. This will further immobilize the guy and make it harder for him to resist the submission.

Another detail was specifically for instances when the guy defended the kimura by grabbing his gi, or belt or whatever. What you want to do—and this would have helped GSP when he was trying to work that kimura on Koscheck—is to pull the arm in the direction their wrist is bent. That is the path of least resistance, for lack of a better phrase. Stephen Kesting has a slightly more elaborate procedure. But I like Stefan’s approach, which is both simple and commonsensical (read: easy to remember). So that’s the one I’m going with.

Closed Guard Lockflow from Jersey Shore BJJ

Much to catch up with. But I wanted to make sure I made a post of this fascinating attack series for the closed guard, especially no gi.

I really like the armwrap and clamp attacks, though I want to try and include more of these set-ups in general. I need to pay attention to the hip movement. I always feel like I can follow the hand and arm movement. It is the hip movement that I tend to miss.

Sweeps Week at GB Seattle

This week has been “sweeps week”—meaning that we worked strictly on sweeps from the guard. I trained Monday night and Wednesday afternoon since they were doing construction Wednesday night. The alternative was to drive to Bellevue for class on Wednesday—which I just didn’t feel like doing on a weeknight.

There were three sweeps—actually there was a fourth added Wednesday afternoon that reminded me a lot of the Pe de Pano cross guard stuff I had been looking at recently. The first sweep is the one I called “Rodrigo’s Cradle,” though now I know it was pretty much a windmill/pendulum/flower sweep. I’ve known this one for awhile, though I’ve only recently started trying it when sparring. The detail, which I remember Rodrigo emphasizing over and over again, is that you don’t need the guy’s arm to move all the way across your body. If that happens, it makes more sense to take his back than to try the flower sweep.

Instead, Rodrigo recommended bridging up with the arm and then, as you are coming back down, nudge the elbow in toward the center. You just need enough room to be able to reach behind the shoulder of the arm you trap.

Another detail in this step. When you are coming back down from the bridge, that should be when you sit-up and reach behind the guy’s shoulder. If you wait, and try to break it down into three distinct steps, it looks like it would be harder to keep the guy’s arm trapped. So, bridge up/sit-up might be the best way to think of the set up for the flower sweep.

From there, I pretty much remember the basics. Reach behind the shoulder. Underhook the leg with the other hand (or grab the pants by the knee). Kick your trap side leg back, then scissor the legs and roll over your trapped side shoulder. The sweep should be virtually effortless.

The next two sweeps were a little trickier, and came out of the open guard. In both cases, the guy has put a knee up as if going to stand to pass your guard. Also in both cases you want to do two things: (1) get a cross grip so that you are controlling the sleeve opposite the knee up with your hand on the knee up side, and (2) hipscape in the direction of the knee up.

A last detail in the set-up is to grab the pants at the knee on the “down side.”

From here you are ready to go. The first of these two sweeps had you put a hook underneath the guy’s knee up leg. To sweep: pull on the cross sleeve, lift with the hook and (I think) push off on the pants grab at the knee. The guy should be swept away from his knee up leg.

The second version has you start from that same “cross guard” type position. Here, you put the hook in, but you are going to use it to push the guy away rather than lift him. I’m not sure about the next step, but I think you release the cross grip and grab the ankle of the knee up leg. From here, press the knee of your hook leg against the guy’s leg, lift with the pants grab on the other leg and pull with the hand on the ankle. The guy should be swept straight backward.

One detail here is that you want the knee on your hook leg to be pointed outward. Otherwise it is too easy for him to push the knee down and continue working to pass your guard.

Flying Jets

I was reading a few recent posts over at Valhalla's blog "Prancing and Sucking", her continued adventures in the world of jiu jitsu.

One of the things I appreciate about Val's blog is her struggle with the issue of competing. You never get the sense that she'll stop training, but the role, importance and value of competing is often a major philosophical debate.

I had a pretty okay run as a white belt. But the fact that any tournament I compete in for the next 2-3 years at least will be as a blue belt/intermediate, has me reading her thoughts and reflections on competing with new attention. On the one hand, as a white belt competitor I had an attitude and chip on my shoulder that won't exist as a blue belt competitor (I thought I was above being beaten by fellow white belts). So, there should be a slackening of expectations as I step up to compete as a blue belt.

On the other hand, who am I kidding? I won't care if the other guy is a six-day-a-week-training, four-year blue belt. I'll have the same feeling losing to him as I did to a six-month white belt. That takedown was solid! Where are my points? Pass the guard, pass the guard ... Aw, shit! Dammnit! Another triangle choke!

Niceties aside, winning is winning and losing is losing.

So why compete? I remember reading about how Kron Gracie, who just won the brown belt division at the Mundials, submitted opponent after opponent at the Pan Ams. He finished something like five opponents in a total of three minutes or something crazy like that.

I remember entering my next tournament thinking about how I wanted to be like Kron: tapping out dudes like nobody's business. Wouldn't that be great? Sure it would!

I did alright and ended up winning first place. But it was another victory without submission, against a guy I was pretty much able to smash once I passed his guard.

With that in mind, my favorite passage from the film Officer and a Gentleman:

Gunnery Sergeant: Why would a slick hustler like you sign up for this abuse?

Mayo: I want to fly jets.

Gunnery Sergeant: My grandmama wants to fly jets.

Mayo: I've always wanted it!

Gunnery Sergeant: We're not talking about flying. We're talking about character.

In other words, we're not talking about winning, or submissions. And we're damn sure not talking about being Kron Gracie. We're talking about competing with class, competing with technique, competing with spirit. "Leaving it all on the mat" as the cliche goes, and being hungry for the opportunity to do it again.

It also means preparing yourself properly. "Leaving it all on the mat" doesn't just refer to effort, I don't think. It means that you've pulled every rabbit out of every hat, tried every guard pass and guard replacement, every choke and armbar, attacked at every opportunity your opponent gave you. More than raw cardiovascular "effort", it's a sort of total awareness you want to enter. A true mind-body connection. Everything you know applied to every chance you get.

That's what I think you want out of competition. More than winning or losing (though, of course "winning" instead of "losing"), you want that "aliveness", what philosopher Karl Jaspers called "Existenz" ...

the indefinable experience of freedom and possibility; an experience which constitutes the authentic being of individuals who become aware of "the encompassing" by confronting suffering, conflict, guilt, chance, and death.

Choke

I remember somebody asking Rodrigo about submissions, I don't remember the specific question, but Rodrigo's answer was something along the lines of "the choke is the most efficient submission" ...

And I remember somewhere somebody writing of Rickson Gracie that his favorite finishing technique was the choke ...

Among the many memes to come out of the 2007 Mundials is the surprising (to many) idea that top jiu jitsu fighters finish fights with chokes.

I'm a huge fan of chokes. I think that the mata leao is the quintessential finishing technique in all of combat sports, all of martial arts. And I'm thrilled to have gotten my first few clean guillotine submission in training over the past few weeks.

But the thing they say about collar chokes is that they are "easy to learn, but difficult to master." If you are going to train in the gi, then you've got to become proficient--hell, expert--at collar chokes. There's simply no reason not to. It is the biggest difference between gi and no gi grappling, and the guy who is good at controling the collar has a tremendous advantage over the guy who is an excellent "grappler", but not sufficiently talented in the gi.

The first book in my fantasy trilogy of Gracie Barra Big Books (TM) is the Gracie Barra Big Book of Chokes. Nothing but chokes: the philosophy of chokes as a finishing hold, the biology of blood chokes versus air chokes, what the attacker needs to do, what the defender needs to do, and then choke after choke after choke ... Guillotines, triangles, brabos, katagatames, baseball chokes, cross collar chokes, clock chokes, mata leao, Frankenstein chokes ... just a sick compendium of effective gi and no gi chokes and strangles with set-up moves and lockflows.

Until then, here's a cross collar choke refresher ... "Easy to learn, but difficult to master" ...

2007 Mundial Champions

The results of the 2007 International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation World Championships ("Mundials").

Black Belt Winners: Men

Rooster: Bruno Malfacine (UGF)
Super Feather: Robson Moura (Nova Uniao)
Feather: Rubens Charles (Alliance)
Light: Lucas Lepri (Alliance)
Middle: Lucas Leite (Brasa)
Medium Heavy: Romulo Barral (Gracie Barra)
Heavy: Alexandre Ribeiro (Gracie Humaita)
Super Heavy: Roger Gracie (Gracie Barra)
Super Super Heavy: Rafeal Lovato (Gracie Humaita)

Open Class (Absolute): Roger Gracie (Gracie Barra)

Brown Belt/Black Belt Winners: Women

Super Feather: Michelle Nicolini (Brasa)
Feather: Laurence Cousin (Behring)
Light: Hanette Quadros (Carlson Gracie Team)
Middle: Emily Kwok (Renzo Gracie)
Medium Heavy: Penny Thomas (Rickson)

Open Class (Absolute): Michelle Nicolini (Brasa)

No Gi Flipside

B.J. Penn calls this sweep "De La Riva Sweep While Opponent’s One Knee is in the Middle." I call it "no gi Flipside," after the move that Mamazinho showed us this spring, a move I incorporated in my Scissorhands suite.

The steps: The guy’s knee goes up. So many higher level guys start sparring this way—from Rodrigo to Stefan to Tommy and Casey. You want to put your opposite foot in the hip/abdomen. Let’s say their left knee goes up in the middle. You want to put your left foot in their hip/abdomen.

Slide your other foot (right) behind their knee that is in the middle. It’s a sort of DLR hook. What you are trying to do is trap the shin of that knee-in-the-middle leg (the position I call “Jayhawk”). The foot on your DLR hook should be close to the foot of your other leg.

Reach and get a collar tie with your left hand (the same side that has the foot in the hip/abdomen). With your right hand (the same side that has the DLR hook), reach and control either the elbow (preferable) or the wrist.

Pull the guy on you as you rock back. Once his weight is on top of you, extend your DLR hook leg and flip the guy over to the side. Follow him over to secure dominant position.

I think I almost hit this move on Wednesday night—or some variation of it. One of the things I’m trying to do is to understand the essence of sweeps, to break them down into their elementary particles, as it were. What do I need to block? What do I need to control? Where will I need to put the pressure? For example, in this sweep, you want to block the leg (DLR hook) and control the head and arm. The pressure comes from extending the leg. I feel that being able to answer these questions on the fly is key to being able to sweep with impunity—and creativity. The "unplugged" series helps me see how the some of the same key steps can be found in sweeps that otherwise look very, very different.

Sitting Flat in the Guard

I hurt my right ankle last night after class trying to sit flat, the way you are supposed to sit when you are in the guard. I’ve figured out that at least part of my problem when it comes to maintaining posture in the guard is the fact that, since my right foot does not extend very well, I’ve compensated by not sitting all the way
down on it. The problem with that, as I learned while watching a video of someone explaining the Saulo ground pass, is that not sitting flat means that your butt is up. And that might be just enough “up” to make you vulnerable to being pulled down and your posture shattered.

So after class I’m talking about this with Stefan and trying to get in the proper position. After class, fully warmed up, I was actually able to sit flat. Stefan recommended that I consider sitting flat on my left ankle, and shooting my right leg out to the side. I had pretty much been only trying to shoot my left leg out when
opening the guard­almost exclusively so. So I’m eager to try Stefan’s suggestion over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, sitting flat last night on my right ankle meant that I woke up in surprisingly acute pain in the middle of the night last night. I could get comfortable enough to sleep, but there was no denying that my ankle, which
felt fine all evening, was in serious pain. When I got up around 3 p.m. to let out Hecate for her regular middle-of-the-damn-night pee, I could hardly walk on it.

Hours later, my ankle feels pretty much back to normal. Some lingering soreness, but I should be able to train tonight (Thursday; no gi). What I do want to do is plot out some of what has been working and what has not been working in advance of tonight’s class.

The most outstanding things over the past six weeks definitely have to be my Twist half guard sweep and my Americana. I’ve also done better with guillotine chokes­something I never really worked on. And though I’m not doing a great job of staying out of triangle chokes, I am not getting submitted by them. I am also defending armbars and the RNC fairly well.

What’s weak? I still haven’t developed a coherent guard opening approach. One of the things I want to try (per the above) is to open up to the right instead of to the left. This should allow me to sit flat on my left ankle, improving my base. I’m also curious as to whether or not it will turn out that my left hand/arm is better for keeping the post than my right hand.

Off of that, one thing I want to keep in mind is the idea of switching between standing and ground guard openers. All I want to do is to be able to get a knee in. It might happen that I can’t get anything going on the ground, shift to standing, and am able to create some space­though not fully open the guard. I need to consider dropping back to the ground with a knee up, and seeing if I can catch the guy that way.

I still like my original idea: from inside the guard, control the collars with my left hand (“just a comfortable grip”) and use my right hand to try and snag the sleeve. If I get the sleeve, lean to my left and step forward deep with my
right leg. Leaning in the direction of that right leg, bring the left leg up and stand upright.

If I can’t get the sleeve, then I need to immediately step out per the Saulo ground
pass. He will probably reach for me with the sleeve. Depending on how the flow is going, I can either grab the sleeve and go back to the standing pass attack, or ignore it and continue with the Saulo ground pass.

A key thing: I need to be able to feel his anklelock on my hip. If I’m not putting pressure on that lock, then he’ll be able to hold his guard closed. To get back there, I need to make sure I turn my body fully to the side. FULLY TO THE SIDE. Don’t look down. Just make sure your base is good. Then circle back and sit to open the guard.

One interesting trick about the knee under the butt is this: Saulo warns against putting the knee in the middle. But he doesn’t point out what is so good about putting the knee under one buttcheek. In doing so, it makes it hard for the
guy to sit up and reach you from the opposite side. So, in the scenario above, with my left hand forward, I would put my left knee under the guy’s right buttcheek. This makes it harder for him to reach up and grab me with his left hand (i.e., attacking my right side). This is just as I want it because that is the side I will step out with and, eventually, the side I will pass toward.

Tonight is no gi. I’m sure we’ll be working on guard openers again tonight, though I’m not sure what specific wrinkles Rodrigo will be showing us. In addition to working on my guard opening technique: opening up to the right instead of the
left, looking up and turning fully to the side ... I want to continuing working on my half guard sweeps­particularly the Tackle, which I haven’t done in awhile. I also want to work on taking the back and getting better and attacking from dominant positions. I was in mount for more than a minute yesterday but was so busy maintaining position that I never really attacked. That gave the guy I was working with plenty of time to get set to escape (he rolled me into his guard) and
eventually launch an attack himself.

Another thing I want to study is people’s reaction when I attack with the Americana. I’ve caught enough guy’s with it from the bottom that I’m sure people are going to start to pick up on it (I don’t know anybody at our academy who uses
the Americana like I do). Do they pull their arm away to the side, opening them up to an attack to their body (i.e., poosh the guy sweep)? Do they bury the arm inside, opening them up to a possible windmill sweep, armlock or even take-the-back? I also need to work the sweep from the Americana attack: trap the knee on the
lock side and butterfly hook under the leg on the opposite side. Lift and slice­Rickson style­ to get the sweep. Continuing working to finish with the Americana.

More Guard Opening

Wednesday's class with Stefan was small, but it gave me a nice opportunity to work guard openers against two ideal opponent types: one size up and big MF.

In the first case, it's good to work guard openers against someone who is maybe a weight class above. I'm pretty strong for my weight class, and when I'm struggling with a technique I have to admit that I rely on that strength advantage more than I should. At my level, a little bit of technique and a lot of strength can go a long way against comparable or less experienced competition. (And therein lies the temptation ...)

In the second, I get called on any BS. With someone whose got a major strength advantage, my technique has to be on point or there's no way I'm going to be able to use the "escape hatch" of superior strength or explosiveness.

The emphasis Stefan put on tonight's take on guard openings was not just getting the knee up and in the middle after successfully opening the guard. But in getting tight and not allowing any space for the guy to reset his guard. It was the "follow-through"--for lack of a better word--that was the focus.

As usual, I struggled to open the guard against a determined closed guard. One thing I need to do is to think of three different guard opening techniques: the Saulo ground pass, the Gracie Barra standing pass, and the Jayhawk pass (which is the one we've been focusing on that looks to create space to bring the knee up in the middle)--as techniques in combination, that lead to the other. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'd like my guard opening attack to be as tight as that stand-up game combo that Marcio Feitosa taught us (ouchi gari to uchi mata to ankle pick) in the seminar ...

One thing that might help, that came up after class, was looking to open up to my right instead of my left. I'm not sure how or why I got stuck in a rut of opening up to the left to open the guard. But I need to try the right side as a way of dealing with my right ankle's lack of motion. I was able to sit it flat after class, probably because I was so warmed up. We'll see what happens going forward.

Sparring went better than I'd anticipated in some ways. I'm working more effectively out of the half guard lately, mostly due to the Twist sweep. I got caught up in a triangle choke attack after losing mount at one point. The problem was that I was just maintaining position in mount and not going forward with an attack. That just gave him time to prepare for his reversal.

With regard to the triangle, I really need to start working my escapes with more effort. There's a huge difference between not tapping out and escaping and getting into dominant position. I've got two very solid triangle choke escapes: C.C. Grinder and Midget Slam. I need to use them.

The Last American Blue Belt

Whenever you are in a situation where the thought crosses your mind, “this guy is too strong,” you’ve got to remind yourself that the problem is not his strength, the problem is your technique. Wrong spot. Wrong angle. No leverage.

One thing I like about the way Saulo teaches jiu jitsu in his instructional is his emphasis on leverage, on being in the right spot so that you are not wasting your energy fighting strength against strength. I think that’s what makes people like Rickson and Rodrigo seem to roll so effortlessly, save for short bursts of exertion during an escape or securing dominant position. They feel what is possible, and then they move to exploit it.

But to exploit it, you’ve got to be in the right position, have the right angle, and have more than just your strength going for you ...

We’re continuing to work on guard opening. We’ve really been breaking it down bit by bit, which is great. But I feel like I’m in danger of missing the opportunity to finally fix what has been my most critical weakness. If I can’t significantly improve my guard opening while we are focusing on it so much, then it is hard to believe that I’ll be able to improve it as rapidly as I’d like once we’ve moved on to other areas of emphasis.

Casey once told me that I’d be alright if I could just keep my posture. More and more I think that is the crux of it. I remember after losing a bid to medal in a tournament how Mamazinho got on me about not returning to base after a failed guard opening attempt. That’s something I read about in Path to the Black Belt this morning, the idea that you need to return to your base anytime your guard opener/guard pass fails. Get set, and try again. But get set. Don’t abort mid-pass and try something else when you are off-balance or not set.

For the most part, set = posture. Tuesday we worked specifically on ways to regain posture when it has been broken, as well as using either the inside or outside knee to keep the guard open once you’ve opened it.

The technique had you put your hands in the guy’s armpits (overhand or underhand). Move one knee in to the middle. Put the other knee out perpendicular as you turn your shoulders, opening up in that direction. With your palms down and pressing on the guy’s chest, then abdomen, walk your hands down.

As you do this, you’ve got two options: you can press down on the knee, and put your perpendicular knee over. Or you can pop the inside knee up.

What was killing me, again, was posture. Sometimes during the drill, I’d go to put the knee out to the side and literally tip over, falling on my face. Part of the problem is that I still haven’t overcome the instinctual impulse to look down. I’d like to believe it’s that simple because I know it is a major mistake that I continue to do. I need to keep my weight back and my head up—just look down with the eyes.

Wednesday I want to watch Stephan do this move. I want to watch how his weight shifts—or does not shift—when he goes to put the leg to the side. That’s one of the things that I hate about learning new stuff: you never know which detail is most important for your jiu jitsu until you try the move and fail. In this case, the detail that I really needed to watch when Rodrigo showed us the technique tonight was that weight shift. Does he push off against the torso as he is putting the knee to the side? That would make it harder to “tip over” as I did a few times.

I also thought I noticed Rodrigo leaning to the side, with his knee-out shoulder turned away. Cesar Gracie talks about sometimes going to the side when you are in someone’s guard because it can help you maintain posture better than when you are sitting there with your shoulders square. Another nice thing about opening up to the knee-out side is that it makes it easier to attack that knee as part of the guard opener.

All things to work on for Wednesday.

Pounds & Kilos

I’ve got to tighten up on my diet. This morning, I weighed in at 169.4 dressed. That is hysterically too high. I never weighed that much even when I was on the sidelines in May, June and July.

I did two-a-days on Saturday and Sunday: circuit training and straight cardio. Watched what I ate all weekend. Even hauled my ass out of bed this morning to do some circuit work. Still, a crazy number on the scale when I get to the office. I knew things would be rough when the bathroom scale at home gave me 165. But I hoped for the best and ended up with the obligatory four-pound markup on the office digital.

So, carbs are out … save for my Wednesday pizza. I really want to get to the point where I am at 160 walking around. And it was depressing that after my first three-nights-a-week training in months, it didn’t seem to do much of anything to reduce my poundage. The typical pattern was for me to weigh around 165 on Monday, then drop to under 162.5 or even under 160 on the bathroom scale, by Friday morning.

Even during the month of twice-a-week training I had decent weigh-in numbers:

Monday, July 16 to Friday, July 20: 164.3 to 161.7
Monday, July 23 to Friday, July 27: 166.5 to 161.3
Monday, July 30 to Friday, August 3: 167.6 to 164.7 (Thursday)
Monday, August 6 to Friday, August 10: 168.5 to 164.8 (Thursday)

And Monday, August 13 was 167.4

One clear trend is that, since I’ve been training, my Monday morning weigh has actually gotten heavier. The average weight loss—Monday to Friday—is about three and a half pounds. That includes two weeks where the last weigh in was a day earlier—so the average might actually be higher.

A couple of theories: Rebecca thinks that I might have added a pound or two of muscle in the first four weeks of being back on the mat, which would help explain the “boost” factor in the weight. Similarly, I’m thinking that my cardio has improved to the point where I don’t get the same “water loss” that I used to get when training. I remember the first week or two coming home and seeing that I’d dropped about three pounds in one training session. But the last few training sessions were pretty much flat on the water loss—at least as far as the scale was concerned.

I don’t think diet was the difference. My diet wasn’t especially clean in the second half of July—including some weekend eating and drinking that there’s no way I’d try and get away with now.

I’ve stepped up the working out. But if Rebecca and/or my theory is accurate, then that’s not likely to help me shed much more poundage.

That only leaves the diet. I’d gladly starve myself just to get down to the 155 area and then try and “fill out” back to 160. That said, I’m going to try and take the responsible, Atkins-light/South Beach approach this week and see if I can tell if there is any difference. I can feel the additional weight around my midsection, even if it isn’t as visible as it feels. Extra working out notwithstanding, diet is probably going to be the best way to eliminate the next, and last, ten pounds.

Finishing Techniques and Body Type

I wrote this about a month and a half ago, but thought it might be bad form to post it. But hearing recently in an interview that Minotauro considered armlocks "his specialty" got me thinking that maybe there was something to this post after all.

*

It's been axiomatic that certain submission techniques in jiu jitsu are easier for certain people to perform compared to other techniques. The most common example is the idea that jiu jitsu fighters with longer legs tend to have an advantage with attacks like the triangle choke.

Another example I think comes from watching jiu jitsu/submission fighters like Paulo Filho and Joe Stevenson. Both of these fighters are short, but thick-bodied. Filho is only 5' 8" or so, but competes at 185. Stevenson is generously 5' 6" and only recently moved down to compete at 155.

Neither of these guys is going to win a triangle choking contest. But what they both have in common is a preference for joint locks: armlocks in Filho's case and leg locks in Stevenson's case.

I think this is because both fighters have large, strong arms and thick shoulders and core, and can use them--and their relative small size--to attack a limb with all of their bodyweight. It is easier for fighters like this to maneuver their smaller, but stronger bodies in between an opponent's body and his arm or leg than it is for longer-limbed fighters.

Is there another body type/finishing technique combination? I think there might be if you consider someone like Marcelo Garcia or even Leo Viera. Neither fighter is especially long-limbed. And I don't think anyone would accuse either fighter of being "built like a tank." Both fighters are relatively well-proportioned and--save for Garcia's somewhat oversized thighs--not especially muscled.

For fighters of normal athletic proportion, I think chokes might be the weapon of choice. Guillotines, brabos, north-south guillotines, rear-naked, d'arce ... all of these attacks should work especially well for the "average build" jiu jitsu fighter. Not only are chokes ultimately the most efficient finishing technique (if they don't tap, then they go to sleep), but also they are something that the less muscled and less long-limbed among us can apply more easily than our lengthy or thick-bodied teammates and competitors.

Obviously jiu jitsu fighters of all body types should become proficient in all forms of attack. I've given up the idea, for example, that my legs are "too short" for me to be able to finish with the triangle choke.

But it is worth having an idea of what sort of finishing techniques might be tailor-made for your body type. Everyone has their own jiu jitsu--as every knowledgeable jiu jitsu instructor insists. And knowing what kind of jiu jitsu your body was built for will go a long way toward helping you find it.

The Cassio Cardoso Choke?

courtesy of the good people of Abhaya ...

Encircled Collar Choke

I'd read an interview with Cassio Cardoso at On the Mat that was really fascinating. He seems like a real, old school jiu jitsu guy who was one of the people who was always supposed to fight Rickson in a jiu jitsu match but never did.

Here's a link to the interview ...

I went to Jiu Jitsu Gear Forum looking for stories about him. One of the stories--and there were an unfortunate few--talked about a certain choke that Cardoso did. In the story, Cardoso didn't just lift the choking elbow, he pulled and rolled, really sinking it in deep. I also think Cardoso wasn't working from the closed guard, which would have made the roll a bit more difficult.

August 18th: Gracie Barra Jiu Jitsu Day

Two years ago today, on August 18, 2005, I began my journey into Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Looking back on that first day and those first few posts of side control, it is interesting to see how techniques I was taught years ago continue to be techniques worth learning and refining. In some ways it is sobering. Two years later, I'm still trying to recall, execute and perfect the same sweeps, escapes and submissions I've been shown class after class after class ...

And in some ways it is inspiring. While all that I've learned in the past two years hardly reflects the totality of jiu jitsu knowledge, it is true that I've learned--or at least have been shown--a tremendous amount. If there is one goal I should have, one set of resolutions to take me from my second anniversary in jiu jitsu as an eight-month blue belt to my third anniversary in jiu jitsu as a 20-month blue belt, then it might be to own what I know, to make sure that I fully understand the techniques I've learned up to this point, and to be better able to execute them with ever increasing accuracy.

It was interesting to be at the Marcio Feitosa/Kyra Gracie seminar in Belleve on Friday night. James got his blue belt. Jason, who I hadn't seen in months, also picked up a blue belt--maybe around the same time as Mike. When you factor in other recent blue belts: Jason (Garcia), Griff, Lindsey, Dave--to say nothign of those like Jeff and Big Mike whom I haven't seen in a real long time--you've got a real growing crew of new blue belts. The next big move for all of us will be the move to purple, and although I continue to be especially impressed witih Jason (Garcia)'s technical ability, there's no way I'm going to handicap which one of us--or which few of us--make it to that purple finish line first.

I don't say that out of a competitive sense, but more out of a sense of wonder. I've pretty much seen all of these guys since they were white belts. Some of them started out at pretty much the exact same time that I did. So in watching them grow and improve, I am also in a way watching myself. As exhilerating as the run to blue has been, the marathon stretch to purple will be all the more amazing to experience.

Tommy Gun

Armlock

Triangle

Omoplata

Front Sweep

Back Sweep

Arm Drag

The Whizzer of Uchi Mata

You've gotta love the way classes have been sewn together this week.

We've been working takedowns and opening the closed guard in the gi all week. The main takedowns have been the classic judo/jiu jitsu throws: ouchi gari and uchi mata. We've done them in the gi. Marcio, Rodrigo and Stephan. We've done these throws both as attacks and as counters.

What was nice about tonight was not only doing these throws (well, at least, uchi mata) no gi, but was also doing them as counters.

In the same way that Rodrigo, for example, had us counter a collar grab with either ippon seionage or koshi guruma, tonight Rodrigo had us counter an underhook in the clinch with an uchi mata.

We worked pummeling after a solid but not soul-melting warm-up. The uchi mata counter came after some of the pummeling. It reminded me of the Karo Parisyan judo-to-MMA DVDs I've seen over at groundfighter. As is the case with jiu jitsu, not everything in judo translated perfectly into no-gi situations. But a surprisingly large number of techniques do, including most of the basics. Tonight's class was another good example of that.

No gi guard opening was interesting. If I have a hard time maintaining posture with the gi, then I have an impossible time maintaining posture no gi. I tried the BJ Penn no gi guard opener and pass, the one that resembles the C.C. Grinder triangle choke escape. But success there was pretty limited. I refuse to do the "elbows jammed into inner thighs" guard opener on principle. But I had a decent time controlling the upper body by palming the collar bone just below the throat. Something to work on, for sure.

In sparring, I did some things well. Got a mata leao, a guillotine and two americanas from the bottom in guard. Casey caught me in one of those triangle chokes from mount that increasingly seem to be a weak spot for me (that was a key Cindy submission when we rolled). More than anything else, triangle chokes remain my biggest vulnerability when it comes to sparring these days ...

One things I did notice during class was that my cardio really seemed to have improved. That's good news, because I haven't been dropping the weight this week like I usually do. I started off the week around 167 or so and ended the week at 166 and change. That's crazy for a week in which I've trained three times.

I'm going to have to get stricter on my diet if I'm going to get under 160 before September. I'd like to not have to rely on constant working out in order to stay under 160 because I don't know how sustainable that will be over the months and years ... Ideally, training three times a week plus working out twice on Saturday and Sunday would do it--though I'm willing to throw in a Wednesday morning workout if necessary. But diet is the soft spot, and where my focus needs to be for the next few weeks.

On a positive note, the flexibility routine is working out great. I managed to follow the routine to a T every night since Sunday the 12th. I'm already starting to notice some slight, slight results.

Uchi Gari and Guard Opening

Wednesday was my first class with Stephan in awhile. He worked us in takedowns and in the same opening-the-guard drills that have been the main course all week.

Warm-ups included Stephan's specialty, the granby roll, as well as some major partner-required ab work. The takedown was an inside leg trip. It's really the first part of the trilogy that Marcio was talking about in the seminar: attacking with the inside leg trip, then switching to the uchi mata if that failed, and then finishing with the ankle pick if the uchi mata didn't do the job. I think the formal judo names for the takedown attack series I'm calling "Feitosa" is: ouchi gari (the inside trip), uchi mata (the inside thigh throw), and kibisu gaeshi (the ankle pick).

Stephan had us working the uchi gari. It's a four-step move. A penetration step. Bring the rear foot up. Hook the front foot around the guy's lead leg. Twist your hips to the outside to complete the sweep.

All the emphasis on takedowns these days is great. I love the stand-up part of jiu jitsu as much as the ground work and feel pretty comfortable fighting for grips and going for takedowns. But the emphasis on opening the closed guard has been heaven-sent.

Next week, Rodrigo and Stephan will start introducing specific techniques to open the closed guard. This week we've been largely on our own--which I've enjoyed. I wouldn't mind another week of that. But it's good to know that we'll be on similar ground next week. I'm convinced that if I developed a decent, consistent guard passing game, I would be a pretty decent blue belt--at least in competition, where the stand-up part comes into play more. Every match I've lost in competition has been because of poor guard opening and passing. Next to escaping from bad positions, nothing is more important for me right now than that.

I've got a few "unplugged" version of guard openers: the Gracie Barra standing opener and Saulo's ground opener. I think what is holding me back is that I'm rushing it, that I haven't quite figured out how to get from being in the guard, to being in base but ready to open the guard, to finally opening the guard. In just about every move there's a point where you've got a beat, a moment or two, to check yourself and prepare for the finishing move--leaning back in the armbar and raising the hips, squeezing the knees in the triangle choke ... Because I haven't thought out the steps precisely, I have a tendency to rush it, trying to get to the end move as quickly as possible.

What seems to be sacrificed is my base. I go through the movements. But do so too quickly. So I undermine my ability to really attack the closed guard, for example, because my base is not set.

Hopefully, I'll get to work on that next week. It makes me think that the guard openers "don't work" because I feel like I'm doing all the steps and not getting the result I want. Rushing is a big issue in general for me. I'm reminded that the point isn't to be "quick". The point is to be in the right place at the right time. Timing is more important, much more important, than speed.

Sparring was short, but sweet. Rolled with Stephan and at one point tried to transition to half guard when my closed guard didn't seem to be accomplishing much. Stephan flew immediately into the move that Kyra Graice showed us at the seminar. I didn't even have a chance to put on the lockdown. That probably saved me from the kneebar, though Stephan transitioned into a straight footlock. It was a good reminder that against the better guys, I'm not going to be able to ease on into half-guard in an attempt to slow things down and get set. If I'm not ready to go on offense with the half-guard, then it is not necessarily the sanctuary it once was.

Stand up Counters and Opening the Closed Guard

Tonight we worked counters to the collar grab from standing, as well as an intensive on opening the closed guard. Perfect calls, IMO. The counter to the collar grab is a nice compliment to the stand-up work we just did with Marcio and Kyra at the seminar last week. While the opening of the closed guard speaks for itself--I need the work!

The counters to the collar grab were throws, three of them really. Koshi guruma, the "hip wheel" throw I always think of as the headlock hip throw, Ippon Seionage, one-arm shoulder throw (pronounced "soy-nage"), and a sacrifice version of ippon seionage that I think I've heard called the "drop seionage" where you drop to your knees just before executing the throw.

These throws--and ippon seionage was by far my favorite--work as counters to the collar grab. The guy grabs your collar in the standup, say his left hand on your right collar. Rather than stepping away, you step into the guy, grabbing his elbow and reaching for either the head (koshi guruma) or underneath his bicep (ippon seionage), reverse pivot and execute the throw.

We worked on that for mostly half the class, going back and forth. Very good stuff.

The second half of the class involved opening the closed guard. Rodrigo just had us get in closed guard. The bottom guy couldn't submit or sweep, just try and keep the guard closed. The top guy had to open the guard. Passing the guard, per se, wasn't so important. The goal was in "opening" the guard.

This was a great, great drill. I've said over and over again that if there is one thing that is a glaring weakness in my game, it is opening the closed guard. I'd say that even though my guard game isn't spectacular by any means, the style of jiu jitsu I play hasn't exposed my guard game (at least not in competition). But I've been exposed on numerous occasions as someone who has a very difficult time opening the closed guard if the guy on the bottom decides to keep it closed.

I didn't do as well as I would have liked. One major mistake I was making in the Saulo pass was forgetting to sit as I'm pressuring the legs. I was doing everything else fairly well: good base, good hand position, good step-out. The problem was that even though I was putting pressure on the knee of the leg that was in front of me, I wasn't putting equal pressure on the leg behind me because I forgot to sit into that leg as I was pressuring the other knee down. That little detail was enough to frustrated my ground guard opening attack.

At least I remembered to turn my body! Bit by bit it comes together. Hopefully, I'll get another crack at it tonight during Stephan's class.

Sparring wasn't bad. Again Rodrigo focused us on the closed guard. I almost got caught in an armlock from the guard by Bruce, a white belt who also managed to pass my guard and take mount at one point. Good for him. I seemed to do better as the sparring went on, catching one of my "classic" americana submissions from the guard in one match and doing a pretty good job of maintaining mount in another.

The Next Four

I've spent four weeks in what I've called "pre-training." That includes three weeks of 2x/week training Tuesdays and Thursdays (gi and no gi, respectively), and one week of 1x/week (Tuesday) and two seminars (Thursday and Friday).

The next phase is four weeks of 3x/week training. I'm looking at training on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Gi with Rodrigo. Gi with Stephan. No gi with Rodrigo.

I'm thinking that there will be a tournament sometime in early September. The last day of this second four-week period is September 7th, so hopefully nothing will be scheduled before then (at least, hopefully, nothing from Gracie Barra).

There are a few things that I need to spend the next four weeks working on--and just as diligently as I've been doing my evening stretching. I think these are the things that keep me from feeling "true blue" as a blue belt on the mat.

Takedowns

Not a huge priority compared to other areas. But definitely something to keep attention on. Right now, I'm looking at three attacks: double legs, arm drags, and the Feitosa series (inside leg tripo, uchi mata, ankle pick).

Guard Pass

Crucial. No other way to describe it. It is absolutely critical that my guard passing skills improve.

There are three passes that I have some confidence with, even if it is rarely displayed on the mat. The standing sleeve pass where you grab a sleeve, the handcuff pass where you pin the guy's arm behind his back, and the Saulo ground pass.

What I need to do is run through the scenarios of setting these passes up. My thinking is that I need to always look to catch an arm. If I do that, I can hit the standing sleeve pass or the handcuff. If the guy moves his arms to keep them away from me, then I need to immediately go to the Saulo ground pass. If he brings his hand/arm back into play to stop my Saulo ground pass, then I switch back to the standing sleeve or the handcuff.

Half-guard sweeps

Tackle. Twist. Take-the-back. More accuracy would be good, but mostly more aggression is what is called for here. Get sideways. Get small. Get the sweep.

Escapes

Mount/rear mount. Side control. North-south.

Finishes from Above

Mount/technical mount: choke, armlock, katagatame
Rear mount/back control: choke, armlock, mata leao
Side control/side mount: kimura/keylock, Far Side/Watch Dog armbar, Babe Ruth

Attacks from Below

Tommy Gun
H. Rap Brown
King Crimson
The Widow
Scissorhands
transition to Cobra guard/transition to half-guard

B.J. Penn Interview

Here's another interview with B.J. Penn. He makes a couple of interesting points about the value of flexibility, and his overall gameplan in fighting.

B.J. Penn: The Ultimate Fighter's Newest Coach Reveals His Training and Fighting Secrets!

Omoplata Drill

From Lloyd Irvin black belt, Brad Court:
I can see working this into the armlock from the guard drill that Mamazinho and Rodrigo used to have us to at the beginning of class. Really gets your hips moving--which is critical to having a halfway decent guard game.