Some Days My Belt is Whiter Than Others

And today was one of those days ...

First day of a new morning workout: I get through the core and abs parts by 6:30 p.m. which means I've got to skip the legs and "push" trisets in order to get in at least a mile and half of cardio. Given the amount of time that I've got in the mornings, I think that core and abs and maybe the legs triset is probably going to be the best I can do if I want to do cardio every day.

I won't get into the ever-frustrating world of options trading. That was how the bulk of my day might best be characterized ...

Jiu Jitsu training. In the Level One part of the class we did two techniques: triangle from open guard and armbar from the guard. Both of these are part of The Fifteen, level one techniques.

Triangle from open guard:

Start with a closed guard. Grab both sleeves and pull them to your chest.

Plant your left foot on the mat. Elbow escape hips back to the left.

Bring your left knee up so that the middle of your shin is across the inside of the elbow of his right arm.

Kick out with your left leg, attacking his neck with the crook of your leg.

At the same time, release your left hand grip and pull him toward you with your right hand grip.

With your left leg wrapped around the back of his neck, bring your right leg up to cinch the trap and complete the triangle.

Make sure the arm is pulled through. Pull down on the back of the head to tighten.

Armbar from the guard:
There are two variations, a three-step and a two-step

Three-step

Grab left-side cuff and right-side collar

Step on the hip with your left foot.

Swing your right leg up and pummel him under his left armpit.

Bring your left leg up and over the head. Hook the leg down, wrapping it over his neck.

Pull the left-side cuff toward you and raise your hips to sink in the armlock.

Two-step

Grab same-side wrist and reach across and pull in the elbow of that arm.

Quickly swing your right leg up and pummel him under his left armpit.

As your bring your left leg up and over the head, reach out with your left hand and keep his head back.

Bring the left leg down, hooking the leg over the neck.

Pull the arm through and raise your hips to sink in the armlock.

In the drills part of the class we worked on a sweep to be used when somebody is trying the basic standing guard pass. The sweep actually looks a lot like Carlson Jr.s "jello guard."

First the steps of the standing guard pass which, by the way, is also part of The Fifteen, Level One:

Inside the guard. Back straight. Hips forward. Eyes up.

Grab the cuff on one side. Step up with the leg on that side, keeping your elbows in.

Step up with the other leg. Stand with good posture, with one hand on the sleeve and the other hand on the knee on the opposite side.

Push down with the hand on the knee while simultaneously stepping back with your leg on the opposite side (the same side where you have the cuff).

That's the basic standing guard pass. Now here is the sweep:

Reverse the grip on your trapped cuff by circling your wrist out and around. Take control of the grip on that side.

Hook the near leg out to in and grab the heel of the foot on that side.

Plant the foot on your other leg right above the knee.

Pull with the grip while pushing with the foot on the knee. You want to stretch him out, pulling him toward you slightly.

Lift up with the hook foot and the hand on heel and turn him toward the "grip" side.

Take him all the way over until the hook foot is flat on the floor. Maintain the grip all the way through the sweep.

This is already a long post. So I won't spend too much time on the sparring. Class kind of disintegrated after Rodrigo had us two 2-minute back to back sessions. I started with Joe, then Jesse Singh, then Tommy, then Big Mike, then Griff, then Spencer the brown belt and last the purple belt who looks like Chris Leben.

I wasn't especially impressed with anything I did. I couldn't stay out of Joe's guard for long, though I did spend some time in half-guard. Singh and Tommy were typical: Singh going for broke and Tommy just too much technically. I do like the fact that Tommy always fights from the guard first. Only the higher belts realize that it makes a lot more sense to fight lower belts from the guard as much as possible and Tommy is showing that he gets it. Rodrigo once told us that larger guys should work from the bottom when sparring. But nobody follows that.

That means a lot of fights like my fights with Griff and Big Mike. I did manage to take Big Mike's back after he'd tapped me with an arm triangle. Griff passed my guard eventually, then passed my half-guard and got to side control. Eventually I gassed and he got mount. He tried a smother thing toward the end of our time, but I just decided I was tired of rolling with all these bigger guys and was going to refuse to tap. It was only two minutes, but I was saved by the bell.

Spencer pointed out that I need to only to the double underhook guard pass when I've got the legs over my shoulders. If I just wrap my arms around bent legs, then he can just straighten them out and it's triangle time.

The Chris Leben guy is a nice matchup size-wise. He helped me out during that sweep of the guard pass. I wouldn't mind if he kept coming to the Southside; I overheard him telling Singh that he prefered training with Rodrigo over training with Micah. So maybe we'll see more of him. He caught me in a couple of inverted armbars, two identical armbars back to back (reminded me of when Alex did that). It only underscores the point:

You've GOT to PASS THE GUARD

Otherwise you're just a sitting duck, and the better the guy the more likely he is to just fire submission attempt after sweep after submission attempt ... until you make a mistake. Getting caught in triangles they way I do is almost definitely because I'm not working aggressively enough to pass the guard.

Felt really kind of shitty after training, but I'm feeling better blogging it out a bit. Jesus, my first day after getting two stripes and I stink up the joint! Not really. But let's hope Wednesday has me feeling better about how I did.

By the way, wore the new platinum weave Gameness to class for the first time. I could feel the difference between it and the Gamness single. The platinum weave id definitely heavier and doesn't breathe, as well. But otherwise it felt just fine--especially the pants, which were easy to put on for a change. The jacket was a little roomy, but I don't mind.