I’ll trade you a submission for an escape November 6, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: DArce, flow, nogi, Open Mat
4 comments
Sometimes I read the “search engine terms” that WordPress gives me — a list of things people searched for and then clicked on a link to me from — and I wonder 1) who was looking for that, 2) how’d it direct to me, and 3) what else did they find?!
Not too many of us there today, and the first four were already paired up and going when I got there. So I just warmed up and stretched until Buddy #1 got there and was ready to go. Got to roll with him twice (really, once with a ~5 min break in the middle), and both times for a good long while, maybe 45 minutes total. We played! Fast-paced and fun. I had some good escapes and passes in there, and some good moments of getting to top and even sprawling well. Also got caught in a lot of D’Arces, among other things (triangles, arm triangles, a RNC). But he said at one point that he’d just really gotten the D’Arce down and so was taking every opportunity to work it.
I was still underneath a lot, but I was really, really working my escapes, mostly turning in for the single leg, which he was giving up for the chance at the D’Arce. He turtled for me several times; I kept trying to work the Peruvian necktie, I don’t know why, but never really had it well enough to try to finish. Should ought to have tried to take his back, but didn’t think of it. And I even had a couple of pretty good elevator sweeps, though he wasn’t defending them too hard. Oo, and I fixed a hole in my basic guard passes that I’d noticed the other night, finally getting my head in the right place. Lots of little things that I was very happy with.
Also worked the von Flue guillotine defense. He caught that guillotine tight, though his guard wasn’t quite closed, so I thought, Well, I can at least practice the defense for a second or two until he finishes it. I could get my arm around to his back, but my shoulder was nowhere near his neck: my elbow was just over his shoulder; but I went through the motions anyway. And then he let me out and we went on until he caught me in something else. When we reset, he said that had been a good guillotine defense; I asked if it had really worked, because I was so far away from his neck that it seemed as if I had no pressure. He said that yes, that all that pressure had been in one spot on his chest and had kept him from being able to finish. (Unspoken: without resorting to extra strength.) So, add that back in the arsenal. I’d set it aside for cases in which my shoulder would reach their neck, but now it appears to work without that. Not that I’m gonna go around looking for guillotines to stick my neck into to practice…
Just a really fun “this is why I do jiu-jitsu” kind of day. Yay!
The night someone dropped a piano during class October 15, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: DArce, escape, injuries, sweep
4 comments
New guys. Nutso warmup. I was last, and Tim was calling me out on it. What’s this energy stuff? Trying hard to keep up, but left behind every time. Long, too, with extra circle-up drills.
Rolling. With good guys all night, but it was all the same. Trying to work half guard sweeps, trying to shrimp and play open guard, trying to roll like Rachel. They worked passes. They succeeded. Couldn’t seem to keep my elbows tight enough to my body; always space for the D’Arce. A finger in the eye at one point; Tim thought I was frustrated and crying and reamed me. Nearly was after that. Tried to turtle and hit the switch; did actually get out and past, but they stepped away and I couldn’t control anything. Wanted to actually try to work something, anything, but on defense nearly the whole time; no chance to try. One fast tap on a leg lock attempt because I had no idea what to do next. Ribs still hurt a lot; knee-on-belly and side control are painful and nearly press the wind out of me. Apparently I looked pained even though I kept rolling (even did manage a few things that got me a momentary “Good!” from Tim); Tim finally asked if something was wrong, so I had to admit to it. Thankfully, he didn’t kick me out of class as he usually does when I fess up to rolling with an injury.
Two techniques tonight, and my brain keeps changing its mind about which was first…
First, knee-on-belly escape. Timely. Elbows in, brace on their riding leg/knee. Bridge up. Muy importante, this bridge. (All my knee-on-belly escapes earlier failed from lack of bridging. I saw this then.) Then hip escape away from them. Started with that, and then added attacking the now-grounded knee.
Second drill was switch to back to side control. Also timely, as I’d screwed it up several times right before. You shoot for the single from underneath; they sprawl. On the side they have overhooked, base out that leg and post underneath on the opposite elbow. Swing the other leg under and straight through, as if you’re sliding in to base, with your leg laying out beside theirs. (Second place I was screwing up earlier; was going out sideways and so couldn’t turn back fast enough to control. First was trying to chicken-wing their overhook. Somehow, I’d caught that as a correct detail from when we drilled the switch a while back. But tonight it was wrong.)
Bring your posted knee around and over top their calf and pinch down. (Watch out for the rolling kneebar from here! Keep your leg angled along theirs so there’s no space for them to get in there and catch your knee. Also, pressure your hips in to theirs to keep them from being able to go there.) Take the free foot and thread the foot over their calf, between your knee and theirs. Control around their waist, pinching your elbows in. You need them stretching forward, so bait going for the near-side arm. [Last night's technique was a sweep to back from here after dragging that near arm in. These two work well together here. Sadly, I don't know that sweep yet.] Dive your head under their stomach and roll, lifting up with the hook you inserted as they come past you. Replace hook with bottom-side arm and come up to side control.
Worked with Sundance, who had wrapped his hand, then taped it, and then was wearing a purple boxing glove. So it was safe from me accidentally hitting it. We were goofing around a little bit during the knee-on-belly drill, though we were both being nice and keeping the knee low. He got on top and grabbed behind my head and behind one knee and started pulling for that position; had to say, “Tap, stop, ow!” because my ribs did not like that so much. Meh.
More rolling eventually. Good guys again. Nearly did cry during one roll, too, because it was the same as before; no matter what I tried, everything was pried up, pulled out, pinned down. Pressure on the ribs wasn’t helping, either. Very much like before, except Justin submitted me with lots of other things in addition to the D’Arce.
One, I didn’t even recognize what he’d done; it was uncomfortable, but I thought I had some room. And then I heard a noise as if someone had just dropped a piano. Or banged on all the keys at once. Loud. And strange. I thought, “Who just dropped a piano?” And then I thought, “Wait, there aren’t any pianos. Um… … I think I might be passing out. Oh. I should tap. … … … Um, where’s my hand?” Signals finally reached my hand, and I tapped. And then when he let go and all the blood rushed back to my head, I nearly passed out again.
On the wall after rolling. Single leg, single leg/sprawl, single leg, single leg/sprawl. Repeat, repeat, repeat because the new guys weren’t doing it right. I will not stop. I will keep going. I will go hard. Much slower than everyone else, but I did not stop. Even jogged back after every; no walking. Great heaving, squeaking breaths.
Circled up. Mountain climbers/pushups. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 20 knees-to-chest. Done.
Backed up against the wall, sat down, and fought the tears. Hurt. Tired. No air. That’s all. Did stop them then, though they’ve resurfaced every few minutes since then. Still fighting. Never surrender.
Tim banned me from coming in tomorrow for Open Mat. Said I need to rest. *sigh* But I need to work more.
Update: I meant to add this last night and completely forgot — I rolled with my new custom mouthguard last night. I like it muchly. No gag reflex. It stayed in without my having to think about it; it stayed on my top teeth even when I was gasping. I could breath. All very nice. Didn’t get hit in the face (they were creaming me, but they were the good guys), though this seems as if it will at least keep me from chipping teeth again. It’s a little more difficult to get out (not actually difficult, but slightly more work than just spitting out the other one) because it conforms to my teeth so well. So, yeah.
Slow Saturday October 3, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: DArce, escape, gi, mount
4 comments
Just could not wake up this morning. When the alarm went off, I set a new one and rolled back over. (That probably didn’t help.) Finally got up and out. Couple of guys were standing around outside; no one there to let us in. But Justin pulled in right behind me.
As I was walking in, I saw my old boss and his wife driving in to go to the next door fabric store. I waved and smiled and continued in to class. Right as Justin called for us to jog it out for the warmup, I saw my old boss heading for the door of the academy, so I pulled out to wait for him. Talked to him just a few minutes, but it was good to see him and let him know that I’ve moved on and am doing well. It’s one week shy of a full year since I was laid off from there.
Very small class. Short warmup, though I was gassed fast. Did get two runs on the squat jumps, and again feeling as if I was doing them better. But then only one run on alligators, and then that wound up being the last thing.
To rolling. With Guillaume first. Could not breathe. Ugh. I was so slow. Somewhere got him turtled and got the Peruvian necktie on. Remembering what happened with Will the other night, I held on even when I thought I was doing it wrong, and did finish it. Had a D’Arce, too, that I think I did right, but couldn’t finish. Meant to ask him later, but didn’t remember. Couple other places where I was just bleh and slow.
And good gracious, I can’t type worth anything, either. I must be more tired than I thought — I keep thinking one word and writing another (I just did there: thought “word” and typed “work”). I think I’m going for a nap in a minute.
Another roll, with the little kid. I caught him in bottom half-guard early, and he tried to jump over to mount, as he normally does. (It’s hard to keep tight on him and yet still allow him to move — his legs are about as big around as my arms, and his hips are narrow and tiny. So I’m generally pretty loose, since the other option is to just shut him down completely, and that’s not fair.) Justin stopped our roll to show him the cut-through half-guard pass. So then I tried to catch him in half guard throughout the rest of the roll so he could practice; first few times, he wanted to jump again, so I more aggressively blocked off the far side with my knee and elbow to force him back the other way. He finally caught on, and then was hitting that pass more consistently.
Also got him under mount, where he started spazzing again; I clamped down and said, “Knee-elbow;” he got it mostly right. Tipped him over a few times when he was off-balance, being really careful that it wasn’t any muscle. I turned in once, I think intending to go in to his guard, and stuck my neck way out there; he caught something — I don’t think it was actually a guillotine (maybe more like an Ezekiel in arm positioning? I wasn’t in the best position to see 
) — and while he didn’t actually lock up his guard, he did keep his hips under me and his legs on either side of my body, which prevented me from escaping unless I used more pressure than usual on him. (Maybe should’ve tried a bit until he locked up his guard. Just thought of that, though.) So, good job on him for catching my lazy head. 
Drilling was knee-elbow escape from mount again, this time going to butterfly instead of full guard. Then those of us who knew elevator sweeps could come up and do those. Same knee-elbow escape to get to the half-guard. Then hip further out; bring your top foot inside their near thigh. Use that hook to lift while bringing the bottom knee out to your elbow. Hip out the other way and hook in the other leg to butterfly guard.
Drilled with the kid. My turns took me through the elevator sweep and in to mount, so then he went. He missed the week we did elevator sweeps, so he just drilled the knee-elbow escape a lot.
Rolling again. We had an odd number, so I sat out. After that round, Buddy #1 showed the kid the bump sweep (which he has seen, I think). One more round, and back in with the kid. Trying the same as before, to catch half guard and go to mount. I got lots of work on shrimping around under him, so I’d bump over and lock up the half-guard. Had to block him again from jumping in the half guard until he remembered. He tried jumping from side control a few times this time; got my leg up to catch him up there and float him on that hook. More tipping, too. I think he’s trying to submit me with shoulder pressure in side control (?), but he way off-balances himself, so I just sit up and over he goes. Went to mount once; he spazzed again; clamped down again and said, “We just drilled this.” Then he got it, and got back to guard. I postured high, trying to let him go for the bump sweep, but he was more interested in the guillotine option. (Of course.) Reminded him of the bump sweep again afterward.
I tried the north/south roll escape that Scott showed me a long while ago, but couldn’t get my rolling to work. Also tried what we were defending against on Tuesday (if the opponent is turtled and grabs for your far arm hooked around his ribs, wanting to roll in to you and flip you over so he comes up in side control) since I was turtling a fair bit; he conveniently left his arm in deep every time, but I couldn’t quite get to side control before he’d scramble away.
Then we sat around for a long while. One of the guys there today, Kevin, used to train about 10 years ago, but work and wife have kept him away. He was trying to remember everything and was asking Justin about things he half-remembered. In between questions, Justin and Buddy #1 were drilling straight ankle locks and escapes.
Some time in there, after the kid had left, something came up and Buddy #1 commented on how hard it is to do choking submissions on me because my neck and shoulders are so much smaller than everyone else. (This is from yesterday). I mentioned that it’s probably the same size difference as I see with the kid (and actually, with the new girl — they’re just both so much smaller than the guys who I’m used to). Buddy of course said that when he rolls with the kid, he doesn’t even try submissions, just plays positions and getting him in situations where he knows what to do. Some of the guys, I’ve noticed, do actually do everything they can on the kid — pressure, force, jerk on submissions. Meh. (But I talked to the kid and his mom several weeks ago, and they said they’ve noticed that when a guy beats up on him, that that guy generally gets a beatdown in the next round. Tim and the instructors do watch out for us, but they also don’t want us to get used to being rescued every round. If they think it’s getting out of hand, they’re standing by to step in.)
My Hokies somehow won despite their best efforts. They got as many penalties on offense and defense as they could; the officiating was completely against them; they even had fumbles! Sheesh.
Late update: 18 months of jiu-jitsu today. My new joke is that I do in fact have a boyfriend, and his initials are BJJ.
More small anniversaries this week: 1 year since being laid off of my old job and 7 months since starting my new one.
Open Mat October 2, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: choke, DArce, escape, pass, takedowns
6 comments
Showed up at 4 today for Open Mat. Forgot that Perry was leaving town on vacation today, so the academy was locked. Brandon got there soon after me. We waited for a few minutes, and then Gary showed up early to get ready to teach the kickboxing class.
First, of course, we had to play on the Swiss balls because falling is amusing. I am so easily entertained…
Finally got around to rolling. Went 10 minutes that first round. Worked lots of D’Arce defense. Working under half-guard and side control a lot. No sweeps, though; escapes not so great, either. He was trying that north/south kimura again, though was getting somewhat better position before attempting; still lots of space and time, though. Might have had a few single-leg passes.
Guillaume came in while we were rolling. When we finished, Brandon and Gary started rolling, so I went with Guillaume to warm him up. And then Brandon and Gary had moved to practicing judo throws, so we kept rolling, too. Total, 20-30 minutes, I think. Had some single-leg passes and some work at floating, like we practiced on Tuesday; also sweeps from bottom half-guard, mostly Old School. Did finish a guillotine that he dropped himself in; he tried the von Flue defense but didn’t get quite enough pressure, and I was finally able to stretch him enough to finish it. We reviewed that defense briefly after. I dropped myself into a triangle later; we both recognized it at the same time and dove for the appropriate responses; I just managed to get my arm out & around for a double-under pass, but complimented him on recognizing it and reacting. Did have several times when I did things right, which made me happy, including a D’Arce using Sundance’s advice from last night (and it worked wonderfully and off something that failed, too, which was a bonus). Even nearly had an americano from mount; had pressured and trapped everything well, but just couldn’t quite finish once I’d locked it up.
Buddy #2 came in at some point while I was rolling with Guillaume, so Brandon decided we should shark-tank Guillaume since he’s going up to NAGA DC next weekend. It will be his first tournament. We stopped for a second while he explained, and then I said I’d just keep going and do the first round. Got to north/south kimura, but his shoulders are so flexible that I couldn’t finish it. Couldn’t remember at the time what I’d done about a little while ago; tried to switch to the on-ground version, but might not have done it right as he was able to escape. Gary got in a round after me, then Brandon, then Buddy.
We had to switch mats because the kickboxing class was starting on the main mat. Brandon and Buddy asked Guillaume what he wanted to work for the tournament; he chose takedowns/standing, so they worked with him on pulling guard and sprawling for a while. Buddy #1 came in during this and wanted to roll, so the guys partnered up with the timer on 4 minutes (which seems so ridiculously short after rolling for 20-30 minutes!). I rotated in on the second round and went with Guillaume again. Similar to before: sweeps and on top a lot, though couldn’t find anything to finish. Tried the Big Poppa choke a few times, but wasn’t quite in position and moved on to something else.
Next round with Buddy #1. On the bottom. Escaping a lot of submission attempts, which he complimented me on afterward, but I pointed out that we were both wearing very slick long-sleeved rash guards and that mostly I was just sliding around. More D’Arce defense work; that actually wasn’t so rash guard dependent, as I was hiding that top elbow decently well and even getting it back when he did get under it. Ineffective at anything of my own, though.
Sat out the next round and watched Buddy #1 and Guillaume. Buddy got his back at one point, couldn’t quite finish the RNC, and transitioned to a head-and-arm choke — very slick.
The guys decided they needed to shark-tank Guillaume one more time, this time from standing. Buddy #2 and Brandon both went with him. Then we had to vacate the mat for the cardio kickboxing class and went & took over the ring. Buddy #1 gave a takedown & defense seminar for Guillaume. I stuck around for a few minutes to listen.
I updated my Blogroll today. Couple of new ones on there. BJJ blogs are popping up everywhere! I like it!
Oo, also update! Rio de Janeiro won the bid to host the Olympics. Whoot.
(And how funny/pathetic were the stunned faces of all the American media. Wha–? Eliminated in the first round? But, but, but the Golden One even asked them to pick Chicago. The arrogance and entitlement irks me [I'd googled "olympics 2016" earlier today to find out who won, somehow thinking the announcement was yesterday, and all I found was about Chicago. Ugh.]. I’m rather glad to see it blow up in their faces like that.)
