Gotta make this quick November 12, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: guard, kimura, nogi, pass, sweep, triangle
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Still got some packing to do. Tried to pack my jiu-jitsu bag last night, and then realized I needed it for tonight. Doh. And I’m trying to resist getting out a suitcase, but I may have to, especially with two gis.
I had to say goodbye to this guy:
No one was there to teach by 7 p.m. Big Tom asked the group of us who was going to teach if no one showed. We pointed out that he’s the ranking belt. He backed away slowly. He did get us started jogging, and then Tim came in.
Easy peasy warmup, and I could hardly do it. Legs were like lead. No get up and go. Pathetic. After squat jumps and alligators and shrimping, we did 30 knees-to-chest jumps and 30 burpees. I was so slow. But Tim wasn’t feeling like going too hard tonight, so he let everyone rest while I finished. (Hey, I always said I’d finish, even if I was slow.) Quads felt like cement blocks. Grr.
Rolling, nice and easy, good jiu-jitsu. First with the guy who doesn’t bathe. I absolutely refuse to go to the bottom. Looked to pass his open guard and to shed his hooks. Did eventually get around into his half guard, though couldn’t hold my breath long enough to dive my head in and do anything decent. Look, there’s funky smells, and then there’s funky smells. And I have a very easily tripped gag reflex. Legs were still weary and heavy.
Guillaume next. More nice ‘n’ easy. Legs finally loosened up some, and hips decided to work. He was dropping himself in to triangles all night. I caught one, I think, since it was so obvious. Otherwise worked around positions, some controlling, some just moving. Actually thought about several things that I wanted to work on, like switching out from under turtle, so practiced those things several times.
Big Tom next, and hips were still awake. Wanted to try several things on him, like the dive-under pass from butterfly from a while back (which, for some reason, I remembered today and have been looking forward to trying all day long. And which I can’t find right now. Meh.). But that doesn’t work so well on Tommy — his base is big and wide, and my arms are little. So went back to shrimping around a lot. He caught and went to finish an armbar, but then let it go right before I was going to tap; I pointed out that he’s supposed to wait for me to tap (I need the practice!); he said he’d seen me about to and so just let go. Silly man. We also traded knee bumps to the face, though we were going slow and controlled so they were just funny, especially when we started counting and trying to keep them even.
Then Tim had us partner up and just work guard break & pass. Any break/pass we wanted, 10x per side. I worked with Guillaume. We only got through the basic knee up pass each. Sometime during drilling, Tim had to leave because he wasn’t feeling well. He told us to finish up drilling and then roll once more: no head hunting, just nice clean jiu-jitsu. And then called out a guy who’d been cranking submissions earlier in the night. The guy just always laughs, as if it’s funny that he doesn’t follow instructions and doesn’t know what he’s doing. *shakes head* Guillaume and I finished up; most of the boys devolved into rolling very quickly.
We eventually joined them. He was falling in to triangles again. I was working for a few other particular things that I wanted to try. (I was reading “How to Roll” on Cane Prevost’s blog earlier today, and so I started classifying guys. Guillaume is a “Been Around” guy — he’s relaxed, and he knows what to do; his timing and leverage are just off a little still. So I can work a lot of things on him, and he’ll react appropriately but just not quite enough yet.) Did get the dive-under pass that I wanted on Tommy. Worked toward a reverse triangle with kimura (similar to what slidey’s class was working the other night); he had that defended, but he dropped in to several other positions from which I remembered something, so worked with what he was giving me. Oh, and I had a wonderful something-I-thought-about-worked moment: I’d gone for the single leg but ended up with my head on the outside of his leg and him bracing off, so no way to get my head back inside. I’d been pondering some of the wrestling that Big John has shown and came up with a “chase the sock” idea for that very position. And it worked!
I pointed out a few things I’d noticed and finally remembered to mention turtling tighter, which I’ve been meaning to tell him for a couple of weeks.
Had to bolt at 8; my mom had to come and give me a ride home since I’m currently carless. But we’re off early tomorrow to get it back. Let the wild & crazy adventures begin.
Emily Kwok seminar, 10-31-09 November 1, 2009
Posted by leslie in Seminars.Tags: armbar, belts, choke, grrls, guard, pass, side control, spider guard, technique
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So, I did in fact get my butt in gear and to Philly for Emily Kwok’s seminar on Halloween. (Well, to Richmond (3hrs) on Friday, and to Philly (5hrs) on Saturday.)
I also got lost 3 times on the way to Philly, so arrived a little late (though they weren’t started yet). And then on the way home, while following Tori out of the city, I had my first ever car accident when some idiot driver stopped on the On ramp, which caused the car behind him to slam on his brakes, which caused Tori to slam on her brakes, which caused me to slam on my brakes, which wasn’t done quite quickly enough — and wasn’t helped by the wet roads — and I rear-ended her. Her little Honda came out better than my SUV and just had a little dent. We pulled over on the teensy-tiny shoulder, noticed that my car was spewing red fluid all over the road, decided that was probably a bad sign, and started the round of calling parents, insurance, tow trucks, and police. The tow truck driver said red fluid was probably transmission fluid. So my car is currently sitting at a dealership somewhere in Philly. Sad.
Tori offered me a ride back to to her home in Maryland, near D.C., and graciously put me up for the night and fed me breakfast. We didn’t get to her place until about 2:30 a.m. Thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time — an hour of extra sleep! We did get to talk a lot on the way back (2.5 hours!). My sister lives in D.C., so she came over in the morning and picked me up; we drove to meet our parents, who brought me back here. (I do have a great family, too.)
Tori and I have decided, however, that next time we’re going to carpool on purpose.
There were about 20 girls there. Anne (“E”) came from Ontario (I think), but actually had a shorter total drive than I did. But Jessica wins — she flew in from Omaha, Nebraska, just for the seminar! (That’s half the country!) There was also a girl there for her very first day of jiu-jitsu ever. Very good beginning.
When I got there, there was a girl who looked familiar; when we all introduced ourselves in the beginning, even her name was familiar. We talked during the break, and she was who I thought — Shannon had trained with me back in the first few months that I did jiu-jitsu. But she’d moved back home to the other side of the state. (Shannon is on the left in the front row.)
Emily wrote up a set of notes for us, which is really helpful now that I’m trying to remember (especially since jiu-jitsu was pretty much knocked out of my head for the last while).
First we worked on securing side control and north/south, just working through different hand/arm positions. Emily also mentioned not to commit too much to a grip if you don’t really have control with it, else when they move they’ll trap your hand or arm without even meaning to. (Happens to me a lot, so…) Side control: knee/elbow, knee/elbow (both elbows down by their ribs toward the ground and pinching in toward your knees); top hand under head, bottom hand under far arm, palm to palm, shoulder pressure; then top hand under head, shoulder pressure, bottom hand on near hip. North/south, all gripping the belt and pinching the elbows back: over/over; under/under; over/under. We drilled these briefly with our partners, moving between the three control positions for each position.
Then a hip movement drill. (I think they did this at the Women’s Grappling Camp in August?) Start in side control. Sit through to front scarf hold. Back to side control. Sit through to backward scarf hold. Leg over to mount. Walk hands around to the side you were just on, and dismount to the other side, through reverse scarf hold to side control. Sit through to front scarf hold. Turn your hips over to come up to north/south. Walk around just a little toward the other side, then sit through to front scarf hold. We drilled that with our partners for a while.
I had never seen dismount actually explained and so found that the best part of that drill. 
To dismount: first walk your hands to the same side. Then stretch the leg on the other side out and drop that hip to the mat. Open your hips to bring your leg over; now you’re in reverse scarf hold. Come up to side control.
Then two submissions. North/south to shoulder lock: First pinch your elbow in on one side, sliding the arm up until your hand meets the fabric along their torso; grab. Now, similar to the end of the previous drill, sit through from north/south to the side you’ve trapped, but this time, to reverse scarf hold (so post out on one leg and swing the other through the hole, with this leg going straight along their body). Your hips should point to the ceiling and you should still have their arm tight. Take your inside leg over and then down between their legs. Arch your hips up (not toward them, which is the tendency) to finish the shoulder lock.
Scarf hold to armbar: From side control, sit through to scarf hold. Slide your hand up to their wrist, then sneak your inside knee over their bicep, then sneak your whole leg over. Keep control of their wrist. Pinch their arm between your legs, being sure that their elbow stays above your legs. Good control position here (and they think “What in the world is she doing? She’s got nothing.” Ha!). Secure that trapped arm however you like your armbars, then push off them and spin your feet over their face to assume the armbar position. Feels a little weird, and so needs some practice, but a nice unexpected armbar setup.
One more control/position drill, this time when wanting to come up to knee-on-belly or when someone tries to push in to you from under side control. Emily talked about finding the “points” on your partner’s body that you can use to control their entire body. So, to get up to knee-on-belly, put one hand on their near shoulder and one on their far hip. Drop your weight through your hands as you pop up. Then, when you have side control and they’re trying to turn in, instead of trying to wrestle them in place, place one hand on their far shoulder and one on their far hip. As before, drop your weight through your hands.
Then king-of-the-hill sparring. Six or seven ladies (the highest belts — one brown, a few purples, and then blues) started out there and could sweep or submit. Those of us going out started in side control and had to mount or submit.
We took a short break and then came back for the second half of the seminar.
Emily started by talking about how to train: training with the right partners and having a plan/focus when you train to get better faster/more steadily. One suggestion that came up (from Jessica) was to train without arms, since our upper bodies aren’t comparable to the guys’ (and Jessica was actually bigger and stronger than most of the rest of us, and she said the guys still overpower her all the time). Emily also said that you’re only as good as your biggest weakness, so work on your weaknesses.
Then she talked a bit about visualization: how, if you want to float on someone, imagine that you’re a feather or a cloud, or if you want to be heavy, imagine that you’re a tree or a rock. Or if you’re trying to keep someone in close, imagine that you’re a vacuum cleaner.
Then back to drilling. Open and spider guard. Started with an individual drill, in Sit-up Guard (never knew it had a name), and then just moving around as she called out commands: “Forward,” “Backward,” “Left,” “Turn right,” etc. Then with a partner — one partner working the Sit-up Guard (with either a quick cross lapel choke or a sliding/clock choke, though from the front), and the other attempting to pass.
Next drill was using your feet to re-guard. Partner started standing in side control; reach your outside foot to their farther hip (toward your head); use that to turn back to square. That on both sides. Then partner stood in north/south; cross your legs and swing them over your head; get your feet on the outsides of their legs; then push off their legs to uncross yours and swing back to square.
Next drill was switching between positionings for the hook sweep and sickle sweep. (I actually didn’t know either of these coming in.) Start on your back, with your partner standing in front of you. One foot on their hip, the other behind their knee. Keep the foot on the hip; turn to the other side, dropping the foot from behind their knee to behind their opposite heel and grabbing the outside of the other ankle with your hand. Back to foot on hip, foot behind knee. Switch feet. Do the same thing on the other side.
Then we actually did the sweeps. Hook Sweep: One foot on their hip, the other behind their knee. Get sleeve control on the same side on which your foot is behind the knee. With the other hand, grab behind the ankle on the other side. Push on their hip, pull on their knee. Follow their momentum over to top half guard.
Sickle Sweep: One foot on their hip, the other behind their knee. Get sleeve control on the same side as the foot on the hip. Keep the foot on the hip; turn to the other side, dropping the foot from behind their knee to behind their opposite heel and grabbing the outside of the other ankle with your hand. Push on their hip while sweeping through with the bottom leg. Follow their momentum over to top half guard or side control.
Next we played with Spider Guard. Emily talked about never letting your four points of control — both hands and both feet — be in the same plane at the same time, else it’s too easy to break through. It’s like playing with a marionette — keep him moving.
First we just played Spider Guard with our partners. Then we worked an outside-in sweep: push one arm/hip point away. Pull the other leg out and wrap it over their arm and under to hook their triceps with your foot. Pull that leg in to collapse them. Move the other leg down, putting your ankle in front of their ankle, at the same time that you drop the other hand either under their leg or to the outside of their leg to grab the fabric. Drive your legs to the far side to sweep them, coming up to knee-on-belly.
We finished with a quick re-guard from a single spider guard hook (one sleeve/same leg) (for when the sneaky fast guys think they’ve passed), and then a simple palm-smacking duh! actual pass for when someone has a single spider guard control (one sleeve/same leg)… which I’m not going to mention yet because I think this one, more than anything else at the seminar, is what most girls are taking home to spring on their training partners. I’ll tell you after I get it multiple times in class this week.
Then we did a few more rounds of king-of-the-hill sparring followed by 3 three-minute rounds of full sparring. I got to spar with Liz (orange gi), Anne, and Shannon.
Dinner afterward, at an Italian restaurant a few blocks away, then followed Tori until I rear-ended her car. But she took me home with her and fed me. Definitely worth going.
Also, check out BJJEdge. They were recording parts of the seminar and said they would post some later.
Oh, right. I had to wash my belt. It reeked after being trapped in my bag for so long. Sadness.
Ankle biter October 13, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: choke, gi, guard
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Forgot to mention last night, but I’m sore still from Baby Cindy. Yesterday was the top of my quads and my hips and under my armpits (!); today is my hamstrings and triceps. Could hardly sit still at work either day.
Slightly larger class tonight, as Tuesday gi seems to be. Tim started his pre-fight training training this week and so was hyped and we had a new guy who seemed a little full of himself, so the warmup was more nuts than usual. However, I did overhear the guys talking in the locker room after class, and most of them are gassing on the warmups and are exhausted for the rest of class. So it isn’t just me.
Duck walks, all the way around the mat, made an appearance. Ugh. Also one-legged bear crawls down the mat; I made one trip on each, which is actually an improvement — usually I can only do one trip with one leg. Also pushups, triangle situps, triangle situp with guard pass, and knees-to-chest. Good news is I finally started sweating, which oddly enough helps.
Then to rolling. Tim put me with Yoshi. (After class, he was telling Tim about all the ways Rachel kicked his butt. The guys were very impressed by her.) Yoshi must not’ve been one of the ones saying he was gassed and tired after the warmups. Oi. Stuck a lot. He locked up for a triangle at one point but never turned for the angle and so couldn’t finish it. I waited until the round was over to point that out. Defending lots. I’ve noticed that I’m starting to work some with my eyes closed, entirely on my own. Weird.
Then with Buddy #1. He has this new toy that I call the Triple Threat — he’s got either a head scissor or an inverted triangle, and he’s trying to either armbar your near arm, kimura your far arm, or triangle you, and he’s generally doing all three at once! Mostly stuck out against his open guard. The best I could do was get in and control his ankles.
Then Tim put me with a guy who doesn’t bathe often enough, or at least not with soap. Could smell him. Was determined to NOT, under any circumstances, get underneath him; it was top or not at all. He, on the other hand, was determined not to let me pass his open guard. We actually fought the entire round from our knees, with brief stints in butterfly guard for both of us. He tried double-gripping one of my sleeves and just dragging me in mostly, though he also had a near-spider guard once which I backed away from. Mostly I could just control his ankles; he’d strip my grips and try to drag me in if I got any higher.
Then my toes cramped up. Joy.
Drilling. A gi choke variation off last night’s. So I still can’t tell you. What was funny, though, was that Tim wasn’t around for Saturday or last night and didn’t know the choke we worked; he came in tonight telling Justin that he had this choke he wanted to work, and it was the same variation that Justin had planned for tonight anyway. Great minds…
Got to drill with Will and then to roll with him after. Again able to control his ankles against his open guard, though he let me get in a little deeper so I briefly had the illusion of control over one leg. But nothing beyond that.
Then the little kid. He’s back from the swine flu; apparently he and his brother both had a mild case. But he seems to have forgotten everything he learned before. He pulled guard right off, so I stayed in position so he could try a bump sweep or a guillotine or could break me down and try an armbar or triangle; instead, he tried to scoot around me, so I just followed and reset. He tried his front headlock/guillotine-no-legs several times, elbow in throat, a RNC from side control (?), an armbar on my bicep (instead of attempting to straighten the arm), double lapel choke with his elbows going the wrong ways (so no pressure), a triangle with no angle. I tried to help him out and point out what he needed to do, and kept reminding him to slow down and do the techniques fully; most of the time he was grabbing and immediately letting go. He wore himself out while I hardly did anything.
I think he might be just like the guys twice his size, all spazzy and smashy and floppy, but he’s so much smaller than me that it doesn’t hurt (except elbow in throat) and I can just shrug it off. But when the big boys do it, they hurt me.
Scotty next. Again, kept away by open guard. Almost got a pass once, though he braced on me and I couldn’t finish coming around; later, he pointed out that I had the better position and could have simply pulled out and then re-engaged, which is of course not the direction I was thinking of moving. Always something else open (and usually right under your nose). Working on stripping his grips; he makes me work for them, but doesn’t clamp down a deathgrip like most guys seem to so I can actually tell if I did it right. He caught a belly-down armbar that I really should have tapped to, but I was being stubborn and trying to make my crappy defense work; he moved on instead of breaking my arm. Should’ve apologized for that, but it was early and I forgot.
When Perry got back from his vacation, he called the girl who got knocked out last week. She’s okay, though she did have to go to the hospital and she does have a concussion. She said she’ll come back. We’ll see…
The kid who did it was in tonight, too. He tried to claim he hadn’t hit her hard, that she just fell down and hit her head. Whatever. The guys were riding him hard about it, especially the ones who saw it. Perry had a long talk with him, too.
Too early, too late September 29, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: choke, flow, gi, guard, kimura, pass, sweep
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August Moon Festival last night and sushi for lunch. Oh, yum!
Tried to go visit my brother at work before class, which I usually do, but traffic out that way wasn’t moving at all, so I turned around and headed over to the academy. (The two are only about a half mile or so apart.) Sat in my car for about half an hour studying Jiu-jitsu University before going in. Still really early, though. Tim and Buddy finally got there and started rolling. I think Buddy is not too much longer for the blue belt.
Small class. Rolling to warm up. With Guillaume to start. He’s wise to my elevator sweep opening now and wise to the guard pass he was leaving himself open to, so we circled around on our knees and butts for a while. I finally got a hook or two in and moved between butterfly and half guard. I was working on getting deep while he wanted to flatten me out. I finally did sweep him and landed in top half guard and started working to pass. He started trying to kimura my arm nearest his head; I’ve had guys trying this a lot on me lately, though usually I just drive in more until they can’t hold that grip. But I’d read somewhere (which I can’t find again) about locking up my own kimura grip there (because, as Justin says, when he has a kimura grip, I have a kimura grip) and rotating to look toward his hips to finish my own kimura. I’ve been trying to catch that from top half for a while, but most guys just pull their arms out when they realize I’m attacking. Somehow, though, I kept control of this one and even finished it. (The technique! It worked! Or, pulling from Stephan Kesting’s latest “Grappling Tips” newsletter, the concept — you kimura, me kimura — it worked!) I was excited about that one.
Somehow I ended up in side control. Usually we do side control with our knees in; this time, though, I was going between knees in and sprawled and even scarf-ish hold (no arm control, though), just trying to keep pressure on him. Seemed to work well; I was there for a while. Tried looking for the far-side kimura or spinning armbar, but he was keeping his elbow in; tried posting up to knee-on-belly, but he had that defended. Finally started pulling at his lapels while still poking around for the armbars and knee-on-belly; even remembered that I also have lapels and pulled them out to distract him. Got his lapel under his chin and across, like in this choke, and finally got my shin up behind his head, but my grip fatigued quickly and I couldn’t hold on long enough to finish it. He finally rolled in to me and I half-took his back, but then time ran out on us. He said afterward that the choke had been tight and he’d been about to tap when I’d had to let go.
Next with Will. Very much trying to remember what we worked on Friday. Of course, he remembered, too, and was blocking me a lot. Got his leg a few times for that single-leg pass, but still couldn’t quite get around — and totally forgot about going inside. Went for the scissor sweep, trapping one arm first, but he pulled his arm out and still trapped my legs. He was trying hard (and succeeding) to keep me from turning to my side under side control. Did grab two single-leg sweeps, though not much past there. On the outside of his open guard a lot, so my goal was to pin one of those legs to the mat and then work my way in. Also worked on keeping pressure with my hips. At some point, he turtled but I got my knee in and over/under grip. Went for the Peruvian necktie. Fell more backwards than sideways and didn’t feel as if my arms were really in there right. Tried to see if I could figure out what was wrong but couldn’t, so eventually let it go and went back to guard. Will stopped and asked why I’d let it go; I said I didn’t have it (and I don’t want to be the idiot who just holds and squeezes); but he said he’d been about to tap when I let it go. Ack. Second one too early today.
Last roll, with the little kid. I think it was something I’d read in Jiu-Jitsu University that started it, but I wasn’t just trying to stay underneath on him. (But I still feel as if I’m easily tossing him around!) He’s a wrestler, so most rounds start with him trying to force your head to the mat. And he is trying to muscle you around as hard as he can… and it just doesn’t work. Very little effort to resist that, and I feel kind of bad for not letting him “win”, but then, on the other hand, when he finally does get his growth spurt and is 200 lbs, I don’t want him to have the bad habit of tossing me around the mat… So I don’t let him win when tries to muscle me. He also tries guillotines for no reason at all and from lots of positions. Anyway, he tried to wrestle me down from starting; I finally got a hook in and went to half guard. I think he tried a guillotine, so I swept him and landed in mount. He started flailing around; bridging strongly, but not following it up, and also trying to armbar me. (Interesting.) Finally I clamped down a little tighter to hold him still and asked him if he’d been in class last night. (Justin had mentioned he’d taught knee-elbow escape from mount last night). Kid said yes, so I told him to do the knee-elbow escape. Oh, look, it works, imagine that. Another little wrestle-down to half-guard. This time he passed decently to mount and then tried ramming his elbow into my throat again. Ahem. Bumped the arm across and bridged over into his guard. Played at breaking the guard to let him try a bump sweep, though he went for a guillotine again and immediately shot his hips away. Then time was up.
Afterwards, I pointed out that he should use the techniques that he knows when he’s rolling. When you know a mount escape and are under mount, use the escape you know. Also pointed out that he throws that arm around for the guillotine a lot, but the rest of his body isn’t in position, which is why he isn’t finishing it. No time to show him the right position, though.
Drilling was a little different: we worked on floating around when our opponent tried to roll away from being turtled. Idea was to get around to side control while surfing on your partner as they rolled. Worked from slightly different positions and grips. Partner was trying to grab the far-side arm and roll under and come up to side control themselves, while you had to be aware of that far-side arm and keep it safe and then start moving as soon as they did. Worked with Will. Could do it decently some times; most times, though, Tim said I was late. Letting submissions go too early; moving too late. Ack. Some of those were obvious, when Will’s roll would sweep me over. Wipeout. Also, my body seemed to work best when turning clockwise (I think) — right side worked best turning around his head, left side worked best turning around his legs. Silliness. (Still, I was doing some of this earlier with Guillaume, so I’ll keep trying it.)
Then Tim sent us all over to grab an exercise ball and we did a few drills with them.
First drill was a guard pass drill. Start with the ball in front of you. Use your hands to slide it slightly to one side while stepping up and in front of the ball with your feet, front knee driving forward as if going for knee-on-belly. I finally got the brilliant idea to use a line on the mat as my imaginary partner; I’d start with my feet on the line behind the ball, move the ball just slightly to the side, and step up in front of the ball and along the line. The hips got a good workout with this one.
Second drill was to kneel on the ball, no hands. I don’t know that I ever got both hands up at the same time. And that’s a lot harder than it seems! I was dripping sweat by the end of that.
Last drill was to sit on the ball, feet straight out in front. Yeah, also hard. I fell off a lot more on this one, though, and we didn’t do it as long, either.
Lingered after to watch Justin and Buddy drill straight ankle locks (ooh, I can start learning and using those now, too!). Then was Buddy’s grappling dummy for something he was working on. Should’ve done some after-practice conditioning, but I just sat around instead.
Of sushi and raspberry sorbet August 31, 2009
Posted by leslie in Training Log.Tags: gi, grrls, guard, omoplata, triangle
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The project managers took me out to lunch today: sushi (always yum) followed by a nip in to Maggie Moo’s for dessert. I actually remembered that I’m lactose intolerant — probably because of the recent antibiotic ickiness, which I have no desire to repeat — and got some raspberry sorbet, which was also yum.
They also told me over lunch that I’ve impressed them and the CEO at our company, and have also impressed the main company we’re working for now and the other vendor we’re working with. Yayness. This week, I’ll have been here for 6 months. (Lunch was for the recent round of impressing, not the anniversary.)
I got to play tour guide for a while before class. As I was coming to the front of the academy to warm up, a couple came in, and the girl said they were wondering who to talk to about learning cage fighting. Made it sound as if they both wanted to do it. I led them to the back to talk to Justin. They stayed to watch class, too. As soon as I got back to the front, there was another fellow standing there, and he asked if he could get a schedule and price list, so I took him back to talk to Gary. So we may have 2 girls starting BJJ soon, and now it sounds as if I’d better prepare to start sparring again. (I bet Perry was already planning to talk me in to it for the first girl, though, since she wants to do “everything” right now.)
Medium-sized class. Rolling to warm up. With Will and his spider guard to start. Mostly me dancing like a puppet at the end of his legs. Silly short arms of mine. He pulled me in to several triangles, though he wouldn’t finish any of them or the armbars he’d catch off them. Might have had a pass or a sweep, though I don’t really remember one so maybe not; mostly me underneath. Moving, but underneath.
Then another guy. Doing okay, though nothing exceptional. Got a triangle setup when he reached back with one hand to break my guard, and then he Hulked out on me. He tried to rip his posture up, only I remembered to switch to an armbar, but then he just started turning away and pulling his arm. I managed to come up for the omoplata (hey, the trinity!), and really worked to get in position, but he reared up and dumped me backwards. Somehow got back to guard; tried bump sweeps, but he could easily base out. Nearly got to his back once, but there was a moment of bronco bucking that got me tossed off to the side. Yee. Haw.
Drilling next. Move of the week: the triangle. First one, starting with what Will does to me all the time: setup from spider guard. One foot pushes straight up to the ceiling; the other comes off the other arm and in to their hip. Pull their free arm across your body while pushing your hips straight up using the foot on their hip. Leg that’s straight up kicks free of their arm and comes down behind their neck; switch your grip on the arm you’ve pulled across; grab your shin with your now-free hand; rotate to finish. Makes the triangle much tighter.
Later we worked a variation for if you can’t quite get free of their top arm. Start the same, up to elevating your hips. Instead of kicking the top leg free, curl your toes around their arm and press down on their arm to drive it toward their hip. Your knee ends up right by their head, and now their arm is conveniently out of the way. Finish the same. We also worked a variation for if they get their knee up and try to pass through, best explained here by Rafael Lovato Jr. I still need a lot of practice on this one, mostly because I was losing contact too easily. Go-go-gadget legs!
Drilled for quite a while, then more rolling. Started with the little 14 year old. Still having a hard time trying to roll gently with him; I’m almost afraid he’ll break. I know I’ve thought that before about the guys, but I’m over that now — they’re all bigger than me by about the same percentage that I am over this kid. (He’s 2/3 of my body weight. I’m about 2/3 of most of the guys.) Even when he’s sitting entirely on me, I hardly feel him. Now I understand what they were saying months ago, when they said it was okay for me to put more weight on them: that’s all of it, and it feels like nothing! Anyway, tried to stay on the bottom and mostly defend. He kept trying to drive his elbow through my ear, so I didn’t give up anything on that because it was annoying. He did set up an armbar from mount decently, though, so I let him finish that. I did try a little spider guard, but again was having trouble finding the appropriate pace and intensity. Let him to mount a lot; might should try to make him work something else.
Then a round with Guillaume, so I could play more of what I wanted to. Mostly trying to fight to stay on top. Had a D’Arce from half-guard set up early, but couldn’t pull him in enough to finish it; he finally pushed me away enough that he could get back through to guard. Had the Big Poppa choke set up later, too, but my under hand somehow got lost in someone’s gi, and I couldn’t find it with the other hand to lock in and finish. Tried finishing it one handed, but couldn’t. Eventually got pressed off there, too. Got to mount later, and tried to work the choke from two weeks ago, but I couldn’t quite remember the details — went the wrong way to set up the armbar, though it did set up one on that other side. Took some maneuvering, since he was defending well, but did finally manage to secure that armbar and sit back. Nearly had the first spider guard triangle from today, but the round ran out on me.
Last roll with Big Tommy. Right, remember, spider guard not so good on him. I did try it once, and he made a comment about not knowing how to defend when someone got there; I told him to just stand up, and he said that felt like cheating. I said it wasn’t, as it would just cause me to work something else. So he did stand up, and I tried to get in for the sweep from Saturday, but he passed around before I could get there. He had an armbar from mount soon after that I couldn’t escape. I did get a sweep on him, though I’m not sure what it was (and it was probably mostly him losing his balance and falling backwards and me chasing), but then the round was over.
Guillaume wanted to roll a little more, so we did. I got to scarf hold, and he’s tall enough to just swing his legs around over mine. I had just enough leverage to keep my upper body in place while I tried to figure out how to free my legs; he, meanwhile, was trying to get to my back. We stayed there for what seemed like five minutes. I finally turned the opposite direction, away from him, temporarily giving up my back but managing to get around without getting caught; passed to side control, then was swept, and then recovered guard. And then we were both too tired to do anything else.
