Daily Submission

This week I learned two pretty cool combos while boxing. The first is a Floyd Mayweather favorite that I had to modify for south paw. The combo starts jab, cross, take a big step to the right to get the angle, left hook to the body, right cross, jab out. Because I am a lefty if I simply swapped left for right, I would be stepping right in to his power. For me the combo goes like this: cross, right hook as I step to the right (it is almost like a right cross), left hook to the body, right hook, left cross, spin out. The other went like this. Jab, parry the return jab and immediately throw the right cross, left hook to the body, right cross, jab out. I ended up with two combinations when switching it to south paw. The first was slip a cross, left cross, right hook to the kidney, right hook to the head (the angle was wrong for another cross), cross, jab out. The other was to jab, parry his return jab down and throw and overhand left, and then finish as per the other combo. Both looked very promising and I will try to work them into my sparring sessions.

For jits, we learned to half guard passes which I have post videos of. They are not exactly the same but pretty similar. The tripod video stands out the most. Against a decent half guard player it won't be as easy as in the video. If you take his hips away from you, he loses the power so you can get the knee out then finish the pass.

Rolling went well. I rolled against a karate black belt who was adding some BJJ to his game while is in town for school. He was really fit and had good balance. He was very tough to finish but I got a really solid 20 minute roll in and got to work on a lot of my sweeps.

Daily Submission

A little late on this one but better late then never. Rolled no-gi last thursday. Prior to class I spent about 20 minutes working on my shot. I don't get to drill it enough. The speed is coming back now I need to start training it with a partner. Technique wise we worked off the arm drag in butterfly guard. The first technique was the armdrag to the back. It can be seen here:



Incidently, the guy being demoed on is Stephan Kesting who, like my coach Adam, is a Marcus Soares Black Belt. His stuff is great, check out grapplearts.tv for more.

Then we worked a simple counter. When he arm drags, we post that arm and hope over to the other side, landing in side control.

Next was a re-drag counter, which ended up with the guy on top taking his partners back. Tough to explain. Basically, as he tries to take your back, you re-drag his arm and slip behind him. I can't explain it more because I still suck at it.

So on to rolling. Rolled with this dude Dan, who I don't really know. I think he started at the gym during my absence and he comes on different days then me. So basically, I had no idea what to expect. He was pretty good. I had my wrestling shoes on since I was practicing my shot earlier and I somewhat made a transition back to wrestler. Not a bad thing really as I almost never rely on my wrestling. He was good. His half guard was sick. I have posted on my half guard phase and how I focused on it exclusively for like a month. I have a pretty decent handle on it. He was on another level. Sweep me twice with it, even though I saw it coming. Hit a nice flower sweep on me, which is difficult because I have a pretty good base. Tapped me a few times, once with a darce.

I felt I did OK. I got his back once, passed his guard once. I really had to focus on my defensive game. Spent a lot of time on the bottom in a front head and arm. I hit my spin out (armspin) once but he stuff all the rest of my tricks. My peek outs were good but not good enough. I managed to shut down his darce attempts for a long time before he finally hit it.

But the bottom line was I got my butt kicked. I felt a little better after talking to Adam. I had asked if Gavin one of our senior Blues was up for his purple any time soon. He said after Dan. As far as he was concerned he was a purple already, he was just waiting on Marcus. So I got beat by a (almost) purple belt. No shame in that.

First Grappling tournament video

I posted about my experience at the Submission Series in Vancouver last July. You can find it here. I now have a video of my first match which I have posted below. This was in the 200 lbs and under intermediate no gi division. I was about 187 and this was my first sub grappling event. I am the guy in the white t-shirt.

Useful BJJ video

Here is a very useful video concerning your gi. It is pretty funny too.

Awesome BJJ demo

Rickson and Royler at Pride FC 5

Best grappling in a HW MMA match, ever

This is Big Nog and Josh Barnett at the Pride Absolute Grand Prix. This probably the best grappling ever displayed in a HW MMA match. Barnett and Nog are two of the best and their grappling styles (BJJ for NOG and CSW for Barnett) are just different enough to make it exciting.

Daily Submission

I played with octopus guard for the first time yesterday. I liked it. We just touched on it but I saw some real potential to compliment my present game. We used it to take the back and as a set up to a hip bump. It is still new to me but I will definitely have to explore it more. Here is a video of Eduardo Telles (who coined the term Octopus Guard) explaining the concept.

Daily Submission

I love omaplatas. I use it mainly as a sweep but I have been starting to hit it a lot in training. One thing that really helped me was a video I saw on Aesopian's site that showed Leo Kirby talking about how he gets into the omaplata. Prior to watching this, I tried to get into omaplatas the flexible way. I would try to lever my foot over his shoulder and in front of his head. Leo shows a way that makes it a lot easier for guys that aren't as flexible. The key point is gripping his elbow and rolling it up so it kind of points towards your face. This makes the transition to the omaplata so much easier. Leo shows it from butterfly or sitting guard but I have used the same principle from closed or a number of basic open guards. Here is the video:

Daily Submission

Learned a really cool half guard sweep from the long distance Half guard (LDHG). Below is a video of Jorge Vidal doing a very similar sweep. The main differences were that this was an attack rather than a response to a situation as it appears in the video and that Adam keeps the knee in the guys stomach during the roll. I stole this from Aesopian's totally awesome journal which in my link section. He also has a nice series on LDHG.

From Crackle: Jorge's half guard #2

Daily Technique

Two videos on the teepee, as promised. The first is a video of a MMA fight with a fighter using rubber guard to attempt a triangle transition to the teepee and back to a triangle. He explains what he is doing in a voice over. The second is the only clip I could find that attempts to teach the teepee. The instructor is actually an acquaintance of my Ari Bolden. He is a Black Belt in Japanese Jujutsu who has been training with Eddie Bravo.

Daily Technique

"No Gi BJJ 101" from BJ Penn. You could get pretty far if you master nothing but what he shows in the 10 minute video. Real solid info by one of the best grapplers in MMA.

Daily Submission

Spent last night working on guard passing again. Nothing revolutionary. In fact they were both fairly basic guard passes except we worked them from inside feet on hips/spider guard.

When it came to rolling I had a good night. My conditioning is really starting to get where I need it to be. A few more weeks and maybe my arms won't shake by the end of practice. My half guard is really starting to come along. Yesterday, I managed to secure lockdown fairly easily as well as get my underhooks and whip up. I also managed to flow into the roll over sweep from a Old School attempt. This flow is what is missing right now. All the moves are in my head but they are not coming out on there own like they should. It looks like it is starting to change.

Here is the sweep I landed last night.

PS. That is not me, just a video I found on youtube.com

Daily Technique

I have said before that I love the Arm Triangle. It has been my go to submission for more than a decade. I use it from a lot of positions but side control is a great place to get it. Here is a video that shows pretty much the method I use to secure the arm triangle from side control.

Daily Technique

Continuing with the half guard theme. Here is a really great Half guard video by Indrek Reiland and Jorgen Matsi at Straight Blast gym Estonia. It is an hour and a half long, so be prepared to sit for awhile.

Daily Technique

Mario Sperry on Passing the Open Guard