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.

Daily Submission

So I had a hellasious work out last night. There was not a lot of new tecniques becing taught because we have a bunch of guys fighting on Saturday (check out http://armageddonfc.com/ for more info). However we did a lot of pad work and really pushed the pace. By the end of the Muay thai portion I was sucking wind pretty hard and sweating enough to save a small african village from a drought.

The BJJ portion focuse on a couple of butterfly guard passes. One of them was the pass described here: http://tonyssubmissions.blogspot.com/2008/04/daily-submission_14.html . The other one was dceptively simple. Reach over his back with one hand and grab the gi. With the other hand (right in this case) reach under his legs and grip the far side gi by the ankle. Post your right leg up and pull his legs to your right as you pull him in with the left. You end up o Knee on belly. Pretty simple and effective.

It was a rough roll last night because I was so tired. I rolled with a guy who was probably about 20 pounds lighter than me and I admit that I bullied him around with my size a bit. I tried to stay technical but when i get tired I wrestle rather than focus on BJJ. Another thing I noticed is that when I am tired, I can be tapped just by smothering my mouth and nose. At one point I was working a double underhook pass and he triangled my head. Normally, I just slowly work to shuck his legs off and get the pass but I guess I was really hurt for air so I ended up tapping for lack of oxygen. Other than that it was a good roll, I had some good submission chances and a couple of nice sweeps and passes. As I get in better grappling shape again, I am sure I will get up to snuff.

Daily Submission

Friday was my first day back after a week and a bit lay off from a sore knee. It was also the first time I rolled no gi since I got back. I rolled with two guys, Chris one of the blue belts, and Andrew who I have known for a long time and actually used to help teach grappling to sometimes. If I haven't mentioned before, blue belts are the highest belts we have next to Adam, who is a black. But they are also Marcus Soares blue belts. Marcus does like giving out belts, he only has like 7 black belts and he is Carlson Gracie's highest ranking student. They are pretty good. I was hoping to do better than the last time I rolled with one of the blue belts because this was no-gi and I am normally harder to finish without a gi.

I did do better but not much. For one, he triangle me and got me in a rear naked choke. Those don't happen often. Because of my wide shoulder, general lack of a neck and strong posture, even if some one locks a triangle on, I can defend it just by posturing up until he loosens up trying to re-adjust. This time he locked it on fast and tight and broke my posture. It was a losing battle. He showed really good arm drags. Adam's advanced students have really good wrestling for BJJ guys.

I had a really good roll with andrew. I outweigh him by a fair amount but he is in awesome shape and used to fighting bigger guys. One of the things, I forgot about no-gi, is just how hard it can be to finish someone. I played a good positional game, had a couple sweeps, took mount a few times but I couldn't finish. We rolled back and forth for like 20 minutes which was a huge step for me because I am finally in grappling shape. I still have to get better but at least I can go for a while.

I also got some help from one of the blue belts with my triangle choke. I don't have the kind of build that allows for easy triangle chokes. I have short, thick legs so I have a hard time. I am determined to get them down, even if it will never be one of my go to moves. One little tip that made all the difference, it seems was putting the opposite foot on the hip. It allowed me to push off to get my hips up and spin to the side to help get my leg across his neck. The other thing was grabbing the shin before you lock the other leg on. Apparently, I have been doing it the old school way ( it did learn more than 10 years ago) which is much harder. I will have to give it some more reps over the next little while.

I have a new goal for the next 4 weeks. Last month was half guard. I have worked almost exclusively on my half guard game and I have seen exponential returns because of it. So I am going to apply that same focus to another part of my game that needs work, my butterfly game. I am going to try to pull butterfly guard almost exclusively and try to become as comfortable as I can in that area. I started friday and I managed 3 sweeps from butterfly guard. Hopefully I can pick it up better over the coming weeks.

Daily Submission

Last night's class was basically a carbon copy of the one I posted here. Butterfly guard has been the theme since I got there. It seems to be having an effect on me as I noticed myself using a few times while rolling last night. I still don't prefer it but I am becoming more comfortable with it. Adam seems to like taking the back from guard. This is a really hard game for me to play with my short legs. I am trying to adapt what he is showing us to my body type and I will post any solutions I come up with.

Last night was not my best night rolling. I was really tired, probably the front squats and back work I did earlier. I also wasn't very sharp in my techniques. My partner escaped a sleeve choke, 2 kneebars and a triangle. My partner managed to lock in 2 triangles and almost lock in rear naked choke. He didn't finish me but that was more because my build makes me hard to triangle and I managed to keep good wrist control even though he had my back with hooks in. I managed to tap him twice once with a sleeve choke and an arm bar if I remember correctly.

The high points would probably have to be my sweeps. They are really coming back and some of them are better then they were the last time I practiced regularly. The half guard sweeps are coming along particularly well. The focus I have putting there is paying off. The goals is to work that position to the point that it becomes a true offensive position.

I also tried out a new technique last night which may be the answer to my triangle troubles. I have a very hard time triangling people due to my thick, short legs. Eddie bravo shows a move called the Teepee in Mastering the Rubber Guard which works great when you can't quit get the foot under the knee. I will post a video of it later.

Daily Submission

Second day at ZUMA and more butterfly work. As I said in my previous post, my butterfly guard isn't that great so more work is a good thing. Adam seems to like transitioning to the back from the guard. This isn't a game that I think will suit me. I am 5'8" with about a 29" inseam. To say I have short legs is a bit of an understatement. But if I only worked on things that suited me, I would be doing myself a disservice. If nothing else I can prepare for those lanky bastards.

On aspect that I did like was a move that starts off the cross lapel grab with the feet on the hip and knee. Basically, from a stalemated position, you post the opposite arm, push off with that leg and bring the leg back until you transition to a knee. You then pull the lapel toward you until you get the opponents head under you arm. At this point you have a front headlock with a grip on his opposite side collar. The finish is essentially a reverse kata ha jime for those of you that know judo. Adam finished with a roll similar to an anaconda choke but a strong wrestler could also just power the opponent to his back.

When it came time to roll, I decided to work my half guard game. Previously, my half guard was a defensive gesture at best. In Judo, I would just stall and wait for the restart. In MMA, enough things are happening that I could normally get room and scramble to a single or back to guard. Lately, I have been looking at Eddie Bravo's half guard material as well as Saulo Riberio's. Both have very offensive Half guards. Eddie's especially calls to me because it is so wrestler friendly. To his end, I gave my rolling partner my half guard, secured lockdown and started to work. First, I managed Old School. Next, I managed an Electric chair sweep. The third time, I attempted to sweep him in a manner more like what Saulo shows on his Freestyle Revolution series. It was a little harder and although I managed to sweep him, it was a power move and all I did was throw him off me and we ended up in a neutral position with both of us on our knees. I plan to dedicate some serious time to my half guard game.

I also had the chance to roll with one of Adam's Blue belts. He was pretty solid. He passed my guard like a bad case of herpes. Now, my guard isn't amazing or anything but I have a fairly solid defensive guard. He just slowly took it apart using patience, control and solid positioning. I managed to scramble a bit and regain guard a few times but not for long. He tapped me about 4 times in the 10 minutes we rolled. I have heard that Marcus Soares' Blue Belts are very solid and I can say I agree.

On a positive note, I made it all the way through practice today although those last ten minutes were brutal. There were a few times when I was rolling with the blue that I felt that a good explosive bridge or turn would have saved me but I had nothing. Well it is a good time to concentrate of technique then.

More later.