Daily Submission

So I am heading to my first BJJ tournament tomorrow. I will be competing in the -194 White belt division and the under 200 intermediate no-gi division. I weigh about 190 so I will be fighting a little overweight. One thing that bugs me is the lack of parity between the two divisions. If I cut down to the next closed no-gi division (-184) I would still be 3 pounds over the next lowest GI division. Combine that with the fact that weigh-ins will happen immediately prior to stepping on the mat, I decided against trying to cut weight. Testing myself against bigger guys will be better for my jiu-jitsu anyway.

As I have written before, this concept of submissions being the only thing that counts will be difficult for me but I have made my decision not to alter my style at all and let the chips fall where they may. I am comfortable with that decision.

To help make sure I am focused for the event I caught the lunch and evening BJJ classes on Wednesday. We focused on a number of variations of the baseball choke. Adam taught three variations with the gi and I think I found a way to make it work no-gi as well. During the evening class, I finally tapped someone with an omaplata. I typically use it as a sweep but mainly because it is hard to finish. My omaplata is really coming along. I even "swept" Adam with it. Yes, I know he was going easy on me and yes I ended up in a worse spot then before after I swept him but I will take anything I can get against Adam. Any time I manage to take advantage of the openings he leaves for me, I take it as improvement.

So hopefully everything goes well at this tournament. As long as I don't get hurt and I perform up to my personal best, I will be happy. I am bringing the video camera so I hope to post some video of the event.

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: