Gordo Half Guard sweep #3

Third sweep in a series of Half guard sweeps by one of the pioneer's of the offensive half guard Roberto “Gordo” Correa.

Gordo Half Guard sweep #2

The second in a series of Half guard sweeps by one of the pioneer's of the offensive half guard Roberto “Gordo” Correa.

Gordo Half guard sweep

The first in a series of Half guard sweeps by one of the pioneer's of the offensive half guard Roberto “Gordo” Correa.

What he is still updating this?

I don't update this very often anymore there are two main reasons. The first is that becuase of a military course and an injury sustained on that course I have trained in a couple of months. The second is that prior to going on course I was more in a refining stage rather than a learning stage. I primarily post new things up here as a journal and maybe for people who stumble on my blog to learn a couple of things. Well today I learned something new. Even though I am still out of training for (hopefully only) a few more days, I converse with a few very intelligent people by the names of Cecil Burch and Jerry Wetzel on a regular basis. Cecil and Jerry are trainers for Crazy Monkey Defense (CMD or CM) a striking style devised by Rodney King or south africa. On the surface it looks very much like a mix of boxing and MT and the question was put forward recently, what is the difference between CM and western Boxing. Rather than try an explain it myself, I am going to post a few of the better quotes to help people understand the difference.

Cecil Burch:
Most systems pay lip service to defense and emphasize the offensive part. So when a newbie gets to spar for the first time, it is going to be hard enough to maintain his protective wall. Add the fact that he is most likely going to be thrown into the deep end under extreme pressure, the situation is worsened. In CM you are exposed to pressure right away, but it is just enough to push you without overwhelming the person and collapsing the structure you are attempting to internalize.

The analogy I use to give people an idea of what pressure to use on their partner is that we are pushing the envelope as much as possible without tearing the paper. So as the person gets grooved in, the pressure can progressively (and continuously) increase.

Jerry Weztel:

The fundamental goal in CM is to provide a solid defensive structure that is behaviorally congruent to what we do under pressure while at the same time keeping things simple and efficient. Traditional slip, parry, catch, and bob and weave take a very long time to develop if they do develop and in the mean time people are going to take a lot of punches. Most will end up quitting long before they develop this skill. Furthermore, even if these skills are developed, the addition of kicks, clinch striking, and takedowns make these not the safest options to say the least. There is still slipping and ducking, but it is modified to fit with the rest of the game plan. The cover is different to what is taught in boxing due to the square stance and is taught differently.

This is not to say that CM is just about defense. Having a bulletproof defense allows for strong offense. Rather than having to sit back and wait for a break in the opponents offense, the defensive structure allows one to come forward aggressively without worry about counters. There are a few strikes that would be considered unorthodox to someone from a western boxing background as well.

If you are looking for a striking game that is not attribute based and is based on tight defense, CM is a great option. You can check it out here:
http://www.crazymonkeydefense.com/site/

Daily Submission

After a really long couple of weeks which saw me spend 6 days in Yakima Training Center in Washington state with the Army, I finished up the week at the open gym period on Friday night. I rolled with a fellow soldier who is a member of the Canadian Special Operations regiment. They are very similar in to the US Army rangers/ Special Forces Teams. They are highly trained and incredible tough guys. He was a little smaller than me (maybe 10 pounds) but in incredible shape. I would have to say his BJJ was a little better than mine, technically. He was a really tough roll but very good for me. We went back and forth a few times. He tapped me early on with an interesting bicep slicer from inside the guard. I probably could have fought it and in a competion, I may have but the only way I would have got out of it was to brute force it and I usually tap to that kind of stuff in the gym. As a general rule, if I can't get out of it was a technique of some kind, I chalk it up to a learning experience, tap and move on.

He was really tough and constantly moving, so I had to stay real tight with my transitions. After that first sub, there were no more submissions. I almost got a kimura from top side, (which I have been focusing on) and he almost got me in an armbar from guard, but we both managed to reverse them at the last minute. We rolled for about twenty minutes. It was a great roll. My cardio held up, which is good. Every time I take a break from training, I have to re build my cardio.

I also got some tips from one of our blue belts on defending the deep half guard. Once I have it down a bit more I will post it here.

On a side note, my gym is really starting to attrack some great athletes. I recognized Dustin Oliphant, who I did judo with years ago at the gym on friday. Dustin won a bronze at the 03 national judo championships. We also have tarek gebali, who is now 3-0 in MMA who competed at the National level in Judo. We also have at least 1 national level wrestler whose name I can't remember for some reason. It is great having these elite level athletes at the gym.

Three thing to improve your boxing

Here are three things you can do that will improve your boxing by your next sparring session:

1. Focus on your platform. Your striking platform is your foundation. Just like a house, if the foundation is weak everything will fall apart. I use Crazy Monkey as my striking platform. I conciously focus on keeping my hands high and moving, elbows tight to my ribs, hunchback stance, and hips square. Everything else flows from there.

2. Concentrate on what you want to do. Rather than reacting to what your opponent gives you, be proactive. This is important even if you are a counter fighter. If you want to counter his right hand, look for it, try to force it but don't jsut try to react when it comes.

3. Don't get in a fight. This is especially true in sparring. The point of sparring isn't to win. If it was you would have a ref and judges. It is to perfect your craft under pressure. To often people get their adrenaline flowing and start trying to beat the other guy. When this happens, your platform falls to hell and you start reacting. Sure maybe you can out tough the guy or out punch him but are you learning anything?

Try this the next time you spar. I think you will find that you feel much better about your performance and you will tighten up your game.

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.