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Thursday, May 26, 2011

This Week's Training

On Monday we went over the most basic guard pass. The one with one straight arm and other hand on opponent's hips. I get the concept in theory and in my mind I can do it, but in real life I still have trouble with this guard pass. I feel like my arms are too short and I have to move back as I'm posted up.

Yesterday was an awesome day because I got to roll with J (aka Justin). He's really good, better than the 4 stripe white belt that he displays. When we first rolled, I started out in his guard and his spider guarded me when I opened him up. He swept me with the spider guard sweep that I hate and mounted me. I didn't want him on top of me so I tried to get him into half guard, but really it ended up like a quarter guard. While in quarter guard, he did a Neto Roll, it caught me by surprised and I ended up in his guard again! Lots of things happened after which he submitted me with an arm triangle. After the match I asked him to show the Neto Roll and he said it's supposed to get my back from it.

I also rolled with Glenn. I had his back most of the time but he did a good job of defining. He's pretty good for only being a 2 stripes white belt. I ended up getting him in a rear-naked choke. Justin told me I could have finished him with a gi choke from behind: grab the lapel then grab their collar from behind, try to push their collar through my arm grabbing the label, what this does is brings my forearm grabbing their lapel closer to their throat. Pretty interesting choke for when you don't want to keep fighting for the rear-naked or traditional gi choke.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Passing Guard Tips From Larry

Today I roll with a blue belt named Larry. He gave me some tips for passing guard. He recommended standing guard passes because they are more affected.
  1. Hands to opponent's armpits and spawl.
  2. Then put one of your knee in between their guard to open it.
  3. Once opponent's guard is opened, get into "combat stance" and press one fist down on opponent's stomach holding while other hand is holding onto their leg. (here I don't the fist on stomach is required, but you could have both hands on their legs and stay in combat stand to prevent from getting swept).
  4. While in this stance make sure you are close to their hip so that you are in control.
  5. Push their leg down and pass.
When sparring with Larry, I observed his "style". Every time I was in his guard, he would push one of my arms across me and try to get my back. While fighting this and trying to open his guard, he would sweep me and mount me. I would this try to bump and get him into half-guard. After which he would S-mount me, after the S-mount he would work at getting my back. I would roll back and he would mount me. Basically, he had dominated with positions the whole time and I was playing all defense.

Larry said that this is more of a no-gi pass and Prof. Steve teaches it in the no-gi class. He also give me another tip:
  • "Anytime you are about to do anything, think how it makes you vulnerable, how it exposes you." I think this is really good advice/principle. This is to help you be prepared in case you have to defend. Sometimes I'm so focused on passing guard or whatever that I forget that I could be exposing myself and end up getting submitted or in a worst position.
I looked up a standing guard pass on the internet and want to try this one out some time:




Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Frustrated...

Yesterday's Advanced class was very frustrating. I felt like a total "newb" rolling with the blue belts. Well, let me go over the techniques we learned in class first:
  1.  An escape from Turtle Position, where the guy is on top in North-South Position with their arms around your waist. Start out by grabbing onto one of your arms and then basing out the leg on that side, then sit all the way through while holding onto their arm. It's like you are almost laying perpendicular on their back and arm-locking them. After which, you pass through and take your opponent's back from behind.

    It's similar to the following video here, but ending up in North-South.

  2. Clock Choke. Click here to see the one I was taught in class.

Two things Prof. showed me after I sparred:
  1. Getting one leg outside of opponent's open guard then applying pressure on their leg to pass to side.
  2. Kicking out a leg and wrapping the arms around their body.
To be continued...

      Monday, May 16, 2011

      Clock Choke

      In Wednesday's Advanced class, we learned the Clock Choke. At first I thought it was an awkward choke and that I was too light to finish it, however I tapped someone out with it. The key thing about this choke is really lay your weight on your opponent when you spawn.

      Will update with some videos...

      Wednesday, May 11, 2011

      Techniques From Closed Guard

      I missed the "advanced" bjj class on Monday due to work, so I went to the later "beginner's" class. It was actually a very enlightening class because I didn't get crashed by blue belts the whole time and got to work on some techniques I have been wanting to try. The beginner's class worked on the following techniques from the closed guard:
      1. Pendulum Sweep
      2. Pendulum Sweep attempt to arm bar



      Some observations:
      1. I often take people's back but have a really tough time finishing them. Especially with guys larger and stronger than me. Their defense is to grab onto my arm and pull down preventing me from finishing the rear-naked choke or the gi choke from the back. Any suggestions would be great!
      2. I'm not exactly the strongest or heaviest guy, but I need to learn how to apply my weight and pressure my opponents better.
      3. I need to work on my d'arce chokes.
      Till next time... ;)

      Monday, May 2, 2011

      Back From Europe

      So I'm back from Europe and just trying to get back into competitive shape. Today we learned another hip throw and how to escape from a high mount. The one we learned was feet to opponent's armpit then roll them to the side. Which is almost like the 3 high mount that is shown in this video (but the video shows ending up on the opponent's back):