BJJ (12/29/08 9:00 AM)
So, being off for the week leads to some interesting opportunities. Normally I am hours into a long work day by 9:00am on a Monday, but today I was able to don my Kimono and hit the mats for BJJ class in lieu of my normal 6:00pm time slot.
Traditionally, I am not too much of a "morning athlete". The last time I attended an early class (6:00am a few months back) I was quite nauseous the entire time and had absolutely no gas. I am one of those people that just cant eat in the early morning, if I do I have a upset stomach all day long. No food before training = no energy for training; so do the math.
Fortunately, 9:00am doesn't seem to be too bad for my system. I'm used to riding my desk pretty vigorously by that time so what's a little added exertion?
It seems people are still taking holiday time off from training too. Neil and I made a pact to attend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 9:00am, this week to finish out the year strong. Besides the two of us there was one other guy I've never trained with and being that I am terrific with names, I'll venture a guess that his was Dan....or was it Dave.....whatever it was, he is one heck of a nice guy and was great to roll with.
We ran a perpetual motion drill for the entire class until it was time to roll. The drill was all about movement and it broke down like this:
Guy #1: Armbar from guard
Guy#2: Defends Armbar, stacks Guy#1, Passes to Side Control
Guy#1: Escapes side control to the knees, shooting taking Guy#2 down to Side Control
Guy#2: Escapes side control by hipping and regaining guard
Drill Repeats with Guy#2 now initiating the Armbar
We rotated among the three of us for a while until Blue Belt Carl came in to help out his brother Fritz (our Purple Belt Instructor); at which point Carl and I drilled. I love these perpetual motion drills because it really helps with the repetition that you need in BJJ.
Rolling:
In my never ending quest to get better at the guard, I started each exchange from the guard. Its great that everyone is always willing to let me pull when I put it out there. If I say "hey I'm working on my guard, do you mind if I pull?" I have never once had anyone disagree.
First I went with Dan/Dave and it was pretty good. I didn't pull of any of the sweeps or subs I went for but I was feeling pretty comfortable in looking for things and regaining control when my attempts failed.
Second was with Neil and his monkey-like strength. We had a pretty good roll going. Of course my guard game got sloppy and he passed like universal health care in an Obama administration. He got to mount, when I was hipping out of it he half got my back and sunk in a collar choke from the back. Thank god we drilled all those escapes a few weeks ago. I was able to weasel my shoulder in, turn into the choke and get into his guard.
Third I was with Carl who was awesome. He actually coached me into tapping him out. He showed me things as they were developing. He gave me new eyes while we were rolling. Showed me what I was missing and helped me recognize opportunities I was missing because I was too dang tired. THANKS CARL!!!
1 comment:
I have to agree with you about rolling in the morning. Since I can only do the 0600 classes, I find myself sucking more than when we went to the 0900 class. Early morning is just crap for my BJJ game, so it was nice to feel like I've actually learned something as we rolled in the 0900 class. I didn't feel as gassed as I usually do and my 'monkey strength' found itself to be more of an asset than a fallacy.
Rolling with Carl was awesome. He did the same thing with me as we rolled together... he talked through each of the various moves he was attempting and helped me out as I was attempting moves on him. He taught me some valueable lessons when I pull into spider guard (a move I'm trying desparately to perfect). It's really cool when you can hear the 'thought process' of someone who holds a higher rank than you. Basically, I just sat back and went to school when I rolled with Carl.
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