2 Hours and 5 Rolls

(11/3/09 5:00pm) Fitness Kickboxing
(11/3/09 6:00pm) BJJ


Kickboxing:

Renee taught the class again tonight. And again, the "warm-ups" were rough. We started off with what I think were 50 squats before we started jogging. The warm-up period is always difficult and leaves me doubting that I will be able to push thru and finish. Particularly when we do sprints down the long sides with shuffles around the short ends. That little delight feels like it lasts for an hour and a half but I am willing to bet it is only like two minutes.


We worked some different combinations on the heavy bags tonight, which was a nice change. Over the past few weeks my left hook has been getting pretty strong and tonight we worked hooks on both sides and now my right seems to be catching up.

The end of the class was pretty mild as compared to normal. The ab work, though a lot of reps, was not too extreme and only included a handful of the normal torturous exercises. At the conclusion I went to the locker room to change and get ready for Jits.

BJJ

I hit the mats just as the warm ups were hitting the to-the-wall and back phase. I looked around, saw Dr. Evil but someone was conspicuously missing. Where the hell is Neil. Ok enough of a jab at him for not showing up. I hope the Big Mac was worth it buddy!

We drilled a spider-guard pass. For this one, we gripped the pants, on the inside, shook off their foot-to-biceps control one arm at a time. You then drive one leg to the ground, never letting it go till you obtain stable side control. With the other hand you shoot under the free leg, drive your head to their thigh and reach back grabbing the belt to prevent escape. You then walk around, passing the trapt leg and establish side control. This was pretty nifty and I actually pulled it off twice in rolling. That is great for me because I typically suck at getting past spider.

Rolling:

My first round was with Paul, a big guy tipping the scales at 240+. Big, strong guy. I did pretty well against him. To my surprise, I was able to negate a lot of his strength. I even got to mount and threatened a choke by the end of the round.

Second round was with Dr. Evil. As always we had a see-saw battle. The first half I was in control and even caught him with a wrist lock from on top in side control. But then, I started to gas. As he later pointed out to me, this was like minute 116 of training for me so it is understandable. We finished out the round with him taking my back.

Third round was with Sarge (Ruben). Traditionally Sarge would always take my back right off the bat. This time though I did pretty well with my wrestling and even managed to win an exchange. Sarge is very strong and surviving his constant onslaught felt good.

Fourth was with Ian, our resident phenom. He would instantly trip me up with his slick spider-guard entries and I would be on defense from the start. He choked me from various positions in many different ways. At the end of the round he said something that I am going to try to remember. He said that when being attacked, you need to respond right away; when attacking, you can take your time and wait for openings. On defense I tend to wait for small mistakes or opportunities and sometimes I get too patient till I don't have anywhere to go any longer. So thanks for the advice Ian.

Fifth round was back with Paul. I was doing well again till I missed on a guard pass, got caught in an oma plata sweep attempt and rolled into the wall. Once trapt I was pretty well stacked and with his weight bearing down, I felt something in my left ribs pop. I verbally tapped and sat out the rest of that round (about a minute). The rib is just fine now, but at the time it really took my breath away.

Great night of training. I seemed to hold up pretty well with the double work-out. Just need to keep it going.

S-A-T-U-R-D-AY Jits

(7/25/09 11:00am) BJJ
(7/25/09 12:00pm) Open Mat

It’s been quite a while since I have attended a Saturday session. These are typically more laid back (even by BJJ standards) and consist of a lot of rolling. Since I was not quite to the ready to roll stage, I relied on the fact there was a new guy there who I could coach during the session.

Josh was heading up class on this Saturday morning, it’s a first time I have been in a class that he has led. Its funny when I think of the fact that I was a student at the gym before he was and now he is teaching me. I guess that really illustrates all of the time I have had to be away from the mats due to my various head/heart/health problems. He got his blue belt while I was gone and has really grown into it. Its funny, but I have zero resentment and nothing but pride for what he has done.

The familiarity that Josh has with all of us lead to an even more relaxed Saturday class. We did a normal warm up and then we drilled the basics. Which I’ve said before and wait for it……I’m saying it again….I love drilling the basics. That is where Jiu-Jitsu lives. In the basics. We drilled:

• Armbar from the guard
• Triangle from the guard
• Triangle from failed Armbar
• And a bit o’ Omoplata

I worked with the brand new guy, who was considerably larger than I am (as is typical). We drilled the positions while I taught him all kinds of other tidbits at the same time. It was frustrating in that his base kept collapsing while we were drilling so I had to improvise; but it was good because his base kept collapsing so I had to improvise.

After our drills we did a bit of king of the mat with a twist. The guy out on the mat, on his back; the others would try to pass while he tried to sweep or submit. The twist was that win or lose the guy stayed out there for 5 or 3 minutes. I love this kind of drilling.
I had a few good passes and I had both a sweep and a submission so very successful day for me.

Open Mat

During the open mat session I worked with the new guy a bit more and then got schooled by Jerry on Spider Guard. Luckily while I was getting schooled I was getting schooled. He taught me quite a bit I was doing wrong. I worked spider guard on John immediately after and pulled off a beautiful sweep. I do so enjoy learning during open mat. I can’t wait to get to more of them. Unfortunately I have a class for work this weekend so I will have to wait till the next.

Double your Pleasure.....Double your Pain

(7/20/09 5:00pm 101 Degrees) Fitness Kickboxing
(7/20/09 6:00pm 101 Degrees) BJJ

I’m trying to be very cognizant of how my body is handling training and I don’t want to start over training but I did the double again last night and actually felt pretty good. I figure that I’ll do this a couple of times a week, but not every session.

When I pulled up to the gym, our giant garage door that is right behind the cage was wide open. That was not a good omen. I knew in my heart that the door being open like that meant that it was so hot in the building and the air conditioning was so inadequate that they had to open up the door. This should be fun.

I changed into my shorts and rash guard which I topped off with my newly acquired “10 Things you should know about Chuck Norris” T-shirt. I headed out to the mats took a seat behind the heavy bags and began wrapping my hands. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again; I love that little moment of Zen, taking a few moments to relax and focus on getting myself ready for what is to come.

On this particular day Josh was leading our class. Josh is a very young guy who just made his professional MMA debut in a bout in Mexico over the weekend. He lost his match but considering he had 5 hours notice, I say he’s pretty game for stepping up and taking it. I’ll post more on his fight as I get details.

I remember when Josh joined the gym, he has come a very long way since. His pacing of the class and the way he switches between cardio and strength exercises is fantastic. It is amazing how much better I felt today. I felt stronger and like I could go for a much longer time than before. I suffered much less MPH in this session than in the two last week. Even now, a day later, I am feeling pretty good. Only a bit of soreness persists.

It is incredible how vertical my recovery curve has been. I am waiting for the bubble to burst when I hit the inevitable plateau and stop making quick gains. But for the moment I’ll keep on enjoying the feeling of getting in shape rather quickly. I was a heaping mass of pathetic mess at the end of the session but it was a smaller heap than the more recent sessions.

BJJ

Right after we concluded I went back into the locker-room and changed into my gi. Thank god this time I packed my new Koral light weight, last week when I did the double I was wearing my Gameness Pearl; world of difference. I took a few moments to wipe all the excess sweat off, get hydrated and then I headed to the mats.

Like last time, the warm-ups were almost to the half-way point. I joined in and was pretty mediocre. I didn’t have much juice left after the conditioning session and I didn’t want to fail pathetically during training so I took it a bit easy.

Fritz hurt his back earlier in the day so he turned the class over to Will, a 4 stripe blue belt who recently joined us from AV Jiu Jitsu. I’ve met Will a few times but this was the first time I had actually been in a class with him.

We started with a few mount escapes. The first was an upa to break their posture which allows you to grab an arm and pull off the basic, first night, upa escape. The second was an upa to create space so that you can turn immediately onto your side, get your elbow in-between his knee and you and use that to get to half guard.

Then we worked on some half guard sweeps. We did the old school wherein you get to half guard, sink yourself very deep, grab their foot, switch up your legs and drive to your knees. I have not done that particular escape in a very long time and I am happy to report that it sunk in much better this time and I actually almost pulled it off in rolling, more on that in a minute.

We worked on another sweep that you pull off if they whizzer your underhook. Instead of reaching for the toe, you shoot your hand thru the gap between their thigh and calf, unlock your guard, and shift your hips under theirs. This sweep, when done right, is very easy and the 235 pound guy I was working with felt like a feather pillow when I got my hips right.

When it came time to roll, knowing that I am nearing the end of my medication run and that I have been feeling better, I decided to test the waters and see how I was doing. I started a light roll with the same guy with whom I was drilling. I’m sitting at 175 right now and he’s the aforementioned 235, so I gave up a good 60 pounds. Still, I did pretty darn well. We started from my guard a couple of times and I put up a pretty good fight for the shape I’m in. We also started from the knees a couple of times. I tapped to an armbar once and to pure exhaustion another time.

I changed partners after two sessions and rolled with a new guy whose name I can’t remember. He’s a really nice guy, about my weight and a lot taller. We started from my guard and I did very well. I got an omoplata sweep and I also locked in a triangle at one point. My legs were so wasted from the conditioning class that I could not manage to finish it. I had it locked up but I had no strength to squeeze. I count that as a success though. Like I said, I’m getting better every day.

One thing that I think is pretty funny; I think my game has improved since I have been out. Physically I am still a wreck but my movement is better (when I can move) and my understanding has increased. I am really looking forward to getting in better shape and seeing how that translates to overall improvement. If I can translate this new understanding into action with a body that cooperates, I’m very optimistic.

Structured Saturday???

BJJ (1/10/2009 11:00AM)

So what was strange about this Saturday morning at the gym? Virtually everything, that's what. Normally when me and my fellow compatriots meet up for an hour or two of mat time, its the standard open mat format. But as I often say, the only constant is change.

To go along with the new year, the gym has now instituted a new schedule, which I am largely in favor of. It makes my life considerably easier. One thing that is very interesting is the addition of a Saturday morning (11:00AM) BJJ class. This class is then followed immediately by a nogi BJJ for MMA class at noon and then open mat begins at 1:00PM and runs thru three.

This is a drastic departure from the past schedule. You see, previously there was a 10:00 nogi class and then it was open mat afterward. That's it. Nothing else. Being one who has yet to feel comfortable enough yet in the gi to venture out of it for additional training, Saturdays to me were strictly for open mat. And that was fine. But now there was a choice. There is a gi class to partake in BEFORE the open mat, how perfect is that? So with a bit of gumption, Neil, Dr. Evil and I decided that we would meet up for that gi class, recover during the nogi portion and then hit the open mat. Sounds good right?

Warm-ups:
We began the warm-ups as normal felt like any other class. But once we passed the "easy" portion and hit the wall for the back and forth section, things got ugly. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary, the work out just didn't stop. Whenever we thought we were on the last exercise, there was one more waiting. And each time Kazeka and Fritz along with a crowd of onlookers laughing at our obvious pain from just off the mats. It seemed to be a "lets see just how much we can give them" kind of day. That's good every now and then, I guess today was the now.

Drills:
Today's drills were focused on Knee-on-Belly (KOB for the rest of this post). We worked on getting to KOB from side control properly. We also worked on getting the right posture once KOB is obtained. I was drilling with Dr. Evil and Chris who is a yellow and white belt kid (I'd guess 12ish) with amazing skill. His dad is Matt, one of the gym's Blue Belts and a great guy. Chris takes the adult classes with us all the time and rolls with all of us despite being only 3/4 our size.

Once we worked thru properly getting to the KOB position we worked on an armbar that is predicated on your opponent attempting to defend. There was one thing I really liked about this move and a couple of things that bothered me. First off, its a great armbar. The angles are there and it's easy to transition to. I had difficulty smoothly sweeping around the back and kept stutter stepping, but that's easily corrected.

What I didn't like was the fact that it was a countering attack. I need more of those but I also need some more purely offensive moves. I suppose that I could dig in for it but it seems to defeat the purpose and would probably rush things and ruin it. The next move was a Kimura from the same set-up that comes about when the armbar fails because the opponent defends. Again, offense predicated on defense from an overwhelmingly offensive position, but hey its a slick move so I'll put it in my bag of tricks.

Rolling:

I started off against Dr. Evil. As always it was a great battle. One day I need to get one of our rolls on video. If nothing else it will shatter my image of what we look like for the reality of the situation. Insert image of toddlers fighting over cake here. We are always changing leads, barely missing submissions, escaping, gaining positions; just very evenly matched. Always a learning experience and always a lot of fun. Stalemate.

My next round was with Chris, yes the kid. There is a heap of stress. On one hand, you don't want to hurt the kid, your friends son. On the other hand you don't want to get owned by a little kid who doesn't weight 100 lbs. or isn't near legal shaving age yet. This kid is awesome. What he lacks in strength he makes up for in technique and skill. He's quick, has amazing hips and his BJJ mind is always going. I managed to pull off an armbar on him and I felt so lucky. He was formidable to say the least.

Next up was Alex. I hadn't seen him since the "My Epic Night" post. He's a great guy and like many of us, life had kept him out of the gym for a while for a while so its good to have him back. When I got him he was already wiped out. He told me that he had nothing left so I told him that I'd just pull guard because I could use some work from there anyway. Alex outweighs me by quite a bit, he's probably walking around at about 220 or so and I'm holding at 163. So I had a big, tired guy in my guard. I was working to push the pace but he really was tired and postured up. Eventually I went for a sit-up sweep, didn't get it because he has an awesome base, he pushed me back down so I hipped out and managed to catch the Oma Plata. He rolled out of it, I rolled with him, hit it again, caught his hips and finished it.

Fritz then said: CHANGE PARTNERS ONE MORE ROUND!!!

So, this guy named Mark who is also considerably larger than me basically called me out. He came crawling over, and picked me. Now, the last couple of times we've gone he's pretty much had my number. He's got size and strength to his advantage but he's also pretty skilled. We were all exhausted and it almost felt like he was coming to me for an easy ending to the day. That made me kind of mad. I was so happy to disappoint. I really went after it with him. Even though I had nothing left, I dug deeper and refused to give in. We traded positions and had a very EVEN match. I know that caught him off guard. When the match ended with me in his guard, standing and working for a pass, I knew that his opinion of me had changed.

That was four rounds we did. Four, Five minute rounds. Since I work in finance I was able to do some calculations and I know that we rolled for 30 minutes!!! I know what your saying. Four times five is only twenty, how do you get to 30? Well, I'm sure that our gym is not the only one that forgets to look at the stopwatch while rolling. I know that it was 11:50 when we started and 12:20 when we ended, so somewhere in time ten extra minutes sank in. We certainly didn't rest for ten minutes.

Open Mat:
Yeah, that idea was out the widow. After the warm-up and the four rounds of sparring, we had nothing left. So, Saturday's might look a bit different from now on. Stay Tuned.