Category: Doing (Page 7 of 28)

Big Guy Night — BJJ Training 11.29.2016

November 30, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

There was a new student at the gym–big guy who trained as a kid and has taken 12 years off. Since I was the smallest student tonight (besides Ana), Coach Frank threw us some stuff we can use effectively with an omaplata option at the end for the squirmy types to finish with.

After warmups we did some knee on belly drills which flowed directly into technique.

Side Control -> KoB -> Arm Attacks

Thumb in shallow collar grip (elbow tight)
Belt knot grip (elbow tight)
Push up to Knee On Belly
Opponent’s natural tendency is to push the knee
Shoot arm through the hole and c-cup the shoulder
Roll opponent toward you and step over head, shooting other foot deep underneath
Pop elbow up to move arm between shoulder and neck (crook of the elbow to elbow)
Slide up the arm and “I-Dream-Of-Genie” to finish the down bar

Option

If defense reaches across your face, grab the wrist and modified Americana
If defense reaches low, swap grips and kimura
If defense is jump to the knees, swing legs to set up the omoplata

Rolling
Twice with Jonathan, once with Frank, twice with Norm. I was plumb tuckered. Caught a few armbars against Jonathan but couldn’t get anything at all (typical) with Frank and Norm. They both tapped me out multiple times (again). By the end of my last roll with Norm, I was just showing up out of respect for him and doing what I could to defend, but I was completely out of energy. I had to put my bag down and change hands walking from the door to the car.

Jiu Jitsu Time With Gerry

November 28, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

We had a chance to train for an hour or so with Gerry over the weekend. He’s a big purple belt, and it was so good to see some different views on things, get some different ideas, and some personal attention to questions and problems. Not going to lie…it will be fun to take some of this stuff back to the gym and try it out on some unsuspecting opponents. Of course, can’t wait to share what I learned as well.

I’m probably only remembering about half of what we went over, but here are some of the hightlights.

Cross choke angle scoot for better tightness

Deep grip to start (same)
Cock hips away from grip
Thumb in opposite collar
Move hips back
Pull down, elbows up

Arm bar trickery with collar grip for rotation

Pistol grip on gi at elbow
Cross collar grip with other hand to control posture
Pull and pull to rotate around and get leg up
Finish

Clock choke against opponent from turtle

Thumb in across collar
Elbow up
Slide through
Circle

Triangle defense (last resort)

Drop to knees
Ball up
Move leg over head

Mount escape

Grab gi at foot
Straighten leg
Pick up foot and put them into quarter guard
Push knee to half guard

Kimura defense (instead of hiding arm)

Hand on opponent’s elbow to push
Roll toward’s trapped arm and shrimp

Roll from half guard to create scramble, take back. Like this…

Rear Naked Choke Tune Up – BJJ Training 11.22.2016

November 23, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Coach Frank was out of town, so Norm was leading the class. Pretty good turnout, and we got a lot of good stuff done.

Warmup was some drills (partnered with Jonathan), then we worked on taking the back from guard, details of the RNC, and an optional arm bar from guard.

Rolled for 5 minute rounds with Dan, Joe, Norm, Jonathan, Joe, Norm.

Dan got me with the triangle, and I was actually pretty happy for him. I’ve gotten out of it the last few times he’s attempted it, and he was straining hard to hang on to it. Joe ran right through me–he’s so much faster than I am, and I just can’t get around his guard. Then he sweeps me and chokes me. Norm sat on my chest for about 4 minutes and let me fight out of mount. That really sucked, but there’s no way I would have quit on it after he’d basically given up his roll to give me that opportunity. Fun roll with Jonathan with a couple of sweeps and ultimately an arm bar. He was pretty close to a guillotine on me, but I was able to fight out. Another roll with Joe, and he almost got the guillotine too, but I fought out–can’t remember what he ultimately got me with.

I stayed for one extra roll with Norm after everyone else headed home. As we slapped hands and fist bumped I realized (and said out loud), “Oh no…it just occurred to me that you could easily kill me right now if you wanted, and there’s nobody here to stop it.”

Luckily, he still respected my multiple taps.

Gi Choke Sunk! BJJ Training 11.17.2016

November 19, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Big turnout for class last night with a couple of visitors. One is Coach Frank’s friend John from New York, and another was a Polish guy (“Peter”), a monster of a blue belt who was in town for a couple of days after attending a conference in Orlando. He trains with a Globetroters gym there–it is so cool to be a part of a gym where visitors are not only welcomed, but we’re all actually excited to have them. I’m learning more about the culture in different jiu jitsu gyms and in different parts of the world, and I’m hearing that it’s not always as welcoming of an environment as what we have at our gym.

We did a review of the smash pass from passing headquarters, the drop step and hip turn to pass to the other side when trapped in quarter guard, and a choke from quarter guard when the final step of the pass fails. It was steamy and sweaty in there!

Rolling for me was Dr. Dan, Norm, Visiting John, Louis, and Jonathan.

I was on top for most of the roll with Dr. Dan, but the take down and pass took a while. I tried to go for the pass-the-gi choke, but when I finally got the lapel handed off I realized it was HIS gi I’d passed. DOH!!! A very boring bout for any spectators, but we were working our arses off!

Norm was more of the same. I’m looking for any little victories I can get with him. The only real positive out of this one was that I was able to break his spider guard (after making stupid mistakes that let him get spider guard of course). Got triangled again, even though I was defending it hard for a long time before he actually got it sunk in. Defended a couple of sweeps, and got swept by twice that many. These rolls are making me a lot better, as was evident by the next roll.

Visiting John and I are pretty well matched, so this one was really fun. He’s a lot more experienced than me–4 stripe white belt with 1.5 years training–but he’s taken some time off, so he’s still rusty from that. It’s funny how my thinking is going–“He’s going for a kimura. When I defend it, he’s going to know to go for that sweep. I know that, but does he know that I know that he knows that?” When he attempted his triangle it was much easier to defend than it was against Norm. That’s what I mean about rolling with Norm so much. It’s unlikely I’ll face anyone at my skill level who can smash me like that after him becoming my Norm-al. Horrible pun.

Easy roll with Louis to be careful with his back and neck. I focused on sweeping and working his collar, staying away from his head, neck, and back. I got a scissor sweep to my offside, but when I tried one on my strong side later he defended it easily. That was weird. Really fun roll.

This was Jonathan’s third night training, and I can’t believe this guy. Strong, heavy, fit, and has a ton of heart. We rolled a couple of times on Tuesday and he was a wild man. I ended up just mounting and trying to control him. Submissions weren’t coming–it was like a real fight, just survive and control!!! That did give me a lot of confidence that if I ever am in that situation in real life again I’ll probably be fine. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get hurt and wouldn’t have to hurt the other person either. I’d much rather walk away without having to throw punches (no broken hands) and the other guy knowing that I could have hurt him but didn’t.

Anyway, Jonathan was a lot more calm and technical than on Tuesday, which is also impressive. He was working technique and even recognized a couple of situations we’d been in during the previous rolls and reacted differently. He’ll pass me soon. I was able to work an arm bar patiently. Once I got it, I didn’t let go. I just focused on keeping my hips tight, keeping my head heavy on his chin, and patiently breaking the defending grip. We restarted and when I got to side control I went back to the gi pass choke I’d attempted on Dr. Dan earlier. Got it this time!!!!

Bow And Arrow Choke Review – BJJ Training 11.08.2016

November 9, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Warmup was pretty similar to the usual. Up and down drills along with KoB, side control pummeling for underhooks, and guard retention.

Technique for the night was working on the bow and arrow when opponent is in Turtle. A review, but one I needed because I’d forgotten some of the finer points:

Don’t get your arm trapped on the initial turtle shell cracking
Grab the leg at the butt as you step over pre-roll
Straighten legs to intensify finish

We also worked on taking an arm bar from a failed bow and arrow. I preferred keeping the collar grip and looping my arm over opponent’s head before moving my leg.

Rolled with Ed, Frank, Dan, and Ed. I was pretty tired already from my morning workout, and Ed got me pretty gassed. A lot of the stuff I’ve been working on without the gi wouldn’t fly here because there was so much friction. I wasn’t able to get my legs into the same positions for sweeps that I can when they are bare and sweaty. I definitely scored some points though, and got close to an Ezekiel finish.

Frank just took the rest of my gas. He decided he was going to get kimuras, and I spent a ton of time defending (and losing). Roll with Dan resulted in him having my back for quite a while and me defending a barrage of chokes. I was ultimately able to get into his full guard, but there was no way I was passing. Just too dang tired. Last roll with Ed was just survival and trying to get to a place to attack. Lots of side control, but I couldn’t do anything with it.

No Gi Grappling 11.5.2016

November 5, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

A really fun day today–I felt like I had something of a breakthrough. I saw a whole bunch of stuff happening, attempted a whole bunch of stuff, and finished with a submission I’ve never attempted in a live roll.

Of course, it was with Ed. And of course, it was another ultra-long marathon of a roll. We went for about 45 minutes straight today. Again, theme of the week, I was focusing on executing sweeps, but did notice that was a little more difficult without the gi. I got a couple of scissor sweeps in and attempted a few more, but by then he’d caught on and was defending.

Spent a good deal of time in mount, moving from grapevining to high mount, and had a few of decent attempts from that position–arm bars, bicep crusher, seated triangle, multiple Ezekiel chokes. I had his back for a good spell and actually got the RNC sunk. SUNK!!! I was taking my time making sure I had it set up right when I felt his chin tuck. Need to tighten that up.

From guard I worked on two triangle and a kimura. I actually went into the kimura thinking, “If I don’t get this, I’ll at least get the kimura sweep.” When it came time for the sweep, I couldn’t remember the first step (reviewed it after the roll).

I also tried to focus on pressure. Not just pushing-my-weight pressure, but keeping the pressure on in situations when I was threatening and Ed was able to escape. I tried to make sure I didn’t give him an opportunity to recover when he escaped–trying to control posture at all times and immediate try another sweep.

I’m not going to get any more of my favorite mount escapes on him, that’s for sure. But I did get to try out the oopa mount escape we’ve worked on. Nailed it!

Anyway, ended up getting a d’arce choke at the end. I actually had an opportunity to get one earlier, but I had the wrong arm in. The next time around I saw the situation coming and got set up for it.

White Belt Party! BJJ Training 11.3.2016

November 4, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Low turnout for class, and everyone who was there was a white belt. It gave us a great opportunity to go back and break down some basic guard passing. The warmup was light–the only downside to a seminar-type class. Even the things we did didn’t help me to get much of a lather going because I was paired with Ana-conda. So things like KoB weren’t that strenuous since I had to be mindful of my weight and where I placed it. Still, a good exercise for me in becoming aware of my weight and balance.

Full Guard Pass:

Fists in lower ribs (my preference) and elbows in thighs
Base out and place other leg into center of enemy’s butt
Posture up (always) and maintain hand contact
Turn based out hip, and sprawl out if necessary to break closed guard
Keep pressure with elbow, trap with knee, slide through

Standing Full Guard Pass:

Thumbs in armpit and push back, lower into guard
Posture up and stand (ankles are now out of reach)
Down to one knee for passing headquarters
Passing headquarter option (smash) or double under legs and dump

Also learned a Kimura from side control:

Trap body side arm with leg
Windshield wiper to kesa gatame
C-cup shoulder and roll them toward you to their side
Step over head and establish kimura grip
Out-Up-Over to finish
If they defend by grabbing belt and you can’t break, open up pants and grip 4 fingers in, palm up to trap arm
- Congratulate them on their excellent defense by keeping that arm for the rest of your life
- Thumb-in to opposite collar, elbow to the ground for choke

Rolled two 6:00 rounds with Ed. I’ve noticed that when I roll with Norm he tends to always start on his butt, pulling me into his guard and setting up a sweep, then working his inevitable submission from the top. I decided to play that for these rolls since the duration was longer and I’d have more time to work on some other stuff. So glad I did this–started down and got sweeps in both times. First one was scissor-ish, and the second was the reverse de la riva sweep we learned a couple of weeks ago. So fun to deliberately apply something we learned in class and see it work! Went through a bunch of positions during this roll and was surprised at how much energy I was able to conserve. Low heart rate and easy breathing.

Next was 6:00 with Coach Frank. He not only beats me, he forces me to lose at his pace.Fast. He attacks from so many places and transitions between attacks so quickly. It’s like riding The Zipper without being strapped in and trying to maintain a vertical stance the entire time. He got me with two arm bars and a kimura.

6:00 with Dr. Dan. I tried to work guard and sweep with him as well and ended up spending a lot of time on bottom. Survived mount and got to his full guard where I was able to work on what we drilled earlier. I’d wager his ribs are sore this morning, but I could not get out. He has really long legs, and I couldn’t break him using the basic method. When the hip twist didn’t break I sprawled for a second, but I felt him going to sweep because my balance was off, so I ditched that idea. Something I need to work on. Standing was not an option–his arms are long too, and I couldn’t get my ankles out of his reach. He did a great job of controlling my posture too.

Went another 6:00 with Ed and was on bottom a lot more. He’s been catching the americana on me, so I worked on escaping that. Got out of one, got caught in another. Still plenty of opportunity for improvement! My biggest memory from this roll was thinking, “Ok, you’re stuck, and this sucks. But you can breathe, right? So just breathe. Breathe. You’re breathing, right? Now, keep doing that and try to find a way out.”

I got out.

Omoplata From Armbar – BJJ Training 11.2.2016

November 2, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Really sweaty warmup for me. We did sit-through and rotate drills, which we haven’t done in a while in class, and I could really tell a difference in my fitness and agility with these, which I credit to a weight drop.

Technique was more working from the armbar out of closed guard. I really like that we’ve been working on the different variations from this same setup because we’re getting a lot of reps on the armbar itself. I can tell I’m getting a little better at the finer details that make all the difference–things like keeping my knees pinched!

For the omoplata from armbar:

Set up armbar
Control non-armbar wrist and punch to waist
Foot to enemy’s neck and push head away
Rotate and sit up to side-by-side with (KEY POINT)legs straight and grip enemy across belt to hold in place
Post foot out and scoot hips out, dragging enemy to flatten him out
Move legs to s-mount, pinching trapped arm between your rib cage and thighs
Underhook other arm and gable grip to hand above shoulder
S-mount drill forward/up while bending down to tell him how much you love him

It’s sort of like this, but with more detail. I just like this fella’s accent.

We went to 4 five minute rounds of rolling.

First up was good ol’ Ed. We started with him attempting a guillotine, which I used to work towards side control. Once I got it I focused on the collar and getting mount, where I focused on the collar more. Went for an americana once, which he quickly defended.

The next round was Ed again, but we me having his back. Skipped the RNC and went straight for the bow and arrow. I think I got close, but couldn’t finish it. Moved to my guard and attempted the worst triangle ever, which he got around. I ended up back in mount and got an armbar a few seconds before time ran out.

Next was Rudy, who came at me really hard tonight. I put up a decent fight for a while, defending the armbar and eating a couple of bicep crushers. Defended one seated triangle, but tapped to another. I know he got me with something else too, but I was so exhausted I don’t even remember what it was.

Norm got the scraps tonight. And ate them all. I think he tapped me 3 or 4 times. I know he gave me one sweep from half guard, but we spent a lot of time with him on top. After the last submit we had about 20 seconds left, so I pulled guard and tried to defend that as best I could, knowing he’d try hard for a quick submit. He passed right as time was running out.

No Gi Grappling at Open Mat – 10.29.2016

October 30, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Only three of us made it to open mat this week. Of course Ed was there, and of course we had another really long match. I had his back for a while but..

Still. Can’t. Finish. RNC.

Had a couple of triangle attempts, and one was in pretty deep. I think I was pretty close to the submission, but he’s just dang strong and stubborn. By the time I ended up with him in my half guard my arms were too tired from the RNC to defend the Americana. Got me again! LOL

Next we drilled arm bars from guard with Mitch, who didn’t want to roll because of his shoulder. I’m always down to drill, so this was great.

Afterwards, Frank took on me and Ed for two 3 minute rounds each, and he upped the tempo on us. A lot more movement, and it turned out to be really fun! I think it would do me a lot of good to develop that different gear for when I need it.

Next, Ed and I went for a three minute round, and I planned to focus on pace. I started working a guillotine from guard pretty early, but when I glanced back and checked the clock we were already a minute in, so I got to moving. Got the sweep, side control, and knee on belly. Was working for his back again when time ran out. No submission, but a shutout on points.

Down Bar Submission From Guard – BJJ Training 10.27.2016

October 28, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Warmup was the usual with more partner drills–KoB roatation, pummeling for underhooks and rotating in side control, reverse de la riva (I’m still not there) into single leg takedown.

We spent more time drilling arm bar from guard. I needed this, and it’s getting smoother. We learned a variation to snake out and grab the arm we weren’t attacking and pull it down. Key points:

Knees tight
Sit up to get more space
Crook of my elbow to just above back of enemy’s elbow
Can use other hand to find the right spot–totally in control in this position.

Rolling was much better than Tuesday night.

Dan — tried to stand from beginning and throw his legs to pass. Got past one at least. No tap.

Rudy — Maybe my best roll I’ve ever had. I know Rudy is aggressive. I’m sure he takes it a little easy on me, but he’s always down to get scrappy. My weight is a big advantage with him though. I think I actually threatened a collar choke. No tap.

Frank — Ate a bicep crusher for a long time before finally tapping. Ouch. I was really driving my shoulder in, but I guess I can’t take pain like he can. LOL. Defended pretty well when I was in his guard by scooting out low.

Norm — Norm gave me a lot in this roll. One of those gifts was side control. I think he was actually fighting to get out of it. I guess maybe he felt he needed that work from someone heavy, and the only way to get it was to give the position away? He got me with a bow and arrow from back, and he got it a lot easier than Frank can. Those long legs really do it.

Smash Pass Options – BJJ Training October 25, 2016

October 26, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Not much sleep the night before, and I could tell during the warmups this one would be tough for me. Ana and I were the only white belts in the class though, so I knew it was going to be very…”educational”.

We worked on variations from the Smash Pass for technique. First we just went over the pass, then a variation to get mount when caught in quarter guard while passing. This is happening to me a lot lately, and I know we’ve gone over it before, but it’s more meaningful now.

Trap the underhook and post hand
Back step to other side
Grab knee and shuffle backwards 3 steps, switching enemy’s hips
Push down and step back over, holding bottom leg down with shin and top with butt
Slice knee in and pop trapped foot
Underhooks and get mount

Then we worked on the collar choke from quarter guard for when you have a deep grip or just can’t get out. Or, in my case, you can’t dance well enough to step back and forth around their legs.

I rolled with Norm, Frank, Norm, and and Brandon who was visiting from Boise. Or, in belts, purple-brown-purple-purple. I got absolutely demolished! Really fun though–got banana split submitted for the first time. I didn’t know my legs could stretch that far. And Frank got the bow and arrow he’s been wanting.

Funny to know that it’s coming for several days and still not be able to stop it.

Arm Bar Flow From Guard – BJJ Training 10.20.2016

October 21, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Normal warm up and we went into some partner drills–KoB rotation, chucking feet from standing to pass into side control, etc.

Technique was really useful for me tonight because we based everything off of the arm bar from guard–something I’ve had some trouble with since the beginning. Maybe it’s not that I had trouble, but we learned it so early on that I needed to review and also get as many reps as possible. I got a lot of reps tonight with Norm (quality reps).

Wrist control
Reach under one arm for cross triceps control and clamp
Former wrist hand reaches up to control head and/or grab back of gi
Foot on hip and other leg holding down posture
Whip leg over to face and heels to ground
Tight hips, head side arm to kimura grip. Elbow-to-elbow
Bait with the foot between the legs and release head
Post with free hand to take the back or…
Go to back with leg over head, post out and roll to arm bar

Rolls with Dan the man

Escaped triangle, tried shoulder choke

Coach Frank

Defend bow and arrow, mount escape, then choked

Norm

Tapped me at least three times with a bunch of chokes

Rudy

Tapped me with one choke, cardio paid off at the end, attempted the shoulder choke

Foot Lock Defense – BJJ Training Log 10.18.2016

October 20, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Had a meeting run over at work, so I missed the warmup–a day after Coach Frank posted a meme about people who’s best move is escaping warmups. 🙂

I did make it in time for some RDLR single leg drills. Better, but still not very coordinated.

Technique–the objective is to keep the enemy from rocking backwards

Grab same side lapel and pull towards you while…
Kicking the locked foot through the grip
Use hand on the side with the foot on hip to remove the foot from the hip
Scoot out, then sit on that foot
Sit up to mount/KoB, depending on which shoulder/elbow enemy was using to trap the foot

Rolling:

We went five 5-minute rounds. First up for me was Dan the Man. I really like rolling with Dan–his style is the most contradictory to mine, at least if you discount brown belts and up. He’s tall and lanky (~150 lbs), and really technical. I try to be as technical as possible when rolling with him instead of relying on weight and power. Hopefully this will help me to learn his game better. We started with me (again) just trying to pass guard. I made it to side control and immediately moved to KoB, but without all the weight. I have limited attacks anyway, and without weight I can’t even start to set those up, so I focused on trying to travel. The result was me turtled up with Dan attacking. At one point he removed my lapel from my belt, so I was really on the lookout for a choke coming, but he didn’t do anything with it. He rode me for a long time and ended up attempting a bow and arrow, which I was able to defend.

Next up was Ana-conda. Another lighter and more technical opponent. Let her work some, and I did the KoB rotation successfully. Here I definitely focused on changing positions as much as possible–again, it’s still hard for me to attack without throwing weight on other people. Her mount is getting really good. Without muscle, I have a tough time escaping it. She actually inspired me to try some stuff she was doing later with Ed. These rolls are good for me because they force me to rely on technique only.

From here out, it was going against guys who have a more similar style to mine.

Good Ol’ Ed was my third round. I spent a lot of time with him in my full guard and attempted a cross-collar choke (now I know why it failed) and a triangle. This time, I was able to prevent him from passing to side control because I bailed on the triangle early and instead tried to get him in the RLDR position so I could go for the sweep. He recognized it and I wasn’t able to set up. But I realized that I was 75% there already, and even if I couldn’t get him to his back, I could still force a scramble for position. I’d have the advantage since I’d know when it was coming. It worked, and I was able to work towards a kimura before we ran out of time.

Roll 4 was Norm. From the get-go, I could see the triangle coming. It was like I was getting sucked into a black hole in slow motion. Tried and tried to avoid it, then defended early. He still got it. Norm. We restarted and he worked me through a few positions. Ended up trying a choke with me on bottom. I was able to bridge up and defend, but it was crazy uncomfortable. I think he cracked my neck about 5 different ways, which actually felt pretty good!

One more round with Ed. This time we went without Gi on the top. Changes the equation quite a bit, especially because I spent a lot of time in this roll with his back. Wished we’d had the gi so I could shoot for the bow and arrow since I’ve been having trouble with the rear naked choke. Oddly, the RNC was much more available all of a sudden. I almost finished it. Almost. This time I gave up on it before I got too tired and moved to mount and practiced grapevining him to flatten him out ala Ana-conda. This was a really good roll for me, but I felt bad for him. He’s got some nasty cauliflower ear going and I could tell he was favoring that the whole time–one reason the rear naked choke was so open for me.

Judo Throws – No Gi Open Mat 10.15.2016

October 16, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

We had a wedding to go to in the afternoon, and we hadn’t planned on making it on Saturday. But I was able to convince Bear Toe and Primo who were visiting from out of town to come work out. Coach Frank let us in at 11:00, and we had a blast.

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Lots of playing with positions and little mini-rolls, and I had one good long session with Ed. He was able to tap me with the Americana after about 15 minutes. Another guy, Mitch, showed up on his bike. He’s been training at the gym here and there, but our paths have not yet crossed. He was not what he appeared to be. Very strong, very technical. I have no idea what the criteria are for belts, but he’s a blue belt and it felt legit to me. I think I had a cardio advantage on him though. I was talking to him later and found out that he rides ~200 miles a week. He’s definitely more slow twitch than I was when I was all slow twitch, and I could feel it in the roll. Any burst of energy was giving me an opportunity to take advantage of his recovery.

Dave, who is a friend of Coach Frank’s from Ocala, was also there to train. He’s a jiu-jitsu purple belt, and a black belt in judo. He demonstrated three white-belt judo throws for us–definitely some stuff there for all of us to work on our stand up game. I hope he’s able to make ti back more often–super helpful! I rolled with him and could tell he was going pretty easy on me. He’d get a position and then hang there for a while to see how I reacted. I don’t know if I passed or failed, but I definitely did not threaten him. I felt like a ball of yarn getting batted around by a kitten.

Overall, the day was a success. Both Bear Toe and Primo had a blast and are looking for gyms!

Reverse De La Riva – BJJ Training Log 10.13.2016

October 13, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Smallish class tonight, and me the only white belt.

So, yeah…beat down.

For warm ups we mixed it up a little with grip fights, knee on belly drills, and reverse de la riva switching drill. I missed Tuesday’s class, so I was already behind on the RDLR, but wouldn’t have mattered a lot–it will be a while until that coordination kicks in for me. Not a problem–I was in the same place with KoB a month ago.

Oddly, the technique part of class was all reverse de la riva based, and I had a much easier time of it. The sweep I got (not perfectly, but I got it) immediately. Then we did another more technical move.

Reverse De la riva sweep

Pull ankle tight to the butt
Cross grip deep into the lapel
Same side grip on the cuff
Punch down and sweep

Like this

The RDLR to take back–I can’t even begin to explain. Luckily I can post a Kurt Osiander video and he can show it. Like he says in the video, this is a good one for little people.

I’m not a little people.

Three five minute rolls in rotation. Went with Norm first–one tap to some sort of choke, but I felt like I defended some others pretty well.

Next up was Dan the Man. He had a pretty tight triangle on me, but I stacked him up and was able to rotate out. That alone got me pretty tired. I was kinda sorta trying to work a baseball choke at the end, but I was screwing it up in every possible way. He probably was completely confuse.

Last was coach Frank. Of course he got my back, and then he aimed for the bow and arrow choke. I defended. I’m sure he could have submitted me a hundred different ways, but he seemed determined to try and get it, so I kept defending and looking for a way out. He got a wrist lock on me as the bell went off, so I didn’t have to tap. LOL

Gettin’ After It!