Day 45: X-Mass

My lack of laptop has kept me from updating as often as I'd like, which is a shame, because I've really been improving. The submissions are starting to come, just as everyone said that they would. It wasn't like a switch had been flipped, but still the room has started to brighten.

After the Americana from side control, I suppose that the next sub that I really started to get was the armbar from mount. It's a focus of our drilling, at least with Roger, and those drills are beginning to pay off. By staying tight and maintaining control of my opponent's torso, I've been able to get a good shot at swinging the leg over their head. Once there, I've been able to pinch with my heels to keep them from rolling toward me. Even if they defend by clasping their hands or similar I've been breaking the grip for the submission.

I was surprised when the armbars from guard started coming. My legs are pretty strong, so I have a tight closed guard (or so I'm told). Inexperienced opponents have been getting frustrated,I think, and I've just been working through the sequence I've been taught to get the armbar. Control the wrist with your near hand, then reach across and get a paw grip above the same elbow with your far hand. Upa and pull across to get the arm across your body. Now grab the far shoulder with the near hand to keep uke from posturing. Push off his hip with your near foot to change your angle, and bear down with your far leg to flatten him out further. Swing the near leg over for the armbar, taking care to get the back of your knee over his neck to keep it nice and tight. If you've done everything right, you don't even need your hands to control the arm anymore.

I've been getting the armbar variants for a week or two now, and I just got my first triangle today. I was rolling with Chris, a visiting blue belt who goes about 160. He was really careless trying to pass my guard and I just slapped the triangle on, without even thinking. I kept his head down, adjusted my foot into the bend of my knee, and that was it. He was rightfully abashed at forgetting the triangle threat when trying to pass.

It certainly is nice to have a few submissions that I feel I can work with confidence. Of course, there are tons more that I am still lacking. I would say that I need at least one go-to choke to round things out a little bit. I've been playing with the bow-and-arrow from the back and from knee on belly, but my positional control from those is not very good and has kept me from being able to submit (except armbars!).

Another problem area I tackled today was sweeps. I'm having a tough time getting any, even against training partners that I am submitting. Craig and I worked a little bit on diagnosing the problem and trying to improve my game there. The lesson came down to keeping options available, and being persistent. Starting with the scissor sweep, we worked to develop a decision tree for sweeps based on your opponent's counter. If the scissor doesn't go, you can recover your guard, or try a "re-counter". One re-counter we worked was the push sweep, which you might try if uke bases out very low and wide. Alternately, come up and grab uke's belt and sweep him back in the opposite direction on your knee. Craig gave some good resistance and I think it helped my functional understanding of the sweep series from the basic scissors. I'll be paying some attention to that this week.

Day 40: Equilibrium

December has been a cruel month for my training blog, especially now that my laptop has decided that it will no longer boot Windows. I was able to boot Knoppix from CD, but that is the subject of some other, much geekier blog.

I definitely feel like I am improving. My dedication is paying off, and I am starting to see things a bit differently and start to work my offensive game the tiniest bit. An interesting lesson came from Ernie (a newly minted black belt), regarding sensitivity. The actual content of the lesson regarded armdrag to the back from spider guard, but the concept involved is as general and fundamental to jiu-jitsu as can be. When you are gripping both of uke's sleeves, he may try to pull one arm back. You must be sensitive to this action and release the sleeve he pulls back, immediately transferring your grip to behind his opposite elbow for the armdrag. What I realized after my drilling was done was that this lesson can be extended to many positions (all of them, I would assume). When you feel your opponent moving to improve his position, you can often counter his movement with your own technique.

This really struck home as I was sparring with Omar, who is close to my level in that he is slightly smaller but more skilled. I had him mounted, and I felt that he was going to try to upa and roll me off. He did not have my arm trapped sufficiently, and I anticipated the roll, came up a bit, and spun immediately into the armbar that he so graciously turned his body to give me. It was so natural that I was shocked, I felt as if someone else was piloting me from behind my eyes. But as far as I know there wasn't. It was me.

I am definitely making some progress, and have been assiduous about making it to training. I'm trying to work my bottom game a bit, and I also am looking for a go-to submission from mount.

Day 35: Progress

I was excited for training today. I had been visualizing in my idle minutes today, thinking of triangles, of the satisfying thwack of my thigh against an unprotected neck and the dovetail of my foot into the back of its companion knee. The focus at class today...armbars.

Nevertheless, after an uncharacteristic cardio warmup, we went into drilling the armbar from mount. I worked with some heavyweights, Jason (350+) and Mario (230). Since we had just worked it on Saturday (Roger had Larry and I do 50 reps each), I was feeling pretty good about the move. Even so, Jason and Mario helped me sharpen my technique by having me concentrate on getting uke on his side when pulling the attacked arm from the shoulder.

Subsequent to drilling, we worked some positional sparring from the mount. I was able to work my arm trap upa escape successfully a few times, even against Craig. My attacks were less successful.

In free sparring, I worked with Mario on his preparations for the Machado tournament next weekend. He has short legs so can't easily play closed guard; I suggested he try an open guard, specifically, spider guard. We started from there and had some spirited rolls. I took advantage of some of Mario's mistakes and was able to apply the armbar from mount a few times. My confidence was high and I also had the moxie to try the triangle from mount twice. I couldn't lock it in (damn visualization!) but with Jack's sideline coaching I was able to transition to the armbar. I didn't get that either, but using a submission chain was a first! I even had a chance to go for an omoplata which I ended up turning into an armbar later on.

Rolling with Mario was a big confidence boost. I had been forgetting, in the midst of rolling with vastly superior opponents, what it was like to roll with someone who is just starting out. And I realized that I am just starting out, in one of the hardest sports around. And I've come a long way in a short amount of time.

Huzzah huzzah, Foos, there's still a long way to go.

Day 33: Half Empty or Half Full

With all of the holiday craziness beginning to take hold, I was very grateful to be able to make it to a training session today. The lesson plan was a cohesive one, beginning from the knee-slide open guard pass.

From the standing position, get inside grips on the knees of your uke. If you are heading to your left, step out with your left foot, and bring your right foot between uke's legs and nearly under his right cheek. Get a sleeve control with your left hand on his right, and then drive your knee to the mat as you drive your head into uke's chest to keep him pinned. It's important to keep your hips in line with your knee as you slide through. Unhook your foot from his leg, then shift your base into side control. Typically you;ll want your right hand posted on the opposite side of uke's body from the leg you're passing through, which transitions to the underhook if he catches you in half guard as you are sliding across.

It was just this scenario we practiced next. If you get the knee down but your ankle is trapped, you have several options. You can simply try and free it by continuing your knee slide action, remembering to keep your hips in line with your knee. However, I found this unsatisfactory as it allows uke to come up very far on his side and it made me feel vulnerable to having my back taken. Alternately, you can work transitions from within his half guard. You can move your knee from his right side to his left, and then with the right underhook in place you can use your free leg to strip his locked legs and go directly to mount. Or perhaps you would prefer to swing your left (free) leg over uke's body, and then control his knee with your hand, subsequently stripping his legs from your ankle with a combination of your hand and free leg. If this transition doesn't work straight away, you can flip back across and try to pop the leg free, again into the mount.

After dead-pattern drilling and some live positional sparring, I rolled with Jack a few times. As always, he had some helpful nuggets for me, wrapped in glistening cauls of pain. Most importantly, he showed me an escape from omoplata when your opponent has not controlled your belt or opposite shoulder. It's easy to just roll on the trapped shoulder and poof! you're out of trouble. Be quick though, as soon as you are rolled down into the omoplata, or your opponent will immobilize you and kill your roll.

My penance is done in advance...gluttony awaits.

Day 30: Milestones

I've been remiss in updating my training diary. Since there is scant possibility of a readership for these notes, I'm only hurting myself. Which, as it turns out, just makes me feel worse.

I started training around two months ago, and I've made it to 30 training sessions. That's a pretty good rate, I think, and a pretty good value for my unlimited training contract. I'm motivated to continue at a comparable rate.

Also: Kahlil got his brown belt today. His emotional response was touching to see.

As for me, I'm the low man. The survival blues are doing their thing. I feel like I'm learning, but the ass-kickings have not decreased in frequency, they just take a little longer. Being able to intellectually grasp that this is the way it is supposed to be, and simultaneously being unable to suppress the emotional response to repeated strangulation and joint locks offers a lovely bit of cognitive dissonance. That's the name of the game in jiu-jitsu, apparently. Maybe it's a microcosm of life in that respect, a lesson in resisting the pull of the animal and striving for rationality. Or maybe I should quit being philosophical and just train.

Roger was at class, presumably for the purpose of awarding Kahlil his promotion. We kept it simple with some guard-passing circuits for quite a long time. I had some ups and downs, getting annihilated by Jack and swept quickly by Del as well. However, I hit the hip bump sweep on Christian and was able to block Damon's triangle attempt, stack him, and pass. Aris took some time to explain the importance of posture when you are in someone's guard, showing me how to get a wide base with my knees, keep my back straight and keep my head up. It is way easier said than done.

By the time we wrapped up circuits I was nice and tired, but Jack must have sensed my malaise as he slithered over for a roll. My confidence was nicely smashed by the time I tapped to his Americana. I guess one needs to choke down some nasty medicine to get better.

Day 26: Sometimes you eat the bar

I took a few days off for a restorative journey into King's Canyon national park with a few comrades over the weekend. Much grandeur was observed and much fun was had.

Back at home, there was training to do. I felt very fresh and ready to work as I arrived, and after a very quick warm-up I dove right into a circuit training session focused on passing the open guard. From the top I did pretty well, avoiding getting my sleeves gripped and trying to control both of my opponent's pants cuffs with one hand by reaching under one leg to grab the opposite cuff. From the bottom I did not do as well. I allowed my opponents to get sleeve grips and was slow in tracking their movements and I found myself in side control often. Not surprisingly, my bottom game still trails my top game.

Rod stepped in for Kahlil and taught an excellent series of moves from the "baseball slide" open guard pass. Uke is sitting up, legs wide and arms extended to defend, while you are standing. Get his right sleeve with your left hand, and get a thumb-out deep grip inside his collar with your right hand. Aim to grab the label of his gi. Step deep between his legs with your right leg, and pull the grips toward you as you slide your right knee over his right leg. Pass to side control, where you should have your right collar grip deep. Now reach for his lapel or shoulder with your left hand as close as you can to your right hand, and drop your elbows and squeeze for a nasty modified baseball-bat choke. Alternately, if he defends the choke, push, then pull the defending arm across his body and drop your weight down on it as you squeeze the collar grip for another choke.

After we finished working the drill, "little" Larry showed me the bow-and-arrow choke, which is, in the parlance of Aesopian, totally awesome.

Finally I had a chance to roll with Omar, who is one of my favorite training partners at the moment. He Kimura'ed me twice, though I did work hard for a sweep escape from kesa gatame. I worked some half guard specifically and Omar had some good pointers. Since you must keep your elbows in to guard against armlocks, use your legs to create your mobility. Get on your side. Push your opponent away. Shrimp to guard.

Overall, a very good session that found me recharged, rejuvenated, and ready to improve.

Day 24: Survival Blues

I left work late and got to the gym around 7. There were only a few guys around; all the regulars were there.

No drilling, just sparring tonight. I drew Jack right off the bat. I played a bit at passing his open guard, working my hand under one leg to get the opposite ankle and try ing to collapse both legs for the pass. I had a small measure of success, but soon found myself swept and fighting off the choke. Jack is a crafty player and is always giving me something to worry about. When he has the mount I have tons of trouble working escapes because he constantly threatens the Ezekiel choke and forces me to defend it. If I get sloppy with my elbows defending the choke, that's an instant keylock or some other painful destination.

I shouldn't be discouraged about getting mauled by Jack. He's a very good blue belt who gives the purple belts a hard time, every time. Nevertheless, it's hard to get my mind in the right place, to drop the remnants of my ego and those useless concepts of "winning" and "losing". I'm trying. It's going to be a long road, and I hope that I've grown enough to enjoy the ride.

Day 23: Slippery When Wet

Nogi today. I went with a new long-sleeved rash guard to minimize my exposure to the mats, with drug-resistant staph causing all sorts of hysteria. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. Ringworm sucks too.

I got started with some informal drilling with Ian. We worked triangles, then some sweeps. I liked the hip bump sweep. Open your guard, then sit up (on an elbow if necessary) and get your same-side arm behind uke. Then bridge towards him and twist your torso to sweep. Finish in mount. We also worked the hook sweep from butterfly (including the leg-slide variant). We started to roll lightly (Ian's a little guy) but my nose started bleeding again. Damn you, dry, soot-filled air!

After staunching my flow, Damon and I lined up for a go. It was a pretty good one. I showed some mobility and even had a chance to work my new triangle escape-- and it worked! Later, Damon went for the D'Arce/Brabo grip when I was turtled. In response, I went for the Kimura try that Omar showed me but I couldn't get it to go. Eventually he nailed me with a Kimura of his own but I think I did a pretty good job.

At the end of the session Jack was game, so we rolled a bit. He triangled me several times, which sucked. However, I did manage to escape his side control (he probably let me) and get full guard. He broke my guard pretty quickly, but let me in on a good insight, one that I am slowly coming around to. He scooped my leg, which to him was an instant "signal" for triangle. Moves have signatures, templates perhaps, that demand their application. That is how we "flow with the go"; by reading the signals our opponent sends and the templates he cycles through. For example: uke in your open guard, one arm out = triangle. Hand flat on the mat = Kimura. You can short-circuit the decision making process, achieve "no mind," by using the template positions as triggers. I'll be on the lookout for more of these as my training progresses.

Day 22: Escape from Jitsu Island

Yesterday and today were similar, so I'll mash them up together.

We've been working controls from the spider guard, specifically the arm wrap. Get sleeve grips ("joysticks") with your knees inside uke's arms and your feet on his hips. Then you can escape your hips and wrap the arm you escaped away from. Return your hips and get that foot back on uke's hip. From there you can control the other arm with foot-on-bicep. You can bicep sweep from here, or go for the triangle.

If you lose control of the unwrapped arm, stay with it. Turn on your side and use your knee to keep uke from coming around. Recover to your knees, taking his arm with you. Then adjust your angle to go back to spider, or pull him in for full guard. If you're good you can roll for the omoplata, but I'm not, so I didn't.

Both days we worked on using and passing this guard. I had some mixed results. I caught Damon with the bicep sweep, which got me pretty stoked. Craig got his knee in between my legs and broke my grip, and it was downhill from there.

During Jack's daily ass-kicking, he showed me a neat escape from the triangle. Immediately after it gets slapped on, slam your body (and uke's leg) down on the mat to the side of the leg that is right on your ear. Then you can hop your legs over uke and twist out and escape. It sounds tough but it's not.

Day 20: This ain't Taylor. Taylor been shot.

I guess there was a case of the Mondays going around at school today. Sparse attendance, and no specific drill to work. Talk of the tournament was the order of the day. The rest of us were left with an open mat.

I rolled with Mark first. He pulled guard and I worked to pass. To his credit he baited me by opening his guard and nearly catching me in a triangle as I tried to slide my knee across his leg. I was able to work my other hand in an avoid the choke. Eventually I passed his guard got side control, and I remembered to drive my shoulder hard into his face to keep him uncomfortable and pinned. After some hard work I finished with the Americana.

We went again, and he wanted to work his top game, which was fine by me. I was looking forward to applying what I had learned from Larry, and I immediately controlled his sleeves and opened up my guard (scary!). I worked my leg up onto his bicep and got the sweep. Yes! Mark gave his approval. We re-set and worked a few more from my guard.

Jack brutalized me a bit, and as usual that's not worth writing much about. I'm getting better but am still helpless against him.

At the end of the session, I went once with Omar. From the start I got him with an armdrag and took his back. I tried to work a few chokes and also tried to get my hooks in, but couldn't. We ended up with me in front headlock with him turtled. As I worked for the Brabo choke, he sprawled and turned and got me in a Kimura. Dang. Slick, I had to hand it to him.

I'm making progress. Hitting the sweep against Mark and the armdrag against Omar were both confidence builders.

Day 19: Made of Jiujitium

So I missed a few training log entries. These things happen.

Saturdays are more sparsely attended at the gym, which is great, because there is some more teaching and personal attention. Roger taught class, with Kahlil, Jason and Jess at the tournament in Santa Cruz. After a good warmup, I worked the guard-sweep-armbar flow with Craig. He favors the hands-on-chest position for spinning to the armbar from mount. It pins uke to the floor, and simultaneously takes the weight off of your legs making it easy to spin to the armbar.

The goodies came when Roger heard us discussing options from a failed scissor sweep, such as when uke sees it coming and bases by splaying his knees out. You have several options here.

1. Shift your hips so that your trapping leg (the one flat on the floor) is trapping his knee in its new position. Then, scissor sweep!
2. Trap his other arm and sit up so you can get his belt. Use the leg with the knee in to sweep in the opposite direction you intended to go.
3. Transition to the stupid simple sweep. Mount with smugness.
4. Spin back for an armbar. Only works if you're good.

We then worked sweep training. I was partnered with Larry, a bull of a man, around 6'2", maybe 250. He is a great, patient teacher. So many little but important tips!

When uke has a grip on your cuff, grab his cuff and get your knee down on his wrist. He will release.

Axiom: never be flat on your back except in closed full guard. Larry uses this position for rest only.

Rod's sweep-- get double joysticks. Open guard, get feet on hips, their arms outside your knees. Walk your feet up their body and sit up. Then get one foot on the bicep, flatten and scissor the other as you bicep sweep.

For side control escapes, turn your body immediately, towards him (chest to chest)-- this makes space. Then get the knee in and recover guard.

If your right arm is in danger of being armbarred, and he already has the leg over your head, grasp your lapel with your right hand. Then work your left arm under the leg thats over your face, and bridge strong over his right (back) shoulder.

Great session. I gained confidence in not being afraid to open up my guard, improved my escapes, and learned some new sweeps while improving the ones I knew. It's nice to have fifty instructors instead of one.

Nice choke

Here's a cool video that was posted on the Sherdog MMA forums. In particular, check out the "loop choke" that the guy uses at about 1:30 remaining. That's something nice and sneaky that I'd like to add, along with the Ezekiel choke. I especially like the delayed reaction the opponent has to these chokes-- they don't even realize it's a choke until it's too late. Heh.

Day 16: Nogi Bear

Today was a pretty informal no-gi session that was nevertheless very productive. Jess, one of the few women currently at the school, was doing tournament training and had a fair portion of the mat and Kahlil's attentions. That left the rest of the class mainly to our own devices. Kahlil shooed me over to the other white belts for some drilling.

Bill, Bobby and I worked escapes, which seem to be in high demand at this stage of my training. Bill showed me a gem of an escape from mount. Extend your left leg and turn to your left side. Hook his right leg with your right heel, pulling it over your extended left which gives you half guard as you immediately turn onto your right side. You can then even try the overhook with your left arm, and after feinting right, with his pushback you can underhook his left leg with your right arm and sweep his to your left. Slick.

I rolled with Damon a few times after we drilled. I had some good rolls and felt very mobile without the gi. I missed the kimono's mystery, its bottomless array of sneaky sleeves and lapels, but I did not miss the friction or the bevy of points for my opponent to grab me. As Damon and I were sparring he threw me, and my knee smacked hard into Bill's head. It hurt my knee, and I was wearing kneepads, so his noggin must not have been feeling so good. He sat there, stunned, for a few minutes until Kahlil brought him an icepack. I felt bad.

I played some closed guard with Damon and felt reasonably comfortable. For a short time I was able to control his head and/or arms, but was unable (or afraid) to attempt any offense. As he opened my guard I thought about sweeping, but he just grabbed my leg and flipped me over. Boo.

When Damon and I finished Del invited me to go a few rounds. He has not been so friendly up to now, but I suspect it's just his reaction to n00bs. The dude is absolutely ripped, very big and very strong. He threw me around a little bit (as he later explained, I came in way too high), but I was able to work a little position (I got half guard from mount with the move Bill just showed me) but that's about it. He sank some RNCs on me with apparent relish, as well as hit a Kimura that I would rather not experience again. Perhaps I passed his hazing, as he came over and we chatted a bit after the roll and he seemed to loosen up.

I also took my nightly ass-beating at Jack's hands. Nothing new to report there.

I'm feeling frisky-- maybe I will try the Saturday session tomorrow as Booka needs to work.

Day 15: Tough guy golf

Great session today. I learned a whole lot, had some good rolls and some good laughs.

I drilled a single leg takedown with Damon first. Your grips are reversed- you have lapel-elbow, and he has your lapel where you have his elbow and vice versa. You want the leg near his lapel grip. Pull that arm to bring the leg forward, then dip your head into his shoulder. Release your grip on his elbow and push downward with your forearm and elbow into the crook of his arm. This exposes his leg. Shoot and take it, then sweep out the remaining foot for the takedown.

Omar then worked with me on a funky sweep from the spider guard based on the arm wrap. You have joysticks, his arms in. Turn onto your right side and dip your foot inside his arm, keeping your grip and hooking his back. Then get your other knee and shin up against his midsection, using a grip on his knee to turn away from the wrapped arm. Now, pull him onto your shin and sweep him over at 45 degrees. This is a tricky one.

I rolled with Omar, Jack, and Spencer. Omar is a good training partner. He is close to my size and skill level (slightly smaller and better, respectively) and he understands the technical aspects of the game so that we can interact on those terms very well. We had a good, long, semi-relaxed roll that ended up with me tapping to an armbar. Jack annihilated me again but also gave me some good pointers. I kept getting my arm trapped across his waist trying to pass guard, leading to an easy sweep. He showed me the merits of digging my elbow into the inner thigh and grabbing the skirt or belt as you attempt to pass. He also showed me another way of dealing with the butterfly guard: get into it real deep, then reach under one hook and grab the opposite ankle. Then you can smush his legs downward and pass.

Toes are feeling better. Still sore, still loving it. Nogi tomorrow.

Day 14: Luxurious

So I may have earned a nickname: Luxurious. At least, that's what it'll be if Damon has his way. We were rolling, and he was probably about to armbar me, but at the time he had his face near mine and got a dose of the beard. He said something about it, and I replied that my growth was "luxurious". There it is.

We drilled the bicep sweep from the spider guard. Get your feet on his hips, and get grips on both sleeves. Try to get your knees inside his arms. Break him down, then shoot a leg into the crook of his elbow, nice and high, keeping the grip on his sleeve. Move your hips to get your leg higher, so that you are on your opposite side, ready to come up on your opposite elbow. Drop your other leg off his hip flat on the mat as the sweep pivot. Then pull with your arms and sweep him over with your leg to finish in mount. You can also triangle from here-- the pushing pressure on his bicep will induce him to push back. Slip your foot off his bicep as he pushes back, trap the other arm as you push on the hip (your foot was already there!) to turn your torso and go right into the triangle.

I sparred with Luke, Damon, James, and Jack. Damon showed me a nifty pass of half guard. Inch the foot of your trapped leg towards his butt so your knee comes uo until you can slip it out. Simple. Jack was brutal-- he wanted to try some things Roger showed him, and I guess I make a good dummy since I struggle a lot but don't really know how to do anything. He held my head up off the mat, so that I couldn't bridge off of it. This shortens your lever arm to the base of your shoulders and makes your upa much, much less effective. This one is simple enough for me to give it a try in the next few sessions.

Man, I need to sleep a bit.

Day 13: Black and White

I took three days off to regain some strength and relieve some muscle soreness that I couldn't shake. Even so, my hips and shoulders were still sore, and my toes as well. Disappointing, sure, but not enough to keep me off the mat.

Roger was giving the instruction today. He's The Man, so everyone was intent on listening. He judged me to be too green to participate in the main drill today, so I worked the guard-scissors sweep-armbar flow with Bill for the drilling session of class. That's fine, since I need work on just about everything. Unfortunately, Bill is pretty frail and I couldn't work the sweep with as much snap as I would have liked.

Rod was kind enough to roll with me and it was pretty instructive. He showed me a second pass for the butterfly guard. Get your hips on top of both legs and pin them to the mat, and then you have a good chance of passing around the guard. Another simple tip was regarding having side control: keep your leg that's near his knee down and tight to his body so that he can't slip his knee in and recover guard. Rod is very very good, so he toyed with me for a good while, sweeping me this way and that. He's such a nice guy and is really the epitome of the "leave your ego at the door" ethos. I enjoyed the sparring session and I was grateful he took the time to show me some things.

The entire class halted when Roger kitted up and started to roll with Kahlil (that's the spelling, at least on the attendance sheet). Roger is so in control when he rolls that it seems like he is not expending any effort at all. He slips and slides his limbs to all of the right spots and magically appears in the dominant position. I guess that is what should be expected from the guy with a black belt so old it's gray and falling apart, and it's his third one, to boot! Great stuff. I'm glad I was there.

After Del and Rod broke the spell by starting to spar, I rolled with Mark, a young guy I hadn't met before. He's a white belt with about 8 months of experience, and, get this- he's 16. He's also strong, fast, and skilled, and handled me pretty easily. I worked what there is of my game and was able to pass his guard a few times (he recovered it pretty quickly- alas). I escaped a triangle attempt with the move that Jack showed me last week, and I finally fought my way to side control and was able to hit the Americana. I was more happy with my work during the roll on escaping and fighting for position rather than "winning".

Day 12: You're humping way too much, troop

The first drill was stopping the hook sweep for the advanced students. Us white belts learned the hook sweep for the first time. It's simple: from butterfly guard, trap his arm, and get the underhook with your opposite arm. Then fall sideways (towards his trapped arm, so he can't base) and use your butterfly hook to sweep him over. Finish in mount.

Our second drill was armbars from various positions. From knee on belly on his left, make space with your left hand. Snake your right under his armpit, and pull the arm up so that his shoulder comes up off the mat. Spin your head-side foot around his body, and take the leg you were kneeling with and leave it by his shoulder. Sit down and he taps. Also learned armbar from rear mount with opponent turtled. Get your right hook in. Go under his arm and get the wrist. Turn so that your left shin comes across the back of his neck and get your knee down to the ground. Pull the arm out straight, then come down onto your side and tuck your bottom leg under the arm for the armbar.

I sparred with Damon, Jack, and Ralil, and got schooled pretty completely. Tip that came from this session: turn into the choking elbow to stop a choke. Otherwise, you're choking yourself more. Which I did. Jack and Ralil have hellacious butterfly guards. To try to pass, control the pants inside the knees, get some distance, then slide around the guard. Easier said than done, at least with those two. To escape from the triangle, posture up and try to get an arm between the legs that are choking you.

Damn, this is hard.

Day 11: Half Half and Half

Rod taught the white belts yesterday, delivering a structured lesson plan and teaching us some interesting techniques. I'm writing this the day after training for the first time, and the moves are already cloudy, convincing me that I shouldn't continue this practice.

First was a nifty escape series from side control. Your opponent is on your left. You have the underhooks (easier said than done?). Turn your hips so you can hook his heel with yours. Upa, then hip escape, push on his other knee, and slide your knee in front, then around his back. Finally remove the hooked heel and recover full guard.

I got my first formal instruction on the half guard, which is great, since I find myself there a lot when I can't recover full guard, for whatever reason. It's important to stay on your side in the half guard, keeping your opponent's weight off of you. We worked on recovering full guard from here first.

Rod then had us do a drill starting with one person in side control. Top man must improve his position or get a submission, bottom man must attempt to recover guard. Whoever accomplishes their goal first stayed on, and a new person rotated in. I did pretty well against the other white belts, and stayed through a full round.

Sparring was with Thomas, whom I outweigh but who is strong, determined and tough. I was able to armlock him with an Americana, but he came back and armbarred me. He's quite good and I was pleased that I held my own.

I'm starting to wear down a bit. My toes are hurting pretty bad and my shoulders are very sore as well. Wednesday will be an off day, then I plan to train Thursday and take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off to rest.

Day 10: Get Some

Tough day at work: meetings, meetings, meetings. Planning to plan. So I was really looking forward to training, even though my toes are killing me.

The drill was escaping from knee-on-belly. Your opponent is on your right, with his right knee on your belly and left knee drawn back adjacent to your head. Grasp his belt with your left hand in the "monkey paw" grip-- it's important you don't get your thumb under his belt or you can be injured. Right hand on his left knee, keeping him from circling his leg around your head. To escape, upa, then hip escape, with pushing pressure on knee and belt so that he can't recover knee-on-belly. Then you can slip a leg in and recover half guard, or scissor your legs to get to your knees (plant the elbow) and try a takedown.

As a companion to this drill we also learned to get knee-on-belly from side control. Simple: do a push up with your hands on the opponent, then slip the knee on and get the head side leg back. Use the back leg to drive your knee into the opponent's gut. Hand control is lapel and belt. It's important to get the leg near the head back for a good base.

I rolled with Bill, an older, lanky, awkward dude. I manhandled him pretty easily, and I didn't learn very much. Got him with an Americana and hit the armbar from mount, which was nice.

Fernando later invited me for another set. I admire the hell out of the guy-- he has some serious guts and he never quits. Definitely qualities I would like to cultivate in myself, nascent as they are. We sparred freely for a while, and Fernando got the better of me with his speed as I avoided using brute strength for passing his guard and getting side control, where he is helpless. He armbarred me once when I got careless. We then decided to do some situational work, which I found very, very useful. I let him start in dominant positions and work his game while I tried to escape. We also worked some sweeps from guard with full resistance, which was great.

I can see that I'm improving, but obviously there's a long way to go. I'm going to continue working on basics, like my hip escapes. Hips, hips, hips.

Day 9: Do not fear growing slowly

We go no-gi on Fridays, and it's a different game, for sure. The 5 o'clock class had an interesting drill that I missed out on-- working on weaknesses. This was basically situational grappling, with guys rotating through the positions they have trouble with, live. I guess it was not such a big deal to miss it, since I need work on everything.

The six o'clock drill was the armbar from the guard. Get an overhand cross grip on the arm. Reach across to their opposite shoulder, then pivot your body using foot pressure on their hip and your grip on their shoulder. Shoot the near leg up under their armpit, then push their head over so your other leg can clear it. Squeeze your knees and raise your hips-- don't cross your ankles. Keep your knees and shins tight against your opponent the entire time to keep them in control.

I rolled with Craig a few times and he was very good at recovering guard after I got side control. He showed me a way to combat the knee slide by underhooking the near leg. I think I made some progress with openings and guard passing, but I still left myself vulnerable to several armbars. I've got to resist extending my arms so freely and keep my elbows in. I'm starting to internalize this. Damon was obliging with an armbar as well, though I held him off for longer this time. Finally I rolled with James, who is about 170. I was dominant in side control (with the benefit of 50 pounds) but I couldn't finish as his defense was very strong.

Things are starting to make more sense. Going forward I'm going to try and work on my quickness, which is lacking, and my moves from the closed guard.

Day 8: Do clothes make the man?

I strutted out onto the mat in my new Koral gi (Thanks, Mary!) with little energy to spare. Jason was quick to spot my new garb and ribbed me playfully and loudly. Class was pretty sparsely attended, so we got right to it.

The technique today was the sweep from the X guard with the opponent standing. Starting in the butterfly guard, control his arm and move one of your legs over onto his opposite knee. Switch hands with the sleeve grip, and turn perpendicular to get an underhook on the leg that your feet are not controlling. Try to get his calf on your shoulder-- you can use your underhook to pull yourself in. Now break his posture, scissor your legs, and roll with him into side control or mount.

I had a pretty easy time with this move, and worked several reps with Mario, Luke, and Jermaine. We also worked it from standing, with a cross crip on the sleeve, collar control with the other hand, pulling right into the butterfly guard.

At sparring time I rolled with Jason first. He's huge-- at least 300 pounds. He let me get position on him and I tried to land an Americana but couldn't. Later I also got in position for a Kimura, and had it set up, but he is very flexible and escaped, and finally made me tap to the "paper cutter" gi choke. I then rolled with Chris, a blue belt who is stocky, compact and very strong. He choked me out twice, pretty quickly-- I forget how. Near the end of the session I invited Luke to roll. We started the same day so we share a sort of kinship-- also he offers a good barometer of my training progression. Unfortunately he is about 160 pounds so it's not entirely fair. He's fast, and I wind up in his guard after every restart. I'm way stronger, so I can pass by getting my knee over his thigh and into side control, which is where I want to be. I got him on an Americana and a Kimura, and almost landed the armbar from the mount. Encouraging, but a little too easy.

For next time, I need to continue to work on my hip escapes and try to actually get opponents into my guard instead of getting sucked into theirs and immediately playing the guard-passing game.

Day 7: Feelin' good's good enough

Today was a lot better than yesterday. I got to class fairly early and took some initiative of my own to get some work done. I met Thomas for the first time, and he agreed to practice the guard pass/mount escape drill that Ernie showed me yesterday. Thomas showed me the escape from the mounted position, using the Gable grip to break down the opponent's posture, hooking the near heel with the leg, and rolling out of mount into their guard. I then passed guard and we cycled through again.

Guard passing was the order of the day, and Ralil stressed the need to use multiple passing tactics based on the opponent's defense. We began with the basic guard passes: sliding around to side control, the various knee-through methods, and the stacking pass. Then we worked scenarios for a blocked pass, requiring a change of tactics.

Ralil showed Luke and me the common escape from side control, using the upa to the hip escape, followed by bringing the leg across to recover guard. I did pretty poorly at this and I will have to practice my hip escape so that I can create more space for bringing my leg across.

To wrap up class, I rolled with Damon, who had his fingers taped after his injury on Friday. His strength was undiminished, however, and he worked me pretty hard. Armbar, Kimura, armbar. He showed me a good armbar defense when you are in his guard-- take the elbow of your vulnerable arm and drive it into his navel, and cup your chin as if you're really thinking hard. Then you can try to pass guard by getting your other arm inside his leg and getting a knee over.

Fernando was game again, and I grudgingly obliged him. His reasoning was that he had to beat me now, before I "got too good." I almost immediately put him into a Brabo choke from our knees and he tapped quick-- too easy. We went again and I armbarred him instinctively; it was pretty cool. He got me once when I slipped off a second attempt at the Brabo. Afterwards, he mumbled about "not rolling with me anymore." Heh. I felt bad for taking it to a much smaller guy, but I wasn't going to roll over for him, and he challenged me, to boot. I admire his pluck and I'm glad I didn't injure him.

Next goal: perform a submission on someone in my weight class.

Day 6: A new guy's life isn't worth as much

The earth rushed up at me this evening, and struck me surely and squarely in the mouth. I wasn't expecting to come back down so suddenly, but here I am, crumpled in a heap.

Hyperbole aside, today was a tough session that illuminated the problems I am going to face for the next few weeks at the least. As the low man on the totem pole, there is not a lot of incentive for people to work with me. Like Naps wrote, it's like 'Nam, and nobody cares about the new guy. I was unable to get to class at 6 due to an untimely accident from one of the canines of the house, so I missed the lesson and the drilling. While the early arrivals rolled, I was in a sort of limbo, trying to get warmed up, but with no real direction.

Damon dislocated his finger Friday, so my favorite partner was out of action. Ralil told me to go through some of the warmup movements, like the snake move and rolling from the knees to the bridge position and back. While I understand the importance of these movements, there was very little room to be shrimping across the mat so I did as well as I could.

Shortly, LV showed up, and I was glad to see him. He's an older guy, and he seems to have taken an interest in my education. We worked through the scissor sweep, which I still screw up when I try to do it quickly. LV made me concentrate on being fluid, not jerky, and I even closed my eyes for few repetitions. It helped. I then got some additional help on the armbar from the guard, again concentrating on being fluid and not tensing up so much. I think I made some progress, but I can't really be sure at this point. I was able to show LV the sweep we had learned from the butterfly guard a few days ago, giving him a little tip on leg positioning that he found intriguing. It appears that I am retaining something.

LV had to go to work, so I was again left to float. Ernie, a brown belt, was not happy with my languor and admonished me to find someone to work with and gave me a simple guard pass (that I hadn't learned) to work on. Gus grudgingly agreed to allow me to practice with him, but his mind was somewhere else. He was in no mood for developing a white belt's guard passing skills.

I ended my session rolling with Jack, who made sure to let me know just how far I had to go. Armbar, armbar, armbar, choke, choke, armbar...Damn. He's so fricking tall, and he uses the butterfly guard so well that I couldn't do anything. I did manage to snatch his extended arm, palm down on the mat, but I couldn't get my legs onto it and he was soon choking me instead. I was not really happy with my performance other than that I paced myself better and didn't burn up my energy right from the start. Pretty discouraging, all told. I better brace myself, though, because apparently there is a pretty big wall at about two months in that I'll have to face. Presumably knowing that it's coming will help. I hope.

Week 1 comes to a close

Goddamn, this is addictive. I wasn't really planning on training 4 out of 5 days this week, but as the end of the day came around I couldn't keep it out of my mind.

Thursday started off with some heavy drilling of an arm drag sweep from the spider guard. I'm going to describe it so I can commit it to memory-- this will probably be useless for any readers. Drag the arm in across their body and get it in it under your leg. Slide your opposite leg across under that leg and hook your instep around your opponent's knee, and get the other instep in back of his knee. Then pull him onto you to break his posture, and quickly roll using your leverage on his arm and his knee to get mount or side control.

I had Damon as a sparring partner for this, which is great. He's bigger and stronger than me, so I can't bully my way through any of the moves and I have to use good technique. It doesn't hurt that he's pretty funny-- when we roll he sings about jiu-jitsu in a high-pitched voice to show me that you need to relax. Good execution is "jiu jittery". It's funnier when you're there, trust me.

We rolled a little more "for real" this time after drilling, and I realized how far I have to go. He let me get some good positions but I was still powerless to get any submissions. I resisted his attempts well, I think, more on instinct than on technique. I tried to keep my hands in and clasp them palm to palm when I was in trouble, and for the most part that wasn't bad. My stamina still sucks, though, and I felt bad that I couldn't give my partner a better roll.

Near the end of practice Fernando asked me if I wanted to roll. He's a white belt that has been training for about a month, and I have at least 70 pounds on him. I was about to decline, but he seemed game, and hey, what the hell. He is very fast and nearly got me in a triangle right from the get-go, but I was able to muscle my way out of it. Once I got side control he really had no way to escape my 220 pounds, especially after I had sprawled out and dropped my hips. I got him to submit to an Americana from this position, and then again with a Kimura on our next round. I was proud to show what I had learned, but it seemed pretty unfair. He paid me back when my wind ran out and he got me with a guillotine choke.

By Friday I was a little beaten up but there was no way I was going to miss training. Friday is no-gi, and I figured I needed to get a feel for that aspect of the game. We started by drilling an escape from tight side control with a "forklift" arm posture and "machine gun" bridging. It got interesting when we built it up to rolling out into a position to get one of two chokes (by rolling towards the opponent's head) or a takedown (by rolling towards the legs).

I rolled with Craig and he showed me a few new things. The best was the armbar from the guard-- a bread-and-butter technique. I had a conceptual leap to understanding that a missed triangle flows very easily into the armbar, which I guess means that I am starting to "get it". Craig still armbarred me very easily a few more times, but I showed some spunk, and started to relax a little more. He's not as strong as Damon but he's more technical so it was an interesting session. Everything is still happening very fast but I am starting to grasp how things flow, so there's a start.

I'm going to take the weekend off to get restored. If it doesn't rain too hard I'll take one of the dogs up on one of the trails in the morning to get some blood flowing to my legs. My groin and hips are totally rocked!

Day 3

My last email to Naps (well, at least about BJJ). From here on out he can read the blog.

Naps:

I thought about training all day today. It's like being a kid again: sitting in class, my mind wandering, already done with my assignments and just waiting for football practice. Except there's so much less bullshit than with football or even rugby practice. That's something I appreciate at my advanced age. Let's just get to it, fuck the rah-rah stuff.

Today: lots of work on the triangle choke from the spider guard, some work on side mount positioning, escapes from side mount, and also work on linking moves together in a sensible way. I got another good bunch of lessons from tall, wiry Jack, and from Craig, "Crime Scene". Again I was denied the "forbidden moves".

Having a blast,
Foos

Naps replies:

Foos,

You have to realize that everyone wants to be there. Football and rugby has minimal costs, it's a team sport, and if you want to get lost in the shuffle, no problem. Dropping $200 a month and risk injury to fight other dudes isn't something you show up to half-hearted. Most guys in my school have shitty jobs and making the $150 a month is a big sacrifice for them.

Keep working those basics. My ground basics are pretty poor because my stand up and top game are dominant. Being a complete, well-rounded fighter is much better and at this point I probably rely too much on my conditioning and intensity. I have plenty of holes in my game to fill but I'm lucky enough to make up for it in other ways.

I trained tues and will be hitting it thurs, fri and sat. Friday's are the toughest because me and another guy run the open mat. We do conditioning circuits and lots of situational grappling. Steve designed this week's program and I think he's a little overzealous. He sent me an email, here's the plan:

Warm-up (total 16 min)
2 min each

* pummeling drill
* hand fighting (one person in guard)
* posturing up (one person in guard)
* standing hips forward (one person in guard)

Repeat

Grappling (total 15 min)
5 min each
3 rounds changing partners


Workout Routine (total 15 min) will require partner
1 min each
3 rounds

* fireman's carry
* medicine ball circle, throw and sprawl
* box jumps and ladders
* crab walk
* sit-up weighted ball toss


End session with "King of the Hill" take down round (open weight and rank)


This is our tournament prep. I will usually only BJJ 2 or 3x's a week normally. Keep working it bro and we'll have a showdown next time we get together.

I replied:

Naps:

Believe me, I appreciate that everyone wants to be there. I have never done an individual sport before so I was surprised by the difference.

That conditioning circuit looks very challenging. In fact, it looks a bit insane. Just regular drilling is enough to use me up at this point, alas. It's motivating me to improve!

Day 2

Another email to Naps.

Wow.

I signed up for my first month today. Changed into the loaner gi and met Roger, the instructor who runs the school. He told me to warm up so I did some jumping jacks, some pushups, and some squat thrusts to get a sweat going. Roger partnered me up with Damon, another white belt who has been training about 8 months. We worked a simple sequence: neutral to guard, simple sweep out of the guard, then into an armbar from the mount. I did 20 reps just getting into the guard, then 20 sweeping out, and then another 10 putting on the armbar from the mount. I had a tough time with the body position for the armbar at first, but the students are very good teachers and I learned it pretty quickly. After doing the moves separately, we strung them together, switching off back and forth. Just a few of these and boy, was I gassed. My conditioning is in bad shape so I will have to work on that. I managed to get through, I don't know, 12 or 14 complete sequences.

I drank a bunch of water and basically was a total mess. I managed to pull myself together a little and Damon showed me some ways to apply the Kimura. Roger, who was dressing to leave, jokingly admonished Damon not to show me the "forbidden moves!" We laughed. We did a few more reps and Damon said it was enough. I guess I looked bad. I did some pushups and situps and tried not to throw up.

One of the blue belts, Jack, took me over and showed me a simple escape from his guard. I was able to "thread the needle" with my knee and get side control, when he let me, at least. We rolled for a little while until I couldn't go anymore.

Man, was it fun. The positions and moves are so rich with purpose and function, which resonates for me completely. The stuff "for show" that's in other martial arts always really put me off of them; I really like that everything in BJJ is there for a reason.

Another convert of the "gentle art",
Foos

Naps replies:

That's friggin' great! You're just scratching the surface, it gets better.

My tournament is Nov 10th (no-gi) and Nov 11th (gi). I think Dad is going to try to make the gi event. I've been getting my weight down and getting my cardio up. Down to 194, fighting 180-189 and running 6 - 8 miles a morning and bjj 3 to 4 times a week. Wish we went live more, feel like I need more grappling time to feel ready to rock. Hopefully we'll crank it up when it gets closer.

You're on your way to being an ass kicker. You need to start watching UFC and MMA fights to start seeing how bjj is used in real fight situations. You'll be amazed how good and tough those guys really are now that you're doing it.

Keep me updated and I'll do the same.

Day 1

My first few entries are email exchanges with my brother, who suggested I try this sport in the first place.

Naps:

I had a good time tonight. There was another absolute beginner there, so the instructor (Ralil? pronounced with an H sound but I already know about those Brazilian R's) taught us some basic skills and just had us practice them on each other. We learned how to sit down into the guard position, the scissor sweep from the guard, the cross collar choke, the Americana armbar, and a bunch of other things. It was really, really cool how you need to position you body and your opponent's boby as levers and pivot points to gain maximum leverage for what you want to accomplish. I totally geeked out on the physics involved.

Things at the school were pretty informal and relaxed (this is California, after all) and all of the experienced guys were more than willing to help out. I would have appreciated more of a top-down approach, as in, "These are main ideas of BJJ. You should always..." But that is a minor complaint. I didn't have a chance to have my ass well and truly kicked by any of the experienced guys, but I suppose that there's time enough for that.

Thanks for turning me on to this. I hope it keeps being fun. Drop some wisdom about training on me too.

Naps replies:

It's like Nam. When you're new, you don't really count because so many guys watch the ultimate fighter, come out for a week and "die" or quit. No one will give a shit about you until you there a month or two.

If you watch UFC or any BJJ tournaments, the basic things are what win fights. Arm bars, triangle chokes, and guillotine chokes dominate so learn those. On the defensive side, never extended your arms. Always keep them tucked and move them like they're attached with a rope. Extended and separated is recipe for arm bar and triangle.

How's the back? We've both had our injuries and remember that you're paying them, so if you feel you can't roll that day and just want to do technique, let them know that. When I was plagued with my injuries, I was missing class because I wasn't 100% so my instructor called me up and said to use the time to sharpen my technique.

Try to do cardio on your off days. It doesn't matter what you know if you don't have the gas tank to go. When you get in better shape and you wrestle a guys that aren't, you can actually feel them give up. From there you can do whatever you want to him. That's when it's fun.

I told my instructor and he was excited that I passed the BJJ bug.

BJJ is like tough guys golf man. It's addicting cause the first time you tap someone out, you can't wait to do it again. And like golf, you can ALWAYS get better. In saying that, I hit golf balls at least once a week now. Golf and BJJ, a match made in heaven. Good luck. Keep the questions rolling.

Wait till you wrestle, it'll make rugby feel like flag football.

Another blog? Totally unnecessary, Foos.

Maybe it is. But I'm trying something new, and I'm going to use this to keep track of my experiences and the development of my skills in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.