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.