Tag Archives: Exercise

Jiu jitsu Class Notes – 9/17

18 Friday Sep 2015

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Hey everyone! I’m publishing these instead of keeping them private as some of my mentors have demanded progress notes. Its easier to share and possibly even get comments/hints from fellow practitioners by doing it this way.

Takedown class: Backfalls, sidefall + technical standup, grip stripping, snapdown series, snapdown + hiza guruma, snapdown + double leg takedown, free gripfighting for 2 minutes and ate an accidental headbutt to the nose for my troubles.

Ground class: closed guard pass – opened guard by standing up, inserting a leg, then sitting down into combat base. Cut across the thigh with the knee, then passed. It went almost exactly like this. A little more digging revealed that its called “the logsplitter”

The second series began in closed guard against someone with good posture. It was very similar to this video from Draculino – use the knee to break the grip of one arm while maintaining control of the other with a same side grip at the elbow and a cross grip at the lapel near the collar bone. Establish a high guard with the gripped arm forward of the hips, bridge and adjust the arm for the triangle, then swivel and fiddle with leg position for the choke. If the triangle isn’t working, the next step in the series was unlock the locking leg on the triangle, bring it briefly to the floor to get some spring in order to get the leg over the head and the ankles crossed while rolling up on the shoulder opposite the trapped arm. Then its time to arch and arm bar, something like this.

This was the last move drilled – going for the triangle using the knee to break the grip and clear the arm, but the tricksy opponent pulls his arm out to defend against the triangle. Draculino demonstrates it very well here, and adds the additional tip to force the opponent’s head to the mat to break his posture. I’ll link to another Grapplearts video for an explanation of triangles and some funky variations.

My brain was fried by the end, so no rolling this time. Now that I feel like I’m starting to have some game and my cardio’s getting back on track, I’ll add that to the mix!

Jiu Jitsu class notes 9/15

17 Thursday Sep 2015

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Attended the takedown class and wondered how I used to do sprawling drills and breakfalls for 45 minutes at a shot…a few minutes has me gasping and sweating.

Takedowns & techniques worked: sprawls, technical standup (without the kick. http://www.grapplearts.com/2014/08/bjj-self-defense-part-4-the-technical-standup/?nabe=5701865648947200:1), peeling the grip off the lapel, single leg + counter (get head into attacker’s chest and mule kick the leg free), snapdown series (jerk with arms, jerk with arms and a step back, “snap the towel” and step back), snapdown + hiza guruma, snapdown + double leg. It took me a while to figure out that the trip we were doing was actually called “hiza guruma”, but perseverance and hitting the judoinfo.com site paid off! It also led me to spend more money at Amazon on a few judo books, too.

Anyway, check it out: http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/hizaguruma.htm . When it’s done right, its effortless.

Moving into the grappling portion of the night, we started with breakfalls, penetration steps, and shrimping drills. Most were familiar but my back roll and penetration steps were pretty sloppy and need more drilling. There was a funky reverse shrimping movement that I hadn’t done before that wasn’t at all intuitive, too. Here’s an explanation of the movement from Ritchie Yip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io63PwUHNrc

After 5 or 10 minutes of breakfalls we covered pulling guard – gripping sleeve and collar, placing a foot in the crease of the same side hip, then dragging the opponent into the guard. This progressed naturally into the “monkey flip” aka tomoe nage. http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/tomoenage.htm

The progression then led to various sweeps from the guard against a standing opponent – I assume the intent was to chain these attacks against an opponent who didn’t get pulled down into the closed guard position. The “Tripod” and “Tomahawk” were the ones we worked. http://www.grapplearts.com/2013/07/3-open-guard-options-vs-standing-opponents/?nabe=5701865648947200:1

There were also some De la Riva sweeps and a monkey flip that I grappling dummied for but didn’t practice myself – I had enough trouble with the basic open guard sweeps. I like the De la Riva quite a bit but have fairly short legs so am not sure how readily I can make some of those moves work.

I was pretty well rung out at that point so skipped the open rolling again. I’ll add that to the regimen soonish.

De la Riva madness continues

11 Friday Sep 2015

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I arrived in time for the standing grappling/takedown class, so, after a brief warmup, we hit double legs from a standing position, relying on a fast level change and butt with the shoulder to pull the move off. The second drill was a snapdown set up with a quick jerk, then a step back and jerk, followed by a step back and snapdown. After that some free grapping – I kept getting taken by a simple step back and throw down to my right side, so I’ll have to look for some good counters – simply dropping my base might work. I’ll park this list of top BJJ takedowns according to Kesting/Grapplearts here for easy reference.

http://www.grapplearts.com/2015/06/top-10-throws-and-takedowns-for-bjj/

The class consisted of several De la Riva sweeps, and I’m pleased to find that the techniques make sense the first time through – I’m not fumbling around feeling lost like when I’m trying to hit the omoplata. I got jammed up when we added resistance, though, as I’m still fumbling through and trying to find the “right” response to a technique rather than just flailing about. The guy I was working with wasn’t wearing a gi, either, so grabbing sleeves or collars wasn’t really an option.

This is quite similar to what we were working. Slip the hook in, stretch the guy out, and dump him to one side or the other. If he posts and comes back up, force him back or dump him to the other side. http://www.shogunhq.com/search/label/De%20la%20Riva

There are some additional tips here, and advice to work to integrate the De la Riva with the Spider and Sit Up Guard for an integrated, offensive-oriented bottom game. I kept getting passed to the side of the hooking leg during resisted rolling and am not sure how to properly counter that yet – sitting up might be the ticket. http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f12/de-la-riva-guard-1795131

Armbars and triangles and Omoplatas, oh my!

11 Friday Sep 2015

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Another night of BJJ(9/3/2015), and some frustration. For some reason triangles and I just don’t “click”. I found the omoplata similarly elusive. The main variant we were working included passing a leg under the locked person’s neck and I really couldn’t make it work. This looks quite similar to what we were working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5vofh5L9Pc

We worked these techniques as a series going from armbar attempt (foiled by the top person yanking his arm out) to a triangle attempt (foiled by the top grabbing his pant leg with the arm that is forward of the hips) to an omoplata. One of the things that was emphasized was to push the head to clear a path for the leg and control the opponent.

Kesting’s one of my go-to guys to get good breakdowns of technique and he doesn’t disappoint here. As always, I find I have to do homework if I want to keep up with the other guys in class.

Armbar: http://www.grapplearts.com/2014/04/the-easiest-way-to-teach-and-learn-the-armbar-from-guard/

Triangle stuff – my legs are short, so I can use a lot of this advice. There are some comments about transitioning to the omoplata, too. http://www.grapplearts.com/2012/08/are-my-legs-too-short-to-apply-the-triangle-choke/

Omoplata fixes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mwTslcGH1Y

I have returned to Jiu Jitsu

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Dear Readers,

I have returned to what, in many ways, is one of my true loves and main Obsessions. Grappling gives me a sense of satisfaction that almost nothing else delivers. I spent 45 minutes drilling one simple sequence in a gym that seemed to be about 130 degrees and couldn’t be happier!

Since this blog is about keeping tabs of where I’m at as well as trying to provide content of interest to others, allow me to present one of the sweeps I saw demonstrated from the de la Riva guard!

Nothing is ever static in jits, even when you’re on the defensive. This is a very active position and you’re constantly attacking the opponent’s base and threatening a sweep or throw.

Here are some tips straight from the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YeBJBS9Eo

It Don’t Mean a Thing if You ain’t got that Swing!

11 Thursday Sep 2014

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I’ve wondered why I keep tweaking my back when I’m doing my kettlebell swings and this post over on T-Nation has finally clued me in.

Proper form is incredibly important for a lot of exercises. If something’s hurting, its time to step back and evaluate. A simple change in form and a temporary reduction in weight can often fix a near-crippling problem.

This is a short post since my work schedule is pretty tight at present, but I’ll leave you all with this as compensation.