Tag Archives: Jits Notes

Attack of the Spider Mokey! Jits Notes – Tues, 10/6

08 Thursday Oct 2015

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Takedown class – pummeling warmup, pummeling drill for underhooks, pummeling for underhooks then takedown to mount. Next was our intro to Osoto Gari both stationary and with a skipping entry. We worked grapevining the leg and stepping through the opponent as well as the kick out that’s commonly shown in judo instructionals. We drilled the skip in by chasing our partner as he backpeddled. A counter to Osoto was keeping the near side leg out of reach, so Uchi Mata was demonstrated as a counter to that counter. If uchi gets countered, seoi nage was offered as still being possible.

Here’s a cool page with some Osoto Gari variations. I’m liking the look of this entry for it as well: Yamashita demonstrating o uchi gari/o soto gari. This one’s pretty trippy, too. Trippy! Get it? Oh, well.

Now that I think about it, I’ve seen uchi mata from a whizzer before when I took a Greco lesson from Paul Sharp of MDOC. This particular clip from the University of Judo demonstrates it. There are a lot of cool tricks to pull with the whizzer, and that Rob Koll video I linked to looks like solid gold material.

We wrapped up with some pummeling and grip fighting.

Ground class: After the basic warmups, we worked a flow series. Start in guard, open legs and move to open guard, feet on hips with sleeve grips, kick leg sweep like in the last few classes followed by rolling the top man to our shins then rolling to knee and belly. Take side control and be sure to isolate the far side arm, as we’re going to mount. Cut the knee and shin across the belly and pull the knee up toward to clear the foot from entanglement, then sink hooks on the legs.

The bottom man then works mount defense: cross one arm across the top man’s waist to keep him from moving his mount higher on the torso. keep the other arm bent, elbow against the top man’s knee. Drop the leg opposite of the crossing arm flat on the ground and draw the other up to the buttocks. Turn to a 45 toward the side of the leg that is down. Snake the foot of the bent leg over the top man’s ankle and wheedle it over your downed leg then lock it down. Slide the formerly trapped leg out from under the top man’s hooked leg, lock your half guard down, and roll him over.

You’re now on bottom in half guard, so snake the closest arm across the back and grab the belt, attempting to take the back. It actually goes a lot like this video from Emily Kwok and Stephan Kesting, but we left one hand up near the collar to defend while keeping the elbow tight pressed against the Top man’s knee close to the floor. Top man overhooks the reaching arm to defend against the back attack, so bottom grabs his far leg and drives forward, taking him down and seizing side control. Here’s Stephan Kesting again, showing the sweep after the arm gets overhooked. Bottom man now recomposes guard. Drill begins anew.

Spider guard – Start in closed guard. Open as with the last few drills – both sleeves gripped, plant one leg on the floor and keep top man controlled with other leg behind back. Hip escape and bring leg from floor to 45 degree across torso for control and pull with grips on sleeves while pushing with knee. Bring foot from behind and place on hip. Windshield wiper legs open and keep outward leg pressure on arms as well as pulling with grips and pushing with feet. Roll one grip over like throttling a motorcycle. Kick the same leg skyward and punch the hand while rolling to the opposite hip, then slip foot back and place on bicep. Push leg out while pulling and keep on the opposite hip, then bring the elbow inside the leg and pull with both grip and instep. Transfer other foot to other bicep. Push and pull with opposing pressure to keep opponent stretched. Take one foot off his bicep and place on his same side hip. Push the other high, bringing his base up, then using the arm that’s on the same side of the foot that’s on his hip, pull that arm up while pressing his knee out (I’ve heard some people call this, “the gas pedal.”). Roll him to the compromised side and take mount.

This video is similar. I’ll keep looking for one closer to what we practiced. What is nice is that he emphasizes compromising balance with the hip movement, as well as foot placement on the bicep – mine was often too close to the shoulder. Without lifting him up and pulling, that knee doesn’t want to move.

Rolling – 4 rolls, all against white belts. Worked defense. Kept getting caught in side control & kesa getame and didn’t have good answers, so that’s homework I need to work on. I managed to catch someone in kesa getame but got rolled – still more homework. Speaking of homework, here are some cool drills for Spider Guard work. This seems pretty relevant, too. I think I’ll be giving Stephan Kesting some of my money in the near future.

More Stephan Kesting, since I got stuck in rear mount:

Rear Mount Escape
Since I keep getting flattened in side control, I think I’ll give this a shot. Side control escape.
Here’s Kurt Osiander with some good tips. “Boom! You fucked up a long time ago!” He’s right!

I’ve seen some of Henry Akin’s stuff before. I think I need to watch more of it. He’s explaining things well and I see how I’m making the mistakes he’s talking about. Escape from tight side control.

Kesa Getame stuff:

Kurt Osiander’s version: “I may be tired, and pinned, and trapped.” Sounds like my typical rolling experience! I tried the bridge and roll without success last class, though. Hmmm.

Here’s Kesting’s and Ritchie Yip’s version. The pin looks closer to what I was stuck under in class than what was going on in the Osiander clip.

Here’s a mount escape from Kurt Osiander that looks fun. I’ll see if I can give it a shot. And a high mount escape because, well, I screw up a lot.

And knee on belly defense because, yet again, I screw up a lot.

Jiu Jitsu class notes 9/24 – Did anybody get the number of that truck?

28 Monday Sep 2015

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I rolled for the first time in several years last night. As expected, I got flattened. Repeatedly.

What’s more disappointing, though, is that I have no gas tank. I’ve been running all summer and it still doesn’t seem to help much. There’s definitely something different about grappling, as I can do good work with unattached striking (Good for me, anyway!). I know some tricks but can’t apply them if I’m that badly winded. If I find any conditioning workouts specifically designed to address this I’ll share them.

Takedown Class: Backfalls, Sprawls ( I’m not dropping my hips to the mat and end up doing more of a front breakfall unconsciously. Gotta work on that!) , single leg + counter ( get shoulder and head pressure in play and mule kick leg out), level change & short range double leg (Surprise! Judo has these, too! Check out the Morote Gari), side fall & technical standup vs. an encroaching opponent fending with the extended hand, snapdown series with gi clad and non gi clad opponent (I just double grabbed the neck), grip breaking, fireman’s carry (called kata garuma in Judo) off an overhand sleeve grip standing and seated with an elbow entry (Shown here.) into side control, 2 minute rounds of gripfighting with 3 different partners.

Gripfighting was tough against a larger, stronger, more skilled opponent. There’s a blue belt there who probably outweighs me by 40 lbs and it was hard to peel his grips. I messed around and tried some of the judo grips I’ve been looking into and mixed in some clinch basics from the Greco work I’ve done, along with some head pressure, all while trying not to be too dickish with the forehead grinding.

Ground class: Worked closed guard to open guard, both sleeves gripped and feet on hips, maintaining appropriate pressure to keep opponent off-balanced and limiting mobility.

Start in closed guard. Grip both sleeves, then drop one foot to the floor, maintaining pressure against the side. The opposite foot maintains pressure against the back and side so opponent can’t move away or start a pass. The foot that was on the floor resets to the same side hip of the top, then “windshield wipers” the same side arm open. Stretch the top man with grip and foot pressure on the hip. Bring the leg that’s around the back to the same side hip and windshield wiper the arm. Keep pressure via pushing away with hips, out with knees and pulling with arms.

Now for the sweep. We opened one arm with a shin, then slid the opposite foot across to the hip of the arm that was opened, then grabbed the opposite pant leg. Kick to force a sweep or, more likely, an attempt to maintain position by posting an arm. Then drag the person back on top of both legs so he’s off the ground. Kick legs up and out while maintaining grips and roll to knee on belly. The more advanced folks continued the series and eventually rolled their partner into back mount while us noobs just worked the above.

2nd variation – same beginning, but, after getting both feet on the hips, we kicked the leg that had been on the floor out behind the top person, then brought it back and wrapped it around the arm and disrupted balance by doing the kick sweep, then dragged the top person onto our knees so we could roll him over again. When rolling, keep the sleeve gripped and arm trapped between the legs. If you don’t release the arm you get the bicep slicer, then hit side control. Seek a choke by inserting the hand into the collar, thumb down, wrist straight, then use a paper cutting motion with the forearm, keeping the elbow tight to the ribs If the elbow is away from the ribs it often doesn’t result in a choke – just a forearm across the jaw. Here’s a good video of this movement chain, called the Spider Guard – Butterfly Sweep. Kurt Osiander demos the paper cutter choke here. He demos a “spin choke” earlier in the vid that I recognize…I’m pretty sure I got caught in that very same choke at least twice while rolling later on in class!

3rd variation of same beginning – after sweep attempt, wind the leg around the arm and use that leg to pull the person toward you, then kick the leg through, making space to roll into an omo plata. Take care to grab the belt or some gi with the near hand and prevent rolling out while setting the legs, then begin

Omo plata revelation! I finally made them work reliably when I start scooting my butt around the opponent’s head, taking care to stay in close. I was moving further away while butt-scooting, wrecking my leverage.

Open rolling- 3 5 minute rounds. I gassed out and never got my wind. As such, I was ragdolled and couldn’t make anything happen. Even tapped to simple pressure on the diaphragm from side control. Harrumph.

Things to work on, besides “everything”: got side controlled, mounted, knee on belly, rear mount, guard passed like it wasn’t even there, breaking grips, couldn’t pass the opponent’s guard. I’m going to stick with Saulo Ribeiro’s template for now and just work on “survival” for my current level of (in)competence, though I’ll try to work on at least one counter/escape at a time. Speaking of survival, here’s a vid I believe I linked to before from Charlie from the Plaza. Seems relevant! This one is, too.

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