Saturday, June 9, 2012

Training at Alliance HQ: Week Three

Monday:

The intermediate class at 6:30 was taught by another Alliance black belt, Humberto Borges, who told me he knows Casey very well. Super nice guy, really helpful and didn't seem to have any kind of ego when talking to the lower belts. I missed the 10 minutes of running and line-based warm up, so I jumped right in to techniques. We went over some AWESOME top half chokes, which is a concept I've been toying around with based on some Youtube stuff I've seen. It was really exciting to get to learn it formally and drill it a bunch. First technique, you sat back in top half, keeping a crossface and getting the lapel from under their arm to around the other side of their neck. Control their pants leg so they aren't holding you in half above your knee, pop up ala knee-on-belly, and switch grips. Then reach across and grab some material, head to mat, and get the cross choke. Second technique was if they're blocking your second cross grip; grab the sleeve, drive it across their face, and push your chest down while pushing your bicep into their tricep for the tap. Third is if they don't allow you to pull the sleeve across; grab their elbow right at the point of the bone and step over, landing next to them on your own back. push their arm into their neck for the tap.

Got some good rolling in and managed to crush another blue belt, so that was awesome.
For the main class, Humberto stuck around and a few higher belts joined in. We warmed up with some drop Seio Nage stuff. I've been at Alliance for 2 weeks now, and this seems to be the choice judo throw of X number of days/weeks. I've already drilled it so much that I'm feeling REALLY comfortable going for it. We mixed in some other trips and stuff, including a failed single leg attempt to drop Seio which felt really smooth. After 30 minutes of throws and varying stand up, we went to the ground for some technique. Today's lesson was on Reverse De La Riva, and I was super pumped to learn about the position I see a lot of advanced grappers use, especially Satoshi. Your opponent has what is essentially a combat base position and you have a hook on the inside, above the knee while you cross grip their collar and use your other hand to grip their pants leg, locking them in to the RDLR. Extend out, which should push them forward while you use the pants grip to spin under them while still controlling the leg. Reach up, grab the belt, kick out and take the back. We drilled this a fuck ton and I felt pretty good about it. Got some more awesome rolling in and got smashed even more. One dude really murked me with scarf hold but couldn't get a sub. I left drained as hell with various lacerations and gi burns. Yes!!!

Wednesday:

Started at 6:30 with the intermediate class. Warmed up with line drills.Today's techniques were spider guard and leg lasso stuff. Leg lasso on one arm and spider on the other. I'm writing this 3 days later so my memory is not too good, but I think you're driving up on the spider and sweeping to the lasso side. Similarly, we drilled the leg lasso + grab their other leg sweep; this is something I'm familiar with as went over it a bunch in Megalodon over the last 2 years. I liked that you can still sweep them over even if they appear to have passed. As long as you still have the lasso in tight, you can still attempt to grab some part of the pants, switch your hips, and roll them over. I usually give up on this move if I fail to load them onto my shin, but this is great. You just gotta really switch your hips. Rolled with some white belts for a few minutes before the main class got started.
Lucas warmed us up with some Ippon Seoi Nage. Hand positioning was different and I looked totally spazzy. I questioned DJ about this today (Saturday) and he clarified some stuff for me. Essentially, there is Ippon Seio Nage and Morote Seoi Nage. And a bajillion variations of each. From some google searching:

Grips
  • Ippon
    • Lapel
    • Armpit
    • Sleeve
  • Morote
    • Sleeve + Lapel: cross lapel and same side lapel
    • One handed 
So Seoi Nage is pretty complex. I have no idea if you can use ippon for the Drop Seoi or if it has to be Morote. I think I've only done Drop Morote. Damn Judo.

I believe the technique of the day was a De La Riva + Leg Lasso sweep. DLR on one side and spider --> lasso on the other. Square up, pull the lasso in tight and sweep them to the lasso'd side. Come up quickly into mount or drive forward into side control. Which you choose depends on how your opponent reacts. 


Thursday:

Fundamentals at 6:30 were taught by Jacare. Went over side-control safety. T-rex arms tight into your body, forearm into their neck (don't let them get the underhook) and other arm under their armpit. Leg up, defend the mount. Shrimp out while driving them away with your arms, then back in with your bottom leg. Get a hook in with your top leg to keep them in place and recompose guard. Discussed some hip bump sweep stuff and basic kimura from guard. I worked with an older brown belt named Dave who was very helpful and I got a bunch of small details from him.

Main class was more lasso/DLR/Spider stuff, but I literally cannot remember the details of this class.

Saturday:

Fundamentals at 11am included some basic hip throws, tomoe nage off of double sleeve grips when on the ground (is that still tomoe nage??), and a basic cross collar choke/armbar double attack from S mount.

Lucas kept the theme of the week by introducing another move off the deep hook DLR/leg lasso...instead of sweeping them over toward the lasso'd side, they post out with their opposite arm. Let go of the sleeve, grab the belt, switch the hook and take the back. Drilled the position a few times with a blue belt named Joe who I've worked with before and a couple black belts.

I rolled with three guys today, all black belts. The first two were a bit older and thus less fast. They established position and tried to keep energy by only going for a few subs, which I defended. The last guy was Damian, who's a nice dude and has been helpful to me over the past few weeks. He's around my size. He let me work a bunch and I almost got some nice chokes from half guard, but lost position, scrambled for the back and ended up passed and mounted.

All in all this was a good week. Got 12 hours on the mat. I have a week left and then I have to come up with more money for another month :/

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