Training Log -- 4/30

Arrived at the 6:00 class but Josh didn't show. Watched the Hapkido idiots flail about in the opposite gym and then Brian arrived. He ended up convincing me to hit some pads around, so I worked on some Muay Thai kicks and knees.

Main class we worked on some spider guard escapes and grip breaks. One was shifting back and grabbing under your opponent's calf and jolting them up, pressing their knees and legs back to their ears (without forcing them to turtle). Then you take side control. Another one was stepping over with a leg and sitting down to take side control, and the final was shifting them to one side while you're standing and stepping one leg all the way over and sitting down. Looked like there was a variety of armbars/kneebars, etc from here so it looked cool.

Rolled with Antony and Cam, who's a 200lb white belt with Gracie Combative training from the army. I wasn't sure how much this would help him, but it translated to above average armbar defense. I worked on a bunch of submissions from guard and was able to attempt at least 5 armbars, only one of which he failed to defend. Hit the bicep slicer sweep into mount, framed a triangle and rolled back for a triangle finish. Also hit a nice sit-up sweep and went for a modified bow & arrow before the round ended. Antony was awesome tonight. He swept me a bunch and kept me scrambling. I was unable to pass his guard tonight but held my own and wasn't in any immediate danger of being subbed.

Also, today is the 30th, which marks the 1 year anniversary of me beginning BJJ. Hurray!

Training Log -- 4/27

Worked on more spider guard (yay). Techniques today included a scissor sweep variant for when your opponent is still on their knees, one for when they post one leg out, and one for when you're trying to work a triangle and they're defending. This final one involves you lacing your foot under their knee and scissoring the other leg for the sweep.

Worked a ton of that bicep crusher sweep and I must say, it's pretty awesome. I love how you're all set up for a mounted triangle once you complete it. There was a video I saw a while ago that discussed what to do if your opponent won't give you their leg. I think it was tornado-ing under after switching sleeve grips (cross sleeve) and bam, there's a triangle. I must further explore this.

Casey mentioned I'll be testing for my blue belt sometime toward the end of May. I am super excited because, to reiterate, being a white belt sucks.

Swole Train

Started weight training (for realz) on Saturday with the help of my strength and conditioning roommate. Haven't sweated that much from lifting in forever. Actually, ever. It was hardcore. We're gonna see where this goes, but I don't want to OD until I'm a little more acclimated to weights. My quads were seriously busted and are still bordering on crippled, but this will only be good. We got a hold of a weight vest which should be great for overall strength and will certainly translate to increased agility on the mats.

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Training Log -- 4/20 and 4/23

420's class consisted of us being split into 2 groups, which was mostly noobs and non-noobs. I was in the latter. We got to work on some interesting spider guard stuff that I *will* be implementing. There are a few work-throughs which are based on swinging one of your legs under theirs when they stand and going back to foot-into-bicep with a trapped leg. From here there are a bunch of sweeps and ankle lock opportunities. We also went over an awesome modified bow & arrow choke with you pulling their leg up toward their head and using that pressure to increase the collar choke's effectiveness.

4/23

Went to the fundamental class with Josh and Steven. We worked on no-gi guard passing and counters.

Main class was more spider guard, this time with feet-on-hips. Worked some triangles from here and some sweeps. One was similar to the bicep-slicer sweep which I've been fucking around with for a while now. Difference is, you don't lace your leg around their tricep but instead use momentum of your shin in their arm to drive them over. Both sweeps require you to underhook their leg and get their ankle up on your shoulder.

Rolling went super excellent. Armbared the shit out of Steven and pretty much kept him backing up and unwilling to engage. This is a victory for me because he's a wrestler. Our second roll saw him manage to pass guard but as usual, he was unable to capitalize on anything and I escaped several times. This is also a victory for me because he wasn't wearing a gi. No-gi is my weakness at the moment and Steven usually wrestlefucks me. With him grabbing my gi and me having nothing but limbs, I did really fucking well. He needs to put a gi on.

Managed to submit Josh with a bow & arrow after largely controlling him. This is a minor victory because he was one-armed with a torn somethingorother and couldn't use his arm. Kinda sounds lame but he usually can keep me away from advancing position and he'd certainly be twice as good with both arms. But I managed to take advantage of a few passes including the leg underhook to cross-collar/stack.

I'm feeling very very comfortable in open guard and I'm not getting swept like usual. Still have to work on guard-breaks and moar sweeps from my own guard. Shouldn't be too long before I get my blue belt, which will be awesome because being a white belt sucks.

Training Log -- 4/17

Worked on butterfly guard today. One was a double underhook sweep, one was an over/underhook sweep, and the other was a counter to your opponent posting his leg outward to avoid the sweep.

Rolling went well. Tried to not use much strength and just work from top and bottom. Still trying to remember to slow down and think about positions of limbs/neck before I bother transitioning from position to position.

Training Log -- 4/15

Went to the fundamental class at 6pm and worked with Josh on guard breaks, passing and sweeps. Flow rolled after. Main class's techniques were bicep slicers. Mostly stuff I'm very familiar with, such as the slicer from guard, the slicer sweep and the submission off the sweep.

Rolled with the kiddies and Coe threw himself into the mix. He took it easy on me but a 220lb Alliance purple belt is still a lot to handle even at half his actual ability. I managed to play from guard for a bit and recompose or escape when necessary. He still got some shin action into my ribs and such, but I did pretty well considering. Also had a body lock and a toe hold attempt at one point, though I couldn't finish it.

Pretty dead after 3 hours of rolling and my fingers are red and slightly mutilated from all the gi grips, but overall this was a great night. Feel like I'm progressing really nicely, and Coe seemed impressed as well.

Training Log -- 4/13

Back to the gym today following Lutador. We worked some scissor sweep variations, one of which was cross-gripping a sleeve and pulling your opponent over into side control. Also drilled the scissor sweep counter (pulling a sleeve and pushing the head) to escape.

Rolled with JC, Drake and new kid. Not really much effort required but I worked some more sweeps from guard and generally tried to work technique.

Post-Lutador

Headed out to Cobb Civic Center and arrived around 11:00am. I ended up waiting about 3 hours until my first match as they were running way behind. I drew a wrestler who was fucking huge, and all he did was double leg me and pretty much lay there huffing and puffing. My gi match was a decent Brazilian fellow who was quite a bit stronger than me. He had trouble sweeping me but had several collar choke attempts as well as an armbar. I worked out of the armbar and had decent positioning, but the ref was shitty and stood us up. He eventually mounted me and I tapped to a sleeve choke toward the end of the match.

Overall, the experience was pretty miserable. We were there waiting for our matches for nearly 8 hours and the whole place was running behind. I was exhausted by the end of he day and I'd say it had some effect on my final match. Not to make any excuses though, because I didn't go in there and do what I had hoped.

Lutador taught me that if I'm going to compete, I need to take it as seriously as any professional fighter would. That means weight training, cardio, and a weight cut. Next time I'll be super prepared so I can combine my BJJ skill with other aspects of combat sport competition.

Not many glaring problems in my game, so it's more along the lines of "back to the gym" to work on general improvement and my known weaknesses.

Training Log -- 4/6: Mock Tournament

Today was interesting because we had so many lightweights that we were able to do some great competition prep in the form of a mock tournament. Two people were paired up and points were called out. This gave me a newer perception of how to play the "game" of jiu-jitsu, which is something we don't do too much. Pretty much, I needed to work some strategy on getting points, and I'd say I did very well.

Shot a double, some singles, and pulled guard twice. Antony gave me the hardest time, and he also confirmed my suspicion that he wasn't giving me 100% all this time. It was nice to roll with him and know he was putting effort into trying to maul me. I worked a bit too much open guard, which is something to note for Saturday. I had some great scrambles and even took him down with a sweet ankle-pick in the middle of our first match. I passed guard and he took advantage of a kimura opportunity, which I fended off until the end. Our second match had me pressed down in mount, but I scrambled out the back door and got back to my feet.

I was really satisfied with my technical ability, and the work done today actually eased some nerves for this weekend.

I'm ready for war! And medals :D

Training Log -- 4/3

Worked on shrimping and guard retention at the fundamental class. Did some takedown work, but nothing too demanding.

Worked on the usual three attacks from side control: a kimura, keylock, and inverted armbar. Also went over the arm-triangle from the same position.

Rolled with Josh and Antony. Antony got a d'arce choke (?) on me and Josh did whatever he wanted. I tried to work some of the side control escapes and had some success, although I need to make sure to avoid the arm-triangle when escaping.

Wednesday is my last class before Lutador on Saturday. I'm feeling pretty good, but I'm slightly concerned about my decision to not cut weight. We'll see how that goes.