Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts? – It’s actually just poor planning coupled with laziness. Don’t give me this “kid in the car” excuse either. Lazy people and poor planners circle the parking lot looking for the spot closest to the door.
Smart people (me) try to get a spot right next to a cart return. That way, even if you have to deal with kids, you can return your cart easily. You also don’t have to deal with stray carts in the parking lot around these areas ramming into your high dollar minivan.
Think people!!!
An Accidental Discovery Could Solve Earth’s Plastic Waste Problem – Next we will have to find something that can break down all those annoying re-usable bags people have been toting to the store with them for the past few years. ‘Cause those are all going to get trashed.
The Baby Boom Tsunami That May Drown The Economy – I’ve wondered for a while how these folks are going to pull money out of the markets while we’re all building them up. Sounds like another social security type thingy, huh?
The Origins of Overprotective Parenting – We make an effort (sometimes at the horror of The Mrs.) to keep our kids as free range as possible. And we still probably don’t do enough.
Last night we worked on options from that weird tangled position we’ve been ending up in. We have the arm isolated, and more than likely have a kimura grip or something close to it. We’re on our backs and our opponent is kinda sorta turtled up. We’re throwing one leg over the waste to stop them from rolling, and we’re lacing the other foot underneath their arm with the crook of our knee in their neck.
Grab that arm and keep your elbow tight to your body. From there we have a downbar from our elbow, the “I Dream of Jeannie” downbar, the unconventional kimura, conventional kimura, or we can push their hip out and get our foot under their torso–encouraging them to roll into the scissor choke.
But never let go of that kimura grip.
Rolled with Ana, Brad, Ed, visiting Mike, and Miguel-The-Father-Of-Four.
I’ve somehow fallen out of logging every single training session, which is bad because I can’t even remember all the things I’ve forgotten that we’ve been working on. There was a focus on half guard for a couple of weeks, and I found some stuff there that I’m using in live rolls a lot. But I’m only using 20% of the stuff we learned. Limited by age and natural athleticism, I’ve been latching onto the stuff I know will work for me and running with it. Still, it’s good to be exposed to stuff other people may try to do.
This week we were heavy on the white belt attendance on both Tuesday and Thursday, so it was a good week to go back and review some stuff, which I love!
First of all, setting up the kimura from side control.
Move cross face to push face back with elbow
Pull them to their side and elevate arm to sneak other arm in
I didn’t get to write up last Thursday’s training, but I guess that’s ok because we built off of that progression in class last night, so there was plenty of review. Again, I love going back and getting the details after I *think* I know how to do something.
Closed Guard
Make nice finger grips at the cuffs
Pull and raise hips to tighten up closed guard
If lapel is loose, use that to secure arm by wrapping around
Or grab deep behind the bicep to trap arm
Deep collar grip – 4 fingers in to control posture
Foot on hip to rotate for arm bar–knee tight to their ribs
Other foot pressing heels to floor to control posture
Squeeze knees tight
Push collar grip away and rotate knee over face–keep squeezing knees
If they go to their back and grip to defend
Head side under target arm. Knife of forearm on their forearm
Kimura grip
Roll to shoulder or cross feet into opposite arm to pop grip
If can’t break grip
Don’t give up that fight, but work lower foot into hole between arms
“Let” your leg that’s pinning their head down slip
When they sit up, secure the triangle
If triangle is being defended
Swim over trapped arm and under other arm
“Wave” that arm back to your head and trap wrist between head and shoulder
Slide arm down, sit up and pull down for downbar
Some good rolls too. Ian (visitor from Mexico) wiped up the mat with me a few times. I have 15 pounds or so on him probably, but he was getting anything he wanted from his closed guard, and mounting when that didn’t work. Also rolled with Jonathan and Django.
This is from open mat on Saturday, which was also some really good rolling!
The Most Offensive Rugby Song Ever? – Wow. I hope these guys never learn the lyrics of some of the songs sang at the bar after the matches–at least in this country. To be fair, the English and the Welsh clubs have guys who can actually sing beautiful songs in beautiful voices.
American rugby clubs are the gangster rappers of rugby music.
Tips for 40 Plus Grapplers to Stay ON the mats – I didn’t start until I was 43, so I feel like I’m playing catch up. I think the best way for me to catch up is to stay healthy and get more days/hours of training in.
I actually have been training a lot more than you’d think by following my blog, but there have been some interruptions due to to moving and a persistent shoulder injury. Only 10.5 hours of BJJ training in the last three weeks though. I heard the guys on the BJJ Brick podcast mention a good idea–a pain journal. I may try keeping up with the little annoying things that hurt here and tag them up so I can try to figure out what is causing something and know to avoid it. I have no idea where this shoulder thing came from, but it was pretty much immobile for a couple of days. I just woke up one morning and it was stuck.
Anyway, for this session we reviewed some very basic stuff in a series of submissions and answers to the defenses. Some people may get bored learning something they already know in class, but I really love going over the basics and picking up the details that I missed the first time around or having the chance to ask a question about something I’m having trouble finishing. The Americana is a great example–I got some key points that I missed out on the first time around when I was just focused on what an Americana is.
And even though I feel like I have pretty good side control for my skill level and size, picking up some finer points never hurts. Those details come in handy when trying to keep a big guy under control.
Side Control
Pull up near side arm by the triceps, elbow tight
Slide knee under that shoulder and arm under head
Elbow to knee. Gable grip with the underhook from opposite. Hand under the head goes on top.
Americana
Side control pressure to cause reaction of reach across the face
C-cup grip between bicep and shoulder, or post their arm to the ground with the head (my preference)
Under head arm comes out and push face back with elbow
C-cup grip at wrist. Two fingers on each side of the bend
Grip forearm
Reverse motorcycle the wrist grip first to create the angle and prevent defense
Reverse motorcycle forearm hand to elevate elbow
Paint the floor
Downbar From Failed Americana
Loosen grip on wrist if needed to allow some extension
Clamp back down when arm is out
Slide forearm grip arm back to elbow
Push wrist out, reverse motorcycle grip
Reverse motorcycle grip elbow arm to elevate
Kimura From Failed Downbar
Pull toward you to move them to their side, elbow tight
Pin near side arm with leg and windshield wiper to switch to the other leg
Step over head
Establish kimura grip, assuming the defense will be a grip on their belt or lapel
Pull hand away against the fingers–towards the front of their body
Pull arm up so they can’t establish another grip
Pull arm back and to opposite shoulder
Choke From Unbreakable Kimura Defense
Open the pants and reach in to trap the defending hand. There–you can have it there forever
Thumb in lapel grip
Step other foot over head and drop shoulders behind their shoulders. We want them on their side until we establish choke, but not pushing them to their bellies either
Pull lapel over and place knife of forearm on opposite carotid.
Elbow to the ground
See, I’m already forgetting some of the details of the last couple because I seldom progress that far successfully.
Rolled with Brad (quickly becoming one of my favorite people to roll with), Dr. Dan, Ed, and Dave. I love how easily Dave can take me down. He just stands up and whips out some judo on me that works even though I’m on my knees alread–crazy. Got closer than I’ve ever been with a bow and arrow on ol’ Tuesday.
Pain Journal: right shoulder still sticky. Left thumb weak from two year old rugby smash–can feel this when reaching into lapels for grips.
I love review nights. Yes, it’s really cool to learn new mind-blowing techniques, but I forget most of what we go over in class, even though I write most of it down. It’s just information overload for a poor ol’ white belt from Robertson County.
I like review nights because they help me see the little details that I don’t pick up on the first time around. For instance, the big oopa and sit up escape works much better when your opponent is bringing his weight and posture low to you because his center of gravity will be shifted more to the top of his torso, which makes his hips a little lighter and easier to pop up.
King of the mat was next, and I actually hit a submission from the bottom in one round. Got a couple of sweeps that I don’t know what to call, and got to work on deep half guard a little bit.
Last night was a little different at the gym. Coach Frank has been sick for a couple of days and trying to recover, so it’s been tough for him to teach any technique without being able to get up close and personal with at least one student to demonstrate. So we stretched out on our own and went straight into King of the Mat, followed by some really quick rolling rounds. I guess Norm didn’t notice that he was out there the whole time, and he didn’t think it was weird when Coach Frank sicced two guys on him to deal with at once.
After that was over, we all lined up and took off our belts for Norm’s promotion to brown belt. I’m not versed enough in jiu jitsu to determine what a brown belt is, but if Norm isn’t one, I’d hate to have to tangle with the fellow who is.
He’s not just tough as nails, strong, technical, and limber. The guy works his butt off every single day.
I love being partnered with him for drills because I know he’s going to push the work rate.
I love being partnered with him for technique because he’s so generous with his knowledge and is willing to help me with the little details (and big ones) I’m messing up.
I love rolling with him because he whoops me.
Afterwards, we went back to two rounds of rolling, and then back to King of the Mat. This became a game of attrition. On the way home I realized how much I love training sessions like the one we had last night. I didn’t want any more. Shoulder banged up, foot banged up, hamstring and foot cramps–a real grind.
It’s been a while since I experienced a situation like this in training, and I loved it. I was able to get a spot on the mat and win a couple of consecutive rounds. And every round I won made me want to hold that spot more, which upped the intensity every round. I was whipped when I lost my spot, and wanted it back really badly, and that upped the challenging intensity as well.
Small class, and I think Coach Frank was probably glad the partner match ups worked out. Big Shawn was there for me to partner with, and TJ and Django had each other to drill. We worked on the butterfly sweep, keeping elbows tight and trapping the over-hooked arm while dropping the knee to the ground for leverage to push off of on the sweep.
We also worked on a solution for getting stacked in the triangle, which I needed. We under-hooked the leg and rolled back to an arm bar. The flow we used to work on this was to start with an arm bar and transition to a triangle if we think they’re going to be able to move our top leg by getting our bottom leg up above their shoulder through the hole they are using to defend with the gable grip. From there we roll to the triangle, hit the down bar, and let them stand to under hook the leg and roll back to the arm bar.
For Muay Thai, we worked on basics, which is what I need. Jabs up and down the mat, foot work, then combinations: 1-2-3-roundhouse and 2-3-roundhouse. Rolled a couple of rounds with Shawn, and he dominated me in positions. His cardio is getting better, and once he’s on top I can’t get out from under him for very long. So ten minutes of fighting for space, under hooks, and trying to catch legs and get back to guard.
For technique we kept working the same direction–stuff we can do off of lasso guard. During warmups we did the spin under from reverse de la riva, which I’m getting a tiny bit better at, and this move showed up again in the technique of the night.
This technique was pretty tough for me. Once establishing the lasso guard, we had to create enough space to actually spin under, then we had to use the back of the hand on the knee to make the spin, but this time without the extra leverage of the foot that we have in the reverse de la riva. That gets you to the spot where you can sit up and extend the legs to finish the omoplata.
He gave us to option to work on that or to continue working with the sweep and bicep cutter we’ve been working on. I tried a couple of the spin unders, but I know where my bread is buttered. I think in this case it would be better for me to rep something that I am almost able to do reliably instead of using that time for something I’m pretty far away from.
Rolled with Matt, Dan the Man, Django, and Abraham. Of note: spent a bunch of time on my back with Matt, and I went for a bunch of different stuff–armbars, chokes, kimuras, etc. Felt bad about that, but he said he was having fun defending, and he did a dang good job of it too! Dan the Man roll was really fun–we were both trying to choke the other guy with his own gi.
One of my favorite things about training BJJ at Off The Grid is the visitors. Coach Frank is not only welcoming of visitors, he’s genuinely excited to have someone come in for a day or a week to train, whether they are on vacation or on a business trip. That’s the culture the whole gym buys into–someone new gives all of us a chance to train with and learn from people with different experiences, styles, and bags of tricks.
But then there are special visitors.
Coach Frank has a network of buddies who are legitimate bad asses, and not just at BJJ. He’s had his buddy Dave Carelli, a judo black belt, has come in and introduce us some basic throws on a couple of occasions. Last night, his buddy Tom Finch came in and did a special seminar on boxing and Greco Roman wrestling.
So. Much. Information.
I probably will not remember half of what we learned and worked on last night, but I want to try to write down as much as possible while it’s still fresh in my mind. This is probably going to be a stream of consciousness, but…
Boxing
First we worked on stance and moving. Move the foot already going in the direction you want to go first, then move the other the same amount. So if you’re going forward (traditional), move the left foot first, then the right follows. Small movements–a fist isn’t very big. We just need to move enough to get out of its way. Move to a spot out of their punch zone and into yours. Balls of feet are active with heels grazing the ground. Should be able to squat down comfortably at any time without adjusting your feet.
“Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”
OOOHHHH!!! Like swimming.
To practice the jab, we reached out and grabbed instead of punching. Arm extends and shoulder to the chin as you take a small step forward. Back leg and jab arm are stiff at contact–like your whole body is a stick you are poking with. Jab returns as the back foot follows in. To practice, stand a couple of inches from a wall and move down the wall throwing jabs–no part of your body should ever contact the wall.
For the cross, rotate the hips into the punch. Don’t extend body or reach. Hips stay over the feet (can squat). Should be able to see both your hands at all times. We worked on the 1-2 and 1-2-1-2. Then added the left hook, rotating the lead foot back around. Elbow stays low, and the hand actually only moves a couple of inches. Hip rotation throws the punch. To practice, work on feet and hips only without throwing hands. Then work up to slight hand movements and use them more and more.
Parrying the jab–we worked on just catching it, not pushing it away. Keeping our hands in sight at all times, catch and move. I was moving way too much–just a small movement and adjusting distance with that move. I was working with Ed, so for him it was move and close distance. For me it was more move and create distance.
Wrestling
First we worked on pummeling for underhooks with a partner and switching our feet as we go. Then we did a drill where we work our partner for underhooks and grip the waist once we get it (no throw). He stopped us in between rounds to give us tips on changing levels, using our heads to make space, and going leg to crotch to get under our opponent and stand them up.
From here we went to the arm spin. Holy crap–cool. I’ve posted a video below showing the basics, but Tom had us focusing on a couple of things that were important for BJJ as well. When we shot the arm under, we continued to reach high and roll over it, almost like we were reaching for the opposite wrist. And we need to try to stop the roll once we hit the ground so that we end up belly down in side control.
Next we worked on bailing out of this by stopping at the arm shoot, backstepping the closer foot and moving to a double leg. That was way more comfortable for me. We started moving into straight double legs from there, and I was a little tentative because of back problems. The back is feeling pretty good with no rugby, and I want to keep it that way so that I can continue to train regularly. I know my double leg is not perfect (or even that good), but I’m pretty confident in my tackling ability if I only have to do it once or twice. Repping it really hurts my back for a week or two.
We worked an arm drag before I left–hand on wrist, pulling to opposite hand on bicep and throwing the arm down to shoot under. I liked that Tom taught shots without bringing the front knee down. Not only is that pretty painful for me, it never made sense when learning it that you’d want to put your power down to the mat. It seems like to me the push from the foot up is so powerful, and there’s no flex in the knee to push off of, not to mention the shorter lever.
I know I’m not deep enough or low enough in this photo for a wrestling takedown, but this seems like a more natural method for me that I can hit reliably. And this was at 41 years old, so I should still be able to do it. I can’t see that I’d have any better power with that lead knee on the ground, although it probably would help in getting deeper.
We did a pretty typical warmup, then hit the reverse de la riva drill for use later in the class. I still can’t do that from one side, but the other side has actually gotten a little better. My partner said it was because I’m getting more up on my shoulders when I spin under from that side. Coach Frank gave us an option to just go halfway to help get the feel, and it also played into the technique of the night.
Review of lasso guard sweep:
Four fingers into the cuff of the sleeve on both sides
Shrimp to get shin to crook of the elbow
Shrimp to get the other crook of the elbow
Push butt up to tighten that hold
Turn to opposite hip to punch leg out and loop for lasso
Bait the pass, reach under other leg and load them up
Push/pull for the sweep
Coach Frank noticed in live rolls last week that lots of people were going for the lasso guard, but people were standing to defend. To remedy that, he showed us another sweep to use on a standing opponent:
Establish lasso guard like above
Move loose foot between opponent’s legs and hook the back of their hip
Hand to the back of trap foot to assist the…
Spin under a la reverse de la riva
Rotate hand to grip pants or ankle
Push up with lasso leg–opponent will roll, use that momentum to punch up the grip hand
Rolled with Norm first. I feel like these rolls are starting to follow some sort of script. They definitely all end the same. I can’t tell if I’m doing the same thing over and over and it’s not getting through to me, or if I’m becoming a little more aware of my base and am simply slowing down the inevitable sweep and submit. Still not passing, that’s for sure.
Rolled with Shawn and tried to keep scrambles going as much as possible. My cardio is better than his, so my strategy with him usually is to move, move, move and wear him down to a point where I can catch him. Didn’t work this time–he got a hold of me and applied pressure. Never really close to tapping, but I couldn’t make my way back to the top either. My half-guard options from the bottom right now only involve getting to the top.
Django was next. He’s gotten a lot better in two weeks. Fun to roll with him because I feel like I’m free to move around a lot and see what kind of weird positions we get into.
Dan the Man was next, and as always, the most fun. Lots of half guard reversing going on between us–me moving to top because I’m stronger and heavier, him moving to the top because he has better technique and is faster. The funny thing is that we both had the other’s lapel wrapped around a neck or an arm the entire time. It was like a race to see who could choke the other faster.
I have the best, most perfect girl in the world. At least for me. There was never a consideration about us doing anything for Valentine’s Day except going to training and grinding it out–just like every other Tuesday.
I was actually impressed that we had so many people at training, especially with lots of regulars missing. True, we had a couple of visitors to the gym, but nine people on a (fake) holiday isn’t bad at all! Four ladies training, and I was the smallest of the big guys by 25 pounds or so, so I got mentally prepared for what sparring was going to be like on this day.
Lasso Guard Sweep:
Four fingers into the cuff of the sleeve on both sides
Shrimp to get shin to crook of the elbow
Shrimp to get the other crook of the elbow
Push butt up to tighten that hold
Turn to opposite hip to punch leg out and loop for lasso
Bait the pass, reach under other leg and load them up
Push/pull for the sweep
If they push the knee through, follow their hand with yours and grip the lat, grab with the other hand and pull down while figure-4 locking the legs for a bicep crusher.
Roll with Abraham–submitted once with an arm bar and got a couple of scissor sweeps.
Roll with Matt — close on a triangle, but couldn’t finish. That wore me out, and he was on top for the rest of the time. He almost finished an Ezekiel
Roll with Shawn–tapped me with an arm bar and got close with some sort of weird choke from the top. Thought I had a guillotine, and I held on to it for a long time but he was able to escape.
Roll with Django, who is much improved over last week.
After warmups, we continued the same theme from Tuesday, working on using using the opponent’s lapel to assist with the arm bar and the flower sweep.
For the arm bar, set it up with the wrist and triceps from guard, then…
Use wrist hand to get bottom of lapel to triceps hand
Elbow in and hold tight
Finish arm bar
For the flower sweep…
Pull tight with legs for over/under
Hand lapel to over hand using under hand, trapping arm
Hand lapel to under hand behind head
Reach under the leg, rotate hips out and pull
Finish with arm bar or fist into artery
Rolled with Abraham, and did what I have been avoiding with him from the get-go…got smothered. That is a big strong dude. Still, tried to work as much as possible on my back. Rolled with Django after that, and moved through as many things as I could, only finishing the arm bar and the bow and arrow.
Fun roll with Ana–she’s crazy strong for her size, and I can’t keep up with her movement. Got some sort of electric chairish thing that would have submitted most guys for sure, but it wasn’t a problem for her.
Next up was Ed, and I decided I don’t want to be on bottom. Got really close with the bow and arrow, and forgot the last step (SHRIMP AWAY!) from finishing the swim-through-grab-gi stuff we learned last week to get the down bar.
Norm–destroyed me. I had nothing left in the tank at this point. Not that it would have mattered, but I got destroyed more quickly than usual.
