The other night at The Foundry I felt really good. I had taken a few nights off this past week from BJJ to rest and get rid of some of the soreness in my body. Teaching and going to class 4-5 times a week can start to take its toll after a month or two. I felt refreshed and recharged. I didn’t get a ton of submissions or anything like that, but I felt my body was just doing what I was asking it to.

Sometimes after a roll I have tons of thoughts like “man I wanted to do this or that, but just couldn’t.” Or sometimes I think “maybe if I was just a little bit stronger or faster I could have swept that person.” This last class though was not like that. I stepped off the mats with an empty mind, and a feeling of everything is where it should be. This is what I consider a great rolling session.

Alright it’s that time again. Last time I posted a move I had been working on, I got great responses back from everyone. Thanks to all of you because you have really made that move so much tighter with all of your pointers. This time I would like to share a guard pass that I have been working on. So far it is my number 2 guard pass I use in Jiu Jitsu. I would like to ask everyone to again comment with their tips or on anything that I could add or should be careful of. If there are any Youtube videos out there that are the same as this pass, please send them my way for me to study. Thanks again everyone and I hope you enjoy.

I just wanted to let everyone know that soon this blog will be moved to www.jitsujourney.com. I purchased my own domain and have been putting in more effort getting it set up then blogging lately. Soon I will be back in full swing with a sweet new look. The Foundry will be representing again in a few weeks a the Maine Skirmish. We are all pumped. It’s a smaller tourney, but I’m looking forward to competing again. Just like people run to improve their cardio, I want to compete more to improve my nerves. I want to be able to step out there and roll just like it’s a normal session in class. Then I think I will do so much better. The only way to practice for that is to actually compete, and that’s what this tournament will be for me. I’ve been working on a new sweep I saw Abmar Barbosa do at the FGO this year as well. Seems to be coming together nicely with my game.

This past Thursday was the first time I’ve weighed since getting the shocking news that I had to lose 10 pounds. It was after an excellent class where we had lots of high level guys on the mats. It’s always nice to see the mats full because you know you will be rolling a lot when the time comes around. I think I rolled with 6 different people Thursday night. So after class we head over to the gym again and Bri and Justin stepped on the scales and weighed about the same. Bri has lost about 4 pounds even though she doesn’t need to. Justin has done well maintaining. I step on the scale and cringe because I have worked hard over the last week and a half, and I knew if I hadn’t lost anything it would be a huge blow to my motivation. Somehow I lost 4-5 pounds in a week and a half AWESOME! Makes me feel better about being able to drop the other 5 in the last 4 weeks. 155 here I come!

We gathered up the local crew and decided to head up to the Rangeley for a high paced, action packed jiu-jitsu class. That’s exactly what we got. Shawn is a great teacher and knows how to push people. I think we needed that kind of motivation. The Freestyle Grappling Open is coming up soon and we need to be ready for that. I’ve been tossing the idea around of competing. I’m just not one of those people who gets super motivated to compete. I don’t have that drive or need to match myself up to others and see who is the best. I was telling Jon, what motivates me to compete is my team mates. I like the idea of getting them ready for their matches and being there when they step on the mat. I like congratulating them when they step off the mat victorious. That’s why I compete. With that said, I need to find the right mind set to get pumped up for this. I think we have about 7 weeks until it’s go time. It’s about time to get in the gym and check my weight. I always say after I cut weight that I want to stay in shape, but the weight always creeps back up. I think our last training session at Shawn’s will really motivate Justin to get our asses in shape. Let’s do this!

Tonight I took a night off from jiu-jitsu. I did some stuff around that house that needed to be done and took the dog for a walk. I needed a break. I started jiu-jitsu because it was fun and I want to make sure that “fun” is the reason I keep going to class. Sometimes a step back for a couple days just makes you realize how hooked you really are and the next time you step on the mats you feel refreshed. I hope that happens, last class was a drag. It was really nice outside and I had a tough day at work and I really didn’t want to even go to class. I showed up anyways and had some of the worse rolls in the past few months. That annoyed me even more. So if all goes as planned next class I will feel reenergized.

I had a good night in class the other night. It’s been mostly just Bri, Justin and I showing up to class. Every once in a while Shawn Smith will show up and that’s always fun. The other night though Jon showed up and we had some great rolls. Whenever I roll with him it’s always high pace and a lot of transitions. It was a lot of fun. Hard to stay motivated these days.

Well last class I was focused more on my top game. I worked the pass that I had talked about in my previous post and I’m happy to say that it worked about 50% of the time. Maybe a little under because I forget the exact number of times that I went for it. The thing that makes these numbers promising is that the pass was done on high level guys. I’m going to keep working the pass and perfect it more on the lower belts that’s for sure.

I’m super pumped for class tonight. I’ve been watching the Mundials 08 DVD and its really got me in the zone. In fact I wish class was right now lol. Joe T. said he was going to stop by class tonight so that will be a blast. It’s always fun to roll with Joe because he has a very different style then most of the people at the club. Can’t wait!

Justin and I met yesterday for a little meeting of the minds. We each went over some ideas we had floating around and ironed out some details. I was working mainly on a new pass (new to me). It’s pretty basic. I always pass in the combat base position and tend to do knee rides to the cross side. This works off of that, but instead of going cross knee, I hook a leg and sit on it and base down. The hand that’s on the same side I bring up and grab their belt so they can’t hip away from me. The other hand is controlling the leg I’m not sitting on. Once I have control I sit out into reverse scarf as I extend their leg that I’m sitting on. This forces their leg to flatten out.

The detail that I was working on is how I hook their leg before sitting on it. If done the way I was thinking it’s easier to straighten their leg out as you pass because your heel is kind of hooked on their heel. I’m sure I can find a video of this somewhere on YouTube, and if anyone knows of one already please point me in the right direction. I think tonight in class I’ll only pass using this method to try and work more kinks out of it. What say you?