Lately I have been looking for something to work on specifically. I think I’ve found it. It’s my top game and passing. I used to really suck at both of them, and I think now is the perfect time to really concentrate on them and bring them up to speed. I’m a guard player so I always give up position and work off my back, but in a competition that game plan sucks.
The last competition that I went to was last Oct down in Portland. The tourney was the Freestyle Grappling Open and is one of the biggest in Maine. I was so nervous and pumped at the time I just wanted to get it over with. When the match started I was going to so many positions and going for so many submissions that in a 4 min match I was up 14 – 2 on the guy. I ended up getting caught in a triangle with 20 secs left. SUUUUUCKS! I learned something though, if I had just solidified a few of those dominate positions I would have ate a lot of time off the clock and saved energy.
So top game it is. I need to start being able to dictate the pace and eat up time on the clock when I want to rest. My passing seems to be getting better. Now I just need to work on being able to stay there once I have passed.

This past week we have had some good classes and I have done some good rolling. Our new guys are really coming along. Jon gave Will and Joe each their second stripe so congrats to them. Well deserved. I hope they both come back from summer break ready to learn.
Yesterday I went to open mat with Justin and Jordan. Justin and I ironed out some small details on things we have been working on. I have been trying this new thing where if the person has me in Oma plata, before they can sit up and control my back I do the normal forward roll escape. Now I have been doing that for a while, but I don’t like the idea of letting them get side control on me. So what I do when I roll is make sure its really tight and swing my leg out like I’m going to roll into guard. What this does is if they are posturing up the leg that swings will catch on their back and stop my roll. At this point I’m kind of upside down so I walk out on my shoulders some. The arm that’s not being attacked I reach over and grab their belt to make sure I can come up and take the back. It’s kind of neat and seems to be working well for me. I have also been trying to work on my top game a lot. Messing around with mount more to set up attacks and just practicing being in the dominant position. This will help greatly in a competition if I want to eat some time off the clock.
I think Justin and I are going to split a few private lessons from Jon. Now that Noel is gone we need someone to be able to point us in the right direction when it comes to making small changes and tweaking our games. I think it will be a great help for both of us. Plus splitting it makes it more affordable.

Sure, there are a lot of great side effects that come along with training. Some of which are losing weight, gaining more energy and cardio. Not to mention all of the great mental aspects like confidence and stuff. Sometimes though my body just hurts. I wake up the next day after rolling with some behemoth and my back is killing me and my knees ache and feel stiff. I wonder why the hell do I do this to myself? It’s because I’m addicted that’s why.

last night we had a smaller class then normal show up. I never have a problem with this because it always means more one on one time with a teacher that already is very giving. We spent most of the time drilling some techniques that will come in handy for the people going to the Pan Ams. 

So today I get the call that Noel and Justin are doing some Pan Ams training and needed a test dummy…well maybe not in those words. I really have been trying to get to class early to give Justin a hand on working through some new stuff, but I just hadn’t found the time. Today worked out perfect though. So I skipped on over the the ol’ barn for a good open mat session.
One of the things we are trying to work on is their game plan from start to finish. It’s always best to have some sort of a plan because it acts as a road map in most cases. Now no plan ever goes exactly like you want it to, but that’s the whole point of it being a road map, when you get off coarse it gives you a way to get back on track. So me and Justin went over some of the finer points of a certain take down, and also discussed his strong position in his stand up and what throws seem to work best from there. Its all about chaining them together. If you have your opponent constantly defending he has no time to mount an offense.
After that we went on to some guard passing drill. You have 5 mins to pass the persons guard with one pass. If you manage to pass you just start over, but the hard part is the other person knows what pass you are going to do every time. This really helps tighten your passing because if you can pull it off on someone who knows its coming, you will surely hit it on someone who doesn’t.
I think both Noel and Justin are going to do well at the Pan Ams and I am certainly excited to see them compete. Justin did very well at his last comp (The Freestyle Grappling Open) he took 3rd in Gi and 1st in No Gi.

Rolls Recap-
I only had a chance to roll with Justin because Noel is still fighting an injury that he needs to rest. I feel I did fairly well against Justin today, we always have some epic battles and it ends up being great training for both of us. One of the things I was having success with today was starting in closed guard and waiting for him to attempt to break it open by pressing down on my knee with one hand. When he was attempting to do this I would time it just right and stuff that hand down while swinging that leg out and up to his shoulder for the triangle. I was having a hard time finishing the triangle today and it seemed like both times he was able to back out of it enough so that it was around his ears and not his neck. This move will stop working on him once he corrects his posture and stops letting me pull him down into the triangle.
Another move that I was forced to use tonight since my triangles were failing was the switch off to the armbar from the triangle position. I was able to hit this once or twice and I found it was key to take one of my hands and hold under his armpit of the arm that was not across his body. This stops him from being able to back out of the triangle and also keeps my angle consistent. With my other arm I would trap his arm that is across his body to my chest and when the time was right I would swing my leg that’s locking the triangle over his face for the armbar. This is one time I find crossing the feet is OK and that’s because there doesn’t seem like much to hook onto, just the top of his head and you don’t want your leg slipping off.