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.
Jiu Jitsu has affected me in such positive ways it’s crazy. At the same time it’s hard to list them out on paper. I guess it’s just an over all feeling that’s hard to step back from and dissect. I can state the obvious, like I lost a lot of weight just by doing bjj 3 times a week. I lost like 30 pounds I think. I have been able to cut down lower for competitions so in a way jiu jitsu has shown me that I do in fact have control over my health, and being fat and lazy is somewhat of a choice. The less obvious ones are things like confidence in myself and my abilities. Not just on the mat, but in life. Every night when you step out onto the mats you overcome something. When you are mounted and you feel hopeless, you suddenly gain half guard and work hard to regain full guard. Once you are there things don’t seem so bad. This outlook helps so much in everyday life. So what about you? What has jiu jitsu done for your life?
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.
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.
It’s been a few days since our trip out to Cali and it’s been great to get back out on the mats. It’s also nice to be able to roll again full speed without having to worry about them tweaking something before such a big tourney. We have had some really good new guys showing up that are starting to learn some fundamentals and it’s great to see. A few of them got their first stripe last night and you could tell they were happy by the look on their faces. I remember getting my first stripe and how good it felt.
We had a couple guys go to the Naga Worlds right after we got back from the Pan Ams. Shawn did great as always, placing 2nd and 3rd in various divisions. He is a great competitor and it just shows the reward of competing often. I can’t wait to see him in class next time to ask him more about his wins.
The weather is getting nice outside and it’s almost time to start running again. As crazy as it sounds once I get in the swing of running I actually like it a lot. It’s one of the few things that are so simple, just you and the track. No distractions.
Like the good weather changing, the club is going through some changes as well. Noel and Missy are moving to DC in pursuit of a better life (one outside of Farmington Maine.) Justin and John will be taking over the club and keeping the Foundry name going. The location will eventually change and where to is still up in the air. This all makes me sad, but happy for them and I wish them the best of luck.
My game seems to be changing again, I can no longer play De La Riva guard on Justin he is figuring out a way to counter it right off the hand shake. I still play open, but its morphing into a more scissor type guard. One thing I feel, is as my guard has become better my escapes have become worse. This could be very true or it could just be the people who pass my guard are skilled and are getting better every day.
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.
The drill I liked the most was the setups for chokes from knee on belly. I find myself here a lot because I ‘m light and feel I have more top pressure here. Also when I’m in side control and the person bridges and bucks I normally pop up to knee on belly anyway. The good thing about these drills is that it made me look at chokes when normally I’m looking for armbars or the mounted triangle from that position.
After that we went on to do some short rounds of about 3 mins each. We were split off into two groups. Each had about 3 people in them and we would cycle in and out each round. I am normally used to 7 min rounds so this was a bit of a shock. One thing I learned is that my setups take more then 3 mins to finish lol. I also noticed that it’s hard to pass a good guard in 3 mins.
Rolling Recap-
I first rolled with Trevor, a really decent blue belt that has trained with some amazing people like Marcelo. He is much taller then me and has a nasty guard. When we first started he went to his guard and I attempted to pass, somewhere in the mix I got caught with a reverse armbar that I was expecting to turn into an Oma Plata. When we restarted I went to my back and played my normal open guard game. I did not finish anything, but I found a small victory in not allowing him to pass my open guard.
Next I rolled with Bri. She tends to give my open guard fits because of her flexibility. I can’t seem to disrupt her base as well. She has adapted to my game very well and seems to pressure forward for the pass. The only success I have in defending this is to wait for her to over extend herself and then push her off balance for a sweep.
Next up was Greg. Now saying Greg is a big boy is an understatement. I’m not sure how much he weighs, but he is very strong and I would say 200+ pounds. I was able to keep him from passing my guard and setup a nasty armbar on him, but could not finish due to how strong his arms are. One mistake I made with Greg that I should have known not to do is go for a triangle. Sure enough as soon as I through it up I remembered that I can’t close my legs around his shoulders.
I finished up with Noel. We have a similar style in certain aspects. We both tend to let the other person make moves and then hang themselves. So when we roll it can almost turn into a flow drill, which is really fun and technical. For someone who weighs less then I do he has really good top pressure, and that’s something I need to work on. I guess that means I would have to work more on my top game…yeeeeeah.
