One of the most important things I”ve learned with straight armlocks in the cross body position, is the importance of far shoulder control. For a long time I believed it was strictly close side leg control. And while I still think that’s useful, especially for control someone wild, I think control of the far shoulder and bicep is essential to actually breaking the grip and straightening the arm.
I’ve been focusing on my leglock attacks over the last few training sessions. I want to get better at leglocks themselves, but I also want to see how they’ll lead into other attacks. I’m beginning to already see more sweeps, armlock and triangle opportunities simply by going for the knee bar. But I’m also seeing how the knee bar and the ankle lock need the element of arm control.
One of the things my training partner MS did very well on me was controlling the same arm that he was knee barring. Not only did this make it harder to grab my own leg in defense, but also it made it easy for him to sweep me back and for me to not be able to base out and come up on top.
He and I talked about this as well as pushing the opponent’s armpit or his elbow in a kimura type position. This seems to give the right amount of distance to straighten their leg out and the arm control position makes it very difficult for them to get on top again.
I’m curious to mess around with this tomorrow and see where it leads.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
The Great Equalizer
A long time ago my instructor told me I should start incorporating more leglocks into my game but as always, it takes me entirely too long to listen to good advice. I’ve gone through phases where I’ve done that but for the most part I would do them in isolation then go back to my normal game. I felt like they interrupted the flow and took away from my attacks. But after Wednesday’s session, I realized that if I’m going to only attack the upper body, especially no gi, I’m going to have to either work inverted guard or rubber guard.
I like both of these guards, but my body doesn’t, especially when dealing with much bigger training partners. So in my mind to really round out the no gi game, and actually to improve my armbars and triangles, I need to attack the legs.
Today was day one of really incorporating leglocks into my whole game. Now granted I was actively looking for kneebars and ankle locks, but I was also looking to see how they could enhance, rather than distract from my whole game. One of the mistakes I’ve made in the past is to “over isolate” a particular move to the point where I ignore what going for that move gives me. It is always hard to incorporate the rest of my game from that, so now I’m always trying to have “black dot focus” rather than “white dot focus”.
I had some great training partners today who gave me a good energy and chance to work some of my new attacks. I really like what I’m seeing and feeling so far even though some of my knee bars are at a bad” boy band” level right now. One thing that I noticed, is the best way to set up kneebars from the guard is to attack the arms and neck. This leads to posture and posture leads to leaving the legs out there.
Of course the opposite quickly becomes apparent as well, when once you attack the legs, they lean in and grab. I realized this might be one of the best ways to get wrist control to work for a triangle as most people aren’t thinking triangle defense when they’re dealing with a knee bar. They’re reaching out.
The flip bar is another project that will take some work but definitely made me like being sprawl passed better. The threat is there and I always do much better when I have an attack to focus on rather than the idea of “not getting passed”.
I’m going to write about this idea more later, but for now, it seems to me that trying to make something as big and broad as a pass “not happen” is overwhelming. There are so many ways to pass that trying to stop everything feels impossible and for me personally always makes me panic a little.
But if I focus on an attack and feeling what attack is there, I don’t worry about the pass as preventing the pass, miss aligning them and off basing or submitting them is all part of the attack.
So today was very exciting to me in that regard because I am seeing leg attacks in positions where normally I get a “scramble” or even “don’t let him pass” feeling. A lot of these locks rely on them pushing the pass and even the concept of getting that clinch and the handles from open guard is inherently taken care of.
One thing I need to be careful is not to slip into inverting too much as my neck doesn’t forgive me for that position. Although thinking about it, I really should be shifting from my shoulder to my forehead to my other shoulder anyway.
The leg attacks are also leading to another type of guard that I’m experimenting with. I’m not sure what it’s really called but it really is normally just a guard recovering technique where one shin is across their belt line and the other leg is over their head. Let’s say it’s my right leg across their belt and my left leg over their head.
I’m finding that if I control their right arm with my left hand and hook their left leg with my right arm I have a decent amount of control. This position also works, maybe even better, if my right leg is in between theirs in a half guard position.
I see some knee bar attacks on their left leg if they move to their left. If they force the pass to my right there is a good reverse triangle as well. It needs more practice, of course, but I see some definite potential with that.
Also I’m realizing how much the knee bar and cross ankle lock/inside heelhook tie in. I saw that when I was working on controlling the knee bar where we’re both essentially on our backs and I have my instep in the crook of their knee. I’m thinking that grabbing their heel may be a way of preventing them from spinning , but even if they do, the inside heelhook/footlock is there. I also need to adjust my body position and have my back towards them as well.
Overall I’m really excited about this next step and look forward to seeing how these setups work in a no gi situation. Additionally I want to see how I can implement leglock entries starting from standing. I think this may be a good way to initiate an attack on good wrestlers.
I like both of these guards, but my body doesn’t, especially when dealing with much bigger training partners. So in my mind to really round out the no gi game, and actually to improve my armbars and triangles, I need to attack the legs.
Today was day one of really incorporating leglocks into my whole game. Now granted I was actively looking for kneebars and ankle locks, but I was also looking to see how they could enhance, rather than distract from my whole game. One of the mistakes I’ve made in the past is to “over isolate” a particular move to the point where I ignore what going for that move gives me. It is always hard to incorporate the rest of my game from that, so now I’m always trying to have “black dot focus” rather than “white dot focus”.
I had some great training partners today who gave me a good energy and chance to work some of my new attacks. I really like what I’m seeing and feeling so far even though some of my knee bars are at a bad” boy band” level right now. One thing that I noticed, is the best way to set up kneebars from the guard is to attack the arms and neck. This leads to posture and posture leads to leaving the legs out there.
Of course the opposite quickly becomes apparent as well, when once you attack the legs, they lean in and grab. I realized this might be one of the best ways to get wrist control to work for a triangle as most people aren’t thinking triangle defense when they’re dealing with a knee bar. They’re reaching out.
The flip bar is another project that will take some work but definitely made me like being sprawl passed better. The threat is there and I always do much better when I have an attack to focus on rather than the idea of “not getting passed”.
I’m going to write about this idea more later, but for now, it seems to me that trying to make something as big and broad as a pass “not happen” is overwhelming. There are so many ways to pass that trying to stop everything feels impossible and for me personally always makes me panic a little.
But if I focus on an attack and feeling what attack is there, I don’t worry about the pass as preventing the pass, miss aligning them and off basing or submitting them is all part of the attack.
So today was very exciting to me in that regard because I am seeing leg attacks in positions where normally I get a “scramble” or even “don’t let him pass” feeling. A lot of these locks rely on them pushing the pass and even the concept of getting that clinch and the handles from open guard is inherently taken care of.
One thing I need to be careful is not to slip into inverting too much as my neck doesn’t forgive me for that position. Although thinking about it, I really should be shifting from my shoulder to my forehead to my other shoulder anyway.
The leg attacks are also leading to another type of guard that I’m experimenting with. I’m not sure what it’s really called but it really is normally just a guard recovering technique where one shin is across their belt line and the other leg is over their head. Let’s say it’s my right leg across their belt and my left leg over their head.
I’m finding that if I control their right arm with my left hand and hook their left leg with my right arm I have a decent amount of control. This position also works, maybe even better, if my right leg is in between theirs in a half guard position.
I see some knee bar attacks on their left leg if they move to their left. If they force the pass to my right there is a good reverse triangle as well. It needs more practice, of course, but I see some definite potential with that.
Also I’m realizing how much the knee bar and cross ankle lock/inside heelhook tie in. I saw that when I was working on controlling the knee bar where we’re both essentially on our backs and I have my instep in the crook of their knee. I’m thinking that grabbing their heel may be a way of preventing them from spinning , but even if they do, the inside heelhook/footlock is there. I also need to adjust my body position and have my back towards them as well.
Overall I’m really excited about this next step and look forward to seeing how these setups work in a no gi situation. Additionally I want to see how I can implement leglock entries starting from standing. I think this may be a good way to initiate an attack on good wrestlers.
4/23/09 notes
It’s been an interesting week. Felt pretty sharp on Tuesday and then in a total fog yesterday. It was like I had no clue what I should be doing at any moment. I had to start focusing on the smallest of goals as my mind kept racing to everything other than jiu jitsu in the middle of the roll.
It was no gi and any moment my training partner would come close to passing I just kept thinking I wanted to be anywhere but there. I started from closed guard over and over. My goal was to control from there and I was having a really tough time.
For quite a while I’ve felt a little limited in closed guard. At some point I realized traditional rubber guard/mission control is not for me. My knees can’t take it and one surgery is enough for me.
But I admire the control that it gives and there are moments like yesterday with a good scrambling wrestler where I miss it a little bit. Now the Shawn Williams guard is still a big part of the game and something I need to used more often. And I’m starting to come up with some decent neck attacks that lead to wrist control.
When they posture back, my hip bump/close line works well some of the time. But I knew something was missing. Yesterday was about surviving and accumulating evidence for me to study at a later time.
And now looking back, I’m realizing the closed guard hole is an extension of the open guard one: I need to attack the legs. I keep coming to this conclusion over and over again but just was not able to see the opportunity or really even think about it yesterday. I wanted to get the back, control and choke as everything else just felt impossible.
I was really annoyed with my lack of ability to adapt at the moment. I’m glad I didn’t quit and there’s something to be said for using the money moves at times, but it’s going to be a continuing problem as long as I limit my attacks. Those same attacks won’t work once those guys make a few adjustments.
So I think the only solution is to force myself to only attack the legs from the bottom for the next few weeks and see what happens.
It was no gi and any moment my training partner would come close to passing I just kept thinking I wanted to be anywhere but there. I started from closed guard over and over. My goal was to control from there and I was having a really tough time.
For quite a while I’ve felt a little limited in closed guard. At some point I realized traditional rubber guard/mission control is not for me. My knees can’t take it and one surgery is enough for me.
But I admire the control that it gives and there are moments like yesterday with a good scrambling wrestler where I miss it a little bit. Now the Shawn Williams guard is still a big part of the game and something I need to used more often. And I’m starting to come up with some decent neck attacks that lead to wrist control.
When they posture back, my hip bump/close line works well some of the time. But I knew something was missing. Yesterday was about surviving and accumulating evidence for me to study at a later time.
And now looking back, I’m realizing the closed guard hole is an extension of the open guard one: I need to attack the legs. I keep coming to this conclusion over and over again but just was not able to see the opportunity or really even think about it yesterday. I wanted to get the back, control and choke as everything else just felt impossible.
I was really annoyed with my lack of ability to adapt at the moment. I’m glad I didn’t quit and there’s something to be said for using the money moves at times, but it’s going to be a continuing problem as long as I limit my attacks. Those same attacks won’t work once those guys make a few adjustments.
So I think the only solution is to force myself to only attack the legs from the bottom for the next few weeks and see what happens.
Friday, April 17, 2009
the open guard clinch
Got a couple of fun training sessions in on Wednesday and one on Thursday. Some of the new base control tactics are working well to disrupt any type of pin and pass, but this has all been work on the first step and against good players, this is not enough. They quickly catch up and move on if that’s all that I do.
The next step if for me to take advantage of the pause it gives them. Right now arm drags, hook sweeps and guillotines have been somewhat effective but still limited. I think this has been mainly because they only have to worry about their base and their upper body.
Thus it’s time to become a leg locking fool. My instructor’s always emphasized that leg locks are the great equalizer. The thing that I’ve noticed is they are a great attack on wrestlers, not just for the leg-locking component, but also for the sweeping component.
I remember Nick Diaz fighting Sean Sherk and getting him on his butt after attempting a knee bar. It’s the only time I can remember someone sweeping Sherk and it was because Sherk was worried enough about his leg to sacrifice position.
So my next step to get there is to take advantage of the disrupt and get some type of handle that I can turn into a leglock. I realized that this is another huge hole in my game. I let there be separation in open guard situation rather than grabbing handles immediately.
Handles allow me to stick with the person, like an anchor slowly weighing down a motorboat. I’ve learned some tactics to slow down the game in closed guard and on top, but now it’s time to really slow things down from open guard. Ethan told me this a long time ago and now I"m finally beginning to see what he meant.
So while I definitely think leg locks are the next step in my open guard game, I first need to get that clinch and get those handles from open guard. Much like the early days when Royce would always talk about timing the clinch I’m going to work on ways to enter into and establish those clinches. This is the only way that I know to really control someone. Otherwise it becomes a scramble and a battle of speed which I will lose more and more as time goes on.
The next step if for me to take advantage of the pause it gives them. Right now arm drags, hook sweeps and guillotines have been somewhat effective but still limited. I think this has been mainly because they only have to worry about their base and their upper body.
Thus it’s time to become a leg locking fool. My instructor’s always emphasized that leg locks are the great equalizer. The thing that I’ve noticed is they are a great attack on wrestlers, not just for the leg-locking component, but also for the sweeping component.
I remember Nick Diaz fighting Sean Sherk and getting him on his butt after attempting a knee bar. It’s the only time I can remember someone sweeping Sherk and it was because Sherk was worried enough about his leg to sacrifice position.
So my next step to get there is to take advantage of the disrupt and get some type of handle that I can turn into a leglock. I realized that this is another huge hole in my game. I let there be separation in open guard situation rather than grabbing handles immediately.
Handles allow me to stick with the person, like an anchor slowly weighing down a motorboat. I’ve learned some tactics to slow down the game in closed guard and on top, but now it’s time to really slow things down from open guard. Ethan told me this a long time ago and now I"m finally beginning to see what he meant.
So while I definitely think leg locks are the next step in my open guard game, I first need to get that clinch and get those handles from open guard. Much like the early days when Royce would always talk about timing the clinch I’m going to work on ways to enter into and establish those clinches. This is the only way that I know to really control someone. Otherwise it becomes a scramble and a battle of speed which I will lose more and more as time goes on.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Axl Rose
So I finally got a chance to work on some of these new theories with DS. As it went with GC I realized that there’s more work to be done. The stationary bike techniques didn’t seem to work mainly because he pinned my feet to the ground instead of pinning my knees.
Now normally when someone pins my ankles, the reaction is to arm drag them. But as he always does DS makes me painfully aware of the holes in my theories. I’m seeing two mistakes I’m making with this.
One is that I’m attempting to arm drag first and move my ankle second. The problem with this is it may work once or twice but a good wrestler will soon figure this out and simply let the arm drag pull them around and flop right into side mount.
Thinking about it, the second problem ties into the first. The second problem is that trying to move in a linear motion doesn’t work in this angle because his pin position is like a decline bench press with his arms locked out and hands in line with his chest or slightly lower. Even if I could move my legs, it’s not going to change his ability to pin much, if at all because it doesn’t get his hands above his shoulders (in line with his head).
Now if it’s the knees that are pinned down it’s a different story as his hands are probably in line with his shoulder, so if I move back his hands are in line with his head or higher, which is the “ab wheel” concept I’ve been writing about lately. But again, DS was pinning my feet firmly into the mat, so this was not the case here.
It took a while to make progress, as DS was nice enough to let me hit the “rewind button” over and over. I tried various things but everything I worked on felt like a gimmick that might work occasionally but once he caught on, it was back to step one.
After about 10 minutes, DS figured out what I think is the best answer. It started with the idea of opening my knees, which made his pin unstable. It made his elbows flare out a little and prevented him from being able to focus his weight down. This was a good first step and I think this could be a way to work in the arm drag, but we wanted some other options as well.
Again DS had the idea that if I opened my knees, then “swam” my legs side to side this would throw the whole pin out of whack. We realized that this looked like the leg movement of a certain 80’s powerhouse lead singer and thus we will now call this “The Axl Rose”.
It took about half an hour for us to reach this conclusion and after doing some “Sweet Child O’ Mine”ing for a few more minutes, we concluded it works in that situation. I could reestablish some handles and work my open guard from there.
There’s still a lot more to figure out and I’m anxious to work on the arm drag components, keeping in mind destabilizing his base, having my head on the side that I want to drag to, timing the pull of the arms, the push of the legs and shifting my hips out and towards him. It’s a move I’ve worked on a lot and got fairly effective with to a certain point but now it’s time to take that to the next level.
DS is an amazing asset and continues to be my kryptonite in every way on the mat. But since he’s so eager to learn (and somehow fooled into thinking I know something ;)) he’s a great training partner because we can figure out why one particular step doesn’t work and isolate it out until we find an answer.
For a long time I would have just worked on a scramble or just told myself not to get there in the first place, but now I want real answers that I can duplicate and more importantly, that I can teach to people that don’t involve the answer of just “moving quickly.”
Now normally when someone pins my ankles, the reaction is to arm drag them. But as he always does DS makes me painfully aware of the holes in my theories. I’m seeing two mistakes I’m making with this.
One is that I’m attempting to arm drag first and move my ankle second. The problem with this is it may work once or twice but a good wrestler will soon figure this out and simply let the arm drag pull them around and flop right into side mount.
Thinking about it, the second problem ties into the first. The second problem is that trying to move in a linear motion doesn’t work in this angle because his pin position is like a decline bench press with his arms locked out and hands in line with his chest or slightly lower. Even if I could move my legs, it’s not going to change his ability to pin much, if at all because it doesn’t get his hands above his shoulders (in line with his head).
Now if it’s the knees that are pinned down it’s a different story as his hands are probably in line with his shoulder, so if I move back his hands are in line with his head or higher, which is the “ab wheel” concept I’ve been writing about lately. But again, DS was pinning my feet firmly into the mat, so this was not the case here.
It took a while to make progress, as DS was nice enough to let me hit the “rewind button” over and over. I tried various things but everything I worked on felt like a gimmick that might work occasionally but once he caught on, it was back to step one.
After about 10 minutes, DS figured out what I think is the best answer. It started with the idea of opening my knees, which made his pin unstable. It made his elbows flare out a little and prevented him from being able to focus his weight down. This was a good first step and I think this could be a way to work in the arm drag, but we wanted some other options as well.
Again DS had the idea that if I opened my knees, then “swam” my legs side to side this would throw the whole pin out of whack. We realized that this looked like the leg movement of a certain 80’s powerhouse lead singer and thus we will now call this “The Axl Rose”.
It took about half an hour for us to reach this conclusion and after doing some “Sweet Child O’ Mine”ing for a few more minutes, we concluded it works in that situation. I could reestablish some handles and work my open guard from there.
There’s still a lot more to figure out and I’m anxious to work on the arm drag components, keeping in mind destabilizing his base, having my head on the side that I want to drag to, timing the pull of the arms, the push of the legs and shifting my hips out and towards him. It’s a move I’ve worked on a lot and got fairly effective with to a certain point but now it’s time to take that to the next level.
DS is an amazing asset and continues to be my kryptonite in every way on the mat. But since he’s so eager to learn (and somehow fooled into thinking I know something ;)) he’s a great training partner because we can figure out why one particular step doesn’t work and isolate it out until we find an answer.
For a long time I would have just worked on a scramble or just told myself not to get there in the first place, but now I want real answers that I can duplicate and more importantly, that I can teach to people that don’t involve the answer of just “moving quickly.”
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
New blog site soon
I'm going to keep this blog as mainly jiu jitsu stuff but I feel compelled to write more about other subjects. Being a big Bukowski fan I'm looking to do my own version of "Women" so be ready... ;)
more to come and I'll finish up on the latest stuff I'm working on in training: "The Axl Rose"
more to come and I'll finish up on the latest stuff I'm working on in training: "The Axl Rose"
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Coaching thoughts from the weekend's tournament
There was a jiu jitsu tournament here in Austin this weekend. I went with the goal of coaching as many of my teammates as I could and to lose my voice. I guess I achieved both goals.
Watching those matches reminded me of when I first moved here almost three years ago. The second day I started training with my instructor, I tore the meniscus in my left knee. I couldn’t train for three months and I ended up needing surgery on it, but I can firmly say it was the best thing to ever happen to my jiu jitsu.
The injury forced me to watch and to study the game really for the first time. I’d been in jiu jitsu for a long time already at that point. I was a purple belt and thought I knew some things. Usually when I’d gotten hurt before I just wouldn’t go until I was better.
This time was different. I went to almost every class, usually twice a day, six days a week. I was finding a home in a new city and starting to study and try to really learn something I’d been vaguely familiar with for a long time.
I started to realize how little I knew about jiu jitsu. I might be able to do a certain amount, but if I saw two people grappling, half the time I couldn’t tell you what they were going to do next, or what they were trying to do or what they should do.
So I started to try to figure this out. I started trying to predict what one guy would do next. Then I’d switch people. Other times I’d try to figure out what I would do and see if it was the same thing.
By the time I came back I felt I knew more but more importantly I realized how much there was to learn. It wasn’t going to become a matter of “getting it” one day, it was simply going to be a slow steady walk towards a mirage in the desert. And once I was okay with that, the walk became a lot more enjoyable.
So lately I’ve started to vocalize some of these observations and patterns by working on becoming an effective coach. I want to be able to say the right thing at the right time and to be as specific but simple as possible. What’s been good about this is there’s immediate feedback when my training partner tries what I say and I can see if it actually works.
I still have a lifetime to go as a practitioner and teacher but this weekend was a good test for me as I helped coach at least 25 matches. I know some of our guys’ games pretty well, but others I realized still how little I know and understand about their habits, patterns, strengths and weaknesses. I’m still a long way from being someone who really sees what everyone else just watches. There are still definitely a lot of situations that I don’t have answers for. I still have just a small fraction of understanding of this game.
I realize that I’m also going to really need to start studying wrestling and judo more as I really don’t have much advice to give standing up other than “pull guard”. I know most people I train with don’t practice their standup grappling much and I’m not sure if that’s going to change, but I feel incomplete in my own knowledge when I don’t know at least some basic grip fighting as well as wrestling tie ups and how they lead into takedowns.
I was proud of my teammates, but feel I need to study other people more carefully than I’ve been doing so far. Lately it’s been all about what I need to do to get better but I’m shortchanging everyone and probably myself by not really observing my teammates.
Overall I thought the tournament was run fairly smoothly and while there were some officiating calls I didn’t agree with, I don’t think any of them affected the outcome of the matches I saw. I'm never going to love jiu jitsu tournaments, but I learned a lot and am glad I went.
Watching those matches reminded me of when I first moved here almost three years ago. The second day I started training with my instructor, I tore the meniscus in my left knee. I couldn’t train for three months and I ended up needing surgery on it, but I can firmly say it was the best thing to ever happen to my jiu jitsu.
The injury forced me to watch and to study the game really for the first time. I’d been in jiu jitsu for a long time already at that point. I was a purple belt and thought I knew some things. Usually when I’d gotten hurt before I just wouldn’t go until I was better.
This time was different. I went to almost every class, usually twice a day, six days a week. I was finding a home in a new city and starting to study and try to really learn something I’d been vaguely familiar with for a long time.
I started to realize how little I knew about jiu jitsu. I might be able to do a certain amount, but if I saw two people grappling, half the time I couldn’t tell you what they were going to do next, or what they were trying to do or what they should do.
So I started to try to figure this out. I started trying to predict what one guy would do next. Then I’d switch people. Other times I’d try to figure out what I would do and see if it was the same thing.
By the time I came back I felt I knew more but more importantly I realized how much there was to learn. It wasn’t going to become a matter of “getting it” one day, it was simply going to be a slow steady walk towards a mirage in the desert. And once I was okay with that, the walk became a lot more enjoyable.
So lately I’ve started to vocalize some of these observations and patterns by working on becoming an effective coach. I want to be able to say the right thing at the right time and to be as specific but simple as possible. What’s been good about this is there’s immediate feedback when my training partner tries what I say and I can see if it actually works.
I still have a lifetime to go as a practitioner and teacher but this weekend was a good test for me as I helped coach at least 25 matches. I know some of our guys’ games pretty well, but others I realized still how little I know and understand about their habits, patterns, strengths and weaknesses. I’m still a long way from being someone who really sees what everyone else just watches. There are still definitely a lot of situations that I don’t have answers for. I still have just a small fraction of understanding of this game.
I realize that I’m also going to really need to start studying wrestling and judo more as I really don’t have much advice to give standing up other than “pull guard”. I know most people I train with don’t practice their standup grappling much and I’m not sure if that’s going to change, but I feel incomplete in my own knowledge when I don’t know at least some basic grip fighting as well as wrestling tie ups and how they lead into takedowns.
I was proud of my teammates, but feel I need to study other people more carefully than I’ve been doing so far. Lately it’s been all about what I need to do to get better but I’m shortchanging everyone and probably myself by not really observing my teammates.
Overall I thought the tournament was run fairly smoothly and while there were some officiating calls I didn’t agree with, I don’t think any of them affected the outcome of the matches I saw. I'm never going to love jiu jitsu tournaments, but I learned a lot and am glad I went.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
more problems to solve
Trained twice today. Really seeing that while the concepts of stationary bike and ab wheel are sound it’s now a matter of putting the together along with head position and structure and then really beginning to formulate a series of attacks from there. Right now it’s mainly been hook sweeps, guillotines and arm drags.
But now I’m realizing that there’s another whole range of attacks that need to be used. The most obvious is keeping feet on the hips, head dragging him and working toward omoplatas etc. My instructor told me a while back that some of the things I was working on were still based on speed or beating the guy to the punch. GC made this very obvious to me tonight and once again, my instructor shows me why he’s the teacher and I’m the hardheaded student.
Rolled with T in the afternoon and GC at night. GC especially made me realize that just being impressed with what I stumbled upon wouldn’t be enough as he was able to blow past the guard quickly until I started to use head placement and arm control more. But now the next focus, especially on higher-level guys is to have an arsenal of attacks.
I keep thinking of a bunch of cheesy analogies but the point remains that the control is getting better, but now it must be followed with the attack.
I felt a few times with GC that I established some good control, especially in sitting guard and I could feel him just hovering back. I knew the butterfly sweep wouldn’t work, but he wasn’t far back enough to push over either. I caught myself waiting and with that tornado, waiting leads to passing leads to scrambling leads to being exhausted and losing my technique. It will never be easy with someone like that but I wasn’t throwing up bumps in the road or good baits either. And more importantly if there’s no threat, he’ll figure out the maze and run through it.
With T it was similar as he studied my reactions and started control my head and working the pass from there. So while I think I’ve taken the first step in learning control in ways I’ve come to the same crossroads that I used to feel with the mount and other positions where I feel like I need to hold that position rather than working my way to even better control with better consequences, i.e. a submission.
The guard I’m working with has tons of submissions as my instructor has done them all to me☺
And while at one point playing tennis and hitting all the balls back was nice, it’s time to play football and be on offense. I imagine without that it’s still a countdown until I’m tapping with someone the larger or more talented people out there. Or it’s a scramble like it was tonight. But I don’t like scrambles because it’s a young man’s game and it means that I did something wrong or more specifically lost control.
The guard I have now is basically the open guard equivalent of holding the mount and grapevining the feet and hoping they leave their neck or just dangle their arm out. Now it needs to incorporate the control into attacks that are chained together more specifically. I’m looking forward to it as I think it’s still my weakest part of my game but somehow I think it could become a strength soon.
But now I’m realizing that there’s another whole range of attacks that need to be used. The most obvious is keeping feet on the hips, head dragging him and working toward omoplatas etc. My instructor told me a while back that some of the things I was working on were still based on speed or beating the guy to the punch. GC made this very obvious to me tonight and once again, my instructor shows me why he’s the teacher and I’m the hardheaded student.
Rolled with T in the afternoon and GC at night. GC especially made me realize that just being impressed with what I stumbled upon wouldn’t be enough as he was able to blow past the guard quickly until I started to use head placement and arm control more. But now the next focus, especially on higher-level guys is to have an arsenal of attacks.
I keep thinking of a bunch of cheesy analogies but the point remains that the control is getting better, but now it must be followed with the attack.
I felt a few times with GC that I established some good control, especially in sitting guard and I could feel him just hovering back. I knew the butterfly sweep wouldn’t work, but he wasn’t far back enough to push over either. I caught myself waiting and with that tornado, waiting leads to passing leads to scrambling leads to being exhausted and losing my technique. It will never be easy with someone like that but I wasn’t throwing up bumps in the road or good baits either. And more importantly if there’s no threat, he’ll figure out the maze and run through it.
With T it was similar as he studied my reactions and started control my head and working the pass from there. So while I think I’ve taken the first step in learning control in ways I’ve come to the same crossroads that I used to feel with the mount and other positions where I feel like I need to hold that position rather than working my way to even better control with better consequences, i.e. a submission.
The guard I’m working with has tons of submissions as my instructor has done them all to me☺
And while at one point playing tennis and hitting all the balls back was nice, it’s time to play football and be on offense. I imagine without that it’s still a countdown until I’m tapping with someone the larger or more talented people out there. Or it’s a scramble like it was tonight. But I don’t like scrambles because it’s a young man’s game and it means that I did something wrong or more specifically lost control.
The guard I have now is basically the open guard equivalent of holding the mount and grapevining the feet and hoping they leave their neck or just dangle their arm out. Now it needs to incorporate the control into attacks that are chained together more specifically. I’m looking forward to it as I think it’s still my weakest part of my game but somehow I think it could become a strength soon.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
more tweaking
Rolled with JC today. He’s always tough and is always working on new things. Today he was doing a lot of sitting up guard grabbing a single. I worked a few guillotines for control, but forgot about driving my knee into his sternum the way Ethan did long ago. That’s a really good control point and it seems to work almost like knee on stomach from the side except it’s on top. But I remembered all of that afterwards so I kept getting swept ;)
I’m noticing that the “bike” technique seems to work even if they hug the legs. It’s almost like someone trying not to slide down a cliff and running with their butt on the ground. For so long I used to try to get both legs out at once but this doesn’t really make sense to me now. If my legs were stuck in the mud would I try to run out or jump out with both?
Even if I don’t get the legs out at once I just keeping peddling the bike and it seems very difficult for the person to hold. I’m almost worried my knee is going to smack them in the chin.
Still need more tweaking on the sitting up guard. Definitely like having the down leg for them to push on as I can shift my hips and start to work the arm drag. But realized today once I get the drag I need to shift my hips again and work the hook sweep assuming my hooks are still in and with everything being this close and controlled they usually are. Otherwise, I’m running into the same problem I did last week where I have no structure behind me and now am using strength to hold or advance the position which tires me out quickly.
Starting to see that knee on stomach could become a real weapon for me. Cupping the elbow and switching to elbow on stomach is a good back and forth as well. This may start really baiting them into getting their arms across their body
Again I need to search for ways to continue the concept of using position to limit their options and make them want to move. Knee on stomach, especially up to their sternum seems like a good option on top but the should be options on position from every position to make that scenario happen. I haven’t figured them out in as much depth yet but I think the principle is sound.
I’m noticing that the “bike” technique seems to work even if they hug the legs. It’s almost like someone trying not to slide down a cliff and running with their butt on the ground. For so long I used to try to get both legs out at once but this doesn’t really make sense to me now. If my legs were stuck in the mud would I try to run out or jump out with both?
Even if I don’t get the legs out at once I just keeping peddling the bike and it seems very difficult for the person to hold. I’m almost worried my knee is going to smack them in the chin.
Still need more tweaking on the sitting up guard. Definitely like having the down leg for them to push on as I can shift my hips and start to work the arm drag. But realized today once I get the drag I need to shift my hips again and work the hook sweep assuming my hooks are still in and with everything being this close and controlled they usually are. Otherwise, I’m running into the same problem I did last week where I have no structure behind me and now am using strength to hold or advance the position which tires me out quickly.
Starting to see that knee on stomach could become a real weapon for me. Cupping the elbow and switching to elbow on stomach is a good back and forth as well. This may start really baiting them into getting their arms across their body
Again I need to search for ways to continue the concept of using position to limit their options and make them want to move. Knee on stomach, especially up to their sternum seems like a good option on top but the should be options on position from every position to make that scenario happen. I haven’t figured them out in as much depth yet but I think the principle is sound.
Monday, April 6, 2009
45 degree angles, ab wheels and recumbent bikes
4/5/09
Took a few more days off and got some much needed rest. Worked with my buddy T today on more of the recumbent bike/ ab wheel concept. Definitely like where it’s headed but he presented some new challenges that I’ll need to address.
The first area is when he crosses my legs over my centerline. At times it felt like I should just go in that direction and roll all the way through. At other times it felt like I should use his pushing momentum to plant my other foot and change the angle of my hips. And other times I thought I should use the momentum to stiff arm him and change the angle with my upper body rather than my lower.
In any case, the principal is the same with each situation: keep my hips lined up with him and my whole body lined up with itself.
All this stuff is still in the lab stage but what I like about the feedback so far is when it doesn’t work, it feels wrong. And it usually feels that way first. This is a nice feedback mechanism as it really makes me realize every time I tense up, I’m taking the wrong path.
While the “bike” techniques work well, the other thing I’m noticing that it makes my opponent open up his neck as he instinctually wants to keep his head up to try to regain his base. This makes the guillotine a good option for attacks or as a distraction to get him to grab your arm and thus making it easier to get a sweep.
The one thing I’m going to really need to worry about is him trapping my straight leg in half guard and working towards a knee bar. However at the same time having the other knee bent and ready to straighten it seems like it may be hard for him to get the necessary control. Still I could feel that it might be there at times.
The next thing I noticed is that once people become wise to the fact that it is hard for them to pin the legs they tend to hold the legs but not put weight on them. It might be a good time to break the grip and sit up. But at the same time they might use that as bait and when I start to reach for their hand they could pull my leg out to the side and spin me. I’m not entirely sure if that would work but sitting here thinking about it, it seems like a possibility.
DS should be healthy soon and will bring a whole new painful level of learning to what I’m doing. I’m confident in the principals of this but still when the angles become more 45 degrees and the opponent going from side to side that could be a problem.
That being said I’m convinced if his base is disrupted right from the beginning, he shouldn’t be able to push off to move to the next side.
More and more I’m seeing both the opportunities and importance of always changing angles before someone really establishes a base, pin and control. And I’m seeing this quite a bit from half guard as well. I’m starting to picture that position to be mainly transitional in nature when it becomes disrupting his base, then going for a sweep, triangle, taking the back etc.
I’m also interested in the idea of trying to get as many arm lock attacks as possible on 45 degree angles over the opponent’s shoulder.
I’m finding that from closed guard the regular pendulum sweep works much better if I focus on going over their far shoulder rather than to their side. But also I’m seeing that going over the shoulder makes the person naturally want to put that shoulder side hand out to prevent themselves from falling over.
It’s like trying to fall or roll onto your chest from your knees without using your hands. Very few people can do it at first as you just want and feel like you have to put that hand out.
So taking that reaction into account if I really secure the arm and keep the angle over their shoulder, they naturally want to post to prevent their head from smacking into the ground. But when they post, that hand can’t be used to help defend the armbar on the trapped arm.
And I’m also finding that once I get that position it’s a matter of focusing on my alignment, so I keep the arm secure and get my knees and hips in line. Usually it means almost backing my body away. This puts me at a stronger angle as my legs are lined up and a little straighter.
For the opponent it pushes his head into the mat. If he rolls to relieve the pressure, it straightens his arm even more. If he tries to roll in he’s using rotational power against my leg press so the odds are probably in my favor on that.
This is making me really want to explore the concept more of getting a good 45 degree angle myself then line up my body from there and see what offense results.
One of my training partners did this last week when he had my arm across from his closed guard. My hand was clamped in his armpit and the control was really impressive. I think if he’d have kept that control and lined his body up with my arms some really interesting attacks would have resulted.
Much to learn and much to mess with as always.
Took a few more days off and got some much needed rest. Worked with my buddy T today on more of the recumbent bike/ ab wheel concept. Definitely like where it’s headed but he presented some new challenges that I’ll need to address.
The first area is when he crosses my legs over my centerline. At times it felt like I should just go in that direction and roll all the way through. At other times it felt like I should use his pushing momentum to plant my other foot and change the angle of my hips. And other times I thought I should use the momentum to stiff arm him and change the angle with my upper body rather than my lower.
In any case, the principal is the same with each situation: keep my hips lined up with him and my whole body lined up with itself.
All this stuff is still in the lab stage but what I like about the feedback so far is when it doesn’t work, it feels wrong. And it usually feels that way first. This is a nice feedback mechanism as it really makes me realize every time I tense up, I’m taking the wrong path.
While the “bike” techniques work well, the other thing I’m noticing that it makes my opponent open up his neck as he instinctually wants to keep his head up to try to regain his base. This makes the guillotine a good option for attacks or as a distraction to get him to grab your arm and thus making it easier to get a sweep.
The one thing I’m going to really need to worry about is him trapping my straight leg in half guard and working towards a knee bar. However at the same time having the other knee bent and ready to straighten it seems like it may be hard for him to get the necessary control. Still I could feel that it might be there at times.
The next thing I noticed is that once people become wise to the fact that it is hard for them to pin the legs they tend to hold the legs but not put weight on them. It might be a good time to break the grip and sit up. But at the same time they might use that as bait and when I start to reach for their hand they could pull my leg out to the side and spin me. I’m not entirely sure if that would work but sitting here thinking about it, it seems like a possibility.
DS should be healthy soon and will bring a whole new painful level of learning to what I’m doing. I’m confident in the principals of this but still when the angles become more 45 degrees and the opponent going from side to side that could be a problem.
That being said I’m convinced if his base is disrupted right from the beginning, he shouldn’t be able to push off to move to the next side.
More and more I’m seeing both the opportunities and importance of always changing angles before someone really establishes a base, pin and control. And I’m seeing this quite a bit from half guard as well. I’m starting to picture that position to be mainly transitional in nature when it becomes disrupting his base, then going for a sweep, triangle, taking the back etc.
I’m also interested in the idea of trying to get as many arm lock attacks as possible on 45 degree angles over the opponent’s shoulder.
I’m finding that from closed guard the regular pendulum sweep works much better if I focus on going over their far shoulder rather than to their side. But also I’m seeing that going over the shoulder makes the person naturally want to put that shoulder side hand out to prevent themselves from falling over.
It’s like trying to fall or roll onto your chest from your knees without using your hands. Very few people can do it at first as you just want and feel like you have to put that hand out.
So taking that reaction into account if I really secure the arm and keep the angle over their shoulder, they naturally want to post to prevent their head from smacking into the ground. But when they post, that hand can’t be used to help defend the armbar on the trapped arm.
And I’m also finding that once I get that position it’s a matter of focusing on my alignment, so I keep the arm secure and get my knees and hips in line. Usually it means almost backing my body away. This puts me at a stronger angle as my legs are lined up and a little straighter.
For the opponent it pushes his head into the mat. If he rolls to relieve the pressure, it straightens his arm even more. If he tries to roll in he’s using rotational power against my leg press so the odds are probably in my favor on that.
This is making me really want to explore the concept more of getting a good 45 degree angle myself then line up my body from there and see what offense results.
One of my training partners did this last week when he had my arm across from his closed guard. My hand was clamped in his armpit and the control was really impressive. I think if he’d have kept that control and lined his body up with my arms some really interesting attacks would have resulted.
Much to learn and much to mess with as always.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Tunnel Vision
Felt like today I zoomed in too much on getting my head position and not enough about feeling where my training partners weight was etc. The result was a lot of energy and forced techniques.
I failed to really look at the whole picture. It’s not just where my head is in relation to his, it’s also about lining up the rest of my body and acknowledging where his weight is.
As a result I was pushing almost across my body instead of through my centerline. And I had no support from my legs as the leg “behind” my head had its outside on the ground. I had no base behind the direction I was pushing. I should have shifted my hips over to my head would be “supported” by a foot on the ground.
The result was I had to really strain to hold position and set up a guard, as I needed to use muscular force since I had no structure backing it.
Now my training partner is a super tough and talented guy, but I knew something way wrong. I was tired in the wrong way. I discussed this with M as I always like to pick his brain on these things and we figured that in this situation I need to either “head drag” the opponent to get his head on the other side.
Or I could readjust my posture so that it makes him want to move.
I guess this brings the different schools of thought where some argue you should figure out a bunch of different setups for a few techniques or whether you should have techniques for whatever the situation presents itself.
In this case I think setting myself up in proper alignment right from the beginning is optimal.
Granted the head drag or maybe popping to a guillotine has its place but the more I can get to the root of problems rather than chasing the symptoms, the better.
I failed to really look at the whole picture. It’s not just where my head is in relation to his, it’s also about lining up the rest of my body and acknowledging where his weight is.
As a result I was pushing almost across my body instead of through my centerline. And I had no support from my legs as the leg “behind” my head had its outside on the ground. I had no base behind the direction I was pushing. I should have shifted my hips over to my head would be “supported” by a foot on the ground.
The result was I had to really strain to hold position and set up a guard, as I needed to use muscular force since I had no structure backing it.
Now my training partner is a super tough and talented guy, but I knew something way wrong. I was tired in the wrong way. I discussed this with M as I always like to pick his brain on these things and we figured that in this situation I need to either “head drag” the opponent to get his head on the other side.
Or I could readjust my posture so that it makes him want to move.
I guess this brings the different schools of thought where some argue you should figure out a bunch of different setups for a few techniques or whether you should have techniques for whatever the situation presents itself.
In this case I think setting myself up in proper alignment right from the beginning is optimal.
Granted the head drag or maybe popping to a guillotine has its place but the more I can get to the root of problems rather than chasing the symptoms, the better.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
What if the submission and position are really the same thing?
I was taught years ago that you should always get position first and then work on the submission. And while I think I understood and somewhat understand the philosophy behind that, I always had difficulty making it work. It seemed like it became a battle to hold mount or sidemount while not daring to go for a submission for fear of losing position and having to “start over again”.
Well a while back I began to think that maybe the opposite was true. Maybe if you went for the submission then that could lead to the position. Maybe going for the Americana in half guard would make the pass that much easier.
But lately I’m wondering if they’re both right and really maybe the same thing. I was thinking about this today when I was working a triangle against a really talented student. My goal was to hold the figure four with my legs while slowly increasing the pressure and limiting his options for moving.
Any time he tried to stack I walked back on my shoulders. When he tried to pass I kept his outside elbow up. So I’m thinking that this philosophy doesn’t just apply to submissions, at least not how I’ve been looking at things lately.
I’ve been working on my sitting guard quite a bit these days. Through leg position, head placement and just the overall concept of structure I’m trying to put my body in a strong and versatile position. What I’m noticing is that by doing this I’m limiting the directions they can comfortably move.
Knowing this I can start to feel where they’re vulnerable as they’re moving in those now limited directions. The movement sets up new opportunities for attack. And in my mind, that’s really what a submission is. It controls the opponent and limits his mobility and more importantly, his options. And as these options become more and more dangerous (i.e. a chain of submissions) eventually the tap is the inevitable outcome.
I think that if I can find ways to apply this to almost every position where I limit the opponents’ movement options and then begin my attacks, somewhat knowing which ways he can and will go, then it simply becomes a matter of figuring out how to set up this structure concept to begin with.
So this then becomes both the goal of the position and the submission and in many ways the two are interchangeable.
Now it could be that I’m just truly beginning to understand what is meant by position first, but to me if the idea is to continually limit the opponent’s options, this is a more amorphous idea that can and should be constantly adjusted. The idea of “holding position” to me feels like a fear inducing idea where if you “lose position” then you’ve backtracked.
For me that just feels too linear and ultimately limited. I need to focus on steps to take rather than things to avoid.
So I’m excited to see whether this thought process can be fully applied. As I wrote earlier, I think my side mount could be a great position to try this out with as my attacks are pretty non-existent there so I can build from the ground up.
Offhand I’m thinking that chin control and baiting them into pushing their arm across their centerline might be a good start. I look forward to experimenting with this and having my training partners’ and instructor’s input as well.
Well a while back I began to think that maybe the opposite was true. Maybe if you went for the submission then that could lead to the position. Maybe going for the Americana in half guard would make the pass that much easier.
But lately I’m wondering if they’re both right and really maybe the same thing. I was thinking about this today when I was working a triangle against a really talented student. My goal was to hold the figure four with my legs while slowly increasing the pressure and limiting his options for moving.
Any time he tried to stack I walked back on my shoulders. When he tried to pass I kept his outside elbow up. So I’m thinking that this philosophy doesn’t just apply to submissions, at least not how I’ve been looking at things lately.
I’ve been working on my sitting guard quite a bit these days. Through leg position, head placement and just the overall concept of structure I’m trying to put my body in a strong and versatile position. What I’m noticing is that by doing this I’m limiting the directions they can comfortably move.
Knowing this I can start to feel where they’re vulnerable as they’re moving in those now limited directions. The movement sets up new opportunities for attack. And in my mind, that’s really what a submission is. It controls the opponent and limits his mobility and more importantly, his options. And as these options become more and more dangerous (i.e. a chain of submissions) eventually the tap is the inevitable outcome.
I think that if I can find ways to apply this to almost every position where I limit the opponents’ movement options and then begin my attacks, somewhat knowing which ways he can and will go, then it simply becomes a matter of figuring out how to set up this structure concept to begin with.
So this then becomes both the goal of the position and the submission and in many ways the two are interchangeable.
Now it could be that I’m just truly beginning to understand what is meant by position first, but to me if the idea is to continually limit the opponent’s options, this is a more amorphous idea that can and should be constantly adjusted. The idea of “holding position” to me feels like a fear inducing idea where if you “lose position” then you’ve backtracked.
For me that just feels too linear and ultimately limited. I need to focus on steps to take rather than things to avoid.
So I’m excited to see whether this thought process can be fully applied. As I wrote earlier, I think my side mount could be a great position to try this out with as my attacks are pretty non-existent there so I can build from the ground up.
Offhand I’m thinking that chin control and baiting them into pushing their arm across their centerline might be a good start. I look forward to experimenting with this and having my training partners’ and instructor’s input as well.
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