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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Opening up a new can of worms

It was a mixed bag today as I feel I made some good progress this week but realized I’ve only begun to reexamine everything that needs reexamining and frankly have only examined things from the bottom in general lately.

It was one of those days that I felt like I shouldn’t train and ended up doing it anyway. Went against E and KT both of whom are super tough and very difficult to control in any position. This was a good test for some of the new theories I’m working on.

My conclusion so far is the new stuff works but reveals how much I need to analyze the rest of my game. My side control, especially from no gi is rudimentary at best. There are no real attacks and I’m always looking to mount or bait them onto their knees. With both of those guys and many others, this is definitely not a smart and energy conserving style on my part.

I was very tired after the training and really feel it was only the new open guard stuff I’ve been working on that allowed me to survive at all. Part of this may be my need to try to pass guard quickly. Sometimes I’m most likely rushing and they’re waiting until right when I pass then boom! they scramble. I may need to hang out in half guard a little bit more and cook them.

The other thing I’m thinking is to continue to apply the concept of making them constantly react and be catching up. I probably need to add more knee on stomach then switching to wrong knee to exhaust them a little.

The next idea is to keep them twisted in side control. I wasn’t using enough shoulder pressure on the chin to really prevent them from turning in. I think if I continue to focus on head/chin control and hip control I can become more effective in these positions. I’m just realizing how much of my game is predicated on them coming to their side, be it to D’Arce them or spin to their back.

Another idea is the triple attack or Hughes/Newton position. This is a great attack that I’ve all but ignored.

With all of this I want to start getting the feeling from side mount that I do when I have them in certain sitting guard positions where they have few options to move to and none of them are good. Right now I’m simply not doing that and it’s leaving me exhausted to get to the back or the mount where I do have that control.

I need to put together some drills and sequences to address this weakness. Thinking about it, I’m actually much better with the gi in this position, whereas almost everywhere else I still think I’m better no gi. I normally don't buy into the argument that the no gi game is faster etc. but it felt that way today and not in a good way to me.

I also think things like the Rigan twister and anything going around north/south would be good option to deal with the bucking bull syndrome.

Definitely an eye opening experience today as there’s a lot of work to be done.

Taking years to learn the obvious ;)

This week has really solidified a lot of principals that have been floating around in my head for a long time. Some injuries have kept me from rolling that much, but I’ve been doing some drills and light training and just really feel like I see a more complete picture on a lot of things I have always struggled with.

I trained with my instructor last night and today and was literally doing almost everything wrong. Now it might not be wrong in the sense that they were the wrong attacks or the wrong ideas, but they weren’t being executed well enough to work on a high level opponent. He was nice enough to hit the rewind button and fix the little details.

Looking back I realize some of these flaws have been with me for as long as I’ve been training and I never realized it. I saw the symptoms, which were me losing position or having to scramble, but never saw the real root of the problem. At this point most of my energies are devoted to dealing with real problem roots rather than the endless variations of the symptoms that they present.

Let’s take dealing with the x-pass from the bottom as an example:

I’d never really analyzed the root problem, which is me not controlling them in the first place. I’d tried speed and timing with things like arm drags which work sometimes until people got wise to them. This was completely reliant on the surprise factor and I had no structure backing up if the arm drag didn’t work or if I dragged them but they flopped over. It was all or nothing.
I also started working some d’Arce chokes from the bottom, which again were effective at times but also failed half the time. Sometimes there was a sweep from that position as well, but once again it was a sniper shot and I only had one bullet.

So for a long time the pin and pass has been the bane of my existence. While my long legs really help with certain attacks, many times once someone pinned them down I was essentially done for.

Once they got past my arm drag and D’Arce gimmicks, I’d simply have to scramble and not let them set in the pin. With guys bigger and stronger, this was always a painful process as the inevitable tree falling on my head was never pleasant and the more tired I was, the more this would just make me want to quit.

These past few weeks, common sense finally reared its head and I started thinking about how the x-pass is described: pin and pass. And I had the profound revelation of maybe if:

A) I prevent or disrupt their pin

And

B) I prevent or stop the actual motion of the pass

They won’t be able to pin and pass.

So for the pin part, I’m working on them having nothing stable to base on. It’s hard to do pushups on a stability ball. If they push on two bent knees what would happen if I straightened one leg? Or if I changed the angle of my knees so they go from their wrists lined up with their shoulder to wrists over their shoulder? (I’m calling this the ab wheel concept)

Even if they do get the pin they still need to pass. With their hands pinning my knees their head is within reach. If my head starts driving into their chin, their motivation to keep moving in that direction decreases. If at the same time I’m pulling their far elbow out they’ve lost their structure. I can also use this to help pivot myself around so now they’re dragging me as the attempt to pass.

From here, they will most likely switch directions, and that’s the time for the arm drag as now the timing is correct and I have the structure to back it up as well. They are closer and my head is on the same side of the arm I’m dragging which gives me much more control of their body as they’re not going to collapse far away and I’m halfway to their back or a takedown. This is what I mean by structure: my body’s in the right place to take advantage of them being off balance so I’m advancing while they’re adjusting.

Before I had timing and sensitivity but no structure. It took just a moment of my opponent breaking one of them and I’d have to use speed or flexibility, neither of which I have enough to compensate against someone big enough and strong enough.

Now this system is using structure to limit and inhibit their motion. This allows the timing and sensitivity to really be utilized because I have control over them as well.
I’m not sure if this makes sense to anyone at this point. I’m still experimenting and keeping this in the lab for now, but I see the light on this one.