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.
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