No Rolling Around On The Ground With Sweaty Men This Week

This week there will be no BJJ classes at Grizzly Gym.  The Prof was asked to go to ADCC at the last-minute.  He’s in the 99+ KG group.  It’s going to be a tough one.  I’m not sure who dropped out, but they had him on the alternate list.  I guess there wasn’t enough time to get people to cover and such…  Good luck Mike Martelle!

Today is my 9th wedding anniversary.  I forgot it…  Doh! Usually I don’t say anything and then give my wife flowers or a card and gift or something.  She always says “I thought you forgot.”  Last week I had planned to follow my usual routine, but I worked so much OT over the weekend, I completely forgot what day it was…  Anyways, hopefully the flowers sent to her work and a gift card to lululemon will make up for it.  😉

October 11, 2013 Training Journal

No gi class started with some good drilling.  We did several rounds of guard passing.  We went for 2 minutes per round, with each person having the opportunity to practice maintaining guard and passing guard.  The objective on top was to pass and/or submit from the guard.  Once the objective was met, both parties reset.  The objective on the bottom was to maintain guard and/or submit from guard and/or sweep.  When an objective was met, both parties reset.  I had several good sweeps from bottom and I threatened several submissions.  On the top I didn’t worry about submissions.  i wanted to work on my passing.  My guard was only passed once.

My focus in guard was to stay relaxed, control posture, feel where my opponent’s center of mass was, and sweep to the vulnerable side.  It worked out well.  I realized that when I stay calm, I am able to move much easier and see openings better.  On a kind of shitty note, a can opener was used against me to try to open my guard by a very strong opponent.  He pulled as hard as he could and I wouldn’t succumb.  My neck is still sore.  The can opener is such a greasy move…

Next we drilled several Lockflows.  We had a relatively new guy in class, so some of the easier more basic ones were on the card.  It was good to do them again.  It had been a while.  I found that my transitions from technique to technique were quite a bit smoother than they were the last time I had practiced these particular drills.  That made me pretty happy.  When I was the newer guy’s partner, he only kneed me in the face twice, so that was good too.  😉

I was only able to get 2 5 minute rounds of rolling in at the end of class.

Round 1 Positives

• Did very well to stay off my back
• Reversed several leglock attacks to end in a side choke position
• Threatened several submissions from guard

Round 1 Negatives

• Seemed to be leaving my arm out in the open and was caught in 2 Kimuras
• Held back during takedown attempts

Round 2 Positives

• Used strength against opponent to sweep and submit
• Moved well during leg lock to keep knees pinched and eventually get the tap
• Good takedown defense

Round 2 Negatives

• A little bit sloppy in guard
• spent too much time waiting and not enough time attacking

ONE THING TO TAKE AWAY

Staying relaxed really helped me maintain focus and allowed me to think about set up s and defense techniques.