Mid-Year Status Update

Damnit, I’ve fallen off on the blog for a bit. Starting it back up today.

Its been a month since I’ve rolled. Have had some terrible luck the last month or two. First, my shoulder flared up badly after rolling with Pedro around April- getting flattened with my arm stretched across my chest was not good for my already busted shoulder. Have been seeing a great physio who has identified some things with not only my shoulder, but my elbow as well, so I am optimistic I have found someone who knows what they are doing. Helps that she trains and understands when she asks what do I want to be able to do with my arm, and I say “hang from a pullup bar pain-free… and be able to do a left handed high elbow guillotine”

After the shoulder, a month or so ago I got spiked on my head rolling. Super unfortunate. I was on someone’s back on the ground working a choke when they tried to do a flip forwards (with me attached). Inevitably my head hit the ground mid-flip. There was a big riiiiiip sound, and I immediately laid on the ground dead still. Eventually (later learned due to shock) my hands got tingly and curled up, an ambulance came eventually and took me to ER. CT scans and some tests later, it wasn’t as bad- muscle strain, no vertebrae damage. Physio said years of BJJ made a difference in how bad the damage was- would have been a lot worse if I was less experienced.

So since that happened I haven’t been rolling at all. Couple days after the neck incident i began doing drilling before class. Passing only- couldn’t even lie on the ground to play guard as that requires elevation of the head. So I’ve actually managed to get some quality drilling sessions in for a couple weeks, working a ton on the torreando and knee slice passes, using Jon Thomas’ material on youtube and Grappler’s Guide. Its really good stuff.

2 weeks ago I came down with the annual flu. Thought I would avoid it this year. I blame myself for not continuing with the Wim Hoff cold showers for immune health last month- I’d been diligent but eventually after some stressful life events I said fuck it and stopped.

So I’m still battling the last bits of this sickness- still coughing once a while, just enough that training is out. Throughout the time I’ve been sick I’ve been a total sack, playing PS4 all night as I am prone to do when i am unable to do BJJ. It’s fun, but also depressing because there’s just no external benefit to it. I am trying to motivate myself to do other things like play guitar, but it is hard to get into anything that requires skill/thought when you are just coughing and feeling run down.

I’m hoping this is totally gone in the next day or two. There’s a Clark Gracie seminar on tonight. I’d be pretty excited to go usually; I’ve met Clark and he is a great guy, and I love omoplatas… but when you’ve been sick and haven’t trained in so long the excitement isn’t there.

Anyway, hope to leave this behind soon and get back into the training.

Back to writing…

Oh jeez I’ve been slack on writing on this, and I know exactly why. It’s that damn Los Angeles trip hanging over me- apparently it’s been a month since I’ve gotten back, and I’ve yet to do a full write up of my travels there. And since I haven’t done that, I haven’t written any further entries. Now I’ve accepted that I’ll have to do the big write up down the line, out of chronological order, just so I can start writing about the day to day training again.

The trip does loom over me though, and permeates my current training back home. Firstly, the goddamn lasso guard. Everyone competitor under lightweight uses lasso in some form, and for 8 years I’ve ignored it. Now in training I’ve been drilling lasso and going for it as much as possible, and I’m finally seeing why everyone uses it; how it ties in to the DLR game and creates both offence and provides a strong defense. My guard retention is getting better and my fingers are getting more sore.

I’ve also been studying Keenan’s lapel guard a lot, which is another thing those Cicero Costha athletes played on me constantly and gave me absolute fits. I have been having a good bit of success using the lapel guards, especially against people who have no idea what I am doing. Guys like Clint who are now aware of the danger of giving me a lapel are giving me trouble setting up the guard though. There is a strong relation to lasso/sleeve control, lapel guard, and DLR, so it is all fitting together slowly but surely.

Finally, I’ve been trying to fit in more pure drilling with Clint and others whenever possible. I think both of us realised the value of drilling while over there; arguably moreso than rolling. Of course both are important, but we spend more time free rolling than we do drilling (our own techniques, which aren’t necessarily what is being taught).

Los Angeles day 1

36 hours. That’s how long we’d been awake for since we woke up Wednesday morning nzt to catch our flight to LA in the afternoon. We had arrived wed morning LA time, and had to kill time till we could check in at 4. Before we could get any sleep, it was time for us to go to our first drop in.

Our stop was Academy Jiu Jitsu in Downey. Clinton had trained with the head instructor Gustavo a couple of years ago on the recommendation of a Peruvian purple belt that had stayed at our gym for a year, so was keen to catch up.

The drive itself was a war. LA drivers are psychopaths who don’t give a fuck about indicating or the colour of the lights. Adding to the lack of sleep, not gonna lie I was terrified being on the roads. Thankfully Steve is an amazing driver, adequate sleep or not.

The gym was very aesthetic, with clean white mats set against wooden walls and black wall mats. We started off with a technique and drilled it, a timer going off every two minutes to signal swapping over. We started with a leg drag from DLR, and I picked up some nice details about creating the reaction to expose the drag. From there we worked a leg weave to mount. Again, some new details on the transition to dope mount.

After that, it was time to roll. I managed to get in some rolls with both the black belts (Gustavo and Hector) and they floated right through my attempts to play any kind of guard and swept me like nothing. Incredible and they weren’t even trying.

There were no purple belts there surprisingly, so I had some good rolls with their white and blue belts. They gave me some unexpected attacks to deal with, like americanas from bottom side, which was fun. Considering the lack of sleep I was happy to do as well as I did. Afterwards the team were super friendly and gave us some good tips on where to get good pho (Garden Grove is the area apparently).

Afterwards we hit up some delicious roadside Mexican food. Had 7 tacos (the best one is marinated pork- “pastor”) with some amazing pineapple juice. Then we managed to finally get home and pass out.

The food and training made it worth those 36 hours!

Uncharted

I feel like big changes are going to happen in my life this year. As a man who likes his routine, the onset of change does provide a fair amount of stress and anxiety. Thank god for jiu-jitsu. The routine of commuting and training, coming home late to eat and wash…its familiar. Almost 8 years now. Its comfortable.

Discovered some videos of this guy Priit Mikhelson while browsing the BJJ Globetrotters website. Interesting guy with some very strong opinions on jiu-jitsu and coaching. I like listening to people who have views on this kind of thing, as it challenges myself to think about the way I teach my class and whether I’m doing the best I can.

Anyway, he has a one hour video on the Turtle. Some key positioning changes to make it very hard for anyone to take the back (full seatbeat, or hooks). I tried some of it out last night on the girls; it was pretty successful. I’ll try to keep that in mind if I ever turn away to escape the guard pass into the turtle. Also, its just a weird goofy position, especially combined with what Priit calls the ‘Panda Guard’. I’m gonna call it the Snorlax though!

I mapped out the gyms that I’ve visited so far in my BJJ life. It’s pretty…disappointing? Really not that many gyms in 8 years of practicing jiu-jitsu. To me it seems like I really have not gone out ‘into the world’ and connect more globally with the community. I guess again, the routine of going to my own gym is comfortable. Maybe also because I don’t compete much, so never traveled for that purpose either. I’ve never dropped into other gyms in my own city for example, other than affiliates.

  • Long term goal-fill out this map with far more pins, across many different countries.
    • I’m off to Los Angeles next week- so that will give me a few more pins!
    • I would like to get some more in SE Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam), Korea, Japan, East Coast USA, Canada, and Europe…
  • Medium term goal- visit other gyms in my own city.
  • Short term goal- continue reading Christian Graugart’s The BJJ Globetrotter

Under Pressure

This year so far has been the year of developing some good old fashioned pressure passing.

I’m not sure what exactly inspired me to focus on this at the onset; I think part of it is the amount of time I have been working on my half guard, which a position that tends to create sweeps directly into the over-under position. Another part is wanting to pass nogi without exposing my legs to the leg entanglements and footlocks. Part of it is hurting my knee and not wanting to knee slice and use my speed passing. Partly its just me wanting to be a small guy with incredible pressure, like all small black belts I have ever rolled with. Part of it is thinking about getting to that next level and what I need to improve to get there- IMO a brown belt should have that really refined and tight top game and I’m not there yet. Lastly, part of it is how I’ve been thinking more about longevity in this sport and what kind of jiu-jitsu I will be able to play when I’m 40, 50, 60 years old (I’m 29 now, which is young for a non-competitive ‘hobbyist’, but I do have 8 years of mileage on me). Probably won’t be inverting and cartwheeling over my opponents- but hopefully crushing through guards with the kind of pressure that makes your opponent relieved when you finally get into side control.

It seems like there is a bit of a renewed interest in this old-school pressure passing in terms of the instructional market; I have managed to pick up some recently released material such as Marco Barbosa- Pressure Passing, and refer back to my usual resources (Ryan Hall, Rob Biernacki) for their insight into this as well. (BTW I heard a story on Reddit that Ryan Hall has unbelievably heavy and painful pressure for a guy his size). There’s some great stuff on youtube, such as BJJ Scout’s Murilo Santana, Demien Maia, and Miyao studies. Gordon Ryan’s just released his new guard passing instructional where he has encompassed pressure passing (he calls it ‘tight passing’) into his system, alongside “loose” and “submission” passing. Fabio Gurgel’s just released one with Stephen Kesting too, which seems targeted towards older hobbyists as a sustainable and realistic approach to guard passing.

In terms of success, I would definitely say my pressure passing and even the holding of dominant top positions has considerably improved. Over under has become my go-to pass, and I have built some basic combinations from it, depending on my opponent’s reactions. I feel more aware of my balance; having to usually maintain a tripod-like posture, and I think I’m getting swept less. I’ve become aware of the power of jamming my opponent’s hips and keeping them flat on the mat, and the usefulness and psychological blow of a brutal cross-face. I’m using my head more, literally- as a fifth post, usually driving up under my opponent’s jaw (the “pez dispenser”). I am definitely passing more guards.

From all this, what i really want to do is up my submission rate from top positions, especially side control. In nogi I am focusing on the arm triangle and the the armbar, and in gi I am working on lapel chokes. I’d also like to get a tap solely from my pressure, from a bigger opponent. >:)

Arm triangles!

Working on my arm triangle lately. I think its a submission i have a pretty good mechanical understand of; just need to develop some reliable setups. I’m working on one from 3/4 mount, courtesy of Seph Smith. Watching Ryan Hall’s Arm Triangles set has been really eye-opening as well. The nogi Ezekiel choke is a great little counter against the arm triangle escape. Everyone I have put it on so far has commented on how nasty it feels-they tap instantly- so I might have to refine it a bit to make it more of a clean blood choke. Thanks to this set I’ve finally learned how to put on Darce that properly chokes both sides of the neck, as opposed to cranking hard on one side.

Pressure passing was going well last night. The tripod posture has been really effective, focusing hard on shutting down the hips. I watched the BJJ Scout Murilo Santana breakdown video, and noticed the way he postures is the same way I have been doing it!

I was able to stay safe and pass against a dangerous spider/lasso guard by really focusing on my balance and stability, and being relentless with occupying space, dropping to both knees at times when I felt a DLR hook oncoming, resisting the urge to engage in a standing pass battle which I felt was where my opponent was trying to draw me into.

One new thing I faced last night was the half butterfly; it was shutting down my pressure and I was getting elevated. I was eventually able to figure out how to kill it, by pressuring and also ‘floating’ towards the hook side leg and flattening it, which put me in 3/4 mount.

Prof. Luciano also showed me a real easy/sneaky lapel choke from side control (after he hit me with it of course). Kind of a reverse grip baseball/brabo choke , with the opponent’s lapel under their armpit. Stoked about this; as I now have this choke with their lapel, plus the good old Jacare choke with my own lapel. 2 gi chokes from side control is all I need.

Finally, it was good to see some really old faces in class, one guy Stu I
probably haven’t seen since 2012. My man Ricky is back too (we started BJJ on the same night!), White Mike… guys from the old days when the gym was in some run-down building on Quay Street.

First week back

The tweaked knee has changed the way I’ve been rolling last week. Still wearing a knee brace, though the physio reckons it’s mostly a placebo/confidence-booster at this point. Basically, total flexion is not good for it right now, and neither is any lateral stress. That means basically for the left leg:

  1. no DLR and RDLR hooks
  2. no butterfly hook, no crab riding (inverted butterfly)
  3. no omoplata/triangles
  4. no top armbar with the leg tucked in by the armpit
  5. no closed guard
  6. no sitting inside closed guard
  7. no knee sliding to the right (how i hurt it in the first place)
  8. no 50/50
  9. no leg lock turning escapes
  10. no guard retention via leg pummelling

This has been quite the difference- as Pedro commentated, my guard game is heavily dependent on being able to pummel my legs. Luckily, I’ve been working on my half guard for a few months now, which I can continue to use. Right now, I’m trying to utilise the ‘shell’ variation of half guard where the bottom leg knee is at a 45 degree angle, blocking the hip. What’s nice about this is that it slows down or even shuts down the opponent’s ability to immediately stand up to initiate a standing pass.

On top, I’m working hard being tight with my pressure and going primarily for the over/under pass. Once I pass, I’m working on either getting the armbar on the far arm (which I never used to get, until I saw some great details from Demian Maia’s video), or if I’ve gone from over/under to the 3/4 mount, finishing the pass into the mount using the tripod movements (again, Demian Maia stuff!) and working on isolating the arm for a arm triangle, armbar, or back take.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to my 2 readers. I think I’ll be making the blog public soon.

The last few weeks of December was supposed to be a week of no work and more training. I had plans to attend a Sunday charity marathon roll and then fly back to Christchurch to spend time with my parents and drop in at the local gym for a week.

Unfortunately things didn’t quite work out as planned. The charity roll itself was great; the mats were more packed than ever before as people from many of our affiliates, even other gyms, came together to roll and donate to a good cause in the wake of a recent suicide of a young woman within the local jiu-jitsu community. I had the chance to meet some new people and enjoyed some good rolls, although I’d say the mats were a bit too packed.

However in one of my rolls I went for a knee slice and felt my left knee pop. There wasn’t immediate pain, but soon enough it started. Soon I had to sit down mat side, and after the event wound down and people went off to the nearby cafe for a bite, I felt the pain come on as I walked. On the bright side, the cafe serves a good coffee, and it was nice to catch up with Hux who had moved to Australia a couple of years ago and was in town for a couple of days.

Since then I’d been on the couch smashing Red Dead Redemption 2 and Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age till I went off to Christchurch, where I spent more time couching and eating food while my gi (packed just in case) sat unused.

I have been trying to watch jiu-jitsu instructional though, and have a renewed appreciate for Ryan Hall’s Deep Half Guard set, which I think I have had since early blue belt. There’s a lot of stuff, particularly in disc 1 that I glossed over earlier in my journey, that now makes a lot more sense conceptually. His approach to half guard is interesting and definitely a little different from Lachlan’s, though the structure of the half shield is pretty similar. one thing I’ve picked up that Ryan, as well as Seph Smith (no surprise as he’s one of Ryan’s black belts) and Rob Biernacki do is use the bottom knee as a frame as well. I have kinda short legs so I haven’t naturally done this, and I’m not sure I can, but definitely something to keep in mind.

Anyway, as of a few days ago I’ve managed to pick up my yearly throat infection. However, good news on the knee- not a tear, diagnosed as pinching of the tissue in the knee around the patella and meniscus. Once I’m no longer sick, I’ll ease back into some training, using pain/discomfort as a guide.

Weekend trip to Hawkes Bay

Napier Trip 14-16th Dec

Was down in Napier over the weekend for a wedding, so naturally Kristin and I planned to hit up the local BJJ gym in the morning. The other couples all had winery tours and such planned… not our thing haha. 

Saturday morning we went on down to an open mat in Hastings at Clark Gracie Gym NZ. We were greeted by the very friendly owner Damian and had a chance to get in some rolls with two of his students that were there, a blue and brown belt. In between rounds Damien showed me loads of technique (he saw that I was playing half guard and gave me some gems) and we chatted non-step about everything jiu-jitsu, despite me having just met the guy and not even being a member of his team. It definitely left a huge positive impression on me about the kind of black belt or gym owner I would like to one day be. 

I had good success with the underhook game and kimura grips to the back against the blue belt; however I did get my ass kicked by the brown belt, who had a very good kimura and guillotine attacks from the top. I did manage to hit the transition from half guard to X guard sweep (from the Lachlan Giles set)  which I was stoked about though, as well as a half guard sweep that Damian had just showed me! 

Absolutely would recommend anyone travelling to the Hawke’s Bay to hit up Clark Gracie Gym. Afterwards we hit up a local smoothie bowl place in Havelock North (Pixies). Really nice, probably the best acai I’ve had in New Zealand. 

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Yesterday night’s rolls back home: 

I’m still working on my half guard and implementing the material from Lachlan Giles’ Half Guard Anthology set.

I rolled 3 times with Clint. Usually in training you’d roll with different people each round, but I think its quite useful to roll with someone multiple times especially if they are similar or slightly better in skill, as those are the rolls you get the most improvement out of, and also by rounds 2 and 3 they know what you are trying to do, so the technique has to get better to be successful. 

Unfortunately in those rounds, my high elbow guillotine escape streak has been broken. I went the wrong way and didn’t do the escape.  I’m sad about this. Clint laughed evilly. 

Overall I felt like I struggled to get into half guard against Clint; he knows I want the position and refuses to give an inch. I need more work on this aspect. Instead, I find myself more in quarter guard against his knee slice.  I’m still getting darce’d from here. It’s because I’m not winning the underhook. When I do win it, I’m getting sweeps. I’ve got to be more aggressive with it. 

On a positive note, somehow hit a triangle choke. I went for the reverse locked triangle when they hid their arm behind (baiting me to change to omoplata) and kept squeezing until they exposed the arm during the escape where I was able to drag it over for the conventional finish. Quite surprised by this as my triangle is not that great. 

And lastly managed to use Choi bar as a counter to over/under pass and general cross-face attempts. Couldn’t finish the sub, but man it’s awesome. I’m a believer in this now.

Tonight is going to be another strength session with Tash. And then I’m going to crack into a bit of John Danaher’s Enter the System: Back Attacks. 

 

More half guard reflections

But first, a whinge. 

I am really not enjoying gi training at the moment. It’s probably all the half guard work I’ve been practicing; it’s much harder to play half in gi with people grabbing and holding everywhere to stop you from getting the underhook. My right index finger has been constantly aching for about a month now ever since a white belt landed on my hand, so gi gripping is not too fun in any case. 

Anyways, I haven’t been watching as much of the Lachlan Giles set as I’d like to. Just haven’t had the time, which is really just me being too addicted to Red Read Redemption 2 like the sack of shit I am. 

The biggest problem I’m having lately half guard is spending enough time in half guard. There’s quite a few rolling partners who just refuse to engage in it which is forcing me to think of new baits. I’m getting a bit of snagging half guard from turtle as a result. Probably not a good strategy to give up the guard to turtle up, but I just need more time in half! Worst of all are those that double pull guard on me, argh! 

I’m starting to make better connections/transitions between half guard, RDLR, and X guard now, which is of course based on both my own prefernce for RDLR and Lachlan’s instructional. Goal is to develop a good system here. I’m thinking the main components will be:

  1. Underhook based half guard game against low passers- getting underneath and coming up to the dogfight or going further down into deep half 
  2. RDLR against standing passers/knee slicers- RDLR sweeps and saddle entries, or use it defensively to force them to come back down into my half guard
  3. X guard into sweeps or leg entanglements if they stand from half and I can grab under the outside leg

Nogi tonight, will see how how much of the above I can pull off! 

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