I was in Kansas City on Wednesday night, and found out that Derrick had a no gi class that I was able to attend. It was a good mix of standup work, striking, and groundwork. I really like his style of teaching how and we were able to get through a number of good techniques that really need to add to my arsenal.

I was able to do a number of throws without the gi. All I have to do is think about my under hooks being just like my grips that I would normally have. Other than that, it felt like the movements were almost the same, and I was able to do a number of standard are an body throws

This is a pretty cool move I did not think about that I can probably also be done from guard if my opponent has a knee shield on me. The first and most important part of this move is to sit back and down on their leg. I’m usually postured forward when in someone’s half guard, which causes my base to be weak. All I have to do is sit back on the leg, which then limits their mobility.

If they tried to put a knee shield on me, I should grab their toes with my fingers near the end of their foot. From there, just have to figure 4 the arms and pushed her foot to the bot. The biggest thing is to turn the shoulders away from the grip and toward where I need to push.

If the person half guard is attempting to shrimp in and post against me with their hand to push me off balance, it opens up a head and arm choke. Cross grip the back of their neck, and pull them in towards me. Shuck their arm with my shoulder towards there head. Reach under their arm with my same side hand it around her neck. Lock in the choke.

As I’m doing the head and arm, if they try to go belly down to get away all you have to do is switch your arms to go into an arm in guillotine. The biggest thing you’re not supposed to do is pull guard!

Ben seemed like a pretty solid fighter, but I was able to submit him twice. First was with the Kimora that I put way too much effort into. I’m going to update my flow for if I do not have the Kinora right away to turn it into a sweep.

I then rolled with the new guy, and did not do very well. I tried to pull guard, and he went right into a heel hook. Instead of laying there for the entire time I decided to tap. From there, he just pushed me over and ended up choking me with what a think was a headlock. It was very frustrating. What I need to do when I know I’m rolling with new guys is to pull guard and let them west themselves out so I can do my attacks. I should not just jump in and try to attack them because I don’t know which way they’re going to go.

My last roll was with Derrick, and it was a pretty good roll. I pulled guard with the arm in guillotine when I should not have, but besides that I thought my technique was pretty solid. The biggest things I need to add to my flow are to do a sweep if I do not have the Kimora, and to make sure I continue to do the sit-ups sweep if the opponent is postured all the way back in my guard.

I rolled with the judo club in Memphis. I feel that it is great to learn the basic fundamentals from them, and make sure to improve on those. It doesn’t do any good to learn all the cool moves if I’m unable to even pin and opponent correctly.

• Switch hips away
• Get arm under elbow behind head
• Switch hips towards
• Push elbow up and away

• Switch hips away and in
• Grab belt with outside arm
• Hip escape and push to make room
• When they follow, bridge into them, and roll over head

If they don’t follow, then just get back into guard

• Use outside arm and push into neck
• Trap head with legs into triangle
• Trap other elbow with arm
• Sit up (not back) to complete armbar

• Make a fist with trapped arm
• Punch into neck to make space
• Shrimp in to secure arm

• Scooch legs out
• Roll over far arm

• Keep front leg between theirs
• Punch, keep arm close
• Get low on leg

I went in for open mat today. Only three folks showed up, myself, Choung, and Derek. Was a pretty hard training session, as we rotated through with two rounds on, then one round off. I did get some very good guidance on my guard game. I need to start incorporating more of what I know into my game which I’m not doing right now, or not doing effectively.

I was also given a nickname today which I think is pretty funny which is “Heavy B"

I normally try to grab the two cross collars to get this choke, and it never works. I even questioned myself why I even bother with this technique. I was shown the proper way to do this, which is also safer because it gives you away to post your arm out if you need to.

• Use grips to break posture
• Get very high cross grip on collar
• With same side grip, reach all the way over and grab deeper than the cross grip
• Wait for opponent posture, then slide same side grip around had so you’re now in a cross grip

This is a pretty cool move, but beyond that we talked about the actual side control position and how to set this up. This move works, along with many others if you’re able to get high inside control, and get your knee under the near-side arm.

• Work your knee and hip up to under their near-side arm
• With your far arm, reach all the way under and grab their nearside back lapel
• Slide back a little bit, making them think that they have space. As you are sliding back, grab their far side front lapel with your hand that is closest to their head.
• As they shrimp in, push her elbow to the floor and complete the choke

This is a good triangle setup that is pretty sneaky and provides less of a risk of being passed than just throwing your leg up around their head.

• Get cross grip and same side sleeve control
• Hip out, and pushing knee into their chest. Make sure to be pushing with your knee and pulling with your arms to keep them controlled.
• Slide foot out and around their arm in behind her head
• Complete triangle

Today was the first time I did kickboxing then right into jujitsu. It was also the first time that I did kickboxing as a whole. I learned quite a bit in KC, but will not talk about that training in this blog. I think you will be best to keep the two sports separate. However, I definitely will continue doing both back-to-back in Saturday’s. I was not in as bad a shape is a thought I would have been after doing that. Next time, I will stay and train through the live rounds.

In jujitsu we learned some pretty good close guard techniques, and a good solo drill to help with my leg picks.

We did a five minute drill on double legs. What I found most helpful about this was working on my setups. If I can get arm control and collar control seems to be good to push down and away from the side that I will be attacking. Then when they make that step with their outside leg, I go in for the double leg

this was a sweet that I deftly need in my arsenal from closed guard. It really helps when my opponent is completely on top of me and I don’t have the space to get my knee and for a scissor sweep, or get my legs back to push him.

• break posture, and get legs high on opponent. Up near their armpits is best
• cross grip a hand, import across my body
• hip out on the side of the arm
• reach up, and get in overcoat on the same arm
• when opponent tries to pull his arm out, open guard and use that momentum to sweep them.

if the opponent does not hold her arm back, will lease the over hook, and reach around and rather wet. From there, you can complete the same sweep with the leverage that you have.

The suite also works from half guard. It is more important that you have a stronghold on their arm or lat, as you will not have the force from the opposite leg to push against them.

I was looking forward to getting home this week so I could see how I could throw George and practice my new judo techniques. I put him up on the bed in the guest room, which made him around my height. It worked pretty well, but was not perfect because the bed got in my way for my footwork. I feel if I continue to practice like that, I will have a tendency to be too far away from my opponent when throwing them. Even with this, it was a good practice. I was able to work on my hand motions and George felt very much like a real partner. If I’m even just to practice my hand motions I think I will get much better.

I’m going to email Bob and see if he has any suggestions on ways to prop George up so I’m able to practice my standing attacks better.

This was the first training session that I actively put my new Sprawl skills into effect. I had wonderful results overall with my sprawl and being able to pass open guard. My feet did not get stuck like they usually do when passing guard, and I completed passes the number of times without issue. It worked so well I’m starting to wonder what the counters are to it, so I posted that question online. We also learned a very good half guard pass and fundamentals of the half guard position.

As I’m passing guard, if I’m able to get an under hook on the far side control of the near side arm I can hold my opponent without having to be on top of them with my hips. If I keep my hips next to theirs and low to the mat, there is little to nothing that they can do to escape. This is a very strong position with what looks like relatively few counters. The big battle there will be who gets that far side underhook. If they have a far side under hook, this position will not work because they will be able to take my back. If I do not have control of their near side arm they will be able to shrimp that in and work a sweep. If my hips are not low enough to the ground, they may be able to get back to full guard.

Overall, I need to fight hard for the under hook on the far side and control the arm on the near side. I should not let them get my hips over their hips if they are controlling either side, as that is when they are able to sweep. If I’m in this position and they open their legs to bridge, that is one I can easily step through the pass. I just need to wait for that trigger to move.

The simple pass from this position is to use your far side leg and push on their legs while pulling in the near side free. There is very little they can do except try to hold on. From what I’ve found, eventually you will get the leg free and can move into scarf hold. The biggest thing on this is to just remember to keep the hips low to the mat as you are opening their legs so they do not shrimp in and regain full guard.

During live role I tried the sprawl pass a number of times. What I found is if anyone is trying to use the shin shield, or really any open guard play, I can use the sprawl to pass. All that I did was put my weight on their legs to flatten them out, and sprawled my legs out. From there I just walked around their backside, and once I was past their legs I sat through to scarf hold. I pulled this off at least five times against three different opponents. I’m going to continue to work on this as my go-to pass moving forward. I will still keep using combat base to keep them from closing their guard.

Today I decided to go back to the judo club that I injured myself that about six months ago. This was basically where I left my judo career behind and started doing Brazilian. This is just what I needed; working on the fundamentals and getting them right instead of learning new move after move. My throws were just awful, but that was expected. What I did not realize was how bad my fundamental ground game was. I know that this is now part of my issue when rolling Brazilian. Without a strong fundamental game I’m leaving myself open for attacks and sweeps.

I need to now commit that work on the solo drills I learned today so I’m ready next week when I go back.

I’ve been doing this all wrong even from my training with Steve. The move starts by punching while holding low on the gi. Also on the turn, you should be hard on your foot and not on the ball. These are things that are fundamentals that have really helped me even today.

1. Grab the power arm low on the gi and the pulling arm on the sleeve
2. Punch across the body as you are pulling with the arm
3. Step your back sugar foot back
4. Step down hard across their body
5. Continue the motion and pull them across

There is a good solo drill that I can do to simulate the movement with my upper and lower body. I can even do this from walking backwards and forwards. I need to make a goal to work on this when I am not live training.

Again, the fundamentals here are critically important. When I was done working I felt like I did the best osoto I’ve ever done in my whole life. This is with just some simple modifications to the throw that I’ve never known before.

1. Step in and close the distance, jacking them sideways with your power arm
2. Keep your attacking leg off the ground the whole time; do not plant it behind them and try to push. This will cause you to easily be reversed
3. Take your leg up, making sure your toe is pointed. You’re not trying to kick a football.
4. Swing it back in behind you, finishing the throw
5. Make sure you keep your grips on your opponent as they end up on the ground. Do not just let them go as they are in the middle of their fall.

Here again. I thought I knew the good scarf hold, but one of my hands was out of position. You need to make sure you trap their near arm with your leg. Your other hand should come around their neck to hold them off position with their head. If they try to bridge, you can use the arm by the head to post out and not lose the position.

This is the same as the scarf hold, but you are holding under their arm instead of up above their head. This does not feel like it’s as strong a position because you are able to be countered by pushing your head into their legs. This allows your head to be trapped by their legs and reverse you.

I never use this hold in Brazilian jujitsu. I can see why, as they are able to push her head into their legs pretty easily because your head is so far down their body.

My typical reversal here is to kick my legs up and scoot out. That usually wastes a ton of energy and only sometimes works. Here they showed me a much easier way to reverse if you can get a least one hand to your opponent’s neck. All you have to do is turn your side, and jam your thumb knuckle into their neck on the opposite side. That will create the space you need and will probably even roll them over. It hurt like hell when it was done to me. This will be my go to move when a north-south, as I think I can even pull it off if they have me in the head and arm choke.

I learned today that you should not use headlocks in jujitsu. it is a terrible hold and a terrible move overall. When I was rolling I found that I do it quite often. That is probably why I lose my position and get swept so often. I need to be more mindful of when I tried headlock to get or keep a position. It just does not work overall is what I found.

These are pretty basic counters to the headlock that all start with the opponent in side control or scarf hold. However, this shouldn’t just apply to headlocks and are pretty good counters to scarf hold. Specifically, the bridge sweep. I tried this sweep before and have always had problems with it. This new way of doing it explained below is a much better and more effective way uses a lot less energy.

I will mention a square grip a number of times below. This is a new grip that I did not know about before, which was explained to me. Basically, you make a fist and a right angle with one arm. You then grab the fist with the hand of the other arm to reinforce it. You can use this to push opponents away and break grips. I need to add this to my everyday arsenal. it is very effective.

This is one of the most basic counters. Opponent has you in headlock in side control. Make sure you are on your side and protecting your lower arm.

• Pull other arm over and make a square to give yourself space.
• Walk your legs out away from theirs.
• Put your far leg up, and use the momentum to sit up and sweep them over.
• Make sure you then put both hands on the grounds so that they are not able to pull you over and reverse you back.
  
• Step far leg over opponent into belly so they do not regain half guard
• Make another square with your hands, and push up with hands to break headlock

This move is good if they follow you with their legs as you are trying to get your legs out for the sweep

• After you square, put your leg over theirs and hook
• Use other leg to get up and over them
• Continue pushing them until they are on the opposite side in your over them
• Put foot into stomach to stop them from retaining guard, and open their arms with another square

This move is good if they did not let you get your leg hooked to take the back

• Free your bottom arm and post it out to the outside of you
• Do a push-up with it and put pressure on them with your shoulder
• Pull them over to the other side so they are in reverse side control
• Post out with both hands so they do not roll you over
• Put foot in the belly to stop them from retaining guard
• Square to break the grip

This move is the one that I found most helpful. This is if you are in scarf hold and they have your arm trapped.

• Use other arm to hug them and protect your arm that is trapped
• Bridge up and towards them with your hips
• Make a big circle with your arms around your head. Your opponent should flop over and into your site control. Do not try to go over your body with this and force it. It should be very easy for you to do.

During live role I got owned by four stripe white belt. I’m going to add a question around what to do as they are trapping my arm to the side. Even with Chung’s advice I still feel that this is happening far too often to me. Also, I tried getting into combat base but I passed on the same side knee. This put me into an awkward position where he was able to take my back. I’m good to continue my same attacks, but I need to make sure pass with my opposite knee. Had I done that, I probably would’ve been able to pass his guard.

I need to be more aggressive when I’m in positions on my back. I feel like I’m just laying there and not doing much. Maybe just a little shrimping or things that really don’t work. I will rematch Jason’s videos with want to do when you are in side control, and also his concepts on guard passing. I feel like I’ve lost so much and have taken some major steps backward.

I was too sore this morning to roll, and with the weather it may a perfect excuse to stay in bed all morning instead of going to work out. Jenna had a great idea that I roll with George instead of going to work out. I’m very happy that I did, as I feel like I’m in a rut right now and what happened today might help me break some of that.

Right now I have a huge arsenal of attacks encounters, but when I’m in a live situation I don’t know how to put them together to be effective. What I think I need to get back to is what I was doing before and just focusing on a few key moves in getting those are harder percent perfected before moving on. As I’ve also seen with some of the higher ranking belts in the gym, they really do have the same setups and then just do variations off of those setups.

I get a start making a map of my best moves from each position, including sweeps and positional transitions. I’m going to start with close guard, as it is the most basic. Basically, what I’m going to try tomorrow and this week is to break posture and then either switch to an arm bar, a triangle, or a basic overbook pendulum sweep. I think what I have opponents posture broken currently, I’m scared to attack because they are not in the perfect position because their posture is broken. What I realized today is if I let somebody go they will gain their posture back. It is in that transition that I should be attacking and not just holding them there.

I had a pretty good open met today, even though I started out sewer. I did a few rounds back to back with various opponents that are learned a number of things specifically from Tito. There were a couple of folks that I didn’t know that were there, I think they were from other gyms. Specifically, there was a guy here for wedding from California who ended up being the California Kid. I warmed up with him and he was really good. He let me out of bad positions a number of times, he was not near as easy on Brian,

Tito explained to me how to be more aggressive in side control. Instead of doing the standard hold, think more wrestling approach for your on your feet and chest only, putting all your weight on your opponent. Make sure to keep it very uncomfortable for them and only give them one way to shrimp which you will be prepared for. He did this to me a number of times, but I was not able to escape it was submitted.

Really what it ends up as, is that I am sprawling with my weight completely on my opponent. I’m going to work on this moving forward just to keep the positions and see what happens.