Jiu-jitsu Month 50

 

Andreas asked how I felt now that the kid had flown the nest. "Sure we are all

adjusting but I have jiu-jitsu. I have you guys!" and I meant it. It's good to

come back to the mat.

 

It's not like two decades ago when once a week, I called my dad on the other

side of the globe. Tim and I text each other daily and I write him long emails.

Of course, there are things to fret about if I want to but I keep my worries in

check.

 

Jul 31. I asked Darren about shoulder pain. "I tored my rotator cuff once..." he

began and before he continued, I said "mine's just general pain." I wouldn't

compete and wouldn't go crazy on the mat to incur his kind of injuries. At the

end of the class, he showed me his warm-up routine with a band, working the

shoulder in eight directions. The one that raised my right forearm like the

maneki-neko (the beckoning cat piggy bank)

 

Aug 1. No Gi. Machine taught a counter to single-leg grab with knees on the

floor: suppose he's grabbing my right leg, I move forward all the way on his

back and insert my free leg under his armpit. I fall onto my right side and at

the same time my right shin comes up so that my left leg can hook on the ankle

to form a triangle. I can squeeze there. But if he defends well, I could roll

him over to my left side and make adjustments.

 

We also drilled north-south kimura grip escape. I first learned it from Henry

and had used it successfully against many kimura attacks from that position.

Most experienced people transitioned to arm-bar which had frustrated me. Today,

I learned as soon as I get my head out, and swing my legs to be perpendicular to

my opponent who was clamping on my arm, I could insert the near-side knee and

swing my other leg over his head for the arm-bar. This was a huge revelation. I

felt I was ready for this move.

 

Moreover, as I was drilling with Jose, I wondered what I should do if he pulled

his arm out. Jose mentioned I could invert maybe do the triangle. And it worked!

I definitely needed to drill more but it was a good discovery.

 

Aug 6. Butterfly sweep. Machine showed the arm-drag and arm-drag to grab the

belt at the back. In the latter, one detail is not to reach too far across his

back that way it's hard for the guy to pull his arm out. I drilled and rolled

with Richard. It felt great.

 

Eric was impressed with my loop choke escape as I did it with good timing and

ended up at the top position. He paid me a lot of compliments and said I was

strong and, even at my age, would have another 10 solid years of training. I was

happy.

 

A 40-something brown belt, he did not come to the gym often. A few days back, he

and Peter were swapping horror stories about sciatica and herniated discs. I

didn't want to hear but later I asked him how did the latter feel. "Herniated

discs? It's like someone's poking a wooden spoon at one side of my butt," he

said. "24 hours a day and I couldn't sleep on that side."

 

Aug 7. Darren showed a butterfly top trick: cross grip his leg pants and lapel,

lift at the leg to make him lie on his back, and pull to clear his legs and get

to cross-side.

 

Rolled with a bunch of guys. Michael the cop and Mo, both big and strong white

belts. Happy that I could keep up with them. Michael asked if I planned to

compete. I probably would win a few matches if I competed, considering my age

and weight brackets. I don't see many 50yr+ featherweight BJJ blue belts

training 4+ times a week. But what's the point? I had enough medals now. I just

wanted to be healthy and be able to defend myself.

 

Had a hard roll with Kevin the brownbelt. He easily evaded my closeguard attacks

and finished me with a loop choke. I only remembered he was blocking my arm and

I couldn't roll out. I didn't let it go too far, either, and tapped.

 

Alicia told me she could show me some moves for my shoulder pain but by the end

I forgot all about it. I'll apologize next time I see her.

 

Aug 9. Sat's small class. My main takeaway was the arm-drag. Machine showed that

I didn't need to step one foot out from the butterfly guard and, once my grips

were in position, I just needed to slip out of the way for the drag. I used my

whole bodyweight and did well drill with Eversly.

 

I sparred with Ethan who was much smaller than me but strong and agile. I was

able to knock him down twice with the double-ankle sweep but failed to follow up

with the mount. In the second, he caught my feet and as I took one out, he

attacked the remaining one with a heel hook and a knee-bar. I came back and

watched again Henry's video for the details. It turned out there were a lot,

e.g., initial blocking to avoid being sucked underneath, hip to the floor, knee

tight, and ankle biting down. Getting on top involved putting both hands on the

same side he was facing and if he pushed do a belly-down armbar. I need to drill

this with someone.

 

Aug 11. Machine taught a few butterfly guard passes. Assuming we could put our

opponent's back to the ground, we can grab both his lower-leg pants, put our

head to one side of his body, and do a cartwheel jump to pass on the other side.

A variation is to have the head-side of the arm come from below, grab the belt,

and jam his leg from below.

 

When the guy already sat up and had an underhook, (to me, this was more

realistic.) reach our overhook arm to grab something on his back. What we do

depends on his head position. If our head is between his and the underhook, our

other hand grabs his opposite-side ankle or pant and spin him under us. If his

head is trapped between our head and overhook, our other hand grabs his

same-side ankle or pant and we fall to overhook side.

 

Richard asked about my half-covered foot before we sparred. As I told him about

my fungi infection and my doctor's prescription, he said his dad once had

athlete's foot and cured it.

 

Aug 13. Darren showed two great butterfly guard passes. The first was a

favorite. I grab the same-side (say my left and his right) lapel and cross-grab

my opponent's pants at the lower leg, raised the right knee like I was going to

do a samurai pass, and simply pull the lapel and push the leg to twirl him under

me and I pass to his right side.

 

The second was to get an underhook and dive to pin him with the underhook side

shoulder and with my hips high. My other hand posts far above his head and my

head posts beside his head. Then I can switch my hips to flatten his legs and

finish passing to the opposite of the underhook side.

 

I noticed the JJM PSD logo on a Honda when I came in and was delighted to see my

old friend Will. He just came to see Machine. He showed me again the arm-bar

against the stiff arm from cross-side bottom.

 

I drilled with Kilian, a young buck new to the game. Greg, another whitebelt,

came with Justin and was very skilled as he took my back in positional training.

 

Also met Jonathan, a brown belt with his boy. He was good and I could rarely get

to his side and he defeated my trap-and-roll by draping on my back.

 

Aug 15. Machine showed the counter to the butterfly arm-drag. John showed me the

details of the reverse armbar: overhook had to be above the elbow and tuck your

chin to keep the head close to his elbow. Later, a vid (NESF Boston) showed that

flaring my elbows higher than my grip helps pinning his shoulder and preventing

him from posting in a sweep. I started to like the butterfly!

 

Aug 17. Open mat. Rolled with Henry who got me in a foot lock. I didn't care.

Dominated him a purple belt from Serao from cross-side for a long time. Beat a

very strong young white belt. Escaped a tight kimura hold from an old guy in no

gi. Getting on top of Justin in no gi. Very happy.

 

Aug 18. Machine showed quite a few details attacking the turtle. I learned from

Nina a way to topple the turtle or at least open him up. Submitted Eversly with

a one-hand belly-down lapel choke (after giving up the bow and arrow). Did well

with Ronaldo.

 

I submitted Machine with the cross-collar choke from guard! Of course, he let me

get the shallow grips first. But I did trick him as I adjusted the grips

(shake-the-baby from Armstrong & Brenda). They suddenly turned so deep that he

didn't have a chance to respond.

 

Aug 19. I watched a kata-gatame roll aka judo turn-over by Roman Apolonov. Will

try it tomorrow.

 

Aug 20. The kata-gatame roll wasn't that easy. I failed to engage my body and

there was no momentum when I tried it on Justin. But the move's in my mind. I

hope to get it right some day.

 

Machine showed the details of the crucifix. Once I trap the arm (assuming left),

before the roll, I could use my left leg to attack the armbar. The key was to

trap the straight arm between my thigh and lower leg. Once I rolled and got to

the bottom, if he's holding my right leg, I could use my left foot to kick and

trap the arm for an easy armbar.

 

He aslo showed another turtle backtake: assume my right leg is up behind his

butt. Nudge him forward with the knee and swing my left lower leg over to pin

his left leg. Get my seatbelt grip and fall to my left hip and my right leg

climb to hook his right leg. As he is thus sitting up, kick out my left foot

with his left leg trapped between my hip and left foot.

 

Aug 21. We didn't do turtle. Darren showed a few back attack details.

When I fall on my weak side with the seatbelt grip on my opponent, my hands

should not grip palm-to-palm but the bottom hand protects the top so that even

my opponent pulls at the top one, the bottom one could still get the trip for

the bow-and-arrow choke. I also have to block his head with my head at the

bottom when falling to the weak side.

 

I remembered the reverse armbar details from John and when I caught Darren with

one, he turned his hand so that it was hard to find the right angle to squeeze.

Darren said I should pinch his arm with my shoulder and head.

 

Aug 28. I came back from NYC, rested well, and it felt great on the mat. Darren

showed the hook to prevent mount after escaping the back.

 

Aug 29. Darren showed a takedown from the collar tie with the kimura grip:

overtie on the same side of his collar tie (say left), shrug off his collar tie,

grab his wrist with my right hand thumb down and push his hand toward his

stomach, my left hand threads the hole under his armpit and form a kimura grip

to trap his right arm, my head should be pushing to his upper body, I should

straighten my arms for good control, I square up with him, point my left toes

toward his right, my right leg goes through the space between our bodies, and I

just sit. The torque on his right arm should roll him across my body to my left

side. (He should be rolling on his right shoulder.)

 

He continued to show a few of my favorite turtle positions. First, the

trap-and-roll. Everybody knows this and it was a great tool in my repertoire.

After trapping the arm, Darren put his head on the mat, raised and moved his

hips away from the uke, and rolled. Raising the hips prevents the jumping

backtake which I got from Richard often, especially when his knee behind me was

up.

 

In the forward roll, which Josh Barnett'd call the hammer roll, Darren would

reach out to block the near knee (Josh would reach and trap the knee even when

it was up), put the other hand on the mat for base, and push off both legs to

flip the uke on his back. Immediately this was followd with a bridge to put

weight on the uke's chest. I still think the uke might base out with his arm

to block the roll.

 

Darren showed the turtleplata. His is more active than what I saw before where

it was used against a sprawling opponent during a trap-and-roll. The other hand

must block the knees from following before the other moves.

 

Darren showed the granby roll. It was very technically demanding. The good thing

about it is that it didn't require controlling my opponent's arm or leg. Again

Josh's video was helpful. He stressed the explosiveness of the move and I think

this could be used against someone grabing my waist from the back. I really

needed to drill this move.

 

I'll keep these in mind all the time, the hammer roll, the granby roll, the

turtleplata, the trap-and-roll.