Choose Strong
For Tim.
I've always tried my best to escape, especially after watching Henry. The fact
that I often succeeded getting out of chokes gave me confidence and I even let
my opponents get their grips. It also gave me the reputation that I was tough.
My first coach laughed at my not tapping. Another said I'd grow a big neck. The
third, a world champion, when giving me the first stripe on my blue belt, said I
was the toughest on the mat. Lately, the Brazilian head coach at Top Brothers
China and Kevin the brown belt said the same.
To me, this was first a compliment. People like Kevin and Darren truly
appreciate me being hard to submit as they thought that made me a good training
partner. On the other hand, in BJJ, being tough is far from enough and can be
interpreted as too much ego and lacking in skill. I had team-mates who just
loved to learn the moves and wouldn't spar with me because I used pressure and
fought too hard.
I don't feel too bad about it. I never hurt people on purpose and have been
extra-careful when I submit. It all comes down to the reason, as a 5'7" 155 lbs
Asian male, that I train jiu-jitsu: fear. (My boy didn't feel the urgency
because he was 200lb+ could back-squat 300lbs.) So if the other side of
toughness is fear, it's okay with me. That fear has some great reasons which I
wouldn't talk about here. Whatever they call me, if the hat fits, I'll wear it.
Over the years, I injured myself a lot, was choked unconcious four times, and a
few armbars put me out of training for weeks. But I always came back. Today I am
pain free and in the best physical shape of my life.
The first two weeks of Oct, I traveled to Beijing and rolled twice with folks
there. More can be found in the post "2025 Trip to Beijing: Jiu-Jitsu." I had to
take a few days off after coming back to the States.
Mon Oct 20. Back on the mat. Machine used me as uke and taught
- a simple spider/lasso sweep
Controlling my kneeling opponent's sleeves and with my left foot on his right
bicep stretching him, I should retract my right leg and lay the right shin
across his torso at the hips. I let go of his left sleeve and hook my right
arm under his left leg. By now, my torso should be perpendicular to his. I
stretch my left leg to load him on my right shin and turn to my left to sweep
him.
With some adjustment, this works on a standing opponent too. Starting with
sleeve-control, I'll stretch my left leg and retract my right. I stomp my
right foot on the mat to move my torso closer to his feet, let go of his left
sleeve and hook my right arm under his left knee. I stretch my left leg again
to sweep him.
Machine said he preferred the spider but the lasso worked the same.
- ways of foiling the elbow escape
1. Pluck the elbow and move up.
2. Cross-face him with my right arm to turn his face away from the direction
of his escape.
3. Cross-face him with my left forearm (my left hand grab his shoulder)
4. Transition to side-mount
5. Transition to knee-on-the-belly
- passing the quarter guard
Assume he trapped my right foot and he's on his left side. I should cross-face
him with my right arm (just to stop him from connecting his knee and elbow)
and move down to sit on top of his right thigh. Use my left foot to push his
feet to make his legs straight so that his pinch on my foot became weak. Now
stretch my right leg to break out of his trap. Windshield-wipe my right lower
leg and sit with my shin on his thigh (should be very uncomfortable). I can go
to the back from here (there is an Ezikiel from the back) or proceed to
remount.
Tue Oct 21. At the warm up, I went with Brandon, a giant purple belt, and then
Hayden, a wiry youth and maybe a high-level white belt. Darren showed the
double-leg takedown which, after years, I still hadn't mastered. In the drill,
it starts at arm-length and when my opponent had his arms on my shoulders. I
pop his arms up with my hands, step in and change level. My leading knee goes
forward and touches the mat. I get my hands behind his knees and my head to the
side of his hip on the same side of my trailing leg. My trailing foot steps
forward and, with my head and arms, take him down to the other side.
Next, Darren showed the north-south choke: Start with north-south. When the
ukey's, say right, arm pummels in, it's time to wrap my right arm around his
neck, thumb up. I'll lower my head and scoot back and grip my hands
palm-to-palm. I should look to my right, not left, and my right ribs should
nudge his face to my right. I squeeze my biceps to finish the choke.
It dawned on me that the NS choke was not done by my shoulder/top-arm crushing
down on his throat, but the closure of the hole by flexing my biceps.
Darren showed another version where the ukey put in the frame and lifts my head
up when I have already got the right arm in position. I should push his left arm
and sink my head at his delt, raise my hips, palm-to-palm, ribs blocking the
side of his face, and walk toward my left as if trying to get perpendicular to
his body. It felt like a neck crank.
Darren also showed how to get the kimura grip from NS top. Push the ukey's face
toward the side I want him, and my left knife hand comes in under his elbow. I
drive with my legs to push his shoulder with my chest to make him get to his
side facing away. I get the kimura grip on his top arm. From there, I could do
the armbar or take the back where a back triangle was easily available.
In sparring, I tried the turtleplata/Erik-Pauson move twice on Andreas and it
worked! Next I went with Justin and with no gi, it was hard for him to
Peruvian-necktie me. I ended up catching him in hon kesa. Next, it was Kevin. I
defended well and stalled his shoulder lock (omplata) attempt and he looked just
a bit less cheerful without a submission on me. Haha!
I did the superman and bird-dog yoga poses in the evening along with my routine
stretching. I got to bed early at 9:00pm, woke up around 1:00am and couldn't get
back to sleep. It was comfortable and my brain didn't overwork. Toward the
morning, I removed my pillow and did a few minutes of the cadaver pose. Soon
after, my lower back hurt like hell. It went away after I got up at 9:00am.
Eric showed up today after EMT training. The fast way to get to work in a
hospital, he said. We did have quite a few people from El Caminal hospital.
Fri Oct 24, Machine showed more mount techniques including how to pry the elbow
when the bottom guy tucks his arms. I found it very hard to do by walking my
fingers and straightening my arm like what he or Henry showed, especially with
big guys like Eversly. Instead, I liked Henry's neck attack strategy to make the
guy raise his arms to defend and it worked for me almost all the time. I was
slow to capitalize on it though during positional sparring.
Machine also showed the wrestling sit-out and the short arm-drag from turtle,
something I should start adding to my arsenal.
Kevin was able to trick me a few times but recently I defended better and
remembered not to make mistakes such as pushing him with my hand or reaching far
with the underhook. He hasn't been able to get me in the past two rolls and
called me "tough." Now that reputation seemed to stick.
Machine rolled with me and showed how to do a omoplata from mount when the
bottom guy's arm reaches passing my hip. I could grab his (say left) wrist, hip
forward, and swing my right leg to catch his neck with my shin. I now would be
sitting on the mat perpendicular to him with both my legs on top of him. I can
stretch my right leg to get the tap or if he's super-flexible, I could move my
hips closer to his trapped arm and rotate and submit.
I drilled with him again my favorite move: the kesa gatame entry from bottom
cross-side. He kept encouraging me to explore.
Darren said I might have sleep apea and he was going to lend me sth to test my
oxygen level when sleeping. I was not sure of his diagnosis but felt very
thankful. I switched gym right. My gym is beautiful even though or maybe because
it doesn't scale.
Mon Oct 27. Machine showed the elbow and the shrimp escapes from the mount. In
the latter, he stressed that I should bridge till the top guy had to base out
with one arm and next, he pointed out once I created the space between the guy's
knees, I should bring in the bottom instead of the top leg. I could go on to
single-leg x from there.
I've been suffering from lack of sleep. Insomnia rather than sleep apnea could
be my problem: after waking up at around 1:00am, I couldn't get back to sleep
until 7:00am. In between, I just lay on bed and sometimes got up to read a book.
This could well be the jet lag but it had been 10 days. The Web said age was a
factor and I think muscle sore did not help either.
Tue Oct 28. Kyssa taught the ankle pick takedown with collar tie and two attacks
from cross-side bottom.
1. the triangle: first in a std top holding position (say from right) grab the
opponent's right arm, bump and push that arm between my legs, pinch to trap that
arm, and push his head and clamp my left leg on his neck. Close my right leg
to finish the triangle. Meanwhile, control his other arm for a straight armbar
or a kimura.
2. the head-and-arm entry: start with the standard top cross-side holding
position. I grab his right tricep with my left hand and do a ghost/backdoor
escape but stop when our bodies are parallel. The escaping (right) hand reaches
and pull his neck and close the head-and-arm with the left arm. If I want to get
to the top, walk close toward his torso and do a bridge.
I had wanted to follow up with the head-and-arm attack for a while since seeing
it from Machine but never got to do it. But this time it seemed to click.
Wed Oct 29. I had a great sleep last night and didn't feel too sore and so rode
to the gym at noon. Machine showed a few paper-cutter choke escapes:
1. Assume attack from the right side. I can put a frame under the armpit of his
top arm, walk to a north-south to open the gap between his right knee and my
right hip so that my right hand can swim back, reinforce my left frame, and I
can put my knee in.
2. My left upper-arm push his head up right and my legs swing toward his back
and I can get my body on the (right) side. This was the one I knew but couldn't
execute well.
3. Paper-cutter from the bottom: I reaches to collar at the back of his neck with
my trapped arm and clamp down. I get my left hand under his chin and grab his
opposite lapel, just like doing a paper-cutter choke.
While drilling with Jeff on the last one, I yanked the lapel while hipping out.
As he was on his toes to put maximum pressure on me, he had little base on his
right side (his right arm was grabbing my collar) and easily I reversed the
position on him. I asked Machine to do the paper-cutter choke on me and tried
the same reversal but it didn't work as his right knee was on the ground
providing the base. This was so fun!
Thu Oct 30. Kyssa taught again three versions of the ankle pick, this time with
gi and it reminded me of my early BJJ days with Gene who taught almost the same
thing. Gene was squat and muscle-bound as Kyssa was petite but the moves worked
the same.
She showed two versions of the north-south invert escape, starting with both
forarms under the oponent's chest, and a third option to trap and bridge.
1. bring both knees up inbetween the chests, reach one hand to the other side
and invert to put the opponent back into guard.
2. bring only one knee inbetween, pendulum the other leg followed by a hip heist
and grab one leg from the side. I can proceed to double-leg or taking the back.
3. trap one arm and bridge to that side. When there's an angle, I think it's
better to trap the side of the reflex angle so that their knee would provide
less base.
What I realized was how effective the bump was from north-south bottom. It
created the momentum for my forarms to press up.
It was a big turnout today. Alecia showed up with her bulging belly, Eric said
he was not ready and sorry to receive his brown belt, I rolled on the far-side
shoulder, the one Darren taught, out of Kev's first omoplata, but hesitated on
the second and was submitted. He showed me his baiting for the underhook from
cross-side and he said the harpoon reversal needed to have one arm trapped which
I didn't remember. I'll check with Eversly. I rolled with Jon, Jeff, Izzy, and
Ronaldo, too. Jon told me about the movie The Last Samurai. Andreas, Justin,
and Brian were there too.
Fri Oct 31. Machine showed a mount escape that is new to me: start with the
two-arm frame (make sure the elbow of the top arm stay on the left side of his
hips (assuming I'm turning to my left side) as in the hip-out escape. Instead of
hipping out, scissor the legs and lift up the hips. If my partner doesn't move,
I'll trap his leg and get into half-guard and do my moves there. If he shift
toward my head and do a chair seat, he's riding on my frame, I'll further lift
my hips and do a granby roll and get out of his mount. I did not escape very
well with the 200lbs+ Eversley.
Machine also showed how to get out of the gift wrap under side mount. His
version involves hipping to create space and getting the other arm in to create
a ramp.
I rolled with Kevin twice and he tapped me with an omoplata and a crucifix.
This week, I attended five classes with good energy although I was not sleeping
well. It all went well.
