Choose Strong
For Tim.
Apr 2. Darren showed the slick granby roll before side control. Suppose my
opponent comes from the right side. I stiff-arm his right shoulder, face away,
get on my left shoulder (not arm!) and my hips go up. My top (right) leg swings
far and wide and circles back to put him in guard.
Another version starts by facing the opponent and blocking his cross-face arm
and having my top/left shin on his right hip.
We had fun with the bear-trap again: from x-guard (with his near leg on my
shoulder) pull his lapel and make his hands tough the mat. Switch to reverse-x
and elevate his far leg for saddle.
He sees it coming and slips his knee past my legs but I am in time to catch his
lower leg with my right shin across his calf and my left leg figure-4 over my
right foot. I flare my right knee to trap his lower leg. At this point, I have
options. First, I could sit up to hug his hips and my shin goes into his calf.
Second, I can pass his near leg over my torso and go for the back.
If he does not see it coming, I don't need to go to the saddle. Let's say his
left (far) leg is trapped, I plant my right hand at his near side, I retract
instead of figure-4 my left leg, kick my right leg and get on top of his legs. I
am in a good position for a knee-cut pass.
We were talking about the Boulder Creek 4.9 earthquake at 1:41am.
Eric showed up and told me the nursing school tries to squeeze the last drop of
him. He loved to learn the stuff, he told me, but they had to maximize
efficiency which takes the fun out of it. I don't complain (that's how my money
works for me) and I don't work.
Darren asked why Chinese people adopt English first names while people from
other nations don't. I told him we want to go main stream and be part of the
society and we don't know any better. I called myself Bill for a few years.
The top triangle from Alex the purple belt right before I was injured six weeks
ago, I did on Jose! It really made my day.
Apr 3. Machine showed the dummy sweep from seated guard facing a standing
opponent and a few single-leg-x and x-guard moves.
dummy sweep: when the opponent appears, temporarily, square with me and his feet
are parallel, I scoot forward and insert my hooks behind both his feet. I push
anywhere on his torso to make him fall backward. A variation is to grab one of
his arms and while he tries to yank it back, I hold onto it and use that yank to
scoot forward and insert my hooks.
single-leg x transitions. When my opponent peels off the foot on his hip, I
block his far-side leg, the peeled foot stump on the mat, and my foot under his
butt extend to make him fall forward. As he bases out on his hands, I can
recover single-leg x from there.
Or I can insert the peeled foot under his far-side leg and my other hook to form
reverse-x. At this position, I can elevate his hips and figure-4 my legs
underneath and put him in the saddle. There are a few possibilities in the
transition:
- I go straight to the saddle,
- I retract my bottom leg and as he falls I roll up with an underhook and
a nice knee-cut pass, and
- he sees what's coming and slides his knee out but I catches his lower leg
with figure-4.
The last one was called the bear-trap. Once there, I can sit up to hug his hips
and that'll give him either a calf-slicer or a "ham-sandwich." I could go for
the back, too, I think.
I trained with Allen and he liked the bear-trap a lot.
I rolled with Darren, Alex, and Jeff. When Darren got me in armbars, I should
try to escape with the techniques Machine showed, even though I didn't have much
chance. When I caught Jeff in a guilotine, I should crunch the top of his head
in instead of pulling it (I saw the next day on a short vid from Rosie on FB).
Apr 6. Machine showed two versions of the loop choke and I liked the 2nd one
better. From half-guard top, my opponent's driving in from my right. My left
hand grips his lapel, neither too deep or too shallow and my right hand directs
his head to the hole my left arm makes. I dive under him and grab his right
sleeve at the shoulder so that he cannot roll. I squeeze to put on the choke.
Had a great time rolling with Alex, Ronaldo, Andy, and Kevin. I tried a
helicopter choke on Andy and tried to pry open Ronaldo and Kevin's arms for
Chris Burn's half-guard kimura. All failed. Alex didn't tap to my Von-Flue.
Had an idea when my opponent at half-guard bottom puts a hook in under my
trapped leg. I should try to get the far-side underhook, base out with my other
arm, tee-pee up, and do Darren's floating butter-fly pass. Need to try this
tomorrow.
Apr 7. Darren showed a few moves from the dog-fight. I liked the limp-arm the
most just because of its simplicity. One critical step is to at the beginning
nudge the top guy forward so that his weight is no longer on his knees so that I
can pull my leg out from underneath. Another detail is to clamp my leg to trap
his lower leg.
Apr 9. Darren showed his half-guard bottom tricks. Suppose my opponent has
flattened me out with cross-face from my right side. My left hand would grip the
back of his collar thumb down and my right hand would grip his pant at the knee.
I would shift him to my left side and as he bases insert my left hook. Now, I
just need to elevate him with that hook and my collar grip and sweep him. If he
bases out with his near hand, I'd go for his back.
If my opponent near arm is on my left side, say to block my head, I'd do the
same moves but hoist him perpendicular to me and roll on my LEFT shoulder to get
on top.
I sweat like a pig and felt drained on the mat and didn't even have the cardio
to move fast. It might be yesterday's rucking.
Kevin's going back to work and won't come to noon class.
Ronaldo didn't have allergy. He said coffee was acidic and gave me the recipe
for his morning hydration drink: celtic salt + honey + apple cider vinegar +
baking soda + water. He also mentioned kimchi after exercise and I promised him
my home-made fare.
Apr 10. Machine showed a few half-guard bottom moves. Instead of hooking the far
leg with the arm, he showed a body-lock which I had some trouble with. As John
pointed out, my head was not low enough. The follow-ups are the roll under sweep
or the back-take.
Machine in sparring showed me the knee-bar sweep from half-guard bottom and a
lot of details once I get to the deep figure-4. First, dive to hook the far-side
leg and connect my hands with a gable grip. As I pull his leg toward me, I go up
on my shoulder and my left leg go under his armpit to his back. Using my top
hand, I reach to pull his far-side ankle to crank the knee. I fall back on my
right and use the momentum drive his right leg over and catch is left leg for
the knee bar. My knee has to be out of his legs to pin his left hip to keep
control.
Apr 21. Darren showed two counters to grip-break when one gets to the back in
standing. First, my left hand cups his left hip, my right hand circles back to
hug his right inner thigh, and my right leg drops between our left legs to roll
him over. Second, I switch to his left side, my left arm reaches to cup his
right hip, my right hand reaches to hug his left inner thigh, I scoop my pelvis
to lift him up and dump him forward.
These days, I feel I am having the most enjoyable time at BJJ. I have matured in
my attitude. I tap often and don't even think about it. Meanwhile, I am making
steady progresses, getting harder for the higher and lower belts.
A revelation hits me after repeatedly watching Henry's videos and that is not to
go strength against strength. That and "to take it easy" are my mantra these
days before every session.
I had hard rolls with a few guys and was really tired. It took me two nights to
recover.
Apr 23. Hard rolls all the way after warmup. In the end, I watched Darren
showing a great half-guard bottom move at the late stage of a knee-cut pass.
The top guy had far-side (or double) underhook and his knee already passed
my thighs. I cannot execute the roll-under as I don't have the underhook. I'll
release my clamp on his lower leg and trap his ankle with my top leg just the
same. Next, I'll slide my bottom knee forward in front of his knee, kick the
bottom leg to shift his right leg to my left, release the trap, and insert my
left hook in. Here, I'll be in a good position for the hook sweep.
Apr 25. Machine showed a darce entry, a kimura grip from north-south or
side-control, and a north-south choke.
I was gasing out after rolling with Alex. In the last round, Eric swept me from
side-control bottom. I was trying to secure his far-side (left) arm and his
right hand came to the rescue. My right hand was also fighting but I was about
to give up and raised my head. Right at that moment, his left leg curled up to
catch my head and he sat up with the momentum. It was a great move and he let me
practice on him afterwards.
My team-mates encouraged me to come on Sat. I should try the competition class
sometime.
Eversly was training robots kickboxing, he told us, and I told him it was a
risky career path. Once people need to blow off some steam, AI is an abstract
but he is real.
Apr 27. Machine showed the elbow escape details. I often missed the first move,
which was to bump the guy on top forward so that he bases out with his hands.
This makes his knees light. Andy asked Machine to show the pendulum sweep and
here's what he showed: 1. drag one (say the right) arm across with either the
right or both of my hands. 2. grab across his back with my left hand his lats to
pin him down (so that he couldn't drag his arm out). 3. my right hand let go of
his sleeve and reaches to hook his left knee. 4. my left leg pendulum and right
leg chop to make his shoulder touch the mat.
In the locker room Ronaldo and I chatted about kids and how time flew. He said
he'd travel the world and drop by the Philipines to teach bjj, to give
back to the world, after his second (grade 9 now) got to college. Very
inspiring.
Apr 28. Darren showed a takedown where I have the collar tie and control of his
right arm. I clamp down his head and keep it low and scoot to his left side. I
soccer-kick his calf/heel and take him down.
Foot-attacks from outside ashi starting when my opponent's far-side knee is on
the mat. I overhook his foot and his goal is to pressure in. My outside leg
pummels in to frame on his thigh to keep him away. My inside foot frames on his
inner far-side thigh. I turn to my right side and my right hand scoops out his
heel. My outside leg recovers and butter-flies his trapped leg. My right hand
posts on the side of his shin and left hand forms the kimura grip. I square with
him to put on the pressure.
Starting with the same setup, I swing my right leg over his shin, my left leg
clamps and forms figure-4 and my left foot goes under his thigh. A very tight
straight footlock.
Takedown: outside ashi with overhook on one foot while the opponent's standing
on both feet. My feet stomp on his right hip to raise my hips and I go
belly-down to take him down and follow up with a heel hook.
Drilling with Justin, I learned to stiff-arm the head and get up to get out of
his single-leg takedown. I passed his half-guard by lifting his bottom knee and
drive both his legs to the other side. At the middle it was the head-quarters
position but there was no need to stop there. Once his knees are all pointing to
the other direction, I could sprawl and pass. I remember Sam at PSD used to do
this to me and frustrated the hell out of me.
Apr 30. Darren showed a mount escape where his left foot stepped across the
guy's right calf and his right foot slided under the guy's right shin so that
his right foot stompped on his left inner calf, his left foot hooked the guy's
right heel, and his legs pinched tight to trap the guy's right foot. Next, he
brought his knees to his chest using core strength and the guy's right leg went
along. (So far, there was no need even to use the hands.) His two hands framed
on the guy's right hip and extended his legs to hoist that leg up. From there,
he could go single leg x, butterfly, or other open guards.
I saw this as a great option for me. Lanky guys good at mount was always a
challenge and experienced guys knew what to look out for. With this move, I
could trap the leg while defend the neck with the hands.
I asked and Darren showed Anil and me again on Friday.
Alex, the black belt coach from UFC, and I had a lot of fun rolling with each
other. A big guy, he was technical with good cardio and flexibility. Today on
the mat, when I complained about recovery, he asked if I hydrated enough. It
sounded obvious but as going to the bathroom often felt like a nuisance, I
actually didn't drink much during training. I should from now on drink at least
48oz at each class.
Machine asked about my rib. The pain was gone, I said. The left lower rib's not
going to grow back to exacty where it was but as long is it doesn't hurt I can
keep training.
