Today I rolled with Somo. Somo is visiting the country from Japan. I don’t speak Japanese and he doesn’t speak English so we don’t do a lot of talking. I think Somo has been training for a while because he’s really good. Anyway I give myself a C+ for today’s rolling. I tried a lot of new things but also made a lot of mistakes.

Good

• Fought for an arm triangle. I’ve never tried to get an arm triangle before so I’m giving myself credit for this, even though it’s kind of trivial.
• Tried out the hip crank mount setup Sean Flannery taught back on November 27. I’m trying to do different things because my game is really predictable. Usually I just do the head crank Greg Nelson taught me on my very first day at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. I actually got the hip-crank setup to work which surprised me a little as it requires more athleticism than the head crank.
• Tried the cross-choke from knee-on-belly and remembered to stabilize myself on my foot rather than my knee.

Bad

• Couldn’t finish the cross-choke from knee-on-belly. I got the inside collar grip deep and then I went for another inside grip with the cross hand. I fought for this grip for a while because I forgot the actual finish which is grip on the outside of the kimono at the back of the collar. I couldn’t calm myself down so then I really started to spaz out and tried for the baseball choke even though Somo’s head was on the “wrong” side for a baseball choke. I frickin hate myself when I flail like this.
• Couldn’t transition to back control from side control. I even fought for the underhook on the “right” side and then I just got stuck. I still don’t quite know what happened here. I should have just powered through but I blanked out.
• Couldn’t escape Somo’s mount. First I tried an uppa and failed. Then I tried an overhook sweep and failed. Then Somo transitioned to side control and I was stuck defending submissions until the whistle blew.
• Got swept when I tried a no-hand pass. My balance was off and I became light on Somo for a split second and then suddenly found myself on my back.

I’ll be bummed when Somo goes back to Japan. I like watching him roll because he’s crazy athletic and his game is more about finesse unlike mine which is grinding and methodical.

I’ve been wondering when I should switch to one minute rest periods between rounds instead of two minute rest periods. There doesn’t seem to be any logical choice so I guess I’ll go with something arbitrary. I hereby decide that when I can get above 1050 pounds per minute I’ll switch to one minute rest periods and then work my way back up to 1050 lbs/minute. At that point, I guess I’ll switch to 53lb Kettle Bells and 3 minute rest periods and start all over. As you can see my conditioning isn’t exactly scientific. I’m basically just torturing myself on the theory that “pain is weakness leaving the body”. Also my conditioning coach wasn’t available today so I had to keep track of my reps by myself which was sort of difficult, but I think my count was accurate.

Today Sean Flannery taught us some more armbar defenses. There was some new stuff that we didn’t see in the other class this week. Sean gave some interesting tips that I would like to remember:

• A very good way to isolate the arm when you start your armbar is to grab your opponent’s wrist and then shift onto your side a little so you can weave your free hand over your opponent’s arm (sort of like an overhook) and then grab your own bicep. When you lean back your arms are in an X across your chest and you have the wrist in an incredibly tight vise.
• If you “give up” your arm when escaping an arm bar when you come back up into position 0 keep your hand next to your face. This is because when you are scrambling for position 0 your head and arm are probably still between your opponent’s legs and you’re vulnerable to a triangle, so you need to come up with your free arm cocked to fight off the triangle.
• If for some reason your head is outside of your opponent’s thighs then you have already passed his guard, so forget about fighting off a triangle. Just press the side of your face into the outside of your opponent’s thigh and transition to side control directly.
• An alternate way to reverse an armbar is to bridge towards your opponent’s crotch and take BIG step over so your opponent is forced into a painful shoulder roll. When you finish you have your opponent stacked and you can start to jerk your arm out and get side control.
• When you have your opponent stacked and want to attain side control, a useful biomechanic is to look straight into your opponent’s face. This turns your head into his thigh and helps you “turn the corner” around your opponent’s rear.

All of this armbar defense curriculum was extremely helpful. I tried out a couple of defenses when I got stuck in armbars while rolling this week and it helped me avoid submissions, although I didn’t manage to do any of the techniques correctly from a technical standpoint.

Today I rolled with Mike during free mat at HBJJ.  I was amazed at this guy’s endurance.  He rolled for about seven consecutive rounds each lasting seven minutes, with only one minute rest in between.  Throughout his mouth was closed and his breathing was controlled.  He never seemed to gas out and patiently worked his game against all comers.  At one point he carried on a casual side conversation while fending off a full frontal assault on his guard.  I was like, “WTF!  This guy is an animal.”  By comparison, after one seven minute round my legs were wobbly and a vein started to throb on my temple.  I thought I was going to have a frickin aneurysm.

I realized tonight I’ll never raise my game unless I increase my mat time.  Period. And I can’t increase my mat time unless I improve my conditioning.   So I need to get back to two-a-days and really get serious about losing the forty extra pounds that weigh me down on the mat.

Today Shawn taught us a sequence from knee-on-belly. I like knee-on-belly because it works to my strengths. Namely, I weigh a ton and I have knees the size of bowling balls. I had a bad size-match with my training partner today and I imagined I could feel his ribs folding when I put my weight down. I felt pretty bad, but he’s hella tough and it was probably no big deal for him.

Side Control to Knee-on-Belly

• With your head-side hand grab the gi under your opponent’s armpit
• When your opponent counters by pushing his knee into your side, use your tail-side arm to drive his knee down and make space for your shin
• Slide your shin across your opponent’s belly and make sure to hook his belt line with your foot
• Get your other knee off the mat and plant your foot to the side
• Elevate your opponent’s head by prying it underneath the base of his skull and levering up (so he can’t bridge)

Cross Choke Variation 1

• From knee-on-belly, use your hand farthest from your opponent to grasp his collar and pull his shoulders up off the mat
• Slide your other hand deep into his collar.
• Reach across his neck and grasp the fabric of his kimono as close to your other hand as you can manage. You don’t need to get your hand inside the kimono
• Transition to mount by swinging the belly leg over
• Lean forward and try to touch your head to the mat on the side of your opponent’s head opposite the collar grab while drawing your elbows to your beltline

Cross Choke Variation 2 (Baseball Choke)
Shawn calls this the baseball choke because you hold onto your opponent’s collar with the palms of your hands facing in, the same way you grab a baseball bat. I had a hard time with this one.

• When you try to sink in the inside-grab to start the collar choke, sometimes your opponent will duck his head under your forearm so your grip is on the far side of his head and his neck is out of danger
• With an overhand grip grab your opponent’s collar on the near side of his head.
• Straighten your arms out
• Isolate your opponent’s near arm by sliding your knee against it while leaning back against his body
• Without releasing your grips or bending your arms transition to a north-south type position with your knees on either side of your opponent’s head so that you end up facing his feet
• Lean forward and try to touch your head to the mat next to his hip on the side where you have the overhand grip.
• Clear as mud?

Knee-on-Belly Defense
This is a cool reversal and if you do it right you end up in half-guard.

• Bridge
• With the V between your thumb and forefinger lift your opponent’s ankle to loosen his belt-line hook
• Hook his ankle with the leg closest to your opponent
• Hip out so you’re off to the side and drive the captured leg down if you need to tighten the half guard
• Pummel for an underhook and grab your opponent’s gi high up on his collar