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.

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.

My rolling today can be summed up thusly: I sucked ass. Here’s my self-critique:

Good

• Got a clean sit-up sweep. This is only the second time I’ve been able to do this sweep
• Got a clean mount-escape by shrimping and then hipping out when Pat transitioned to side-control
• Did a decent lumberjack-sweep and transition to mount

Bad

• Got into a fruitless hand-war with Suzuki while mounting him. I have a tendency to stick with my game-plan even if it’s not working, and I rarely transition to a different attack. This is partly because I’m trying to practice a specific technique and partly because I’m a dumb ass. In this case, I had decided that I was going to try for a mounted triangle and so I wasted a lot of time trying to isolate an arm and ignoring other opportunities.
• When mounted, I kept trying for a leg hook to half-guard and ignored an easier opportunity to transition to butterfly guard.
• Got stacked and passed three times because
  • I failed to control my opponent’s posture.
  • Let my legs get gathered up on his shoulders rather than weighing them heavy on his arms.
• Kept grabbing at my opponent’s collars even though it was a no-gi class
• While executing a guard pass on my knees I forgot to counter the far leg to avoid getting hooked up in half-guard. I did this like four times in a row and I was scratching my head wondering how I kept getting stuck in half-guard. As per usual, I remembered what I should have done while walking away from the building.

My wife Laura, a therapist and life coach, says that I get into “Negative Thought Spirals”. I this means I think about things in a negative way and fail to acknowledge the positive aspects of whatever it is I’m obsessing over until I fall into a deep and stagnant depression. I think I need to work on my mental game as much as my physical game because I make a lot of mental mistakes and that makes me more depressed than anything.

I rolled with Jose and Chris today after the noon class at HBJJ. I like rolling with these dudes because they’re very technical. I tried out a lot of stuff today. Here’s my self-critique:

Good

• Did the flip-over butterfly guard pass I learned last week
• Remembered to do a neck crank to set up my side mount ( I can’t believe how well this works )
• When mounted, I created good space with my arm-frame
• Tried to do an arm crank from spider guard - I’ve never been able to get this submission but I saw an opportunity and tried for it.
• Did a good escape from side mount and remembered to pummel for underhooks
• Remembered to pummel for an underhook on the “right” side when I had my partner in half-guard.
• Tried to do the step-over-pass to side control from last week. But I ran out of mat space and pulled the plug before doing the step-over.

Bad

• After successfully passing butterfly guard with a flip I was so surprised I stopped on my back and got swept. This is a perennial problem for me. Anytime I do something good I’m momentarily stunned because I do good things so infrequently.
• Wasn’t able to transition from side-mount to knee-on-belly. This is especially irritating because just last week Sean Flannery taught us how to counter when your opponent lifts his knee to prevent mount. Doh!
• After creating space with my arms when I was mounted I wasn’t able to hook the leg and transition to half-guard or get butterfly guard. I just lay there like a dumb-ass countering Jose’s submission attempts.
• Ended up in north-south and froze. I’ve never been exposed to any curriculum for north-south and I wasn’t able to do anything creative.
• Wasn’t able to finish from spider guard, which is annoying because I’d convinced myself that spider guard was better for me than regular guard because of my stumpy, yet powerful legs.  Maybe this is just wishful thinking.

Overall, I think I need to do more review after class, because I continually get into situations where I get stuck thinking about what I should do next - then my partner gets an easy sweep or counter. Without fail, I remember what I should have done in a given situation as I’m driving away from class. Nothing is instinctive for me so I definitely need to study more.

Today I had a fun no-gi class at HBJJ. I remembered to bring a small hand towel which I used to wipe up the rivulets of sweat pouring from my head. The towel was drenched through within ten minutes. Gross. Shawn taught us a high single-leg takedown as well as variations of the arm bar and triangle. It was rad.

High single leg take down

Shawn gave the following tip that I found useful: If your stance is closed, go for the double. If your stance is open (i.e. your lead foot is left and your opponent’s lead foot is right) then it’s better to go for a high single. I think this is because if you go for a single on the far leg you’ll get stuck in a guillotine.

1. From a closed stance, step into your opponent with your trailing foot and step back with your leading foot to square your opponent up and position him into an open stance.
2. Scoop up the leg and crook your hand in the dimple below opponent’s knee
3. Squat down with the side of your face on opponent’s centerline looking straight past his torso and make certain there is no “daylight” between his hip and your torso
4. Push the captured knee backward through your legs, sort of like snapping a football from a squat
5. Be heavy on opponent’s hip so they have no stability and have to hop around
6. Step forward with your trailing leg
7. Step backward with your leading leg
8. Squat down while maintaining heavy downward pressure on opponent’s hip, so that he flops down

Armbar

Shawn taught us a cool grip for controlling your opponent’s posture. Basically you reach under and grab the bicep of the far arm. Then with your other hand you do a cross-face and grab your opponent’s trap. Shawn gave us some cool biomechanical tips:

• Flex your foot on the side you have draped across your opponent’s shoulders. This engages the hamstrings and makes you heavier on your opponent.
• During the setup, point your toes the way you want your hips to face
• With the leg closest to your opponent’s head, push down forcefully with your heel
• You don’t need to hip-up dramatically. The important thing is to force-vector downwards.

Triangle

I used to try to get triangles while rolling but I stopped trying because I could never lock one in. My legs are flexible but they’re both short and wide. Whenever I tried to lock a triangle, I wasn’t able to get the cross leg parallel to the ground, and therefore, wasn’t able to get my ankle into the crook of the straight leg. Usually I ended up getting stacked and then passed. I had written this submission off as a low-percentage move for me but Shawn straightened me out. Basically, if you have trouble getting a triangle because your legs are really thick you can engage the following biomechanics:

• Grab your shin on the cross-leg as close to your opponent’s head as possible (but don’t grab your foot because you can break it)
• Scoot backwards
• Plant your free leg on your opponent’s hip and drive him back so he’s stretched out and pulled backwards into the triangle.

By employing Shawn’s teachings I was able to get a good tight triangle for the first time in six months of training and I couldn’t believe how easy it was.