Chokes

Ruminations on the meanings of various belts, by Jiu Jitsu Forum members, continued:
Mr. Cicero:

White: You really suck
Blue: Better but you still suck
Purple: You suck much less, well done.
Brown: Damn, didn't you used to suck at this?
Black: The suck torch has been passed.




Saturday no-gi at Sleeper. Once again I skipped lunchtime class at Gracie's, which is sad (and I miss Rodrigo... I never see him any more), but it really is improving my performance at Sleeper when I'm not dragging my exhausted ass in there after doing a session at GB first. Lamont noticed too-  commented that I was "moving well".

They were working some rather complex kimura mutations with multiple grip changes that were out of my league. I managed to perform the techniques after being walked through them a billion times, but I think live application of these babies is going to have to wait a few more years for me.

While Terry was distracted with something else and Cindy was doing a demo on me, I could not suppress a a pained "GUHHHH-UH!!" That got Terry's attention, and he came over and demanded to be taught whatever had the power to produce that noise.

Rolls with everyone. As usual, no-gi is a step up on the "challenge" meter for me. I got frustrated once, with Terry, and stalled out in scarf. "You giving up?" "Sorta."

I got a number of different chokes on different people today. I seemed to be setting them up a little quicker (which is an improvement that I need to keep working on). Note that one guy was using a no-collar baseball bat (again, gable gripped hands) that was intriguing to me. I was able to defend the actual choke (I have good choke defense skills), but I had to tap to it once just because it was grinding on a nerve point at the base of my skull.

They are urging me to use "short choke" which apparently is a forearm choke with gable-gripped hands. I seem to be using it successfully at times without being aware of such, whereas when I try the RNC I often either 1)can't finish or 2)get my arm grabbed.

Cindy also suggests that instead of hanging off the backs of people's butts as I tend to do when they're turtled, I should try going hip to hip and placing my far hand on HIR hip. Controlling the hips/rear may work out better than getting bucked off, setting in hooks that are immobilizing me, or wrapping an arm in that's going to get me rolled. Note that when I am attempting to control the hips like that, I should be poised squatting on the toes.

I am noticing that I am seeing omoplata opportunities lately. I have been trying for few and getting even fewer- but the fact that I am noticing them is intriguing. One of my most crippling weaknesses is that I fail to observe where the opponent is vulnerable to specific subs- recognizing and snatching the offered opportunities. I want to get better at that.

More self defense

When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away. 


Lunchtime BJJ at GB Sea. My eyes were a little irritated from my contacts, so I had to wear my glasses to see the drills and then take them off to perform. It was a real PITA.


The prof and a white belt guy used me for a practice dummy to work Del a Riva sweeps before class. Then Steve came in and walked around shaking everyone's hand on the mat. When he got to me, he seemed to be bracing himself. I can't imagine why. Certainly not because I would use the handshake to yank myself into Del a Riva guard and try to take him down, then cross collar choke him from guard. When he didn't tap to the choke, I sit-up swept him and counted points for mount.


More "self defense" today.


Same standing front straight-arm choke defense as yesterday (with throw and kimura lock). I was fortunate enough to drill with Steve, who also complimented my throws. I was putting him down harder than I had put Lindsey down... not because I like him less, but because he's a purple belt and I figure he can take it.  :D


Next: opponent is in your guard, and stands up in preparation for squatting to punch you in the face. You open guard and slide down the legs, staying close and up on your shoulders. Feet on hir hips. Brace one foot and use the other to punch straight up into the chin. Both feet back on hips, shove hir away. When s/he comes back, Lean on elbow and technical lift-kick to just below knee. Rise up on hand and do it again, to just above knee. I had trouble remembering to stay on the elbow for the first one... but when I failed to do so, I had no range left for #2.


Then: opponent is in your closed guard, punching at your face. You parry two punches, gripping the wrists (not the gi sleeves) lightly and letting the fists continue to your cross ears. On punch #3, you yank a little harder and stuff the other hand. Triangle.


Steve and I had good feedback exchange. He noted that my triangles sucked on my bad side (my wording, not his), and it took us a little back and forth before we finally figured out that I wasn't hipping up high enough on my awkward side. For his weak side triangle, I noted that his body was too straight to mine and that he should probably be more diagonal. As soon as he adjusted that, the choke made my eyes feel like they were bugging out of my head... much tighter.


I always go out of my way to be verbally appreciative of my favorite drilling partners, so I made sure to take time at the end of class to tell him how much I value his input.

Thursday night three-pack

Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. You may get killed with your own gun, but he'll have to beat you to death with it, cause it's going to be empty. -Clint Smith




Evening three-pack at Gracie Bellevue.


Basics: like this morning, we did all spars. Like this morning, I was doing fairly decent. Albert is breathing a lot better- not huffing like a steam train any more. I complimented him on it. He also doesn't seem quite as spazzy (even though I did him first, when he was fresh). I hope those days are behind us. Dave informed me proudly that he remembered to bring his inhaler today. Good boy.


Study Hall: "self defense". First, we paired up (me with Lindsey) and attacked each other, experimenting with different responses. It was somewhat challenging for me to do this from a BJJ mindset. My takedowns against resisting people are not that great. If we find ourselves on the ground, sure, I'll do BJJ. But honestly, from standing, I'd be a fool to not use Kung Fu. Lindsey was impressed with my throws (but again, she was unresisting, so...), and at least I had *something* for every attack- even if it wasn't jiu jitsu-y. The only time I froze up was when the prof came over and attacked me. Embarrassing. But I know that I froze because my mind was searching for the "correct" response- the one that I thought he wanted. If I'd felt free to do anything I wanted, I don't think I would have frozen. At least I hope not.


After we did that for a while, we got in a circle, and Casey attacked us each in turn with a front straight-arm choke. I had to go first. The prof had specified that he wanted us to be doing jiu jitsu and not striking. I brought both arms up and circling around to break the choke, then I kneed him in the belly (okay, not BJJ, but Kung Fu has burned into my brain that you don't just walk up to somebody and try to throw them- you have to "tenderize" them first), then I reaped him to the ground.


To be more jiu jitsu-y, Carlos suggests grabbing one of the attacker's elbows and bearing down hard on it, while lunging in and hugging hir around the neck with the other. Throw. Armbar.


During the break, I pounced upon Ben and stealth-choked him, then we rolled around for a while.  Then the advanced class was lining up, and I started to run away to the other room. Carlos: "Where you going?" Kitsune: "I wanna do basics class." "Why?" "Cuz my basics need work." He didn't even dignify that with a reply, just shook his head and pointed to the mat. Damn. What was I going to do, argue? Say no? Especially with the entire class already on the wall staring and listening as we had this exchange. Sigh.


So of course, we were doing two complicated techniques with way too many steps and tricky grip changes which would have been a struggle for me on a GOOD day.... much less on my 4th class of the day, with too much bad stressful stuff going on my life right now to distract my focus. I was just not in good shape to tackle this. I felt bad for Kelly, who got stuck with me tonight. That's a big part of the reason I don't like doing these advanced classes... if I am struggling, it's not just my problem- I'm being a burden to whatever unfortunate soul I'm partnered with.


Standup, judo grips. Step slightly to the side that you have the lapel. Switch lapel grip to cross sleeve cuff grip. Switch elbow grip to lapel grip. Pull opponent in and torque hir elbow up. Reap. I can do a reap, but the prof had to spend almost the entire drill period trying to correct my grips. I was confused, frustrated and irritated. I appreciate that he wants to help me get it right, and spends the time to do so- but the more he rides me, the more flustered I get and the more my brain shuts down. I was PO'ed because this was exactly why I had wanted to go over to the basics class. Sometimes I don't understand the point Carlos is trying to get across to me (I'm speaking in the broader sense here, not just the grips thing... although I wasn't getting the grips thing either).


You standing, partner on back with 2 end-of-cuff grips and feet on your hips. You grab hir left lapel with your rt hand, kneel and push your rt elbow and knee into hir left leg to displace the foot. Opponent hooks that foot behind your thigh. You squat further and push hir rt sole to the mat, then tuck right up against hir rump with that rt knee up between you. (Kelly suggested here that I need to remember to keep my weight back and sunk- I was leaning too far forward.)

Next, use a vehement shoulder motion to move that knee to the side. Now both of opponent's knees are on the same side. Place your rt knee on the mat. You sprawl and crush hir to the mat curled up on hir side. Clear the hooking toe. Tiptoe around to side control.

As you go to side control, it's a good time to 1)make sure you flatten the opponent out... using the lapel is a good way to manage this, and 2) slide your near hand behind the collar, thumb in. Once you have secured side control, slip your far hand into the collar palm up. Sidle and twist for baseball bat choke. This is the same choke I had been trying repeatedly to get a few weeks ago and failing; this time it was working beautifully- I don't know why. There was tons of room to torque further, but she was already tapping.


A little positional training starting from the tucked-to-the-rump point.


One roll with Kelly and one with Ted. Managed to stay on top most of the time with Kelly, for a change. I haven't sparred with her for a while, but she has tended to dominate me positionally. This time I was determined to not end up in her bear-trap closed guard, nor on the bottom. I achieved that, but couldn't accomplish a whole lot. We were mostly straining against each other with me sprawled on top and both of us clinging for dear life to our respective positions.


Ted: I didn't do very well. Stayed on top for a while, but then found myself on the bottom and was stuck down there for the duration.

Wowza... I am just too tired to blog after these Thursday blitzes... but if I don't write notes on what we did, by morning it will be gone.


Ian has his purple belt!

Protect ya neck

The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. The hermit crab is a colorful example of a creature that lives by this aspect of the growth process (albeit without our psychological baggage). As the crab gets bigger, it needs to find a more spacious shell. So the slow, lumbering creature goes on a quest for a new home.  If an appropriate  new shell is not found quickly, a terribly delicate moment of truth arises.  A soft creature that is used to the protection of built-in armor  must now go out into the world, exposed to predators in all its mushy vulnerability. That learning phase in between shells is where our growth can spring from. Someone stuck with an entity theory of intelligence is like an anorexic hermit crab, starving itself so that it doesn’t grow to have to find a new shell.  Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”





Jalen's mom (after writing about football playoffs): .. we have really missed you guys.

SavageKitsune: I would be very happy to have Jalen come back to choke me some more.   :)

Cindy: He will be back soon. The season is almost over. He has gotten even bigger and is going to be giving us even more trouble when he returns

Kitsune: Oh great.   :-P    Unfortunately *I* will not be getting any bigger- except maybe around the belly.  That was nice for a while when he and I were the same size, but I knew it would probably only last a few months.   ;-D





Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Bellevue. Got there a little early and worked on the Southern Mantis long form fragment, then went ahead and did the 3 Step Arrow fragment.. that's the extent of my Southern Mantis knowledge, so I went on to Bung Bo Kuen.


All spars: Nelson, John, Saul, one other white belt guy.


Nelson: very technical, enjoyable roll. He has 4 stripes now, and will be purple soon! Unfortunately he keeps getting injured. Today he hurt his knee (again). (It wasn't me.... I had grabbed him first, and I was being careful with him. I know that not only does he have a lot of injuries, he does not always have sufficient self-preservation instinct to stop when he should stop...) I took an accidental crack in the mouth; now I have a wound on the inside of my lip.


John- I stayed mostly on top and mobile, and did better against him than I normally do; but he seemed rather tired.


Saul- Pleased with my performance here; I got a number of taps with various chokes.... including one at about 10 seconds in, when I grabbed a deep cross collar grip, and as he lunged at me, I looped my elbow around his head and just lifted up. I was more surprised than he was when it worked. ("Protect ya neck," he commented wryly.) He tapped me with an armbar. When we were done, he said that he always learns a lot rolling with me- which felt nice. Both he and Nelson commented that I seem to be working very tight (smile).


The other white belt guy- this was my poorest roll of the day, but even so, I didn't get smeared.


Still  reading a lot of fanfiction..... I'm going to sound like a crotchety old party here, but argh- WHY CAN'T KIDS THESE DAYS ***SPELL***??????   Why doesn't anybody grok the difference between "your" and "you're"?

Still marinating

To achieve an elite standard of personal performance usually requires a fair amount of natural ability, motivation and commitment. It does not follow that an elite martial artist also has the ability to pass those skills on to others at all levels. In fact, the opposite is usually true. To become an elite performer usually means that the student has natural ability and therefore learns skills quickly and easily. A great degree of self-motivation and commitment is also required and such performers generally find little difficulty in applying themselves to the rigors of training, grading and competition. Since very few students achieve such high levels of performance, too often a coach does not understand the needs of these "lesser mortals" who are in fact the majority. When one looks at specific groups such as junior, female, male, elderly, competitive, aggressive, shy, introverted, or combinations of these, many martial arts coaches in the past have been- to say the least- underprepared.    Tony Gummerson, "Teaching Martial Arts"

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Hey, all of you lady bloggers, check out our new BJJ lady blogger:

http://summerjitsu.blogspot.com/

She is 7, has been doing BJJ since 4, and just started blogging. I hope she keeps it up (both!).

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From Jiu Jitsu Forums, written by BJJMark95:
***

The bjj ranking system is like cooking a steak...

White Belt: The tendorizing process

At white belt, you are essentially a fresh piece of meat that is going to get beaten to death with a tendorizer. You think at so many points that you are starting to figure the stuff out but you are so very wrong. The beating or "tendorizing" just keeps coming until you finally realize that you know absolutly nothing and that its time for you to start learning. At this point, you are perfectly tendorized and ready for the next step...

Blue Belt: The marinating process

At blue belt, you are so broken down from white belt and are perfectly tender and ready to be marinated. Now you can pick your favorite kind of marinate (for me its a bock beer and Stubs barbaque sauce as far as a steak goes) and you will just have to sit in it for a while. Everyone who knows how to cook a good steak knows this is the longest stage in the whole process. It can take hours and even overnight (in the steak process) but the more you marinate the steak the better it is going to taste. At blue belt, you absorb so much knowledge. This is the belt where you truly learn jiu-jitsu. It is here where you are going to be exposed to all the different types of games and techniques that are out there. You are going to be a blue belt for quite some time but dont let that discourage you... You are being marinated! The longer you marinate the better off you are going to be in the end! Once you are done marinating for a good amount of time you are ready for the next stage.

Purple Belt: Getting thrown on the grill

At purple belt, it is like you are ready to be thrown on the gril. You have learned and been exposed to so many different things that it is now time to start working on them to make them better. It is here that you are starting to figure things out. It is also here that we can have a good guess about how you are going to turn out but it can still change. You are no where close to being done, but you are quite on your way. Once you have seared for a little while... its time to moved on.

Brown Belt : Getting turned

At brown belt, you are ready to be turned on the grill. If you were on the first side for the right amount of time, you will have perfect chared diamonds on you, but again, you are not fully done yet. At brown belt, you may be only ready to go in certain spots, but you are not fully a black belt yet as you still have a few areas that you need to finish up on or cook all the way through. This is quite an important step in the process as well because if you come off the grill too early, you could taste funny and not be where you want to be. Once you have had a chance to cook all the way through, then its time for the final stage.

Black Belt: The Fully Cooked Steak

At black belt, you are now ready to be taken off the grill. You should be cooked all the way through and be just right. At black belt, you have a complete game. You are quite knowledgable in all areas of the game and have a few parts that you are exceptional at... Just as a steak has a few parts that are exceptionally juicy and delicious, but all of the steak is still good. Finally, throughout the black belt, you still are not done learning. You will always continue to learn and grow. I refer to this as the "seasoning" of the steak. Even though the steak is fully done and delicious, you can always add some seasoning or some BBQ sauce or butter or what have you to make it that much better. This is the continued learning process that comes with being a black belt.

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Saturday FOD: Spear Hand fragment
Sunday FOD: Plum Blossom Fist fragments
Monday FOD: Five Animals
Tuesday FOD: Frolic Of the Five Animals
Wednesday FOD: Southern Mantis long form fragment

This is not about training.....

I am laid off.

Again.


FML....seriously.

Study Hall

"It's not 'I get a turn and then you get a turn'... it's all my space and it's always my turn" - Greg Hamilton


Lunchtime BJJ at Grace Bellevue.


Carlos: "*YOU* again?"  Hee hee hee. I usually go to Sleeper on my alternate free Wednesday evenings, so he's not used to seeing me twice on Wednesday and then twice on Thursday. He was also impressed that he had had to kick me out last night. Ted and I shut down the mat, and would have gone longer, but Carlos had wanted to leave.


Same thing we did yesterday. I had a little performance anxiety ("Don't mess this up *again* in front of Carlos...") but I think I get it better today. He did have to tell me to not step on the shoulder/chest, though.... once I focused on setting  up the armbar (even though it's just a ruse) it went better, as it was not really my job to worry about clearing the arm any more.


I got to work with Z, whom I have not seen in a long while.


Drills: start from closed guard, pass guard to side control, bottom person does the Move Of the Day.


King Of the Hill: start in side control, top person tries to get front mount, bottom person tries to replace full guard.


I kept drawing the 300-lb-plus purple belt... in fact I got him twice and I don't think I got to work with anyone else. I went up there and waited for him to lie down so I could take top side control, and he just knelt there and stared at me... finally I said in genuine dismay, "I have to be on the bottom?"  Of course both he and Carlos cracked up at that. Joy. So- unhappily- I crawled down there, and of course could do nothing at all with his bulk on top of me, but managed to catch bottom half guard as he attempted to mount. He tried to pass my half guard for a while, and couldn't (!!) Then he sat back and said, "Well, you know, I wouldn't even try to get my leg out in this case. I'd just armbar you from here." Well, granted. But that's not the drill. You're supposed to pass my half guard and go to front mount. I was annoyed, and debated arguing the point, but couldn't figure out how to word it without sounding like I was issuing a smart-ass challenge to a purple belt who weighed about four of me- which would be kind of suicidal- so I just sighed and went back in line. He did say to Carlos, "She's really good!" and John called from the line, "Yeah, just TRY to get out of her half guard!" which salved my ego a bit.


The second time, I had bottom half guard high up on his thigh and ended up curled in a ball right under his groin with one knee on his solar plex- but he was big enough to have both knees on the mat even so, and we weren't sure if that counted as him having mount. I conceded that it likely did (again, challenging giant purple belt = insane), so went back in line.




Had to go pick up my Jeep at the mechanic (again), so arrived very late for 4:30 basics class. Adrian and JP were rolling. They paused to ask if I was here for class- since I was so late, I said "I can just hang out and watch, or rotate in- whatever." After a while, Adrian rotated out and I rolled with JP. He placed his palm on the mat and pushed it behind my skull to kink my neck to the side a bit, which totally flummoxed my effort to grab half guard on him when he went to front mount. I can almost always catch that half guard, so I paid attention to that detail. It is reminiscent of the detail I mentioned the other day of using the fingers to drag the palm across the mat and get that extra bit of tightness.


Next, the time slot for the Competition Class has been newly changed to something called "Study Hall". I was sorry to see the comp class go.... the only other one I can make is the Saturday unit once a month or so... and there's certainly something to be said for a session of really killer cardio and hard drilling. I had been expecting the class to go away, though- it just wasn't very thickly attended. I was happy that they replaced it with something else instead of just dropping the time slot.


 I wasn't sure what to expect from "study hall" but it was pretty cool. There were only 3 of us in there today. The prof asked us what we wanted to work on. I really want an easy and reliable choke from front mount, since I am spending a lot of time on top lately but not managing to finish the tap. I knew Carlos wanted to work more on positions than subs, though, so I wasn't surprised nor too bummed to get outvoted by the other two students. Their desired focii dovetailed, so that worked out well. Lindsey wanted to work on getting out of bottom half guard, so I was all for that. The white belt guy wanted to address passing open guard.


So we started with one person on the ground on hir back, feet on the partner's hips. Stander throws opponent's feet to the side. Opponent turns in, places hands on stander's knees (bottom arm reaches to far knee- don't cross top arm over face), then places soles on opponent (one at a time- outside/far foot first.) and ends up back at the beginning.


Then, stander pushes opponent's knees to hir chest. When opponent pushes back, stander shoves legs to the mat and lunges into half guard. Person on bottom needs to turn on the hip and get the arm/shoulder up for the underhook- QUICKLY. Once the person is on you, it's too late. The matward hand should be doing the "Fonz"- smoothing the hair at your temple. (Again, this is an important detail for me to try to incorporate to avoid the vicious crossface.) Duck the head in deep, get the top knee in, push opponent's far knee out, twist and replace full guard.


There was less drilling (although drilling did happen) and more discussion Q/A than in a normal class. It was nice to be able to ask lots of questions and get individual help. I can see this class becoming less and less awesome as more students occur.  If it stays small, this could really boost my game.  :)


Another plus: unlike competition class sometimes does, this one didn't leave me too physically exhausted to do yet another class tonight.


Yes, ANOTHER class (five and a half classes in two days- woo-hoo!). There was an "all levels" class and a "black belt" (two stripe blue and up) class. I picked "all levels".


We did a replace-full-guard-from-bottom-half almost identical to the one we had just played with in Study Hall.


Opponent in your closed guard, leaning weight on your belt. loop your hands under hir wrists, grab your own wrist, and bump hips up violently while thrusting hands up to break opponent's grip on your belt. Allow your arms to continue the circle up, out and down, and whizzer one of the opponent's biceps. (At this juncture, I cautioned Lindsey to make sure to tilt her head to one side while performing this grip break... I have experienced (on both sides of the equation) this type of thing resulting in heads/faces clunking together with much force!)


Turn, bring foot over, omoplata. I continue to struggle a bit with getting to a sitting position and rearranging my legs. Jamie was using a little kick to boost himself up, but I didn't get enough time to play with emulating that tonight. Next
 time. Another improvement opportunity: I am now consistently remembering that I need to grab the belt to keep the guy from rolling out, but I still need to perfect the timing of switching the grips. I showed the Lindsey the "Cindy variation" to finishing the omoplata, where you loop your arms under the neck and crank that up while you are levering the arm up. (Ow.)


Some positional training from closed guard and then side control, rotating partners. I have been noticing anew his week how badly I suck at getting out of closed guard and side control. I think that in the last several months, I have been better at attempting to not end up there in the first place (good!), but that also means that I haven't been working on the skill deficiency in that area (bad!).


Whew. I am quite exhausted. I could almost have fallen asleep on the way home.