- 8/5/12 – Sunday
- Keystone games tournament 2 regular matches and 2 “ne waza tournament” matches
- 8/612 – Monday
- Kettlebells Hard workout
The Week in Training 8/5/12 – 8/11/12
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The Week in Training 7/29/12 – 8/4/12
- 7/29/12 – Sunday
- Taught Judo – Covered basic grip fighting and discussed basics of competition with the white and yellow belts. Also recapped the Kashiwazaki turnover for Ne Waza.
- 7/30/12 – Monday
- Kettlebells at the Weston good but not great workout incuding 2 new exercises I liked, the squat drop and the Gauntlet drop.
- Taught Fundamentals
- Taught BJJ
- Taught Judo
- 8/1/12 – Wednesday
- Did BJJ at Mainline United – Taught Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi and did multiple training sets.
- 8/2/12 – Thursday
- Taught fundamentals
- Taught BJJ
- 8/4/12 – Saturday
- Taught fundamentals
- Taught BJJ
The X-Guard module
I began the X-guard module in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I will be covering various aspects of the position, entries, variations etc. for the next few weeks in BJJ. I have been a big fan of the position for years. I find the hardest part is getting people to trust the position and force their way there. I’m going to incorporate a lot of positional training into the classes for the next few weeks.
I worked hard to get them to understand the differences and benefits of using the correct leg for the sweep for the first position. This is always a struggle as it’s a little counter intuitive, but, I beat the concept into them for the whole class and corrected it whenever i saw the mistake. we will have to see if it stuck. I will get to number three tonight. I expect to keep revisiting the earlier sweep as we go.
Judo was very good. I revisited Harai Goshi. The class had a lot of bodies in it. I wish i could extend the room another 20 feet. When we get to randori with this many people I could use the space. I hate having anyone sit out, but safety has to come first.
The Week in Training 7/22/12 – 7/28/12
- 7/22/12 – Sunday – no training – in New York
- 7/23/12 – Monday
- Kettlebells at the Weston – Very good workout, lot of cardio to go with the strength training.
- Taught Fundamentals – Several new prospective students. Covered Half guard reversal and Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi
- Taught BJJ – The first class on the X-Guard module. Cobvered techniques 1 and 2.
- Taught Judo – covered Harai Goshi
- 7/26/12 – Thursday
- Taught Fundamentals
- Taught BJJ – recapped X-Guard #1 & 2 and introduced 3a and 3b.
- Taught Judo – Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi
- 7/27/12 – Friday
- BJJ training at the Weston. We had an odd number so had to sit out some sets. ended up with 4 sets of 6 each. Solid training.
- 7/28/12 – Saturday
- Taught Fundamentals – I did the July promotion for the students.
- Taught BJJ – Brief recap on X-guard # 1 and introduced 4a and 4b. Submission training
The Week in Training 7/15/12 – 7/21/12
- 7/15/12 Sunday
- Taught Kettlebells
- Taught Judo – Seoi Nage, Drop Seoi Nage and the Kouchi Gari – Seoi Nage combination.
- 7/13/12 Monday
- Kettlebells at the Weston
- Taught Fundamentals -Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi, Choke defense
- Taught BJJ – Bull Pass, Short intro to scissor sweep by request
- Attended Judo – Taught by Isidore. he covered Harai Goshi.
- 7/14/12 Tuesday
- Intro seminar for South Philly High students (Judo, BJJ, and Self Defense)
- BJJ class at BJJ United – covered Ouchi Gari, and Butterfly sweep (roll underneath like an Oma Plata of the unposted leg), four 6 minute sets
- 7/15/12 Thursday
- Taught fundamentals – Hip throw defense to the over the arms grab, bottom half-guard reversal and Sasae Tsukrikomi Ashi
- Taught BJJ – head control half guard pass – 3 good 6 minute sets
- Taught Judo – broke class up with black belts working with lower ranks on Uchi Mata and their Tokui Waza
- 7/16/12 Friday
- Weston lunch training six-6 minute sets.
- 7/17/2012 Saturday
- Was supposed to be out for Saturday in New York but Beth got me to her gym for a tough leg day workout.
The Week in training for 7/8/12-7/14/12
Part of what i want to do here is keep track of how often I’m training and what is covered in the class. I think I’m going to start a list of each week to help me keep track of what I’m doing. This is outside of a more expansive discussion of particular classes. I’m going to go back to last week and start from there.
- 7/8/12 – Sunday – Taught judo
- 7/9/12- Monday
- Kettlebells at the Weston.
- Taught Fundamentals
- Taught BJJ – Covered Guard recovery and bailing to the Turtle to avoid the pass.
- Taught Judo
- 7/10/12 Tuesday
- BJJ at The Weston – Five 6 minute sets.
- 7/11/12 Wednesday
- Second Wednesday Randori at Osagame. matwork as well as randori training
- 7/12/12 Thursday
- Taught Fundamentals
- Taught BJJ Covered the applicability of standing up in base to First X guard and deep half guard technique. Introduced elements of the bull pass.
- Taught Judo
- 7/13/12 Friday
- BJJ at the Weston. Five 6 minute sets
- 7/14/12 Saturday
- Taught Fundamentals
- Taught BJJ – Revisited Monday night guard recovery and pass avoidance class. continued with elements of the Bull pass.
Monday Kettlebell workout
Had a good workout at the Weston. We did a good warmup mostly just movement, but it got you loose. then a 2 handed swing protocol. one of swings interspersed with one minute of hindu pushups. The swings featured 3 regular weight sets, one very heavy set and a light set. the heavy set was to be the heaviest weight you could get 5 swings and then rest and do it again. i went heavy but not as heavy as that as i was concerned about my back. but I did go to a heavy bell and went the whole minute.
Then we did 7 “lawnmowers” left, and right, 7 – 2 handed cleans mixed with 7 hindu pushups, which made a set. we did 3 sets.
Then we did 7 Renegade rows with each hand and with the support hand over the heavy bell combined with 7 squat thrusts. This made a set we did three sets. Pretty fatigued at the end, but just what i needed.
Full classes and the impact
The Monday night Judo class has been very full lately and the Sunday class has been nearly as big, The last few months we are likely averaging 16 participants or so. This of course is fantastic, the downside is the room gets a bit crowded.This creates a couple of problems. the most important one is people who are ready for Randori, have to sit out sets. I usually rest volunteers first then lower ranks rest rather than higher ranks. We are doing extra sets so, everyone is getting plenty of randori each class.
The impact is on the time we have for Ne Waza. I used to split the classes evenly between Tachi Waza and Ne Waza. This led to very skilled mat work players in the Judo club. Our standup was also good, but our matwork really stood out. This was partially due to the facility where we trained we were constrained on the amount of time we could do stand up and this had a very negative impact on the club as a whole and the stand up skills of the individuals. Now the stand up is getting better and better. But, I need to find more time for Ne Waza. I have been encouraging the Judo students to make some time to add a BJJ class as this would do a lot to alleviate the problem we are having with limited Ne Waza time.
From my own perspective, I have always believed that the instructor should be the one who sits in favor of the students, so I’m not getting as much randori as I want or need, but, I think I may start making sure I get plenty on Thursdays. It’s our lightest class right now in terms of attendance so I have to make sure I get my sets in then.
The other issue with the very full room, is we have been seeing more and more wall crashes. The walls that have not yet has the wall pads put up, have been taking a beating. This came to a head on Monday when there were several big holes and dents in the sheet rock. So I called in some help and we got wall mats up on the whole place. there are a few corners where we haven’t mats to put up, but all of the walls that are realistically in play are covered. this doesn’t solve space issues but, the place looks great and is safer. All in all having a lot of people in class is a good problem to have.
The weekend of training
I don’t always get to train as often as i would like anymore. I have family obligations that often come first and my obligations as an instructor make my focus on improving my students at Osagame and the Philadelphia Judo Club, rather than working on my own game. That being said, I still have a few projects in the back of my head.
I’m working on a no hand in kata guruma, that feels pretty good to me so far. It tends to work best from a right on left or left on right stance. It has a long way to go, but, I think it could be a technique that I integrate into my game. By doing so, i will have a new technique to teach the students. Right now, I’m just discovering it enough to begin to make it work and it’s no where near ready to be shared with the class.
The new open mat training class on Friday gave me some time to work on it, while my family was away for the weekend. Spending some time playing with techniques, drilling them and working with some of the other participants is fun and very instructive. It’s good to just grab a body and do my work.
After the class, I went with Lex and we watched the 2011 101 Ippons DVD. It’s always an eye opener to see how truly amazing Judo can look when it’s palyed at the highest level. It also gave me my ground work project. There were some brilliant attacks using a modification of a clock choke and what we normally call a Mickey Matsumoto roll. I want to get this back into my game as the roll was one of the staples in my ground work attack and this variation will be fun for all of us.
The BJJ United In House Tournament
The team went up to BJJ United to the In house tournament this pat Saturday. I was happy with our performance overall. We brought 6 competitors. and several supporters including one of the two brown belts who competed and the only woman competitor. I was a little disappointed some of the other clubs from the area who are affiliated with BJJ United weren’t represented. It would have been good to see the coaches and to see more competitors. Other than that it was a great experience.
I personally am a big fan of the In house tournament format. It gives a low stress, low expense way for less experienced competitors to get some good matches. While the players are from the same team, there is enough rivalry that the level of play will be high and the competition will be fierce. I competed with my brother several times in Open rank Purple belt divisions at In-House tournaments, and we fought as hard as we did at any other event.
Joy, unfortunately didn’t get to compete, but, she was ready and is excited to try the next BJJ event. she may not have had a chance to compete, but, going through the preparation process was very good for her. Eric lost his brown belt match to a very good competitor. But, it was good as he and I both saw some things we need to work on and every match against a skilled upper rank helps you improve for the important events.
the two blue belts who competed, Craig and Peter, are both over 45 and relatively new Blue belts. The divisions were all adult divisions, so there was no Masters. They both played hard and did some very good things. Craig placed third and went 2 and 1, He learned he desperately needs to improve his takedown game as he is a monster on top but isn’t as strong at the takedown part as he needs to be. His loss came from a guard jump though. The other player was very long and went to a choke from the closed guard and kept Craig’s head down. He tapped and actually went out as he tapped. This is the best case for an event like this. He learned some vital things to work on both that he does well and needs to do better. Peter played pretty well, but, ran out of gas against the young guys. He was armlocked in a Kimura from the bottom, that we need to practice defending. IN the second match he actually controlled the action and was winning. He scored a takedown and a guard pass, then was swept. He swept back with a good half guard reversal, just as we practiced, then he was swept back again. He was up 7-4 with a minute to go. He fought off the second hook on the back take until 10 seconds to go, when the second hook made it in and he lost 8-7. The key moment in the match was when he defended a triangle. He defended it well, and was attacking it with the choke, just as we practiced. He almost tapped the guy but didn’t secure the pass. If he had he would have been up 10-2 and in side control and he would have almost certainly won.
The two white belts Pablo and Adrian competed and did great. Pablo wrecked the two white belts in his division, going up by double digits and then tapping them. I was happy he pulled guard. It showed good strategy and he executed his game plan well. He fought an open weight open rank division. He was 165 and fought a huge blue belt. He reversed the guy after his guard pull, but failed to hold him down, when the other guy powered him off. He went for an armlock and had a great position, seriously threatening the blue belt, who defended by attacking the choke . Pablo kept attacking the armlock until he went to sleep and showed great heart and technical ability.
Adrian did well also. He crushed his first opponent, with a takedown, guard pass and then an Americana from side control. He was doing well in the second match after scoring a takedown. He defended a triangle, but stepped over his opponent when he stayed too high and let the guy get under his hips. he was swept and then passed and lost on points. In the open division he he took down his opponent, a blue belt, then passed him and tapped him with an Americana. He fought an excellent purple next, who would win the event. He was swept and then on the run for 4.5 minutes before he was tapped. This was pretty good actually as all the rest of the Purple’s matches were faster taps.
All in all, it was a good event, that only needed some more competitors to be even better. Good to see Jared, Steve, Wilson and the BJJ United guys. everyone fought hard and did things well, but we all have things to do better. Looking forward to the next one.