Loose...(Day Class)

At The End Of Class

Coach Jon and Me

Me One Mo 'Gin

Coach Allen Mohler and I After Class (Great Instructor and Friend)

The Problem A Lot Of Folks Seem To Have That Have Issue With Me....
If You Ain't Around For Good, Then Why are You Here?

Went in to day class today at lunchtime with the intent of working some new things I've added to my game...also to gauge where my cardio/arm and back problems/mental focus issues are...

Soon as I walk in..one of the guys (he will be out at Pan Ams too), a good buddy named Dallas, says "Didn't I read someplace the other night about over-training?" lol..so some more folks are reading this...lol good to know...Anyways I laugh and shrug it off and go get changed...

When I come out Coach is showing an arm bar to oma plata reversal...I warm up a bit with jumping jacks, sprawls, and push ups...then get in...

By the way, I love this class as there are always a couple of black belts, purples and a brown or two sprinkled in, so the rolling is great, as a general rule it's safe, and it gives me different and more difficult looks at opponents as I don't roll with the day crew often...

anyway...I get in and immediately went to work...started on my left side as it is my retarded side (oops..can i say that? is that PC? eff it if it ain't)...and for some reason each time I can get it correctly but the little scoop and lift hip-wise wasn't tight enough to my partner's body so when the reversal happened I wasn't close enough to move smoothly to a triangle or arm bar set up...something i will have to work harder on....had coach Jon (He will be competing in th Black Belt division at Pan Ams!) working with me so little pointers were passed along constantly....another reason i like to come to day class ....

next we worked a specific guard break (not saying which b/c I have gotten really good at it, as well as transitioning to the pass and will probably use it at Pan Ams)....because I have this one down..worked with coach allen and jon on different modifications of it depending upon the opponents movements and hand placements, as well as shutting this particular guard break/pass down...

since I was late to class, this was the last technique we had before rolling....so i get paired up with coach jon....i have a good weight advantage on him but he is so crafty and good at pretty much everything it's hard to handle the constant pressure he presents in his attacks....
We start standing...i work on my judo throws and leg sweeps, which need WORK...they are good but not good enough for black belt level stand up and the amount of take down/wrestling experience he has...he sets me up for a couple of single leg shots...and i keep my balance and actually see and react to counter them ahead of time...so these are something I can put in my tool box...i end up pulling guard and try to work an open guard butterfly over the head sweep, but we get stopped as coach Allen wanted me to work on not allowing grips on my wrists...i learn a new way to do this that's so simple it's silly...jon and i start standing again..i alllllllmost get him with a hip toss...but i telegraphed it just enough he countered and went to my back...b/c i was standing straight up...he couldn't hop up and i worked my standing back escape...back to neutral..so i decide to fake an inside leg trip and go to pull guard again...i get it and we start to work...i go to inside out guard (one leg in as in butterfly guard and one out) and he goes to the pass which i've been working on the counter to...it works...but i end up making a mistake and going flat for jsut a second and end up scrambling for my life as coach jon transitions from attempting kneebar to ankle lock to toe hold in about five seconds...good thing is i remembered the counters and executed without thinking...bad thing is even though i escaped we ended up both on our backs (dunno how) and we end up standing as round ends....

We work again from standing and I work a really slick new set up to get from someone with knee in the middle to high guard and i actually get it...but when i extended to shoot the high guard holding the arm, jon torqued his torso to get the arm back and postured causing a rib to pop out of place for a sec...sorry coach jon..he is a warrior though so he wil be fine soon..just want him to be ok to compete...

Next i work with one of our purples who's been there for a long time...he probably outweighs me by about 15-20 lbs and while he doesn't attack a whole lot he has such solid and strong defense that a lot of what he catches folks with, he gets because hid defense is frustrating...this is a good test because his experience level (he has a few years on me) and weight is what I will be competing against at Pan Ams...As we start he wants to start in my guard...i say ok as I needed to work a variation to the high guard set up i described above which goes to triangle..and he says "i want to see if i can keep from getting triangled"....if you know me, that's like chum in the water...so we work and he goes for lapel control after i keep stuffing his attempts to control my belt/pants for spacing my guard....and i use the set up to perfection....(mind you this is after quite a bit of in-fighting for grips and attempts on breaking his base down which had me really tired and my arms going dead finally...)i shoot the triangle really fast and had to still maneuver him back to a position I could tighten it as I could not reach my shin, because of him being as big as he is and basing backward from me...but I pull the knees in...and grab his belt and pull until i can grab the shin and his far leg, and roll him into the tap...


by now, my cardio itself is ok...i feel like my body could go another 7 to 8 full matches (the ones today were 8 min)...but my arms now are dead...and im getting cramps in my damned foot...

anyways...coach puts me with another of our purple belts..a guy that is fairly new to the school but his technique is really good, and he is a former Pan American champion...so, coach allen wants me to work on passing his guard..here's where the title of this post comes in...even though i have size and have worked very efficiently to do my grind/under/over pass on him before..today...i can't hold and keep him close enough to even get to his lapel...can't give up though..so i keep working and discipline my mind to make my body move correctly..but in addition to him being very flexible and working really hard to keep me at a distance...me not being able to control my grips and bring my weight to bear in a close fashion just shut everything down so no matter where i went..i was too loose to pass effectively...he ends up trying to reverse to a take down which i stuffed a few times and we ended up rolling into a stalemate...i wasn't happy with my performance here...he is a very good opponent and fights hard as hell...but my technique was off..way off, and i have to correct that mentally so i can overcome my physical limitations if i can't rid myself of them...only good thing is...i do know there are places i could have fallen into my set ups and transitions to submissions and had them work without my arms ...but i did not get the job accomplished which was to pass...will correct that...

After class...I got one of the best compliments I could ever have...I normally talk to the new people who come to class..especially those who are especially small, or not as coordinated, or who seem to have problems up front, as the first year or so of jiu-jitsu beats you down physically, but much more so mentally...So the other day while watching class I was talking to a couple guys and two of the girls in class...one of which is very new...telling them what to expect and trying to encourage them (and i wasn't b.s.ing them...from watching them they do have promise...they just have to see it) on sticking to it through the hard times to come....blah blah...y'all see i'm longwinded as hell huh? lol
Anyways...at the end of class...she tells me thank you for the talk i gave her, as it kept her motivated and made her believe more that she could do it! That meant a LOT to me...Hopefully she does stick to it, along with a couple other new folks I try to help out, and they become as good as they can!...Felt good to make a difference positively to someone...So even though i was very frustrated with being so loose in my own travels...I helped tighten up someone else's...God is good you know:)...


Thought Of the Day: Psalms 27:2