More Laziness

Last night started off well enough. Did a fancy drill involving inverted weaves through and around a standing partner's legs. Tough to describe but it made me TIRED.

Rolls were terrible. Just terrible. Got a Brown, Blue, and White. Spent almost the entire time defending back attacks with all opponents. Successfully survived the Blue and White. Brown caught me a couple times. Arm bar and bow/arrow, both from back.

Recognized opportunities to recover guard from turtle but was too lazy to try. Had a couple chances to pass guard but instead allowed the other guy to stand up and push me on my back. Only positive outcomes from the night included a nice sweep off a pass (Brown) and a back escape to side control to technical mount combo (Blue). The White Belt was all over the place. He flailed quite a bit, but managed to pass guard, get my back, mount...all over me. I just defended/survived and moved on. Guess I wasn't in the mood to deal with it.

Won't train tomorrow. Golf with my brother before he deploys for 7mos. Next training likely Tuesday morning.

Lazy / Hurt Grappling

I must be a bad training partner. Seems I get hurt and/or complain about one injury or another every time I'm on the mat. (This time it's a dislocated pinky toe. The other one...). I'm also a lazy grappler. Passing guard is too tiring so I get stuck "trying" to pass in the rare event that I find myself on top. Problem is, often I'm not really trying to pass; I frequently stall and sometimes give up a sweep or roll back into guard where I'm more comfortable.

I'm also far far too comfortable in turtle or when someone has my back. I feel safe there and to do anything that requires too much energy. I can't help but think that my training partners, many of whom spend 50-75% of each round trying to deal with my turtle while I stall, are beginning to take notice.

I'm in a rut. I don't want to be "that guy", but I can't seem to muster the mental toughness that it's going to take to pull myself out.


Oh! Shout out to Megan of Tangled Triangle and her recent interview of my Professor Saulo Ribeiro. Great post Megan!

Starting from Standing

2hrs of semi-open mat on Friday. A few 8min rounds followed by sparring from stand up. Finished with a few more 5-6min rounds. For the stand up portion, Professor Saulo would call up two to spar for about 3mins. The rest of us watched. I got two rounds, each with a smaller Blue. Got a few takedowns, including a double leg and drop seoi nage. The rest was pretty sloppy sparring. I attacked a kimura from north south, lost the position but tried to switch to an arm bar...ended up under side control then mount. Sloppy... Second round I mounted but couldn't finish. The experience was fantastic. Hope to start from standing more.

Tapped...a lot

Great to be back on the mats again. Been healing for 2.5 weeks. I'd say the neck is 80% range of motion with most pain gone. Warm up went well. Managed 20 regular push ups in a row. I think thats a record. The PT has been paying off. Also hand stand walked half way across the mats. Another first. Technique wasa new half guard pass. Had trouble implementing in live sparring. 5 minute rounds. Professor Saulo was merciful tonight. But the short rounds allowed me to roll a lot. I think I had 5 maybe 6 rounds. Tapped a ton tonight. Got some tough guys. Two recently promoted Purples, a couple Blues who give me trouble. Tapped to an RNC, bow and arrow, gullotine, another choke (I don't know what it was but it sucked). One White. Went light with him.

Got selected fora jury. That's gonna impact my training schedule. Will try to make it Friday night. Saturday for sure.

Another Neck Injury

But this time a bit different. No numbness. All pain and extremely limited range of motion. Almost like whiplash. Couldn't turn or move my head without pain for several days. It's gradually easing. I've been off the mats since last Saturday. Missed American Nationals this past weekend. Hoping to train again for the first time next Tuesday. How'd it happen? In a nutshell...a Purple spazzed on me. I had him locked in a triangle. He stacked. Instead of twisting or posturing he decided to front roll. Huh? It was so quick I couldn't get my head out of the way for a proper back roll. Instead by neck/head cranked down into my body. I ended up on top with mounted triangle. No clue why he thought a front roll was a good idea. Makes no sense.

Training had gone very well between my last post and the injury. I felt ready for Nationals. Cardio was good (enough). Strength, check. Aches and pains, minimal. I even trained a couple days at Paragon Santa Barbara while traveling for work. (The Paragon experience was great BTW. If ever in Santa Barbara, be sure to visit.)

When I do make it back on the mats, I'll take it slowly at first and begin prep for the Louisiana Open on November 4th. Just have to figure out how to stay healthy.

2.5hrs

...is a lot of mat time for a day. Saturday started with an hour of self defense (dbl/single leg stuffs and guard pull to punch survival and space creation) and ended with 1.5 hrs of almost continuous open mat training. I lost track of all the 6min rounds. Had a couple solid rounds with two different Browns. Both a couple years older and a little lighter. Survived and escaped several back attcks. Got a few sweeps and even a couple guard passes. Finished a couple Blues. But...got worked over pretty good by a White. I didn't tap, but I was on defense the whole time. Couldn't finish another White who had only been training a month or so. All around a very good session though.

At a work conference in Santa Barbara this week. Hope to make 2 classes at Paragon before heading to NOLA this weekend. Nationals the next weekend. I hear the Master Blue brackets should be quite full. Should be interesting.

Almost a month?

Wowzers. It's been almost a month since my last post. Where did the time go? I've been training. Missed a week due to a cold, but on the mats ~4x per week the rest of the time. Progress is slow, but I do feel like I'm improving. Especially with butterfly sweeps, x-guard, and combos. Had several smooth transitions from sweep to pass to submission lately. Even a nice x-pass to knee on belly to arm bar on a Purple last week. Working a lot from side control lately. Got tapped by a White last week too...(kimura)...so hey...I guess it all balances out. My endurance is getting better. I'm able to train longer without break than I was a month ago. But I'm still lazy on top. Very lazy. I can't count how many times I swept to top and gave up the position to rest on my back and sweep again because I was too tired to work the top game. I'm also working on sweeps that get me past guard. Sweep to side or mount in particular. IWhy gas trying to pass guard if I can sweep to side or mount? Lame...but I rationalize it like this: If I am in guard...I gas...If I gas...I have to sit out...If I sit out...I train less. So? If I give up top position and allow the sweep or reversal...I get to work bottom...the more chances I have to sweep to side or mount...sweep to side or mount and I don't gas...don't gas and I can train more. Make sense? Maybe not, but it's my game lately.

Sites set on American Nationals in a couple weeks. I'm training at Paragon Santa Barbara next week while at a conference and at NOLA BJJ next weekend while on a mini-vacation. Get to see a live UFC fight too. And...there's a chance Wanderlei Silva will hold a seminar at NOLA BJJ while I'm there. That should be fun.