Cooper v. Schembri

Incredible match last weekend in San Clemente, CA.

Motivating and de-motivating at the same time. Motivating because...well...did you watch that match? Are you kidding me? A bit de-motivating because I know I will never move like that.

5:45 to 7p

5:45-5:50p: Had to put out a fire at work just as I was about to leave for class. 15 minutes late. Hmmpfff. I need to warm up. They must have had a long warm-up because they were still doing core work when I stepped on the mat and joined them for stretches.

5:50-6p: Sweep / pass the guard. Mike (Purple) swept me with ease. Posture. He said I was too high. Weak. He had been down for 3 rounds so he let me take his spot. Andy (Brown) stepped in. Great... He's just another guy in class, right? I did surprisingly well. Knocked him off balance a bit when he attempted his first guard break. I'd say I almost swept him but that would be stretching things just a bit. Ha. He changed tactics and broke the guard. I switched to open guard (modified spider). Andy let me play for a lot longer than I thought he would. He finally passed with a slick leg/hip flick from stand up to pass my last hook.

6-6:30p: Technique. Review. Side control to technical mount to s-mount to arm bar. Then two choke options from mount. Standard palm up / palm up choke. Then a palm up / palm down option if opponent defends the first grip. Good to see these again for a second time in such a short span.

6:30-7p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Crowded mats tonight. Groups of 3 with one sitting out to watch out for collisions. Steve (White Belt) and Lance (first day guy) in my group. Steve and I went first. Passed guard and got swept. Got stuck in half guard. I mean stuck. Almost got a sweep once, but no go. Stuck.

Lance stepped into my guard. Lance is a big older guy (40s?) and seemed to want to brawl. Spent a few minutes defending an onslaught of gi choke attempts from within my guard. Nothing too threatening, but he is very strong and persistent. Transitioned to set up arm bar attempts several times, but he was moving so fast I couldn't control anything. Finally got my chance when he stood up and leaned in to get the gi choke. Arched off the upper back/shoulder and shot the arm bar...and let one go in the process...Georgette style. I'd never done that in class before. I got the tap, but it was a bit embarrassing. Also implemented a technique of the day (side control to arm bar from s-mount). I could tell Lance thoroughly enjoyed himself. He asked for my number and said he'd be back. Nice!

Rolled with Steve again before calling it a night. Much better this time. Actually worked my way out of half guard. One of Saulo's sweeps from Revolution 1. I'll likely continue to explore that sweep when working with Steve. I need to avoid deep half a bit longer and work that technique with smaller and/or less experienced training partners until I can figure out what I'm doing wrong that makes it so easy for him to cross face and put me flat on my back. Also got a front gi choke from closed guard, but only because Steve made a silly mistake (he won't make it again). I was far more pleased with the half guard sweep.

Matt's Birthday Present

Apparently this was a Blue Belt's gift via a wicked spider guard. I've had my share of bruises, but nothing like this. As Saulo says in Revolution 1, "You no want to hurt your training partner. Your training partner should be your best friend. You no want to hurt him" (paraphrased of course...).

5:45 to 8:45p

5:45-6p: Stretched. Left shoulder felt horrible all day. Woke up this morning in some of the worst shoulder pain I've ever felt. Fortunately it subsided a bit as the day wore on. Maybe it had something to do with my nightmare last night. Dreamed I was leading warm-ups in a living room of an old Uptown New Orleans bar with couches and other lounge furniture in the middle. At first, I had five or six white belts warming up with me. Upper belts were standing off to the side. The white belts slacked off one by one until I was the only one jogging. I got a bit peeved and said something to a blue belt who seemed pleased that the white belts weren't going along with my warm up. I think it was Koscheck actually. He mouthed off. I went crying to Professor Matthias who was putting up Christmas lights. Matthias said he had my back. Next thing I know it's morning and my shoulder was absolutely killing me.

6-7p: Self defense. Worked street-fight mount maintenance drills. Basically techniques you can use to secure the position against a flailing guy with little to no jiu jitsu. Then worked a maintenance technique for skilled practitioners. Not really grapevines, but use the leg hooks against back of hamstring and drive waist to chest into opponent to create a tremendous amount of pressure. Then worked a transition to technical mount and take the back if person on bottom turns onto side or starts to roll over. Finished up with proper technique to sink and maintain both hooks and taking the back with a mata-leon / RNC finish. Learned a lot from the hook maintenance technique. Big Steve (White Belt) was my training partner and I had serious problems breaking his hooks when he sunk them properly. He had similar issues with mine. Solid. Now I have to figure out how to counter.

7-7:10p: Warm -up / standard drills. Short and sweet.

7:10-7:20p: Sweep / pass the guard. Got swept a couple times. Didn't have a legitimate guard pass, but a couple upper belts who had been in bottom for a while gave up their position and let me work from the bottom. Collin (Brown Belt) passed my guard with ease. Probably 10 seconds. Geez. Got a nice sweep though on a White Belt who tried to implement the basic GB guard break technique.

7:20-7:30p: Take down drills. Tried to take Charlie (Purple Belt). Not a very good showing. He got his hips close and under mine with an underhook and a belt grip before tripping a leg. Nice. Need to work the stand up more. Only attempted the one take down. Too much shoulder pain.

7:30-8p: Technique. Professor Marco showed a side control maintenance to choke from knee on belly using a gi lapel. I've only had one submission involving a loose gi lapel and that happened by accident. The thought that I can use someone's loose lapel as a weapon rarely if ever occurs to me during a roll. But I could see myself trying this technique some time. Professor Doc Eddie showed a variation that leads to a step over choke.

8-8:35p: Rolls. 3 rounds at 5-6 minutes each with plenty of time between rounds. Got Rusty (Brown Belt), first-day 18 yr old with a name too difficult to pronounce, and Patrick (Blue Belt). Bonus after-class roll with Dr. Steve (Blue Belt). Shoulder pain was intense before the training rounds, but the pain declined with the rise in adrenaline. Had a couple submissions tonight. The first was against the new guy. It was his first day and he was completely spazzing and using a ton of muscle. Not a small guy either - almost my height and I probably had 10-15lbs on him. Waited patiently. Missed a bunch of opportunities to to control him, but finally got a sweep, established mount, and took my time setting up for an arm bar from technical mount when he rolled to his side. Executed the arm bar very slowly. I normally wouldn't submit someone on their first night, but: (a) he was spazzing; and (b) I enjoyed the challenge of implementing a game of pure technique with little exertion in the face of a spazz onslaught. Got a choke from mount on an upper belt tonight too - a palm up / palm down choke I learned at UNIJJ. Tried it many times, but tonight was the first successful implementation. Got a sweep off a pass and flower sweep on upper belts tonight as well. Kept giving up my back to Rusty. Steve caught me with a triangle /arm bar combo. Not sure if I tapped from the choke or the arm bar or both. Just knew I was kaput. Had a great time though.

8:35-8:45p: Stretched a bit and chatted with Steve.

5 to 7p

Abbreviated post...Matt's birthday dinner at K-Paul's tonight. See Matt below about to open a can of whoop ass on some poor featherweight on Saturday. Happy birthday Matt! It took 36 years, but at 37 with one tourney under your White Belt, you're finally a man.

5-5:30p: Stretched and solo warm-up. Did a bunch of solo drills and some gynastica natural I learned this summer t UNIJJ. Felt good.

5:30-5:45p: Led warm-ups, stretches, and standard drills again. Good, steady pace. Ended exactly at 15minutes. Nice!

5:45-6p: Sweep / pass the guard. Got swept...A lot. Silly stuff really. I'm having serious trouble passing guard. It all comes down to posture issues.

6-6:15p: Technique 1. Side control to mount transition. Great. I learn a few tips yesterday about how to escape side control and Professor Matthias shows everyone how to counter those very same tricks and get to mount. ;-)

6:15-6:30p: Technique 2. Two different chokes from mount. First a fairly standard palm up / palm up and lean forward choke. Second was a Professor special. His go-to choke from mount. If opponent defends the first palm up grip, take a deeper palm down grip on the same side while retaining the initial weak palm up grip. Put your head on the mat to the other side and base out with a leg opposite your head. Then work the palm down grip around the back of head until side of wrist is against neck. Bring both elbows in and move head toward center. I'm not sure I'm ready to try it. It put a tremendous amount of pressure on my wrists and I couldn't maintain a tight grip. Maybe when my wrists are stronger.

6:30-7p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Got the champ, Cleveland (White Belt), Ricky (White Belt), and Steve (White Belt). All great rolls. Some deep half work. Lots of spider guard. Couple sweeps. Got swept a bit. Got to work the side control to mount technique of the day a couple times and had a couple unsuccessful choke attempts (both resulted in upa reversal). Add mount maintenance to my list of serious problems. That said, I was very pleased with the training.

Forgot to stretch. Drats.

5:40 to 8:40p

5:40-6p: Still very sore from the competition, but nothing hurts (as in bad hurt). Stretched and rolled a bit no gi with Paulo. I wasn't prepared for true no gi, so I just went without the top. I'm not sure what belt Paulo is, but I know he's been around a long time. He just hasn't trained gi BJJ since I've been at NOLA BJJ. Although he regularly contributes to the NOLA BJJ forum, I only met him in person Saturday.

Paulo caught me in an arm bar from an odd position (turtle-esque). Actually, I tapped before he actually got the arm bar. He could have had a kimura as well, but I wasn't going to mess with it. He had me. Kaput. I managed to avoid a number of choke attempts, including what he called a Peruvian necktie. I'll have to look that up. No clue what that is. Good time though and I worked up a good sweat before my weekly private with Gavin.

6-7p: Private with Gavin turned out to be a 2-for-1 deal. Gavin's brother Collin (Brown Belt) helped out since Gavin was his ride. We worked side control survival postures and escapes. Discovered a couple fatal flaws in my escape from a tight cross-face gable grip. First mistake I'd been making = I thought I had to bring my inside arm all the way down to the mat. They explained how it was more important that I keep the frame on the hip. If I can do that with my elbow on the mat, fine. But if not, so long as the hip is blocked, I should be fine. Second mistake I'd been making is I would bring my outside arm up and around the face to create a frame for the escape. Collin showed how exposed that left me to americana and arm triangle attacks. He showed a tighter way to obtain the same position. From here, Gavin showed how to use the frame to create the space, hip escape, and insert the knee for guard recovery. Collin showed how to flair the outside elbow to create extra leverage and space. The focused demonstration of these nuances was very helpful and should made a big difference. We also reviewed a running escape and a shin pressure break of another common side control position (not sure what's it's called and I'm too lazy to attempt to describe it). Also reviewed underhook to elevator and take down or guard recovery. Good stuff. Gavin and Collin are great instructors and their styles are very complementary.

7-7:20p: Professor Matthias asked me to lead warm-ups. Did the standard stuff, although I felt like it was taking longer than a usual warm-up. Rushed through the stretches. Helped a new guy (Wes) with hip shrimps.

7:20-7:30p: Sit-ups from guard pull position. I sat out and chatted with Wes and two other new guys (Ahmed and...Suleman? Can't recall for sure). Then worked a leap frog drill with Wes.

7:30-7:40p: Sweep / pass the guard. Patrick (Blue Belt) and Chris (Blue Belt) swept me. Almost passed Patrick's guard with the technique Marco showed at the seminar last weekend, but I didn't deal with his left foot before stepping into the pass. Got swept. Chris swept me in no time. Posture...posture...posture...

7:40-8p: Technique. Side control escapes from cross-face/cradle. First was standard and the same basic technique I worked on during the private. Steve (White Belt) and I worked the techniques with Ahmed and Wes. Professor Matthias taught a variation that creates an arm bar opportunity on each arm. It looked awesome, but Steve and I didn't get to work it since we were working with the new guys. Last technique was an underhook to knees/elevator to side control. Key detail involved catching the opponent's foot before driving from elevator.

8-8:30p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Good amount of time between rolls. Got Chris (Blue Belt), Ahmed (first day guy) and Dr. Steve (Blue Belt). Had a fantastic time with Chris. Lots of small movements for position with an occasional blast of technical transitions and reversals. I took technical mount at one point and forced Chris turtle a bit later, but attacking from those positions didn't last long. Survived and we were both breathing pretty good afterward.

Roll with Dr. Steve was great too, but we were both pretty tired at that point. Had a nice sweep off a pass, but he recovered full guard just like Henry did at the tourney. I'm supposed to land in knee on belly or side control from that sweep. Will have to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Stuck in half guard for a while. A bunch of turtling. Steve got a nice sweep to mount. I think it was a hip-bump. Spent too much time finding off a kimura from north-south. Steve could have forced a break to apply the kimura, but he gave it up and stopped the roll. I could tell he was exhausted. With a little over a minute remaining, we decided to start from stand up. He almost caught me with a judo throw. We ended the roll with me in his guard.

I should have allowed my training partners to pass to side control so I could work the techniques of the day - especially after my private. I need to be more disciplined about steering my training rolls toward the technique of the day. It's incredibly difficult to implement when the technique is a submission. But when the technique involves escapes from side control, I have no excuse. I can almost always allow side control and work escapes from inferior position.

8:30-8:40p: Chatted with our three new guys a bit. I explained that they'd likely be very sore tomorrow, but they shouldn't be discouraged. I hope they come back. Almost walked out the door and I remembered to stretch. Small victories are always nice.

First Tournament: Recap

Gracie Barra Southeast Regional Compnet held in New Orleans yesterday. My first tournament and I went in knowing that I won just by showing up because, in BJJ like many other things in life, To Play is to Win. Congrats to all my NOLA BJJ teammates for a job well done. Competitors will take a new energy and confidence into their training and will make the academy better for the experience.

I registered as a Master (30-35 yrs old) White Belt, Heavy Division (195-207.5). Weighed in at 205.2lbs. The tourney organizers put me and a Senior Heavy (36+) in the Adult Division (18-29) to make 5 total competitors, 2 of which (Henry Marrion and Cleveland Johnson) are from NOLA BJJ and I know well. We all competed Gi and No Gi. Well...No Gi sort of. For some reason they made everyone where gi pants and we were allowed to grip the pants. No clue why.

First...the results: Silver Gi and Silver No Gi. Won 3 and lost both finals to Cleveland Johnson. Cleveland's a monster of a man (~6'3" and 8-9% body fat) and one of the nicest training partners. Dominating performances. I couldn't be happier for him.

With Professor Matthias

Hardware notwithstanding, the matches weren't pretty. Frankly, I was lucky to make the finals. Made many mistakes and found myself on defense a lot. Rarely on the attack. Frequently in turtle. Friends took video, but the matches aren't very entertaining. I've posted them for posterity and so that one day when I'm much better I can look back and see how much I've improved (And how much my butt shrinks. These vids prove my arse is huge and I can easily lose another 15lbs to make Medium-Heavy by the next tourney.).

Gi match #1 vs. NOLA BJJ training partner Henry Marrion. The match was very close. Henry's strong, fast, and knows some Judo. Gameplan = pull guard. The successful guard pull was enough to settle nerves. That led to a Sweep off a Pass. Henry did an excellent job establishing guard after the sweep. That sweep usually lands me in side control. I attempted a pass that Professor Marco taught at last week's pre-tourney seminar, but Henry countered well and reversed. He pressed hard for a pass and got to half guard. A failed deep half sweep left me in turtle. Rolled from turtle to recover guard, but almost got passed. Thank goodness for half guard. Eeked out the win, 2-0.

Gi semi-final against an opponent from another school. I never got his name. 2 points on the take down Gavin taught last week. Landed in guard. Opponent had a weak guillotine but let go: (a) it was weak to begin with; and (b) for some reason White Belts weren't allowed to guillotine at this tourney. Had posture problems the entire time in his guard. Finally got the break and almost passed, but opponent recovered nicely. Finally got the pass. Video shows my hips were WAY too high for too long. Part of the reason was the attempted bait for a step over choke. But that only explains part of the problem. Opponent had a nice bridge and reversed. I bailed to turtle and he started to attack the back. I defended the hook and choke attempts to keep the points off the board. He transitioned to mount, but didn't have it long enough to get the points. I escaped to his closed guard. Posture busted...again. Geez. Made it to half guard and the time ran out. 5-0 victory.

Final against Cleveland. Cleve had a bye his first round and won his second by submission within a couple minutes. I thought maybe fatigue would be an issue, but it wasn't an issue at all. I could tell from the moment we squared off that he wanted the win...badly. I could see it in his eyes. Fierce. Before the match, Mike (Purple Belt) predicted he'd pull guard. He did. Posture problems at first, but I broke his guard. Cleve immediately switched to attempt a scissor/knee push sweep. I based out well enough and he stood up. I tried to grab a single leg, but he based out and forced me to turtle. Rolled to recover guard, but that failed. Back to turtle. Then defended arm attacks and prevented hooks. Recovered half guard. He went for arm bar. Escaped to his butterfly guard. Butterfly pass attempt failed and Cleve recovered closed guard. My defense of his kimura attempt allowed him to escape to stand up.

Ok... 2:30 seconds in score is 0-0 and we're both standing.

He pulled guard again. Posture a wreck...what's new? Broke guard and Cleve went straight to a scissor / knee push sweep attempt. I countered and almost passed, but he reversed. Hips ended up over his hips and my busted posture led to his sweep to side control. Down 0-5. He attempted a step over choke, but my back was flat and he had nothing. The attempt did force me to turn away from him, since I knew he needed me to turn into him to finish. Cleve responded with knee on my side. The ref gave another 2 pts. Is that right? Doesn't he have to have my back flat on the mat and knee on belly to earn those points? 0-7. He attempted another step over and began to transition to an arm bar. I set up for the arm bar escape and managed to reverse to half guard. Passed to side control. FINALLY some points! 3-7. Secured side control and went for knee on belly. Whoops! Didn't have a chance. Reversed to side control. 3-9. Cleveland wanted to finish! Attacked a kimura from side control. Fortunately my right arm is fairly flexible. I wasn't really threatened and I almost reversed out when the table called time. Congrats Cleveland.

I am so glad I signed up for No Gi at the last minute. After 15 minutes of competition, I wasn't done. With only a single one-hour No Gi class, I didn't know what to expect. I put on my gi shorts only to find out they were making us wear gi pants and our belts. Huh? Seriously? Ok... I was worried that I'd get DQ'd because I'd reflexively grab my opponent's gi pants. Found out only moments before we started that grabbing/holding gi pants was ok. Huh?

I got a bye the first round so I faced PJ Clement, one of Shawn Gayton's students, in the semi-final. Shawn's a NOLA BJJ Purple Belt and MMA fighter who recently started a Gracie Barra academy in Mandeville, LA. After the match, Shawn told me PJ's only been training a couple months. Wow! He did great. Almost caught me in a gator roll choke on my take down attempt. I started gurgling and began to ask myself, "At what point do I need to tap?" Calm down...think... I realized that if I moved to my left it would create a lot of pressure on the right side of my neck but allow blood flow on my left carotid. Once sure I was completely safe I let him continue to crank knowing he had to be expending far more energy attacking than I was defending. He eventually let go. Must have earned an advantage.

I missed an opportunity to cross face and get him flat on his back. You can hear Professor Doc Eddie on the video yelling "Cross face, cross face, cross face!" Of course, I couldn't hear any of that. Shouldn't have needed to though. Somehow managed to force PJ to turtle and the ref (Professor Marco) had us reset. I transitioned to take his back and briefly sunk both hooks. Marco gave me 4 pts. I don't know...did I really have both hooks secured long enough? PJ escaped and next thing I know I'm fighting from my side in open guard, almost half guard-ish. Forced to turtle. Worked out but got rolled into guard. Closed guard and worked to break his posture. PJ eventually broke my guard and stood up. Then...the most awesome move ever. I instinctively transition to spider guard. Almost ended up in disaster. Time called. Ugly 4-0 victory. Had it not been for those two hooks, I probably would have lost by advantage. Perhaps the greatest quote ever caught on camera from a victor's corner - Professor Doc Eddie: "Ok, Rick. No spider guard in No Gi." Hilarious.

Faced Cleveland in the final (again). He forced me to turtle turned my botched single leg takedown attempt. He forced me over and almost took side control, but left full guard recovery wide open. I'll take that, thank you! He reached back for a guard break and all I could think was, "Triangle? Triangle?" I released and shot right as he stacked me over. Rolled to turtle, rolled a bit more, and Cleve sunk a deep RNC. I wasn't choking, but he was so freaking strong my spine cracked from neck to tail bone. I felt paralyzed. I had a free hand but I couldn't tap. I started to panic. Marco was looking right into my eyes and I was saying, "I can't tap, I can't tap." Huh? Although I couldn't get my brain to tell my hand to tap. And rather than yelling tap, I was freaking out because I couldn't physically tap. Finally Marco called it off. Whew. That sucked. Never felt anything like that before. Never want to again. My neck was stiff the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening. Feels just as sore as the rest of my body today though, so I don't think I have a serious injury. Double Whew.

Lessons Learned:

#1. Just have fun. It's about the experience. No matter the outcome.

#2. Although I competed and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I'm not a competitor. Cleveland wanted the wins much more than I did. I saw it in his pre-match prep and could see it in his eyes before we squared off. Although I know his jiu jitsu is better than mine, I lost those matches before we started. Cleveland is a true competitor. If I ever want to be a true competitor, I'll need to change my entire approach and get much more serious.

#3. No gi is a different world. I need to visit this world more so it doesn't feel so foreign.

#4. My cardio and conditioning ain't half bad for an old guy. I had no problem with the 22 minutes of competition. My grips were fine too. No issues whatsover. Had it not been for the RNC, I probably could have fought many more matches before failing from fatigue.

#5. My game is much more limited than thought. So much of the game I imagined I had in me did not show up for the tournament.