Jeff had a dream. A dream where himself, me, and Mark VT would get together before class saturday for an hour and roll. We fulfilled this dream today.

We came an hour early and did lots of live rolling. We started with no-gi takedowns, constantly rotating in the fresh guy. We then switched to short 3 minute no-gi matches. You would do two in a row, then sit out out. After this we put on our kimonos, and continued rolling for the remainder of the time. It was a tough workout before class even began!

Class was run by the big dawg. It was pretty much cardio for 2 hours. We did a lot of running, sprinting, shrimping, and swimming. We then switched it up and played “the ring of fire” . We started with guard passing until everyone was done, then switched being up/down and played through the second round.

We then ran a couple more ring of fire sets…starting in different positions including mount, half guard, and side control. This was a grueling, effective lung burning, edurance building session! There is no rest for the crabnation, and we immediately transitioned after this to live rolling. We did 6 minute matches, with short bursts of cardio in between.

Class finished up with partner ladder pushups, up and down from 10. Mitch and I were spent after pushing through our sets.

Only one week until NAGA! I am feeling a bit beat and sore. I have obviously been overtraining, but now is the time to be smart. I may take tomorrow off to heal up a little. This would give me 2 days off before my last classes Tues, Wed, and Thurs before the Arnolds. We shall see how I feel. I’m so pumped!

Today’s class was definitely good.  Following the warm up, we did some positional drills – armbar, omapalata, knee on belly (my worst drill), and a couple cool ones I haven’t done before. 

 
We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

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My blog was one year old yesterday!  Hurrah.

One of the fastest ways to improve your grappling or BJJ game is to compete. Competition is a great way to learn about your game. You get to go with people you don’t know…people outside of your academy or gym that don’t know you or your game and you don’t know them or their game. You get to find out what is working and what isn’t working, It’s like a quick little road map to guide you in what you need to work on. It’s a whole different experience from training at the academy and I recommend everyone do it at least once. Maybe you’ll hate it and never do it again. Maybe you’ll benefit from the experience and continue to do it. You also get to see other gyms, meet other people that share your same interest, make new friends and become a part of the larger BJJ/Grappling community!

Oh, and how convenient (shameless plug…but it doesn’t change what I just said about competition) …March 7 and 8, 2009 is the BJMUTA Classic Tournament in Valencia, CA.
No-Gi on Saturday, Gi on Sunday.
Double elimination for a great price.
Check the website and call the gym to register!
www.bjmuta.com
661-775-0365

At 10 AM this morning I officially became a Blue Belt. 
I had just finished 10 minutes of sparring where I rolled with a new person every minute non-stop. I thought the 10 minutes would be no problem because after classes we roll 5 four minute rounds and I participate in 3 to 5 of them [...]

Tonight was competition class. It was just myself and Brandon, along with George Chezem watching in street clothes, and Doug came over later after kids class. This proved to be a very valuable class as Mr. Hyde gave a lot of individual attention.

We started with the obligatory conditioning. We did HIIT sprints, followed by more conditioning work, and finishing up with…well…more sprints. I was quite winded. I’ve been noticing that I’ve been getting VERY out of breathe at the beginning of class, and then as class goes on I’m fine. Hyde said something that your body is learning to process lactic acid better once, and I’m thinking he’s a smarter man then I.

We then did a series of live rolling drills for most of class. We would have one guy be “in” starting in random positions. We would roll for one minute, then the fresh guy would come in. We would then switch who was “in”. We did this for like 45 minutes, and got some awesome rolls in.

Hyde then started a Q & A session, asking us about our games, and what we thought were our strengths and weaknesses. This was very cool, and insightful. I told him my strengths were takdowns and bottom half guard sweeps. Some of my weaknesses are holding good side control (not letting them re-guard after I pass), and finishing from the back. Hyde walked through some answers to remedy these situations. We then finished our positional live rolling game, going in our weakest positions. Hyde was right there giving on the spot feedback and pointers.

This was an exceptional class, and very helpful for me and I think for Brandon as well!

Participated in the noon noon class, which was well attended.  After the warmup, we drilled a double leg takedown: