***AS OF 09.02.2009

WHITE-BELT
under 60 KG
Derek Kwik (HK BJJ/Team Grips)
Hiromu Takei (EMAC)
Hiromu Takei (EMAC)

under 64 KG
Ram Ananda (Deftac Cebu)
Hilman Wirahadisaputra (Universal Grappling)
Pei Zhou (Beijing BJJ)
Thomas Gumiran (Kamphuis-Fabricio)
Rhandee Ramos (BJJ Singapore)
Matthew Chua (BJJ Singapore)
Samat Khovitoonkij (EMAC)

Felicia and I got back to SoCal yesterday after an AMAZING women’s grapplycamp. I don’t know where to start describing it. I met terrific women who love grappling and are in different stages of their grappling development. I got to help them think about where they might want to go with grappling and how they might want to contribute. I got to see old friends too, from the other camp and from earlier than that. I got to hang out with Emily, Alaina, and Felicia, who are the group that makes up http://www.womensgrappling.org/ (check it out!). I ate poutine, ketchup chips, and other Canadian delights. I had a great time at MECCA, which is the gym in Toronto that sponsored us. I, along with Emily and Felicia, talked to Bruce Hoyer for http://www.thefightworkspodcast.com/ about the camp and women in grappling–that podcast should be airing in about a week.

And now I’m back, trying to get back on Pacific time and gearing up for a very busy fall. I’ll be teaching online courses, teaching CrossFit, teaching grappling, CrossFitting and training myself, competing, and writing. It will be good–a good way to start my new chapter, I think. Oh, and I’m also going to be doing a seminar at Fifty 50 BJJ (http://www.5050bjj.com/) in Virginia on September 21. Fifty 50 is run by my friends Ryan Hall, Seph Smith, and Jen Flannery. That should be wicked awesome!

I do resolve to write more as part of that busy fall I mentioned. But right now, I have to go sleepies so I can get up early tomorrow and support my friend Zeb, who is starting as an instructor at David Paradiso’s new CrossFit box (http://www.paradisocrossfit.com/). Their grand opening is tomorrow. Check them out, and congratulations to them both!

Oh, and one last thing. I haven’t forgotten that I have been drawn east lately. I’m just not prepared to do anything about it other than be drawn. We’ll see where that leads; as I mentioned, my next trip is in September; before I make it to Fifty 50, I’ll be hanging out in Richmond with the usual suspects there. So I’m just gearing up for a fun autumn; I think I’m the only one who is happy that summer is almost over. And the rest will take care of itself.

BJJ Black Belt and Kaijin MMA head instructor, Paul Schreiner, stopped into Fifty/50 to teach another seminar this evening. Paul has an incredible amount of experience as both a competitor and an instructor, making him an extremely valuable resource. He is a multiple-time international medalist and US Open champion, in addition to serving [...]

Huge class Monday – maybe 30 folks or more, with half of them very, very new. Lindsey led the warmups, but Rodrigo was there to teach the class. After some stand-up (the Machida) for about 10 minutes we went into the instructional, which was more wor…

Some of these are things I pondered after my lunchtime open mat, some are things I’ve pondered in the past.

Don’t forget gratitude when a whitebelt gets you. It’s a diagnostic of a hole in your game and one you’re likely to pay a lot more attention to, compared to when a higher belt gets you– losing to an upper belt is more or less inevitable but is a blinking red light when it’s to a whitebelt.

Don’t forget to thank your opponent for rolling– every minute on the mat is a minute of learning.

Don’t use your greater or lesser weight, strength, flexibility or fatigue level as an excuse for poor technique.

Don’t feel like you have to roll with every whitebelt who asks you. Trust your instincts. There’s no shame in asking to go lightly.

Don’t hesitate to tap. Avoid injury. Injury bad.

Don’t get so caught up in competition-mode that you lose sight of impending doom. Example: let go of the armbar the moment you leave the ground.. it’s better to abandon the sub with a 1″ fall than to risk having it stripped from your grip and falling a foot or more onto your cervical spine.

If you’re substantially smaller and/or weaker than your opponent, don’t beat yourself up for failing to outpace them or out-technique them unless you have at least a two-year training advantage.

If you’re substantially smaller and/or weaker, don’t go balls to the wall with your technique and humiliatingly wax your opponent unless it’s a tournament. There are always those who will get mad and use their strength against you in a moment of bad judgment. Inevitably they will feel really, really sorry and they might even send you flowers while you recover from surgery.. but you’re still the one in surgery.

Don’t let fear of injury from spazzism stop you from rolling with whitebelts– you will never get to practice your offense or new stuff if you only roll with your betters.

Don’t let snarky attitude from anyone at your school keep you from doing your best to help others. You may be able to give important feedback or constructive criticism that helps someone else.

Don’t be that know-it-all bluebelt who really knows just a smidge more than a whitebelt. Discretion is the better part of valor, etc. etc. It’s better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it.

Any others? Please comment with your dos and don’ts.

Today’s gi class focused on passing the open half guard.  This is the half guard where your opp places his top knee on your chest or shoulder to keep you from moving forward.  It’s a guard that I’ve spent most of the year learning ways to pass the open half guard, so  was grateful for the opportunity to learn another technique for passing it.

Here are the steps:

Step 1:  Start in your opp’s open half guard
Step 2:  Weave your far hand behind your opp’s top leg, in front of his bottom leg, and cup his bottom leg deep just above the knee
Step 3:  Post on your free leg while putting your head and weight on your opp’s chest
Step 4:  Grip opp’s bottom gi lapel and drop your hips low
Step 5:  Start walking towards opp’s head
Step 6:  At some point, your opp will have to open a little and you can back kick your captured leg to free it
Step 7:  Keep walking until both your knees pass his knee (maintain control of the gi collar and the legs, while keeping your head on opp’s chest)
Step 8:  Use both arms (in their same positions), your torso, and your head to push opp flat

When it came time to roll, we had three training periods.  In the first one, I trained with a brown belt who’s about my size and a whole lot better than me (see Fear The Pink Gi blog post).  Since my vertigo gets significantly worse when I fight off my back, I once again knew I had to keep from getting swept.  I worked mighty hard and prevented her from sweeping me for the first four or five minutes, and then spent the last two minutes fighting of my back (which wasn’t pleasant).  When the buzzer rang, she said, “you’ve gotten a lot better on the top.”  I thanked her for the compliment and said that I didn’t have a choice.

Next was a blue belt who’s about my size (and also, frankly, has better technique than me).  For the first several minutes, I kept him from sweeping me but eventually ended up on my back.  I tried to scramble as the vertigo set in a little bit, and he got knee in the belly. I transitioned from knee in the belly to half guard, but had to get his right leg in my half guard. This meant that I was on my left side, which is the position that makes my vertigo the absolute worst.  The entire room began to swirl around me like water going down a drain.  It was bizzare, and I knew that I had to get off my left side or I’d either vomit or pass out.  I fought hard to get him into my full guard and tried a couple sweep attempts (unsuccessfully) before putting him back in the full guard.  When he stood up in my guard, I sat up with him and honestly stalled for at least ten or fifteen seconds while trying to get the room to stop spinning.  I tried some (really stupid) attempts to monkey around to his back while he was standing, which of course didn’t work.  

When the buzzer rang, I went for water and literally had to hold onto a nearby object to keep from falling over.  That’s when I decided that I should sit out the third training period.  So I sat against the the “I’m not training” wall at my school and watched everyone else.  Though I felt pretty much fine after this 7 minute period, the class was over (and I definitely made the right decision to sit out the last one).

Interestingly, the vertigo has disappeared almost completely during my activities of daily living.  But it really acts up bad when I’m on my back in BJJ.  The verdict, though, is that I still  think vertigo is doing great things for my top game!  An admiral once said “There’s nothing like the threat of a hanging in the morning to clear one’s mind” and I say, ” there’s nothing like the discomfort of vertigo to keep one from being swept!”

Some suggestions for whitebelts…

Don’t strut around in a brand-new Lucky gi when you haven’t been training over 3 months.

Don’t announce that you’re doing jiu jitsu because you keep getting jumped by at least 3, up to 6 people. It makes you sound like you ask for it on a regular basis even if you don’t.

Don’t try to submit people from inside their guard. Yes, even if it’s a girl who weighs 60 lbs less than you. Even if it’s physically possible for you to get her arm into position for an americana. Even if she’s nice by not armbarring you first and explaining later– she’s not lying to you when she tells you someone else won’t hold back.

Don’t nod and say okay when offered advice by a higher belt, then proceed to ignore it and shamelessly do the same thing again. [Note: not talking about repeating mistakes out of inattention or ignorance; that's understandable.] Then, when you’re being armbarred as a result, don’t pick them up and drop them onto the mat on the back of their neck as you strip your arm free. It might hurt them.

Don’t grab onto submissions and yank them. When your opponent is talking you through how to execute the technique correctly, they’re trying to help you, so it’s a good idea to listen, because it means the “competitive” part of your rolling is temporarily paused so they can actually be on “your side” for a minute. If they say something like “whoa, slow down, be gentle” that means you’re going too fast or grabbing and yanking. If you continue to do that, you will end up hurting someone and no one will be happy to roll with you. Or, you might get pwned by some higher belts for a while till you learn manners and control.

Don’t play rude jiu jitsu when you’re just training; save it for a tournament if you absolutely insist. Example: when you’re doing knee on belly, it’s okay for training to put your knee across their hips instead of hunting around for the solar plexus, especially if your opponent weighs 60 lbs less than you do. Especially if you also have collar and knee grips and are bowing them up into you. And, if they ask you how much you weigh, it might be a hint to move on from the position, or take a little weight off.

Don’t ignore it when training partners tell you up front about injuries they’re training with.

Don’t reach back with one hand to break open guard. Don’t complain about getting triangled when you do.

Don’t go a million miles an hour or use every possible opportunity to explode out of positions.

When you have someone on your back with hooks in and one on one grips on both your arms, don’t do a fast forward roll when you’re closer than 4′ to a wall. While bashing your opponent into the wall will probably get them off your back, it might be bad for their face and neck.

Yes, this was my lunch open mat. All in about 10 minutes.

Evening gi class. I came in early for the second class (or late for the first). And started warming up on the side.
I was able to joined in on the second class, which simply flowed from the first. We were doing the BJ Penn sweep and following that with a quick transition to [...]

Post from: my BJJ blog

BJJ Class 159

So I’m going to Lake Tahoe this weekend, and I got an email from icompete.org (run by Caleb, the same guy that does http://thefightworkspodcast.com/) about an upcoming tournament there, the inaugural Lake Tahoe Classic. Since it was going to be the sa…

It’s over. It’s ov-ah!!!!!!!!
Sadly it’s come to an end again.
So, every six months we’ll do a Women’s Grappling Camp and I’ll just post when it’s over