One move I've neglected to incorporate is when you are in someone's side control and when they bring their crossface arm around your head you get on both knees and grab behind their legs and pretty much do a double take down on your knees.
In this particular drill Felipe had us do it was a little different. Person on top begins to pass torreando style and the natural defense for the person on bottom is to stiff arm the passer with one hand on the hip and one on his shoulder area. If the passer tries to being his crossface arm across I use the hand on his hip to block the crossface arm (bicep area). The counter to my defense on the bottom is to switch the hips and fall into a kessa katame position like we discussed previously. Do not fight against the stiff arm instead pick the path with the least resistance.
If I am on the bottom position I free my arm under his armpit and hold the opponent's collar directly across from my free arm and use that to stiff arm and push opp away. Now as I push the opponent away I pull out my other arm and now I can place both hands on the opponent. How bridge my hips towards the opponent while pushing and shrimping my hips out. Now I recompose my guard by bring my bottom leg in or blocking the crossface hand if opponent tries to bring it around me I can immediately get on both knees and do the double leg take down. I like to react right when the opponent is thinking about controling my head by crossfacing so I can skip that step and go straight for the takedown. Remember my head should go on the side of opponent's hips that it's already on and to post the knee that my head is on. Instead of grabbing both legs I grab the leg opposite of my head in a four finger gable hold. Pull the opponent's leg toward my chest so it's glued to kill his base and use my head to drive him to the side without a base.
Rolling:
The triple sweep/ tomohawk chop combo is working great. De la riva sweep I come up on the spot works as well. I am now able to internalize some of the concepts that I've learned and apply it in an unorthodox way. This is really exciting :)
I've been working the open guard pass when I control the hip by placing my left hand on his stomach area and my right hand chooses a leg to pin down. If I apply pressure and sprawl my legs back, driving forward, I am able to keep out of reach of the opponent's legs. I was able to avoid being caught up in their guard. Right when I pass I being my inside knee in and go directly into knee on belly to block their hips/ legs. Working better than expected. I like passing guard :)
I am catching a lot of people by going in between their legs and grabbing their belts / using my legs to catch them from behind.
Sweep -- Pass -- Submission might be a better formula to accumulate points and submit at tournaments
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Passing the guard
Lately I've been experimenting with my top game since it's lacking compared to my guard game. I rememeber the torreando pass that Felipe showed me so that was where I decided to start. I have a hard time making myself pass guard because I feel so comfortable on the bottom playing an open guard. It's nice to be able to play defense and offense all that once but it's making me a one dimensional player and that is a disadvantage when I compete with someone possessing a better guard game than mine. I need to be able to switch it up depending on my opponent. My friend Danny is a purple belt who is able to pass my guard with relative ease. I have developed an okay guard but he just smashes right through it like it's nothing. These sessions of getting smashed have finally provided an insight into my holes. I am getting tired because he keeps driving and since I am on the bottom I am working against gravity from the power of his drive on top. It's not rocket science and I feel like a retard for taking so long to realize this.
Anyways when attempting to pass my opponent's guard with the torreando pass I focused on getting a good grip on the inside of their pants and leaning my weight over while punching down on the ground to keep their legs grounded. I then proceed to tripod and drive my shoulder into my opponent to keep him from moving his upper body. The problem I ran into was everytime I tried this the opponent blocks me with his two hands and that's where my attempt to pass stopped and I'd try again. In the past week I have realized in order to pass you have to commit to it 100%, just like you would for a takedown. If you half heartedly commit to it then more likely than not you will not succeed. What I have come to realize is that not only do I have to commit to the drive, I now realize it is also better to get low and drive your entire weight into your opponent pushing off on your toes. This forces the opponent to work harder because you are increasing your drive power and using gravity to assist you. After realizing this I had a little more success passing the guard when the opponent became tired fighting against gravity and my drive. I asked my teammates Ian and Danny more about passing since they do it well and they told me to not fight against my opponent if he is pushing me with his arms when I am passing but instead to switch my hips and slide into like a kessa katame position while getting the farside underhook, or I can walk around to the other side and work from there, or bring my outer knee in and use it to remove the opponent's arm closest to mine by bring it inside his arm forcing his arm away from me. This eliminates one arm making it easier for me to pass. I am having a lot of fun learning how to pass and I'll continue to experiment with it.
Anyways when attempting to pass my opponent's guard with the torreando pass I focused on getting a good grip on the inside of their pants and leaning my weight over while punching down on the ground to keep their legs grounded. I then proceed to tripod and drive my shoulder into my opponent to keep him from moving his upper body. The problem I ran into was everytime I tried this the opponent blocks me with his two hands and that's where my attempt to pass stopped and I'd try again. In the past week I have realized in order to pass you have to commit to it 100%, just like you would for a takedown. If you half heartedly commit to it then more likely than not you will not succeed. What I have come to realize is that not only do I have to commit to the drive, I now realize it is also better to get low and drive your entire weight into your opponent pushing off on your toes. This forces the opponent to work harder because you are increasing your drive power and using gravity to assist you. After realizing this I had a little more success passing the guard when the opponent became tired fighting against gravity and my drive. I asked my teammates Ian and Danny more about passing since they do it well and they told me to not fight against my opponent if he is pushing me with his arms when I am passing but instead to switch my hips and slide into like a kessa katame position while getting the farside underhook, or I can walk around to the other side and work from there, or bring my outer knee in and use it to remove the opponent's arm closest to mine by bring it inside his arm forcing his arm away from me. This eliminates one arm making it easier for me to pass. I am having a lot of fun learning how to pass and I'll continue to experiment with it.
New Blog, Big Fishes!
This will be a blog for me to lay out some thoughts on my progress in brazilian jiu-jitsu. Hopefully I will be able to look back and review what I've learned and update new details on techniques as I pick them up. I may dive into little lessons I learn here and there about life in general as well. lol
On another note I ran across a nice little Brazilian story today..
There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman. “I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”
The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with your kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman smiled. :)
In my own opinion too often in life I see people overlook the simplicities in life that make their hearts content. Instead we go out of our way trying to meet everyone's expectations all the while complicating/ sacraficing our lives trying to live someone else's dreams and ideas of what a realistic life should look like. In a world or consumerism it seems as more people believe the more material things we are able to amount the better our lives should ideally become so we stress ourselves out looking for ways to meet that quota. When was the last time you sat quietly, blocking out the noises in the background, and thought about what truly made you happy and tick? Life is too short to head in a direction that is not true to oneself. As the story implies, you don't have to wait until you are wealthy in material to have wealth in your life.
My goal is to strengthen the connection to my higher self so I may tap into my higher consciousness level, towards Courage. Far too long have I been terrorized by Desire/Fear/Pride where my thoughts and concerns were driven by my own ego. I hope I am able to step away from that lower consciousness level along my journey and into a higher state of mind and more in tune with my needs. Balance is king..
On another note I ran across a nice little Brazilian story today..
There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman. “I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”
The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with your kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman smiled. :)
In my own opinion too often in life I see people overlook the simplicities in life that make their hearts content. Instead we go out of our way trying to meet everyone's expectations all the while complicating/ sacraficing our lives trying to live someone else's dreams and ideas of what a realistic life should look like. In a world or consumerism it seems as more people believe the more material things we are able to amount the better our lives should ideally become so we stress ourselves out looking for ways to meet that quota. When was the last time you sat quietly, blocking out the noises in the background, and thought about what truly made you happy and tick? Life is too short to head in a direction that is not true to oneself. As the story implies, you don't have to wait until you are wealthy in material to have wealth in your life.
My goal is to strengthen the connection to my higher self so I may tap into my higher consciousness level, towards Courage. Far too long have I been terrorized by Desire/Fear/Pride where my thoughts and concerns were driven by my own ego. I hope I am able to step away from that lower consciousness level along my journey and into a higher state of mind and more in tune with my needs. Balance is king..
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