1-7-08 Judo

Rick had me warm up the class, which was fun and different.

Uchi Mata

My kuzushi for this is crap. Worked with a black belt, Dave, who called my on my most common mistake: I tend to muscle my pulls, instead of stepping in, and smoothly pulling uke into me.

Randori: went with the big black guy, from Africa (don't remember his name). He took me with little foot sweeps 4-5 times.

A couple of other non-memorable matches.

1-8-08 BJJ fundamentals class

Upa Escape

Armbar from mount

Bow and Arrow choke

Americana from mount

1/6/08

Mrs. Zaffuto, the wife of the instructor of the kid's class, is ill. She's in the hospital, having some tests done. I hope she's OK.

BJJ Fundamentals
Standing up into combat base

rolled with Scott (newer guy)

MMA--
Drilled arm-bar from guard, no gi. Key points, jump up, clench legs catching shoulder with hands and leg. Switch hand to opposite side of head, controlling head, bring leg across head and armbar.

Worked on the mechanics of shooting double leg takedowns:
penetration step between opponent's legs, step in and either head to side, sucking in legs, or head in opponent's solar plexus, driving opponent straight back.

Take down from single leg:
Shoot for double, miss it. Clench arms, get feet underneath you, and explode/squat up. Cup under opponent's knee with one hand, other hand on ankle. With leg further from opponent, take large circling step, then take smaller step with rear leg. At same time, pull in at opponent's knee, while pushing out on ankle. Combined pressure on knee+steps takes opponent down.

Failed single options:
If opponent gets weight on top of you, over your shoulder, explode/squat up.

If end up on all fours, but still have leg:

Knife in--if you're slightly to outside/rear of opponent. with close hand, retain grip on leg, with far hand, push down on leg, pivot to opponent's rear, stepping one leg over opponent to opponent's rear.

Knife out--if you're more towards center of opponent. With outside hand, retain grip on leg. With inside hand, reach between opponent's legs, grasping ankle of leg you're holding. Move the ankle/calf in towards center, while holding opponent's leg, and pressing head into opponent's solar plexus, knocking him over.

Did take down drills--I wasn't aggressive enough, too reliant on counters. My wrestling take downs suck.

One 8 minute roll with Bob, as usual, got killed.

My wife was glued to coverage of this last night, and yet I couldn't suppress yawns. Iowa has not been particularly predictive of the ultimate winners of the primaries, or even the National elections. This is just the first step in a year long electoral slog towards this November. Maybe I'll care more on "Super Tuesday".

BJJ 1/3/08

Drilled "knee in the taint" (haha) Triangle defense. This defense is should be named the "I really should wear a cup for practice move". Opponent triangles, fold arm that's in up, and brace opponent's leg, defending your neck. Stand up, fight knee into the center of your opponent's butt, and sit back down, forcing your knee in to break triangle.

Armbar from guard--opponent defends with stack. maintain grip on opponent's arm, with arm away from opponent. With arm close to opponent, brace on opponent's far knee, with palm facing away. Push on opponent's knee, roll into inverted arm bar.

Guard break--break guard, two hands under opponent's hip, grab belt, pull opponent up into you.
Reach across opponent and get opposite collar grip, deep, with hand/fist to the mat. Keep weight down, and shrug your opponent's leg off you, drop into side control.
choke variation-once you're past leg, reach under near shoulder to brace gi, and cross windpipe choke. If opponent defends by turning head and tucking chin, switch to armbar.


Drilling--drilled maintaining and passing guard. My passing needs work!

Rolling: Bobby--submitted me a couple of times. I actually got his back once, which is pretty much a miracle. Couldn't finish. His defense is good, and my finishing from the back is not as good as I'd like.

Matt--this guy has my number, and it's annoying. Wish I did better against him.

My 7 year old son is on a new independence kick lately, which is cool.

Yesterday, he wanted a shower rather than a bath, and absolutely refused my help in getting himself clean, except for a little bit of assistance with the shampoo bottle, and the shower gel bottle. When I tried to soap his wash cloth for him, he was incensed as "babies have their daddies do that! I want to!" Good stuff.

When he got home from Judo last night, he also decided what he wanted for dinner (a PB and J, with yogurt and an orange) and got out all the stuff and made it, including toasting the bread for his sammie.

Funny stuff.

BJJ 1/2/08

Bobby introduced new class format: he's starting new fundamental classes on Tues and Sat, and we'll be devoting 2 weeks at a shot to working on details of certain positions.

Last night, went over Knee slide guard pass.

Transition from knee slide to "staple gun pass, when opponent attempts to jump to triangle.

Triangle escape by forcing knee up into triangle (which also works decently for passing someone holding you in high guard).

Drills: rolled with new guy, Ryan, who had trained at a Chute Boxing place in CA.
Drilled maintaining and passing guard.

Rolling:
Matt--schooled me, as always.

Positional rolling with Bobby--8 min round, first 4 minutes me attempting to keep side control, last 4 me attempting to attack from his back.

Rick: new guy, second place state finisher in WPIAL wrestling. I got him once when he crossed his feet while he had my back, otherwise this guy schooled me, including a really solid RNC. He has great mat awareness, is extremely strong, great shots, great wrestling skills period. I hope he comes back, rolling with this guy will be good for me, if a bit humbling.

Judo practice 1/2/08

Rick asked a couple of us what we'd like to work; I chose a new technique.

Technique: Sukui Nage

Useful in many cases as a counter. Step behind uke, with the hand close to uke reaching across and grabbing far leg, close hand grabbing near leg. Make sure that arm that crosses maintains tight contact with uke's body. Twist and drop uke over and across the leg behind him, if necessary dropping into newaza.

Randori: Scott--I'm in better shape, Scott's judo is better. Spent alot of time grip fighting, Scott threw me 2-3 times. I was only a real threat to him once, with a very crappy Tomoe Nage attempt.

Tai: young kid, very aggressive, attacked more than I did. If I weren't so much bigger than he is, this kid would kill me.

Wed 1/2/08
3x25 squats with 25 lb dumbells
5x10 dips, 3 sets with legs up to work core, 2 sets with body straight to hit triceps
3x10 alternate dumbell military presses
3x20 "exploding" pushups
3x10 inverted rows
3x10 alternating curls

I really need to add some more cardio. Not being able/willing to jump rope outside in the cold sucks.

My weight is up to 200, mostly from holiday gluttony. Time for some NY's work!

Cauliflower ear: it sucks.

Twice this year I've had to have an auricular hematoma repaired, once on each of my ears. Hematoma is a fancy way of saying "blood blister" or "blood bubble" on my ear. Essentially, during practice, either through a blow to the ear, or from shearing motions against the ear, the skin of your ear separates from your ear's cartilage, and a bubble of blood or plasma forms between your skin and your cartilage. When you get this injury, you have from 3-5 days to get the bubble drained, or the cartilage in that part of your ear dies, and the bubble fills itself with scar tissue. The bubbly scars are what makes up what people call cauliflower ear.

The picture shows my ear after an ear nose and throat guy repaired it. There are stitches through my ear holding two pads in place. The pads keep my ear's skin and cartilage pressed together so that they'll reconnect, and so that new fluid and or scar tissue doesn't accumulate. The whole thing hurt: getting the pads/stitches hurt, they hurt while they were in, and getting them removed hurt.

I now wear wrestling headgear to prevent further injury. I have Cliff Keen tornados, as they're comfy, and don't affect my hearing.

My intentions with this blog are several:
1.) To log my conditioning work, BJJ and Judo practices. I was going strong on that for 6 months or so last year, and then just slacked off on logging. When I stopped logging, I slacked on conditioning, and I don't think the techniques I learned in class "stuck" as well.

2.) I'll discuss other random issues as they interest me. Sometimes these will be cooking, or political, economical, or parenting issues.

I had been maintaining my training log on Sherdog's strength and conditioning forum. As that area was generally meant for lifting logs, and because I prefer the interface here, I'm changing digs.