Getting it done- Intermediate, Randori, Blackbelt

Last night I was able to scramble and get to the school in time to make the 5:30 intermediate No-Gi class. We worked side control escapes with some positional drilling at the end of class. I then stuck around and spent the next 30 minutes rolling with one of our Purple Belts. He had a knack for snaring one of my feet into half guard and I spent a good deal of time working my half escapes. To try to explain, this guy is almost my perfect antithesis we weigh nearly the same, but where I am long in body, and limb, he is stocky and compact. It was like trying to submit a beer keg! We had about 4 great rolls during the 30 min, most ending with me in a loop choke (gotta watch those arms damn it). It was the kind of fast, aggressive but friendly and educational rolling that you really look for with a training partner. I was grateful for the time spent, and the lessons learned.
Once you have been active in Jiu Jitsu for an hour and a half, another hour doesn't seem so bad so I stuck around to train in the advanced level class instructed by the school's 2nd Degree Black belt founder Professor Amal Easton. I found the lesson to be very drilling intensive, and as there were 2 Black Belt Professors present we recieved a lot of great feedback and guidance on some of the finer points of the technique.
over all a good training session, with lots of new material to dedicate to memory, and drill drill drill into consistency.

Black Belt session

The Monday Black Belt training session is going to be part of my permanent training schedule. It was a mutual experience of whoop ass. I gave nearly as good as I got, but then this is the "upper classman's class" so I had to expect that. The newest thing fro me was remembering to go for the wristlock when the opportunity was right. Also, taking people over my head from my guard seemed to be working pretty well.

I think more of this sort of high level practice will continue to add dimension to my game. It's time to push myself and grow.

BREAK OVER

In the end of September I re-dedicated myself to training BJJ on a full time schedule of 3x classes per week minimum. Throughout much of July, and the first part of August I was only training 2x per week. My training consisted of being an Oki during private lessons, and thus getting free private lessons with a Brown Belt instructor, and a loosely formatted positional drilling session on Wednesday nights. I was helping a buddy prepare for tournament, and I was having a problem with my low-back which kept me from really pushing too hard during that time-frame.

Excuse time is now officially past. For the next 2 weeks i will be rigidly sticking to my 3x training schedule Attending Black Belt class on Monday, Intermediate Tuesday, and Intermediate Saturday mornings- after that Shannon is done with Softball and Thursdays will again be open for BB training. I am still a bit Ronin from my normal schedule, as I have been working out sessions at the South School Intermediate level classes as well as attending at my home academy in Denver. I like the crowd in HR, and I like to train down there so I am splitting time.

As I am returning to class I am also working in a lot of the things I had been working on in the private sessions, and drilling- mostly sweeps. Last week I got a lot of good results from the pendulum sweep, which feels very natural to me.

I was pleasantly reminded last weekend of just how effective BJJ is against the uninformed opponent- I swept a guy at will while training with a Fundamentals / Intermediate group in Boulder. This guy had at least 50 lbs on me- was bigger / stronger ect- totally helpless in my guard. Of course sweeps become less and less effective once you are rolling with someone who actually knows some BJJ, but it was heartening to realize how simple it was to work game on an unwitting opponent. I saw a guy fight in a UFC prelim over summer who said of BJJ "I don't believe in it" He was a striker, and apparently hadn't come up against a real BJJ player yet. He won his fight due to strikes and seemed to reinforce his belief. This past weekend during the UFC prelims I watched a solid BJJ player- a record holder having finished 7 fights in a row by triangle, and then the next 3 via heel hook to be 10-0 in his MMA career. He finished his opponent via heel hook- and you KNOW his opponent knew it was coming, but just couldn't get away from it. Tell THAT guy you "don't believe in BJJ" and I predict a life altering outcome for you...

BJJ is intelligent, and resourceful. It's fighting, but it is also methodical, thought provoking and strategic. It is an art.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - The Ultimate Reinvention of Fighting

Remembering why I do this. Time to get fired up and start kicking ass again!