the arrival (bjj and muay thai)

[kerrnage]

Started training bjj in January and want to start tracking my progress / writing down the techniques we learn in class.

I train bjj and kickboxing at Dynamic MMA in Vancouver, BC under Adam Ryan. Joined up in January of this month and go to 4 bjj classes and 2 kickboxing classes a week. I'd love to go more but like everyone, work and the home life don't allow for it

Not much to write I guess, this is just a place I'm gonna use to record my progress and maybe review some techniques from time to time. Not sure what my goals are out of bjj but I like competition and would love to compete later this year. I went in the Tiger balms tourny in March and got hammered in both my matches but had a good time. Submission Series is in a month I think, giving some thought to entering..

 

[kerrnage]

bjj tonight. Just gonna write down what we did and as many details about the technique as I can.

~5 minutes jogging
10 minutes of alternating squats, hold down in the squat position, lunges, partial squat. 30 Seconds of each with 10 pushups between each.
~5 minutes of abs

This week has been all half guard top.
Tonight we did head and arm triangle when the guy on bottom digs under your leg and grabs his hands together.

-start off in half guard with cross face. keep trapped leg under you to prevent leg triangles.
-guy on bottom scoops under your free legs and cups his hands together and tries to get his head under your leg.
-to avoid a neck crank he buries his head under his top arm.
-pull his elbow away from his body then lean forward to trap it.
-post your top arm (left if right leg caught, right if left caught) behind his head to stop him from rolling onto his back/ away from the choke.
-punch your bottom arm under his head as deep as you can.
-grab bicep and squeeze while putting you weight into him.


Rolled after this for 2 3 minute rounds and a 6 minute round all with another white belt. Nothing too much exciting. Did a nice scissor sweep to mount and got his back twice. Set up an arm bar from guard and used it to sweep him over. I was in the turtle position once and escaped by doing a front roll which i was decently happy with (been watching telles' turtle guard dvd). Had an arm secured at one point from guard and he stood up and was just holding onto it with his free hand really hard, I let it go for fear of his grip breaking and his arm getting hurt.

Good night over all, did 1 hour of muay thai after but nothing special in there.

 

[kerrnage]

bjj this afternoon

Saturday afternoon class is always review from the week.

1st technique - Head and arm choke
-Start in half guard with cross face
-Bottom guy pushes your face away
-Either push his elbow forward and drop your head down ear to ear or hold his arm about where it is and move your head around it and down ear to ear.
-Push your back arm under his neck, grab your bicep and squeeze while driving your weight/shoulder down

2nd technique - Cross collar choke?
-Start in half guard with cross face
-With the hand that's cross facing him, put your thumb deep into his collar
-While maintaining a good base allow him to sit up a bit in an attempt to go for your back
-As he starts to come up grab into his collar with your free hands fingers (over or under his arm works)
-Squeeze with the blade sides of your wrists and keep them tight
-Lean your forhead forward to the ground to finish

3rd technique - Shoulder lock
-Start in half guard with cross face
-Get a far side underhook
-Bring your wrist on the underhook side to the part of his arm right above the elbow where the funny bone is
-Cup your hands together and as you pull his arm away from his body step up onto your free foot and use shin to hold his face/head
-Pull arm until it is straight up and twist to finish

4th technique - Shoulder lock to straight arm lock
-If the guy counters the shoulder lock by straightening his arm pull it to the side of your face
-Hold his arm near the funny bone right above the elbow
-Turn and pull it into you to finish?

5th technique - Neck crank (not legal for tournies)
-Guy digs under your leg and cups his hands together to try to pull you over him
-Use the weight thru your chest to hold him down at the shoulders
-Wrap up his head and crank


Rolling went good enough. Went with a blue belt who teaches sometimes, he tuned me pretty good but it felt good/fun. He got an arm bar once without his leg across my chest and i did a pretty nifty escape where you do like a backwards roll and come out ontop. I learned it from demian maia's videos except in his you land perfectly in an arm bar of your own.
Another guy I rolled with was way bigger then me, probably 40lbs, and not wearing a gi. He was all over my gi with chokes and grips like it was his job. Was kind of annoying but what can you do. I fought off everything for about 5 minutes until he tried and arm bar from my back. I had my arm locked to my bicep and everything but he felt too strong and I couldnt get out from under his legs so I let go and tapped.
Also got tapped by Adam's girlfriend by the collar choke that we reviewed today.

 

[kerrnage]

Remembered another technique from earlier in the week, didn't review it today though.

It's a shoulder lock to reverse triangle/straight arm lock.
-Go for the shoulder lock put the guy gets his head behind your leg.
-Take a step further around him so your ass is right over his head, still holding his arm with the under hook
-Your trapped leg should now be free, sit down, grab your shin with your arm not holding his arm
-Pull your leg towards you and lock in the triangle
-To finish by choke just push the back of his head into your leg
-To finish by arm bar just trap his arm in your arm pit and extend hips

Hopefully this is right, we didn't review it today and only practiced it briefly this week because it was a bit more advanced I guess.

 

[vla]

I have no clue about BJJ but welcome to the logs!

 

[kerrnage]

thanks

 

[kerrnage]

bjj tonight

20 minute warm up, same as above

this week is bottom half guard

1st technique - guy passes, roll to turtle and get back to half guard
-start on the bottom with the guy passing your open guard
-roll away from the side he's passing to into turtle position with knees wide, butt low, elbows blocking the hooks and hands protecting the neck
-guy stays tight on you but doesnt reach over
-get underhook with your arm closest to him
-step with your leg closest to him (same side that has underhook) to the outside of his leg closest to you
-move other leg between his to reguard in half guard

2nd technique - underhook sweep?
-start in bottom half guard with near-side underhook (get underhook by bringing far side under his far arm, gripping hands together and pushing his head away, swim near side in)
-hold his belt with your underhooked arm and start moving to his back
-if he lets you, take his back if he wizzers your arm pull it tight by either pushing your head into his chest or getting right up on your free arm
-half guard should be held by the leg on the same side that you have the underhook on
-led your body with your free arm under his free leg scooping it up and rolling him over, holding the wizzer in tight to prevent him from posting

3rd technique - asme sweep but guy sprawls backwards
-same as above but as you dig under his leg he sprawls his legs back
-inch your hips under his keeping wizzer tight and his leg trapped
-keep bumping hips over until roll is complete


2 3 minute rounds of half guard drills with no break between them and 1 round ~8 minutes long? Went with a guy who just started bjj this week. He was taller and maybe 20lbs heavier but seemed a lot stronger then me. He mounted me once but I was able to control him decently enough from the bottom for most of the time. From the top he held me in half guard quite well, was actually kind of discouraging since it was his first week. I eventually passed to side control but couldnt do much. Oh yea he didn't have a gi so I took my kimono off. He also took his t-shirt off so it was a lot different then I'm used to. I wouldnt mind trying a roll with him in a gi, maybe some time.

 

[kerrnage]

bjj tonight

started with the normal warm up, still half guard bottom stuff

1st technique - some kind of sweep
-start in half guard bottom with near side underhook and outside leg triangle
-guy on top puts his head/weight down on your underhook kinda low towards your hips
-stretch him out with the triangle
-use your inside leg to hold half guard while you bring outside leg into the butterfly position
-scoop far side leg with free arm
-now all at once lift with your butterfly, underhook and leg hook so guy is up off the ground kind of
-kick the butterflied leg straight to move guy backwards and get posted onto the arm that originally had the underhook
-holding onto the leg hook good continue rolling/getting up
-once you're up finish the sweep by using forearm on his neck to push him over
-keep knee in tight to prevent him from reguarding

2nd technique - counter a counter of above sweep
-same as above up until you go to lift
-as the guy gets off the ground he squats to get his base back
-as he puts his foot down grab onto his ankle on the butterfly side
-pull it towards you and follow him up as he goes backwards
-keep holding ankle and come forward with your shin pinning that leg and your knee on the ground
-now pivot/switch your legs to get sidecontrol


Rolling tonight was good. First we did a 6 minute round with one guy on top for 3 then the other for the next 3. I went with a blue belt but he wasn't wearing his gi. He pretty much handled me the entire time, maybe 4 submissions. He passed once and I rolled away to turtle guard, got my underhook and reguarded in half guard just like we learned monday, I was pretty happy about that.
Next we did a 10 minute round. I went with a newer guy, he was no gi. I felt good against him, he's a bit stronger but pretty close to the same size. From half guard I got my underhook and tried to take his back, he turned into me and I got mount instead. From mount I worked a sleeve choke that someone showed me last week, worked real well and he tapped right away. Another time from half guard I got him in a head and arm choke that we learned last week. I triangled him too but it felt weak and took me 3 tries of stretching him out til I had it good. Over all great class. On a side note I really wish more people had gi's at my gym. There were only 6 people in the early class tonight and I was the only one in a gi. Most classes are probably only like 25% gi, kinda bugs me.

 

[kerrnage]

I woke up Thursday morning with a mean kink in my neck, couldn't look hardly at all to the left so couldnt train Thursday night.

bjj this afternoon - reciew of this weeks bottom half guard

warmup was 5 minutes or so of running then 3 5 minute rounds of our normal warm up with 1 minute of jogging on the spot between rounds

1st technique - get underhook and go to back
-start in bottom half guard with near underhook
-get leg triangle to stretch guy out
-post up on your elbow while holding the underhook low
-start scooting backwards and reaching low with the underhook, try for his far ankle
-keep moving back until you're out and free to take the back, it's fine if he headlocks you, just keep going

2nd technique - underhook to knees to back?
-start in bottom half guard with near underhook
-as you come up to take the back he wizzers your arm (i think?)
-grip your hands together around the leg you have trapped, high near the crotch
-start moving your hips into him until he's forced to either get rolled over or lets go of the wizzer to post
-when he lets go, try to pull his leg over you as you get to your knees out the back door
-remember to reach low for his ankle

3rd technique - butterfly to knees to side control?
-start same as above
-get leg triangle and stretch him out
-get butterfly on the underhook side and fish your arm under his free leg
-now use butterfly, leg underhook and your free arm in his arm pit opposite the butterfly to raise him up above you
-kick away with the butterfly and get to your knees still holding his leg
-finish by pushing down on his neck and keeping good posture so you don't get triangled


Rolling went pretty well today. 3 of the 4 people I rolled with were a decent amount more experienced then me which was a nice change. Got tapped maybe 4 times but felt pretty good/strong positionally. I think I'm going to try to get good at brabo chokes when the guy turtles up and you're infront of him. I tried it all 3 times but could never finish, Think that's all for now.

 

[kerrnage]

bjj tonight. This week we're doing turtle guard, I've been looking forward to another turtle guard week, I really wanna get good at it.

Normal warm up

1st technique - arm trap and roll sweep
-start in the turtle position, knees wide, elbows in tight blocking the hooks, hands up protecting neck, can even post on forhead if you want
-guy on top reaches his top arm around the front of you, grab it and hold it with your hand furthest from him
-put your free arm out the side of you blocking his hips so he can't come around the front of you. Keep elbow high so he can't step over and trap your arm
-on the same side use your leg to block him from going backwards
-at some point his arm will have come around and underhook your far arm, squeeze it and hold it tight
-push your weight into him and roll backwards over your butt
-roll to side control, control a leg and land in low baseball slide

2nd technique - trap arm and roll (easier version of above, some people weren't getting it)
-from turtle position the guy underhooks the far side of you
-trap his arm and roll back over your butt landing in the low baseball slide

3rd technique - block 2nd hook to side control?
-start in turtle position
-trap his top arm
-guy gets far hook in
-roll to the side that doesnt have a hook in trapping his leg
-still holding his arm start doing the "running man" up away from his hook making sure to keep all your weight over him thru your upper back
-as the hook comes out turn back towards his legs
- hook one leg and end in side control


Rolling tonight was real good. Went 4 3 minute rounds with a guy about the same size as me and same skill level and wearing a gi Felt strong and pretty able to control things, they were nice flowing rounds working more for positions then submissions which I really liked. I did get him in a sleeve choke from top half guard from last week He asked what it was so I showed him, it seems pretty easy and really effective.
Next I went ~6 or 8 minutes with the blue belt from the other day, the guy who teaches sometimes. No-gi again cuz he's a no gi kinda guy I guess lol. He schooled me pretty good but I like rolling with him, he always has good pointers and I feel like I learn a lot from it.

 

[kerrnage]

Bjj tonight, worked late and missed all the warm up

1st technique - review of the arm trap sweep from yesterday
-start in the turtle position
-guy reaches over
-trap his arm tight and roll away from him kind of over your butt
-grab a leg and end in side mount

2nd technique - kimura sweep
-start in turtle with the guy more behind you then to the side
-he reaches in on the side he's closer to, under your arm
-grab his wrist with your far arm and then loop around with your other arm so you're in the kimura position
-posture up, re-adjust your grip to get higher on the arm if you need to
-holding his arm, turn into him and get butterfly on his same side that you have his arm on
-now apply pressure to the kimura and use the butterfly to flip him over you
-land in north-south, get your side/shoulder directly over his shoulder
-drop your elbows to the ground and pin his wrist
-drop your weight on his shoulder to finish

3rd technique - kimora sweep to knee bar/ankle lock/toe hold
-same as above but when you flip him over his catches your leg with his legs and arms
-you'll land on top but he'll have your leg trapped
-post on one arm and grab his knee that is holding his leg triangle
-pull yourself over his head and now triangle your own leg
-with the hand that grabbed his knee, between his feet and start scooting backwards
-should have his leg in a knee bar now, can easily switch to ankle lock or toe hold

I hope we review the 3rd technique on Saturday because I liked it but it had a lot of steps and it's hard to remember

Rolled for 2 3 minute rounds of turtle guard then started an 8 minute free roll. Got caught in an arm bar from his guard and my elbow popped as I was trying to get my other arm down to defend it. Same elbow that I hurt in my first tourny. Rolled for a few more minutes but it was hurting so I stopped. Icing it tonight and it feels fine, should be fine for tomorrows class.

 

[kerrnage]

Bjj tonight

Normal warm up

Still working turtle guard

1st technique - sweep when their weight is on your lower back
-start in turtle with the guy over your lower back
-guy reaches in on the near side, trap his arm
-hold his arm with the same arm that he reached in with and post with your far arm across the front of you
-raise your knee on the same side
-now sit up and windmill your arm that is holding his arm under his arm pit and tip him over towards his back to prevent him from posting
-scoop a leg and end in half guard

2nd technique - sweep when their weight is on your upper back
-start in turtle guard with the guys weight up by your neck/shoulder blades so you can't sit up
-he reaches in on the near side, trap his arm with your far arm
-put your near arm out to the side towards him, close to his knees and palm up
-keep your head on the mat looking the opposite direction of your arm/him
-hold his arm tight and roll forward over your shoulder
-land in low baseball, elevate his knee and keep elbow in tight

Nothing special rolling. Got elbowed twice in the nose and once in the eye, have a nice lump below my eye brow from it and got my jaw cranked really hard, hurts to open lol. Other then that not much. Arm is feeling pretty good. An hour of bjj and an hour of kickboxing tomorrow should be fun

 

[kerrnage]

Bjj and kickboxing tonight

Jumped into the bjj warm up with about 8 minutes to go

1st technique - sweep when guy is surfing your back
-start in turtle with guy on your back reaching over with on hand and around with the other, no leg hooks in
-hold the near side arm that is around your neck
-roll over your shoulder on the side that he has underhooked?
-end in low baseball

2nd technique - judo kinda throw?
-start turtled same as above
-hold the wrist of his overhook and pull it in deep
-with your free hand hold above his elbow
-drop your forhead to the ground and flip him over
-if he keeps his hands together after the flip do a push up movement to get your head up and break the grip
-end in half guard or flow to mount

3rd technique - shake off the hooks while standing
-start standing but bent over with the guy on your back and both hooks in
-use one hand to post and the other to pull on his overhooked arm and shake him high on your back
-use that arm to reach his head and pull it down to the ground
-once he's on the ground break his hooks but just raising each leg one at a time
-finish in north south

4th technique - turtle to knee bar
-start in turtle
-position yourself so you can see his near leg between yours
-hook his near leg with your near leg, not to deep, just the instep
-use your far hand to grab that knee
-use other arm to grab his other knee
-roll over your shoulder and triangle your legs
-know hold your hands together still controlling both of his legs
-move your grip up to his ankles and hip out so you're straight on his triangled leg
-slowly apply pressure with hips to finish

Rolling was good. Did 2 3 minute rounds of turtle. I was in turtle first and did decent then he went to turtle and I took his back with hooks pretty quick but couldnt finish it.
Next I rolled a 10 minute round with a guy with a bit less experience then me. It was a nice change to the tooning I've taken all week. Good points I remember was a triangle escape into side mount, pendulum sweep from guard, mounted triangle, kimura from guard, head and arm choke from mount and a sleeve choke from mount. I tried to work nice and flowing with him but he was putting on a lot of pressure and gassed after about 3 minutes. felt good and strong in all my attempts and passes.

Kickboxing was the norm I guess. I prefer bjj a ton more so that's mostly what I'll log in here.

 

[kerrnage]

Bjj this afternoon. Review of the weeks turtle guard techniques. Just gonna cut and paste my old descriptions and add any new tips in bold.

Normal warm up

1st technique - trap arm and roll
-from turtle position the guy underhooks the far side of you
-trap his arm and roll back over your butt landing in the low baseball slide
when he reaches under, trap his arm with your far arm that should be controlling the wrist of his other arm.

2nd technique - kimura sweep
-start in turtle with the guy more behind you then to the side
-he reaches in on the side he's closer to, under your arm
-grab his wrist with your far arm and then loop around with your other arm so you're in the kimura position
-posture up, re-adjust your grip to get higher on the arm if you need to
-holding his arm, turn into him and get butterfly on his same side that you have his arm on
-now apply pressure to the kimura and use the butterfly to flip him over you
-land in north-south, get your side/shoulder directly over his shoulder
-drop your elbows to the ground and pin his wrist
-drop your weight on his shoulder to finish
when you posture up, make sure to really press down on his cross arm and push your weight backwards into him since he'll be trying to drag your back down

3rd technique - sweep when their weight is on your lower back
-start in turtle with the guy over your lower back
-guy reaches in on the near side, trap his arm
-hold his arm with the same arm that he reached in with and post with your far arm across the front of you
-raise your knee on the same side
-now sit up and windmill your arm that is holding his arm under his arm pit and tip him over towards his back to prevent him from posting
-scoop a leg and end in half guard

4th technique - sweep when their weight is on your upper back
-start in turtle guard with the guys weight up by your neck/shoulder blades so you can't sit up
-he reaches in on the near side, trap his arm with your far arm
-put your near arm out to the side towards him, close to his knees and palm up
-keep your head on the mat looking the opposite direction of your arm/him
-hold his arm tight and roll forward over your shoulder
-land in low baseball, elevate his knee and keep elbow in tight

5th technique - turtle to knee bar
-start in turtle
-position yourself so you can see his near leg between yours
-hook his near leg with your near leg, not to deep, just the instep
-use your far hand to grab that knee
-use other arm to grab his other knee
-roll over your shoulder and triangle your legs
-know hold your hands together still controlling both of his legs
-move your grip up to his ankles and hip out so you're straight on his triangled leg
-slowly apply pressure with hips to finish
when you roll, roll away from him.

Rolled 4 5 minute rounds. All felt pretty good positionally. I find myself quite often getting the guys arm pinned under him while in his guard but I have a hard time passing with it. I put my forhead on the shoulder of the arm i have trapped, stand up with my legs wide and press down on his knee on the side that's trapped but the guard doesn't open to easily. Any pointers? I picked this up kind of in passing and was never really taught it..

 

[kerrnage]

Bjj tonight

Normal warm up

No techniques tonight, just rolling.
First was 2 3 minute rounds of mount. Nothing to exciting, got rolled off a couple times by the basic trap arm and leg and bridge escape. Escaped mount once the same way, once by lifting with my knuckles in his gut and getting my knees in and maybe one more time but don't remember.
Second was 2 3 minute rounds of side control. My side control top and bottom both blow. Nothing really stands out other then me needing to work on side control a lot.
Third was 2 3 minute rounds of back with hooks in. I fought off any chokes pretty good, tapped once to some adams apple pain but what can ya do. I felt I had really good back control. Only sunk the choke in once but I could keep the back pretty decently.
Next we free rolled for a 5 minute round and probably a 10 minute round. Both went fairly well. Tapped to a guillatine choke in the first one, he got it from an open guard sweep, my open guard sucks. Second round was against an easier guy. I got mount but couldnt do much, we were no gi and super slippery which I'm not used to. I set up a triangle from mount and he rolled me and I finished it easily. Also got a triangle from guard.

Think that's about all. The gym's gonna be closed saturday, sunday, mnday and tuesday which sucks but what can ya do..