The Life Plan Continues (Path to the Brown Belt) 2011

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Week 7 Lower

1. Kneeling Jumps (holding med ball or w/ barbell on back): 5x5.. up to 95
2. Squat: 75% x 7, 80% x 5, 85% x 3 or more
3a. Supine Hip Thrust (shoulders & feet elevated): 3x15
3b. Stability Ball Plank (Ball Under Arms, Feet On Bench): 3x45 seconds
4. DB Reverse Lunge, front foot elevated: 2x12x40s
5. Bike Sprints 10x 10w/20r
 
Friday the 13th, 2011

Jiu-Jitsu (gi)
Andre had me teach kimura and basic lapel choke from the back. Really took me back to remembering the details of this position. It's amazing that some people don't understand how to actually teach something. Just because you tell somebody to look back, doesn't mean they're going to hip in. You have to give people mnemonics and sequential verbal cues, especially when they're new. I want to write up a book called 'How to teach BJJ.'

Rolling (gi)
Rolling went real well. Rolled about 5 or 6 times with white and blue belts. Felt really good sweeping from bottom using a lot of my new game stuff.

Week 6 Upper 2
1. Chins x 6, 5, 4, 3
2. Rest-Pause, 3-Second Eccentric Lat Pulldown x 15, 10, 10
 
Saturday, May 14th, 2011

Rolling (nogi)

Rolled with white and blue belts and got to really work my back take game, but I also got to roll with Tom who, in my opinion, is a world class black belt. I got a lot of tips on pulling deep half and defending my arm from the armbar. I had a nice guillotine on him and didn't finish because, well, it's almost impossible to choke tom. But I hit it automatically (marcelo garcia style with the arm over the back) which shows that all of the drilling and using it in sparring is paying off because now it's in my muscle memory and I don't have to think about it any more.

Also was stretching and pulling my foot to my head and my hand slipped off and hit myself in the eye and my eye is black and i'm an idiot.

GREAT day on the mats. Definitely got 1% better today. Gotta get out to roll with Tom in Sandwich at some point.
 
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Week 8 Lower 1

am

1. Bench Press: 195 x 6, 210 x 4, 230 x 2 or more
2. 1-arm DB bench (flat bench): 3x10x40, 55, 75
3. DB Rows: 4x12x105
4. 3-Way “Shoulder Shocker”: 2x10 ea

pm

Skipped all upper body assistance last week, so making up for it today.

5a. Blast Strap Rows: 3x10
5b. Skullcrushers: 3x10
6a. Timed DB Shrugs: 2 x 30sec
6b. Alt. Hammer Curls: 2x10ea arm
7. Dips: 3x8
8. Blackburns: 4 Positions, 20 Seconds each x 2 sets
9. EZ Curls: 3x12
10. Bike Sprints 10 x 10w, 20r
 
Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Jiu-Jitsu
Had a great night of technique and rolling. All white belts so I just went over a lot of basics.

Rolling
Rolled 5 times 6min. rounds with white belts and really focused on working my berimbolo roll and actually hit it a few times. Most guys give up the sweep before i can take their back.



Saturday, May 21st, 2011

Got to spend some time working on technique and rolling with Zach and Tom (brown and black belt, respectively).

Rolling
Rolled with Zach, tips of hand fighting (fight his hands, don't just defend mine against his grips / grip his first), be more aggressive (i did a good job splitting his butterfly, but I was playing too far out which doesn't work well in nogi)

Also rolled with some blue and white belts just to work my game. I really need to work on getting under people. Having LOTS of success with the marcelo garcia half x-guard

Technique
  • DLR with zach - scoot to side, control far side sleeve, scoot until they fall, non-dlr foot in armpit, keep sleeve grip even after sweep to help pass
  • leglock with zach / tom - we need to bring them back. they've been forgotten in teaching due to high rate of injury, and then at tournament, nobody knows how to defend or attack them
  • wristlock w/ tom - feel for them with pinky, when the pinky can break their wrist, move to ring finger, and farther down and SNAP the lock on

Amazing being able to train and learn from such high level guys today
 
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Training is few and far between. Really working hard on the website and it's taking a TON of time.

Week 8 Upper 2

1. Chin-ups (total reps) = 17.. holding into an I-beam

2. Drop-Set BB Rows (wide, overhand): 2x8,8,8,8

3a. Dips: 3x8x25
3b. Incline DB “cleans”: 3x10

4. Barbell Curls: 4x8

5a. BS Rows: 3x10
5b. Band Pull-Aparts: 3x20

Ran out of time.
 
Friday, May 27th, 2011

Week 8 Lower

Went off the program today. Whatever.

Squat - Worked up to 4x3x315
Leg Press - Drop Set 4x10
GHR - 2x10
Chins - 3x6

Not bad for 40min. Better stretch good tonight. Big day tomorrow. Gynastic natural, bjj training at Serafin BJJ, and then open mat at New Breed BJJ. One solid training session from 10:30 to 2. Can't. Freaking. Wait.
 
Saturday, May 28th, 2011

Serafin BJJ

Missed the gynastica natural class and only got in rolling and technique.

Really awesome session. If I wasn't at work, I'd put the youtube vids in here about our omoplata technique and discussion. Really amazing stuff about the omoplata being a position, not a submission. Also, worked on multiple finishes including a shoulder lock and collar choke.

Rolling (gi)
Rolled with three blue belts and Jeff. Rolling with Jeff was really a great learning experience. Also, his blue belts were all really solid. They have a guy like Alex who doesn't appear intimidating (but is around my size), but if you let him get into an advantageous position, it's really hard to get out.

Drove across Evanston to New Breed BJJ

Rolling (gi)

Rolled with Mark and Bob. Both of which seemed to have their way with me (video of me and mark is out there somewhere). Still trying to figure out de la riva guard and having a tough time of it. Maybe, I'm just forcing it too much. Still, Mark gave me a lot of pointers:

Against small guys, I want to pass from far out
Against bigger guys, I want to be in tight to negative their length
Knee-slide pass needs to almost be a knee-on-d*ck position and then choose which side to go to
I found myself in deep half against him a lot and he went over two good sweeps from there (remember to grab fingers in the knee
Deep half requires a rocking motion of the legs, not the upa that I was doing to go from side to side

Self reflection: My conditioning sucks.
 
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Sunday, May 29th, 2011

Restorative Workout

Simple 6 warmup

Pushups x 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12
Recline Rows 5x10

Turned out to be less restoration and more 'make me sore(er).'
 
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Week 9 Upper 1

Bench 5x205, 3x215, 1x240
Recline Rows 5x10
 
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Out of town for work. So just made do with what I had

Machine Chest Press 5x10, 4x20
High Incline situps 9x15
Machine Rows (using same machine) 3x20
 
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Still out of town.

Hill Sprints 4x5
Box Jumps 20x3

Saturday, June 4th, 2011

BS Rows 5x10
 
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Just something awesome:

Caio Terra
Bruno Bastos
DJ Jackson
Tarsis Humphreys
Ricardo Franjinha Miller
Daniel Moraes
Gabriel Gonzaga
Jimmy Cerra
Felipe Costa
Beneil Dariush
Ramiro Mota
Rafael Lovato Jr
Junior Assuncao
Royler Gracie
Tim Sledd
Dan Funes
Daniel Wanderlay
Cole Miller
Mendes Bros
Gerry Costa
Valerie Worthington
Jeff Glover
Lloyd Irvin
Andrew Smith
Adem Redzovic ‎
Christian Uflacker
Samuel Braga
Joao Bosco
 
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Just trying to keep track of some stuff. Been working on a project for a while and wanted to compile everything. Those names are only awesome if you're really into bjj.
 
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Week 9 Upper 2

BS Rows 5x10
BB Rows 6x8x145, 135, 125, 115, 105, 95
1-arm DB Bench 2x12

Jiu-Jitsu
Worked the step over pass that has been giving me a lot of trouble lately. I need to focus on not sitting back so far and kicking hard to get my foot out while keeping pressure on my opponent and not letting them get underneath me

Rolling
Rolled 3x6min rounds. Rolled with blue and white belts. One of our blues really had his way with me. His guard is super hard to pass and once he's in mount, it's a rough time.
 
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Saturday, June 11th, 2011

Jiu-Jitsu (Mota Martial Arts Grand Opening)

Learned techniques from Ramiro Mota, Rodrigo Comprido, and Mark Vives. Awesome stuff. Have it all on video. It'll be on BJJinChicago ? Covering Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Chicago and Northwest Indiana eventually.

Rolling
Rolled 4-5 x 5min. rounds and got smoked by one of Mark's brown belts, and had good rolls with Ramiro's purple, blue (Steve from Sherdog!), and a guy that wanted to roll nogi.

Drove back to Torres

Rolling
Rolled for about 2 hours nogi with a bunch of white belts. Used my arm drag a lot and worked my deep half and 1-leg x guard sweeps over and over in a live situation.

Trained for a good 4-5 hours today. Great times with good friends.
 
Sunday, June 12th, 2011

Week 9 Lower
Some of the defranco warmup stuff.

1. Squat worked up to 5x325.. easy
2a. RDL 3x10x225
2b. Plank shoulder touches 3x24
3. Back Raise 2x30
4. Bike Sprints 16 x 20w/10r
 
Monday, June 13th, 2011

Week 11 Upper 1

Bench Press
DB Bench
Chins
DB Rows
Rear Delt, Lateral raises, etc.
 
Training is going well. I spend so much time on bjjinchicago.com and thebjjprofessor.com that I really don't feel like logging anything. I've also been travelling a lot so I haven't been training as much as I want to. I'm reworking DeFranco's program and I'll be starting another 3 month cycle soon.
 
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