Monday 19 January 2009

Private 2 and mystery injury

This update is laaaaate. Been getting things sorted for my trip to Zambia, and saying farewells. Missed Mauricio coming down which from all accounts was very good. Had my 2nd private from Andy a week ago as well so my memory is abit hazy. Luckily I wrote down what I wanted to work on!


  • Drill taking back from guard, half guard and all top positions.

  • Survival drill – Mount, side mount, back, half guard, guard

  • Flying armbar

  • Kneebar setups.

To make sure I used every minute I actually wrote down alot more than this, as I thought it better to have to much to work on than to little. Something I recommend to those seeking privates. Alot more practical stuff compared to my 1st one where I just needed lots of tiny adjustments. Time wise we ended up splitting it (45% taking back, 45% survival, 5% flying armbar, 5% kneebar). Ive got some sweeps and Ive got some subs but I find myself rarely going to the king of positions (their back). So I wanted to work on this to complete my triple threat. All the transitions to someones back were pretty similar, with the key being on getting them off centre and staying tight so they couldn't twist back. Another mistake I was making when taking the back from side control was by not scooting my hips high enough. Which meant as I rolled them over to put my hook in their weight went onto my hips and allowed them to gain some control. My pelvis needed to be closer towards their head. We drilled this from virtually every position including under north south (where you roll backwards onto their back). I feel quite strong in this area now and just need to practise it during sparring.


The survival drill was my idea. I wanted to practise pure survival without thinking of sweeps, subs or passes. The idea being so we could focus on the details of defense. Although being subbed over and over is never that fun, the drill paid dividends. I wasn't defending their grips enough, often allowing a deep collar grip thinking myself quite able to defend the cross collar choke. But Andy got them on me several times and even when I did defend them my posture was broken down from the grip and it led to other submissions. Another key point was when under mount I wasn't working hard enough to escape. You may be able to stall in someones guard but its a very different matter under their mount. I think I will make a feature of this drill as its something I think people could benefit from doing.


Kneebars we worked from different positions all sharing a common theme of correct positioning over the victim leg. I shouldn't really be working to much on kneebars I think at this stage but I felt it important that I am quite comfortable with them for when Im expected to start working them.


My flying armbar was corrected in that I was jumping with the wrong foot and without the right grips, giving me a high guard rather than a controlled armbar.


So another good private! - decided to reschedule my 3rd private for when I come from Zambia as Im gonna be russssssssty.

Then did a beginners lesson. Was good :D. Cant for the life of me remember what we did, which is why I have this blog!!.

Before starting the next lesson and a spar with Brian which went quite well. Went for an open butterfly guard Ive been growing fond of and immediately went for a sneaky sweep and then transitioned to his back when he defended it. Woop!. But then I couldnt sub him...and we only had about 2 minutes so I let it go and we carried on. Ending in a stalemate of sorts, good roll.


The next lesson was another good un, I think it was pure sparring. My performance then declined to about 50/50. I was being way to passive and my timing was off for that approach, knowing the problem though I was quite up beat and didnt let it get to me. Managed to pull off some alright stuff so wasn't a whitewash, bow and arrow choke awesomeness. The ones I did lose was mostly things like posting my leg up to stop them going to mount. Then fighting for abit and forgetting about my leg and dropping it to do something else, then POW mounted. In another one I defended an omoplata thinking only of the sub when it occurred to me to late that its just gonna get me swept, which it did. But was still happy and kept at it, nearly landing a kneebar on Ryan before having to let it go.


The main thing that got me down was getting subbed TWICE from someones back. You read correctly reader, from being on someones back... . Two different people as well, first time Ive ever seen this submission. 1st time it was Dorian, went for a RNC and he got control of my choking arm and positioned it so my elbow was on his shoulder. He then proceeded to straight arm lock me by pushing up with his shoulder and pulling down on my arm to straighten it. Andy then did the exact thing to me 5 minutes later. Bizarre!, but gonna try it myself if I find myself in a RNC. Cant find a vid of any mention of it on the net. Long day! 3.5 hours training!

My knee was for some reason very swollen recently, no injury to it and not alot of pain. Its just abit stiff and only hurts when I try bring my foot to my ass. Ice brought the swelling down abit. But is very odd.

Compelling historical evidence on why Fedor is gonna kick Arlovski's ass.


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