Back on the mat...

[Erik]

...and I'm aching already.

Dang, I felt like a new guy again. It was strange moving on the mat, like rediscovering water or something.

I was getting clobbered! All my pals got a belt-upgrade, which happens once per year, but I was gone for it. Some of them have really improved, which makes me proud of them, but annoyed for me.

Oh well, if I can manage to not get hurt for the first few weeks back and rediscover how to move, then that's a good February.

I'm trying to think of some specific BJJ goals for this year. I think I'll make it Armbar Year and Excellent Posture in Guard Year, both of which skills are disproportionately weak for me.

[Eye4NEye]

Awesome, Erik! Congrats! I'm heading back tonight after being out for almost 2 months. I'm ready to get clobbered! :laugh:

[Erik]

Go slowly and tap easily, Jason.

It's sooooo easy to think the body can take the same beating it could a few months ago. I could feel little spasms in the neck and spine from popping my head out of guillitines, brindging and rolling, and working hard to keep good posture in guard so I could pass well. These can happen in an instant, especially if the body is not used to rolling anymore.

I hope you don't feel tomorrow like I do this morning.

Speaking of which, I gotta get some ibuprofin, and coffee....

[Jeff C.]

Welcome back, Erik!

Jeff Cook

[Erik]

You too, Jeff! You were in Japan, studying "osses", right?

:)

[Brian R. VanCise]

Hey Erik,

It is great that you are back on the mats.

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

[FunSPE]

Im also back on the mat as well from a nice knee injury. But, Ive been having to cut back training from 6 days a week to 2-3 and that has been a HUGE adjustment for me to make. Damn lifes little priorities. I'll be gald to start training like normal this summer!

Glad you are back on the mat...just keep yourself safe!

[Erik]

Rolled twice now, not a lot.

Learning a few important things after clearing my mind of BJJ for a while and re-approaching it. Jeff C. was right when he told me that it sometimes stimulates his learning to take some time off.

We re-examined triangle chokes yesterday, something I have never been able to pull off due to my short and thick legs. I found that just hooking my ankles was enough to get the choke if I got just a little of a rotated angle (my spine no longer in line with his spine).

I should mention that this move is my absolute worst and I hate it. If ever anything reminded me that I am short and thick, it's this one.

Machine taught yesterday and did a great job. Interestingly, he's one of those tall, skinny guys. He's ca. 200 lbs with the agility of a featherweight. I imagine that both our Tonys are like that. I had figured that it would be hard to learn such a long-leg-intensive move like this from a guy built like him but the opposite turned out to be true.

He approached tightening up the triangle with a 3-point checklist: Head, leg, arm. This produced great results (for the first time ever for me).

Assuming one gets decent penetration from thrusting the hips upward, then pulling on the head keeps him from coming around and escaping. Blocking by holding the hip helps, too, but it's the head control that matters here, so pull the head down.

I had previously tried to control the elbow cross-wise, like cupping his right elbow with my right hand (or left to left, of course). I had guys tapping out here, oddly.

Then, reach through to your own shin and pull it to get the figure-4 locked up tightly.

Don't grab the foot or below the ankle, which is what I had always thought and done and it hadn't worked for me. Again, I had guys tapping, but now more urgently, from here.

Once the figure-4 is locked, it's just academic to put that arm across and pull on the head. No big epiphany here.

So, main lessons learned:
1) Control from head, not from arm.
2) Block rotation-escape with simple hip block with your hand.
3) Head, shin, arm.
4) For stubby guys like me, expect a tap before locking the figure-4 simply from the pressure of pulling the shin.

Great lesson, great chance to re-examine a fundamental technique. Jeff was right with his advice last October.

[TonyU]

One of my favorite submissions.
I've caught a few unawares.

Glad to see you back on the mat Erik.

[Jeff C.]

Good job brother!

Jeff Cook

[Eye4NEye]

Last night was my first night back on the mat after over a month. I was supposed to start back last week, but things just didn't work out.

All I can say is that it felt GREAT!!!! I had the best rolls last night that I have ever had. It wasn't that I was any better, but my enthusiasm was through the roof! I lost almost every match and LOVED IT! I was grinning from ear to ear! Every time I got submitted, I jumped back up and was ready to go again.

I've done nothing but think about BJJ the entire time my foot was healing...I read books, watched videos, researched on the net...I have a better understanding of why I was losing now than I did over a month ago.

Man it feels great to wake up broken again...

[Tony Dismukes]

Congratulations, Erik and Jason. Glad you're back.

I was off from training for the whole month of December. It felt really good to be back on the mat.

[John Lucas]

I rolled for the first time today...I'm so tired I cant even finish typing this po

[Archimedes]

We re-examined triangle chokes yesterday, something I have never been able to pull off due to my short and thick legs.


Ever practiced armless triangles?

[Jeff C.]

I got back on the BJJ mat yesterday after a few months too, with my neck FINALLY healed (apparently). I felt pretty good rolling with the white and blue belts. I only wanted to stay relaxed and flow from position to position, not really worried about subbing or getting sub-ed. I was working over a blue belt pretty good, holding top position and flowing from one position to the next (or so I thought) but Charles was just giving me abolute sh*t! He said I was "off my game," not flowing very well, pathetic, etc. It was pretty funny, actually - because I knew what he was doing; I do it to my students too. ;) So I locked in a single-wing strangle, and when my partner tapped out, Charles went and picked on someone else. Obviously I am not up to my old game yet, but I just finally started hitting it hard again too.

Then I went and rolled with a brown belt. Boy howdy! It's all about the a$$-beatings - the more you survive, the more you learn! John totally owned me for about thirty minutes (with many breaks for me to catch my breath). He worked me over like a cheap hooker. The great thing about John is he teaches me while he beats me, and by the end of the session I was actually flowing much better and protecting my overexposed legs much better too. I actually got a sweep off of an escape during one exchange (and then of course paid dearly for it seconds later!).

If I can get my body to unfold this morning, I think I might crawl back down there later this morning. After that I go to physical therapy for my neck; hopefully they will clear me and I won't have to go back .

Jeff Cook

[Erik]

Yup, Jeff, I can relate, though I'm getting worked by blues and "nurtured" by purples. It's humiliating in a way. I appreciate the respect and effort my pals are putting into my getting back up to speed (starting to wonder if I was ever at any speed...) but you know how it is - it feels far better to extend that graciousness to one's own pals than it does to be on the receiving end, if that makes sense.

Hope your neck improves. For me, it's T6, T7, and T8, and one of the ribs connected to them. I'm good friends with our team chiropractor.

I've been really tired this week, too, like drained, exhausted, kinda depressed. I wonder if it has anything to do with the workouts - getting banged around, frustrated, re-exposure to the bacteria and viruses in everyone's sweat, and so on. I can really feel it. I'm sure in a few weeks it will feel good again, right? Grrrr....

George - I've practiced triangles without using my arms. It was a good academic study but I didn't make anything practical out of it.

Or do you mean triangling them without one of their arms in the triangle? Please explain more.

'Night, John....

[John Lucas]

He worked me over like a cheap hooker.
Jeff Cook

hahaha! That is the first thing I have read in a long time that literally made me laugh out loud.

My training has been at nearly a dead stop for about six months now, and just this week I started lifting after school with some friends of mine from the wrestling team, and now I will be doing BJJ twice a week and rolling on open mat times. Additionally I think on Thursdays I need to be doing some cardio work or something to get my endurance back up. Though I never really felt winded, at the end of rolling I felt like I was going to pass out or throw up. I took a few water breaks too, so I'm hoping if I put in some time with the jump rope or riding the bike that I will get my endurance up.

[dao]

Congradulations Erik and Jason

[Archimedes]

Or do you mean triangling them without one of their arms in the triangle? Please explain more.


That's what I mean. Say you're slinging your right leg around his neck. Instead of pulling his right arm out to catch it in the triangle, you slide your right hand up into the right side of his collar (like you're getting ready to do a collar choke) and then complete the figure four with your left leg while leaving his right arm out of the triangle. I thought that if you're up against some behemoth and you can't get your cross-the-ankles triangle to work, you might be able to lock the figure four by leaving his arm out of the triangle.

[Luebbers]

I've seen people do the armless triangle, but it's really hard to pull off. It's much easier for the guy to stack you and pass your guard. I find it interesting that (according to a friend who wrestled in HS) the armless triangle was an illegal move in wrestling because of choking possibilities, but he made no mention of the "traditional" triangle.