Started BJJ

[HALZION]

A few months ago I started taking BJJ classes. My instructor is Jack Mcvicker, dudes a monster. Multiple Pan-am and European champ, he got his black belt from Megaton Dias, who got his from Royler. (Some notable people who have trained under Jack: Kyle Watson got his brown belt under Jack, and Dan Hornbuckle has a purple belt under him.) He gets gold in his weight class and in the absolute every time he competes, and I am honored to be learning from him. He is also a black belt in Jeet Kune Do under Paul Vunak.

Classes start out with around 45 minutes of JKD or Filipino stuff (kali, etc) and then we do an hourish of BJJ, then an hour of open mat. Right now my conditioning sucks, but it is getting better. I plan to start competing as soon as possible, once my conditioning is where I think it should be. I'm really enjoying it a lot, and I am learning really quickly- faster than I expected. I still think it will be at least a year or more before I am promoted to blue belt, most guys in my school saw at least 18 months of mat time before they got promoted. I am in no hurry, I have found this to be a great diversion from alcohol and a lifelong pursuit. I will try and keep this thread updated somewhat with my experiences, keeping a journal is a good way to help your progression I have been told.

[Bas]

Neat, good luck in your trainings... sigh, I miss that.

[HALZION]

I wanted to update this tonight, as tonight was my first live class after fracturing a rib. I have been out for just over a month, and it has really sucked just observing class vs participating. I kind of felt like the asthmatic allergic kid in gym class. Anyway, tonight we started class working on breaking an opponents posture from full guard. The goal was to shrimp out a bit onto one hip, bring the opposite leg over his arm and break grip, then immediately shoot that leg over to lock in the triangle choke. We did three variations, the first just a standard triangle, the second was like a 90 degree triangle (basically you lock it on, but the side that your leg is behind his neck, you hook his arm/leg, preventing him from standing up and stacking you for the escape), and the third variation was just throwing your other leg over his face for a straight armbar. The three moves were pretty effective, I have actually been wanting to try the triangle variation for a couple weeks, as it is REALLY tight. In a standard triangle, you squeeze with your adductor muscles, and pull on the head for leverage. This is the most standard triangle that you see in mma, but a lot of the strength relies on leverage and positioning, as these muscles in your legs are naturally weak. It is also important to have the trapped arm across your/their body to maximize the leverage, and sitting up to pull down on the head is a little bit taxing. While this is an effective move, these variables make it easy for someone to defend if its not locked in tightly from the beginning. I also have short thick legs, so unless the person is very thin, it is hard for me to lock my ankle under my knee tightly. The variation, however, is sick. By turning 90 degrees into the opponents free hand side, you are able to maximize the pressure on the carotid arteries. This is because instead of using lesser developed muscles in your legs, you can do basically a hamstring curl with your top leg, and straightening out your other leg like a leg press puts a ton more pressure on the other side. By also hooking the arm/leg on the free side of your opponent, it prevents them from standing up, minimizing the chances of them stacking you and potentially taking your back. It is also not necessary to cross their locked arm across their chest, as it is just that much tighter. It is a little more difficult to transition to the straight armbar from here, but I would like to explore this option a little further by looking into potential sweeps utilizing the hooked leg. This would potentially set up a much more dominant position, and it is much more difficult to defend the armbar from your back than it is the top. (It also counts as a sweep, so barring a successful submission, you get points from that, if the match goes the distance.)

The next thing we learned was from inside the opponents guard. The setup was the same, but this time when the bottom guy attempts to shrimp, you take the opportunity to pass their guard. We only worked on passing, as it led to side control, which allows for multiple options, but ultimately scores points for the pass. The reason for this drill was to understand the mechanics of the pass, and rep the shit out of it to get that muscle memory. (I have a much harder time with positioning in guard passes than I do my guard work, so it is critical that I drill this stuff a lot.)

[HALZION]

(continued, I dont want to lose all that shit I just typed.)

So for the first pass, we looked to stand up when the open their guard, and immediately sit back down into their guard, but putting a knee up the same side they are bracing on your hips. (They will be bracing one foot or the other on your hips in order to push off) With this knee in the middle, they are unable to close their guard, unless they have super long legs. Even if they are able, you know have a much more stable base, making their closed guard much more ineffective. Once the knee is in, you have to push it into their leg on the same side, trying to get their hip on the ground. This flattens it out, and makes it much easier to pass. If you are able to get your knee high enough on their leg, you are halfway passed just by sliding your knee all the way over. Most likely their other leg is still trying to maintain its position on the other side (or even worse for you hooking your other leg to trap it), so it is key to hook under their leg. By raising up their leg, you can kick yours out and complete the guard pass. One thing the guy I was training with tonight pointed out to me was that I kept grabbing his wrist at the same time as hooking his leg. I didnt realize I was doing it, but apparently this nullified his ability to post up on that side, and with is other leg trapped under my knee he was fairly immobile. This was not exactly what we were shown, but it seemed to be working for me. The only problem with this is that it is important to first look for the under hook on your opponents far side when you get to side control, and I was having trouble as I was pinning it to his side. If he were posting up on that arm there would be much more room to get the under hook, but more potential for an escape or to block my guard pass. I will have to work with this one more as well, to determine the highest rate of effectiveness.

The last thing we worked on was a cross body pass from the same setup. (Bottom guy is attempting to shrimp out, or at least indicating this by opening his guard and posting one foot on your hip.) The only difference was we went to the opposite side, pushing down his knee that is still locked in guard position, and stepping over, then transitioning your weight to his hip, sliding your opposite knee over, then sliding down into guard. This is a move I have trouble with, as I am still attempting to overcome a bit of impatience. What I mean I guess is that I try and do things fast and in an explosive manner, while some things in jiujitsu are more finesse and timing. The key is to sit heavy on their hips with your legs and ehavy on your chest with your far elbow, and wait for an opportune time to slide your other knee out. Even after this is done, it is key to stay tight and low, and not give room for him to escape back to guard. I was lucky, in that the guy I was rolling with had to leave (not that he wasnt a good training partner) but that a senior guy had come in and was waiting for open mat. He was very helpful in correcting my mistakes, and pointing out things that the other guy was unaware of. He was also more willing to give the appropriate amount of resistance, rather than one extreme or the other.

[HALZION]

During open roll I sat out the first couple of rounds to catch my breath. My cardio is terrible right now, as sitting around watching guys roll isn't an effective workout. I was asked by a guy I had never met if I wanted to roll, and was ready to, but my instructor suggested I find someone smaller, due to my recent injury. (The guy was probably 6'2", 220 lbs. lol good idea.) The kid I paired up with instead is a guy I have trained with before but not rolled with. He is like 18-19 and was a wrestler in high school. Dude also has extreme cardio, and I have seen him roll quite a bit. He is also just a white belt but has been training for over a year. While I expected him to steamroll me, as this would have been my first live sparring since the first week of January, I actually did much better than expected. My goal this round was to work on loosening up and work from an open guard if I found myself on bottom, as I have a tendency to tense up and just hold on tight with my legs to prevent things. It also limits what I am able to do, except defend. Im still really new after all, but the worst thing you can do in bjj is tense up and forget to breath. So I took my time, and first thing ended up in side control. I didn't get the under hook, and he was able to get out pretty quick, but in the scramble I was able to avoid having my back taken. I was able to catch him in an arm in guillotine, but let it go pretty quick when I could tell it wasnt under his chin well enough. I did get my shoulder into the side of his neck and grabbed his lapel, which was a little tighter, but I didnt squeeze to much because I was trying to be patient and wait for a better opening. I still had the over hook, and when I let go of that to attempt to grab my wrist and cinch the choke tighter, he was able to escape. I pulled guard when he stood up, and went for a de la riva guard, which I know very little about. I was trying to take him down with it, but knowing jack shit about what I was doing, he made it to my half guard. I was able to position back to full guard, but he was very patient in closing the gap. He was going for an arm triangle, but it was not very tight from my guard, as I was able to push up quite a bit and make that space. He was moving his head around testing my neck to see if he could get it in tighter, and thats when I realized what he was going for. I locked in his arm on my right side and let my legs loose enough for him to get tight so I could sweep him. I got about halfway over and was obviously doing something wrong because he got out and immediately grabbed an arm, and locked in a good armbar. No big deal, I did better than I expected against this guy.

It is kind of weird, I think taking the time off I was able to look at things a little more subjectively and focus on what path I want to take in my education. By using larger, broad ideas (dont close my guard this round, be patient etc) as goals, I am able to focus more on what I am doing during the time im on the mat. Most of the time I have spent rolling thus far I have been put into either really shitty positions or really good ones, so theres either that excitement of "holy shit I just did that" or "holy fuck im fucked", but being more patient allows me time to plan ahead and figure out what the other guy is doing.


I know this is a shit ton of words for just one class. Like I said I was told it is beneficial to keep a journal, and maybe as i go I can refer back to this and refresh myself. I dont expect this to be much more than me just posting, but I welcome dialogue that may help. It also helps me process the class and break it down, to get the most out of it. And writing all that shit in a notebook would be stupid.

[StupidMonKey]

This is a good idea. There will be lots of technique that you could possibly forget and this can be a good refresher to remember what it is you have done in the past.

[HALZION]

I think so too. The first year of training is apparently fairly overwhelming, sorting it out cohesively is the goal. The carryover from one technique to another is common as a lot of things are derivative in jj, so writing it out helps me apply "this to that" and hopefully get over sticking points more fluidly.

[HALZION]

This is a terrible log. I bought a good notebook to use, just fyi. Currently nursing 2 fucked up toes on my right foot, incurred last night during open mat. Hope it is better by tomorrow night. Also, I have asthma. Found out a month ago- conditioning wasnt improving, and recovery after rounds was non-existent. Albuterol before class and I am much more able to focus on technique rather than exhausted wheezing defense mode. I am doing my first tournament in june, trying to drop about 12 lbs before then to be at the high end of a weight class vs low end and carrying some useless tonnage. Tightening up my diet and adding some extra circuit training on friday and saturday, off days during week are pretty much a short lifting session and recovery from class.

I can't wait until OP gets his shit pushed in at JJ. Fun times for all but OP.

[HALZION]

No one cares what you think you salty faggot. As little traffic as this site gets, it's unbecoming that you feel the need to spout. Take it elsewhere and get off my dick. Also, it's HAL, or Halcyon, or HALZION, should you grow a pair.