Saulo Ribeiro

So I "purchased" (as opposed to downloading from torrent sites eg tang-soo-do.us) Saulo Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu Revolution 1.. And damn, this guy is a genius...

The video is pretty damn good, it covers things I had never thought about. But what's nice about this video is that he discusses indepth the THEORY behind positions and techniques, not just the actual mechanics of the technique. It really made me understand how much I don't know about jiu jitsu, and how far I have to go on the road.

I bought his new book, Jiu Jitsu University, which I'm hoping will lead me to more enlightenment. I'm not too worried about learning new techniques, but I'd like some insight into Jiu Jitsu theory. It should be arriving within the fortnight, so a nice christmas present for myself..

On another note, I walked for 15 minutes through the rain to get to the second half of Friday's class, only to find out that the second half was cancelled. So I got to watch 2 minutes of MMA sparring, bow out, and then roll for about 15 minutes with another white belt, a good 15kg (~33lb) heavier than me.. I worked some butterfly guard, and found I was getting sweeps with relative ease, but I had trouble finishing. I now know that I need to work on my mount in no-gi because I feel pretty lost once I get there...

Also, I found a nearby affiliate gym that allows unlimited monthly training for $85, so I might do a month of training there. Their times are conveniently 45 minutes after my normal ones, so that gives me just enough time to get to the next class... Haha. So I'll be training pretty intensely in the school holidays, assuming I get the funding for it from my new job.. A guy in my class opened his own Subway franchise so I got first shot at at employment, lucky me. I think if I get to every possible training, I'll be doing something like 14 hours of BJJ a week. Jesus. I'm either gonna be really good, or really broken by the end of it all.

Arm Triangles and Reverse Triangles

Arm Triangle

Youtube Video - Arm Triangle from side control

First technique of the day was arm triangles from side control. The difference between this video and the way we did the technique is that once we have the arm triangle on, we switch into kesa and use our entire body to put pressure on him. It's a realllly tight choke when done properly.

• Don't get caught in half guard when switching sides
• Bring knee under his head and sit back into him to put pressure on

Reverse Arm Triangle

Again from side control. Our instructor claims that this choke came to him in a dream, and as such it's referred to as "Dream Choke" where we train.

There are no good youtube videos of this choke, and the setup is WAY too complicated to explain. So if you're reading this for information's sake, you'd better know how to set up a reverse triangle...

• Maintain arm control the whole time
• Once arm is trapped, reach around and under his neck and get your elbow right back to the floor. Put arm on the correct side to trap his arm and head inside the triangle.
• Switch around his body maintaining arm control - bring knee right over his face.
• Turn a bit more to put his arm straight across his carotid
• Sprawl hips down while crushing triangle together

I didn't quite get this technique down and would like to drill it again some time.

We then did some side control drills with the submissions we used in class. I think I did well against all of the other white belts, I "lost" once to our best white (4 stripe I think) but I'm fairly sure I "won" against all of the other whites.

Then, in rolling, it was strange being in the gi again. I've started to enjoy no-gi more but my fairly long hiatus from the gi game has made me realise how much more technical the gi game is. My base and guard passing have become worse... We only had time for two 5 minute rounds - the first one was four minutes of standup in which my opponent tied me up in my gi really well, but couldn't get a takedown for about four minutes. Then my instructor told him to just pull guard... Haha.. I couldn't open his guard for awhile, but he opened it to attack and I passed. Then he got me back into his half guard, and that was pretty much the roll.

Then I had a roll with my instructor. I don't remember how he took me down (musta been knocked out...) but I remember having my guard promptly passed. I also had mount for about two seconds because he tried something a bit risky. Then a bit later in the roll he got a beautiful, perfect half butterfly sweep on me which made me start giggling, and I looked up to see a big grin on his face.. Then he went to side control, and reverse triangled me (not reverse arm triangled - reverse triangled. this is another technique that we have been over a few times in class that he seems to like). I knew exactly what was coming, as well as how to escape, and yet couldn't do anything to stop it... Sigh, haha.. One day I want to be at that level.


From rolling and drilling it was again emphasised that I need to stop being satisfied with being on my back - I need to be more aggressive in my pursuit of top position rather than taking guard. If nothing else, then to develop a better top game - I want to be reasonably versatile by the time I reach blue belt level. I'm glad that my arm triangle seems to be coming along, but I need to work on using it a bit more in drills and rolls, as I think it's a pretty solid technique.

General Thoughts

A guy on www.jiujitsuforums.com requested that I make my blog a bit more appealing to the public when I had more time - well, I just finished writing my final assessment task for the year, so here's a nice long viewer-friendly post for the masses...

First, on my game.. I've been looking at the things that differentiate me from someone of blue belt level, as that's the next logical step up for me. Obviously, my general game is simply not of blue belt standard, but specific things that stand out at the moment are:

• My game under side control
• My control in side control
• My ability to finish once I am in good position
  

I guess it's clear that I am lacking partial understanding of the actual side control position. I allowed some of the less experienced people to pass my guard so that I could play around with some escapes and movement under side control. I guess I'm reasonable against less experienced people, but I suppose one would hope so. All of the three times that I was submitted were from under side control - once by the only blue belt there, and twice by my instructor (both subs coming from reverse triangle setups... lol...) I'm really going to put some effort into improving both my control on top and my escapes and defense from the bottom, as I think it's definitely something that's holding me back.

I'm not so worried about my finishing at the moment, as I think that's something that will become easier as I improve my ability to get good position and control. But it's something I will work specifically on once my side control is fixed.



Next item on the agenda is the school holidays - they start in two weeks, and I've got a job just in time. One of the blue belts in my class is opening his own Subway. I think I'm going to ask for loads of shifts during the holidays so that I can afford some private lessons, as well as having money to go out clubbing/partying.

Another interesting thing is that my instructor is going away from the 23rd of December to the 7th of January, and there will be no classes through this time period. I think I will go and train at either his instructor's school, his training partner's school, or the other affiliate school that is in a nearby suburb. I'll discuss it with my instructor and see which he thinks will be best for me, as well as having the most convenient training times and location (transport to/from). I'm going to approach this as an opportunity to diversify my training, rather than an absence of my instructor...

Anyway, I guess my general goal for the school holidays is to make a vast improvement in my BJJ and train a LOT, preferably with quite a few private lessons thrown in the mix.

Hope someone gained something out of reading that, 'cause that sure was a lot of typing when I should be preparing for tomorrow's assessments.. :p

Short on time

So I'm in the middle of exams right now and haven't had much time to train or blog. Got down to training twice in two weeks.. :(

Anyway, I digress

Wednesday's Lesson - No-Gi Pendulum Sweep

• Use knee to clear elbow
• Make sure to keep his body tight when grabbing his lat - key to the sweep
  
• Remember correct hip movement
• Swinging of leg gains momentum
• KEEP ARM TRAPPED in mount for an easy arm triangle or armbar

Rolls have really accented how bad I am under side control. I am confident in every other position against someone my level, but as soon as I'm under side control I'm a fish out of water. I can't escape unless they give me some space when they attempt a sub. So I'm gonna be working on this over the next few weeks. That and not getting my guard passed in the first place.

Hopefully I'll get back to my blogging after exams...

Another private

Private Lesson with Wil Cunningham 15 November

Passing the guard

More of a theory lesson than specific techniques. Did under-the-leg-pass and somersault pass.

Some things for me to keep in mind

• Constantly attack different passes
• Under-leg, make sure arm is tight on body
• Somersault, not too high up or far across body
• Keep control of both legs until passed!

• When attacking in guard, keep him off-balance and be one step ahead with your attacks!
  

Also in class we did step-around armbars from side control and reverse triangles from side control (lol)

I scrapped the reverse triangle. But for the armbar

• Get arm control before knee up
• Roll him right up onto his side
• No thumb!
  

Ow, fuck.

So the first thing I just can't go past saying is that I got neck cranked (possibly more than once) today and it REALLY hurts. I won't say who by, but suffice to say that it's the same people every week that do stupid stuff with potential to injure, roll too hard, etc.

Did some work from turtle guard today.

Anaconda Choke (scrap - lacked focus while drilling so not going to try to remember)

Front Naked Choke

• Careful not to hurt training partners with my sharp forearms
• Get hand right across to his shoulder

Omoplata defence to single leg takedown from Turtle
I'm sure this sounds ridiculous to anyone that doesn't already know the technique but I'm not gonna explain it, couldn't possibly do it in text.

• Make sure to bring body parallel to his... crucial
  
• Catch his hips as soon as roll into omoplata is complete
  
• I really like omoplatas

In other news I felt like crap at training today, not sure why. I guess you just have off days...

Anyway, my Robson Moura DVD is done downloading so maybe I can pick up some new stuff!

First Post and Training Log

So, I've finally decided to keep record of my training online in blog form. Most convenient 'cause it can be written or accessed from anywhere with internet.

I'll be keeping record of anything that happens that is relevant to my BJJ game which I can reflect on. This will mostly, however, be boring training logs. This blog is admittedly more for my own use than anyone else's so it won't be as good of a read as Pesadelo's Blog
but maybe someone will be able to get some use out of it. I don't know.

Just a little background on me:
I'm a White Belt under black belt Wil Cunningham (Helio Gracie -> Jorge Pereira -> Paulo Guimaraes -> Wil Cunningham). I've been training since 28 July 2008 and have since won the NSW Juvenile White Belt over 73kg division.

Anyway, enough talk, on with the show..

Private Lesson with Wil Cunningham (Black belt) 8 November
Helio Gracie -> Jorge Pereira -> Paulo Guimaraes -> Wil Cunningham

Open Guard
Sweeps

Tripod Sweep
Got this technique well under my belt.
Things to remember:

• Turn right onto side
• Foot on hip facing towards other leg, not away
• Grab right on base of heel
• Foot hook right on base of other heel

Other sweeps briefly looked at.. specific details forgotten :(

Pushover
Foot behind knee
Helicopter (basic)
Backsweep (basic)


Monday Training Session 10 November

Got reaaaally nice tripod sweep on E.* with shin on hips. Also a perfect scissor sweep after not even having them work in previous trainings. Visualisation has really helped my game.

In training we worked step-around armbar from kneeride. Need to work on stepping over his other arm so that legs are in better position in armbar.

*Won't be revealing names of training partners other than first names.