Choose Strong
For Tim.
Darren punctured my balloon when he said that older people held onto water when
I was trying to convince myself that my weight gain was all muscle. I ended up
getting more strict with diet.
My friend Andreas gave me two strong rubber bands. I haven't used them regularly
for strengthening my hooks but they helped me streching. I could comfortably
rest in Asian squat now.
Starting mid-april, I hurt my lower back twice, first when trying to elevate my
opponent to do a half-guard sweep and second due to poor posture in a single-leg
takedown. During the latter, Andreas handed me the foam roller which gave
instant relief and I was able to finish the class. Afterwards, recovering was
slow and frustrating. It hurt whenever I sniffed in, got up from a chair,
expanded the chest to sneeze, or bent to pick up something.
A new one-degree bluebelt joined us. He was a young Asian and of my weight and
his guard was so good I could rarely get to him. A lanky brown-belt joined us,
too, over 6ft tall and recovering from a back surgery. He could've waited
longer, but he missed being beaten up, he said.
Only by the end of the month had I recovered and enjoyed more classes.
Apr 1, no one else showed up at the noon class and I got to ask Darren anything,
a private! So here it goes:
1. We reviewed the saddle-entry from half-guard bottom.
- duck or sit up to get the underhook and hook the leg.
- get the butterfly hook.
- pull him on top and elevate with the butterfly hook.
- push at his armpit to direct him away.
- weave the far-side leg under his knee and kick out and make the figure 4.
2. When my opponent scoots behind and has his weight and legs in position to
take my back, I can grab the back of his near-side knee before moving my hips
up and away (Darren's version) and doing the Peterson's roll.
3. When my opponent is sprawling on me at the front with his chest on my back, I
could do two things:
- do a partial sit-out and get to his back and grab his leg, or
- cut an angle, one leg up, the other elbow supports, and I shoot the other
leg through to recover guard.
4. Get into the Deep Half-guard
- left-side underhook and right-side hook at the back of his knee
- stretch my legs, pull him on top of me, and swing both legs to the left
side, taking his right leg along, (now I'm under him)
- hands clasps over the knee of his trapped leg and hug tightly
5. Three variations from DHG
- Waiter sweep: left hand gets behind his right ankle, scoop to meet the
right hand which trap his other ankle, clasp and hug tight, pendulum my
right leg to take him over.
- When he counters by pushing his knee down, swing my legs and scoot to his
back, pushing forwad with my shoulder.
- When he counters by lifting his knee up, swing my legs to get out.
6. Back defense - hold tight his choking arm!
- fall to his weak side
- fall to his strong side, make the kimura grip and push open his seatbelt
grip, or get the head out under his choking arm.
The next noon, while waiting for the class to begin, I picked up the book
``Jiu-jitsu University'' by Saulo Ribeiro, and was immediately attracted by its
content. The triangle defense and escape, for example, was treated with much
clarity and new to me. I decided to read it. One quote at the beginning:
``Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the
art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconcious. -- Daisetsu Suzuki.''
Machine said I should try more sit-outs at turtle bottom and showed me how he
moved his head from side to side to find openings. I realized right away my
problem: I put up one leg first before moving my head and waste a lot of energy.
I tried Machine's strategy on Victor in sparring but he knew what was coming and
disengaged. It was a great idea as moving the head is easy but my opponent had
to respond and wasting energy trying to hold his top position.
Apr 3. Darren showed a takedown with only a cross lapel grip necessary
(controlling the sleeve helps). It could be done with arm-drag in no-gi, too:
cross-lapel grip with my right hand, step to forward left to my opponent's
right, extend my right leg in front of him, and sit on my right side. When
dragging him down keep my right elbow to my side. Andreas had been improving.
With his size, soon he would be able to defend himself and it would be hard to
do anything to him.
Apr 7. Machine taught two single-leg takedown entries: the snap and the sweep. I
saw these before but felt more connected when John told me to put my left knee
down in the sweep single. He also taught the guard bottom techniques in
drawining in the elbow. Drilled with Neo, an experienced white belt and new face
in the gym. During sparring, I did a hip-bump sweep on him but forgot to block
his arm which he used for base, and then I forgot to follow up with the
guilotine. My jiu-jitsu sucked! Andreas gave me a pair of bands for hardening my
hooks and we drilled the takedown Darren taught last week. I forgot to emphasize
the tight grip.
Apr 9. Machine taught another version of the hip bump sweep by keeping the
sleeve of the arm to take off the base, and the "muscle sweep" where, the
shorter player can open his legs and drop lower to the knees of his opponent
for the sweep.
Apr 14. Machine taught guard break and pass through standing up. I learned
the same lesson last year but still missed many details.
Apr 15. Darren showed again the saddle-entry from turtle at my request and two
other entries from reverse de la riva and standing. I paired with Leon and had a
great time drilling. I rolled with everybody afterwards which resulted in upper
back muscle sore. The pain prevented me from sneezing as the ribcage would stop
ballooning as the sneeze built up to the mighty achoo.
As for the saddle-entry from turtle, when my opponent puts his knee between my
knees from the back, I need to step the same-side leg out and straighten it to
provide the opening to grab his leg. I also asked what if my opponent's leg was not
kneeing flush with mine but his lower leg simply crossing and pinning mine.
Darren said it still could be done and I had to grab his shin and try to reach
his foot during the roll. I forgot the ask what if his knee was up which Richard
would do before trying to get my back.
Apr 17. Darren showed two escapes from the triangle and three from the omoplata.
For the triangle with the right arm trapped,
- Try knee-on-belly with the right leg, connect the right knee with the
right elbow, and grab his left hip with my free left hand. Maintain the
position and pull with the left hand to take the head out of the triangle.
Take the right arm out.
- Try fall to the left and twist the upper body to face the mat, hold his
grounded right knee with two hands, and drive forward with the legs.
For the omoplata with the right arm caught, the arm had to be bent at the elbow
or there was no omoplata. One could just straighten their back and shake the
attacker off.
- With the attacker lying on his back, roll on my LEFT shoulder to circle around
and get on top.
- With the attacker lying on his back, jump backward over his head to the other
side of his body, and give yourself a good base to prevent him from using your
momentum to keep rolling.
- With the attacker sitting on his butts, tighten the grip on the belt, the
right leg goes behind his back, and the left leg at the bottom scoop toward
his butts at the same time when turning TOWARD him. The torque generated would
sweep him.
I saw the last of the omoplata reversal from Henry's video long ago but never
did it. Now I'm very confident I can pull it off.
Apr 30. Machine showed how to get out of the the paper-cutter choke with body
swings. I never saw it before and it was intuitive.
