It’s only been a year and a half or so since we moved into this new space, and already it’s showing signs of being crowded. There was no way I could have squeezed myself, let alone had room for a barbell, into the Crossfit area Saturday morning. It was a zoo!

Open mat was about to start when Christine grabbed me, and introduced me to Greg. He’s here for his first lesson…and Damian’s not here. Being drafted to do so, I give him the basic introduction to jiu jitsu (as I know it). He’s a MMA fan, so he has some idea of the terminology, so thankfully one hump was mostly out of the way right off the bat. I took him through the BJJ 101 thread of yore, dusting off my memories of it one step ahead of teaching it to him. He seemed to enjoy the process of learning, and with each iteration through the thread, I introduced more and more. After a while, I saw Damian and brought Greg over to meet him. They chatted a while and then Damian paired him up with Renato to “roll” some.

In the mean time, Damian grabbed me to roll with. I had done a fair amount of thinking about my roll with him last Saturday. It helped that I was mostly fresh today. He started off with the same De La Riva, but today I realized the mistake I was making last week. I still didn’t pass, but he didn’t sweep me right off the bat. He transitioned into deep half guard, and I correctly remembered the pass. I did make a mistake at the end securing side control. He pointed out that I needed to keep my weight lower. We switched sides so he could demonstrate it, and how I could transition to back control. We switched again so that I could give it a shot. Took his back and collar choked him. We reset, with him in my guard. I over wrapped his arm, but didn’t grab his collar. He pointed out that by grabbing the collar gives me choke options as well as the clamp position options I was aiming at. All in all a pretty good roll with some excellent pointers included.

I grabbed Long to roll for a bit too, but quit a little early so that I could do my lifts in the now empty gym. Only got 2 out of the prescribed 3 reps on the last set. Lifting after rolling makes a big difference!

My 531 squats are reaching a point where I’m starting to feel a little uncomfortable doing them alone. On the plus side, I did have enough time last night to a half dozen cleans as well. No where near heavy, but something to at least knock some dust off of my form.

Class started off with some side control retention drilling. It was an interesting technique that we can use when our opponents start to escape where we can switch sides and establish control. Long and I were drilling together. Towards the end, we added in an elbow crush/armlock combo attack.

Training was the position ladder game. Long, Brady and I were a group. Brady ran through us like a hot knife, finishing the ladder (passing the guard, mounting from side, submitting/taking the back from mount, submitting from the back) against us three times. Two highlights of my night. The first was pulling off this sweep against Long…

The second was starting with Brady mounted on me, blocking his cross choke, and escaping his mount. Even though he remounted and got my back (thus ending that rung of the ladder), I was happy to have escaped the fire, if only temporarily.

Saturday was a quick hit and run for me. I did manage to squeeze in my 531 press work before open mat started.

I started off with JP. I like rolling with him, despite his size advantage. It forces me to be quick and technical. After a couple of rolls, we took a minute to catch our breath, and Damian called me out.

I love rolling with Damian…but I hate it too. He played De La Riva most of the time, which allowed me to work (but fail) at passing. It’s frustrating, being constantly off balance and struggling to make progress. A couple of times over the past couple of weeks, people have commented on how I’m improving or moving well or what not. But I don’t think you’d realize it watching me with Damian. And part of me feel pretty self conscious, just KNOWING that he’s taking notes on me as we’re going.

Afterwards, Renato and I went for a few rounds. I had some good positional success with him, but didn’t have enough to tap him.

Couldn’t stay very long due to non-BJJ life events.

The Chicago Open tournament is a month away. Tonight started our specific preparations for it. Even though I’m not competing, it’s good training. Working on techniques, takedowns, more sparring, and a bit more serious atmosphere.

I squeezed in my 531 deadlifts, but had to cut them a little short because of the size of the Crossfit class.

We started with a Brazilian style warm up that ran nearly half an hour. I saw atleast two guys that had to drop out of the cycle to take a breather. Three years ago, that would have been me. Not tonight though….tonight I was razzing a couple of guys about their lazy ass pushups. Chest to deck everytime, cheating on your form only cheats yourself.

We spent a few minutes reviewing and drilling the Fabio guard break. It’s shockingly difficult to force a guy’s legs open when he doesn’t want to. Leverage is our only option in this case. Extra practice never hurt.

The rest of class was a series of 3 minute rounds. We were in groups of 3 or 4, in a rotation. I ended up with Long, Dumi, and Tim in mine. So 6 minutes on, 6 off for the better part of 40 minutes. Everyone was exhausted by the end.

Chatted up Ryan a bit afterwards about changing up my strength work.

I am so glad I’m finally over that stupid cold! Started my Saturday off with 531 squats and adjusted my new jump rope to a proper length. Now to work on those double unders more!

Open mat was going by the time I finished up. Continued warming up with some flow rolling with Greg. We chatted a little bit about cross choking from mount and how he avoids being rolled.

First roll was a light one with Dave. He seemed pretty intent on playing from the bottom the whole time, and I didn’t argue. He was working on some type of butterfly sweep that he got me with a couple of times. Next up was Zack and then Ron. Ron and I had a pretty good back and forth going. He armlocked me once and I got him in a arm triangle.

Serious training for the people going to the Chicago Open starts on Monday. I’m expecting many nights of sparring coming up.

Class with Lucas continues…

But first up was deadlift day. And I’m making steady progress. Will I hit my goal by April 1? Maybe, we’ll see. In the mean time, I’m going to keep on eating meat and lifting heavy stuff.

First up with Lucas was what I’m going to refer to as a “Brazilian Warmup.” Every time we’ve had a Brazilian instructor, the warm up has been, uh, comprehensive. IE, longer and harder than what we usually do. Tonight’s included psudo-bench pressing our partners, and then rowing ourselves up by holding onto their belts.

Class was firmly in the “advanced” end of the technique pool tonight. And omaplata sweep from open guard to either side control, a shoulder lock, or an armbar. Good stuff, but complicated!

We have a special guest instructor for the next week or so, Lucas Lepri. Alliance black belt under Fabio Gurgel and World Champion in both gi and no gi. Should prove to be some good classes!

The Crossfit side of the gym is still completely nutso, but I still managed to squeeze in pressing. This was the heavy week of the 531 cycle, and again failed at the minimum number. Since the cycle restarts after this, I’ll dial things back a bit on that one. I would have liked to deadlift too, but there wasn’t time, space, or barbells available.

Lucas led us through a solid warm up, and then started teaching. The technique of the day started off with a ‘deep’ half guard sweep. Deep half guard is a relatively new style that has become popular in sport jiu jitsu. Starting in regular half guard, you can re-grip and then bait your opponent by lowering your outside leg. He moves to smash and pass, you use that momentum to shove him to the side. Now you’re basically perpendicular to him…underhook his leg and you’re in deep half guard. From here we did two different sweeps. The first you sit up, and lead into him with your hips and sweep. The other, you stand up in base, circle around, ankle pick, and end up standing over him. Mongoose Mike and I paired up for the first time in a while for drilling.

The third variation we did was a way to take the back instead. Rather than underhook the leg, you can sit up, break his posture with your arm across his back, escape your hip and one leg out, seat belt grip his neck and arm, and then roll backwards to completely take his back. Both Mike and I liked this one, it suits both of our styles.

We closed out class with a few rounds of sparring, starting in half guard. Mike and I went first at a brisk pace. He swept me, and ended up taking my back when I attempted to turtle. Trapped my arm BJ Penn style and then got the choke. Both of the next two rounds were with JP. He choked me twice, but I did slip out of one and took his back for a while. Later he attempted to americana me (Like Officer Tim did last week), and I swept him as he tried (applying what I learned vs Office Tim!)

2012 is here already. Seems like last year flew by in a blink.

I was able to squeeze in my 531 squats, despite the Crossfit class being a little bigger than usual. It was full of new faces and resolution-ers…hopefully some will stick with it. It was the “heavy” day for squats in the 531 cycle, which always makes me nervous doing solo. I was only 10 pounds lower than my last measured 1RM.

Jiu jitsu class was three different ways to break out of and pass spider guard.

The first two were very similar. Shuffle to one side or the other, and then use either your knee or your foot to pin down his now flattened leg, break the grip, then shuffle back while keeping some pressure in on him. From there, you can use your knee to pop his leg off your other arm and pass.

The third was for when he’s got you wrapped up more tightly. Start by squatting low to avoid the sweep. Elbow off his foot from your hip, circle your other hand and break that grip. Here he’ll typically re-grab and switch from the wrap to your bicep…and then you can go back to either of the the first two escapes.

Class rounded with two 9 minute rounds of sparring. My first was with Dr. Nope, Seth. He was pretty intent on being on the bottom tonight, so I did my best to oblige him. Passed a couple of times, mounted once and managed to get him into an arm triangle choke.

It wasn’t quite tight enough though, so I switched back to mount. He escaped, and then I started working the armlock from north-south that Damian taught during my last private. Worked great….but I couldn’t break his grip defense. I’ll have ask about that.

Second round was with Tina. We went light, as she had some tender joints.