White
Summer of Jiu-Jitsu – (Now that’s what’s up!)
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From mid-January through through April I was able to attend one class per week (plus two extra during spring break). So I racked up 16 visits in four months. I had a very busy schedule this semester (lecturing, meetings, committees, writing, research, etc.,) but my goal was to maintain a presence and I figured once a week would keep me honest and let people at my new school know that I am serious about BJJ.
The past three weeks I have been attending twice a week and hopefully this week I can up attendance to three or more times a week. I have the next 3 1/2 months off so you know what that means.
The SUMMER of JIU-JITSU has officially begun.
I am really enjoying training at my new academy. The majority of guys and gals that I train with are purple and brown belts. There are also a smattering of Blues and a couple of senior level white belts that swing through every now and then. I also get to roll with a couple of Black Belts periodically.
What does this mean for my game? Well, it feels as if I am having a private session every time I grapple with someone. These guys are immediately able to point out an issue in my game and then give me options (not an option) on how I can correct it. It is funny too that day to day it is difficult to see progression, but I had an epiphany the other day. I remembered when as a blue belt I had an extremely hard time passing other blue belt’s guards. Yet now I am able to regularly pass Purple belt’s guards and sometimes Brown belt’s guards and passing Blue belt’s guard is no longer an issue. I could not have done that a year ago.
The guys at my new academy regularly tool me (that didn’t sound right) but at the same time I know I am improving. It is difficult for me to gauge my progress against White belts because I hold back and let them work their game. With the big belts it’s the opposite (even though I know they let me work my game a little as well).
Anyway, I am looking to put a lot of time in this summer.
Peace!
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and
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Pulling Guard and Guard Passing
Today it was just three of us in the morning session. I worked with Nathan (Brown belt) and Steven (White belt, 4 stripes).
Since Steven is preparing for a competition we worked on pulling and maintaining guard. Hilarity ensued as Nathan tried to have us jump guard. Both of us are 200+ so neither of us seemed to trust that the other would be able to safely hold the other. Every time we jumped it was more like a light skip. I have Judo experience so I am pretty fearless about being thrown but I am not to keen on having a big guy crash down on top of me.
Eventually, Nathan altered it when he realized that we should modify the technique because it would probably be safer for us.
Then Nathan had us work on maintaining the guard with the major focus on maintaining at least 3 points of control. I picked up a lot of tips on how to shift the hips and shoulders to maintain the guard. I also realized that I could also sit up to grab a leg and press forward for an ankle pick or lock up the leg and press forward for the takedown. Nathan focused on reversing us from being passive once the guard has been almost passed to being active and going on the offensive.
After this we did 5 min rds (rolling) until class was over.
A productive session.
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Jiu-jitsu 365 