The Most Loathed
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Posts posted by The Most Loathed
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Other Other thing. One of my teammates has been whispering about some "product" he's working on for a while. Yesterday he announced the Launch of the Practitioner's Journal. A journal made specifically for logging BJJ and keeping your focus.
Here is my dilemma.
I love paper journals as a concept
I rarely use paper journals, I have a bunch with one or two pages filled out
He's a teammate and feel like I should support him
No paper journal specifically laid out for any use has ever been right for me
I can certainly afford a journal to give him a leg up, even if I never use it
I seriously doubt his journal will meet my judgey standards
NF and Goggle Docs are doing everything I want RE: documentation and journaling right now
So, I don't think I'm going to buy one but I also think I will feel bad about not buying one.
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I forgot to record, I went to the Rec yesterday. My right hip was bugging me a lot so I took it pretty easy. I don't know what's going on in my hip but it started a couple of days ago, it felt like the entire join was a little angry for a day. I assumed I just slept on it wrong. Yesterday, lifting my right leg was uncomfortable and if I tried to lift and move my knee away from the midline simultaneously it approached pain. Getting into the car was close to painful because of the moment of standing on my left foot and extending my right under the wheel. The discomfort moved from feeling like the whole socket to a small point kind of behind the socket, to the right of center, down in the sacrum. I assume I just overstretched some little rotator muscle in that area but the nerves of in the torso and notorious liars so who knows.
Row 30:00 ~ 2:15 pace
Seated rower with two handles, super set, light weight, I think it was 15 lbs per handle 3 x 10
high pull
back fly
Low pull
Bench machine, so idea what weight I set it on. It felt light to me but like work
shrugs 3 x 10
presses 3 x 10
light stretch session, leaving my hips alone
Laura suggested I throw a heating pad on my hips overnight and I think it made a huge difference I'm 99% today which is great because I have BJJ then my first assisted stretch session
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Marathon Roll
I think I got everyone written down last night but the order in the middle is likely to be a little bit muddled. Specifically around the two Alex's. I don't recall exactly where they fit or many details.
The basic tl:dr; is that I started slow on the submissions. I had some of the tougher guys in the first half and was thinking about how few subs I had at the halfway point. Then in the second half, the submission door unlocked and I was tappity tap tap tapping people.
Oh, also, I started on bottom of almost every roll.
Taken: ~15 Given: 0
- Tim (blue) - starting position: ? - I have a huge size advantage on Tim but he is crazy strong and fast and has balance like no one I know. I definitely get top position but we ended up back in neutral a couple times and I never approached a submission
- Gavin (blue) - starting position: closed guard - he's someone I use as a yard stick. Days I take subs are good days, days I give up subs are bad days. To my memory, no subs went either way. Although now that I think about it, I must have had one because we reset in switched positions. Maybe I did tap him once.
- Professor Ranch (black) - starting positions: shoulder to shoulder on our backs - Ranch is not someone I roll with often as he teach classes primarily at a time I don't attend. I have a lot of weight on him but he's a black belt so I don't hold back. To my memory, no subs were exchanged. I think I caught him by surprise at some point as I threatened his back more than once.
- Big Dan (Brown) - starting position: mount top - I have never tapped big Dan and that record holds. However, he used to tap me as often as he wanted, today no taps were exchanged. He and I both play slow and heavy. He's the only person I know who can strangle you from half guard and side control bottom. We started in mount with me on top. I used the Danaher stuff to keep him there for several minutes but could never get his elbow up. Eventually he took half guard bottom and went for his Ezekiel. I was able to avoid the strangle and threaten the pass but never made it back to mount.
- Little Alex (blue) - starting position: mount bottom - I don't recall this one a ton. I recall his standard response to my arm triangle of "that was tight". I also recall that I heard the 30 second warning and had a kimura locked up but knew he was going to fight it for those 30 seconds so I switched to something else, and I'm pretty sure that finished
- Other Alex (Blue) - starting position: side control: bottom - I can get top position on Alex easily but I just don't get many taps on him. I don't specifically recall getting any.
- Tom (Purple) - starting positions: side control bottom - I have a ton of weight on Tom, like 60 lbs. We don't roll very often at least because of this. I think I made him feel bad. I counted 5 submissions. I tried to not give him all my weight but there is no doubt that it was a big advantage. At the end we talked briefly and he said "I'm not solving the puzzle. On someone like you I'd for the legs but you hide your feet." It's something I hope he's inspired to come back and work on. I'd enjoy the challenge of a small, fast guy leg locking me
- Rob(Blue) - starting position: side control bottom - I try to not roll with Rob a lot because he quits on me. To his credit, he didn't quit but he was so intimidated that he was like a white belt again, busy hands, no progress. I gave him the first minute or so to go to work. He tried to set up an armbar but it was sloppy so I took my arm out, pass, submitted him. After that he wanted to show me the armbar he wanted so I let him but then I submitted him again. I eventually got a third.
- Mislael (White) - starting positions: side control bottom, also, no gi - I got three taps on him, as I recall. I could see him getting frustrated. He wants to try new and exciting moves like the choi bar but he doesn't have his basics down. I'm trying to spend a little time with him to help him learn basics. He'll be a handful someday if he sticks with it but I see his growing frustration
- Army Dan (Blue) - starting position: side control bottom - Dan held me down for a good little bit but once I built my base I swept and submitted. On our second go around, I heard the countdown timer get to ten seconds and switched from what I was doing to a quick arm triangle and turned on the juice to beat the buzzer for one final tap of the night.
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01/23/2023
BJJ
Closed Guard, Cross Collar Continued
- Back Take - Bottom player has cross collar, high lapel, top play has samurai grip or really any grip with arms locked near the center line of the body. From the bottom, free hand grabs the same side tricep and hip escape to that side, putting top players arm across the centerline. Reach for the back with tricep hand, use cross collar hand to post and lift your hips for back take.
- Flower Sweep - Begin as above but as bottom player goes to take the back, top player tries to drive back over the center line. Drop the foot on the side you're coming up from, do a John Wayne style roll over that leg to take top (if you kept your grips your arm bar is already set up )
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Triangle choke or arm bar - same as above but top player doesn't give up enough to finish flower sweep. In the moment when the sweep doesn't happen
- tricep/back take side leg comes up to the face and you have an armbar, extend to break
- tricep side foot dips over far shoulder, stuff far arm and bring your own far side leg up for a diamond. Grab the back of the head and strangle
Rolling
- Ben (Blue) - Ben has traditionally been a handful for me. He goes into super try-hard mode and I can't do anything but he exhausts himself doing it so he takes a round off after that. Today he was in my guard. He knows to stay out of my half guard but with all the stuff we've been doing lately, my guard was a credible threat to him so after a couple minutes of trying to hide in my guard, he blundered into my half guard. it was all over. I swept, I took side. As I took mount he threw his arm over his head and I snatched him up in an arm triangle. I said "it's done now" and moved into the strangle and he tapped.
- Leon (Brown) - Leon is a beast. He's technical, he's strong, he plays a little bit dirty (wrist locks, just going for painful positions, etc) and he was running at 100% on me today. I managed to get to a good side control onhim which is an accomplishment for me. He got to side a couple times. My big accomplishment was catching him into the mount transition and stuffing him to half guard. However, he got a nice americana set up and I tapped with a mere 3 seconds left. A totally legit battle against Leon. Afterwards he told me that he knew he had to be first to positions or he wouldn't win. A really big compliment
- Joe (White) - Joe's so good of a white belt he is getting an exceedingly rare double promotion on Friday. He's skipping a green belt level and going straight to blue and it's totally legit. I have to roll like he's a peer with him, I can't treat him like a white belt. That said, I was smooth today. I got to side control and was working on his far arm when he rolled into me. I went to North-South but had my right arm over his right shoulder. I shot through to the back of his lapel and set up a really nice paper cutter. It wasn't super tight but he started throwing himself around to get out, which just set the strangle. He tapped. Then I taught him the move. So I'll get a dose of my own medicine eventually
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15 hours ago, Kishi said:
I just wish I was happy about it. Instead, my usual bitterness has come to the surface, courtesy of my shame and envy. Neither of which is really an appropriate response for lots of reasons that I can point out, but they are what they are, and it is what it is.
Tap her. Then you're tapping a higher belt. It's always a good day when a white belt taps a blue belt.
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Last Week
- Monday - MLK day, BJJ
- Tuesday - Marathon Roll
- Wednesday - BJJ
- Thursday - No gym time, snow shoveling
- Friday - BJJ, Date Night
- Saturday - BJJ
- Sunday - Brunch out
Goals
Submission
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I got quite I few. I tried to go back and count them and got bored
. People are starting to give up the kimura to avoid the long, slow smother and strangle. I should just start keeping cat scratches on a white board.
- I spent a couple of hours studying the 4x4 system. More to come
- I decided to sign up for Submission Challenge in May and August
Documentation
BJJ
I used this log to record what we learned everyday which is a huge boon. I'm going to keep doing that.
Work
I didn't do as well on this this week. Wednesday I had to drive downtown to get a new laptop and I didn't record any of that time. Probably an additional 2 hours by the time I drove down there, worked through logistics and drove back. Friday is really low. When I look at the detail I started late, started back after lunch late , and wrapped early. I generally don't do that but did that day. I wouldn't have know had I not recorded it.
Interesting that I'm stuck at 5.5 hours, not quite hitting 6 hours.
Personal
Hey, I posted here a whole bunch. It was BJJ oriented but it was good enough for now.
I caught up on two people's threads. This week I need to catch up on KB Girl. It's long overdue.
Mobility
This is actually going really well in a way I didn't expect. I previously mentioned that my work pays for a service called Hinge Health. I signed up for it and they sent me two sensors. I put one on my waist and one on a strap around my chest. It has me do a stretch and the sensors measure the angle, trying to hold me in a specific range. I have an alert set up to go off at 5 pm everyday so I do it before I wrap my day. I like it.
Other Events
New Computer
A few weeks ago I noticed that my work computer was only charging to 10%. One of my coworkers thought it was just the battery optimizing the fact that I always leave it plugged in. Well, a little over a week ago I realized it was maxing out at 2%. I called in to see if they could swap the battery and was told I would have to request a replacement, which is fine. Well, my battery started only charging to 1%. Mid last week it started charging to 0% and would no longer run my monitors and other peripherals. I started to panic that it would die and I'd have no good way to communicate with the help desk. So I reached out to them and they were able to get me one almost immediately. I'm really grateful they did that for me but it also means I'm spending a while trying to get everything up and running again.
Date Night
My Christmas gift for Laura (and a bit for myself) is a monthly at home Date Night. I had a service deliver the meal, lobster bisque, pork belly with root veg, and a flan. I bought a nice bottle of champagne for us and it was really nice. I'm looking forward to next month's date night meal.
Owamni
A while ago I parked next to this restaurant and it looked kind of cool. It's trying to do indigenous foods and the main chef is a member of the Sioux Nation and is putting a lot of effort into acknowledging his heritage. I said to a friend of mine "we should check this out" and he smiled and said "if you can get a reservation, I'll go". At the time I looked and they were book a couple months out and there was nothing. Well, Laura kept an eye on it and saw and opening and grabbed it. So yesterday we had it for lunch. It was really good. I appreciated that she kept her eye on it in the background and knocked it out. Happy to miss Akagi for a cool event.
This Week
- Monday - BJJ
- Tuesday - Rec, Marathon Roll
- Wednesday - BJJ, 1st assisted stretch session
- Thursday - Rec, Happy Hour
- Friday - BJJ, Belt Grad
- Saturday - Board Games with Friends
- Sunday - Akogi
Other Notes
Now that I'm at this section, I don't have much to add. This week is busy but I'm looking forward to my first stretch sessions. This week I will get together at a friends house to play a boardgame for the first time in a very long time. This week I'll become a two stripe blue belt but that isn't something that matters a lot to me. What matters is continuous, incremental improvement. I don't care what color my belt is so much as I want to continue to tap better and better people for as long as I'm able to. I guess that's a little diatribe I can go on for second here.
The way that my gym handles belts is to have a belt graduation every 4 months. That is the only time you can step up a belt. We use a system where white belt is actually split into four belts (white, white with a blue band, white with two blue bands, half white and half blue) which is colloquially called a green belt system. A lot of gyms seem to have a system for white belt only that breaks it out more, just to give people a sense of progression. Our white/green belts have a fixed curriculum that have to execute to move up. They have to demo a scripted set of moves when belt grad comes.
I never prepared for those. I just showed up as often and possible and trained hard. As each belt grad came up I was told I would be promoted so I better learn the script, So I did. I wasn't able to make a couple grads and was told "don't worry, I'll promote you anyway", I was never worried, I don't care about my belt color.
Every four months, when grad comes up, it's weird to see white belts come out of the woodwork. Suddenly they are all in try hard mode. For three and a half months they've been showing up half the time. When it's time to drill their minds wander off and they don't do the drill. When it's time to train they roll around together but aren't in the moment. Suddenly, now, it's go time. In a couple weeks they'll all be MIA again.
For us, at blue belt and up, you have to be recommended for promotion. Professor comes up with a list but he also asks his brown and black belts if he missed anyone. If you aren't recommended, you. probably won't be promoted. If you think that you should be on the list, you can bring it up but you're more likely to get told why you aren't being promoted than to get promoted, but sometimes he does forget so don't be shy.
Our actually promotion ceremony/process it to work with a partner and come up with a thread, your own script of moves. Since Ken is my usual training dummy for my private lessons and we train together often, we're partnering. We're basically just doing exactly what we have done over the past year. We're hitting the take downs from my private lessons. We're sweeping in half guard. We're submitting from side control and mount. The big finish is my rolling back take that I rarely execute because it's cool and fun but it's higher risk than my usual slow and heavy approach.
So, that's Friday. Assuming I'm not passed over in the coming months I'll get three stripes in about April, four in about July/August, and could be a purple belt by the end of the year.
I've never had the typical imposter syndrome a lot of guys get at blue belt but typing that last sentence gave me a bit of that. I mean, I tap purple belts reasonably often. There are a couple I know that I have never tapped but I'd say I tap purples at about an even pace to how much the tap me, but man, purple belt feels like a different thing. I guess I have my work cut out for me to feel like that's deserved when I get there.
Play Me Out
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Just chiming in to say, you have twice the courage that I will ever have to move to Bali and (figuratively only I hope) burn the boats behind you.
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hey Kishi, I read your stuff. No coherent comments to add but selfishly wanted to at least acknowledge I've got up and will be keeping up.
I saw your shoulder injury notes above but overlooked what happened. You're probably smart to take the time. Many of us dumb-dumbs never get checked out and just accumulate injuries like we accumulate medals. I have this idea in my head that someday I'll get an MRI and they'll just immediately admit me to the hospital for been generally "broken". It's no way to live your life.
Also super glad to see all of your writing I've always thought that would be a great endeavor but falls into my "someday, when I win the lottery" bucket. Glad to see you pursuing it.
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37 minutes ago, Kishi said:
FWIW, I suspect that forcing black belts to run at 100% is probably one of the best compliments you can receive. Even though it might not feel that way at the time.
Oh, I 100% take it as such.
01/21/2023
BJJ - I can't do Akagi tomorrow so I went to our open mat today which is a lot less attended and isn't a true open mat so much as a short class
High Collar Cross Collar Choke sort of from the clamp
From Closed guard, with a high cross collar grip, break the posture and wrap their head with that arm. Hip escape to the side you are wrapping from. Get to your side in a clamp position. Leave your bottom arm in place (cross collar arm) bring your top hand to the back of their head and slip your thumb into the lapel. If they are trying to posture, and they should, let them posture, popping your top arm over their head, into a nice cross collar.
Funny thing on this one is I have previously discovered it on accident. Setting up a cross collar is hard because everyone defends it. I found that if I have one cross collar arm and put my remaining arm in the lapel, really high, people will panic and pop it over their head, setting the choke for me. We have one particular purple belt that bites on this almost every time.
Cross Collar setup to paper cutter
Set up the cross collar, hip escape to the clamp. With your top arm, take and overhook on the nearside arm, Release your cross collar to feed the far collar to your overhooking hand. Reset your cross collar and push into the neck for the choke. note: this is hard to do on guys with big shoulders or tight gis.
Rolling
Ken (Blue) - short round but I took a kimura off of him
JD (Brown) - JD is one of those browns that has special earth powers where he can just change gravity and when I think I'm about to pass he'll reverse gravity, I'm flying and then he turns it back on and is landed on top, submitting me. But he took a long break several month ago and his magic has gotten weaker. JD was never under threat of a submission but neither was I. I took his back twice, he never got mine. He made a good attempt at a leg triangle but even he respects my ability to pass from a triangle. It took me longer than usual to pass but I did. I think if he had committed to the submission, he might have gotten it. A fun roll. I feel he was more in danger than I was but in a no time limit situation, I still think he would find an error sooner than I would, my money's on him.
Unnamed White Belt - 3 subs, smother (pressure tap), arm triangle, kimura. The pressure tap was an accident. I was going for my usual pass to mount and he was just squirming. So I caught his arm and pulled it across his body to the gift wrap position and his arm ended up covering his own mouth. He suffocated himself. Later I called my shot on the kimura and passed on other opportunities so that I could take it.
No training tomorrow. We have a brunch reservation at a fancy place.
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Thursday
More snow. I shoveled for my workout instead of going to the gym. This has been an especially snowy winter for us and we have a couple of months to go.
BJJ Study
The main take aways from the video for the night was to get your underhook before you mount, to the point that if you get mounted without the underhook, give up a little position so you can reattack the underhook. Underhooks seem to be a bit of an unintentional theme of mine.
I had seen this particular hour before but hadn't taken notes yet so I have been working on getting the underhook early and it's a real game changer.
Friday
BJJ - No Gi
Instruction
Getting to the Clamp
From closed guard, begin a hip bump to get head control. If they are framing on your hip, punch through between your body and their arm. Hip escape to the side you've just opened up. Bottom foot comes up to rest on their hip, knee in front of their shoulder. Top leg is on their back, knee near the back of their head. Thigh master.
Punch Choke from the Clamp
Do all of the above. Bring your top heel over the shoulder and cross your feet to have the leg triangle. Drive your heels down into their back for control. Top hand forms a fist that is placed in the carotid on that side. Bottom hand curls their head into my hand
Transition from the Punch Choke to the traditional Leg Triangle Choke
Do all of the above but they try to force your hand away, grab it with your bottom hand and pull it across your waist. Bridge up, switch your feet (cross and recross with the opposite on top), drive heels down, thigh master, grab the back of their head and pull down for the choke
Note: I'm notorious for being unchokable in this position and it makes me gun shy to try it on others. I love when people try this on me because it's a free pass for me. I think this has worked on me maybe 3 times. Once because I was being stupid and twice because they were black belts and did a great job.
Rolling
- Stan (black) - he didn't tap me so I'll take it. I got a good Kimura locked up and he immediately went into the smoothest flow to escape it I don't think I've ever seen him move like that. I think he realized he let me get to far and I finally saw Stan go at 100%
- Professor (black) - 3 minutes to get his tap on me, that's a win. I got nowhere near control on him but I prevented the arm drag a couple times so I'll take it.
- Bradley (white) - I took three taps, arm triangle, kimura, Von Flue. Bradley is actually the reason I learned the von flue. He was hanging on my head a lot one day. It was annoying and I knew there was an answer to it. So I looked it up and now I make a point to Von Flue our white belts then immediately explain it to them because it's 100% preventable.
Post Class
- Mislal (white) - I was helping him with 1/2 guard. He was doing a bunch of awkward stuff that just doesn't work so I let him try and try for while and did nothing. Then I passed and strangled. We repeated. Then We sat down and worked out what he was working on. I need to look up Choibar, it's what he was trying but wasn't getting it. I don't know it so I couldn't help there.
Competition Planning
I have been trying to come up with my competition plan for the year. Last year it was just to get reps in so I did three meets locally. This year I had planned to go the IBJJF in Chicago but it's not on the books yet and my enthusiasm has waned. However, I've mentioned that my professor has given me a bunch of shit for no taps in my last meet and I've mentioned I'm studying it mount taps in particular. Well, there are meets that are "sub only". It's not entirely true, the matches do end eventually without a submission but there aren't points to win by. So, that's what I'm going to do. I think I'm going to enter two Submission Challenge events this year.
That means lots more submissions work but it also means learning the EBI rules. That will be a topic for another day.
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15 hours ago, Kishi said:
That is a huge help and I really appreciate you writing all that out.
At present, my approach has been to pick a thing from class as I've attended and find a YouTube video about it, and then add it to a library. At present, I have three different libraries - one for "Judo" or standing/takedown work, one for "Grappling," and one for my tournament game plan. I basically rotate between them as a kind of casual, low key review at night, but I don't really do much as far as taking notes, so that's probably the move. I'm also reviewing the white belt section of Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu-Jitsu University, which was insanely helpful for helping me to survive rolls.
As far as any kind of a self-study, I don't really have a plan yet? It might just be "Get Less Weak," because even if BJJ is about technique, there is such a thing as being too weak to use technique in any kind of productive way. But I do still think it'd be better to engage with my materials in a more constructive way, so I'll see what I can apply from what you've said. Thank you again for your help!
I hope it does help. It seems that most schools teach so many new techniques that trying to do the curriculum as taught is a road to madness.
I hear you on the strength thing. I'm on the other end of the spectrum and I have to say I'm grateful for it. That said, a couple of the best brown belts I have ever rolled with are small guys, our size difference doesn't seem to bother them. So there are techniques but they are pretty far down the path. For what it may matter, they are both extremely strong open guard players so maybe that's a place to work from.
2 hours ago, KB Girl said:This was a little funny to me as I am much more likely to come visit NF than I am to read my emails x)
Hope it works for you though!
That is how I used to be but I haven't built the habit of checking back here yet. In time, I hope.
Wednesday BJJ
We're working on closed guard, high lapel attacks. I hate closed guard but really like these attacks so maybe I can finally have a little bit of a closed guard attack system. I recorded these a bit oddly because it was three techniques but they all pass through a common point so it's three setups, one transition, and three finishes. These could be mixed and matched
Setup
- opponent has both hands near the belt line, arms locked out - praying hands. Bring you hands together low and bring them up along your midline to break the connection
- opponent has gripped the center of the lapels with both hands stacked (samurai sword position) - shovel hand. Similar to praying hands but grab your own wrist and lift your hands to your shoulder in a sort of shovel path, breaking the grips and connections
- opponent has gripped the center of the lapels and either just has a really strong grip or has dropped their elbows to prevent the previous two - grab the points of their elbows and pull out and up. It won't break the grip but makes the arms useless to push
Transition - using any of the above, break the connection of the arms, draw your knees to your chest, pulling your opponent to your chest. You will often want to do a small hip escape (shrimp) one way or another, tipping you to your side a little. Top arm wraps the head, holding your opponent to your chest briefly. Bottom arm goes for the cross collar grip
Finish - I realize now I didn't get all three written down. We did three cross collar chokes but we also talked about this as entry to the clamp system which I don't have yet
- basic cross collar - as your opponent postures, recenter yourself or even go back across the center line, take your free hand and go for the other cross collar, preferably under your already established arm
- triangle - bring your bottom side leg up to their hip, knee in front of their shoulder. Loop your foot around to their back and triangle. If they posture hard, take the cross collar. If they don't posture, triangle
- I don't recall the third
Rolling
10 minutes with Ken (blue), my usual drilling partner and the guy that travels to Akagi with me. I tapped him three times but he felt like he was pretty half assed. Two kimuras and a triangle. We also took three of the ten minutes and played out our demo for belt grad at the end of the month.
Stan (black) - after class, Stan and I usually role. He's definitely not going 100% with me. I think he's had to add more and more over the months but I believe that if he wanted to, he could dominate this. I took no taps (I never do). He took one kimura, is a pattern he has gotten very good at. He approaches it backwards, falling and putting his whole body weight into the rip because if doesn't I get free. We rolled off an on over ten or fifteen minutes, taking short pauses when things of note happened. I swept him twice and really caught him off guard on one, so pause and discuss. With a minute on the timer the coach told him to get a submission and we went into a hard chain attack from him with me just barely defending. All three black belts in the room, the only people other than me in the room, commented that they were surprised that I defended it. I'll take black belt compliments all day.
Random Wednesday News
My work computer was on its last legs. I noticed a few months ago that the battery only charged to 10% despite being plugged in all the time. I noticed by the end of last week that it was down to 1% so I reached out to help desk. My computer was old enough to be due a new one so I put in a request for that. Then my computer would only show 0% charge and could no longer run my peripherals. I was genuinely worried it would die and I wouldn't have a computer for a week. Fortunately, I pinged the person working on it and they got me one quickly. But that meant that after BJJ yesterday, I had to hop in the car and drive downtown, and pick it up. It all worked out and was well worth it. However, now I'm doing all the nonsense of trying to get it set up to do my job. Some things just never set up the same way twice. So, it's going to be an unproductive week for me.
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Notes from Marathon Roll - 10 minute rounds tonight
- Rob (Blue) - For neutral, kneeling - I always dominate Rob. I can tell he's getting better but it's not a contest yet. Two taps to arm triangle then he just started pressure tapping. Five total, I think. We did end up in a leg entanglement with both of us sucking as ankle locking each other. I think this might be something I make him practice with me a bunch more
- Joe (white) - half guard, pass, sweep, or submit - Joe is a beast, he's getting promoted to blue in a couple weeks and it's well earned. He pulled off a kimura from bottom just by cranking as hard as possible. Anyone not as strong as him would have never taken it but he earned it. I swept or passed at about a 2:1 rate over him
- Gavin (Blue) - Closed guard, pass, sweep, or submit - Gavin has been training about as long as I have and there was a time when he won most match ups but it's been a long time . However, I don't play closed guard. It ended up being a game of passing for both of us. I'd rather play half but we were counting that as a pass so he got those easy but I pulled off a few X guard sweeps until he got wise to that. He is easily baited into a triangle attempt which is a pass for me
- "Little" Alex (blue) - Back Seatbelt - I gave up the first tap but tapped him two or three more times after. Alex joined with Gavin and they seem to be best buds. He's short and stocky but has a lot of wrestler instincts. There was an arm triangle and a kneebar and I think one more but I can't bring it to mind
- Alex (blue) - I don't recall our starting position, maybe neutral - Alex has been training forever but is inconsistent so still a three or four stripe blue. He's been training at other gyms lately and it has him excited again. He's the reason I go to Akagi on Sundays. No taps either way. I was really trying to smother him and it was really close but his bridging was great. Props to Alex on this round.
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17 hours ago, Kishi said:
I notice in the reporting above that you're using instructionals to learn stuff too. I'm stuck there right now since I'm healing from an injury. Is there a particular way you use the instructionals that lets you apply the stuff you're learning, like a way to engage with them that helps you to learn?
I'm sorry to hear that you're dealing with injury. You're on my short list of people I need to catch up with so I'll learn more about that this week.
I do think that I use instructional a little differently than most people, I think. Like everyone I'll occasionally Google something and find a free video to learn a term or solve a specific problem but I really try to limit the amount of browsing I do because it's easy to watch 100 techniques and never use one. Where I get my value from instructional is by picking a project. Last year that was half guard, this year it is submissions. I will still Google those topics but I actually go out and pay for instructionals on the topic. I try to start super basic and build up. Not all instructionals are made equal. For me, for this deeper study case we're talking about here, Danaher is the right guy but not everyone can tolerate him.
Each week I attempt to carve out an hour or two. I sit down with my video and a Google Doc. The brand doesn't matter, you can use paper or Microsoft Word or Notepad, the point is to have something to take notes. If the video gives me an outline of the topics ahead of time I'll write those down, otherwise I have to do it as I go. Then, for an hour or so I sit and watch and take lots of notes. I pause the video for a longer note or even run it back if I think I missed something. My pace is usually about 2:1, it takes me twice as long to watch as the video's run time. So, if we're talking a BJJ Fanatics 8 hour instructional, it takes 16 hours in this phase.
I try to get one movement I want to drill out of each session. It doesn't always work out, sometimes it's 0, sometimes is 2, but 1 is ideal. I then rep that with my training partners during the week. My training partners know that I do this so they often ask me "what are you working on today?" then assume the position and we rep it. You're injured so maybe that's not possible. Depending on the nature of your injuries, just doing the movement alone can help or if you have a partner you trust to play uke, having an unresisting body can uncover things you don't understand and/or issues with the technique as taught.
When I was studying half guard, after watching the full video (8-10 hours) and taking notes, I sat down with my notes and rewatched the whole thing once, checking my notes for anything I may have missed. It was also a good chance to see everything in context. That was closer to 1:1 ratio and I still only did it in one hour chunks. I plan to do the same for submissions as well.
When I was done with the basic half guard video I went looking for other takes on it. This part was less fruitful for me. I don't know if I'll repeat it. Instructionals run between $50 and $100 each and I probably bought 4 more. Of those 4, I've watched three of them all the way through, two were good but had nothing to add. One was just plain, not good. Since then I have gotten hundreds of reps in at half guard. I'm not only difficult to beat there but I've gotten good at forcing the position. When I find something I can't deal with, that's when I ask my Professor. For example, I trained at a different gym on Black Friday and they passed half guard by sitting really high and keeping me at arms length, contrary to standard chest-to-chest passing. That wasn't in anything I've watched. It turns out you arm drag them and take their back, but that required more than an instructional to learn.
Going into this year, I knew I wanted to do a new project. I really did spend a whole year on half guard bottom, which inevitably lead to a fair amount of half guard top. I thought I would add on some new guard play, X, single leg X, or De La Riva, but my coach was giving me a hard time for not submitting my opponent in my last meet so I decided that was my project. I also was hanging out on a BJJ discord where New Wave 4x4 had come up and people were vouching for it. So I bought it and I'm 3 or so hours in and will say, "Worth the money". There's still so much more for me to learn in it but just the amount of mount retention is has added has paid for it.
Depending on what you want to learn and how competent you already feel in it, I would point you towards the Danaher Go Further, Faster series and good intros to any position in gi. If you don't like or feel like you know the basics of the position, New Wave videos exist but cover a lot of the same material, you may need to look for a specialist in your topic. Of the videos I have watched, the more "old school" the player, the more disorganized and haphazard the video so you're on your own to build it into something cohesive but I think that's a part of growth in a position.
Good luck with studying, hopefully you can return to the mat soon with a whole new game unlocked.
Below is a screenshot of the notes I'm currently doing for the New Wave 4x4 Mounted system.
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14 hours ago, Kishi said:
Hey! Just dropping by to say I hope things and also stuff are well.
Cheers and thank you. All is well
12 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:It's been
since you posted here
Love this reminder
01/17/2023
As indicated above, I still didn't do better on getting in here and posting but people are trying to help me with that, which I appreciate.
Week recap
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Monday - BJJ - I took notes!
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Cross Collar Chokes from the guard
- Set up high cross collar grip. As top person sits back to avoid the choke, hip bump. They post to avoid the sweep, bring that side leg up to a loose triangle. Use the leg as the other half of the cross collar and strangle
- Same as above but as they post, kick away to standing, snap the head down to pull yourself up and expose the loop choke, and strangle
- Same as above but they come off their knees, pull by to back take
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Rolling
- Xavier (blue) - dominated but I have a lot of weight on him so I specifically tried to play it light and easy. Afterwards he complimented me on being a good partner considering the weight different
- Ben (blue) - I was screwing around and gave him too much of a triangle setup so he got a tap off of me. I should know better with Ben, no one will die on a hill quite like him. I was feeling cocky and let him set up the triangle just so I could break it but I gave him the entire set up. Even then, I rarely tap to these but after a minute of fighting out, I had to concede it. I made a good effort to take a tap back but with limited time and him in 100% defense mode I couldn't do it
- Stand (black) - no taps either way. I felt like he was reacting to me, not the other way around so I'm ok with that.
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Cross Collar Chokes from the guard
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Tuesday
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Rec Center
- Rowing 30:00
- Kettlebells ~20 mins
- Stretching ~10 mins
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BJJ - Marathon Roll
- We did a 2 rounds in, 1 round out timing. I didn't record anything but enjoyed the situational sparing. Lots of good reps
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Rec Center
- Wednesday - BJJ - no notes, hand slap
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Thursday - Rec Center - I wasn't feeling lifting so I did Rowing 30 and Light Jog 20
- Office Holiday Party - stayed out way too late and consumed too much
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Friday - BJJ (no gi)
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BJJ - because of the holiday party, I was no where near 100% so I trained with the whitebelts
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Arm drag city
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Arm drag city
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BJJ - because of the holiday party, I was no where near 100% so I trained with the whitebelts
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Saturday =Chores
- Rec Center - See Tuesday
- Went to show some friends were performing in so it was another late night
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Sunday
- Akagi
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Monday - because it was a holiday Monday I didn't really start my new week yet so I'm lumping it into last week
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BJJ - guillotine defense
- Head across the body, rotation hips away
- can't get head across the body, knee tap
- Guard already locked in, tripod and handfight
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Rolling
- Shane (blue) - tapped him with an arm triangle
- Bradly (white) - tapped him with and arm triangle and as I started to set up a second he tapped and said "I already know where this is going"
- BJJ Study Session - I spent a bit over an hour on an instructional video, writing notes. I've seen this section before but not given it 100% of my attention. It was basically the details of retaining mount and how to set up the underhook prior to mounting which is something I've been practicing for the previous week and am having great success with. If you play half guard, there's no reason not to finish mounted.
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BJJ - guillotine defense
New Week
- Monday - already happened. Notes above
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Tuesday -
- Rec Center
- Marathon Roll
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Wednesday
- BJJ
- Making pork belly ramen for dinner
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Thursday
- Rec Center
- BJJ Study Night (more mount instructional, this is section will be more about getting the underhook but also how to get it if you don't have it prior to mount
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Friday
- BJJ
- Date Night Dinner
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Saturday
- maybe BJJ - Laura has a horticulture thing during Saturday class time. I don't usually go but when there is overlap like this, I take advantage of it so maybe
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Sunday
- No Akagi - Laura got us reservations for brunch for a really hard to get into restaurant so that is what we're doing instead.
Goals
Submission
Going great. The first half of the week I had some challenging rolls and got fewer than I wanted but the second half of the week they were there for the taking. I've been rolling much lighter, to the point that smaller people have mentioned that even having a lot of weight on them, they like to roll because it feel fair, however, my current program of half guard sweep (when neccessary) to half guard pass to mount to arm triangle works really well. I'm trying to teach team mates some tricks to prevent me but without going up to purple and more often brown belts, I'm rolling through people. Brown belts and black belts are still jedi to me.
Documentation
BJJ
Monday of last week I took a little notebook with me to the gym and jotted down the three techniques I learned and the three rolls I had. It was great. I also immediately stopped doing it. Just forgot. I want to build this habit. It's a bit of a challenge to take the time to record it but so valuable.
Professional
Continuing to time track and using that to try and push myself back to my standard of 6 hours of heads down work per day.
Personal
Lots of room for improvement here. As indicated by the previous two comments in this thread, I didn't make it back to NF to comment or read other people's stuff. I know me and I have to carve out time to do this. I don't know what that time will be but I need to do it. Right now, for example, I'm doing my weekly update but taking away from guitar time. I have to reconcile those different bits of my schedule.
I have also been experimenting with some time tracking outside of work. I'm still really spotty on it (I'm not doing it right now for example. I'm not going to push on this right now but it's in my brain.
Mobility
I forgot that I had this as a specific goal. However, good news, I've been doing this. I'm not doing a good job of documentation, so something to bring together there.
Rec Time
Tuesday and Thursday I ended my rec time with about 10 minutes of stretching, focusing on twisting in the trunk
Wellness
My work sent out an email on Monday or so that they have a new wellness partner (Hinge Health) focused on helping address back pain and injury so I immediately signed up. It's basically just an app that gives you a little mobility routine to do each day but I did it a couple times last week and I'll pick it back up today
Assisted Stretching
I've talked about signing up for some kind of program for a while and did so last week. The whole thing started when I saw a place in my area called Stretch Lab and I thought "I need that". It was the one thing I actually asked my family for for Christmas. As Christmas neared, I learned that the Rec offers, effectively, the same service. No one bought me a gift card to Stretch Lab which was a bit disappointing but freed me up to choose the rec, so I booked that last week. Due to schedules were not able to start until next week but I'm looking forward to it.
Other Notes
This will be the most underrepresented section in today's post. I have stuff to yammer about (the holiday party, a hangover, a show I saw, python, work laptop) but I'm feeling a time pressure to get to work this morning so I'll keep this section short. So, here is my promise to
youme, After I post this I will go find my email settings on NF and try and recall how to set up a daily digest notification so I get a daily reminder from NF to come back here (currently I get no notifications). Note, that is not a promise to post daily, just a daily reminder to come by.A song
Kingfish, play me out.
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Monday - BJJ - I took notes!
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I need to get in here more often for little updates. As it is, I've been trying to drop by other people's threads but had trouble making time.
Regardless
Week of 01/02 - 01/08
Monday - BJJ - the first Monday of the month is marathon roll for the noon class, making these weeks tough: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday rolling. At this point I don't recall how things went, so fail or record keeping there
Tuesday - Snow began. I shoveled instead of going to the Rec. Ken was driving to Marathon Roll so I went with him. My car wouldn't have survived the trip
Wednesday - More snow. More shoveling. The gym was closed so shoveling was my activity for the day.
Thursday - Final shovel for the week. In my area, we're guessing 14ish inches of snow. That dominated my activity for the week
Friday - Gym open again, so normal class.
Saturday - Errands and chores all day
Sunday - Open mat at Akagi
The goals for this current challenge are:
Submissions - Because I didn't do great at my documentation goal, I don't have good evidence on this one. I have been pulling a lot more taps but I recall thinking about it early in the week and feeling I was having mixed results. I pulled taps off of higher belts I shouldn't have been able to but I also have been going easy on the white belts. It feels like bullying to just tap them over and over so I tend to take one or two then go really easy on them.
Documentation
BJJ - total goal fail for the week. This will be something I'll be looking to fix this week
Work - success!
Unfortunately, it told me what I expected. When I tracked my hours like I used to, I figured I'd find that I wasn't getting as many good clean hours of work in and, yep. I'm only gettin 4 hours of hard work done per day. 6 is my goal each day and 6 is tough I have to remain focused an on task. 4 is too low. I'll write more about this another time.
NF - middling. I got my bare bones of posting done but I really intended to drop in at least once and it never happened.
Mobility - fail. I didn't go to the rec and I haven't made a good space at home for this so while I did plenty of shoveling for cardio, I never did mobility
Bonus item not in the goals: I was more deliberate in guitar practice this week. I often allow myself to be distracted by work or the internet. I stayed on task better.
Week of 01/09 - 01/15
- Monday - BJJ class, BJJ study time, Mobility time
- Tuesday - Marathon Roll, Rec Time, Mobility Time
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Wednesday - No BJJ
A very rare instance of letting work overwrite that time. Mobility Time
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Thursday - Rec Time. Mobility Time. Holiday Party for work time
- Friday - BJJ Class
- Saturday - Errands. Rec Time?
- Sunday - BJJ
- Documentation - Right after this I'm going to look around for a spare, small notebook to start carrying in my gym bag for jotting down notes on what the class topic is an how rolls went
- BJJ - keep better records
- Mobility - getting to the Rec will help with this. I'm also signing up for some assisted stretching at the rec
I'm a little rushed so that's all for now.
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On 12/30/2022 at 1:28 PM, Shello said:
I know noting about BJJ. I'm following for the prudish oversharing.
Always glad to have you along for the ride.
12/28/2022
Alliance BJJ
They did another open mat. I had fun. Fewer strangles but was hitting kimura's on higher belts (brown and purple) so that felt nice. I rolled with two 70 year old black belts. It was a bit of a slower, less aggressive roll than someone my own age or younger but lots of fun and chill. I basically just worked on passing their guards (and never succeeded)
12/29/2022
I did not feel like going to the gym but I went anyway
treadmill 3 mph 5:00, 5 mph 10:00, twice
Concept 2 2:30 / 500m 5:00, 2:15 /500m 10:00
I went and got my COVID booster and flu shot after this
12/30/2022
Feeling the vaccines so I took the day off from training
I felt crappy for about 24 hours but was all good after about that long. We ordered in Indian and had a nice quiet night in.
12/31/2022
No training planned, no training done. Hung out, watched In Bruges. Called it a year
01/01/2023
Akagi Open Mat with Ken. Had a great time. A good, tough group of purple belts there. I don't recall the balance of submissions.
When I got home the house was in chaos. We have a neighbor with a dog who we've had over to hang out in the backyard with our dog. For reasons no one understands that dog latched onto our dogs head and didn't want to let go. It didn't actually cause a lot of damage but Clementine was bleeding and we needed to run her to the vet. So that was the rest of the day. It also meant I slept in Laura's office for a couple nights because there is a couch in there that pulls out and it lower and the dog wouldn't have to jump up onto the bed but it also meant I was only half sleeping because I'd wake up every time the dog stirred.
01/02/2023
World Jiu Jitsu. The gym was finally open again. The first Monday, noon class of each month is a marathon roll. So open mat again. My first roll was with my professor and he took three submissions off of me. Other than that, I gave up none. Took at will from white belts, took one per blue belt on average. So, right on track.
This week
We're under a winter storm warned and expected to get between 7 and 14 inches of snow over the next 24 hours. I'm going to write out the plan with the knowledge that some of it just won't be possible to execute.
Tuesday - Marathon Roll. Theoretically should also get some rec time in too but we'll see.
Wednesday - BJJ class, Guitar Lesson
Thursday - Rec time
Friday - BJJ class
Saturday - no workout planned
Sunday - Akagi Open Mat
When I look at this week it feels kind of odd. On one hand, I have stuff everyday but it feels purposeless a bit. I mean, I think it's kind of the success of a good system. I just need to do that training and not think about it a ton.
The thing I want to improve on this week is the documentation portion. So I'll try to work on that and write a bit about it here.
My current guitar project, just the rhythm portion
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On 10/16/2022 at 11:50 PM, sarakingdom said:
Get your bivalent boosters, guys.
Literally just got home from doing this.
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On 12/27/2022 at 5:06 PM, Renate said:
And, just like that, by writing it out, I realize: asking the question is answering it.
Simple as that.
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2 hours ago, Kishi said:
Sounds like a good guess to me. I have a white belt friend who started about the same time I did who had to go down to the coast to another academy for a while since she was doing grad studies. She apparently outpositioned a lot of people up to and including brown belts via high mount, and she suspects that she altered the curriculum of that academy for a while as they apparently started teaching high mount escapes a week later.
IDK. It's not exactly the same thing, but I suspect it's part of a general pattern wherein profs are either protective of their students or else feel a need to justify themselves when strangers show up and show off their (the academy's) shortcomings.
Firas Zahabi's on the record as saying that jiujiteros and MMArtists should be doing gymnastic work since that blends strength and mobility work together. That might not be a bad idea, if that's something you're interested in. Although Juggernaut Training System's apparently come out with a BJJ curriculum, and I have to admit, it looks freaking dope.
I've done the juggernaut system for BJJ. It's powerlifting. Here's the first 4 weeks of the system as tailored to me. It wasn't bad but it feels like it was totally written for a gym rat's perspective. I'm not saying that it's not good, in fact, I will say it is good. I will also say that it's not revolutionary. For me, the dealbreaker was, if I'm going to train jiujitsu 10 hours a week, I don't have 10-20 more hours for gym time.
I'm curious, do you fee like GMB is adequate in this area? I've used animal warm ups in the past and thought there were great, I often just struggle to find a good practice space. Ryan is a BJJ practitioner.
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2 hours ago, KB Girl said:
Very true! Well, just a pair of 20’s then maybe
They are on the short list. I have a single 16kg that I gave to someone I was training because I ordered 2x 20 and they sent me a a 16 and 20 (both painted as 20s). But yes, it's very within reason that I'd grab a pair os 20s. I just need to figure out where I would use them at home.
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BJJ 10/28/2022 - Alliance
It ended up being a marathon roll da (no instruction just rounds of sparring for an hour). As a guest it's bad form to just go in and smash people, especially lower belts and smaller bodied that one's self so I got a lot of good drilling in. I worked low to no weight passing on a couple white belts and senior citizen black belts. I usually pass with chest-to-chest half guard but with these guys I worked on pinning just their legs and clearing their arms as I moved to side control. Once there I tried to control them but with no weight there was always enough space for them to reguard so I'd do it again. I did get to have some good rolls though with younger blue, purple, and brown belts, some my own size.
I'm currently working on the New Wave mounted submission system which starts with arm triangles. I got two of those. However, I had some moments of clarity where I realized that while I was trying to move to mount (and they were fighting it off well) their far side arm was free and flailing. This is a mistake I often make myself. So I found myself moving across their body and setting up sneaky kimuras they were not prepared for. I got a pair of those. I got a Von Flue on a white belt but then immediately taught it to him because there's no excuse for getting caught in one of those other than your own ignorance. I also had two North-South Chokes. I don't see those very often but they were there today. I also got a lot of good back takes but didn't finish them. That'll have to be a project for 2024 or so.
I plan to hit up Alliance again on Friday then I probably won't go back for several months. Enough people have seen me there that I'm getting questions about leaving my school. I explain to them that my professor just wanted to visit his family and they look a bot confused. I'm with them for what it's worth.
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On 12/26/2022 at 3:33 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:
Sorry, I forgot to translate into Minnesotan.
On 12/26/2022 at 4:27 PM, WolfDreamer said:Welcome back @The Most Loathed! Your challenge sounds awesome. I'm here for support. Let me know if I can help in any way.
I'll let you know if I think of something but otherwise we're just all struggling to get by.
12 hours ago, Treva said:Fel-low monk! Fel-low monk! Also hey fellow returnee to challenges!
I love how organized and detailed your challenge is. I hope the rest of your planning week goes well!
53 minutes ago, KB Girl said:Hey! Good to see you
Glad to see you've found another sport to pursue. Ofc sticking with kettlebells would have been better
but you not trying to get better at a sport would be a serious waste.
Everything is better when people stick KB sport.
For a variety of reasons, I never replaced my bells after they were taken. I occasionally toy with the idea of getting some because once you've used pro bells, it's hard to downgrade back to cast iron.
12/27/2022
Tuesday is normally marathon roll day but my gym is shut down for the week. That worked out well because a coworker wanted to host Laura and I for dinner. It meant a later night with food and wine and friends.
Workout
Aerobic
Concept II - 30:00 ~2:15 pace - nice and easy aerobic pace
Strength
20 kg kb
one arm swing 5/5
overhead press 5/5
12 kg kb
windmill 5/5
goblet squat 5
5 rounds
Mobility
~15 minutes of static stretching
Last week was no Rec workouts and the couple of weeks prior to that were almost all cardio due to run up to a competition that I had to lose a few pounds for. So I'm out of the practice on the strength stuff. I took it super easy so as not to cripple myself with DOMS.
The Plan for the next few days
12/28/2022
Today will be another quiet day at work.
I'll drop into Alliance Jiu Jitsu like I did on Friday.
12/29/2022
last PTO day for a while. Lots of personal chores (take the car in for service, get vaccine boosters)
12/30/2022
Quiet work day. Drop into Alliance one more time
12/31/2022
Board games with friends. Usual weekend chores
01/01/2023
Akagi Open Mat
Here's a song I enjoy and want to share.
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1 minute ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:
I'll take mutually exclusive statements for $800 Alex.
Seriously though, of course I'm following.
my idea of overshare is other peoples' idea of prudish.
I don't like talking about myself and I talk about almost nothing but myself including self-complimenting or minute details that barely even I care about. However, I will also never share anything the swimsuit covers, literally and metaphorically
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Planning week of 12/26 - 1/1/2023
Monday - already happened - no workout, ate food, drank booze, watched jiujitsu
Tuesday - normal work day, no Marathon Roll, Rec time for cardio, kettlebells and mobility
Wednesday - head to another gym and train at mid-day
Thursday - PTO day, ket some things taken care of. Get some rec time. Get some boosters.
Friday - head to another gym outside my usual
Saturday - game day with friends
Sunday - Open mat at Akagi
It's a nonstandard week that I'm trying to make more standard. Most of my peers are resting this week but I'm trying to use it as an opportunity to to learn from more and interesting people .
Goals for the week:
Submissions: 15 for the week
Documentation: Document 3 days of work. Document submission given and takes. Post 5+ times on NF
Mobility: 3+ 15 minute sessions
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[The Most Loathed] goes On The Record
in #111: 1/1/2023 to 2/4/2023
Posted
I know you're right. Sometimes it's hard to accept it as right. That'll pass though.
01/25/2023
High Lapel Clamp to clamp
Start with closed guard and high lapel grip. Top player has straight arms defending. With free arm, punch between body to break post, grab the tricep to break posture. Hip escape to the tricep side top set up clamp. With the arm held to the outside, set up clamp with top foot over the shoulder
Rolling
After Class
I needed to get going but I saw Ben sitting around, aching for and ass kicking. So I delivered. We start neutral, we danced for a bit but I took him down and moved straight to side control. I mounted and he proceeded to stymie me with his good mobility His elbow was fully across his face and I was mounted and he was doing pretty good. Eventually I got the arm where I wanted and strangled but I need to figure out what to do with someone who is totally comfortable just laying there with their arm across their face
Sub total = 4