[The Most Loathed]

Welcome to my first NF challenge in years. So much has changed. So much hasn't changed. To learn more, check out the battle log that will link challenges together over time. If you want to learn more history, go backwards into my battlelog.

 

There are myriad challenges I would like to set myself but I'm forcing a max 2 3  to stay focused:

 

Challenge The First

Submission

I recently took double gold in a BJJ tournament. My professor has not let me forget, though, that they were all on points. So, my goal is the pretend kill people. Yeah, that's right, that's what we play at. For BJJ Nerds, I'm studying the New Wave 4x4 system. It's already been improving my submission frequency. My goal, in rolls, is to pull 1 break or kill per 2 minutes off whites belts, 1/5 mins  off of blues (my level),  get some on purples, minimize how many I give up to Brown and Black.

 

 

Challenge 2

Documentation

This crosses many levels and is left to a lot of interpretation so here is my attempt to give it rigor:

Personal:

I've always overshare on NF so here I am. Want to hear something you shouldn't? ,,,

I kind of miss just journalling on here so I'm returning to that. I'm a bit of a prude when it comes to logging my personal life so don't get too excited. 

 

Professional:

For a long time I have attempted to treat myself as a consultant, tracking my hours and work. Lately I've gotten a little lazy about it so going to brink it back. 

I work for a single company and my leaders have never cared but I personally prefer it.

 

BJJ:

Arguably the hard bit. Certainly the least established bit. I want to keep some kind of an eye on what I'm doing well and poorly at. 

I will have to figure this out on the fly to some degree. The inital plan is to document drilling (not class time), submissions given and taken. However, I know that when I go to open mat it's hard for me to remember all the rolls. 

 

 

Challenge C

Mobility

I've always had bad mobility. I still have bad mobility. The only solution is the work that it takes. If I get 5 days a week, I'm gonna be doing great. 

 

Not a challenge

Food: I'll talk about food. It's a thing that I do I won't be tracking calories or macros. Should I? Maybe but

Sleep: My sleep has been bad forever. It still is. I'll talk about it but it's not a goal.

Guitar: I've been practicing for several years and have never been happy with it. In the future I'd like to make some goals around it. 

 

A Day in the Life

We all have very different lives and I think it helps to contextualize what one expects in their own day. You don't need to read this but it is here:

Most weekdays

0530 - wake up

0530-0600 - make coffee

0600-0700 - practice guitar

0700-0730 - get dressed and make any breakfast I plan on eatine

0730-1000 - work

1000-1300 - workout / shower / lunch

1300-1800 - work

1800-1900 - dinner prep

1900-2000 - dinner and clean up 

2000-2100 - relax

2100-2200 - reading and lounging in bed

2200-0530 - sleep

 

A Week in the Life

Monday - normal work day, BJJ 11-12:30

Tuesday - short day, rec time 11-12 ( cardio and kettlebells), 6:30 - 8 Marathon Roll

Wednesday - sometimes normal, sometimes very short. 11-12 BJJ, 4:30 - 5:15 Guitar every couple of weeks

Thursday - "quiet day" rec time 11-12, nothing else planned

Friday - BJJ (no gi day) 11-12

Saturday - chores day

Sunday - Open Mat at Akagi (not my home gym) 10 - 1 but I'm usually there 10:20 - 12:30

 

The Plan

• Post 5+ days a week
• Do my usual training but write it down
• Keep working through 4x4 (strangle people)
• Actually do mobility and keep myself accountable on it
• Do my guitar but try to be a bit more focused
• Really work on getting back to documentation my time in and out of work

 

Feedback welcome.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

24 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

 

I've always overshare on NF so here I am. Want to hear something you shouldn't? ,,,

I kind of miss just journalling on here so I'm returning to that. I'm a bit of a prude when it comes to logging my personal life so don't get too excited. 

I'll take mutually exclusive statements for $800 Alex.

 

Seriously though, of course I'm following.

[The Most Loathed]

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

[The Most Loathed]

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

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

4 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

my idea of overshare is other peoples' idea of prudish.

Sorry, I forgot to translate into Minnesotan.

[WolfDreamer]

Welcome back @The Most Loathed! Your challenge sounds awesome. I'm here for support. Let me know if I can help in any way.

[Treva]

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!

[KB Girl]

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. 

 

[The Most Loathed]

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.

 

[The Most Loathed]

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. 

[KB Girl]

6 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

once you've used pro bells, it's hard to downgrade back to cast iron.

Very true! Well, just a pair of 20’s then maybe  

[The Most Loathed]

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.

[Shello]

I know noting about BJJ.  I'm following for the prudish oversharing.  

[The Most Loathed]

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

 

[The Most Loathed]

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
• Wednesday - No BJJ A very rare instance of letting work overwrite that time. Mobility Time
• 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. 

[Kishi]

3 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

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.

 

As a white belt, I just want to offer my appreciation for blue belts like you. ❤️

[Kishi]

Hey! Just dropping by to say I hope things and also stuff are well.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

It's been

since you posted here

 

[The Most Loathed]

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

• Monday - BJJ - I took notes!
  • 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
    • 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.
• Tuesday
  • Rec Center
    • Rowing 30:00
    • Kettlebells ~20 mins
    • Stretching ~10 mins
  • 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
• Wednesday - BJJ - no notes, hand slap
• 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
• Friday - BJJ (no gi) 
  • BJJ - because of the holiday party, I was no where near 100% so I trained with the whitebelts
    • Arm drag city
      •  
• Saturday =Chores
  • Rec Center - See Tuesday
  • Went to show some friends were performing in so it was another late night
• Sunday 
  • Akagi
• Monday - because it was a holiday Monday I didn't really start my new week yet so I'm lumping it into last week
  • 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
    • 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.

New Week

• Monday - already happened. Notes above
• Tuesday -
  • Rec Center
  • Marathon Roll
• Wednesday
  • BJJ 
  • Making pork belly ramen for dinner
• 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
• Friday
  • BJJ
  • Date Night Dinner
• 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
• 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 you me, 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. 

 

 

[Kishi]

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?

[The Most Loathed]

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.

[The Most Loathed]

Notes from Marathon Roll - 10 minute rounds tonight

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. "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
5. 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.

[Kishi]

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!

[KB Girl]

On 1/17/2023 at 1:55 PM, The Most Loathed said:

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. 

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! 

[The Most Loathed]

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.