[The Most Loathed]

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. 

[Kishi]

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.

[The Most Loathed]

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. 

[The Most Loathed]

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

• 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

 

[The Most Loathed]

01/23/2023

BJJ

Closed Guard, Cross Collar Continued

1. 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.
2. 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 )
3. 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 
   1. tricep/back take side leg comes up to the face and you have an armbar, extend to break
   2. 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

[The Most Loathed]

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. 

 

[The Most Loathed]

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

[The Most Loathed]

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.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

7 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

So, I don't think I'm going to buy one but I also think I will feel bad about not buying one

It's OK to choose not to buy a product you don't need, even if you have a personal connection to the maker. 

[The Most Loathed]

7 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

It's OK to choose not to buy a product you don't need, even if you have a personal connection to the maker. 

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

• kimura - cross collar grip slides down to the extended arm tricep. What was the tricep arm slide to wrist. Keep  the top player's arm braced against your thigh, move the hand up and towards the midline to break
• triangle - do all of the above but as you go for the kimura, top player panics and drives in while posturing, use their force to square up, relock feet. What was the tricep hand goes for throat punch, other hand goes for the back of the head, and strangle
• omoplata - do the kimura set up but your body is further away. Keep the elbow tight to your waist. Your bottom leg comes through so your seated. Trade hands so what is now your outside hand controls the tricep, inside hand goes over your opponent's back to grip the far waist. Switch your feet to point to the outside. Rise up to break the shoulder

Rolling

• unnamed white belt - starting positions closed guard bottom - I don't remember this guy's name. Super nice guy but he's been a white belt since I started. He shows up a couple times then doesn't show for a couple months. He got smashed by me. Three submissions if I recall
• Alex - controlled top position but just couldn't advance from side control. I need to figure out how to start tapping some of these squirrelly dudes

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

[The Most Loathed]

01/25/2023 continued

This was my first assisted stretch session. I have mixed feelings.

Pro

• It felt really good
• It was a more comprehensive stretch than I would do on my own
• I think because of having someone assisting, it was a deeper stretch than I would achieve on my own

Con

• My stated purpose was to have take aways to work on until we meet again. I said that in my intake paperwork and I said it out loud to her. Yet, at the end I kind of had to pause her on as she's ushering me out and say "so, my takeaways? My legs want to rotate opposite one another (one in and one out) and I have a tight posture chain as we expected I would." She kind of passively agreed and kept me going to the door

I paid for ten sessions up front. If I had to deicide right now if I was buying more, no. However, it was the first session, let's see if we can get a bit more of a rapport and get those homework assignment. In the mean time, I probably need to spend time with my Kelly Starrett books. I was kind of hoping to cheat that time commitment and work with a pro.

 

Dinner was chicken and veg that Laura made and was delicious. I made a Gin Mule for her and a Negroni for me as my contribution.

 

01/26/2023

My right hip is still annoying me today. Regardless I tried to head to the rec but the garage door wouldn't close. Fortunately, we've worked with a company in the past that is very responsive so someone will come by this afternoon and address it. It meant skipping the Rec but I wasn't super feeling it so I'm not mad.

 

Tonight is dinner out with a coworker. Nothing good will come of that. 

 

Tomorrow is no gi at noon and belt grad in the evening. I get a new piece of tape for my labors  Next week we'll have so many blue belts for me to tap. 

 

 

Other random thing, I did catch up on reading KB Girl's thread. No comment was left just because I missed my window for the more comment worthy things but she's now on my follow list so I'll continue keeping up. I think I'll try to find one more thread to catch up on over the weekend. 

[The Most Loathed]

I went out for dinner last night with a coworker. For whatever reason, the moment I got to his place I just felt like my sinuses filled up. I assumed it was just some environmental irritant. Nope, I feel like crap today. I kept having dreams of being suffocated only to wake up and realize I was sleeping with my mouth closed and then my nose got blocked but because I was asleep, I couldn't open my mouth. Because I had actually been running out of oxygen it would take some time to get back to sleep but then a while later, different suffocation dream.

 

Because today is belt grad and my demo partner needs me to be there, I'll go but I don't like it, mostly from a "spreading pestilence" stand point. 

 

I've already bailed on board games tomorrow. Log may be quiet for a day or two as I'm just resting.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Get well soon friend.

[The Most Loathed]

18 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Get well soon friend.

Appreciated. Taking a couple days to rest up.

 

Attached is an image of the power trip of a belt promotion. That slightly whiter piece of tape is something like 110 hours of work. I don’t mind one bit but it’s not worth it to just chase promotions.

 

[Kishi]

Yeah, it's not a thing worth chasing on its own, but it's still nice. Congratulations.

[KB Girl]

Seems like the belt promotions are mostly working as intended- getting rewarded along the way for hard work and actual learning. Plus it gives interesting context to your match reports. Congrats on your upgrade 

I've always thought the kettlebell sport ranking system was a bit like the belt system and how you described the pattern in which some white belts show up, I think it's even more alike- that's how novice KB lifters will behave too, showing up regularly before a competition (aka chance to earn rank) and then drop off in attendance again. There are exceptions and those will usually not stay in the lower ranks very long, I suppose the same is true for your white belts. 

 

Anyway, hope you're already feeling better! 

[The Most Loathed]

Weekly post a bit late but I've been ill

Last Week

Started off super solid but obviously ended a little rough

• Monday - BJJ and BJJ video watching
• Tuesday - Rec and Marathon Roll
• Wednesday - BJJ and assisted stretch
• Thursday - no workout, new garage door, dinner with a coworker, start to show cold symptoms
• Friday - BJJ, Belt Grad
• Saturday - Rest
• Sunday - Rest

Goals

Submissions - I did pretty well on this front ~20 this week without Akagi. I gave up 5 or fewer and all to exclusively black and brown belts I believe. I'm continuing to work on my submission instructional. I'm onto video 4 now which is where he starts to cover the arm triangle, which is already my most frequent submission but he adds a lot of improvement to it. 

Documentation

BJJ -  This one has been a surprising improvement. The prior week I started writing down what was covered in class which was helpful, this week I started to keep a crude tally of submissions and I really like having both

Professional - I continue logging my hours. For this challenge I'm going to count that as adequate however, I'm not quite getting the hours in I want and I'm losing a lot of hours to the "work admin" slush fund so I want to flesh that out more next challenge.

Personal - I was doing pretty good last week. I took a little break while I was sick and injured but back to it now

Mobility - this took a turn. I'll cover more in notes below but I ended up pretty injured over the weekend too and I'm not sure why entirely but my right hip is a mess right now

This Week

• Monday - yesterday - watched BJJ instructional, that's all
• Tuesday - probably watch some more instructional, no gym time yet
• Wednesday - I plan to go to the gym but TBD on whether I'm getting on the mat, guitar lesson, hosting friends for supper
• Thursday - I will most likely try to get to the rec and do some light work, instructional study time
• Friday - hoping to be fully back on the mat but we'll see
• Saturday - chores day, hopefully get to the rec. The amount of work that will get done is very TBD
• Sunday - akagi?

Other Notes

Garage Door

Thursday, I was getting ready to head to the rec but couldn't get the garage door to close. Out garage is fully in our house, adjacent to my office and below our bedroom, so leaving it open in near 0 temps will really cool down the house among other things. So I prioritized getting that solved. We closed the door manually and I called for a repair. 

We got someone out that same day and they offered some options. Given that we had been having increasing issues with this automatic opener, I opted for a replacement. In a few hours they got us swapped out. It wasn't cheap but I expected it to be more expensive than it was. The best feature is that now I have an button in my car to open the door. When we moved in there was only one opener so I gave it to Laura. So every time I came and went I had to hop out and punch in a code to open the door or at least push a button to close it. Now I can sit in the luxury of my car and just click and go. An unexpected delight.

 

Illness and Injury

Last week ended poorly on this. Earlier int he week I had a hip glitch that was bugging me. I think I over stretched my piriformis muscle doing that Hinge Health thing for my lower back. I grumbled about it a few times on here but kept doing my thing. Then on Thursday this cold set in. Double suck but I can power through.

The nasty bit begins Friday night, at the center of the Venn diagram. Because I was coughing and whatnot in my sleep, I slept on a sofa in Laura's office that pulls out to be a bed. It's a firm bed so I struggled to find a good position but eventually got to sleep. However, when I woke up on Saturday something felt very wrong. Whatever was wrong in my hip leading up to that point was now a problem. I was limping around the house and it was hard to do much. It seemed like I have way-way over stretched it and it had crossed from uncomfortable and annoying to painful and wrong. Since then I have just been trying to get anything back to normal.

I'm still not normal on these front. I'm sneezing and blowing my now still today. At least I'm not limping for everything but I'm managing my movement a lot. It's frustrating. I'm itching to get back to things but know I can't rush it or I'll be out longer. I'm overdue for a basic doctor visit (pre covid for my previous) so I booked one and if this is still and issue, I'll bring it up but the earliest I could get is a week and a half out. I expect it to be nothing but a bad memory by then. 

 

Play It Again Sam - Language Warning

for the record, I don't actually feel this way. I just heard the song for the first time this weekend and it made me laugh
 

Spoiler

 

[The Most Loathed]

On 1/29/2023 at 3:21 PM, Kishi said:

Yeah, it's not a thing worth chasing on its own, but it's still nice. Congratulations.

danke

22 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Seems like the belt promotions are mostly working as intended- getting rewarded along the way for hard work and actual learning. Plus it gives interesting context to your match reports. Congrats on your upgrade 

I've always thought the kettlebell sport ranking system was a bit like the belt system and how you described the pattern in which some white belts show up, I think it's even more alike- that's how novice KB lifters will behave too, showing up regularly before a competition (aka chance to earn rank) and then drop off in attendance again. There are exceptions and those will usually not stay in the lower ranks very long, I suppose the same is true for your white belts. 

 

Anyway, hope you're already feeling better! 

oh, I agree with you on the belt being just right. I always get a chuckle out of people chasing the promotion though. For me, I'll be on the mat regardless.

I had forgotten all about the master of sport ranking system.  I did like that it was more objective but I also recall that there were some really big gaps from rank to rank. Two CMSs could be miles apart in skill, which I guess is true of all of these ranking methods

 

[The Most Loathed]

Monday January 30th

No BJJ - stayed home because of the cold and hip

 

BJJ Watching

I finished the video of arm wrap set ups. There was a lot packed in those thirty minutes or so.I will probably need to rewatch bits as they become relevant. The gist was to do a single chest wrap first. If your opponent stops you from fully getting to the position you want then you have three other avenues out of there depending on situation and personal preference. These 4 setups are specific to the 4 submissions we'll cover in detail.

The second half was getting into the arm triangle video. I've watched this without taking notes before so I know the outline of it. Arm triangle was already my favorite submission and since doing my passive watch I've gotten a real reputation for it. People will give me other submissions just to get away from it, which is a good outcome for me. I'm looking at the rest of the titles on this video and looking forward to getting through them but I feel like I'll need to rewatch this hour in the future. The next video is all about the back take and submission. 

[The Most Loathed]

Tuesday the 31st

Normally a rec and Marathon Roll day but still in cold recovery mode. 

 

Wednesday February 1st

I had planned to go roll today but I'm still coughing and snotting all over and I prefer to not get my training partners sick.

 

We had plans to have people over this evening. I had warned them that I'm coming off of a cold but they decided to risk it. So I made spaghetti and meatballs and taught them to play Power Grid, a classic Eurogame. It's interesting, having been really, really into boardgames and now seeing some people I know get into boardgames. They always want to know what I think of the new hotness but I just don't have an opinion. I stopped keeping up years ago. But, I can still show them some classics that get lost in the noise these days. I wouldn't mind having time to play more games but there are only so many hours in the day.

 

 

I want this cold gone, the last few I've had have only been a few days, but it is lingering in my sinuses. This isn't how my understanding of pathogens work but in my head canon it's because I'm not training. It seems like times when I can still get a sweat on while sick, everything passes more quickly. When I get hunkered down, the illness just lingers. It's more likely that I have the cause and effect backwards, that when I'm really sick I have to hunker and also it lingers vs when it's mild I can train through it. But my brain keeps telling me "you need to go workout or you're going to be stuck with this forever". 

I actually got a text from my training partner asking where I was, because I never miss three days of training.

[The Most Loathed]

Thursday - nada

 

Friday - BJJ no gi

Closed guard - stuff triangle

• top play has both hands near the waistline. Bottom player pushes one and pulls one. Slip your leg over the shoulder on the push side. Bring pull arm diagonally across the body. Pivot your head towards the hand of the extended arm by placing far foot on the hip. Hamstring curl the neck, figure four the legs, pull down on the head and strangle
• Closed Guard - stuff triangle to omaplata - all of the above but the won't let you pull their arm across the body. Stuff the arm to the near side. Pivot so you're North-South but side-by-side with their arm wrapped around your leg. Sit up to trap the arm. Take the near side over their hips and rise up to break
  • I am terrible at these. In the future I need to free up some mobility to make this a plausible move. As it stands, this isn't a viable threat from me in a live roll
• I feel like we covered three things but I'm not sure what the first was

 

Rolls

Bradley (white) - 1 tap. Arm triangle. He knew it was coming the whole time but I got there. I need to diversify my submissions

Leon (brown) - I gave up one tap to a heel hook. I felt pretty good for the first couple minutes but I saw him setting up a leg entanglement and started trying to avoid it. He successfully locked it in and I couldn't get past his knee line to get free. 

Jeff (white) - I got a couple taps then he start to reset every time I'd take back or mount. He was very chatty and seemed to come into the roll thinking he had a chance. He didn't.

Josh (purple) - I got to mount right away and was goofing around, talking to someone and got swept but took mount again before Josh decided it was time. So no tap :(

 

 

I really questioned if I should go today. I wanted to go but definitely not feeling 100%

[The Most Loathed]

Sunday -  Akagi

 

I decided to head over today but take it a little easy, granting myself plenty of rest and bugging out at 90 minutes rather than 120. I probably got in 10-12 rounds but I honestly can't track of everyone I meet. In broad trends, I never suffered being on bottom. Even against the couple of brown belts I rolled with, they tried to hold me off from guard, not getting smashed themselves but failing to sweep. Interestingly they both went for lasso variants. White belts were easy taps. The handful of blue belts I rolled with weren't as productive as I wanted. 

The general theme, as I recall it was that I was pretty successful at getting to mount. I could even get their arms extended overhead but I couldn't keep it there. They would find a way to swim underneath and get out of danger before I set up the stangle. So I think that will be my short term project, focusing on getting to the single chest wrap position and setting up the strangle. 

 

Taps

Given ~ 2

Taken ~ 6

 

In other news @Kishipointed out that this is the end of this challenge. I feel like I barely got my feet under me. I see the new forum so I'll head over there, probably tomorrow, and set something up. I'm not sure if I'm ready to change anything. So I'll noodle on that. 

[Kishi]

Keeping going is challenge enough, sometimes. Solidifying your progress and figuring things out is as worthy a goal as any, I'd say.

[The Most Loathed]

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