How to know if you're on the right track to a triangle.

So this is like, round three of my focusing on triangles. Gotten much better at not losing people in the locking process (I'm keeping better pressure and don't need to really look anymore). I'm not forgetting the arm, and I've started going straight for the lock more (at the gentle encouragement of a couple of the guys).

So I just ran across this article from InsideBJJ. I've been referencing Rob's stuff pretty much since I started training and it's all been really helpful, especially his piece "33 Grips Every Grappler Must Know".


The video that comes with it gives a few things you should aim for when setting up the submission. The one that I think is going to be the most use to me (in cases where going straight for the lock might not an option) is heel placement-getting the heel in contact with with at least the middle of the back. I think shooting for that will help me get past lazy hip-shooting. 

My poor foots.

So there was this new purple there tonight. He asked me to drill and his face looked crazy familiar. I'd seen him before, but I'm so bad with faces that I immediately starting wondering if I'd gone to high school with him or been his lab partner in college biology. Turns out I'd just run into him after Saturday classes. Maybe it's just me, but people look way different in gis than they do in a rashguard.

The one on the left is the victim.

Anyway, I went my first round with him and he went to sweep me. He directed me backward over my foot, which got twisted under me, and I heard a *pop* then an immediate, louder *POP* come from my foot. I can't even say it was painful, it just felt weird and swellzy at the base of the toes and right behind the ball of my foot. I could move everything and it only hurt when I put pressure on it.

Gotta learn to keep my toes "alive" in guard. I apparently have a habit of sitting back on my feet with shins rotated outward and instep flat on the ground.

On a positive note, I got to work on more standing passes (which I hate and am bad at) and stapling and moving (which took some personal coaching and help from two purple belts and a brown)...some serious intensive therapy. 

Fighters are so...nice

I've been making my first contact with some people from the Muay Thai world and they're just as nice and respectful as the BJJ people. I know we all know it, and I know it gets said eighteen times a day, but I really think there's a higher percentage of genuinely kind, personally open and humble people in the world of BJJ/MMA  than the rest of society.

**I'm writing this under no influence from post-training snuggly-hormones. 

What have you learned from a lower belt?

So I was rolling with this new blue yesterday. I had him in scarf hold and managed to pull off this armbar. I saw it sitting there and went for it. He locked his hands up to defend and I started pushing (carefully) to break his grip. I did it, he tapped and I got a "good job, you got that, just push higher up on the arm next time."

We'd never learned it in class, I just know that for about a week, one of the bigger kids was catching me in it left and right (and now I see why. People just seem to walk into it.)

So...what has a lower belt taught you?

I had a quick conversation with our lady black belt about all the bumps and pitfalls your run into training BJJ and this video speaks pretty directly to that. If you've got a couple minutes, check out this video. I teared up a little.

Doing "manly" pushups...

The resistance bands are really working. I'm up to doing full on military style pushups during the warmup...range of motion is still WAY too shallow, but the bands 3x a week are making a huge difference.



I know people recommend that you build perfect pushup form first, then work on number from there, but the opposite way seems to be working better for me. I think, starting out, I was so weak that bottoming out, I didn't have even close to enough power to get my 210 lbs back off the floor. I still don't, but I've started doing the workout above to build what I need during that phase of the movement. I highly recommend these for anybody looking for a portable, challenging resistance workout.

Happy news on the squat front too, I'm able to get my thighs below parallel with feet flat and hold without pain for a decent amount of time. I wouldn't have suspected that loosening up lower body flexibility would be so hard and slow.

I look like Popeye...

So I'm sitting in church and I noticed that my right forearm felt funny. I look down and it's all puffy and swollen. No discoloration that I can tell and only VERY minor pain when I turn my hand outward. It's not warm and ice seems to be getting it to go down. I'm keeping an eye on it. On the other hand (literally), my thumb brace should be in shortly.

Funny...after I'd been training a year I thought "Wow, I must be crazy lucky or not training hard enough" because besides joints being taken too far and not warming up properly, I didn't have those weird little foot-toe-hand-finger issues that other people did. I'm off to a good start to catch up.