On the Mat Day 249: Rear Mount Escapes (with notes)

I have a love-hate relationship with jiu-jitsu. I hate how I only seem to be improving by small increments or not at all. There are times I feel I am regressing and becoming worse. But I love how the art of jiu-jitsu is like a layered puzzle box. You solve one layer of the puzzle and proceed to the next only to find that the dimensions of the puzzle are far bigger than you expected. I love how there are so many aspects to jiu-jitsu to train. You may find a type of guard that you never saw before and begin working on it like a mad mechanic with a new set of tools. Most of all I love the high at the end of class when your primal instincts tell you that you just did something it agrees with. Grappling is simply a pure form of exercise that requires no special tools other than a brain. Something man must have been doing for aeons. you could take jiu-jitsu back in time thousands of years and the men of that age would appreciate it, understand it and nod their heads. Try doing that with a golf club, tennis racket or football. But I digress.

I expected last night's training to be really quiet but it wasn't. A lot more guys turned up at Tsurumai than is usual. 6 people including myself. F-sensei decided to concentrate on rear mount escapes and preventing chokes since I did so badly against this line of attack during the competition on Sunday. I realized that it has been a long time since I actually have practiced these techniques. He thoroughly covered how to stall the choke and then escape from the hooks. It was very helpful and I plan to make notes. Perhaps even take some video.

During sparring I have decided to play games with people who are lower skill than me. I am not really interested in submitting them but instead want to improve my weak areas. For instance, I will let them catch me in turtle position and go for a choke. I then must escape or end up tapping. Other games I have thought of are stripping all grips they go for, minimal use of arms in open guard to improve my leg and hip movement, and allowing side control but not allowing both shoulder to touch the floor and working for escapes. I really need to focus on the big picture and improve instead of worrying about belts and tapping. I've come to realize it is a slippery slope that leads to quitting or the limbo of stagnated technique.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 = 36 mins
Notable moments: Getting swept with Kouchigari by Kondo, sweeping Tsuzuki with a waiter sweep, X-guard sweep on Kensuke, triangle choke on Kondo.


21. Escaping Rear Mount -

On the Mat Day 239: Spar till You Drop (with notes)

That's what I felt like doing last night during sparring. There were 2 other blue belts besides myself and K-sensei who took the class. We sparred with each other for 3 rounds which meant we did 9 rounds. That is the first time I have done so much sparring in one night. We rested for about 1 to 2 minutes between rounds and each round was 6 minutes. We didn't plan it this way, just everyone seemed to want to keep going. It was amazing. At the end all of us including K-sensei were completely drained. I was comforted to see Akira who is a young lad of 22 just as tired as I was. We had a couple of good sparring sessions. He is very good on the bottom, good at creating space. I use very tight passing with him because I cannot give him even an inch or he escapes to a sweep setup. My passing was sometimes successful but not always. He is good at fighting for the underhook.

I constantly went for single leg takedown. Most of the time they were unsuccessful but I still wanted to be sprawled on so that I could think about options to escape. So far I have success with sliding out under the arm that is under my armpit and taking the back. It works especially well if I do it before they can set in their grips and they have all their weight on me. The only other option I seem to have is to sit back into half-guard but this seems a poor man's choice to me. I also tried some other things successfully like reaping the leg or rotating around them. I will keep trying because I want to try the single leg in the competition soon. Perhaps I'm crazy for wanting to start in a weak area of my game but I want to give it a go.

I am constantly stumped with Fuji-san during sparring. It's like moving a rock. Short arms and legs, weight pressing forward, seldom extending his arms. I am successful in taking his back but he grips onto my choking arm and feeds it to the other side of his head and rotates into me to force me to drop into bottom half-guard. I think I need to constantly arm drag him then think deeper on how to chain some attack from rear mount.

Sparring time: 9 x 6 mins = 54 mins

Notable moments: Fighting successfully for the far-side underhook with Akira and continuing to pass


Breaking Grips for the Armbar -  

On the Mat Day 236: Over/Under Pass & Pencil Pass (with notes)

I bought Marcelo Garcia's latest book - Advanced Jiu Jitsu to add to the X-guard book I already own. Don't let the title discourage you because there are many concepts in this book that are valuable even to me as a blue belt. I've only read the beginning which details arm drags. I used to attempt the arm drag a lot when I was a white belt but stopped after having poor success. After reading this book I decided to start using it again. At class I used it successfully against Fuji-san from a seated position. He often kneels and so it is not so difficult to catch him with an armdrag but I usually have to break his grip first. I did take his back a few times and tried to get a feeling for the seatbelt hold with my arms rather than concentrating on establishing my hooks. While standing I was not so successful with the armdrag. I need to connect my shoulder to his, as Marcelo teaches. I am no good at judo throws but do like to tackle, the arm drag is a good place to start on building my takedowns. I plan to continue playing with it for the foreseeable future.

We studied the same techniques as on Tuesday. Over/Under pass with the under reaching for the lapel. The final pass was called a "Pencil Pass". I would prefer to call it Superman Pass because that's what you do to pass. It is almost like forcing the opponent to do a Banana Split. Interesting technique.

During sparring I attempted to use the pass of the week on K-sensei but did not secure his bottom leg and got triangled. Lesson learnt. Tsuzuki-san who I consider one of the hardest members to spar against came a little later. I sparred with him for 3 rounds. He gives you nothing. Which is cool because if you land a technique on him then you know it was well set up. He pretty much crushed me constantly. Steel sharpens steel, right. I used to hate sparring with him but now I see him as a necessary evil. He is the type of sparring partner you need to take you to the next level, to toughen you up. I caught both him and Fuji with a simple butterfly sweep. I don't know where it came from because I never really train it that much. I usually cock my left leg to move to x-guard but it seemed to move of its own accord now. I established left under-hook, shifted my backside to the left, grabbed his arm with my right and BOOM, sweep to top mount and side mount. That's a keeper. The simple motion of shifting my hips further to the left gave me the angle to sweep effortlessly. I tried it later on K-sensei but he has a very reactive game. He stuffed me by moving his hips low over my hooking leg so he became very heavy on that side.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins

Goals: Work armdrags as well as the millions of other things that make my mind spin.

Note to self: Get more sleep!


Over Under Passes -

On the Mat Day 218: Escaping Side Control (with notes)

It was as if F-sensei had heard me thinking about my plan to get better at escaping side control. He taught a lot of variations which I had seen before but never really in such detail. It was a very good recap of basic escapes which are the bread and butter of getting away from those heavy side huggers. At the end he also mentioned that judoka like to grab one arm under the head, one arm around the crotch of the far leg and it can be particularly difficult to escape but still showed us a technique to escape.

It seems more and more people are gravitating towards the heated room at Tsurumai. I definately prefer it. I am less prone to injury and in fact I took off my knee brace for the first time since I hurt it back at the end of summer. I saw Ryo at class, a guy who looks 19 but is in fact 29! It totally shocked me when he told me his true age. I sparred with him later, letting him work the escapes we had just learnt. He was extremely easy to control being a white belt who is smaller than me. I don't really want to stifle his advancement by holding him down and submitting him, I know I hated that as a white belt and appreciated it when some of the folks let me play my game - as little advanced as it was at the time. Two big boys, Atsushi and Fuji turned up. Atsushi was always known as the club champion but since starting full time work in the police force has put on a fair bit of weight and seemed to be gassing fast. He still has tremendous strength. Couldn't pass my guard but hell if I could break from his closed guard. Caught me in a triangle but couldn't finish me. I can be really stubborn on chokes, never arms though, oh no, especially not after watching UFC140 and Nogueira getting his almost twisted off. I hope he makes a swift recovery.

In other news, P90X-2 was released a few days ago. I am very tempted to give it a go just for the simple fact that I need a focus to get into tip top shape. The workouts look interesting if a little gimicky. I've been telling myself for the past year to pick up the pace and get myself into great shape but it is easy to say and much harder to do. Ah, to be young and single again.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins


Side Control Escapes -

Notable moments: Effectively using a great sweep that I got through the mail from Jason Scully. Much appreciated and it is high precent for me as I use the spider threaded leg often. See video below.

On the Mat Day 213: New Places Old Faces (with KOB notes)

Tsurumai dojo mat

So I wanted to change things up a little last night which is why I decided to go to the Tsurumai dojo instead of the main one in Nonami. I got to the place around 7.40 pm after working my way through the subway network which I have not used in ages. It was nice to go to central Nagoya again. It reminded me of my first days in Japan, the smell, the pretty girls on the trains, familiar station names. I found the place from the station without too much trouble. I have a knack of being able to track my way to any place even if the map I get is crap. I just followed my nose and arrived there easily. F-sensei's wife buzzed me in and I went up to a brightly lit room on the 2nd floor with a nice shiny mat that spanned the entire room. The heating was turned on and it was all so nice and cosey. So much so that I didn't need to wear a full sleeve rashguard and rash leggings under my gi. Fuji-san, apparently a regular on Thursday night, turned up at 8 pm after running there from his home.

A photo used to promote jiu-jitsu at the new dojo (old dojo shown). Guess the technique being shown.

We worked on a warmup/stretch at first but it seemed kind of archaic in nature. Something I used to do when I did Karate when I was 13. Static stretches are so 1980s. I'd prefer K-sensei to make us do BJJ specific drills. We moved onto closed guard drills next. Whenever I drill with Fuji from closed guard I can never get my legs around his waist because he is like a big keg of beer. I could not connect my legs over his shoulder for the high guard armbar either.

We moved onto the knee on belly sequences which I saw on Tuesday. Again this lesson was a recap for me but involving tech I really like. Knee on the belly is not just a great BJJ position it is also great for self-defence. If you get an attacker into this position they are screwed.

During sparring the first thing I noticed was how easy it was to slide on the mats. This made escaping easy and in my opinion gave an unfair advantage to anyone on the bottom. Lucky me because most of my game is bottom now. I tried to play more open guard with Fuji-san but we always end up in closed guard. I think he pushes himself into it to get the Tozi pass. His main attacks are grab the pants if I am sitting and use bullfighter pass, or wait until he is in my guard and use the Tozi pass. I also sparred with Fumika (K-sensei's wife), she is so nimble and I try so hard not to use strength but I have to grab her so hard sometimes otherwise she slips away or transitions fast.

I will definately try to make a trip to Tsurumai once a month just for the fun of working out in a different environment.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins

Notable moments: Almost getting K-sensei in a twisting armbar from close guard. I reaped in his elbow as he tried to break my guard, shrimped to my left and was about to get his arm when he somersaulted forward to escape. Later he said my legs were too loose and it gave him space to escape otherwise I could have had him.

KOB Techniques -

On the Mat Day 205: Getting the Armbar on Turtled Opponents (with notes)

I usually don't train on Thursday but I decided to go this week because I like to mix it up and bump into people I don't usually get to spar with. Kamiya-san was there. He got his blue the same time as me. I assumed that he had been training on days that I don't go but later he told me that he had taken a month's break. He's a bit introvert at the dojo, not often speaking out with the other guys, answers questions politely when posed to him. He would probaby make a very loyal friend, a bit like me really. We drilled armbars and the triangle. I have been continuing my plight to get good at the high closed guard armbar. I have to say that I wish I had longer legs but the technique still works for me.

F-sensei showed us how to attack a turtled opponent with an armbar. The techniques were very simple and we only did a few which was perfect. I prefer not to be bombarded by technique and instead continue to repeat only a few moves. I will make some notes (wish I could video record it). Basically, they started by getting a single hook in and sitting on the belt line of the opponent. From there either hooking his arm from the inside or outside. They were good solid techniques and I would like to keep them in my head. Tete-kun, who returned from a competition in Thailand, showed us some moves he had picked up. The first was a closed guard to triangle with a twist-you use the opponent's lapel and kick it with your free foot to open him up, it was very cool, very jiu-jitsu-like as he termed it. The other he showed me was a bow and arrow choke but the opponent is very strong and you can't finish him. You bring the leg over his head to increase the choke. It was really painful.

Sparring was good but also frustrating. I got into my beloved x-guard a few times. Caught kamiya with it and took his back. I also managed to do the De la Riva to back mount with Tete-kun. I suspect he lets me play my game though. He is a good partner to spar with. Tsuzuki turned up late and mauled me. I was so frustrated with his pass, pressure, choke on me that when we stood up all I could think was that I want to tackle him and drive him through the wall. I tried and he crushed me - lol. I don't know how he does it. He is like this dense pillar of stone. I throw myself at him and he seems immovable, whereas Tete-kun is like water. He flows with your sweep, avoids it and then comes back to crush you. Really interesting how different they both are.

Sparring: 6 x 6 = 36 mins

Notable moments: X-guard to back mount, some weird escape I did (non-repeatable) to end up in North South on the opponent.



Turtle Armbars -

On the Mat Day 204: Marco Barbosa Pass (with notes)

There was only me turned up last night so I got a 2 teacher to 1 student lesson - cool! After doing the warm up drills, F-sensei asked me if I had anything I wanted to work on.  I said that I didn't know where to start and that there were so many things. I eventually told him that my passing skills are poor so that would be good. We recapped on last weeks guard passing from the closed guard which was good since I only saw the technique once and had forgotten most of them. F-sensei said they were based on the pass Marco Barbosa had taught him and had often used. I have also been drilling the armbar from closed guard and really like how it makes it possible to get the submission even though the opponent knows what's coming.

Tsuzuki(purple) and Kawai(brown) turned up for sparring so it was tough. It always is with Tsuzuki-san. I tried standing with most of them last night. I only really have Sumi-nage which I do without thinking about it. They all know I use this throw exclusively but I still pull it off ok. They are better at scrambling than me though so I lose any advantage from the throw. I'd like to develop the grip across the back I get before doing this throw to lead into other moves.

At the end of class Kawai asked me if I know Fabio. It was a wtf moment in which I didn't know what he was talking about. I suspected he was talking about a sweep. It turns out this is what the Japanese call the standard butterfly sweep to the side which leads to transitioning to kesa-gatame then side control. He taught me how to do it from my half-guard position. Since I use the knee in stomach a lot (Z-guard), he said I should use this sweep. I will try it next lesson on someone less experienced. He also mentioned that I drop that blocking knee too far in half-guard and it makes it easy for people to crush my legs down and pass. There it is I thought. Positive criticism at last. I wish F or K-sensei would tell me weaknesses like this. Why don't they? I could ask them but it can be hard to see yourself through new eyes. I would only end up asking, "What can I do to not get smashed?" It would never have been specific like, "Do you see me making any mistakes in half-guard?" Because I am not that good at analyzing myself and asking specific questions that would lead me to a breakthrough. Perhaps I should after each roll ask my opponent where he felt that I went wrong in the roll. It' s worth getting feedback I think. Tete-kun will give me feedback from time to time which I think is great. I keep an open mind when people give me criticism about BJJ.

On a different note I have started to learn the guitar. Which conflicts with BJJ in that I am not cutting my nails so I can play the strings easier. I didn't like the feel of a pick. This got me wondering what BJJ guitar players usually do. I considered taping the ends of my fingers. I've had snagged nails before and it hurt a lot. I do hate long nails on guys though, same goes for hair. This is just an experiment really.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins

Notable moments: Taking Kawai-sans back from x-guard but not having the power to pull him down into me.


Breaking Closed Guard -

On The Mat Day 203: Breaking Half Guard (with notes)

I really liked this lesson because I find myself in half-guard a lot. Many of the passes last night involved transitioning over the top of the opponent, spinning him around using the legs and taking the back. I've seen one of them before from a standing half-guard position. It was a fun lesson.

Sparring was tough. I don't seem to have found my groove. I'm not tired during sparring but I seem to be making bad decisions or all the wrong moves. I go left when I should be going right etc. The feeling I got last night was depressing. I felt like I was actually getting worse. I felt like I did when I was 6 months into BJJ. I suspect that I could remedy this by training more, but 2-3 times a week is as much as I can manage right now. Tsuzuki caught me in side control and his usual choke. I know what is coming, I can replicate the movements but I cannot stop him. I defended it for a long time but he got it eventually. I tried to invert and sweep him but his base is too strong. In other notes, when I go to left hook from bottom both F and K-sensei crush my legs down by twisting to the side. I know I need to get my right arm in under their leg to move faster to x-guard. I have been looking at the closed high-guard recently. How to get the armbar from closed guard. It almost worked on Tsuzuki, I was really suprised.



At the end of class a lot of technique was floating through my head. I asked K-sensei about a De la Riva sweep and taking the back from the De la Riva hook. I just wanted to clarify a few things. When sweeping with the De la Riva hook and holding the far arm while kicking his leg to stretch him out, he said it is hard to kick the far leg enough to cause him to lose balance. This is especially so for me with my short legs. He suggested to move to sitting guard with the same grips and sweeping.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins

Notable moments: K-sensei's teeth going into my forehead, his knee going into my nuts and then his thumb smacking into my eye. I said to him that he can beat me up enough with BJJ alone, he doesn't need to play dirty! They were all accidents though - I think.


Half Guard Breaks -

On the Mat Day 197: Mount Escapes (with notes)

Monkey transition to inverted guard

I have come to realize that more than anything, jiu-jitsu is an art that teaches you about movement. Movement in a 3D environment that was once perhaps the norm for us when our ancestors were apes, but is now unfamiliar. It also teaches you to use each limb separately to push and pull in opposite directions. Most people think in terms of upper body and lower body as separate entities and never use them in combination, but BJJ shows you how to use the left hand and right leg together to perform a sweep, how to lift a person from the floor with your legs and then manipulate them with all four limbs to rotate them into an armbar. Have you ever seen a non-BJJ practitioner stand up? They push themselves forward or tuck their feet under them and stand up while swaying with poor balance. The technical standup taught in BJJ is so much more efficient. One hand, one leg posted, backside out and stand up in a fraction of that time with a low possibility of losing balance or getting kicked in the face. The technical standup should be required learning for all drunks to ensure they make it out of the gutter after a late night of binge drinking. Have you also noticed how even after a few months of BJJ, you will shrimp in bed? I want to turn over to see the alarm clock. Do I simply roll over like a log? Nope. I shrimp and scoot my backside away from the clock to turn to face it. Weird...but efficient and fast.

Don't let this be you. Learn the technical standup.

Last night's training was the best in a long time. A lot of guys came who were training as a white belt the same time as me. In fact the room felt like nearly 2 years ago but white belts replaced with blue. Atsushi, Akira and Kensuke. It felt like old times. Atsushi is on leave from the Police Academy where he trains judo 2 hours a day Monday to Friday. The beneits of that were clear during sparring. He was pretty much the champion of our dojo even at white belt. He would win everything. With him training judo now he is even tougher to go against. During our sparring session I noticed that his side control is crushingly strong and he leaves little room to maneuver but I did manage to hip escape a few pins. He has good technique though and was always very diligent about training at our school (5 x per week). It was good to see him again. One thing he told me about the Police Judo club that made my eyes go wide was that he was not allowed to release chokes after the opponent tapped. He said the instructors told him to choke until they lost consciousness. Which to me sounds really fucking stupid. Imagine the number of brain cells these guys are killing off in each other. Many of the older generation in Japan still have too much of that old school mentality about things, be it sport or business. I can just see the Police instructor smacking Atsushi with a bamboo stick for releasing the choke. In fact I know he was even hit in the leg with a keibo (police baton) because I saw the ugly purple welt on his leg last year. Thank god I found BJJ first. Respect the tap Judo police instructors!

During sparring I used inverted guard a hell of a lot. I have noticed that most people are very wary of coming close when I do invert. They suddenly step back and wait until I spin back around to sit. As far as I can see the main attack from inverted guard is the triangle. There is also a sweep but that seems to be launched from half-guard. I am still researching how to attack with this guard.

I asked Atsushi to show me a lapel arm wrap to choke that he was always good at. I think I can use it. Also, Akira and I had a bit of fun in between sparring by drilling an inverted guard drill. It goes like this. One of you stands with legs further apart than shoulder width. The other is on the floor sitting with one of the standing persons legs in between theirs. They invert and spin around to the persons rear and then back to the front. Rinse repeat. The diziness effect from this is worse than spinning around on your feet but it's a great drill for switching from inverted to sitting guard. F-sensei also drilled into us the importance of choking correctly. He told us not to allow the wrist to move in the wrong direction during chokes because it created space for the opponent to free their neck. Chokes should always be done with the wrist bent down and the fist pointing towards the pinky finger. This helps the edge of your bone move against his neck as well.

Normal grip with fist

Bend wrist down

Then bend wrist towards pinky finger

Sparring time: 5 x 6 mins = 30 mins (was going to be 6 but after a minute of sparring with Kawai my knee twisted uncomfortable between his legs and I had to stop for ice)

Knee injury: 90% > 70% efficiency now :(

Memorable moments: Sitting guard to successful armdrag (but too slow to take the back)


Mount Escapes -

On the Mat Day 195: Back Escapes (with notes)

Again we worked on escaping from a rear mounted opponent. This is good reinforcement for me and something I need to practice more. I do well at fending off attacks from rear mount but find it hard to escape while having to defend chokes. I should finish writing up the notes for these techniques in a few days.

Someone came to watch the class tonight. We get people walk in from time to time and a few sign up but for everyone person who joins the club there are probably 3 or 4 who don't. It makes me sad to think that they were at the cusp of finding a great hobby that would really mould them into a better person only to not go ahead and join. Perhaps, they went to a different club but I doubt it. I also see a couple of people drop out but not quite so many as I read about on other forums. The Japanese tend to work more than they play so most only quit for work reasons rather than they are sick of getting crushed in side control. Still, I don't think work is an excuse. People need to find a balance in life. Plus the fact that we have classes everyday means that someone who says they have no time for jiu-jitsu is just too lazy to make time. I hope the guy signs up. More sparring partners means I get better.

Sparring went ok. I tweaked my knee again. Just a quick sharp pain that has not bothered me today. I iced it a little then went back to sparring. If it had been excessive pain I would not spar but it felt like nothing more than the pain you get from bending a finger. I'm on the mend anyway so all is good. F-sensei mentioned that a cute girl started at a local club near us GSB (Grappling Shoot Boxing) which has some really good grapplers. It's pretty rare that a girl will start BJJ and a cute one at that over here. I see so few girls in clubs, perhaps it's just ours. We only have 2 female members. Probably the more you have, the more join up. I understand that.

At the end of the night I asked Akira if he had some time to drill some moves. He said it was no problem at all and we got to it. I worked on a couple of sweeps from the x-guard, deep half and sitting guard. I am 100% bottom player now, especially with my knee. I've noticed a trend where judo guys play top and keep to it pretty much with little advancement or tend not to try out something new. Whereas guys who have little grappling experience, like me, gravitate to be bottom players and systematically go through techniques, picking out workable ones and discarding ones they can't use. I really think to evolve, bottom is best, and keeps you intrigued by jiu-jitsu. I've also noticed a trend that the judo-based BJJ players tend to come less frequently or not at all, maybe due to boredom because they don't try anything new. This is just my experience. I am sure there are many exceptions.

Sparring time: 5 x 6 mins = 30 mins

Notable moments: Getting into x-guard on K-sensei and trying to push him then do a technical standup to sweep but him holding my top leg in place so I cannot post my leg! Argh, what to do now? Later found out it was move under leg for rear mount pull down.


 
Escaping the Back Mount -

On the Mat Day 193: Passing the Guard (with notes)

My knee felt a little better on Friday night so I sparred a bit while taking it light. It was good to get back into it again. I never forced anything while sparring. Kawai-san also had a round with me and I was a little worried at first because he is a big heavy guy. He told me to relax before starting and was extremely loose and never went fast. We tried to flow roll but I am not good at it. Doesn't hurt to try though. I really appreciate that I have these type of people looking out for me and pushing me to get better even through an injury.

Sparring time: 5 x 6 mins = 30 mins

Notable moments: Getting a spider guard sweep that takes the opponent over your head. I watched the Rolled Up episode with Michael Langhi from Budo Videos and he was showing this sweep. It looks like my style and surely enough it was easy for me to do since I play with the spider hook a lot.


Standing Guard Pass Against Inside Hooks -

Day 191: Omoplata (with notes)

A typhoon is hovering over the area where I live right now so it was not surprising that there were few people training last night. Only me and Tsuzuki-san who is purple. Because of our coloured belt grade F-sensei skipped a lot of the omoplata basics and went straight to dealing with a stalling opponent in the closed guard. We started each move by extending the legs and getting distance to hip out and work into omoplata with variation to technical standup then to crucifix and triangle. I enjoyed it but my knee was tweaking in closed guard. I skipped sparring and anyway Tsuzuki went home early because of work the next day (he's a policeman).

I asked both F and K-sensei about leg locks and just really confirmed that blue can only do straight achilles tendon locks and from brown is ankle locks but only in one direction. That is the ankle lock with the toe in the armpit and the arm around the opponent's ankle reaping it around so it also affects the knee is illegal. Bicep slicers or similar moves are only from brown belt. I know a bicep splicer move from spider guard but asked to see a slicer move that pressured the lower bones of the arm, really nasty move.

F-sensei opened a new dojo in Tsurumai. Smaller space but it has an air conditioner! I may visit once it has a few people going there. Be nice to have a change of scenery. Also, F-sensei's wife was made purple belt. Very cool because she is very knowledgable and also teaches the kids and some adult classes when he is away. Grats!

Sparring time: 0

Until now I have taken down notes on techniques in notebooks. They get a little scraggly after a while so I have decided to write them here in digital format using docstat. They are very detailed so hopefully will help jog my memory a few weeks down the road when I have forgotten most of them. The first one is on last weeks Omoplata technique.

BJJ Omoplata Notes August 2011 -