2024 - 05 - 06

I made it to another rest week! The “Free Fall Program” is complete and I’ll have a review coming out soon. For the interim, I stuck to just grappling this week, and will be picking up a self-derived endurance program next week.

Summary:

I apologize in advance for not having a ton of details in this week’s session notes. It was a low volume week, so no strength and conditioning to note, and grappling is always difficult to convey in a written format.

However, I’ve officially started my own business, which this newsletter now falls under the umbrella of — onward-llc.com (IG @onward_llc).

I tried to make up for the content by adding some video references, including a full round between Kyle and myself to make up for the content gap. Hopefully the video is more entertaining than text anyway!

Contents:

• Monday: Passive Rest
• Tuesday: Gi/BJJ - “ninja choke” and long-step pass
• Wednesday: NoGi/BJJ - closed guard posture control and dilemmas
• Thursday: NoGi / BJJ - leg entries from butterfly and standing
• Friday: Passive Rest
• Saturday: NoGi BJJ / Open Mat - Arm Saddles and WNO Recap
• Sunday: Passive Rest, Birthday!

5/7/24: Sport, Level 1

Intention:

Dave’s class this week focused on the classic long-step pass. We also covered some chokes from side control and creative uses of lapels for strangles.

Work:

~ 1 hour drilling
30 min bad position, choke(s) set from side control

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
I’m definitely no stranger to creative uses of the lapels for strangles; nevertheless, it was nice to revisit this classic pass and really hone in on some fine details like hand / head placement (covered in the videos below).

What didn’t work and why:
Maybe I had a bad day, maybe the stars aligned. But I was stuck much longer than I would have liked in a white belts kesa-gatame (head lock side control). The moral of a story is just that it had been a while since I’d been put there and the nuances of how to escape were rusty.

Plan for next time:
Tap more / often. I’ll admit, I got kind of stubborn and toughed-out a few chokes. This really wasn’t necessary, as the point of training bad positions is that, well, they’re bad. You’re not supposed to get out. It’s really for the benefit of the attacker.

5/8/24: Sport, Level 2

Intention:

Kyle’s classes have continued to review transitions from upper body attacks to lower body attacks. Specifically, we’ve been building more context and situational awareness to our positional sparring — e.g. bottom person is down by two points and needs to score to win, or to person is up by two points and can stall out.

Warm:

4 x 2 min rounds of “maintain control” vs. “regain posture” from closed guard.

Work:

~45 min drilling, reverse progression from closed guard to backside-50
~30 min positional sparring withe special conditions.

Notes:

A couple of our black belts were discussing the need for these additional “mental / imaginary” conditions for our training at the gym. In a recent string of competitions our submission-heavy competitors have had a tough run of losses due to better tactics by their opponents (e.g. when or just how much to stall without getting penalized). This results in our guys sometimes taking much bigger risks than they need — e.g. if you’re only up 2 points and there’s 30-seconds left, ride that sucker out! A win is a win. On the other hand, if you’re up (or down) by 12 points and there’s 30 seconds left in the match, by all means, go for broke. But don’t blow your narrow lead by chasing a cheeky submission that’s not really there.

5/9/24: Sport, Level 1

Intention:

This was the last class of my leg lock training block. We introduced the widest range of variables and looked out how to get into a position where we can attack the legs, from a neutral standing position.

Warm:

Several movement drills to emphasize the mechanics we need and the controls we’re looking to establish (e.g. laying underneath my opponent, between their feet, with their ankles high in my armpits).

Work:

~ 1 hour drilling standing and dynamic entrances to leg attacks
~15 min positional training from leg entanglements, then from standing (neutral)

Notes:

What worked well and what allowed it:
We made it through 6 or 8 weeks with no leg-lock related injuries. Magic. I even included scissor takedown (Kani Basami). I wasn’t shy about reminding folks every couple weeks that we do not train for “taps” in our gym, we train for “breaks.” With that said we need to respect what learning and respect the people who are letting us train and practice on them.

What didn’t work and why:
As pointed out by one student, there were a lot random variables thrown in to this class, that made it hard(er) to do (positionally) specific training. That is, once we got standing it was hard to get to the positions we wanted to work. The lesson is that you need a partner that’s going to “play the game” with you, at least if you agree to work on something specific.

Plan for next time:
In my next class block we’re going to move towards upper body attacks, specifically “arm saddles”, but also loosely front-headlock types of positions and eventually get to the back / attacks. The combination of all that will probably take us through summer which is a nice set up for ADCC — wrestling > leg locks > arm bars > guillotines > back chokes / armbars.

5/11/24: Sport, Level 2

Intention:

Survive. A 300-lb power lifter, who is also a brown belt, wanted me to come in on a Saturday at 7 am to “help him” roll. I obliged, but also stuck around for our regularly scheduled 10:00 open mat where Kyle, Lacey, and I broke down some of the recent WNO matches.

Notes:

This was supposed to be a de-load week, but my watch showed my “stress” level at 75 / 100 today. Sometimes you still have to get it! Enjoy the below round between Kyle and I, it was a scrap!