World Class Jiu-Jitsu

One word can describe Abmar Barbosa...WOW. And I don't mean World of Warcraft. His bjj is off the chain. It was a great seminar and we had a really decent turn out. There was a ton of skill on the mat Sunday, from white belts to browns and black.

Abmar seems to have a game that integrates very well with mine. He seems to play a lot of open guard and works very well from his back. I was really excited when the first move he demonstrated started off from an entry I often use. It was when you get double sleeve control and play a form of spider guard with your knees in the bends of their arms pushing out. From there you swing one foot up and over their arm and hook it in their same side armpit. With your other leg you swing it out and over the other arm like you are going for the omaplata. When they defend against that you go for an armbar on the first arm by pulling it in deep and locking your legs together over their back in a figure 4.

The other move was from the same entry and was a great sweep. You set it up the same from spider guard, but this time instead of hooking in the same side armpit you go over the arm and hook your foot in the far side armpit. After you do this you pull hard on both sleeves to load them up on your leg. Once you have their weight going forward you straighten out the leg they are on and kick them over for the sweep.

I'm excited to see Abmar compete at the Pan Ams and I will surely be cheering for him. He seems like a great guy with awesome Jiu-Jitsu. He is having another seminar up in Bangor with Eddie in a few days and I hope to make it to that one too. Money well spent! Guys like Abmar are the future of the sport. Great training.

Close Those Doors

Tonight was another open mat night, and it was a great one lemme tell ya. John, one of our black belts showed up and wanted to roll so that was really awesome. One of the great things about having John roll with me is he's not only a black belt, but he is a black belt that's MY SIZE!
After our rolls I asked John what he thought I could work on and he had some great advise. He told me that I was good at flowing with the person and transitioning, but sometimes I need to fight to stay in a position before flowing to another. This makes me impose my game on someone more, instead of just being ok with going to something else.

Rolls Recap-
John pretty much slaughtered me. I did attempt my old mounted triangle attack and ended up rolling to my back for the normal triangle. I had to switch it off to the armbar because he had wedged his hand in to protect his neck so it was clearly not getting blood. Once I changed to the armbar he stacked me correctly and I was not able to pull it off. I then went turtle and he proceeded to break dance on my back lol. I guess that's what I get for trying that.
Justin and I once again had some good rolls tonight. I noticed my game pretty much all starts from me getting the double sleeve control. So I told him not to let me set that up right from the start. It def seemed to make me work harder and took me out of my element more. I worked some pretty decent knee on belly in some of our rolls, and I was constantly looking for him to under hook my foot so that I could slide up for the mounted triangle.
Kevin has a lot longer frame then me and a few more pounds, so I have to play a totally different game with him then I do people my size. Normally I play open guard and roll off my shoulders a lot, but I find myself playing a tight closed guard game when we roll. I had some success with De La Riva guard tonight with Kevin, but not in the traditional way. I knew his legs are longer then mine and when I would go to that guard he would stand up to clear my foot. When he did this I would sit up and hug his knee and feed his opposite sleeve to my hand. Once I have this grip I would start to turn and sit on my side. This places my shoulder right into the back of his knee. From there all I had to do was drive my weight forward to collapse his leg and attempt taking the back. I did this several times tonight, but none of them ended up with me taking the back lol. I guess that's something I need to work on.

A Lil' Open Mat Time

So today I get the call that Noel and Justin are doing some Pan Ams training and needed a test dummy...well maybe not in those words. I really have been trying to get to class early to give Justin a hand on working through some new stuff, but I just hadn't found the time. Today worked out perfect though. So I skipped on over the the ol' barn for a good open mat session.
One of the things we are trying to work on is their game plan from start to finish. It's always best to have some sort of a plan because it acts as a road map in most cases. Now no plan ever goes exactly like you want it to, but that's the whole point of it being a road map, when you get off coarse it gives you a way to get back on track. So me and Justin went over some of the finer points of a certain take down, and also discussed his strong position in his stand up and what throws seem to work best from there. Its all about chaining them together. If you have your opponent constantly defending he has no time to mount an offense.
After that we went on to some guard passing drill. You have 5 mins to pass the persons guard with one pass. If you manage to pass you just start over, but the hard part is the other person knows what pass you are going to do every time. This really helps tighten your passing because if you can pull it off on someone who knows its coming, you will surely hit it on someone who doesn't.
I think both Noel and Justin are going to do well at the Pan Ams and I am certainly excited to see them compete. Justin did very well at his last comp (The Freestyle Grappling Open) he took 3rd in Gi and 1st in No Gi.

Rolls Recap-
I only had a chance to roll with Justin because Noel is still fighting an injury that he needs to rest. I feel I did fairly well against Justin today, we always have some epic battles and it ends up being great training for both of us. One of the things I was having success with today was starting in closed guard and waiting for him to attempt to break it open by pressing down on my knee with one hand. When he was attempting to do this I would time it just right and stuff that hand down while swinging that leg out and up to his shoulder for the triangle. I was having a hard time finishing the triangle today and it seemed like both times he was able to back out of it enough so that it was around his ears and not his neck. This move will stop working on him once he corrects his posture and stops letting me pull him down into the triangle.
Another move that I was forced to use tonight since my triangles were failing was the switch off to the armbar from the triangle position. I was able to hit this once or twice and I found it was key to take one of my hands and hold under his armpit of the arm that was not across his body. This stops him from being able to back out of the triangle and also keeps my angle consistent. With my other arm I would trap his arm that is across his body to my chest and when the time was right I would swing my leg that's locking the triangle over his face for the armbar. This is one time I find crossing the feet is OK and that's because there doesn't seem like much to hook onto, just the top of his head and you don't want your leg slipping off.

Abmar This Sunday

Abmar Barbosa!

This Sunday I will have another chance to train with Abmar. He came to our school a few months ago and I was very impressed with his style. I heard that he dominated at the most recent Naga and I'll be checking Youtube frequently looking for video of some of those matches. If I find them I will be sure to link them.
One of the nasty moves he taught was a great transition from Omaplata to armbar. I try it almost every time I end up in the Omaplata position, but I fail to pull up enough on the arm all the way through the move. The result is my partner being able to keep his elbow on the mat. Justin is great at defending this.
For more info check out www.abmarbarbosa.com

The Begining

John, a friend of mine a few weeks ago had mentioned in class one night about keeping a journal of sorts about techniques he learned. He wanted to start one as a way of remembering what he had learned and also as a tool to use when he needed people to critique him in areas that he normally might overlook.
I had spent a lot of time thinking about this idea, and although I liked it I am not the best writer in the world. I also have a hard time writing anything on paper because my penmanship resembles gang tags on the back of some Walgreens. So recently I picked up a Netbook (Acer Aspire One) and thought maybe I could bring that paper journal up to date and turn it into a blog.
After each class I would like to take some time to sit down and write about class. I want to go over the techniques while they are fresh in my mind and I can remember the details. I also would like to write about the rolls I did after class. Who I went with and all of the key things that happened in the roll. This will be so that I can look back on it and see who gave me problems and with what moves. I hope to use this as a tool and will be telling my classmates about the blog so that they can leave comments and helpful advice. So here goes nothin'.