I want my baby back ribs...

Yeah, I want to go to Chili's and have some ribs. They sound delicious right about... now.

Last night I stopped by BJJSeattle. Rodrigo is really cool and allowed me to workout in his randori session that night. I missed the beginning class earlier, so this was basically an open mat session with different objectives. The last part of the night was just purely open mat.

The newaza practice was practicing from the closed guard, half guard, and side control position, to try to get the dominant position for a submission. I still need to work on my guard sweeps. I did manage a few. My guard defense and offense is severely lacking. BJJ practitioners practice the guard a lot. Judo is about making instant progress towards a pin or a sub, so if you have a high probability attack in judo on the ground y0u take it. Also most pins/subs in judo are set up after a throw, so transition is important. Again, my current guard defense is basically a stalling maneuver, enough to get a matte call to get stood back up. I can do a hizagatame, sankaku or a sweep if my opponent leaves himself open for that. Otherwise my bag of tricks on the ground is fairly limited; especially in the guard whether in offense or defense. The thing is, once I do pass the guard into side control or north/south, I'm fairly proficient in locking down the pin. That I can do and maneuver so the bottom can't shrimp/post/bridge his way out. Now what I need to work on is transitioning from the pin to pin and pin to submission.

Now BJJ, the objectives are a bit different. You spend a lot more time on the ground. During the whole hour and a half was all newaza. It was an eye opener, and I felt great being able to practice more newaza with a lot different people. The cool thing about Rodrigo is that he kept the practice moving and the objectives in focus. Once the guard was passed, it was reset. It's cool, as it keeps it from going stale and flailing around on the mat doesn't increase your experience nor knowledge.

Closed Guard - Defense: I need to control the hips/hands/arms. Watch out for people who gets their shoulders underneath your legs. This allows them to roll you. I was trying to do a sankaku to trap one arm and get my legs around the neck for a triangle choke, the thing was, I didn't have control of the trapped arm.

Closed Guard - Offense: I have to be careful about posting my arm towards my opponent. Or grabbing around the waist, it's easy to become trapped and get into an omo plata. I'm more careful now about armlocks. I still need to work on my guard passes. So far, I only can really execute two guard passes. 1. Knee in butt. 2. Legs on shoulders and roll.

Half Guard - Defense. I need to work on this. From here, I should do sweeps.

Half Guard - Offense. I'm getting better at this. Since I can do ude-garami from the halfguard, going on an attack for ude garami gives me that distraction needed for me to pass to a mount or side control. Usually, I can get from half guard to side control. And from side control, I can get to my favorite pin, North South or Kami Shiho.

Side Control - Offense. I was trying to go from side control to a juji, but I still need more control. I also tried to go from yoko shiho (side control) to an ude-garami which would be easier, again I just need more control. My pin was tight, however, but I still need to get a submission. I guess in BJJ the pin is part of the transition to the objective and not one of the primary objectives as in Judo. I accidentally tore my uke's gi, as I grabbed on tight to the gi skirt for the hold down.

Side Control - Defense. This was an exhausting exercise. It was a good exercise to get yourself out of the pin. It's tough. I was shrimping/bridging/rolling. I still need to just work on it.

At the end there was a purely open mat session. It was fun. At the end of the night, I sparred with a 6'2", 260lbs, solid, ex-college wrestler. Let's just say, this was the first time, in my martial arts training that I was squished. He was the windshield and I was the bug. At 205 lbs and 5'7" I'm not a svelte guy. However, I was truly overwhelmed. His takedown to kesa was just powerful. My ribs still hurt this morning. And when I rolled over in my sleep, last night, my ribs just plain hurt! After breakfast, I'm going to grab some more motrin.

Oh and the bruise of the night is: Left shin area bruise. This one is a nice shiner. I think I got this when someone was trying to do a guard pass or something like that.




Conclusion: I need to work on my conditioning. I need to work on my strength. I then need to work on my techniques. Windshield Guy just proved to me that strength on strength doesn't quite work. Even though I'm strong, there's always someone out there bigger and stronger than me. I have to use my strength and technique together. You need both, without strength, you can't execute a good controlled technique; and brute strength doesn't get you anywhere with a knowledgeable opponent. Windshield guy gave me some more pointers on the initial clinch from the ground. Coming from a college wrestling background, windshield guy's game is really from the initial clinch to take down. I did pick up some pointers, namely keeping myself compact and using my stocky build to my advantage. I just need to work on it some more.

Now for some comic relief. Somebody forwarded this to me. It's on you tube. I think people who practice bjj/judo/jujutsu/wrestling will find this funny.

Sunday Okuriere

Traffic. Seattle. Sunday afternoon. Who knew? Seriously, I listened to KOMO 1000 news traffic update 4 times before I got to practice. Now it's only physically 15 miles from the dojo to my house. It took me 40+ minutes to get there! I was going to be a bit late, but I was seriously late. Still had an hour and a quarter of workout done at Seattle Jujutsu, but late nevertheless.

I do need to take it easy, but for some odd reason I'm compelled to take more and more martial arts. If I'm not practicing (such as last Monday/Tues/Wednesday) I'm actually checking out dojos. And I have seen quite a few dojos in Seattle. I've seen the West Seattle Martial Arts School on Wednesday and the Seattle Kung Fu Club on Friday afternoon.

Actually to make a list, here are the Seattle Dojos I have visited:

Budokan Seattle - Judo
Seattle Dojo - Judo
Seattle Jujutsu - Judo/Sambo/Jujutsu/Grappling
Zenyu Dojo - Judo/Defensive Tactics
West Seattle Martial Arts - Okinawan Karate/Basic Self Defense Judo Techniques
Evergreen Tang Soo Do - Tang Soo Do
Lee's Martial Arts - Tae Kwon Do
Aikido of West Seattle - Aikido
Seattle Kung Fu Club - Kung Fu (Don't know which lineage)
Tenzan Aikido - Aikido/BJJ
Marcelo Alonso BJJ - BJJ/Boxing/Kickboxing
Rodrigo Lopez BJJ - BJJ
Ring Sports United - BJJ/Muay Thai/Boxing
Guru Johnson's Gym (Don't know the exact name) - FMA (Now defunct, Johnson went to Hollywood to become a stuntwoman)
Shaolin Kung Fu Group (Practices at Hiawatha) - Kung Fu

I digress. Tonight's technique of the night was oku-ire-jime. I'm not that good with this choke, as it's hard to apply. I'd rather apply hadaka-jime or the rear naked choke. Perhaps, because you don't have to search for the gi. Oku-ire-jime (sliding sleeve choke) is still a hard choke to apply.

Photo Credit: http://www.judoinfo.com/images/okurieri.jpg

Did this from the standard position with person behind you. Then from the hi4/turtle.
Then we did newaza randori with 2 minute rounds. I think I sat in for 8 rounds or so with various people. Then practiced some newaza randori with BJJ guy after class.

One guy that I did roll around with a couple of times was a bit new. He's also a lot smaller, so he's a bit feisty. I think he needs to relax more. I could see it, that he's just not comfortable yet, and hangs on for dear life. There are some techniques in randori that just get to a stalemate, and either attack or open up, so that techniques can be practiced and learned. We just got into a stalemate, which is fine; however it doesn't improve on our technique. I just need to work on my guard passes. When he gets me into the half guard he just clamps down on my half guard leg so hard. I'm just careful that I don't fuck up my knee, which can be easily done if he clamps on hard and twists. I'm very cognizant of that. Then for the choke, he does a good thing and controls my hips with his feet. However he squeezed hard with those legs on my hips. OW! It's all good. I just think that with him weighing about 130 lbs (soaking wet) more like 120 lbs, and myself weighing 205 lbs. that he gets a bit antsy. I just don't really like fighting tiny guys. Usually I'm the smaller and more compact guy in fights. Granted I'm not svelte at 5'7" and 205 lbs. but I'm usually one of the smaller guys in a dojo. I'm also used to fighting the 100Kg+ guys. They're more predictable. He's the smallest guy that I randori with. He just needs to calm down more. He's a good guy and means very well. I'm just not used to fighting with him, and I'm EXTRA careful with him so I don't injure myself. I think he'll do well, once he gets more techniques down so he can do a finishing move in randori rather than fighting to a stalemate. Sometimes, I let him have something after the halfguard. He doesn't try to get back to a full guard. He just stays there in the halfguard and clamps down. Do a sweep? An armlock? Transition to a full guard? But please don't clamp down on my knee and stay there.

I've talked to him a bit and he listens, which is cool. We'll see what happens. As always. Protect yourself at all times. And of course the major tenet of judo: Mutual Benefit and Welfare. Protect you and your partner. I just want to make sure that I can walk the next day and not have major knee injuries.

Anyways, it was an interesting practice today. Oh and I talked to Adalia today, which was so cool. We talked about how gi's get so stinky so quickly. I wash mine every day, if you must know. I have two double-weave gis, and they're starting to show their wear. I have two old gi's that need pant bottoms, which I need to order from hatashita sports. The cool thing is that I'll get two more pant bottoms, and one more blue gi. That should bring my total gis to 2 competition gis (blue and white). 2 Dojo gis (with the new pants that need to be ordered) and 1 new blue gi! So that will be a total of 5. And I can rotate through my two old gi's for training. One is a doubleweave and the other a singleweave. The singlweave is nice for training in the summer. Right now I'm using my competition gis, and they're starting to get ripped. They're perfectly sized and fits me very well and are within regulation. Once I get the new pants and blue gi I can use those for training.

I'm excited for the upcoming Neil Adams Clinic. Hopefully Hatashita Sports can fly over my new gis before then, as I don't want to have stinky gis for the 4 day clinic. I think I can map out laundromats in Whidbey so I can wash my gis everyday. Washing the gi is a MUST.

Anyways, I'm off to bed. I still need to really plan out my training schedule other than judo, so I can seriously lose some poundage. I'm floating at 205 lbs. and I think I'm at a plateau .

Arrestling

So Friday at Zenyu Dojo I met Gabe, who invited Matt & I to Saturday's Defensive Tactics Class. I showed up quarter to 9 the next day at Zenyu Dojo and Gabe introduced me to Butch and Don. Don is the founder of Arrestling and he does some practical training for LE.

We did some work with target acquisition from the ground, while maintaining distance from your opponent. Then we worked on ground work. We worked on the crucifix hold. Then we worked on protecting from the guard position from strikes and striking from the guard, mount, and side control position. This was quite new to me as I never practiced strikes on ground work before. The majority of time through judo, jujutsu and submission wrestling (pretty much the same thing) has been dominance of control, positioning, and then a submission.

Striking puts a new angle on things. Things that I commonly felt comfortable in left me vulnerable to strikes. And strikes puts a new angle in self defense. Not that judo doesn't teach you self defense, but it's more of a sport. Akin to the boxer, never worrying about low strikes or throws. A grappler is not used to strikes. Getting hit/stunned on the ground was a new experience for me. It was cool as it was light-medium contact. Enough to know that you have a vulnerability open and that it's good to be aware of these vulnerabilities.

Case in point is the groin. In most sports, groin punching is not usually allowed and therefore not thought of; and consequently not defended actively. Granted I always turn during an uchimata throw as I just don't want to get hit in the 'nads. Same thing with a failed tomoe nage or a guard pass. The thing is you can (usually) seen when a disturbance in the force is going to happen; and so turn/move/avoid it. Now it's another thing in a Defensive Tactics class where your opponent doesn't know nor care about the rules; this is in fact a place where there are no rules.



Don was an awesome teacher and it was cool to actually learn from his class. I may stop in and try the class again sometime when my Saturdays are free. Don has a background in judo, wrestling and some other martial arts.

Anyways it was fun and a different change of pace.

Peas.

Apparently Safeway peas makes the best ice pack. Today I'm just icing my right shoulder because it's sore and perhaps well I shouldn't push it too hard. Yep that's a picture of peas. And a postcard "miss your sweat" from Ring Sports United. I haven't been there in 4 months? Perhaps 5 months? I'd like to go there but I just can't afford the $100+ tuition a month and to top it off it's in Bellevue. Fighting Bellevue traffic is not something I enjoy.

Well that's besides the point. I digress. Safeway Peas are great and Icing my shoulder is good. It's just a precaution, not something that happened, I'm still recovering from the time I pulled my upper right bicep tendon on Sunday.

So tonight, I stop by Zenyu Dojo. It's a cool place next to the warehouse. A huge mat space, weight room and changing rooms. Gabe had the keys and let me in. I got to practice with Gabe, Nate and Matt? I'm horrid with names. He's a 210 lbs. guy that's a black belt. We started doing throwing drills on the crash-pad. I love crash-pads. I don't think we train enough on them. Just doing a throwing line allows you to do more a follow through than moving uchikomi. I got to do osoto-gari with a follow through, which was quite fun. I also practiced on my left side morote seio. I need to get it tighter.

Then of course randori. Randori was fun. We did 3-4 rounds of standing randori with 2? or 3 minute rounds. Then we did newaza randori afterwards for 3 continuous rounds per person and people jumping in when it's their turn. I worked on some guard sweeps and reversals. It was fun to roll around with different people.

Oh, and the technique of the night was the British Strangle. We worked on this for quite a bit. I have done this done to me in randori as recently as yesterday. It was actually good to work on it tonight. It was quite fun.

I like the chill atmosphere and I had a lot of fun. I'd have to visit more often.

Smog Alert

Today the air was thick as anything. I could hardly breathe. It was just plain hot and it's still 82 degrees and the air is not moving. I know 80 something degrees at night might not seem much, but hello this is after all Seattle! Seattle doesn't get hot and stuffy and no one has air conditioning anyways.

So today was the first day I practiced after I tweaked my right shoulder. It should be fine. And it was. I took it a bit easy. Shoulder still hurts a bit after practice. Nothing that ice and motrin can't fix.

The technique of the day was the juji roll, the weave and try to get oseakomi in between the weave so you don't get stood up. My juji roll from the turtle was getting better, which was cool. The trick is maintaining control between the juji, the roll, and back to the juji and try to get the juji down.

Then we got to the randori part of the practice. The newaza randori was good, I was just getting dominated. I still need to move faster. I was caught in a few armlocks, chokes and pins. I still need to work on it. There was one newaza that I did okay, I was able to get to a pin, then he got me in a halfguard, at which point I was able to apply udegarami on his left arm. The rest of the time, I still need to work on my base, and escapes from the turtle. I did have a chance to do a randori round with Mario, who is a friend of Johnny's who just recently came back to the dojo. Mario was on the Brazilian Greco-Roman wrestling team and also did some Jujitsu back in Brazil. He was quick and he got 5-6 armlocks and a choke within the 3 minute round. It was good to roll with someone with that good of a base.

Did about 4-5 rounds of standing randori, which I don't really remember much, as I was gasping for air. I was trying to find something to breathe. I felt like I was underwater. I really need to work on my conditioning.

I spent too much of the night eating mat. Here's a picture.



The sad thing, this is just normal. I'm just having fun right now watching the Heavyweight fights on the Olympics. I swear these live events is cutting into my sleep. Tomorrow, don't know if I want to take it easy or go step it up. I'm still watching out for my shoulder. My shoulder should be fine, but I'm going to keep a close eye on it. I don't want to be sitting out for awhile. A week or two is not going to kill me and should help in my recovery.

Tuesday Night Photos

So I was at Budokan on Tuesday Night. I can't practice since I have to lay off my right shoulder. Instead I brought along my camera. It'd be actually cool to watch practice, well since, I hardly watch it because I am IN practice.

Dave was also there and was working on the laptops to stream in judo from the Olympics. In the middle of practice, we stopped practice and everyone huddled around to watch Ronda win her match quickly!



We actually ended up taking a judo portrait of the class. Not everyone was there as it's summertime and a lot of people are out and about doing one thing or another. Here's some pictures from the night.







And here's some more with standing techniques.

Regence is awesome and 800 mg Motrin

So Monday morning I feel a nasty pain on my right shoulder after icing it all night on Sunday. At 10:00 I called Regence (my insurance carrier) and Debbie x4856 at Regence told me I could go to the Ballard Sports Medicine Clinic to check out one of their Doctors, since they are a PPO.

At 10:07, I called Amanda at the Sports Medicine Clinic, pleaded my case and said she'll see what she can do and call me back. At 10:15, she got me an appointment for 2:00 PM. As in less than 4 hours from now. She is just awesome! Not only was this any appointment, but this was an appointment with Dr. Hsu who is an Orthopedic Surgeon who specializes in shoulder injuries. I was in luck!

At 13:45. I checked in with the front desk, filled out paperwork and by13:50 I was done. At exactly 14:00 I was seen by a nurse who did preliminaries. She then referred me to the X-Ray tech on staff who took four X-rays of my shoulder. At 14:20 I was seen by Dr. Hsu. He looked at the X-Rays and made the diagnosis. His diagnosis was that I don't have any serious injuries in my right shoulder. Thank Goodness! He did some other tests and said that I pulled my upper right bicep tendon. I should rest, ice it and take ibuprofen. He told me to take 4 days off from working out and then gradually work out and see how it works. Light at first, and work up to full intensity by the end of next week. If things deteriorate, do a follow up. However I should be fine!

At 14:30 I was out of the clinic. Done! This was the most efficient phone call to specialist that I've seen in awhile. Also should I need Physical Therapy they have it on site at the Ballard Sports Clinic. It's a pretty cool thing to know that my insurance carrier can take care of things rather quickly.