Nov 16-21

Missed training on Mon, Nov 17...everyone threw me a surprise B-Day party! I was taking the night off and Charlie was supposed to teach...but then I get this text message from him, "EMERGENCY! COME TO CLASS!" I was shocked! I got to class in a hurry, only to find everyone gathered at the Pizza Factory next door...throwing me a surprise B-Day party!!! WHOA! It was fun though! We all had a good time. Tues, Wed, Thurs were tough classes. Everyone was working hard and got a lot of good training in.

My friend, Sam Kressin and I went up to train at Chris Haueter place this morning. there were only seven of us there so we didn't do any technique just lots of mat time and some mock matches to train our competition Jiu Jitsu energy. If I remember correctly, there were 3 Black Belts, 3 Brown Belts, and one Purple Belt, so nothing was easy! everyone definitely knew what they were doing. But man, we had so much fun! I loved listening to Chris' anectodes and his sense of humor always has me cracking up!

I then trained with our class in the afternoon and the energy of the room was great! Everyone worked hard and we had so much fun at the same time! So, all in all, for me, today was a BLAST! I got in two training sessions with good friends that all loved Jiu Jitsu...can't get any better than that!

Next week, we're only training Sun-Wed, then off for the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving!

training Nov 9-Nov 14

Started closed guard review on Sunday. Since most of the students on Sunday had a good amount of experience, we started breaking down techniques with much more detail and putting them into a flow pattern in accordance with partners resistence.

On Monday, we promoted Jeremy Lazenby to Blue Belt. He's one student that has a very good closed guard game. Two years of training under his belt, he's very respectful and loves his Jiu Jitsu!

Monday's training, we ran the pipe with the single leg in a way that we avoided a potential guillotine. Then we did drills on the high single leg defense. On the ground we went into detail on closed guard control and getting to the overhook. From the overhook in the closed guard we attacked with a triangle to sweep and then if the sweep wasn't there, we attacked with a shoulder lock and then to the traditional triangle.

The rest of the week we're going to focus on the single leg, attack and defense. Also, closed guard attack and control.

November is off to a good start! Classes are full of energy and we are all looking forward to making a jump in our Jiu Jitsu game!

Training Nov 1-8, 2008

This week's training we are going to focus on arm drag variations and set-ups. Also work some snag singles and level changes. On Sunday we started with the inside step arm drag and arm drags to single and double legs. It's cool how the arm drags set up leg attacks. The guys that are brand new to arm drags have to really go slow to get the coordination down. I bet you will be really surprised at how much detail goes into the arm drag but it's a great technique. On the ground, we are focusing on transitioning to the mount and attacking from the mount. I am also giving the guys "homework" assignments. I want them to come back at the end of the week with 2-3 favorite techniques from 2 attacking positions. I'm curious to see who brings what.

Congrats to Daniel Smith on his Blue Belt Promotion! He has been training for a little over two years and is a huge asset to the team! Way to go man!

Oct 26-Nov 1, 2008

We have been doing a lot of standing grappling lately. In our warmup we also include pummeling and break falls to help us get in stand up mode.
We have been working on flying mares "no gi" and drop seonagis "gi". We also do other throws to compliment those other double knee drop throws. Cool Stuff!
On the ground we focused on top side control with some brutal chokes both gi and no gi. No gi: we did variations of arm triangle chokes and guillotines. With a gi: we did cross lapel chokes from side control and some set ups from north south position.

Catching up on some over due promotions...Congrats to Marco Alvarado, Ray Sloan, Connor Drury on their promotions to Blue Belt at the beginning of the month. These guys, each, have been training for a little over two years and are tough, tough guys!

Also, Charlie Grant! His promotion to Purple Belt! Chris Haueter says, "Promote that Man!" Yeah, Charlie has slick Jiu Jitsu, if I do say so myself. With a little over five years of training, Jiu Jitsu is his passion.