Weigh in in 4 hours

So late last week I decided to register for my first tournament. I was 7 lbs over my desired weight class, and a crazy work schedule that would make it tuff to drop the weight. I registered at my walking around weight (heavy weight) and waited patiently until the brackets were released. Then I made my 2nd dumb mistake (my first was waiting so later to decided to compete). I Googled the guy I was fighting. He is a cock strong, former olympic trials competitor with serious wrestling. So on Wednesday (2 days ago), I requested to drop weight classes. So in addition to cramming for my first ever tournament by stealing training hours wherever I can get them, I also had 2 days to drop a little over 5 lbs.

In my week of preparation, in addition to working 60 hours at my job, I squeezed in 9 hours of Jiu Jitsu and 5-6 hours of cardio, all while starving myself. I am now about 1.5 lbs away, which I should be able to sweat off in the sauna before weigh in, in a few hours.

I have not logged most of my training this week, because I have had very little downtime. In short, today we focused on proper positioning from the bottom spider guard. We covered how to pull the opponent back to you with the ankles to the thigh, push them away at the hips, grips on the sleeve, and positioning of the legs on their arms. We learned how to shift our legs as your opponent tries to pass as well as 2 sweeps, if your opponent leaves their foot in arms reach.

Yesterday we covered kimuras from bottom guard along with a bottom guard sweep. We also went over taking the back after a kimura attempt. After class, I worked on guillotines from the same position. I did almost 6 straight hours of some form of training, without only about a 20 minute break midway through.

Anyway, I am as ready as I will ever be.  update to come.

To make maters worse, today we worked almost exclusively from the spider guard, and being on the losing end of 30+ spider guard sweeps has my back very tight. I am extremely appreciative to everyone who has been working with me, giving me the extra attention, advice, and training hours I need to be ready tomorrow morning.

Rolling is Fun-damental

Another great Fundamentals class today. I took the 10am kickboxing class and immediately followed it up with BJJ. We worked on closed guard techniques. We started with simple posturing  from the top and hip control from the bottom. We then went on to taking advantage of their posturing by sweeping with their momentum.Next we worked on Kimura's from the closed guard, including ways to set up the Kimura, and finished the techniques portion of class with  a sweep from the Kimura.

After 60 minutes of training, we rolled for another 30. I was an observant the last 2 rounds of rolling. I guess my cardio limit was at 135 minutes of constant training. None the less, I see progress in many areas (sweeps, posturing, bottom closed guard) and not so much progress in other areas ( hip control, shrimping, giving up my back). I have a much better understanding of the importance of rolling as well as studying. I use to watch as much video as I could consume, and wasn't making nay progress. Now I simply use videos to reinforce techniques I learned training. My rolling has helped me learn timing, pacing myself, and energy conservation. Not to mention the fact that it makes me more and more comfortable to find myself in compromising positions. I am no longer an easy tap in an armbar, nor am I finding myself getting setup for subs as much. I wish I could say I was on the winning end of more subs.
That will come with time. This is only my 9th class.

 I think I will focus on strength and core exercises tomorrow and skip BJJ.

Day 1

So for my first day of class, I was nervous as heck, but that all went away when I was put into my first Kimura from the closed guard. After about 10 min of warmups, and 2 wardrobe malfunctions (aparently the pants don't tie in the front), I was ready to get started.

We worked on Armbars from the mount, Kimura from the closed guard, and 3 kimura defense techniques. The last 20 min of class was dedicated to sparing, so I figured I would be sitting that out. Boy was I wrong. master Jim told me the best way to learn is to get my butt kicked, so I was tossed into the mix.

I started out using all my muscles on the top guard, trying to prevent a roll. Having little knowledge of leverage and weight distribution, I was gassed after 90 seconds.

I throughly enjoyed my first class and look forward to my next one on Thursday. I have decided to keep a training log and will also work on a freemind (thanks Tangled Triangle). Those links can be found on the right.

Armbar from the Mount
Kimura from closed guard