Kimura Night

Small class last night with only six including me there for the technique portion. We worked some subs from guard which incidentally was the one opportunity to finish I had on Sunday. I missed it obviously .

- Kimura from guard: Situp from guard and underhook. Break down opponents posture and when they post..kimura
- Pancake Sweep: If opponent grabs your pants, bump hip sweep to side with no posting arm
- Omoplata
- Omoplata variation
- Cheeky choke armlock

After this I rolled for five seven minute rounds with two minutes rest in between. I rolled with Dee, Will, Garrett, Colin and Garrett again. I got into good positions against Colin and Garrett (the first time) but struggled against Will and Garrett (the second time). Towards the end my right arm really started hurting me, the tendons were on fire, so I am going to have to add lots more of the prehab work that Will showed me in to my sessions.

After rolling Barry showed some submissions from front headlock:

-Peruvian Necktie

It was a good class but I was feeling a little rundown at the end. I think I am going to skip the Tuesday class and get a little rest.

Irish BJJ Open 2009

So I had three matches at the irish BJJ Open yesterday and here is how they went.

Match 1 Men’s White belt +100.5kg vs Krzysztof Zukowski (Beserkers)
Krystof pretty much over-ran me from the start, I finish on bottom under side control and could barely move under him. He took my arm and caught me with a kimura. The whole match probably took less than a minute and I was very disappointed with my poor showing. There were only three men in the division yesterday and I was given a bronze medal by default.

Match 2 Men’s Whitebelt Absolute vs ? (Team Sapo)
I had a big weight advantage here. When my opponent tried to pull guard, I pretty much caught him in mid air and went to ground in side control. My opponent forced himself up on to his side and while flattening him out again he caught my wrist and applied a wrist lock. He was DQ’ed because wrist locks are illegal at white belt and I moved on to the next round.

Match 3 Men’s Whitebelt Absolute vs ? (Beserkers)
No weight advantage here . My opponent pulled guard and I passed to half guard. I joined my hands to apply shoulder pressure to pass but got swept and spent the rest of the round trying in vain to sweep. My opponent did very little from top but retained a good strong base and won on points 3-0. I have a video of this which I will add as soon as I find my data cable.

Overall I am disappointed with my display and need to work harder and harder to get better in competition. I need to stop playing lazy during rounds in training and try to force more a competition pace. So my overall record is now 1-3 in competition and I am still searching for my first actual win (DQ win doesn’t count for me). Next competition is the Team Sapo event this Sunday and I’ll be there….searching for that win.

Big congrats to the rest of the team who brought home a big medal haul especially Andy (Division Gold, Absolute Bronze), Will (Division Gold in his first competition) and Amanda (Absolute gold, Women’s open belt Bronze). I also have a great team photo which I will put up once I find that damn cable .

The event was really well run by Andy Ryan and all the people from his club, Team Ryano BJJ Revolution.  The referees were top notch and the facilities were excellent.

My cave was cosy, i want to go back in..its too real out here

It’s funny that our statesmen are clutching at the Henry handball like gold, they will do anything to deflect attention away from themselves at this time. Yeats sums up my feeling “fumble in a greasy till and add the halfpence to the pence and pray to shivering prayer, until you have dried the marrow from the bone”.  I swear to god, one of the prerequisites for public office in Ireland must be a lobotomy based on the amount of shite that those blithering idiots talk.

Thankfully tonight was a Jits night and welcome relief from life’s woes (I am nearly at my limit in Citi and am considering applying for a NAMA job ).  After the warmup we worked on single leg takedowns:

• Collar and sleeve grip, head position -> release collar, block the heel and run them over
• release collar -> penetrating step, hook with back leg, keep hold of sleeve to move to side control
• release collar -> penetrating step, block the heel, push head on hip, drop them into the hole

Theses are really bad descriptions but i am tired and need to do this update now because work tomorrow going to be busy.  I will fix them on the weekend.  After drilling the takedowns, asking questions and drilling the answers, we had a quick rules meeting ahead of Sunday’s Irish BJJ Open.

After that we rolled in self managed rounds ie we rolled till we were tired, took a break and then changed over.  As such all the rounds were between ten and twenty minutes long.  I rolled with Tony, Youss, Amanda, Grant, Neil, Stephen R and Garrett.  Towards the end of the night when i was pretty wiped out i rolled with Stephen and then Garrett, it might have been that i was too tired to use strength but those were two of my best rolls since starting Jits.  I didnt catch any subs but i did fight hard for position and got some nice sweeps and held position alot better than i have before.  Garrett mentioned that i kept my weight on him better than before and i think this is primarily down to one change i have made in my mount positioning.  I used to try and go for a high mount and often got bumped and rolled off but tonight i kept a lower mount, my pelvis over his hips and my chest over his chest, this gave me much more control.  I did struggle for subs from here but to paraphrase Field of Dreams, if you get the position the will come.

Someone described BJJ to me as a series of small hills with several long flat bits in between, this is mostly true and while the plateaus are hard work the hills are exhilarating.

Stephen reminded me of the big guy sweep during a break in rolling tonight and then showed me a really nice mount from side control.  After switching my hips from side control, alot of people will immediately go to their side, take advantage of this and switch the hips back again and mount.

You’ll never beat the Irish (unless you cheat)

Yesterday was one of those wonderful days. I took the day off work, slept late and trained lots. I made it up to the gym for 11am and after chatting for a bit, myself and Robbie decided to do a C2 conditioning session together.

• Prowler Push: 80kg 10mins

We completed the required ten reps each but I felt really lethargic. It reminded me to eat a proper breakfast before training in future, I only had Oats and Whey before training and the energy from the Oats hadnt kicked in yet.

Workblock A: 15mins

• T Pushups *5/5
• DB Upright Row 12.5kg
• Vertical Jumps

Still lethargic but completed ten reps in the time allowed. I was very strict on form, no cutting corners

After that a couple of lads arrived for the lunchtime rolling so Robbie and I decided to finish the other half of the conditioing session after rolling. I rolled with the spritely Fred, Will, Robbie and two Polish lads whose names escape me right now. The two Polish lads only roll at lunchtimes so I havent rolled with them before. Their technique was decent and they were very strong. I worked from guard a lot and if they got the pass to half or side control I would work escaping to the back which Barry went through on Monday night. Rolling with Will was a different story altogether. He has been rolling a lot more frequently and now has some decent technique to go with his immense strength. We spent practically an entire round with his in my half guard trying to catch me with a kimura, he eventually passed to side control and got the finish. I’m going to try and roll with Will a lot more often because it will be very good for my technique (my power wont save me here). I think we rolled for eight or nine five minute rounds with one minutes rest.

Back to conditioning

• Prowler Push: 40kg 10mins

We dropped the weight to 40kgs which was a mistake in hindsight because it was far too easy, completed the ten reps in about six minutes and took the extra rest before the second workblock.

Workblock B: 15 mins

• Inverted Rows *5
• Military Press 40kg
• Lateral Lunges *5/5

The oats must have kicked in here because we each completed 12 reps in the fifteen minutes. Really dug deep and worked hard.

After that I took some protein and sodded off home for some stew and rest before the evening Muay Thai class. I arrived back for Muay Thai and we did the following:

1. Skipping 3mins*3
2. Padwork: 3mins*6
3. Clinch: 5mins*3

After this I was too tired to spar so made my way home and watched the end of the football. The rest is history as they say.

PS: I am having a great laugh in work today at all the fury directed at Thiery Henry, poor guy only did what ever other footballer in the world would have done in the same position.