Year: 2015

Sun 10 am BJJ

#Bjjfourlife BJJ , , ,

-30 c out this morning, had my coffee, walked the dog… honestly didn’t expect much people out this morning, but Gary showed up about 10:10 am, Justin St Amand, Philipp Jecker, Rupert Klein, and Chris Gaspar decided to join at roughly 10:15 am

9 am training consisted of tabata styled movements with the grappling dummy. 60 secs per movement, with 5, different exercises as hard and as fast as possible. 5 sets total 60 sec breaks between sets.

Had a few issues rolling with someone bigger again today, especially when being man handled to be put on your back, strength can be the difference I guess… this time however, I made a few modifications and faster adjustments… once on top, focused on trying to string a few attacks to complete a submission… being a 10 min round takes tolls on the bigger guys, which is kinda nice… weather the storm, focus on being technical, and efficient with movements.  210 pound is still 210 pounds on top of you… especially when its controlled and well distributed. Fight and move like a mouse as I read regarding advice coming from Rickson Gracie, sometimes its just real hard once they get a hold of you…lol.

big guy

5 Sets of: 
1. 60 sec, knee belly switches
2. 60 sec, side control switches
3. 60 sec, mount to s-mount, alternating sides
4. 60 sec, standing up side control switches
5. 60 sec, side control, push-ups to knee belly, alternating knees

Below is a 1-2 min sped up video clip x 4, of me drilling with the grappling dummy at 9 am this morning enjoy!

 15 min Warm-up:

1. Forward shoulder rolls, alternating shoulders, 2 x across mat

2. Reverse shoulder rolls, alternating shoulders, 2 x across mat

3. Side shoulder rolls, 1 x across mat left side & 1 x across mat right side

4. Forward butt scoots, 2 x across mat

5. Reverse butt scoots, 2 x across mat

6. Backwards shrimping, 2 x across mat

8. Forward shrimping, 2 x across mat

9. Backwards break fall to technical stand, 2 x across mat

10. Forward break falls to technical stand, 2 x across mat

11. Inside Z walks, 1 x across mat forward

12. Outside Z walks, 1 x across mat forward

13. Single knee drops, 2 x across mat

14. Tri-angles, 2 x across mat

Below is sped up clip x 4 of the class warm we did this morning enjoy…

 Positional Resistance Drilling:

  1. Passing, x-passing with partner working on guard retention, 2 mins each
  2. Modified single leg takedown (chest pressure & heal pick, from cross-lapel double fist grip break, maintain the lapel grip once placing between partner), to leg drag to leg drag mount, side control, mount, bait the cross collar choke the partner defends then pop the elbow into S-mount and hooking the arm for the arm bar, switch the arm and hook the leg with the far arm to execute an arm bar while your partner is still on his side. 2 mins each
  3. Modified Judo hip throw, retaining the far side arm hook with a deep under hook, set up a north south head mount kimura to a spinning arm bar. 2 mins each
  4. Side Control escapes, 60 sec rounds, 3 rounds on top, and 3 on the bottom alternating partners

Reviewed issues on leg lock defense, arm bar set ups from closed guard, and side control defenses.

Rolling: (2 x 10 mins Rounds)

  1. Philippe Decker, hard round
  2. Rupert Klein, hard round

European Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship (Sunday) from Youtube below from Jan 25/15

Hope to everyone sometime this week!

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Ossu.

Fri LEMMA 5 pm Open Mat

#Bjjfourlife BJJ , , ,

Didn’t get to bed till roughly 1 or 2 am last night… Baba was up… poor little guy… I ended going to bed with the dog in the living… need sleep to work… up at 6 am… at the office by 6:30 am… yep… things just seem sooo much easier to get completed earlier… left at roughly 2:00 pm… I was tired as hell. I had to get a nap in before open mat at LEMMA.

Some of the guys wanted to go in for 4:00 pm… I was absolutely interested… just had to get a nap in.

Had a blast tonight… had rolled since Tuesday. Definitely had a few issues, which I will have to modify for the next session. Being on the bottom with bigger stronger guys is not where I should be period… especially with similar technical abilities.

Attendance was fantastic… had about 12 or 13 guys OTM… haven’t seen that many guys OTM since new years… yes 12 or 13 guys in a GI… BJJ is still growing here in Thunder Bay lol… Hard to give a Friday night up, I guess to do some training from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm… Especially after a hard day at work. Guess they haven’t figured out this secret to life yet lol… once they do… yes when they do… they will know… all the worries all your sorrows remain OTM after a long hard week from work, school, home life whatever… the stress is in remission. lol

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Me, Marc Perrier, Steven Maley, Scott Paradis, and Morgan Frazer arrived at roughly 4:00 pm… Weird, the door was jarred open, as there was someone their doing a personal training session there when I arrived. I’m still not used to having other people around while we train… doing weights, cardio, personal training or whatever… usually it’s just been me and a select few others in early to lift and drill prior to open mat.

Rolled with Marc Perrier for about 3 x 10 min rounds… first few were a good warm up… I could feel his movements and positioning intensify… I definitely needed to match… man dude has gas. I was a little perturbed… the mat had dirt all over it, getting dirt and hair in my mouth while I rolled with Marc, GROSS… grabbed the broom and swept while Steve and Scott rolled and Morgan stretched… Irritating though… seems like only the BJJ guys sweep the damn mat… Respect the mat homie’s, it’s where we train.

My homeboy Marc… I’m hoping a few girls sign up after this… lol

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Trina, Justin, Travis, Gary, Jared, Mike, and then Luke arrived sometime after 5 pm, while I started rolling with Morgan to warm him up after his stretching lol… #hipflexorproblems hahahah… I believe we did 2 x 10 rounds, intensity did increase gradually.

Friday 5pm BJJ Open Mat is slowly growing… I remember when there was a select few of us… lol… rolled with the same guy like 4 times?? lol

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Rolling:
1. Marc Perrier, warm up & hard rounds, 3 x 10 min rounds, dudes got gas lol

2. Morgan Frazer, hard technical flow rounds, 2 x 10 min rounds

3. Scott Paradis, hard flow rounds, 1 x 10 min rounds

4. Travis Duncan, hard rounds, 2 x 10 min rounds, calve cramped from defending with Travis in my guard and on top the whole time lol

5. Luke Augustine (Albino Rhino), hard round, 2 x 10 min rounds

6. Mike Hinsperger (Big Red), hard round, 1 x 10 min rounds, by this point I was checking the timer every 2 mins lol… dudes a beast.

Me and Big Red

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Left LEMMA at roughly 6:50 pm.

Maybe we’ll see you out for tomorrow’s BJJ class Saturday 2:00 pm or even Sunday’s 10:00 am BJJ jam for those that are determined!

Morgan… hopefully a few of you giggle!!

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Enjoy your Friday night

Ossu.

Wahhh!! Metamoris Is Holding Secret Tourny this Weekend in California??

#Bjjfourlife BJJ , ,

Joke… Kimbo and grappling?

Rumors’ have it that there are secret matches happening this coming weekend… with round robin styled matches… with posting of the matches till Metamoris 6??

kinda excited, something I will most definitely be blabbing about…

I’ve attached the link…

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/2/20/8075387/bjj-secret-metamoris-tournament-taking-place-this-weekend-adcc-news-grappling

Interested I most definitely am… winner to face Josh Barnett?? cool.

Rickson Gracie, The Living Legend

#Bjjfourlife BJJ, MMA , ,

He sure is a legend… obviously we all dream to be like him?

WAIT… BJJ is about our own journey…

Well at least his accomplishments can be inspirational to us… Below is a little homage to his awesomeness with a few videos to commemorate his greatness and history in helping mold what modern BJJ is today…

Ossu!!

Choke, A Rickson Gracie Documentary

Rickson Gracie VS Koichiro Kimura Vale Tudo Japan 04 20 1995

Rickson Gracie, Vale Tudo Japan Open 1994

Rickson Gracie VS Yuki Nakai Vale Tudo Japan 04 20 1995 FINALE

Rickson Gracie VS Yoshihisa Yamamoto 04-20-1995 ROUND 3

Rickson Gracie VS Takada 1997

Rickson Gracie VS David Levicki

Rickson Gracie vs Masakatsu Funaki 2000

Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo Talk Rickson Gracie, and Kron Gracie at ADCC 2013

Joe Rogan Experience #524 – Rickson Gracie & Eddie Bravo

Eddie Bravo explains the Rubber Guard to Rickson Gracie

Tuesday 8 pm BJJ

#Bjjfourlife Uncategorized

Got to LEMMA at roughly 7pm tonight, met up with Morgan… drilled out some arm bars from closed guard, discussed variations of the Ezekiel choke by closing the fist by placing pressure more with the chest to the back to complete the triangle to complete the structure and complete the choke with pressure to Carotid arteries in the neck

Me, Morgan Frazer, John Ganth, Gary Maki, Jared Maki were on site for 8pm BJJ…

Warm-up Consisted of the Following Drills:

1. Arm bars from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides

2. Hip bump sweep from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides

3. Omaplata’s with over hook, from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides

4. Scissor sweeps, with cross lapel from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides

5. Triangles from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides

6. Spinning arm bar from far side under hook, starting in side control when your partner turns into you. 10 reps alternating sides

Gary and Jared , I’ve attached a cool viddy found on Youtube below for further reference… enjoy!!

 

7. Arm bar starting mount, with cross collar lapel grip, waiting for opponent to defend, moving to S/technical mount, switch the arms, bring the leg over, and grip the leg while applying pressure to the elbow. 10 reps alternating sides

Gary and Jared I’ve attached a cool viddy by Jiu-Jitsu Magazine with Roger Gracie demonstrating below for further reference.

 

 Technique:

Got John Ganth to show us a few wrist lock again… love it.

 1. S-arm wrist lock from cross lapel grip. I believe below I found a cool viddy with something similar to what was showed tonight… Thanks John.

 

I feel like it’s just the tip of the iceberg with us and wrist lock application, below is a cool clip from BJJ Hacks about Fredson Paixao with the most nastiest submission in BJJ. I’ve only heard horror stories of this guy entering tournaments, applying these locks to people… guys not tapping in time and breaking their wrist. With only guys withdrawing from the tournaments when they see his name on the sign up sheet lol… enjoy!!

 

Below is Fredson Paixao vs Ricardo De La Riva @ Mundials 2002 a clip i found on You tube enjoy!!

 

 Rolling:  

1. John Ganth, hard flow round, 1 x 5 min round

2. Morgan Frazer, hard flow round, 1 x 5 min round

3. Jared Maki, hard round flow round, 1 x 5 min round

4.Gary Maki, hard round, a lot of grip fighting, 1 x 5 min round.

5. Morgan Frazer, hard flow round, 1 x 5 min round

sore meme

BJJ is all about balance and life… Maybe we’ll see you out for tomorrow’s BJJ class or even Friday Open Mat… keep the wife at home happy… more BJJ!

Ossu.

12 pm Family Day Open Mat at LEMMA

#Bjjfourlife Uncategorized

Wonderful thing is that BJJ is all about family… thought it would be nice to bring the wife and baba out to LEMMA to hang out where I spend a good portion of my life training. Maybe one day I will convince her to start BJJ. Made sure to brew a largr pot of coffee this morning, only -16 out this morning while walking my dog Chucky Lee Norris… had a couple glasses from my favorite 12 year old aged bottle of scotch last night… delightfully hell to get up this morning with the baba fussing all night. I’m soooo thankful for a great wife.

Yay, day off… some guys posted on our LEMMA Facebook group to have an open mat at noon… finally had an opportunity to bring by the baby and the wife for a bit, may get his first shark tank in “not”. I was a little disappointed with the turnout at noon, though. The guys that requested it didn’t even show up. Ah well, ups and downs… all is good though we had a few people turn out… when your at home watching TV or recovering from your late night out… or tell me you have a life out of BJJ, 1.5 hours of training won’t ruin it… truth. Hard to commit I guess… and hey I understand. I have a wife, baby, and full time job as well, sometimes going on 2 hours sleep because of #babyproblems… whats your excuse? Iron sharpens iron, when your at home we all lose on a training partner OTM. BJJ is nothing without training partners. Just my opinion and end rant…

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Oh well, it was good enough to get a sweat on… a little pissed at my my performance… in BJJ we tweak our joints all the time, even unknowingly. I must have tweaked my right elbow yesterday or something… rolling with a furious white belt I guess. Gotta roll differently with them… expect the unexpected, I guess defense mode for their 175 percent outputs and scrambles. Had to wear a elbow tensor bandage after warming up with Jesse, still not sure how I hurt it… weird, just push forward they say.

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Nice though, learned a new entry and foot placement for a standing double under pass from one of our lovely Nogi 10PJJ enthusiast Jsse Veltri, as well as an introduction to the truck. Jesse Veltri has been training with us for a few years now, primarily focussed in Nogi. He just recently competed at Gracie Nationals as a blue belt Nogi competitor under 10PJJ, got a submission in his first match at roughly 15 mins, but got knockout in his second match. 10PJJ works lol… it freaking works in Nogi competitions as well as has MMA applications especially due to not relying on the GI as primary focus is GI grips. Cool thing about techniques in BJJ is that as a whole it is part of grappling… there is soooo much evolving and changing in this sport and industry. Techniques are evolving, changing, improving, getting more efficient, and relying less on theory, with more on applied application. If you want to beat it… you have to learn it that’s just it, any great master will tell you that. BJJ with a GI and BJJ without a GI are two different beasts. These two styles have different applied applications with completely different grips and friction that could prevent a technique to be used in one but rather in the other. Not going to lie, I’m a GI guy that trains Nogi only in the summer, which worked out to about 2 time a week… if provided another class, maybe once a week… I would attend and it’s the truth.

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The great thing about today though, was that I brought my 2 month old finally out to our gym… cutie… can’t wait till I get an opportunity to teach him what I know about basic self defense and BJJ. He is a definite black belt in being a natural cutie.

Warm Up:

1. With Jesse Veltri, the standing double under pass entries to back take, 20 mins

 Rolling:  

1. Steven Maley, hard flow round, 1 x 10 min round
2. Travis Duncan, hard round, 1 x 10 min round
3. Jesse Veltri, hard round with defense, 1 x 10 min round

Maybe we’ll see you out for tomorrow’s 8pm BJJ class!!

Ossu.

10 am Sunday BJJ After V-day…

#Bjjfourlife Uncategorized

-40 c out this morning, the day after Valentine’s Day… Fan-freaking-tastic. Had me mah morning java… walked ma dog, fast it was… no snooping around. Sooo cold out ;p;  Got to the Gym at 9am.

9am training consisted of tabata styled movements with the grappling dummy. 60 secs per movement, with 5, different exercises as hard and as fast as possible. 5 sets total 60 sec breaks between sets.

5 Sets of:
1. 60 sec, knee belly switches
2. 60 sec, side control switches
3. 60 sec, mount to s-mount, alternating sides
4. 60 sec, standing up side control switches
5. 60 sec, side control, push-ups to knee belly, alternating knees

Below is a cool 10 min video clip of me working on the grappling dummy this morning at 9am in slow motion for my 1st set lol… enjoy hahaha.

 

Turned out to be a very very small group today just me and Furious Scotty Hall… lucky him, he gets private… says him lol.

20 min Warm-up:
1. Jogged around the mat the insides to outside switches for a few laps
2. Lunges, 1 lap
3. Forward shoulder rolls, alternating shoulders, 2 x across mat
4. Reverse shoulder rolls, alternating shoulders, 2 x across mat
5. Side shoulder rolls, 1 x across mat left side & 1 x across mat right side
6. Forward butt scoots, 2 x across mat
7. Reverse butt scoots, 2 x across mat
8. Backwards shrimping, 2 x across mat
9. Forward shrimping, 2 x across mat
10. Backwards break fall to technical stand, 2 x across mat
11. Forward break falls to technical stand, 2 x across mat
12. Inside Z walks, 1 x across mat forward, 1 x across mat backwards
13. Outside Z walks, 1 x across mat forward, 1 x across mat backwards
14. Tri-angles, 1 x across mat

I asked Scott what he wanted to work on and he asked me for a few closed guard submissions and how to prevent guys from breaking out of his closed guard. We went through the arm bar and kimura from closed guard. We discussed key points of control to maintain your closed guard with elbow flaring, sleeve/cross-standard thumb in and pistol grips, cross lapel grip control, and using your legs by pulling your knees to your chest to take your opponent off balance. We discussed how he needs to continually keep his opponents posture broken and off balance with all of these various points of control to keep them in his closed guard. I then showed my variation of a closed guard kimura and what I call the lazy man arm bar

Scott, below are a few cool clips I found on maintaining the closed guard by Stephan Kesting.

 

 

Technique:

1. Reviewed closed guard kimura attack, with a monkey and keeping the guard closed.

 Scott, below is a cool clip I found on the kimura by Stephan Kesting.

 

  1. Reviewed lazy arm bar, with a foot on the hip and bringing up the knee on the other side.

 Scott, below is a cool clip I found on the this armbar by Stephan Kesting.

 

Positional Resistance Drilling:

  1. Maintaining the closed guard, 60 sec intervals, 5 reps
  2. Closed guard kimura attack, 20 reps, each side
  3. Lazy arm bar, 20 reps, each side

Rolling: (5 x 5 mins Rounds)

  1. With the Furious Scotty Hall

Below is my 2nd set with a 2.5 min sped up video clip of me drilling with the grappling dummy at 9 am this morning hahaha enjoy.

Hope to everyone out for Open Mat at 12pm tomorrow on Family day!!

Ossu.