Finally received my monthly edition in the mail…
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8 pm BJJ, Drill for Skills ?
Arrived at LEMMA for roughly 7:30 pm… popped some ibuprofen… yay…
Wow! some guys got here early, warming up, rolling, awesome especially with the crappy weather BJJ4Life…
Marc, Alex, John, Travis, Alex, Hector, Gary, Jared… were all on site and ready to do some drilling haahaha…
Warm-up Consisted of the Following Drills:
- Arm bars from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides
- Hip bump sweep from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides
- Omaplata’s with over hook, from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides
- Scissor sweeps, with cross lapel from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides
- Triangles from closed guard, 10 reps alternating sides
- Spider guard to triangles switches, 10 reps alternating sides
- Marcellotines, 10 reps alternating sides
- Side control switches, 10 reps alternating sides
- Butterfly guard sweeps to kesa gatame side control, 10 reps alternating sides
- Spinning arm bar, from side control, with under hook when partner turns into you. 10 reps alternating sides
- Modified single leg takedown (chest pressure & heal pick, from cross-lapel double fist grip break, maintain the lapel grip once placing between partner), 10 reps alternating sides
- Modified Judo hip throw, retaining the far side arm hook with a deep under hook, 10 reps alternating sides
- Drop Seoi Nage, with under arm pit grip, 10 reps alternating sides
I’ve attached a fun viddy with some of us working on drills… some… ahem lol enjoy, sped up x 7.
Technique: (Some open guard sweeps sweep… we got sweeps)
A cute video of us working on the following sweeps enjoy.. ahahah
The ones we worked on tonight are as follows:
1. Weighter Sweep @ roughly 1:15
2. Tripod Sweep @ roughly 1:12
3. Star Sweep @ roughly 1:22
Marco Polo! I’ve attached a video found on YouTube by Jason Skully for reference with 51 other sweeps we will take a run through… enjoy!!
Rolling: (5 min rounds)
1. Sat out.. no partner
2. Jared
3. Travis
4. Jayden
5. Hector
Remember use technique… if you muscle, you gas, when you gas, you tire, when you tire, you die… I think…great quote from a great Black Belt Saulo Ribeiro—six-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion.
Wait the real one is below… lol
Great time boys!!
Ossu!
Sat BJJ
Got to LEMMA around 1:30 pm… funny though Crystal was like, “dafack its sooo hot in here” lol… Morgan went through a de la riva entry, a sweep, and back take… I feel like this still is an area were our team up here need improvement… going to tournaments presented with guys that have mastered this guard offensively really hinders my approach for my top game, that being said training it and training with guys that are learning it to be one of their main go to guards will help my offence improve dramatically…
Partnered up with Luke… bad idea… dude has thick legs… myself short thicker legs… no dice my ankle kept feeling like it was getting ripped off… had to switch my angle too much for it to even be appropriate when faced with an opponent similar to Luke… I ended up working with Jared… that has longer thinner legs… a little easier to insert the hooks…
Rolling: 5 min rounds (45 sec breaks)
I recorded some rolling at super speed… 4 x times the norm… enjoy lol
1. Jared Maki, 1 x 5 min round
2. Mike Maronese, 1 x 5 min round
3. Luke Augustine, 1 x 5 min round
4. Travis Duncan, 1 x 5 min round
5. Morgan Frazer, 1 x 5 min round
6. Gary Maki, 2 x 5 min round
My rolling viddy with Gary is still editing in Youtube you may or may not have issues trying to view it… apparently the song writer doesn’t allow people to add their music to videos… BS… I ‘ll attach the video once its been edited with a YouTube approved song lol…
Weird today… maybe it was all the ibuprofen I popped in the morning… I felt like I could roll forever. I was definitely looking to roll if you know what I mean… Morgan mentioned that was going to get the class to shark tank me… I was a little perturbed that it didn’t happen at the end of class, guess it was sarcasm… lol.
Yep, I’m 36 and feeling it… sometimes I feel like i’m 20 weird eh… watch for it… I will be blogging shortly about BJJ after 30… once I’m 40… I will do one then… enjoy your Sunday… I’ll be heading to Sunday morning BJJ shortly… hopefully I see you there!!
Ossu!!
Fri Open Mat
Numm… num… went to Quizno’s right after I got home with the wife prior to going out to a friend’s house tonight with the baba… ordered the a 12 inch steakhouse beef dip… love the side of good oh wonderful aus jus, man I love aus jus… fast quick and delish, I could drink it at room temperature. TRUTH.
Been popping ibuprofen since Wednesday like candy… tweaked my lower back somehow… not even sure what happened. Got to to LEMMA at roughly 3:45 pm… Jesse, Brock were on the mat… Jesse was talking about the truck and other 10PJJ stuff stuff with Brock. Marc was reviewing some notes.
Warmed up with the first few rounds with Marc Perrier for about 3 x 10 min rounds… he wanted to work on a few things he picked up from the CD Morgan lent him with Liera Jr who trains with Atos… and the arm drag to back take from closed guard.
His movements and positioning slowly intensified… I always have to match… dude continues to have gas. The mat was dirty yet again… kept getting hair in the eyes… Respect the mat homie’s, it’s where we train.
Below is a viddy of me and Scotty too hotty rolling at supa speed x 4… from tonight
Rolling:
1. Marc Perrier, warm up & hard rounds, 3 x 10 min rounds, gas man… he wanted to work on some de la riva stuff lol
2. Alex Wawia, technical flow round, 1 x 10 min rounds
3. Brock Peters, hard round, 1 x 10 min rounds. Dude was out for blood… I was in defense mode the whole time especially with the back.
4. Scott Paradis, some fun and some technical hard rounds, 3 x 10 min rounds
Below is another viddy of me and Scotty too hotty rolling at supa speed x 4… from tonight
The guys may have been taking it easy on me… Got some stretching in with my lower back and legs for about 20 mins.. My lower back issue may be mainly due to the lack of stretching in which I have been avoiding lately to get home as quick as I can to hang out with the baba. Figured today would be the best day to restart my stretching routine as opposed to leaving right away… just means less rolling… I’m not getting any younger.
Got the big boys to roll with each other… wanted to watch some big boy technique lol… Alex rolling with Steve Ward, Philippe roll with Alex, then Philippe with big red. It was a pleasure to see Steve Ward out tonight. Hadn’t seen him since the Submission Challenge tournament in Minni we attended together…
Below is a small viddy of some of the other boys light speed x 7… Steve/Scott, Scott/Phillipe, Steve/Big Red, & Phillipe/Alex… notice me stretching lol… yes stretching… from tonight.
Philippe wanted a few corrections on execution of an escape while rolling with Mike for the front head lock escape with a sit out… I explained to him that he needed to execute the escape earlier and before Mike sprawled to maintain top side position, more development of his sensitivity.
Below is a small viddy of Philippe and Big Red rolling recorded x 6 times the normal speed lol… enjoy
Left LEMMA at roughly 7:05 pm. Overall, tonight was a good night considering my back the past few days… hopefully the condition remains minimal.
Below is a viddy compilation of 15 top BJJ matches found on Youtube…
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!
Enjoy your Friday night
Ossu.
Tuesday 8 pm BJJ
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
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
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…
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.
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.
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…
-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.
- 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:
- Maintaining the closed guard, 60 sec intervals, 5 reps
- Closed guard kimura attack, 20 reps, each side
- Lazy arm bar, 20 reps, each side
Rolling: (5 x 5 mins Rounds)
- 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.
Watch “JT Torres: Stick With It | BJJ Mini-Documentary | Jits Magazine” on YouTube
Hits home…
Thought of you Travis Duncan, who made me want to start training in a GI in 2008 or 2009 when i first trained with you subbing me every second in nogi sooo I bought my first GI… A3, 2 to 3 sizes tooo big lol… not to mention Steven Maley who showed up every soo often as well all back on James street lol… also major credit for John Veale, & Ashley who pushed… as a blue belt and brought all the influences into competion to Thunder Bay!
Morgan Frazer for sticking through it as a white belt in 2012… remember. IBJJF Chicago. Damn sons… time blown by… friends we made… things we done. feels like yesterday.
Torres: Stick With It | BJJ Mini-Documentary | Jits Magazine:
Ossu!
Friday 13th Open Mat
Wooo,
Do we work to train? abso-freaking-lutely… if your a BJJ addict…
Been off the mat since Tuesday… itching to get sometime in.
Got to LEMMA at roughly 4pm… no one around… could have sworn I posted something on our Facebook group page… oh well I will drill on my own with the grappling dummy until someone shows up. While putting on my GI pants at roughly 4:15pm phew heard someone opening the doors… awesome! Turned out to be Alex the beast Wawia… only thought in my head was great… i better get a really good warm up going. Alex is a 220 lbs white belt that has a back ground in yep… Judo. I’m currently about 160… 166 on a full beefy day. Alex is freaky strong, fantastic top game, I’d say mid level to higher blue belt top game, tones of control, pin point i might add. Like rolling with a baby bear. Yep, glad the heat was on and I was ready to be fighting for my life on the bottom. We ended up rolling for about 4, 10 min rounds… very delightful I might add… he used no strength which was fantastic, only a few times he slipped trying to catch up, on the bottom what what! while defending a few of my new leg locks I’ve been trying to add to my repertoire. Steve walked in, Marc, Brock, Matt, Gary, Nathan, Mike, and then Anthony… definitely a good crew out. Awesomeness I was thinking in my head while trying my best to disengage on Alex’s guard passing only to take his back… while Matt was “yelling out what are you fools doing… UFC?”
Rolling:
1. Alex Wawia, 40×10 min, flow fast technical rounds
2. Matt Veal, 1×10 min, hard round, survive on bottom
3. Steve Maley, 1×10 min, hard round, technical, with a few straight foot lock attemps
4. Marc Perrier, 1×10 min, hard round with a vicious baby tiger.
5. Brock Peters, 1×15 min, hard round, survive on bottom with an ape.
Was hoping to get a few more rounds in… but had to get home… gotta have dinner with the wife, ma baba & hang out with the dog!
If you didn’t get out this time… hope to see you next, maybe tomorrow at 2pm or Sunday at 10am… Open mat at 12pm on family day for the long weekend.
Remember BJJ is nothing without yous… we cry at the dojo to laugh in the battlefield, the only place we can improve is OTM, might as well enjoy it while we can.
Below is a wonderful picture taken by my buddy Travis Duncan last week… hopefully he gets some time OTM this weekend while in Minneapolis at the Alliance BJJ club.
Intense hahaha
Ossu!










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