Working that top game...

So this week is all about working the mount.

Our brown belt instructor got sick earlier in the week but another brown belt stepped up to teach.

As, I get into the curriculum in SBG the more I am liking it. For the longest i was used to maintaining mount by swimming arms and balancing myself with my hands on the mat about the guys head, which makes sense because I come from a Gracie background. The main points that I think will help my game that I leard at SBG is to squeeze your legs together when you are on top mount position and to not look to balance your hands on the mat as much.

So, lets address the first point. People differ on how to maintain mount. Some say to keep your legs wide when mounting someone which I understand that it gives you good balance but if someone starts bridging you then you have your hands to help balance you and maintain your balance. One glaring problem I feel about keeping your legs wide is that it creates space where a guy can move his hips and arms and possiblly escape out the back door on you. If you squeeze your legs together and tuck your feet in then you really limit the mobility of that person, finally a position where my weight comes in handy :).

Now the other point that I really like is that you don't look to balance using your hands out front above the guy's head as much. The point being that you immediately look to cross face or gain an underhook somehow. What I mean by crossface; imagine you are on top mount you slide your left arm under the guys head and drive your shoulder into the side of his face. When someone has you crossfaced it's hard to think of what to do and if you have their face forced that other way it's nearly impossible for them to move back into you all they can think is to go the direction their head is pointing. I started going directly into crossface on full mount with a similarly big guy and I was really able to control him a lot more.

For your viewing pleasure here are some videos of the head of SBGI and a quick highlight vid of one of his BB.

So I got my wish...

Well the last few weeks have been pretty normal. Getting some jiu jitsu in 3x a week and some extra workouts here and there.

We have been working top control the last few weeks. Working from half guard, full mount and side control. I'm not sure what this week will bring but it's supposed to be different. Just like most sports the offensive stuff is what is flashy and what gets the most highlights but we all know that defense is absolutely essential. So, I have a feeling this week may be back to defending. I have heard people say that Jiu jitsu is a game of inches which is absolutely true and it makes more and more sense to me. I always think about this when someone is controlling my movements and I'm trying to escape or I rushed a submission and end up in a bad spot. Sometimes you work your ass off just to get your hips away from a person inch-by-inch just to start over and repeat but eventually the hard work gets you in a position to take advantage of a window of opportunity. Every time I don't work for a position and just try to muscle my way out of a bad position I usually end up back where i started. So, maybe what I'm saying is technique and position means everything just like they tell you from the moment you start training BJJ. It's these little revelations, that you know are true but don't really take hold until you actually see them for yourself, that keep you going.

Ok, I'll move on from mindless wandering. So, my gym just added a competition conditioning class. Anytime I hear conditioning in the name of a class I think, yeah i probably better go to that and looks like good 'ol pukie the clown will show up for this one. Which brings me to talking about crossfit. A few years ago when I was going through this fight of losing major weight and getting back into shape and beginning BJJ, damn I can't believe I lost sight of that struggle and gave up, I started incorporating some crossfit workouts into my training and found them incredibly challenging and beneficial. I encourage you to check out that site and delve into what crossfit has to offer. And you may even want to see if there are local gyms in your area, they are getting more and more popular. I like it because most of the workouts are really intense but don't take all day to do. You can scale the workouts to your fitness level and you will still feel like puking at some point (always a sign of a good workout). The workouts are always changing and they are composed of compound and functional movements, lots of Olympic lifts, calisthenic work, plyometrics and good 'ol cardio. Damn, I'm rambling for a Monday. This all ties back into the conditioning class at my gym because it is described as being "like" crossfit workouts. Look for updates from me whining about how I'm sore and how I puked at this conditioning class.

Oh, yeah so that picture at top is Pukie the clown. If you read the crossfit message boards you will see where people talk about meeting pukie the clown which means, of course, they puked during the workout. Pukie is kind of a mascot for crossfit because the intense workouts lead to meeting this unfortunate character from time-to-time.

As, always I'll try to be more frequent with the updates!