tallgeese

11/15 Drilled more D' Arce work. Spent today really focusing on the finishing movement. 40 min free roll.

11/13 Drilled more D' Arce work. 40 min free roll.

Interesting... When the day comes that I run a dojo all by my lonesome, I often wonder if that's how I should regularly test students... How well does it work for you to test students that way? (I may post this question in it's own thread...) Both jits clubs I've trained at worked that way and it seems to work just fine. It's more of an ongoing assessment of skill by the instructor and time served In one way, I kind of like this, it's more of an indication of what you're capable of on any given day rather than after a fight camp. The down side of this is that there is no "testing" of drive, ect. That said, in arts with a heavy sparring component that's kind of built in to a degree. A large part of jiu jitsu is "open mat" or "free roll" so I think it's less of a factor. You're always proving your technique against resistance. Stripes on the belt tend to be less of an occasion and can be very informal. Actual belt promotions are at the end of class at least and upper ranks are usually at some sort of function (seminar for instance). However, other than "it's been about that time" you have no idea if you're up or not.

11/12 1.5 miles on the treadmill abs chest/tris

If you end up in Chicago let me know. I'm out in a far west suburb.

Let me look. If nothing else I can probably shoot a fast video this week and send it your way.

Great questions. If there's one thing that I can think of that kind of goes along with both it would be a two part deal: First, really honestly ask yourself why you want to do the arts. That's gonna solve a lot of issues down the road and make part two easier. Second, have fun with the training you're doing. Love the art.

11/11 Drilled D' Arce choke from side mount, 2 variants. 6 rounds of positional rolling. 30 min free roll 2, 5 min rounds mma sparring from the ground. Starting on fence.

11/9 Seminar day with my old organization. We spent time drilling firearm disarms, doing small joint manipulation, and jiu jitsu with different instructors. I presented some knife disarm work. About 5 hours of different work all said.

Thanks for putting this link up, Patrick! I am really sorry I had a conflict with the timing, but I'm glad I can at least catch up on the interviews that went on.

11/8 Drilled americana and arm bar from scarf position. 40 min free roll.

That is a really cool idea, Patrick. It's neat to see just how much experience floats around this board!

It's great to read your interview. You really are an asset to the community and I can't wait to get the chance to train together.

Thank you all for the kind words. They are appreciated. I am glad that I can be of use in our discussion. Also know that you all make me consider things from new perspectives constantly and I appreciate it as well.

11/7 45 min free roll

Thank you, bushido man. I look forward to getting the chance to share ideas on the control tactics front.

First up, I'm glad everything worked out and that no one is permanently hurt or jailed. Situations like this can run a truly fine line. So before I go any further let me acknowledge that I wasn't there an in the middle of it, it's very hard to say what should or should not have taken place. Having been spit on myself at work a time or two I can say that I understand the feelings that this can bring up. One thing to consider with this sort of thing is that here in the US, depending on the state, physical contact after an incident can lead you into legal trouble. Certain state laws allow for standing your ground under aggression while others, like the one I live in, require that citizens faced with aggression take action to leave the situation without furthering the incident. Only after reasonable efforts have been made to leave can on physically defend oneself. Depending on the wording of the laws, there might also be an expectation for a "proportional response". This can be tricky. So, even though a physical response might be emotionally understandable it can become legally tricky. Granted, all of this based on US laws. Mileage might vary.

11/6 Drilled three scarf escapes. Trained together based on energy of partner. 40 min free roll.

Not in that area but it's great you found a school. Like bushido man said, keep us posted.

I like to work things in chains of movements. By showing a handful of basic tactics from a position you give the trainee a set of options that he or she can pick from based on the energy that their partner is giving them. For instance, let's look at staying on top of an opponent. There's only a handful of BASIC ways to beat this. So starting in mount, people will usually try to bench press people off, throw them to the side, roll up to their side, or roll all through on their stomach in an effort to stand (bear in mind we're talking new people here). So, you can show swimming thru the arms to prevent the press. Have them drill that. Then, do a hook and base drill to prevent the throw. Have them practice. Show a transition to a modified mount when they roll to side. Drill. And finally, show establishing good back mount with hooks when they go to turtle to stand. Again, drill. Once everyone is comfortable, start letting people on the bottom use those options at will. This will make the top person adjust to what the bottom escape is. When each counter is performed correctly, the bottom person goes on to another. Run this on a clock and make them keep moving. Stuff like this can go a long way to building that conditioned response. In fact we just got done doing the same thing with the scarf escape during the am class. Three escapes based on the situation. At the end of class, we escaped while our partners attempted to counter. Of course, each counter leave another escape possible. The permutations of this are endless. Also, give serious consideration to limited engagement free rolls. For example, one person starts in closed guard, the other inside his or her closed guard. The goal of the 3-5 min round is to break the guard and pass. If they pass, the drill is reset. Again, the variations are limitless. Some popular ones are: guard v. pass, open guard v. pass, bottom mount escape vs. mount, side mount v. escape, half guard v. pass. It's important to stress technique in these drills. In other words, squeezing with the quads doesn't count as maintaining guard. Moving you hips to off set, posture control, and grips those are what you want to see you're people using to defeat the pass. Never muscle. Those are some ideas that might help you get started.

Oh, that would be great to hear!.... Ditto that!

Nice work! Congrats! With the BJJ club I'm part of we don't do formal testing, so really each and every promotion is kind of a secret test of sorts.

That was a great interview, sensei8! Thanks for giving this insight.

11/5 1.5 miles on the treadmill Abs back/bis

11/4 Back in town after a long weekend. Between work training and family I have just been behind the eight ball on the mats. Drilled guard passing. Double unders and two variants of over/ under. 3, 3 min rounds of pass vs. guard. 30 min free roll. 20 min knife work. Focus on disarms and live drilling.