tallgeese

1/12 Drilled weak side choke from back, arm hook bow n arrow, and an arm bar from gi control from back. 40 min free roll.

Sorry for the belated nature, but Happy B-day to both of you!

Welcome aboard! Looking forward to more of your insight.

1/10 75 min free roll.

1/9 Drilled mount escape. Knee thru mount escape. Then the two in combination. 40 min free roll.

1/8 60 min free roll. No gi.

Welcome back and welcome aboard!

Welcome to KF!

1/7 Drilled escape from side mount. Recompose guard, then kumura sweep. Drilled each together then based on energy. Finished with armbar from either 40 min free roll.

1/4 Drilled defending the guard pass. Getting heavy and keeping hips positioned properly. Into a pair of submissions. 30 min free roll.

Congrats and well done!

1/3 Drilled over breaking the closed guard. Knee slide pass. Knee step pass. Modified over/under off knee step. 45 min free roll.

1/2 Drilled passing guard. Double unders, over/ under baseball slide pass. 30 min free roll.

Welcome aboard!

12/31 surprise pm workout! 60 more min of free roll.

12/31 60 min free roll.

Welcome aboard KF! Glad to have you.

12/29 Drilled Spider variant to De la Riva from last night. Triangle and a couple of sweeps. 30 min free roll.

12/28 Drilled De La Riva position into ball n chain sweep, taking back, and single leg. 40 min free roll.

As with all things, applicability will depend largely on your instructor and his focus. Make sure you set in on a few classes to get a feel. You'll want to see not only how much theoretical training is done but how the teacher rolls that into free-form spontaneous work. You won't, and shouldn't be, doing simulation training right away; however, you should see upper ranks doing it. After the above disclaimer, typically JJJ will have good application for real world situations. A lot of police control tactics are based off of JJJ tactics. BJJ will do you well for self defense as well AS LONG as you find an academy that covers it's use in this capacity. There can be a heavy "sport" aspect to BJJ at some schools. That said, taking someone to the ground, getting on top of them, and holding them there until you decide what to do to them, is pretty handy in both arenas. Lastly, it will always fall to you, the individual practitioner, to keep testing what you do for application. What I use my arts for have changed a couple of times thru my time in. Each time, I had to take a look at what I was doing and adapt it to my situation. You have to keep your focus on combative application if that's what you want. This will go along way. Goju is a solid art, has some schools that are really focused on the sd side of things. I' m surprised that there are none in your area. Keep looking, you never know when you'll find an out of the way, less-than-adequate advertised place. Keep us looking and let us know how checking out places go.

It depends on what you want out of "sparring". If you're looking to test your current skills and work them against the pressure of heavier contact (which, btw, I think is critical now and again) then meet ups or extra-class workouts with like minded individuals in your club is the way to go. If you like to just work live for the fun of it and like to learn new things, BJJ is a great answer. You'll find with it that the "free roll" is so ingrained into training that it's impossible for practitioners to consider a night of training without some sort of sparring time. And due to the nature of grappling sparring, it's very easy to train at greater intensities without the risks of injury to the degree of being struck. That said, control and technique is still (and really even to a greater degree to most schools) the primary concern. But, you will test your technique live every time you train. That's an awesome feature to an art. Now before we leave the subject altogether, let me say that light sparring isn't horrible. IF it is done with good tactics and combat mechanics. There is a huge difference between point fighting games of tag and good, mechanical, combat preparation at a controlled pace. No one can bang hard every time they are on the floor. You can; however, roll with grappling arts pretty much every time with some level of intensity. Your body just holds up better. It depends on how you want to pursue your increase in sparring.

Welcome aboard, first and foremost. Next, yes, there are a lot of choices that can be pretty baffling for someone just starting out. To further complicate matters, individual schools within an art will often have slightly different training practices and areas of focus than others. That said, if I read correctly, you're looking primarily for joint locking and close quarters work with some striking to go along with it. There are several arts that can fit this bill depending on how much you want to be involved with certain aspects. Several flavors of JJJ would suit the parameters well. And more than a few systems of karate, but you'll have to look long and hard to make certain that the joint manipulations are anything beyond the mere surface detail that many striking arts give it. Look for instructors who can explain, in detail, tuite and it's concepts. That said, and I'm biased, if you want to focus on closing the gap, tying up and working joints and chokes, look seriously at BJJ. You'll certainly get what you're asking for. To the exclusion of much strike training, but you'll get real used to getting fights to the ground and keeping them chest to chest. Above all, really try different schools that you think might fit the bill. Usually what trumps the style name is one's relationship with an instructor and how you fit in with the established students. Keep us posted and let us know how it goes.

12/27 Drilled arm drag series from guard. To take the back, and move to pendulum sweep with an arm bar finish to each. 40 min free roll

Welcome to KF!

Welcome back!