tallgeese

12/7 Finished up rifle course. Back to BJJ- Drilled triangle drills, transition to arm bar, move to omo.

Back by popular demand, it's our goal list for next year. Call 'em here. I'll be back after some thought.

Welcome to KF, Epyon!

12/3 Day 1 of a 5 day precision rifle school. Lot's o rounds.

Congrats to all the winners. You guys are what make this site so exceptional!

Okay, now that we're into December and the training cycle for the year is winding down as far as completions go, I thought it might be fun to take a look back and see how we did. Reading thru the thread, I know several people that responded met at least some of their goals. For me, here we go: 1) Met. Got precisely two in, one an IBJJF. 2) Ditto. Resulted in a gold in a division and the absolute at the Chicago S7. 3) Yes. In fact, I was awarded my Brown Belt in BJJ last month. 4) Utter failure on this one. Even though I can pass thru the position, I am no closer to truly making it part of my game now than I was a year ago. 5) Class time met and actually exceeded. I was consistent with three with the not unheard of four times per week. On part b. Well, not so good. 6) This actually got met. On the down side, it's too long of a sustained training camp for my body these days. I found that I really needed to start much later with any serious efforts to ramp up. The diet was fine, that could stay the same. But I was pretty beat down by the time I hit March. So mixed results, but I feel really good about the ones I met. And I learned a lot from the ones I didn't. Mostly. The deep half guard just continues to elude me So, how did it go for everyone else?

'Grats!

Welcome to KF! Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

12/1 Drilled reverse arm bar, moved to omoplata, and then to straight arm bar from omo position. 40 min free roll- focus on ankle locks 30 min sparring Picked up a couple of subtle points on the omo that have been missing from a pretty common element of my game. Can't wait to work it in.

11/28 Drilled reverse arm bar. Moved to standard armbar off switch. Reverse arm bar to omo sweep, w straight arm bar. 40 min free roll.

For me, the mark of a good martial artist is, at the core of everything, being able to engage successfully in combat in the manner in which he has trained.

I agree with this completely. I spent today wonder why that's the case and still haven't come up with a good solution, but I think it's true. I did some stand up Monday night for the first time in...well, a long time, and really it wasn't bad. Yeah, I've been sharper, the timing has been better, but I wasn't a fish out of water. Combos and technique was there. I enjoyed it enough to consider doing it more. But we'll see. That said, had I taken a equal amount of time off of grappling I know my ground game would suffer horribly. Go figure. GS, these things are cyclical. Especially for someone doing multiple things (as was stated above). Don't stress a few months lay off. Consider that it's a pretty good set of training partners beating you up and that any bad guy you run into probably doesn't have their level of dedication to trying to hurt you. Or the tactics to enforce their will. Maybe hit a round or two of pads or bag or sparring every now and then while you're focus is elsewhere. Just to keep everything wired properly.

11/27 Squat Overhead Press Deadlift abs

11/26 Drilled reverse armbar. Reverse armbar to far side arm bar. Reverse armbar to armbar on same side arm. 30 min free roll. 30 min mma sparring 15 min cool down roll.

11/25 squats bench rows abs

Like anything, you'll get more out of BJJ the more time you put in. If your background on the ground is minimal, then even one night a week will slowly give you the tools to fill in gaps that you might have. That said, two times per week is really about the minimum to progress at any sort of noticeable rate. Three is better, but really lots of people get by on twice a week. Personally, I get it 3-4 depending. I'll drop to two if there are holidays or work emergencies. Which everyone pretty much agrees happens. Let's face it, very few of us are elite level competitors that go 6x's plus per week. Two times is fine as long as you're consistent with it. 2x/week every week is MUCH better than 4x/ week for a few weeks then out of the gym altogether for a couple of months. Let us know what you decide and where you land. BJJ is a fantastic art and I'd strongly encourage you to get involved. Good luck and keep us posted.

Any kind of small joint work really mandates the presence of an instructor to work hands on. There are too many tiny details that don't transmit well via the written word. That said, consider a couple of "big picture" points as you delve into this movement. First up, this is a snapshot of a particular manipulation. It's not in context with a combat situation. That doesn't make it bad, it just means it's PART of an overall pattern. By just looking at this part, if that's all one looks at, you're not building a response pattern. You're getting a tool with no idea how to use it. A couple of points about small joint manipulations specific to all of them, this case in particular. One, remember that it's a part of a whole. One does not attempt to control a small, fast moving, sweat cover, blood soaked in all possibility, joint with out first striking. In my core system we called this a stun. Bear in mind, that a stun is not just a distraction, it's a destructive, knock them silly kind of movement. That's what allows you to manipulate the joint in the first place in the chaos of combat. That strike or stun must be in a location that makes sense to the situation AND set up your manipulation. See where someone on hand to work with is key? The next thing to consider, and a highly important and overlooked fact, is that this isn't really a throw. It's not a pain compliance "lock". It's a way to break a wrist and make sure it does not function to hurt you any further. The "throw" is actually a defensive movement taken by the uke to relieve the pressure. Joint destructions in practice don't cause this. The cause a broken wrist. Body mechanics may vary. What is more "real" is figuring out what to do after you break the wrist and he tries to disengage or tackle or strike with his good hand, ect. Lastly, understand that this is a tool and train it as such, it is not the be all and end all tactic. In my experience, small joint work from a standing position is very tricky and sometime hypothetical in nature. Stuns can go a long way to mitigate this, but they are not a primary mode of attack. Now, where they shine is when you put a weapon in the other guys hand. Now, all focus, both your hands, have an excuse to be glued to a single one of his appendages. This is an important rule for a reason, to violate it you must have a good reason. A knife is that reason. As for the more mundane facets, you must control the thumb and pinky near the wrist joint. The thenar and hypothenar eminences to be precise. Also, any time you attack a joint, you should extend that joint as to make it more effective. Lastly, consider attacking the boney structure on either side to weaken the joint or adjacent joints even to destroy the whole chain. In this case you'd look at the elbow. Again, there's lots that goes into this sort of thing mechanically and pattern wide. Some guys will even argue that there's another level to building small joint work with the use of pressure points. I'm not saying that they are wrong. I'm just saying that if you utilize proper mechanics and leverage you probably don't need them once it's set. Prior to that, dealing with the limb that is attacking is of more import. Still, it's another level to consider. See, I have been more than a mat monkey thru my career

11/24 Drilled over leg lock control positions and flowed them together. Worked on straight ankle lock and Achilles compression variants for subs. 60 min free roll.

Happy B-day, Patrick! bushidoman is right on about everything he said.

Interesting article. Seeing what will happen after the deaths of the heads of the groups will be interesting. Even if someone takes up the reigns, the struggle for legitimacy that ninjitsu has had will not be made any easier by a bunch of splinter organizations.

11/23 60 min of free roll. Really focused on hitting leg attacks.

11/22 abs squats shoulder press deadlifts

Another milestone for KF! Thanks, Patrick for maintaining such a fantastic community. It's a pleasure to be part of it!

11/21 Drilled controlling positions for leg locks and reviewed straight ankle locks from last weekends seminar. 30 min free roll.

I think you are really going in the right direction here, and its sad that it is the case. I've really only been told that its a position that is used to build the power into the blocks or strikes. Now, with different research I've done, I feel good knowing that I can at least put some meaning behind the design here. Even if it is reverse engineered, its still a workable idea. This has been discussed at length, to be sure. My goal, since I am in a style that utilizes forms in its system, is to have a way of taking meaning from them, and being able to explain in a reasonable manner why something is the way it is. I won't be able to change what I am doing for some time, so I'm just trying to get the most out of it I can. That I totally get. Anytime a movement has the "why" behind it then that movement has infinitely more meaning. One thing to think about, like I said in my above post, in older kata there is often no step1,2, 3 logic. The "textbook" concept of the kata often isn't in order. I'm not sure what all of your forms are, but as you add application, bear in mind that the hand motions of one part might actually work with the foot motion in another for actual application. This is an interesting idea you've got. Please keep us posted as you go. Maybe some videos even when you get the chance. Good luck.