Surf's Up (BJJ, Kettlebells and Bike Ninjas)

[ijustwannasurf]

First log!

28 y/o
Walking around at 210 pounds
Four-stripe blue belt in BJJ, training at Easton BJJ in Denver
Easton Braziian Jiu Jitsu- Martial arts for Colorado > Home if you'd like to check out the team.
I teach four fundamentals classes a week, as well.

My kettlebell training has unfortunately paused, due to injury. It is a major part of my training, so I'll be posting about it as I work back in.

GOALS-
PURPLE BELT- nuff said.
WEIGHT at 195-200 by year's end.
COMPETITION SUCCESS- I did not compete very well early in my grappling career. However, I've won my last five matches by submission, bringing my record up to an illustrious 9-11. I think I've hit my stride, but I need to keep competing to make sure.
ALLEYCATS- I ride my bike quite a bit. While I have no interest in long distance triathlon style racing, barreling through the city at all hours of the night does hold visceral appeal for me. An alleycat is not a distance race. There are checkpoints or specific destinations, but the route is entirely up to you. Your knowledge of the city matters just as much as your skill on a bike. My first one is scheduled for the end of September.

Further info as events warrant.

[ijustwannasurf]

I was drafted to help one of our black belts teach a private this morning. All I do is play uke and soak up the technique.

We drilled four escapes from back control-
First thing, start off with elbows tight, arms crossed, hands defending the neck. Do not block then push the attacking hands away. Stay tight and relaxed the whole time.

1) No underhooks or collar grips
The scoop. Defend your neck while planting heels to the mat. Scoop your body down and away until your head is pressing into his stomach with you looking at the ceiling. To beat one hook, kick your right leg straight and push (not open) your elbow into their thigh. Their right hook will pop off. Your right leg curls back in- this and your right elbow prevent him from reestablishing the hook. Now your left elbow dips under his left thigh. This turns your body toward his left leg. Your right arm comes over his left thigh, and your right leg kicks over, bringing you to your knees. You finish in a sort of single leg position- His left leg in between yours with a gable grip around the thigh, head inside.

2) Against double under or over under grips
Trap one underhook, clamping it down with your elbow. Lean forward so your ribs are at or past his knee and fall to that side. Your elbow traps his arm, your body is pinning his leg to the mat. Use either hand to beat that hook, we'll say its his left leg. As you step your left leg over his, turn your back flat to the mat. You should be sitting on his thigh, keeping him pinned. Your right elbow blocks the far hook, and you step your right foot next to your left. This leaves you outside both his hooks. Now your right elbow slides outside his right hip as you push your body diagonally across his chest, rotating into him as you do. This will leave you in side control top. Remember to sit on his trapped leg, then keep pressure on him, hip to hip and chest to chest, as you push up and rotate in.

[ijustwannasurf]

Two more escapes

3) Against hand in choke position, gi or no gi.
So his right hand has slipped in and grabbed your far collar (or shoulder for no gi). Scoop down and bridge your head into the armpit of the choking arm. You will end up sitting on his right leg just like the above escape, and looking up at his face. This is the way he wants to take you to finish the choke, but putting your head in the pocket of his arm destroys the angle he needs to finish. Your inside hand (left in this case) comes up and grabs him behind the head. This grip is totally surprising and leaves them stuck in place. You should be sitting on their right leg by now, and using your right hand to fight the hooks and step both feet just outside his leg, just like the previous escape. Since he still has the choke grip in, you cannot push in and rotate up without putting yourself right back into the submission. Instead, pull on that head grip to give you some oomph, and roll out over your outside (right) shoulder. Do not roll straight over him, try to go 45 degrees to the outside. Concentrating on going over that outside shoulder puts you right into north-south with a arm already around his head. Is this escape unorthodox? Yes, but not complex. Let your whole body get your head out of the way to defend the choke while your hands beat the hooks, then a simple back shoulder roll. That's it

4) This is a variation of the escape 2. You've gotten to the side, sitting on his left leg with your back to the mat. He throws his right leg over you attempting to take mount. Your left hand cups his right ankle, and you twist your right hand all the way around to grab right above your left. You twist your right arm in order to give the grip a scooping motion instead of a pushing one. He will keep pressing his leg forward to go for mount, and all you're doing is helping him out. Extend your arms and push his leg the way its already moving. It will end up over your head. As you push, use that pressure to help you rotate into him. You'll be pinning his thigh so he can't move, and you'll twist out right on top of him. Take your hands of his ankle and establish side control.

[ijustwannasurf]

Rounded off the night with a four mile bike ride to and from work. Didn't time myself on the way there, but coming home at 2 AM with no traffic at all I made it in 18 minutes.

[ijustwannasurf]

So I lied.
My first race isn't at the end of the month. It actually happened yesterday. The event was called SKATEBIKE, put on by a local magazine. I wasn't exactly nervous, just wasn't sure what to expect.

It was free to enter, so I just rode up and signed a waiver. Once registered, I received my manifest- basically a slip of paper with the checkpoints listed on it. You could hit them in any order, taking whatever route you wanted. No times, just first back to the start with all the checkpoints marked off wins. I huddled up with a couple friends to work out a gameplan. Everyone hopped on their bikes to warm up, riding slowly up and down the block.

We all circled up to wait for the start. There was a bit of electricity in the air, but nothing compared to a grappling tournament. This was a good time before anything else. If I could recreate that mix of harnessed energy and elation I felt around me at that moment, I would never lose another match again. But I couldn't help laughing out loud when it occurred to me that no matter how hard the race got, no one was trying to choke me or break my arm. Piece of cake ;).

They screamed GO, and we were off. Everyone mashed the same direction, 2 miles uphill to the closest checkpoint. Grinding up that first mile, I felt terrible. I was at the back of the line, and I felt like I might not have warmed up enough. I felt parched already. Everyone else just seemed so FAST.
The more I rode, though, the better I felt. I began catching up, and a few guys ahead of me took wrong turns, so I was able to pull ahead. I was middle of the pack by the time we hit the first checkpoint. I felt great. All downhill from here.
Well, mostly. There were a couple more tough climbs, a major crosstown bomb over the highway, glitter poured all over you at checkpoint two, and that last sprint to the finish through the baseball game traffic downtown.
I figured my route to be about 15.6 miles, and though I didn't time myself, I know I finished right around 50 minutes. I placed 14th out of 27 riders. Long story short, I had a blast.

Some more observations and things to work on for next time-
The BIKE is key. My frame is a little small for me, and my components have been through some tough times. Not that I would have finished higher with a different bike, but there would have been some spots I wouldn't have had to grind out so hard if I'd had things more in tune.
ROUTING- The better you know the city, the better off you'll be. A couple of blocks might not seem like much, but that's avoidable wear and tear on you, and even missing one turn can set you back pretty far place-wise if things are tight. Also, knowing where traffic will be, what lights you can blow through, etc. will help you plan a route that will keep your pace as steady as possible.
CONDITIONING- There's only one way to train for this kind of thing- ride often, ride hard. Just like jiujitsu, there are always drills you can do to improve. Even just surfing around the city, work on your pedaling, your cornering, your hill climbing, anything you can think of to make your ride faster and more efficient. Example- my right leg pushes harder than my left, so during the race, I'd focus on pushing hard with my left to even things up. Once again, like grappling, its all muscle memory- teaching your body to bring as much of itself to bear at one time.

To sum up, I had a great time. Can't wait to try another one.

[ijustwannasurf]

Also 9/5/09
Worked more escape drills, from mount and side control.

From mount, we started with Saulo's survival posture- on your side, top leg stepped over your bottom leg, bottom elbow tight with hand protecting your neck, top arm snug with elbow in front of opponents hip to prevent S mount or them sliding higher on you. Standard hip-escape from there, focusing on stepping very wide and high with your basing leg in order to push your hips out against their thigh. This opens maximum space, rather than having to squeeze your hips up and out from between his legs.

Side control was the basic bridge-in/frame escape. We focused on ducking the head in toward your opponent, under their top arm, while hipping out. This moves you almost parallel to them, your hips far back and your arms extended, keeping them from putting weight back on to you. Also, we worked on rotating to face them from the hip (head back, legs in) instead of swinging your whole body in to replace guard, which collapses the space just created and will most likely leave you with your foot stuck.

Good little tricks for basic escapes. I've drilled them before, but not enough.

[ijustwannasurf]

9/7/09

Snuck in a little kettlebell session tonight. Didn't want to go very hard with my shoulder and bicep still healing, but I definitely wanted to get my heart rate up.

I grabbed the teeny weeny 18 pounder, called myself a pussy and got to it.

First round was a descending ladder- goblet squats (crush grip the bell with both hands, horns down, right at chest level) and swings.
10 squats/10 swings, 9/9, 8/8... all the way to 1/1.
For having not lifted for a month plus, my form felt pretty good.

Next was get-ups. Only managed 5 each side, my left shoulder wasn't feeling up to it. I want to make sure I hit a set of these everyday. They're very good for rehabing shoulders because of the stabilization required.

I finished off with a breathing ladder of goblet squats.
1 squat/1 breath, 2 squats/2 breaths... up to 10/10.
I've always liked this exercise. Practicing breath control has definitely helped out my grappling.

All in all, a good first toe dipped back in the water. Even with a miniscule weight I managed to get a sweat on. I'm worried about my shoulder, so swings, snatches and presses may have to wait a while. Even so, I have enough exercises to keep me going until then.

[MIDMOBOX]

welcome to the logs

[SteveQ]

your bike stuff looks like fun - I'm a casual mt. biker myself. I live in Ohio and am extremely jealous of the terrtain you have out there

[ijustwannasurf]

MIDMO- Thanks for reading

X-PAC- Quite a few guys I've met are nowhere to be found during the summer. All they do is ride downhill while there's no snow. If you ever get a chance, come check it out.