Vegas lumps 2

I went back to Master Cavalcanti's class last night for the gi class. He wasn't there, but we were in the hands of a black belt student of his with over a decade of experience, and as per the norm in BJJ I never once felt like a black belt was unsure of anything. The standards of belt promotion in this style are rigourous and based on an instructor's intimate personal knowledge of his student's capabilities. There is no system to game.

I also realized last night right before I tapped out in my third match that I was facing a brutal opponent. The elevation in Las Vegas is about 2030 feet, whereas little old West Hollywood is about 230 feet. Even during the warmup I could tell something was off. I was winded where I'm usually not even breathing through my mouth. I learned quickly that performance is often dictated by how much gas you have in the tank and I've since maintained a pretty high level of cardio, but this was a great reminder of the ramifications of getting lazy. I could tell what my opponents were doing, even anticipate their moves, but I couldn't do anything about it. If I ever travel to compete I'll take elevation into account.

At any rate the instructor asked me if I had any requests since I was the guest. I had watched UFC 108 that afternoon while doing some dum-dum work at a coffee shop and seen a reverse triangle, so I asked for that (I anticipated the question :) ). It turns out I already knew how to toss a triangle that's very similar.

Starting out underneath in side control (assume your opponent is on your right side), you want to place your left arm across his throat. The other recognized "safe" place to have your left arm would be underneath his right armpit, keeping it away from armbars, kimuras, etcetera, while threatening a different escape. But for this move you want to push his head up a little and create space so it has to be across his neck. Pushing your forearm that's across his neck upward will force his head up and be pretty uncomfortable; if he's positioned correctly (looking away from your face) this will cut off one of his carotid arteries, which won't really do anything but annoy him. If he messed up though your forearm might well end up up across his windpipe, which helps force his head up.

After pushing up and getting a little space, you need to bend a rule of BJJ and turn away from the attack a little to free your right arm, at which point you flatten back out. Once you have the ability, you need to use both hands to push his head southward toward your feet, then loop your left leg over his head. At this point you need to keep him from pulling his right arm free. Grab it and keep it. Now you have an arm and a neck, and your right leg is sitting underneath his torso looking bored. Use it by flinging it over your left foot and locking the triangle.

This isn't a simple move. The guy I watched use it in UFC 108 didn't finish with the triangle, but he locked it tight enough to incapacitate his opponent, at which point he took the arm and hyperextended it for the win.

Vegas lumps

On the bright side I'm pretty much healed up. Having patiently waited until my finger was ready, I can now tape it to the next one over for support and it works fine.

I'm in Vegas this week. I woke up early to drive out since it's about 5 hours (in my shitty old VW) versus about the same time to fly due to all the security nowadays. Just not worth the hassle. But the important thing is I'm here, which is disruptive to my workout routine and diet. To make the best of it I asked my coach on Saturday for a name of someone to train with. He gave me two, one of with was Ricardo Cavalcanti, an old friend of his from Brazil (these Brazilians all seem to know each other very closely, which I believe is why a blue/purple/whatever belt is a blue/purple/whatever belt, regardless of which coast you're on or which teacher you're under - the skill level is about the same).

Ricardo was super friendly, he cut the weekly cost to train almost in half and was really nice, introducing me to all of his students. We trained no-gi, which I prefer but haven't trained in in over 2.5 years. First I took a year off to study for a professional certification, then I blew out my knee and had surgery, and since I came back I've just never happened to do it. Shame really because I love the fast pace of the no-gi game.

At any rate, Ricardo taught us about 5 techniques, one of which was extremely clever (well, they were all clever, this one just happened to strike my fancy). If I have my opponent in my closed guard, I can try to sweep him by opening guard, sitting up, putting my right arm over his right shoulder (so he's staring at the back of my right shoulder), and push him over to my left in a circular motion. It's a common sweep, taught to all white belts. One of the most obvious mistakes that you drill to get past in the early days is to put your right arm over his left shoulder, essentially capturing his head as well. You don't end up with the same leverage and he's far more likely to just push you back down.

Ricardo's clever move saw me sitting up and performing this basic sweep ... wrong. I deliberately capture the head as I sit up and try to sweep him. If I get it great, take the sweep, which can easily end with me mounting him. What's more likely is he'll push back, forcing me down on my back again. My trick at this point is that as I start pushing for the sweep I pull my left leg out from around his waist so it's free and clear. Now as he pushes me backwards I slide it back in, but this time *over* his right arm. Just before falling backwards I throw my left leg up and over his shoulder, reaching around with my right hand to grab it behind his head. I fall backwards with my leg wrapped behind his head and pulling him down with me. His left arm is still between my legs. What's all this mean? I just let him push me backwards, setting himself up for a triangle (or as Ricardo puts it - "dah tree-angle" :) ).

From there it's a standard triangle finish. You're going to have to fight to close it while keeping his head down and making sure you don't get stacked. His left arm is on the wrong side, but that's no big deal. Just lock the tree-angle first and lift your hips up as you shove his arm to the side you want it on. I'd detail that more but I'm running late and it's a basic move that's pretty hard to resist, and even if he manages to resist it you just crank the elbow in an armbar so you're all good.

I totally flaked on blogging last week about my kickboxing experience at the boxing gym up the street from my apartment. It went pretty well and I may be competing soon. I'll post again soon, probably this week since I don't have that much to do for work here and will try to spend a lot of time on the mat, gaining that fresh perspective you get from a different teacher (who, like my current one, probably has 25+ years grappling).

Healing and high crotches

My finger is almost back to normal, meaning I can almost make a fist. I should probably wait until I can do so without pain to go back to sparring or I'll just re-tear the tendon, though I think if I can focus on kickboxing with 16 ounce gloves they'll stabilize the finger enough to avoid re-injury. Here's to hoping. Either way I don't plan to even try to spar until Monday night or later, based on how it feels.

Moving on, the wrestling class on Tuesday night was really small, which worked in my favor. The only other guy there had no wrestling experience either, so for about 30 minutes (when a couple solid wrestlers showed up) we had the coach to ourselves. Good thing too, because the high-crotch takedown is deceptively tricky.

The high-crotch is a pillar of wrestling. Along with single- and double-leg takedowns, the high-crotch is considered a fundamental opening that leads to dozens of finishes. The problem is it also shares the same other characteristic of those other "pillar" moves - you have to nail every single detail perfectly because it's so important. Not a big deal, but it takes work. Specifically it takes thousands of reps drilling to get it not just correct, but fast and fluid. I literally spent 45 minutes drilling the high-crotch (heh) Tuesday night and probably performed about 60 reps, all on a single side. I feel like I kind of get it. There's absolutely no way I'd shoot in for a high-crotch in sparring right now. After the fluidity and quickness in execution, you have to learn through hours on the mat where the move fits in your game. I.e. when to go for it.

So the move. We drilled it as beginners, so starting from a wrestling clinch. My right foot was forward, feet closer together than I'm used to as a striker, my right hand behind his neck pulling his head slightly down, my left hand cupping his right tricep, my torso hanging forward at the hips so I leaned against him somewhat. The first order of business was the level change. I dropped down to a crouch before shooting forward. I didn't have to go straight down and then straight forward at a 90-degree angle, but it was definitely a pronounced downward crouch to ensure that my momentum was moving forward as opposed to down. This has multiple repercussions. For one thing, if my opponent evades my shot I can recover because I'm moving forward and can scramble, versus going downward and kind of splatting into the mat or ground. More importantly, if I move forward my knee just lightly taps the mat. If my momentum is heading downward my knee smacks. Not super hard, but a lot harder. If I was to practice this wrong and keep that smacking up all night I would probably have to stop practicing the move long before I gained proficiency.

As I dropped down in the level change, I had to give his tricep a little upward push to get his arm up. This, along with the drop in level, helps me slip my head under his armpit and get behind his back. As his arm goes up and I go down, I twist my torso, leading with my right shoulder. My right hand comes down from behind his neck and my forearm shoots between his legs, with my right hand grabbing the back of his right thigh. My forearm is now high up in his crotch, leading to the unfortunate name of the move. At no point am I supposed to crack him in the balls.

If I've performed this correctly I'm now down on my right knee, with my left foot planted to the outside of his right foot, but a little bit in front of it. My left hand is still on his tricep after pushing it upward, the back of my head is arched against his tricep after having ducked under it, and my right hand is gripping the back of his right thigh. Now I need to turn the corner. I grab my right wrist with my left hand as I push myself up via my left foot, keeping a tight hold on his leg the entire time. If I get this I know there are tons of finishes, but I don't know many yet and this post is plenty long already.

Some common problems that I ran into:
- I tend to squat straight down. This is bad; it allows my opponent to just shove me backwards
- I need to keep constant pressure against his arm with my head. It prevents him from re-composing his arms around me in a defensive manner or doing some other nasty shit I don't know about yet
- When down on one knee, I need to lean into him. If my shoulder slips out he can shove his arm between himself and my armpit, underhooking me and ruining the move, maybe even turning it against me

So back to the mat tonight.

A cool guillotine defense, and choking the turtle

Last night was my first night back. It seems like I'm saying that an awful lot lately, with injuries, sickness, holidays and work joining forces to turn me into a mediocre, overweight gamer. It'll never happen. This two-week hiatus was for the on-call rotation at work, and now I have about six weeks before that crap hits again, though I skipped kickboxing since I can't make a fist. Last night was a really small class, to which Marcus remarked, "I hate when the Lakers play at the same time as class." So another guillotine defense came up after we went over the turtle position. I'll hit that first and then turtle up.

I mentioned in an earlier post that being caught in a guillotine and the closed guard at the same time was a pretty serious thing, but I didn't realize how bad it can turn out for the attacker. Taking the point of view of the guillotine-ee (versus the guillotiner), the first move is predictably enough to grab the wrist or hand that is choking you. Assuming your opponent uses his right arm, you use your left hand to grab his right wrist and pull, giving yourself room to breathe. Now reach your right hand over his left shoulder and hug him. Really reach as far down into the middle of his back as you can. After you get a good grip stand up inside his guard; you'll look like a bipod from the side with your head and feet stuck on the ground. Now cram your right shoulder under his chin and drive it into his throat. Bam. Weird that scoring a solid guillotine on someone can work against you, but it's pretty brutal. After feeling it in practice I can tell you that if this was applied effectively against me I'd most certainly give up my guillotine and try to get the hell out of there, even if it meant giving up side control.

Now on to the turtle. The turtle position is kind of a fetal position but instead of being on your side you're on all fours trying to cover up and minimize damage. It's not a good place to be because you have almost no offense, and if strikes are allowed (MMA or street) you have virtually no chance of covering all targets effectively. You have to get out. However in wrestling and grappling the turtle is a position of relative safety. You aren't exposed to a pin, your arms and legs aren't extended, and your hands are within easy neck-defending position and range. But at the same time no one ever wins through defense - eventually you have to do something.

From the attackers perspective there are a range of options, but before you attack you need to make sure you've achieved complete positional dominance. This means he isn't going to get out or sweep/reverse you, let alone land some type of armlock or choke (there is an armlock from the bottom position...). The most common thing that gets the top player in trouble is leaning too far over their opponent's back and getting rolled. Assuming you're on your knees to the right of your opponent. You want your left hand ideally on his wrist, but that's far less important than keeping your weight low and far enough off to his right that he can't clamp your left arm/wrist/hand in his left armpit and just roll over his left shoulder, taking you with him.

It's not the end of the world if you can't reach his wrist, just grab his lapel if he's in a gi (or sport's coat :) ), or clasp your hands together in no-gi. Some guys will slowly creep their hand out to get you to over-extend yourself, so you end up with the wrist and you get flipped immediately. If you clasp your hands together, with your left arm underneath his armpit wrapped around his chest and your right arm over his right shoulder, it's a very quick and sneaky move to wait for the right moment and just slip the right hand up to the throat. You can finish sloppy or go for a full-blown rear naked choke.

Another option is to move your left arm from over the top of his back, slipping it under his right armpit with your hand coming out right next to his left ear. From there you move slightly in front of him and use that left hand of yours to grip your own right bicep, finishing with a rear naked choke ... upside down with an arm, but the arm doesn't get in your way since your wrist bone is against his throat. Weird, but just as potent as the normal one. The risk on this move is that by moving the arm you have over his back to underneath his chest, you relinquish your positional dominance in the transition. You can maintain it to some degree by leaning your weight on him with your chest, but it's less stable.

The more common finish for turtled opponents is the alligator roll. You keep your top arm where it is and just move around the front so you're sprawled out on top of him. From there slide your right arm through the gap underneath his left ear, with your right wrist coming out underneath his right armpit and grabbing your own left bicep. This is a lot like the previous choke, reversed and a little less effective because now instead of your wrist being against his throat it's your right bicep, which is less bony. That's ok, to tighten the choke/crank, tuck your head as far underneath his right shoulder as possible and roll him over to his right (the tuck is to avoid rolling 200 pounds over your own head). Once you both end up on your backs it's easy to tighten the hold.

Another finish that's so obvious it just might work is to turn the turtle into a quasi-guillotine. Do this by spinning around to his front like in the alligator roll, then slide your right arm through, again like the alligator roll, but stop half way. Reach under his right armpit with your left arm and link hands. Your right wrist should be on his throat at this point, and you can stand half way up and sit back down into guard, effectively putting your hips under him and then planting at least one leg over his back to prevent a rolling escape.

I know there was at least one more attack, and a few defenses, but that's enough for now.