Hip Movement -- I Have To Commit!

I've been trying to get more hip movement going when I am on the bottom. So...I guess I could rephrase that as: I am trying to get more hip movement when I grapple. :) The main thing I struggle with is getting stuck half way through a move. Someone starts to pass or move, I hip the way I am supposed to go in order to either take their back or get a sweep, and then...nothing. I get stuck. And passed.

But I think I am beginning to see where my problem is.

We worked takedowns the other day (I am not switching topics. This applies the above quandary)and, at first, I had the same problems I always have. I was too tentative. But this time, I was actually getting to spar against a girl my size instead of a giant man beast. So, my confidence grew. I started committing when I shot in and had a lot more success.

Later, after class, I was complaining to Fabio about how frustrated I was because of something I MUST be doing wrong with my hipping. I was not getting sweeps. I was not taking the back. At best, I was able to defend my guard.

He said he did notice one thing I was doing at one particular point. I was trying to take this guy's back and I hipped out...but not enough. He said I hipped out once, a little bit, then tried to go. It didn't work. He said I needed to commit and really hip out.



I wasn't committing. It was the same problem I have when I do take downs. I do the technique a little bit. But a little bit isn't going to get the job done. I have to really go for it.

Which means I have to abandon my guard. Ooooooh....No me gusta.

You guys know about my love affair with guard. I can't seem to get myself to let go of it. Or, er, of the person inside of it. But I have to if I want to be successful! If I am going to sweep, I need to commit to the sweep, not kind of try the sweep while I'm still trying to keep guard at the same time. That doesn't work!

I just have to take the risks. Sure, sometimes it STILL won't work. And then I'll be stuck in some yucky bad place that I have to squirm out of. But it sure as heck isn't going to work if I don't commit to it.

Thoughts from Last Week

My life has been stuck on full throttle for the last week, so I neglected to post here. Since I know all three of you that read this blog are just dying to hear what I've been up to (Hey! I can see you smirking at me! Stop it!) I've come up with my Top 5 Jits Thoughts for the Week!

1. The Gym Feels Like My Home Away From Home-- With everything else crazy going on in my life, Fabio's is the one place where I feel like I can go and just completely relax. Well, relax in the I'm-fighting-not-to-get-choked-out sort of way. What I love about being there is that everyone who is there is there to have fun. We can just relax, grapple and laugh. Priceless!

2. Home Away From Home At My Home?-- We "christened" the mats in my barn by rolling on them for the first time last week. It was awesome. Me, Stephanie, Phil and his girlfriend Kara, who has been training for a few months now, all grappled. We even went through a mock technique lesson just to get used to teaching. We haven't brought in the newbies yet. We are working on a waiver and trying to work out some insurance issues too. But we think by next week we should be starting with the kids. I'm excited, but still nervous. Also, a guy who had a wrestling school in the same shopping complex as one of my fellow youth pastors is closing his doors and selling his mats. I might get to buy real mats!! We'll see, though.

3. Side to Side Guard-- I went to open mat on Saturday and rolled with PP, a purple belt at our school, who told me that my guard needs some work. I am doing too much back and forth movement and not enough side to side hip movement. If I get more side to side going, I will get a lot more sweeps and will be able to take the back easier. That is my focus for this upcoming week: side to side hipping in guard!!

4. My son who is 5 asked me this week when he was going to be allowed to start training "wa-jit-su". This is not the first time he has asked. A few weeks ago, we asked him what sport he wanted to play this year: football, soccer, basketball? He said "wa-jit-su". I'm kind of torn on the issue for several reasons. Might do a post on that later.

5. I got my MRI for my neck on Tuesday and am STILL waiting to find out the results. Grrrr. Patience is not my forte. I am wanting so bad to be able to roll like normal again. I know, I know...I need to be careful and wait it out. BOOOOO! :)

The theme of the month...

...has been HIP.

Recently, I finally got it through my thick skull that I needed to move my hips more to defend against and attack bigger, stronger guys. The more intimidated I was by someone, the more I tried to hold them in my guard, which meant I was limiting my movement and thus killing any small chance I might have had in the beginning. The key there was also staying mobile on one hip or the other, never sitting square towards my opponent or flat on my back.

Last night, I learned something new about hip movement to add to the theme of the month. We've been working a ton of back escapes the last week and last night, we worked a technique to escape when someone has taken your back and flattened you completely out. They've swum both of your arms and are holding your forearms, pressing your body down with their hips.

Not a comfortable position.

Fabio told us that a lot of times people panic when they get in this situation and go wild trying to throw the person off. What usually happens when they do that is that they do not get out and they give up their neck or their arm in the process.

In that situation, your upper body is immobilized. Trying to push yourself up with your arms won't work. It will just expose your neck and arms for submissions. The part of your body that is still free to work is your hips and legs.

Protecting your neck with your hands, turn your hips to the side and use your bottom leg to push their foot up, keeping your hip and thigh glued to the mat. He described the motion as painting the mat with your hip. Make sure you keep your elbows tight during this. If you raise your elbows, you are exposing your arms for an armbar. Also remember to keep protecting your neck the whole time.

From there, you have several options of escape. You can keep pressure with your shoulder, trap their arm (the one they swam and held onto you with in the first place), reach around with the other arm and hold down their collar, turning into them with your hip glued to the mat. Or, when you bring their leg high enough, you can underhook the leg with both of your arms (even if they're still holding onto your arms) and bring the leg up and go underneath and around to their back.

In all of the escapes we worked, the key was hip movement. Once you got the hooks off, a big part of keeping them off was moving your hips in a way that they never came off the mat.

During rolling, I noticed the same principle is true when you're escaping the side control where you are kind of in the fetal position and they're trying to flatten you out or get your neck or get armbar. Escaping that with "the running man" escape, you need to "paint the mat" with your hip to keep them from getting their hooks in and taking your back.

Also, we did a lot of fast paced rolling yesterday. Fabio instructed us to go no-gi--which is rare at our school-- and then told us that, when he called out one minute, we should kick up the speed and move as much as possible. He said not to worry about submissions in the last minute of the roll, but just to move, move, MOVE!! I was exhausted by the end of class, but it was really fun.