Delilah the Lion Killer

We have a superhero hiding in plain sight at out gym, pretending to be an everyday guy. By day, he is Josh Hagan, an unassuming carpenter and bjj blue belt under Fabio Novaes. By night, he is Delilah the Lion Killer!! ;) We have long called Josh by his superhero name, Delilah, after he made his son cut his flowing locks of hair just before a tournament, leading to his loss! But Delilah decided to use his powers for good this week. Check out this awesome story in our local news paper about how Josh stopped a car jacking using a rear naked choke!! You're my hero, Josh!

Here is an extra tid-bit about the story that Josh told us that didn't end up in the paper. When Josh applied the RNC, the guy woke up after about 45 seconds. Josh knew he would wake up, so he just held onto the choke after the guy went out and when he woke up, Josh said, "I train Brazilian Jiu jitsu and if you try to struggle I will put you out again." The guy did try to struggle a few times and Josh had to tighten the choke again and wait for the guy to calm down. He finally did. But Josh had to sit there holding him until the police came!

In MUCH less exciting news, I competed at the Orlando NAGA this weekend and placed 2nd in No-Gi. My finger was a real problem. I could grip, but any kind of turning to the side of my finger hurt like a beast!! Steph has video, but I don't want to look at it right now because I lost. LOL Maybe tomorrow. As always, I learned a lot from the experience. I may post the video later if I can stand it.

The rest of my team did AWESOME! We had a lot of people show up for this tournament. I don't know what the stats, but every time I turned around someone I knew was getting a medal. Congratulations Team Fabio Novaes!! And thank you to Fabio for being such an amazing coach and friend!!

A few pictures from the tournament. :)

Fun For Everyone?

One of the purple belts at my school, Yeti, likes to use me as a test dummy. I am small(ish) and a baby blue belt, which means that if he is really trying, there's not much I can do to resist. When I say that he uses me as a test dummy, I don't want you to get the wrong impression. He never hurts me. But I have to laugh at myself when he pulls off some sort of crazy sweep to a triangle and then says, "Wasn't that cool? I just saw that on Youtube and wanted to try it."

LOL! Glad to be of service!

And really, I am glad. Because it is a cool sweep to triangle. And while I have no idea how to do it myself, I have no doubt Yeti would help me learn it if I asked. I didn't ask because at the moment I have smaller fish to fry.

One benefit, though, is that now I at least know that sweep to submission exists. Now I can start learning how to defend it. Plus, it was kind of a fun, flippy sweep. Kinda' like when your dad used to flip you up in the air and catch you. Except when you get caught, you get choked. lol


As humbling as it may be to know that Yeti can watch something on youtube and come in and pull it off on me, it's useful for my him to try things on me because he is learning and I am learning at the same time. Fun for everyone.

But what if it's not so fun for everyone?

This past week, I had a private lesson with Fabio. It was fantastic, as always. The major focus was learning how to replace inverted guard with other attacks, sweeps or taking the back. Learned a LOT. More on that in another post. I was eager to try out some of these things.

Fabio had the same idea in mind, so he put me with one of the girls in class twice. The first time was a normal roll. I did what I normally do; grappled enough to keep her moving, catching submissions but letting her work out of them. Then the second time Fabio put me with her, he told her she was only allowed to pass my guard. If she passed, she had to go back and start again. He told us my assignment was to do all the things I had learned.

I did. And it was great practice. But the only thing was that my partner looked really frustrated about mid way through. I was tempted to stop the drill and let her pass and work like before. But I didn't. I kept on trying out my shiny, new techniques. I never hurt her or even finished any submissions. But I think she was frustrated because she spent the entire five minutes getting pulled and pushed and squashed and swept. Hey, I'm not a purple belt. I can't pull these things off as smoothly as Yeti! lol At the end, I felt a little selfish. But at the same time I learned a lot from my clumsy trials and errors in the roll.

Here's the thing. There are only a few people who are A) small enough and B) new enough for me to try out new techniques on with any success. All of them are either girls or teenage boys. Most frequently, I roll with the girls. With some of them, I don't have that same experimental rolling relationship that me and my purple belt friend have. They don't enjoy being test dummies.

So my question is, should I still test? I want to be a good friend and training partner. But I also want to be able to try things out.



I can always try them out of people who are at my level. But to test these things out, I need to be able to practice it without a ton of resistance. Kind of like drilling, you know? And, well, people at my level or higher resist!

Triangle Escapes

I needed last night's technique. When I get submitted, it is usually by triangle. So, when Fabio said we were going over triangle escapes, I was really happy. I forget so many of the little details that make triangle escapes work. This time, I am writing them down step-by-step so I can reference them! By the way, I am making up all these names for these escapes. I don't know if they have other names.

Escape One: Stack and Block.

- When the person goes for the triangle, immediately look up and brace the elbow of your trapped arm on their pelvic bone, at their hip/led socket. Wrap your other arm around your own arm for more support.
- Stack toward their head, bringing your back knee up behind their butt and hip to block their hip movement.
- At the same time, swim their head with your free arm. A variation is using the bone in your forearm across their jaw or neck. But that's not as nice. :)
- Break your hip towards their head, always keeping your hips lower than your head as your hips come around.
- You should break free.

Escape Two: The Reach Around
- Begins the same as the first one. Look up. Brace your elbow. Support with your other arm.
- Instead of stacking, bring your free arm around to their opposite hip, breaking your hip toward their head at the same time.
- When I practiced this one, I found that the more I hugged the person's leg with my head, looking up at the same time, the easier my head and arm came free.
- This one was the hardest for me to do against a resisting partner.

Escape Three: Pressure Break
- If the person pulls your arm across their body, don't fight them trying to pull back. Go with them to that side, locking your arms in a gable grip and bracing on the ground. Always look up.
- This will put their bottom leg flat on the ground with their other hip facing up.
- Put your far hip right on top of theirs and drop your hip into them.
- Their legs will open.
- If they don't go after your arm trying to armbar it, come around the back and establish side control.
- If you think they will go for your arm, slide their top leg off your neck when their triangle breaks and slide your hips over both legs, rotating around to the front while keeping pressure on their hips.
- As you rotate around the front, swim their head.
- Your arm will be out of danger then.

Rolling went a lot better tonight. I am starting to see slow progress in adapting to not being able to go inverted.

Went with Rhino, a big, strong blue belt guy who is really technical. He is one of the biggest guys in the gym, but he never crushes me when we grapple. A few times, when he was sweeping me or something, I noticed him being careful not to roll on my spindly little limbs. He somehow manages to look out for me while he is grappling the crap out of me.

I did laugh at one point though because I tried this guard pass where I bring both legs together with my arms, shove them down to one side, break my hip around and then basically push the person's upper body flat with my hip as I come up. Usually, it works. When my hip hit his torso it was like slamming my butt into a brick wall. He was sitting almost upright. My "hip pressure" did nothing. I started laughing and he just kind of smiled and shrugged his shoulders. He's a good guy to practice things with because, if a technique works on Rhino, it will most certainly work on a smaller guy. If it doesn't...well, it probably needs some tweaking. ;)

Submitting Whitebelts

I wasn't planning on doing another post today, but I just read an excellent post by Georgette about the struggle she has--and that I think a lot of us have--about whether or not we should use our training time with whitebelts to work things we can't work with more experienced people.

I am no authority on the issue. I have the same back-and-forth conversation going on inside my head when I grapple newer whitebelts. Should I catch that submission or let them work? Should I sweep or let them pass? Recently, though, I had an experience that has changed the way I think about training with whitebelts.

I have a female, whitebelt friend of mine who trains at the gym. She's doing really well, growing by leaps and bounds. But from the moment she started, I struggled with the idea of submitting her. It was not just her, I struggled with the idea of submitting any of the white belt girls that come to the gym.

She and I talked and she said that she wanted me to go for things on her so that she could grow. Ok, I thought. I'll go for some more things. But I kind of didn't. I still felt guilty, like I was taking advantage of her by going for things. I moved a lot more and got more dominant positions, but I still didn't submit her very much.

Then, we recently went to a tournament. Her boyfriend, who also trains, was talking to her before her match and he said something that really took me aback. He said, "Remember, these girls aren't Allie." I wasn't sure exactly how he meant it, but I think he meant something to the effect of, "Remember, these girls aren't going to be nice to you like Allie is."

This girl fought and she did really well. But the girl she went up against was a very aggressive attacker. As soon as my friend escaped a submission, the girl would go for the same submission again, keeping my friend on constant defense. My friend never got submitted and never gave up any positions, but the other girl won by advantage.

The thing is, the submission the other girl kept going for is one that I know and use on other people. I just never used it on my friend.

When we got back to training after the tournament, my friend asked me to start submitting her more. She said she needed to learn how to escape things. I felt horrible because, this whole time, I was kind of doing her a disservice by not catching submissions on her. This is something Fabio warned me about. Her boyfriend warned me about it too. I just didn't listen. She could have learned to work out of that submission that she was faced with in the tournament, but because I held back, she had never seen it before.

Now, I know that this isn't the kind of story that applies to everyone. My friend has an excellent attitude. She know that if she wants to grow, she needs people to attack her. Some people don't have that attitude.

Also, I know that no matter what, there are always going to be submissions that she could have been caught with that she had never seen before. She fought well, but sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. That's how it is. I know. It just bothered me because I love that submission and haven't done it on purpose because I didn't want to be a jerk. And now I managed to be a jerk anyway. lol

Anyway, moral of the story for me is that I am going to go for more submissions on white belts. I'm not necessarily going to finish them and I certainly won't be a jerk and crank anything. Bu I am going to at least catch them, though, and make them work out of it. Same thing with sweeps. That is what the higher belts do for me.

What Kind of Training Partner Are You?

Today, Fabio was talking during warm-ups about a guy who used to grapple really hard on everyone he went with. This guy was extremely technical and didn't need to go hard on most people he went with. But he destroyed everyone equally, no matter if they were white belts or seasoned purple belts.

Fabio told us that he explained to that guy that he was putting a target on his own back. He said that, when people train with Fabio or some of his other higher belts, they want to be like them or better than them. But not with this guy. People didn't want to just be better than this other guy. They wanted to catch him, to hurt him, because of the way he grappled. Maybe they couldn't catch him yet, but one day someone would. And they wouldn't be nice when they did.

The guy has changed his grappling style a lot since that time and now he grapples at a level higher than those he is going with, but not just utterly pounding them into the mat. He is grappling not just for himself now, but to benefit the people he grapples with as well.

Fabio told us that everyone inspires one of three reactions in the people they grapple against:

1. The person wants to be like you.

2. The person wants to be better than you.

3. The person wants to catch you/hurt you.

It really made me think about how I grapple with people and wonder what I inspire. Hopefully it is not number three!! :)

What Is Going On Here?!?!

Man, this afternoon's class was so awesome! Learned a lot. We drilled an escape from when someone is doing an armbar from guard. I will definitely use it. But the things that I was really excited about came during grappling and after class.

I was going with Barf (his real name is Brian). He is one of those guys that, after I've finished grappling him, I always walk away having learned something. Today, he very kindly caught a few foot locks to show me that I was making my feet vulnerable when I'm doing inverted guard. He didn't finish them. Just caught them so I would be aware. Fabio has been catching a lot of them on me to so I would notice.

Just when I thought I was making some progress in the area of leg defense! haha. Before, heel hooks were my nemesis. Now it's foot locks. Grrr!

I was kind of confused about the best way to escape since I usually got caught by them when I was using inverted guard to defend my guard or something. Being upside down, I wasn't sure how to move to escape! lol So, after class I asked Fabio the best way to escape them.

He showed me. Basically, I have to reverse the way I'm going before they can sink it in, or roll out the same way I would from an ankle lock when I'm right side up. It was a little weird escaping upside down at first. But I am sure I will have lots or practice in the upcoming grapples!

But after he showed me how to escape, he explained that I need to change the way I use my feet when I'm using inverted guard so that I make them less vulnerable to attack.

First of all, I have to use my feet like I would normally use my hands, and my legs like I would use my arms. In the same way that I wouldn't fully extend my arm out to an opponent, I shouldn't extend my legs out. Also, in the same way that I use grips with my hands to break my opponent down, I need to use my ankles and heels to hook/grip my opponent and break them down.

When I asked where I should generally be hooking, Fabio told me to look for the light. Any place where I can see light, I should hook: under the arms, at the neck, at the elbows, in the knee pits. I shouldn't be trying to push someone away with my legs. I should be using my legs to break down their posture so I can sweep them, go for a submission or take their back.

He also reminded me that inverted guard is a great position for defense and transition, but I shouldn't be hanging out there too long. He said that I a m getting there and waiting for the other person to react. What I need to do is get there and attack their posture, go for a sweep or a submission the same way I would in regular guard.

Big eye opener. I can not WAIT to get back on the mat and start experimenting with all of this.

Another minor revelation I had this week came with all my focus on trying to pass guard instead of playing guard: I actually LIKE being a top player!!! What the heck is going on here?!?!

I realized why I was hanging around so much guard. I thought is was safer against big, strong guys. I know a lot of you seasoned veterans are probably tisking and shaking your heads, but I really thought I would be safer in guard. This week, I have realized that I have so much more control when I pass guard from the beginning and try to work from the top.

Don't get me wrong, I am still a guard-lover. I still feel more comfortable there.
But, even though it takes a little more energy and aggression to pass guard at the beginning, it pays off, in my opinion, with not being on defense right away. Yes, guard can be an offensive position. But for me, I was having a lot of trouble keeping the big guys in my guard. As opposite as it seems to me, I have a better chance against them when I get on top from the start.

Phew. I'm exhausted. But happy. And looking forward to more of this crazy journey.

I Almost Had 'Em!

Last night, I grappled with a younger kid who has been coming about a month. I was going slow, making him move and leaving space for him to escape and to attack. He would get me in something--a triangle or an armbar and I would do the escape.

Right at the end of the grapple, he had tried to do and arm bar and I rolled out and came into side control. It was a low side control. He hooked the knee close to me around the back of my neck. Didn't have an arm or anything. Was just squeezing my neck, trying something I guess. Fabio called "Time!" and he let go. Promptly he stood up and said, "Oh man! I almost had her!" He went and sat down and told his mom about how he almost had me in a submission and time stopped right before he could "get me". LOL!

I don't mind it too much. He's a little kid. Probably eleven or twelve. But it brings up a good point that many beginners don't realize. I say "beginners" including myself, because I have been guilty of this before too.

"Almost" isn't anything. If you weren't able to finish a submission properly, whether it be because you had incorrect technique or because your opponent knew the escape and executed it, then you didn't "almost" have it. You had an attempt. And that's a good thing. But there is a world of difference between trying a submission and being able to carry it through to it's completion.

It's ironic that I rolled with that kid on Thursday afternoon because the rolls were reversed last night at class. I rolled with a purple belt nick-named "Joe Boxer" who is strong, fast and highly technical. When he rolled with me, naturally, he toned down the speed and the strength. But not the technique. Like I did with the kid, he allowed me to get into good positions, to go for submissions, and then he would escape out of them with ease.

Though I went for several submissions, I knew I was no where close to finishing any of them. There was no "I almost had 'em!" lol

It is important, when we roll with higher belts, to realize that they are more than likely slowing down and working defense for our benefit. They are letting us get those dominant positions and to go for those submissions because they want us to grow.

It's all about working together to build skills. The higher rank is practicing defense--escaping bad positions and submissions--while the lower rank is working offense. Its a good way for everyone to get something out of the roll.

But there's one sure way to bring a fast end to a good rolling relationship like that. Talking smack. All that courtesy Joe Boxer showed me when we rolled would disappear if I went around telling people how I got mount on him and went after a million submissions and "almost had him." He would grapple me at his speed after that. Then we'd see if I could get mount and go for submissions. What would happen would be a lot of me being plastered to the mat and a lot of me tapping. Not fun.

The best way to look at a grapple with a higher belt is a chance to push yourself; to go for it. You should be able to trust that they will roll safely with you--that if they get that armbar, they won't crank it. They'll hold it and make you do the escape. So you can feel at liberty to try things because you know you can trust your rolling partner.

But at the end of the grapple, keep in mind the reasons why you were able to move and work those positions, escapes and submissions. Remember to say "Thank You." And remember to do the same thing for the newbies that come in after you. ;)

So Much Information!!

Afternoon class was hyper productive. As a warning, I'm writing down everything so I don't forget all the stuff I learned. Gunna be a long blog. ;)

Firstly, we worked leg-lock escapes. Kind of funny, after all the talks I've been having with people lately. It's something I definitely need to work on. We worked both a regular heel hook, corkscrew escape and a reverse heel hook escape.

I noticed several things I was doing wrong. For one thing, when corkscrewing out, I was too concerned with the placement of my foot when I'm pushing off. That's not really the key part. The key part is turning so your heel and knee are out of danger. I was trying to place my foot first and then turn. What I needed to do above all was turn. I also noticed that I was corkscrewing to the side instead of corkscrewing straight back, away from them. If I corkscrew to the side, they can roll with me.

Had plenty of practice with those escapes during rolling. Fabio, knowing I need to work on keeping legs out of danger and escaping leg locks, has been going almost exclusively for my legs. He'd catch one, let me escape and immediately go for the other leg. It was frustrating, funny and highly helpful all at the same time.

After grappling with Fabio, I went with a blue belt named Brian who we all call "Barf" (it's a long story. lol. No, he didn't barf.) and he has been a very helpful training partner from the get go, when I first came to Fabio's. Today, he got on me about my gi choke. He--and several other people--have pointed out that I go for the regular gi choke straight on. What I need to do is hip out a little bit so I have an angle to get my first arm deep. Then, using my leg to break them down the other way, I can get the second hand much easier. How many times do I have to be told/shown this to remember it?

Also, I picked Ben's brain about something that vexed me during a roll on Monday night. I rolled with a girl who was visiting from another school and she kept doing the mount escape where she puts her foot in my belt and pulls me off backwards. I have learned how to do that, but I couldn't remember how to combat it. All I could think to do was get low and grapevine. But that usually ended with me getting pulled back and dropping into a weird, half knee on belly thing where neither of us could really do anything.

Ben showed me several different ways to deal with it, but the main idea was that I need to go with it, not fight against it. The first way to deal with it is to stand up, hold down the leg that does not have the foot in your belt and step over. From there, you have several options, one of which is to roll over your shoulder and under their leg. They have no choice but to roll with you. You come out behind them and can then take their back. The other thing he showed me was to come forward, toward their head and turn and catch their leg. Their foot is trapped behind your back and all you have to do is set up kind of like a regular heel hook and rotate your body over their leg. Their own belt does the heel hook! Pretty cool.

Lastly, Fabio put me with a big guy named Orlando. He told Orlando to do nothing but hold me in guard and try to sweep me. It was a good exercise. I know I need to work on guard passing. This showed me some of the areas where I'm having trouble.

My brain is saturated. Great class. Lots learned and lots of fun. Now I'm going to go ice my shoulder and watch Food Network Challenge. ;)

Impressive

Last night I had the privilege to roll with one of the newer whitebelt men at our school. Let me tell you, when I was assigned to roll with him I wasn't looking forward to it. The guy's name is Ish and he is a giant. When I say giant, I mean he looks like he could be a professional football player. Big muscles. Really thick. Scary.

When we sat down to roll, I was already gearing up for an unpleasant experience. I expected lots of muscling and squashing. But, as soon as the roll started, I realized I was wrong. Ish is easily the biggest guy I have ever grappled. But I didn't feel his weight even once! He didn't try to muscle me. He used technique. He didn't try to squash me. He was careful about his weight, but not in a way that made the roll awkward.

I was really impressed. If he sticks with it, he is going to learn fast because he has already learned that Jiu-jitsu isn't about size and strength, but about technique. Go Ish!! :)

It Was the One-Armed Man!!

Yesterday was one of those days where I basically paid to get my butt kicked. No one hurt me or anything. They just out-grappled me. Honestly, I think I would rather be muscled around and smashed. Then I would have something to complain about other than my lack of skills. ;)

The pinnacle of my lesson in humility was a grapple with one of the blues, Salsa John. I love rolling with him. He's technical, fast, thinks on his feet, so to speak. It's always exciting. But he hurt his wrist and yesterday he had to grapple with one arm tied in his belt.

I knew I wouldn't have much of an advantage. I mean, even minus one arm, he is still more [insert any positive description of a grappler here] than me. But I also didn't expect him to still own the garbage out of me with one less limb than I had. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. Though he didn't get any submissions (I don't know if he was even going for any) he still dominated me positionally.

After class, I was sitting around listening to conversations and was hearing all these stories from three years ago or five years ago or whatever when the guys were at the old gym, long before I even knew what BJJ was, and it really struck me how much of a BJJ baby I am.

In August, I will have been grappling for one year. Fabio has been grappling since 1992. Ben has been grappling almost 9 years, I think. Somewhere around there. I don't know what all the stats are on the rest of the people in the gym, but most of the blues have been there a lot longer than me.

Being a woman, I am naturally talented at having multiple, conflicting emotions all at the same time. And, at that moment, I felt two things very distinctly. (1) I felt crappy because of how long of a way I have to go. (2) I felt excited about the years of Jiu-jitsu I have ahead of me.

Right now, I get dominated a lot. Georgette blogged this morning about feeling frustrated with her grappling and I have to say that I have felt the same way a lot.

But at the same time, in the back of my mind,I am excited to see the level of Jiu-jitsu that is kicking my butt. To me, that is evidence that I am working toward something great. If I was able to come in a grapple for a year and be able to beat blue belts that had been there three or five years, that would almost certainly mean that the BJJ we were learning wasn't up to par.

But I see how good they are compared to me. And I see how good our instructors are compared to them. And even Fabio will tell you that he still learns new things from time to time. He is always growing and sharpening his skills.

It just makes me excited to know that I will never be done learning. That might be discouraging to some people, but for me it is comforting. It's like being in the middle of a really great book series and knowing that I am not going to have to stop reading because I ran out of books. (Oops...my nerd is showing).

Anyways, being beaten by a one-armed man sucks. But seeing that Jiu-jitsu works and knowing what I have to look forward to in the future makes the suckiness worth it. So, thanks to all of you guys who push me to my limit. You guys remind me what I'm working for.

Mixed Results

Last night was a night of extremes in grappling. I grappled a couple of pretty new people and some experienced blue belts. The results of each of those grapples were soooo different.

First, I went with a girl who has been going to our gym for a while. She is kind of timid and, for a long time, didn't really attack when she grappled. Now she is starting to get a little more confidence and she is transforming her game. She's attacking more, she's starting to really understand the concepts more. In our grapple, I could see the wheels turning. She tries to set up and apply the things we have recently been learning in class. It is great to see!! She's the type of person I really root for, you know? She's such a meek, sweet person, but I want to see her kick some butt!! lol

My second grapple went very differently. I went with Yeti, a blue belt who helps me out a lot. He helped me last night, alright. Helped me to see how much I have to learn!! lol. No, he didn't do anything rough or mean. He was just moving. Moving a LOT faster than I was. He is not only faster, but loads more technical than me. He can pick me apart SO EASY!! But I enjoy rolling with him because, even while he's kicking my butt, he's telling me how to defend the submissions he's putting on me. I usually come away from rolls with him with at least one little tid-bit of information to improve my game. That's a great rolling partner. Someone who can kick your butt, but make you feel like you accomplished something anyway in the end.

One of my other grapples of the night was with a younger guy who is relatively new to BJJ. He has a lot of heart and it's easy to see that he's motivated to learn. But he is still in that go-crazy, I'm-never-going-to-tap, have-to-smash mode. That was fine for most of the grapple. I favor chokes with newer people and I'm not as afraid of finishing chokes on people who don't tap. But then I caught a heel hook on him. I was applying it really slowly, but I had it. He just refused to tap. I said tap. Another blue belt sitting on the wall said tap. But he refused. I would have had to pop his ankle to get the tap. So I let go, got him in my guard and got a gi choke instead.

Afterwards, I told him he should be more careful with leg locks. Not everyone will let them go. He said, "Well, maybe I don't want them to." Sigh... I hope he doesn't end up with a popped ankle. I won't do it. But at a tournament, guys will pop ankles without hesitating. For his sake, I hope he learns to tap.

I'm leaving tomorrow to take our youth group to a Student Life camp in North Carolina. I'm REALLY excited, since this will not only be a great experience for myself and the kids, but also a mini-vacation for me and JJ! I won't get to grapple for the week. That is, unless some unruly kids refuse to go to sleep after we tell them to. I get kinda grumpy when I don't get my sleep. After about two in the morning "lights out" takes on a whole different meaning!! ;)