Passing Guard and Other Random Things

Very descriptive title, I know. I haven't been posting as much, because things have been so busy, but several things have been ruminating in my little brain. In fact, I've run out of space in there so it's time to clean out the bjj corner of my mental storage. :)

Somewhere over the last six months, I have slowly started to do more of the aggressive, top game player stuff. I have always felt like I "should" do that. But I actually started doing it when I A) realized I actually could and B) noticed how much easier it was to control larger people when I was on top.

But grappling in the aggressive, on-top way is not as organic to me as grappling the passive, reactive guard style that I love so much. I still do the latter much more than the former. I wonder if I always will. Don't know.

But figuring out how to work on top is slower going for me. Stuff from guard seems so natural. Stuff on top seems awkward and blundering. Take, for example, something someone said to me in a grapple last week.

This particular guy is a really good blue belt and also is bigger, stronger and faster than me. I was dancing around his open guard, holding onto the hems of his pants legs, trying to out maneuver his hips and either sneak around or slip through the middle. That works with the bigger white belts. Not so much with any of the higher belts. Their hips are too move-y for sneaking around and if I try to slip through the middle, their legs shut around one of mine like a steel trap and next thing you know, I'm swept. My friend deftly pointed this out to me by saying, "You know, sometimes you need to just stop and pass."

At first when he said that, my cheeky thought was, "Oh yeah, like it's that easy. Don't you realize I have been trying to pass this whole time?!?!" lol But then he explained a little more what he meant. I wasn't able to pass because I was letting his hips be mobile. It was a race and I was at a disadvantage. The only reason why I was able to be effective with that jumpy-aroundy passing stuff with white belts is because they haven't figured out how to be mobile with their hips yet.

Well, that sucks for me.

But he's right. He said that what I needed to do was get in close, get tight, immobilize his legs and hips and pass in a slower, more methodical way. So...I tried.

That experiment left me with two very clear lessons 1) Something is off with my base as I pass because I am getting swept SOOOOOOOOO much when I try to be slow and methodical. 2) I am missing most of the method of my methodical-ness. I kept getting the details of different passes crossed.

I found out later that the two passes I was cross-breeding made a really ugly baby. Their union opened up a bunch of space for people's arms to get in and under me for the sweep. Also, another blue belt friend observed that I was "leading with my head too much." We blondes are rarely accused of that, so I took notice. When I asked one of my instructors about it, he said that, with that particular pass that I was trying to do, I DO need to lead with my head. However, I need to drive with my head into their abdomen and, as I come around, across their body. If I keep driving higher up their body, I walk into the sweep because I am too parallel to their body and too much of my weight is on them. I need to be perpendicular.

That made instant sense. He also sorted out which two very similar passes I was crossing and helped me remember the details of each. Yay for that.

Last but not least, there is this pass I sometimes try where I hold down the pants legs at the ankle and literally do a forward roll on top of the guy, flattening him out. When it works, I flip over into side control. But what was actually happening many of the times was that, as I flipped, the guy would follow me and we'd end up in a scramble. Well, the other day Fabio pointed out that I needed to keep my arms straight as I flipped over, holding the guys' legs down so they can't follow me.

"Oh!" I said. "Yeah, I've been having trouble with that."

He laughed and said, "I know. I've seen you do that a lot."

Face palm.

Other random observations:

1. My cat is obsessed with IcyHot and Biofreeze. I have to stay away from him whenever I use it because he wants to lick it off. Weird.

2. I am excited because there is a seminar at Fabio's this weekend with Marcelo Saporito. Saporito, who trained under Carlson Gracie Sr., is the man who trained Fabio. I missed his seminar last year because I had to work. But this year I get to go! :)

3. I am thinking about getting a ripstop, ultra light gi. Not sure which brand. Thought I'd ask around and find out which ones are the blogger favorites. So, if you have an opinion, please share! ;)

Pulling Faces

So, I have this problem. With my face. :)

Ever since I first started I have made faces while I grapple. To this day, I am still taunted for the look of terror that was on my face when I faced off with Tania in my first ever tournament grapple. View exhibit "A":



During one of my first grapples with one of the bigger blue belts at my school, Jimmy, he actually stopped mid grapple to ask if I was ok. Perplexed, I said, "Yes, why?" He said, "You look like I'm killing you." He wasn't hurting me at all, but apparently I had a look of terror on my face.

Early on, my facial expressions caused problems between me and some of my close friends. When I get serious, it shows on my face. When I get frustrated, it shows on my face. When I'm having fun, it shows on my face. The bad thing is that I A) Have no idea I am making these expressions and B) Probably couldn't keep myself from doing it even if I tried.

As I said, early on this caused me problems. A few people thought I was being a poor sport, because I looked angry while I was grappling. I had to explain that I was not angry and didn't even realize I was making faces. Thankfully, my friends know me well enough not to be offended.

A few of my friends in class have noticed this trait and are now taking full advantage of it. They think it is hilarious to do things that frustrate me because I get my "frustrated face". Or they joke with me when I get into "go mode" and have my game face on. One guy, who is way better than me, even started humming while he was grappling me and sweeping me a lot just to enrage me. It wasn't real anger, to be clear. I knew he was just messing with me because I get so animated (we'd had a conversation about my expressions the night before). So I hammed it up and acted like I was in rage mode and started going MMA on him, throwing body punches. It really didn't help me much but it made me feel better. lol

It is all in good fun, but it does make me wonder how I come across to people who don't know me very well. To be honest, my mind goes somewhere else when I grapple. I am not focused on my face. lol.

I don't really know what I can do about this. Honestly, I am not meaning any ill will toward my grappling partners. I just make horrible faces. lol. Have any of you ever grappled someone like me who "pulls faces"? What did you think of them while you were grappling?

Steroid Testing

I saw this video on Facebook today:



While I do think it might be inappropriate to call somebody out like that, I think Caio has a valid point. Most major sports test for performance enhancing drugs. What do you think? Should bjj athletes be tested for steroids after major competitions?

Tornado in Lakeland, Florida!

Yesterday was a first for me. I saw a tornado. Had one pass right by my house. It was storming pretty badly outside and I was actually sitting at my computer reading some of your blogs and things start pelting my window. I thought, "Man, this is a pretty bad storm."

I was just about the check the weather (I had not seen the news or anything that morning) but then more things pelted the window and the wind got really loud outside the window behind my desk." My cat started freaking out and ran under the bed. Then I lost power. I looked out the window and, though I didn't see the actual funnel cloud itself, I saw the rain spinning around my house in circles. We get a lot of funky rain in Florida, but circular rain is not normal! The trees were bending like crazy.

I knew it was a tornado. (Yeah...I'm super smart. lol) So I ran into my room, grabbed the thick comforter off my bed and ran into the bathroom, where I jumped into my tub and balled up in a turtle position, piling the comforter above my back and head. Everything was very dark. It was a very loud, very scary few minutes.


(This was a picture of a tornado that touched down in Kathleen, which is not too far from me)

When things got quiet, I got out of the tub and walked to my front window. Debris from he trees was everywhere. I started trying to call people -- my husband, my son's school, Stephanie-- but my phone would not work. My phone would not text or place calls or anything. I could not get on the internet either. I did recieve a few texts from my husband, which I couldn't respond to.

He was warning me that a tornado had been spotted at Bartow Hospital and was headed my way. lol. Thanks hon.

Finally, after a while, I was able to talk to Stephanie for a few minutes before our phones crapped out. She and Chad came to the house and told me the tornado had taken out several powerlines down the road. A crew was already on the scene starting to fix them. I decided to drive to my son's school since I could not reach them on the phone. And, after that, I decided I would drive to Fabio's to see if he was ok because we had heard reports that the tornado had downed a building and flipped over planes at the airport right across the street from Fabio's.

Looking back, it probably wasn't the best thing to do to go driving around. Down the street from my house, the roof of a barn had been ripped off. I saw huge oak tress snapped in half. One of them had fallen on a roof. Another had fallen on someone's truck. A few trailers I passed had siding and roof pieces ripped off. Smaller trees were snapped in half like toothpicks. On the main road I saw a metal business sign--a big one--with the sign part bent all the way backwards. Billboards had been blown down. Debris was everywhere. Emergency responders were driving all over.


(This is a picture at the airport across the street from Fabio's)

At my son's school, everything looked fine. Steph had said she could come to get Noah a little later if all was well. So, I drove on to Fabio's. He was fine too.

The worst part for my family--which is definitely small compared to some of the things other families in our area are dealing with now--was that we were out of power for yesterday and last night. But it came back on in the middle of the night, so it wasn't that big of a deal. We had Chad and Stephanie and my niece and nephew over and grilled out, then played word association games with the kids via candle light. That was actually pretty funny. The kids didn't quite get the game. Someone would say something like, "28." Next person said, "28 days later." Next person said, "Zombies." Then it got to my son who says, "Poop!" lol Oh well. At least it was entertaining.

I am thankful we and our house are fine. I haven't heard any reports of any deaths so far, so I am thankful for that too. Hopefully we don't get anymore tornadoes this season!

Stephanie also blogged about these weather phenomenons, if you want to see more pictures and hear more details! :)

Move it!

The last few weeks have been some of the busiest and most productive weeks I've had in a long time, both in and outside of the gym. While the PanAms were going on, I was at a retreat called The Walk to Emmaus. It was a time for me to get re-centered and remember what is really important.

Since I've gotten back, my schedule has been a whirlwind. I have been training, and enjoying it thoroughly, but my brain has been so fried at the end of the night that I haven't had the energy or creativity to write anything.

Congratulations of all of my teammates who went to the Pans. Stephanie wrote a blogabout the results from our team. Congratulations to all of you out there who went as well. Wish I could have been there to see it all! :)

As far as grappling goes, I have been very, very tired lately because of how hectic my schedule has been. However, in class I decided not to let that be a factor. I have been trying to look at each grapple as a cardio work out and not think about how tired I am but instead just focus on moving. Fabio says "go" and I try to move until he calls "time". I'm not going like a crazy spaz. But I am trying to keep a constant flow of movement.

Its funny because there are some grapples where I sit down and think, "I've got nothing left. I'm not going to be able to move a lot this whole grapple." But then we go and my body can do a lot more than I expected. It's amazing what the human body can do with a little determination.

One bad habit that I am STILL trying to eliminate is going to my guard the moment I feel at all off balance. Instead of fighting for the top position, I just jump into some form of guard. That could cost me points in a tournament, depending on how it happens, because I am going from a top position to the bottom. The problem is I just really like to attack from guard. But I need to continue to push myself to grow.

I am PanAm ready. Too bad I'm not going. lol

I don't normally go to Open Mats. They're usually on every other Saturday morning, but with so many people training for the PanAms, Fabio has been having Open Mats every Saturday. I have been to the last few and have gotten a lot out of them. I get a lot of great cardio at Open Mats because there is no time limit on the grapples and people generally don't go submission crazy, so there is a lot more flowing and moving.

On top of that, I have been going to T.O.P. Wednesdays. "T.O.P Wednesday" stands for "Tap Out Paul Wednesdays." ;) It's a day where several of the people who want to get in some extra mat time. They jokingly say they are trying to get a leg up on Paul, who was recently promoted to black belt and is the guy everyone in the gym dreams about one day tapping out. He is a scary beast, though, so I don't think that will happen any time soon. lol

Also, at Open Mats, we've been doing a lot of shark pits. The guy who is going to the Pans gets in the middle and a bunch of people go in three minute spurts, switching out with someone fresh after the time is up. Sometimes, I am on two rotations at a time. I get off one person and jump on another one. Or I go from a normal grapple, to a shark pit, back to a normal grapple.

With all the PanAm prep, a big focus in the gym has been cardio. I've been grappling the two girls who are going from our gym 5 or six days a week. And some of the guys who are going too. We have been doing longer grapples with a focus on constant movement.

It has been GREAT! My cardio has gotten a lot better. And, even when I am out of gas, this has forced me to keep moving and pushing through even after my muscles are jello.

Because of the buzz about dieting, I decided to focus on eating healthier...just because. It's almost bathing suit time, after all. ;) As a result, my weight is perfect for competition. I feel good. I wish I was competing!! I mean, I have no illusions that I would be able to go to the PanAms and place or anything. But I feel like I am in better shape right now than I ever have been and would have had a great time.

Unfortunately, there is just no way I could afford to go the PanAms this year. There's always next year, I know. I just wish I could have gone with my team this year. I will be rooting for you guys from home!! :)

All of this has gotten me to think more about keeping my body in better condition in between tournaments. Getting into good habits so that getting ready for tournaments isn't such a shock on my body. I know I can't train hard ALL the time. But the two main things I want to keep-up with are my eating habits and my cardio. We will see how it goes.

Black Belt Promotion

I was going to post about Fabio's promotion of Ben Aubin and Paul Kimbrell, but Stephanie already put up a great post about happenings, with a nice layout of pictures, so I won't double post all of that. Congrats to Ben and Paul onb their black belts, and to Kyle for getting his brown, and to Rhee, Thomas, Ricky, Nick and Sam for getting their blues!!

This was the first time Fabio has ever promoted any of his students to black belt, so it was a very exciting and emotional evening. Also, Kyle is the first brown belt Fabio has even had that trained with him from white belt up (both Ben and Paul were blue belts when they came to Fabio). So it was a very meaningful belt promotion.

Thomas, who was one of the ones promoted to blue, had some video taken of the throwing ceremony. Everyone who is at the belt level you are being promoted to or higher gets to throw you three times. For some reason, the sound didn't work on the video. Imagine the sounds of five brand new blue belts hitting the mat over and over and over again. I am near the very end, at around 9:20. Thomas dared me to do a flying armbar. I decided to attempt a flying triangle. First time I have ever tried it. Didn't work out as well as it went in my head. lol

I will say, though, that people generally don't try to throw hard. They know the people being promoted are going to get thrown a million times so they're usually nice about it. It's more of a fun thing. Some people do crazy fancy throws and those are fun to see. But most people just do three "nice" takedowns. ;)



It was a great night. Both Ben and Paul are great instructors. I was especially happy to see my former Summerlin instructor, Ben, get his black belt. Ben, if you read this, I want to say again how thankful I am to have gotten to train under you at Summerlin. You're a great instructor and friend. Congrats!!