Training update...

[L-R] In The Guard TV, "Junkyard" Jeff, Jason, Thomas "The Warrior" Wood, Tommy "Um Guaraná/Bang Bang" Yang, Sam, Dennis, me, "Judge" Jackson, Vidu "The Sultan of Submission" and Mamazinho.

Well it's been a while since I've posted about anything on training. So here's an update.

As well as the afternoon training sessions with the rest of the Connection Rio gang, I've taken a few privates from Dennis and they've really been great.

Afternoon training...

Is full of A LOT of drills (we do drills to warm up for other drills) that are really great cardio. We also get to drill heaps of techniques: submissions, passes, sweeps and positions. It's nicer to be in a smaller group because you don't only get more roll time but focus more on trouble areas you might have. Dennis is always more than happy to to answer any questions we have, he really listens and gives thoughts to his replies. He'll give great advice not only how to answer a specific position/situation but also counter and variations to what your opponent might flow on from.

I'll have to take some video of all of the drills we do later on. But for now here's a video from Jerrod's blog: BJJ Crusade. Big thanks to Jerrod for posting it!

Here's another video, taken from the other day of some positional sparring from "The Turtle" position. Guy on the bottom tries to escape/reverse, guy on tries to finish from the back. If the guy on bottom gets to a good position or escapes then you reset and start from "The Turtle" again. 3x2min rounds for the guy on the bottom. I really enjoy positional sparring and once you get the whole tapping ego thing out of your head and just try new things you really learn a lot, although there are days where I just get real frustrated when I can't get out of positions too haha.

Privates...

So far I've had 3 privates with Dennis and have been very satisfied. Mostly I'm just shown maybe 2 to 3 techniques, with variations, then drill those for the whole hour while Dennis watches over and corrects any mistakes and gives those little pointers that really help sharpen things up. Again later on I'd like to take some video of what's been working for me. So far I've worked on:

- Guard passing (and breaking open the guard) from closed guard and standing passes.

I worked on opening the closed guard first then a couple of passes, with variations, and Dennis gave me some options for standing passes once I've broken the guard open. My guard passes still need PLENTY of work but at least now I feel like I'm not just sitting in closed guard clueless or trying to "muscle" my way out.

- Guard sweeps from open standing guard and half guard.

I've been able to hit one of the half guard sweeps a few times now in rolling... at first it was sloppy but slowly it's been getting tighter. I still need work on the variations of the half guard sweep and also the standing guard sweeps, I find I'm a bit slow with controlling the sleeves once the guy stands up.

- Side control escapes. This is a position I get stuck in A LOT and to put it simply, it gets miserable and demoralising being stuck under guys heavier than you that know how to use their weight haha. Being a smaller guy, I'm the guy usually on the bottom and find it hard to get out from underneath. So I think I'll be doing a couple more privates on this.

After every private it feels like I've been given a few simple tools to help me deal with situation and it's just a matter of sharpening those tools so they begin to work each and every time. At first it might just be recognising the right time to use the technique, then it's remembering the major points of the escape/pass/sweep (hand/foot positioning, hips, weight etc.) while trying to pull it off, then trying to synchronise everything together, then after time I'm hoping it just becomes almost second nature.