Simple jiu jitsu...

I know, I know... I've been lazy of late and not updating. I blame it on the crappy Rio weather. It's been raining for the past week and a bit and the lack of sun makes it hard to get motivated to do anything. Hopefully it clears up by this week and we get back into summer mode :)

In training I surprised myself (and maybe a few others) last Friday night in class. We were doing positional sparring from the mount. One person starts on bottom the other on top. If the bottom guy gets subbed he's out. But if the bottom guy gets out of the mount (half guard, full/closed guard, reverse) then they stay in.

I was selected to be one of the guys on the bottom and thought "ok if I last a few seconds I'll be happy." To my surprise I lasted quiet a while during that exercise and even more surprising was that I managed to reverse quite a few people using the same technique.

At first I thought, "Ok I was just lucky." But I managed to hit the same technique again and again. I don't know if it was just my timing or what, but I felt like Roger Gracie or something, using the same technique with the same results... Simple jiu jitsu.

It was really quiet a moment for me. Surprising, but also a humble reminder that the simplest most basic technique in Jiu Jitsu can work time and time again if executed right. I'm not claiming I'm the best at doing that technique, but it worked for me against some of the higher belts and I think surprised me more than it did them.

The technique...

I can't remember exactly who showed me that move but I remember it was a purple belt. And ever since it's been my go-to move when I get mounted. All I did was the basic bridge/upa. Trap a leg, trap/secure an arm on the same side as the trapped leg and then bridge towards that side. That was it. It amazed me at how many guys I managed to reverse just using the same technique.

Refining techniques...

Today in Dennis' class we just did the usual guard pass drills and then spent the rest of the session drilling Triangles from a spider guard set up. Nothing overly exciting, but I find that repping out a technique is the best way for me to improve upon it and even after a few sets (with feedback from Dennis of course) I could feel the difference in my triangles. I don't know about you, but when I see improvements from working on certain things it makes me want to work on them more.

The best thing about technique drilling: is when you start doing things in rolling without knowing it and then realise it came from all that drilling and that you just did it almost through "instinct." Hopefully I won't get lazy and will keep up with my drills in future, I think once you get lazy and feel like you've mastered techniques then you limit yourself on how much you coul actually improve upon them.

There's always room to grow :)