SATURDAY, 07 MARCH 2015

Saturday would have been my dad's 62nd birthday, so consider this my brief "in memoriam" to him. Nonetheless, Saturday's class only had two attendees: John & Kyle (8). In essence, they received a semi-private lesson. Some of the time was spent on defending against chokes from the "fat-boy" mount, but the vast majority was spent on passing guard correctly. "Simple" smash passes were covered, and we transitioned to a standing leg-drag at the end of the drilling session. We then had a spirited half-hour roll session where we did a round-robin trade out.

SATURDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2015

Our collective excitement this week was a drop-in visit by Wolfpack Brandon purple belt Bryon W. Though he did not participate in class, he did commit to training with us when he is in the area due to a change in his job function. With his experience, he will add much to our class. Ben H., a blue belt whom I instructed quite frequently in the morning classes I taught at Combat Athletix in 2013 & 2014 while he was a white belt, dropped in and took class. All told, the class consisted of me, Jason, John J., Ben, Tony, and Kyle. The three prodigals (Nick, David, & Paige) had varying reasons for their absences. I covered my "go to" escape from kuzure kesa gatame, along with two escapes from kesa gatame. I then tied together a straight arm lock from side control when the opponent is twisting their arm back and forth from attempts at Americana and kimura. In judo, Kyle, Tony, and Ben practiced sasae tsuri komi ashi with me, making use of the crash pad for dozens of throws on each body shape.

SATURDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 2015

Saturday's attendance consisted of me, Nick, Jason, John, Paige, and Kyle. Apparently, one overslept and another was at work. I taught the "traditional" clock choke on a turtled opponent, stressing pressure on the same side shoulder of the opponent and walking to create pressure on the neck. I showed a quick modification of that choke in case one is not able to reach across the opponent's body and grab the lapel under the arm. We then choked each other for a long period of time. We also went over a slight modification of the bread cutter choke, and answered a quick question regarding pressure maintenance and weight distribution when one tries kimura from side-control. We then practiced our techniques in live roll sessions, with at least 3 changeovers of opponents.

SATURDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2015

BJJ had me, Nick, Jason, John, Paige, Tony, and Kyle in attendance. We went over omoplata and also covered a sweep from the omoplata position in case something goes wrong. The six students got in about 20 minutes of rolling time before transitioning to judo. In judo, Kyle, Tony, and Jason hung around while we went over o-uchi-gari. Kyle bugged out early, so the three remaining folks continued with o-uchi-gari and then moved into ko-uchi-gari. There was no standing randori focusing on tachiwaza, though I did take on Tony in a few rounds of newaza only (starting from the ground).

SATURDAY, 31 JANUARY 2015

On Saturday, we had good turnout. Tony, Paige, John, David, Jason, Nick, and I were in attendance. The main technique taught was the so-called "bread-cutter" choke. I went over the nuances of this particular technique, what typically goes wrong, and how to make sure that you avoid those mistakes.

FIRST WORKOUT OF 2015

SATURDAY, 03 JANUARY 2015 Today marks the fifth year that we've been training at AFR. In an odd turn of events, the original group is mostly intact despite long hiatuses by some. Nick, Jason, and Dave are still here; Ethan is up in Virginia. When we started at AFR, I was a brown belt, Nick was a blue belt, Jason was a white belt, Dave was a white belt, and Ethan was a white belt. Today, I have a "seasoned" black belt professor; Nick is a three-stripe brown belt; Jason has two stripes on his purple belt; Dave has four stripes on his blue belt; I think Ethan has two stripes on his blue belt. We've also added a couple of people, lost some, added some more, and lost some. All in all, I am pleased with how we've progressed here. That being said, there were a total of seven (7) people in class on Saturday; Nick even brought a visitor to add to our group (Jason, John, Dave, and Paige). The topics of the day were escape from reverse kesa-gatame and escape from mount.

LOTS OF PEOPLE ON SATURDAY

SATURDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2014. My blue belt, Ethan, who now resides in Virginia because of his naval service, returned and participated in Saturday's classes. It is great to have him home, and we all look forward to his attendance over the next three weeks. We had a full house for Saturday morning's class. Ten people showed up for BJJ & judo at 8:00 a.m. I must admit that I am impressed with their dedication and desire to learn and train. For once, there was actually an excuse if a group rolled into another area while practicing. We had a "rainbow" of belts, with me (black), Nick (brown), Jason (purple), John J. (blue), Ethan (blue), Josh (white, 3-stripes), JG (white, 3-stripes), Paige (white, 3-stripes), Kyle (white, 1-stripe), and Tony (white, 1-stripe, though he is an ikkyu in judo). I covered various ways to defend against the americana and reviewed how to properly do the cross-collar choke from mount. In judo, it was a free-for-all with usage of the crash pad. Each participant (me, Nick, Ethan, Tony, Paige) worked the throw(s) that crossed their mind. We did not randori in judo.