Last night after we had warmed up with the flip over a person on all fours(which 1 managed 1 back and over!!!) we drilled De La Riva guard, we started the drills with a hip movement drill, then we slowly added pieces until we were performing a back take from De La Riva, this has to be my favorite technique, the back take, either from X-guard or how we drilled it last night, the part where you grab the belt and go for the back is quite similar between the two guard sweeps, and it appears to be devastatingly effective.(I am realizing that I would much prefer taking the back to any other dominant position, including mount)

Getting to that position where you have a good grip on the belt of your opponent is something I am going to DRILL and DRILL! and I will search and ask if there are any other positions that will get you to this point.
so far I know you can get there from X-Guard and De La Riva, and I will be on the look out for more opportunities to get to this position.

No-Gi this technique falls apart(for me at least), with no belt to grab on to your opponent, they are able to escape, maybe it can be done but by incremental grips, which also can be described in a way I have been told as “climbing your opponent”.

last night was a great lesson at 80/20BJJ, we drilled the above technique revolving around the class so we got to try it on a lot of different people and a lot of different people got to try it on me.

Being able to try out a technique on different people is important I have found, no two people are the same and you can get used to how a technique works with specific people, on Saturdays class just gone, we had some people come train from another club, I rolled with one of them and I found it very different, he had a different approach/style, and I could appreciate that I had gotten used to rolling with the people I know at 80/20BJJ, this was something that has been mentioned by our Instructor Dion, he warned of getting into a comfort zone, rolling with the same people, maybe not trying something risky so this is something I will keep in mind.

this Wednesday, leglock day is going to be great fun, for this class I will focus on being smooth and getting the drills down, pushing the technique into muscle memory.

So another week of training has gone by, I’m still stoked I managed to do the flip over the person on all fours and then flip back, that has really impressed myself, I feel I have really benefited from BJJ in a lot of ways.

Leg locks have started to become a common technique that is used when rolling now, which I think is just great, I have read online(sherdog F12| reddit/r/bjj) of people not getting ANY exposure to leg-locks until they had gotten a purple belt or higher, comments on the safety aspect are always present, but safety has been a big focus in our Wednesday leg-lock classes.

I have had safety on the mind lately, with Matt out with a tweaked back, it just reminds me that the risk of injury is very real, while I have found BJJ quite cerebral the fact remains it is a combat art and the possibility of injury is always present.

avoiding injury is something I want to make as a priority and that is avoiding for myself and everyone I train with, another thing I have read about is “white belt spazzing” and I have told a few people to let me know if I ever get into this mode, I would like to think I do not suffer from this but when I meet the majority of the requirements (white belt) I cannot rule it out that ill meet the rest.

so this week I will concentrate on training safely, warm ups etc and my posture, also protecting my neck/head and grip fighting.

The best thing about Jiu Jitsu is that it has improved my health and fitness level, recently we have been doing a warm up, where someone gets down on all fours, and you hook your hands under them, you then flip over, feet flying up over your head backwards, you land on the other side, then flip back the other way.
that may not describe it very well, but it looks impressive and HARD.
and it is hard, previously I couldn’t do it at all, but then I made the first part of it, which was really cool!
well last night, I managed one full flip, over and back!
I was stoked that I managed this, not too long ago I wouldn’t have even tried to do this, so this is a big thing for me!
it definitely put a smile on my face.

Last night I got to roll with some blue belts and someone who had never rolled before(although had martial arts experience) I got demolished by the blue belts, it was really good fun, with the person who had not rolled before, I played guard, then swept, then guard, then swept, trying to keep it fairly even in the who plays top and who plays bottom, these are the times when you can really gauge your progression, being able to see the positional mistakes they make(as expected) im sure this person was better than I was on my first lesson, but it is great to see how effective 8 months of BJJ training can be.

One aspect of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that is really appealing; improvisation
it seems that improvising is a big part of effective Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
You drill key movements and concepts and then use them any way possible, modifying and altering them in unique ways to best fit the current situation, Now that I am a white belt I can start to apply this in rolling, and also because I am a white belt I can often end up in pretty strange positions that are also open for submission attempts, but this experimentation is encouraged and that is something I find really appealing.

There has been 2 DQ videos passed around the 80/20BJJ mailing list, a lot of it is “slams” someone locks in a triangle or armbar and the other person stands up and then slams the person, this is not a legal move in IBJJF competitions.
When we roll at 80/20BJJ we would never slam someone in this sort of situation, and I have been on both ends of being lifted off the ground or lifting someone off the ground, and it definitely has never been put to us as an option(well not in sport Jiu Jitsu)

Sometimes the DQ is contentious, but sometimes it is blatant and a little scary thinking these people are seemingly unaware(or uncaring) of the rules relating to competition BJJ.

This part 3 of the “series” and I found some of the DQ’s in this video more contentious than the previous videos, I guess they are running short on footage(although I will re-watch this on a large screen TV as I might not of caught everything)

How to get DQ’s Part 3