Latest training blog

Report for last three weeks' training.

Forgive me, I have boon so busy with work and other things that I have neglected the blog. But I have been continuing my weekly trainings at East Coast United BJJ. I have also been working out in the gym with G.A. West, wearing a 10 lb armored coat of plates.

For the last three weeks I have been discovering in the free rolling that I do have some knowledge of certain basic principles, and have been using them. the idea of keeping your legs in front of you to prevent side mount; the idea that being in someone's guard is better then being under their mount or having your back taken; the concept of knowing when to relax, because you are just wasting energy; I have been finding submission attempts and escapes where before I would not know what to do and tap out or stall.

I have been paired with people who invariably have at least one of the following: more strength, more endurance, more energy, more training, more skill (all things considered, that is not very difficult to find in a BJJ school). I have ben able to avoid submissions and even score a couple submissions, a lot more than I used to. I guess this is what they mean by "progress."

I have been told that I am now pretty strong and have good energy, entrance, and skill. It's just a matter of putting it all together. As one guy said, "Stop being a spaz."

I am looking at competing in The Good Fight next month http://www.thegoodfight.tv/. We will see how much I have progressed and can avid "spa zing out" there!

SO I took a week off from working out, swordfighting, and bjj last week as a result of Thanksgiving schedules, though I did run twice, confirming that I have about 75% of the stamina I had about a year ago, when I started with ECUBJJ. This week, I worked out with G.A. West twice, with a new emphasis on cardio and less on weights. In addition to trying to up my endurance, I am also trying to drop about 5 pound to make 185 lbs since Peter Storm invited me to compete in the 185 lbs division of his Renegade Grappling League tournament on December 11 (will post details as soon as available). So in between sets of bodyweight exercises, I did jumping jacks. Jots of jumping jacks. A total of 1000 for the work out. My right calf, already sore from running, is still feeling it.

So I went to ECU last night. My across-the-floor warm up is beginning to pick up pace. My push-ups are deeper, and my sit-out drill is slowly creeping up in pace.

WE focused on a particular method of gaining the triangle choke from guard., involving swinging the leg like you do in part of standing up in base from a sit-out. This started feeling like the kind of jiu jitsu that is a step above "basic." To me, "basic" involves being pretty much rooted to the ground and doing things that are slow progressions. This particular move feels dynamic and "swoopy." It's actually kind of fun. We drilled the heck out of it, which is very good for me. I noticed that one par of the move, in which the hips are lifted to move the opponent's arm across his face, can flow organically out of the move where the legs are crossed behind his head. By the end of the drills, I felt very confident about the move, and like a more skilled fighter.

Then we rolled. I was first partnered with a fellow who had advanced from white to blue belt some months ago, and whom I had gotten into that "Tarzan" hold two weeks ago. He must have been very fatigues when I fought him then, because he showed be a degree of skill and energy that I had never seen from him before. He was aggressively moving all over and around me, while I felt pretty much rooted to the ground and lacking dynamism in my game. I was able to hold off a few submission attempts and even escape from a few dominant positions he gained on me, bus his techniques and energy were able to deny and escape anything I tried.

Next I fought the skilled, technical guy I had fought the previous class. He was pretty conservative in his game, which didn't matter too much because his strength and skill were greater than mine, but I did manage to escape a pretty tight rear naked choke from him and survive being under full mount and side mount. I tried the side-mount escape in the latest ECUBJJ YouTube video, but he was too strong for me.

Finally I fought a brand new guy, bigger, stronger, and younger than me, but had only started a few months ago. I was able to mount him twice, and he mounted me once, but I failed to gain any submissions.

Jojo is being very encouraging to me, talking to me about what it takes to advance and get better. I will be bringing my camera to some upcoming ECU seminars and new locations soon.

Here's that video of the escape from side mount I referred to...


I have got to figure out a way to get more training into my life.

Week 11: Final rehearsal and audition, Part 1

I was able to steal a few minutes to put together another video. This is of the last rehearsal day, where we auditioned a few new cast members.



The music is a new composition by Dr. Bronko Von Johnstein, the guy who created the music in the trailer.

Week 9 Report

Several of the cast members who had been absent the past two weeks returned, but several key members did not. Tony, who had been with us the first two weeks, returned, and brought with him Manuela, a new addition to the cast.

We worked on routines through the entire rehearsal. We figured out how Kat would spin and throw Yousif. Kirkland and Dan fount the completion of their match. GA and Vince figured out how they would do a move I had wanted GE at do since I saw his "Osirus" videos: a flying triangle. Bundy and I worked on our routine, which will have some spectacular stuff in it. And Sam and Lou continued to provide good advice and training.

A few key people were not there, though. I am starting to get concerned about the attrition rate among the cast. I expected a few people to drop out for various reasons. One woman dropped out early because she was concerned about injury. Another dropped out because she was concerned that too many people would think this was a fetish video and she had to think about her career. Another woman dropped out because she thought the "darkness" in this movie would affect her. And yet another female cast member had a pretty horrible family tragedy strike. And now a few cast members are saying the don't want to work with each other. I am certainly going to have to get to the bottom of this.

Hopefully I won't have to have another casting call. I love this cast. Their unique personality and chemistry has informed and inspired my vision for this movie so much, I can't imagine what I would do if I had to replace too many of them.

Videos from Week 6, talk and improvs

Here is the talk I gave to the cast when I handed out the story breakdown. I explained the story and why it is important to have a believable Adversary for the Hero.



So I divided up the cast into two teams and gave them instruction that would lead them to enact a composite scene combining several elements of the story.

Here was the first team to preform their improv, made up mostly of pro wrestlers with Lee Boria as the Adversary, Jonathan Rodriguez standing in for Captain Zorikh, and GA West as the Mentor-to-be.



And then the second team went on, made up mostly of Sammy's team of mixed martial artists and the kung fu class I had recruited on Week 2. Elizabeth Vergara plays the Adversary, Douglas Ahammer stands in for Captain Zorikh, and Sam plays the Mentor-to-be.



These performances allowed me to see new aspects of the story that I had not considered, and showed me what aspects do not work. It was also instrumental in helping me cast the role of the adversary, and decide that the final tournament would be a match between two teams, not three.

Week #6 Report

This week we moved ahead. After learning a new takedown/submission/escape sequence, and having the cast members work on their competition routines, we did some group improvs.

I divided everyone, including the instructors, into two groups. I assigned each group a "Captain Zorikh" stand-in, an "adversary" and a "gatekeeper." I told them that the scene was set at an underground wrestling party where Captain Zorikh challenges the adversary. She accepts the challenge ad wipes the floor with him. Then the gatekeeper invites CZ to come train, if he wants to be taken seriously. in group A, a had all of the New Era wrestlers and several other cast members, as the party attendees, Lee Boria as the Adversary, G.A. West as the Gatekeeper, and Jonathan Rodriguez as the CZ stand-in. In group B, everyone else (mostly Sammy's crew, the Kung Fu kids, casting respondents, and the individuals I had personally invited) was the party attendees, Elizabeth Vergara played the Adversary, Sam as the Gatekeeper, and Douglas Ahammer as the CZ stand-in.

After a few questions, the cast took the ball and ran with it. They took the story and the action further than I had expected, and though they did misunderstand a direction or two (perhaps I was not clear enough in explaining myself) but by doing so, showed me stuff that I had not thought of.

I also handed out the story treatment of the movie to everyone, and explained to them a little bit more about where the movie came from, and what we were looking for as an Adversary for CZ.

This week also welcomes Lou Nogueira to the family. He will be acting in the film and assisting Sam with the training. Lou is a Judo, karate, and BJJ black belt, member of the Martial Arts Hall of Fame, and multi-time champion of several martial arts and grappling disciplines. You can see more about him at http://www.thedojoonline.com/ablou.htm