Friday, April 2, 2010

Touching Base

(Weight: 195.6 DELICIOUS pounds!!!!—Delicious in a Neanderthal sort of way!)

Well, let’s get the bad news out of the way first. My trip to San Diego was crazy busy and the only evening I had free to go training, Saulo was leaving early, and I would have gotten to their school late. The same was true on the Fabio Santos front—I would have been an hour late to his class. The good news is that I’ve shed my 8 pounds of winter CHUB and feel great. I trained five times this week, and on the spur of the moment, have decided to go scrap in the no-Gi tournament tomorrow in Mansfield, about an hour away from here. We’re taking only about 7 guys down because it’s no-Gi. I still haven’t figured out people’s reservations to fight no-Gi. Maybe it’s because I wrestled in high school or something. I feel good, and we’ll see what happens. I checked the weight classes out two days ago and learned it was not standard BJJ weight classes, and that if I wanted to fight middle weight, I’d have to drop to 185 lbs. No thanks. I’ll just deal with some bigger guys this go-around. I’ve been training hard with guys who outweigh me between 30 and 130 pounds, so my body is conditioned for it.

This week, we focused a great deal on the tomianagi (pardon the misspelling) throw from the feet. The throw is executed by using the Gi grips to get your opponent to step back with his lead leg and change his stance. Place your opposite foot on his lead hip, grip the lapel of the lead hip side, grip behind the elbow of the Gi on he opposite side, (turn the wheel) towards the elbow side and sit to that side kicking in the opposite direction of the lapel. It’s actually easier than I described it. I learned this throw at a Judo school once where you sit straight back and use your leg to launch the guy over the top of your head, but I have always found that you can’t control guys very well when they hit the ground in this position.

On the ground we worked mount escapes, by connecting the knee to the elbow primarily and getting that knee inside the top guy’s knee to create space. A few different scenarios can happen from there, and I’m too tired to describe them all right now. Ricardo’s really into guys using technique and fighting like hell to get out of bad positions. We worked that a lot this week. It’s actually also helping me develop a better mount having these guys really working to escape my mount.

Well, enough babbling. I wish any Christian who might be reading this blog a very Blessed Easter, and I’ll get after it early next week on the blog front!

With Much Respect
Larry, the LTrain

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on the Fights on saturday!
    I am sure that the L-train rolled down the tracks nice and smooth with all the "heavy" training you have been getting!

    Enjoy the beautiful weather on this awesome Easter Sunday! Enjoy the family and friends available for this time!

    rest up and be ready to go at agin real soon!

    Happy Easter to all!
    Peace & Love,

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  2. Thanks, my friend--I won all three of my fights, which makes me one Happy MO-FO!!!! Planning on an Easter full of Polish goodies with my in-laws today. Church+good weather+lots of food = a Great Easter for the TRAIN> I hope yours is good as well!

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  3. 3 fights! awesome.. can't wait to hear how it got to the ground!
    and what subs you used!
    Again, congrats and see ya tues!

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  4. I got the fight down by controlling the guy pulling guard in two fights. I actually took a big throw in my second (middle fight) and was in trouble for a minute, but I escaped, passed his guard, mounted, and ran out of time before I could choke him and had to settle for an 8 to 2 point victory. Had butterflies my first time out repping Ricardo, but you can bet your ass that the butterflies are gone, and I'll be more aggressive in the next tournament.

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