Leg in Triangle

I thought I had invented a new submission last week when I was training with Jadon. We were rolling, doing newaza randori, and I was doing well in that he hadn’t been able to submit or pin me yet. In fact he was playing guard and was having trouble trying to sweep me, which is a victory as far as my battles with Jadon are concerned.

Anyway Jadon used a deep half guard sweep that he told me he hasn’t used in a while; according to Jadon I can see the standard ones coming a mile away now, and whilst the sweep worked, Jadon was obviously a little complacent and didn't expect the triangle to be able to close with his leg still in! From here I squeezed as hard as I could but with his leg in it was putting extra pressure on my crown jewels. Although I've already fathered two Children and don’t plan on fathering anymore, I still wanted to retain the ability to piss standing up, so much to my annoyance I had to let go before I got the tap, which BTW would have been the first time I have tapped Jadon arggghhh. I guess if I had got the tap I could have claimed it as a new submission especially as I've not been able to find many examples of a “leg in Triangle” even amongst BJJers. However it appears I am not alone as someone posted these pictures on Facebook the other day.

So have you ever caught someone in a “leg in Triangle”?

Do you have a funky name for this submission or can I perhaps claim it for myself?

More Ronda

Just though i'd share this short video of Ronda doing some nogi Judo for no other reason that it's cool.
Enjoy.

Black Belt Fit – The Man Maker

I found this exercise on a Health and Fitness Forum, which was recommended by the resident Personal Trainer, that I liked the look of. So I decided to give it a go an OH MY GOD, its super tough. I did 1 set of 10 reps with a 10kg dumbbell and I was literally dead on my feet. I’m so impressed with this exercise that I’m going to add it to the end of my existing “Black Belt Fit” workout which consists of 5 x 500 metre rows supersetted with 20 squats and 20 press-ups. However I think I’ll have to drop the weight a bit at first so I can manage 3 sets of 10 reps.

Anyway, give it go today and let me know how you get on with it.

Tomae-nage & Sumi-gaeshi – Yoshin Ryu

With all the injuries I’ve had this year I’ve avoided training anywhere other than my own club as its not fair expecting every new person you train with to “mind the left elbow” and “watch my left leg”. However I have been feeling a lot better recently and although the elbow still isn’t healed it’s certainly manageable at the moment. So with this in mind I decided to make my way to Yoshin Ryu and was duly accompanied by Andrew from Dorking Judo Club.

After a thorough warm up sensei Neil got us to partner up for a Tomae-nage drill. The point of this drill wasn’t so much the throw as the breakfall out of it. We drilled this for quite a while adding in variations of the Tomae-nage, for example using two feet, all the while trying to perfect a nice fluid roll out of the throw. We followed this by drilling Sumi-gaeshi from an over the shoulder belt grip. The foot which would normally be placed on the inside of ukes thigh was instead placed between their legs as though we were trying to kick them up the arse. This seems to be Sensei Neil’s most favoured entry in to Sumi-gaeshi and it is one that he has shown me previously.

Newaza randori followed and I was paired up with Steve. I managed a quick flower sweep in to ude-garami from mount and got the tap quickly. I was then able to fend off most of his attacks and attempts at passing my guard whilst remaining active on the bottom and nearly catching him with juji-gatame a couple of times, although no more taps were forthcoming.

I then paired with a young brown belt who I managed to tap with a variety of submissions including ude-garami, Juji-gatame (twice), san-gaku-jime, and Okuri-eri-jime. A most enjoyable roll.

Next was one of the dan grades with whom I had a tough time trying to control. He managed to pin me with ushiro-kesa-gatame quite early on but the rest of the roll was a bit like a chess game as we both tried to find each other’s weaknesses. It was a nice technical roll.

Last up was another dan grade, this time a small female. I attacked her quickly and took her back and was then able to make her tap with Juji-gatame. The rest of the roll I decided to turn down the intensity a little and tried to concentrate on technique only. I managed to take her back on a number of occasions but my attempts at finishing with a choke were futile and again I really need to work on this as it is a glaring weakness in my submissions.

A quick water break followed before we moved on to Tachiwaza randori. I paired up with fellow brown belt Sean whom I did manage one successful O-uchi-gari on. Other than that it was a fairly cagey affair with neither of us really fully committing and both fighting for the superior grip.

This theme followed in to my next spar with one of the dan grades, although he was able to throw me a number of times we largely fought for grips and I came off the worse. My problem is that I’m not used to fighting guys my height at Dorking but at Yoshin Ryu there are a number of six footers. So when they take a high grip on me I struggle a little as I’m used to being the bully where gripping is concerned.

Last up was Steve and we were even cagier than Sean and I was. Again there was lots of grip fighting and sloppy attempts at throws but not a lot of Judo. I think we were the catalyst for Sensei Neil calling matte and making us all do light randori using only one finger and thumb. This was right at the end of a hard session and as such I was close to just falling over. However I could see the point of this exercise as we were all too tired to use any strength and therefore had to rely on technique alone. I realised I need to work on my technique after this.

This was another excellent hard session at Yoshin Ryu. I really enjoy the fact that we get 5 minutes of sparring with each person in Newaza randori as it means you can try out a lot of things and just figure out what works and what doesn’t. Apparently Wednesday night is Newaza only night at Yoshin Ryu so I might have to check that out soon. I also like the fact that there are a number of large brown belts for me to spar with as its vital I get used to this if I ever want to score points in dan grading competitions.

Time to make a change ch ch changes

I've been tweaking my blog recently, first by removing the broken links to the BJA website which used to contain videos of Craig Fallon doing all the techniques required for each belt up to and including brown belt.

I've now replaced that with Judo Info, which contains videos and animations of the 67 throws of the Kodokan along with many of the techniques used in newaza.

I've also added "chokes and strangles" and "Turnovers", which contain videos of some of the more interesting techniques i've been taught recently. This will give me easy access to these techniques rather than having to manually search for them amongst my many blog entries.

There is also a link to the Gi reviews that i've done, something I hope to add to in the not too distant future.

Lastly I decided to put all my BJJ related posts in one place, again as it makes it easier for me to find them. It also reminded me that Nova Forca have moved premises recently to a new permanent Dojo in Epsom, as below.

I haven't been there yet myself but I hope to in the not too distant future. Of course remaining injury free and getting some proper Judo training in first is my priority, something I haven't been able to do much of yet this year. If I can shake off these injuries I intend to pay a visit to Nova Forca's new dojo in the summer.

O-goshi combinations and the Fallon Turnover

Last week we worked a lot on newaza, in particular using the butterfly guard to sweep. This week Graeme put the finishing touches to this sweep and showed us the Craig Fallon Turnover. I liked this turnover especially as it forces your opponent to engage in groundwork even if you don’t manage to turn them over, as they are in your butterfly guard.

The second half of the lesson was on O-goshi and various combinations and entries. I must admit O-goshi isn’t a throw I ever use in randori but there are a number of techniques that present themselves when getting the standard O-goshi grip that maybe it’s something I need to look at and work on.

Golfers Elbow (Medial Epicondylitis)

I’ve mentioned before that I have been suffering with forearm tendinitis or Golfers Elbow and that it has been inhibiting my training, well I thought I’d document what I have done so far to try and cure myself of this annoying and sometimes debilitating condition. 

I’m not 100% sure what brought this on, although most people never know for sure as its usually just overuse but in my case I think it all started when I fell awkwardly on my left elbow throwing someone with Tani-otoshi. I remember my elbow hurting for a while afterwards and then just aching for a few weeks. As I never really rested it at this point it’s very possible that I made it worse especially when you consider the amount of breakfalls one does with their left arm, considering most people are right handed. Add to that my continued presence in the gym, lifting weights, and it’s no surprise it got worse. 

1) Complete Rest

When it got to the point that I was waking up in the morning with it hurting I decided that I had to stop doing anything that made it hurt. To my annoyance, that meant no more Judo or weights. 

2) Physiotherapy

I had a physiotherapy session with someone that visits my place of work. She thought that one session might be enough. She gave me a deep tissue massage.

3) Physiotherapy – Ultrasound

Luckily for me I had been proscribed 10 sessions of physiotherapy due to the car accident I had in November 2013. The physiotherapy was for the mild whiplash injury that I had suffered but I thought I’d take the opportunity to quiz the physio  about my elbow. He was able to give me ultrasound, massage and stretching exercises (see below)

And best of all told me to resume my normal physical activities as long as it didn’t make it any worse.

4) Physiotherapy – Complete Rest

Ok, so after a number of weeks of physio with no change he told me to cease all activities again, including Judo. This lasted approximately 3 weeks. After the 3 weeks I thought it was getting slightly better so I was told again to resume physical activities. My 10 physiotherapy sessions at this point had finished so I was sent away with some additional stretches.

5) Elbow Support

I purchased one of these

 and wore it whilst lifting weights and doing Judo. I also avoided any bicep or back exercises as these appeared to be aggravating the elbow the most. Not ideal but at least it meant I was still able to train.

6) Amino Acids

I was reading up on Golfers elbow on the NHS website and in the comments section loads of people recommended taking Amino Acids and some even went as far as to claim this alone cured their problem. So I ordered a batch from Holland & Barrett and will take these along with the Glucosamine that I already take.

7) Golfers Elbow Support

Something else that other sufferers recommended was this

form of elbow support which you basically wear all day. This looks different to the elbow support that I currently only use when lifting weights or doing Judo as it places direct pressure over the inflamed tendon. I have ordered this from Amazon and will wear this in conjunction with taking the Amino Acids and see what happens.

Please feel free to comment with your experiences and thoughts of this annoying injury.