Owner: Slidey's Training Log URL:http://www.slideyfoot.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 10:01:39 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Detailing (mainly) my Brazilian jiu jitsu training, which I began in Nov 2006 at the Roger Gracie Academy. To a much lesser degree, also includes my experiences in a few other martial arts, particularly Zhuan Shu Kuan. Site statistics:Click here
21/02/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-02-21 17:15:00 Class #121Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 21/02/2008 – AdvancedI thought at first the class was going to be taken by Jude, as he ran the warm-up (which was a typically hefty workout), but the main class was taken by Gustavo. He speaks much better English than I realised, so perhaps having Luciano translate was a way of slipping into teaching in another language: his command of English was more than adequate, so presumably he won't need a translator anymore.First technique he showed was an omoplata from under half-guard. To start, you pull out their gi, so that there is a decent chunk for you to grip: this is always on the side of the leg you haven't trapped. Pull that up around their back. Next, you're going to need a bit of flexibility, as you now rais
20/02/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-02-20 16:57:00 Class #120Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 20/02/2008 – AdvancedInspired by what Caleb did with San Diego, I've been trying to build an interactive map of all BJJ clubs in the UK, here. Google Maps have had the 'My Maps' option for a while, where you can create your own map with placemarks (allowing full HTML in the description), but I only realised after seeing Caleb's post that it is not really easy to embed them (i.e., into a blog like this one). I've got around 55 clubs in there so far, and my initial aim is to get coverage everywhere in the UK. After that, I can start getting more detailed, trying to discover all the clubs in any one area. If anyone can help with information on a club (I'm looking for the full address, a website and a contact email), feel free
14/02/2008 - BJJ (Beginners) 2008-02-14 17:07:00 Class #119Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 14/02/2008 – BeginnersMy flight from Sevilla got delayed, so although I'd been thinking about training last night, I arrived into the UK too late. I'll write up something about Spain later (it'll be the entry before this one, as I always fiddle the date in order to put it in the right place, so it doesn't always match the date I actually wrote it), but in short, I went to Jerez, Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sevilla, drinking lots of sherry on the way. :DSpeaking of which, that diet of Pedro Ximénez and various combinations of cheese and meat probably wasn't too healthy, so yet again I wasn't feeling 100% tonight. Still, I wanted to at least make a beginner class: hopefully this isn't the start of a similar run of fl
1st-13th February 2008: Andalucía, Spain 2008-02-13 10:40:00 Spain 2008: 1st -13th February
My gf speaks Spanish and is fond of the country, meaning that I had my first visit there four years into our relationship in 2005. That time, the big highlight was the magnificent Alhambra in Granada, which is easily one of the most beautiful monuments on the planet. It is a product of Moorish Spain, back when Islamic people who originally came over from North Africa occupied an area of modern Spain they called Al-Andalus – hence the Spanish region 'Andalucía'. This year, I was again going to be able to indulge my enjoyment of Moorish architecture and history, as our itinerary was to include the ancient city of Cádiz, Sherry capital Jerez and what was once the hub of the Spanish Empire, Sevilla.CádizAs it turned out, the guidebooks we'd rented from the li Read more:Spain
31/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners) 2008-01-31 17:49:00 Class #118Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 31/01/2008 – BeginnerBeginners was a significantly larger class than no-gi, where there were only about ten of us. Gustavo was teaching through Luciano's translation again, and as before started off with some self-defence, both against bear hugs.First, the escape from a front bear hug. The person in front of you has wrapped your arms against your side. Put your hands into their hips, push, and shove your hips back to make space. Shift your hand around their back, the other gripping their arm, then step in front. Dip, thrust your hip into them, then pick them up, in the same manner as for a hip throw.Escaping a rear bear hug is a little different. A person behind you has now wrapped up you
31/01/2008 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2008-01-31 17:40:00 Class #117Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 31/01/2008 – No-GiUnfortunately, my arm did indeed seize up the next morning after my last class. I think it was something muscular, as when I tried to raise my elbow I got a sharp stabbing pain along the outside of my upper arm. Training when feeling slightly under the weather is one thing, but there is no way I'm going to risk training with an injury. That meant that I couldn't train last Saturday, which was unfortunate as I'd arranged my advance ticket to Bristol around the beginner training session at 14:00. Not being able train left me waiting at home, after which I then got to Paddington early anyway because my lift was heading to London for around 2pm. Still, got some reading in before my 16:37 train, which is always
25/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners) 2008-01-25 16:04:00 Class #116Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 25/01/2008 – BeginnerExciting news for any fellow history fans: Isabelle Pafford, who did the awesome Ancient Mediterranean lectures last term is returning with a series on the Roman Empire. Reason that excites me is because when I emailed her at the end of last term to ask if she'd be webcasting the course the following year, it sounded as if History 4a wasn't happening again in 2008. So I'm thrilled to see 'Roman Empire' pop up on the Berkeley webcast list - more than adequate substitute! :DAs has been the case all this month, I'm just going to beginners this week. I'm still feeling a bit hot in the head and slightly achy at work, so will continue taking it easy in class, making sure I hydr
24/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners) 2008-01-24 16:58:00 Class #115Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 24/01/2008 – BeginnerIf, like me, a worryingly significant proportion of your DVDs are made up of 80s cartoons, then check out this site. My current main nostalgia trip has been Thundercats, which aside from having an awesome logo also had some of the most magnificently illogical recurring plot points (like the Thundercats can happily float unaided in the vacuum of space, as well as reaching absolutely ANYWHERE – even the centre of the planet – in a matter of seconds after seeing the old Thundersignal). I don't care: remains a great cartoon! Be sure to have a look at the Memorabilia bit (loads of stuff in there), especially the 'other clips'. I'm still not feeling quite right: this is probably yet another reminder that
17/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners) 2008-01-17 17:49:00 Class #114Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 17/01/2008 – BeginnerI’m fed up of missing training through illness, but fortunately I seem to have almost shaken off this cold, meaning I decided I should be ok for the beginners class tonight. I’ll keep it to just the one session this week, as there’s no need to push my luck, and hopefully I’ll be fully fit next week. As I’m popping off to Bristol at the weekend rather than going up to Brum, that will give me four days in which to train. If I’m feeling sufficiently healthy, four classes would make up for missing last week and most of the week before.At first I thought Luciano was going to be taking the session, but it turned out that he was in fact acting as a sort of hands on t
Still Ill. :( 2008-01-14 05:34:00 Ill. Grr. So: book review time!I decided I wasn’t feeling well enough for the no-gi, as my head got increasingly woozy throughout Thursday 3rd: still felt crappy the following week. Its very frustrating when you almost feel well enough to train, but not quite: having weeks with no classes is not how I planned to start off the year, but then probably my fault for having a terrible diet.The time off has hopefully meant I should be recovered enough to get back to training soon. It also gave me some time to rewatch a bunch of old UFCs, and found a copy of Angry White Pyjamas in a shop for £1.50, so couldn’t resist picking it up. It turned out to be an engaging read, so I whizzed through it over a Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Meaning I’m now going to subject you to my review. :pA
02/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners) 2008-01-02 15:41:00 Class #113Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 02/01/2008 – BeginnerNick G has moved his excellent blog, The Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood, to a new site, here. Looks like he was still working on it last time I checked, but presumably new articles will be appearing there rather than the old blogspot site.As it’s the start of a new year, I’m going to go through my training to date (I’m very, very geeky about my statistics: Excel sheet stuffed with formulae). Since November 2006, I’ve been (before tonight’s class, that is) to 112 classes of BJJ, of which 85 were beginner, 26 were advanced (11 gi and 16 nogi), which means 122.5hrs total at RGA, with another 1.5hrs from the Brighton TD, and finally the half hour intro with Oli back in October 2006. I’ve been to one compe
27/12/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-12-27 16:45:00 Class #112Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 27/12/2007 – No-Gi[I’m going to babble for a while here about xmas etc: scroll down to the bolded bit for the technical details on double legs] I asked for a few BJJ/MMA books for christmas, two instructional and two biographical. The latter were The Gracie Way and Inside the Lion’s Den: I love history, especially contemporary history, so was hoping those two would give me an insight into BJJ’s formation and the early days of the UFC respectively.The two instructional books are Ed Beneville’s The Guard and Eddie Bravo’s Mastering the Rubber Guard. The second I’m going to be leaving until later to read in depth: I stopped a short way into the half-guard chapter, flicking through the rest (though the chapters on ha
13/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-13 17:50:00 Class #127Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 13/03/2008 – AdvancedClasses are settling into a pattern of a thorough warm-up by Oli, throws, specific sparring, a technique, more specific sparring, and then finally free sparring. Sometimes the instructor will stop the class after an hour, giving people the opportunity to leave before the thirty minutes of rolling: that wasn't the case tonight.From guard passage with Joanna and then Herman, I definitely need to stand up more. This is an old problem I had in the beginners, and it hasn't yet been solved: my passing attempts are getting very one-sided and ineffectual, as I keep going for that tailbone guard break and getting nowhere. When standing up, I'm either getting swept straight back with very basic techni
12/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-12 18:06:00 Class #126Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 12/03/2008 – AdvancedMy mats arrived on Monday, so only took six days: got to put them to use that evening, working mount and side control with my gf. I was once again reminded of how often the person who learns most from teaching is the teacher, as I'm still forgetting little details that come to light when I realise I'm showing something wrong. On Monday, that was related to getting to elbow up when trying to move from side control to mount, a problem I've been having in sparring too. I realise now what I've been missing is switching my base so I can use my knee to help scoop up and trap the elbow, after which you switch back to secure it and then make space to slide your knee over.I've only got two mats at present, so th
20/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-20 18:05:00 Class #129Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 20/03/2008 – AdvancedBit sore from yesterday, and always a little strange sleeping in the sofabed at my sister's place. My thumb is also still acting up, a month after the Oxford TD. Might have to look into that if it doesn't clear up soon.Following the warm-up, we moved on to specific sparring from side control. On top, Tran's advice has made a big difference for me, as I feel a lot more able to maintain the position. Christina did eventually escape a couple of times, but that makes a contrast to the previous situation in which I was constantly getting thrown off with little effort required by my partner. However, I'm not yet able to be too proactive from on top, as I keep just trying to free their elbow and tr
19/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-19 18:18:00 Class #128Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 19/03/2008 – AdvancedI've been wondering why the Google Video technique clips weren't loading properly in my technique summary, and I think they've changed the embed HTML. So, updated the ones I put in the summary, meaning they should hopefully be working ok now.Randomly met somebody I'd first chatted to on the internet a year or two, who happened to be heading to RGA himself. Milan is organising a competition for the 22nd March, Grapplers Showdown, which will have the unusual feature of the participants deciding whether they want to go gi, nogi or some combination of the two (e.g., jacket and shorts like in Sambo). He was on his way to pick up the entry fees from RGA, which gave me the chance to chat. Always fu
26/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-26 17:53:00 Class #131Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 26/03/2008 – AdvancedMy back has been acting up since yesterday: not sure if that is due to training, or the large bag I lug around when travelling. Probably a combination of both, as I'd hope my back would be used to the bag after four years. That thumb still hasn't quite got sorted, but it seems to vary. I'm trying to avoid using it at work (I do a lot of typing), which I think is helping.We had a classic heavy Jude warm-up, with lots of press-ups, tuck jumps, squats etc: he was really looking to work us hard today. Once we'd suffered our way through that, moved on to guard passage. I was knackered from the warm-up, so took the lazy option of sticking with defence. I held off Christina's choke attacks for a while (though I
25/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-25 17:08:00 Class #130Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 25/03/2008 – AdvancedThe Cranach exhibition was of a high standard, as you'd expect from the Royal Academy (though I think this is merely my second or third visit: I've been to the Turkish one they had a while back, and possibly one other, but can't remember). I read an article somewhere that had somebody in a controlling position at the National Gallery stating that the role of exhibitions shouldn't be to simply run 'greatest hits' of famous artists, but rather to introduce people to new work. I'm not sure I agree: the vast majority of visitors don't have the luxury of travelling to the numerous different galleries spread around the world that such exhibitions draw upon, so I'm perfectly happy with the 'greatest hits' model
27/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-27 17:16:00 Class #132Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 27/03/2008 – AdvancedMy body was suspiciously fine today, despite the Jude special yesterday, so I'm expecting to be in lots of pain tomorrow: that two day delay could be unpleasant. However, I still managed to make myself uncomfortable before the lesson, thanks to a rather well catered early morning meeting at work. There were the usual grapes and stuff on the table, but encased in some tin foil waited some deliciously hot bacon and sausage baguettes. They sat staring at me all through the discussion, meaning I ended up eating about four sections, which really wasn't a good idea.That filled me up so much that I had trouble getting through my lunch, which consisted of a banana, a ham sandwich, and then a bunch o
02/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-02 16:59:00 Class #134Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 02/04/2008 – AdvancedThere was another mammoth session of guard passage at the start of today's class, but after a few rounds, my knee was acting up. I'd noticed it earlier when doing backwards rolls during the warm-up, where I had to gingerly roll mainly with my arms to avoid slamming that left knee into the mat too much. I hadn't thought it would be a problem when I smacked my kneecap yesterday while trying to pass Paxton's guard, but its clearly still sore. So, rather than risk injury, I sat out most of guard passage, as I find that tends to put a lot of pressure on the knee, at least in the defensive mode I often get stuck in when on top.In the three or four spars before sitting out, I was generally trying t
01/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-01 16:47:00 Class #133Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 01/04/2008 – AdvancedI've been bitching about my sore thumb for over a month now, so it’s a shame I didn't read this useful post about rehabilitating damaged fingers and toes. I don't remember icing it, as I didn't think it was all that serious, but should remember to do that next time I take a similar knock. The old RICE (rest, ice, compress, elevate) advice is an acronym I see fairly often, and has helped me in the past. Christina mentioned tonight that Rosi had interviewed her recently for Fighters Only, which is pretty cool: check out her blog post.My home session this week reminded of something I probably should have paid more attention to earlier: its kinda difficult to demonstrate when there are only two of you. The
10/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-10 16:15:00 Class #136Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 10/04/2008 – AdvancedJude started off with a trip, though I didn't really get the hang of it (judo and me still not getting along). I think the basic idea was to step to the side, get them to step, then step again and use your foot to continue their momentum and trip them up. Not really sure, as I ended up ineffectually tapping Christina's ankle. Like I keep saying, need to somehow get a handle on throws if I ever want to compete properly, but then competition is pretty low on my priorities right now. Still, should really try to improve my throwing: there is a great deal of room for improvement! The niggling knee injury didn't help, of course.There was a clear progression with the other two techniques today, starting with an
09/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-09 16:53:00 Class #135Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 09/04/2008 – AdvancedI skipped Thursday and Tuesday (but with the three evenings free now its out of term time, that still meant I could make my minimum two classes a week) as I've been worried about aggravating my left knee, but wanted to see if it had recovered by training tonight. The original injury shouldn't have been too serious, as it was merely bashing my knee into the mat a bit hard when trying to pass guard (sort of like when you try to put your foot down on a step when going upstairs in the dark, but misjudge as you've already reached the top). That did give me a chance to delve into my newest BJJ acquisition, Ed Beneville's Strategic Guard. After looking through this a few times, I'm very impressed:
15/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-15 16:41:00 Class #137Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 15/04/2008 – AdvancedRoger was chatting to Owen, Paxton and I before the lesson, which is always nice. I'm attempting to dissuade Paxton from competing as he's awaiting knee surgery, but then Roger mentioned the other argument that there shouldn't be too much stress on his knee, particularly at white belt, and if he tries to stick to playing from his back. So advice is to give it a week and see: if it was me, I would probably barely even be training, but then I'm terrified of getting an injury that would put me out for a long time. One of the many things that makes me less keen on competing, though I do plan to get back into it next year, hopefully.Lots of black belts at RGA tonight, which I didn't realise until the end. Asi
No title 2008-04-20 16:00:00 University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Holiday session, Coventry, UK – 20/04/2008I'll kick off by mentioning two news stories that really caught my attention recently, for all the right reasons. First was the fantastic news that the Spanish PM has appointed a majority of women to his cabinet, including the pregnant Minister for Defence. I'm hopeful this is going to have a big impact on Spain, and perhaps even the wider political world: will be interesting to see how this develops.The other great bit of news was here in the UK. Psychics, mediums, healers and the like are finally going to have to back up their claims, or they risk going to jail due to a new law coming into force. Brilliant! Sounds like a triumph for reason, but again, will have to see how it pans out once the legislat
23/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-23 16:56:00 Class #138Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 23/04/2008 - AdvancedFelt good to finally get back to RGA: I was annoyed to only make one session last week due to my neck problems, as that ended what had been a very consistent run of training (although at least I did make that one session, rather than miss the whole week). The bit of grappling at ZSK was fun too, and it was interesting to roll with a completely different set of people than I'm used to (especially much, much bigger guys like Paddy and Glen).Term has restarted now, so its back to the pattern of just Weds and Thurs available to train (though as happened last year, I very rarely managed three classes despite the potential to do so). Hopefully will make three this week to make up for that: would be fun to d
24/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-24 16:36:00 Class #139Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 24/04/2008 - AdvancedAs SENI is on the Saturday, today was a small class. I had the opposite experience to yesterday, as almost none of my preferred sparring partners were there: except for Paxton, there was nobody present who I've regularly rolled with before. That was going to be interesting, as it was all sparring this session.I started guard passage with Paxton, and I'm still not standing up enough to pass. Its really hard to overcome that fear of getting swept: I think ideally I'd practice this on smaller partners so I can get a feel for the position, in terms of balance, typical defences etc. Whenever I tried it tonight, I was almost immediately swept.On the bottom, I didn't get any further, though I did attempt to go to
25/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-25 16:32:00 Class #140Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK - 25/04/2008 - No-GiAs I'm going to be helping out at SENI tomorrow anyway, I went down to the Friday class to make up for missing most of last week. Given the small turnout yesterday, and the general lower level of interest in nogi at RGA, I was expecting numbers to be teeny tiny tonight, and indeed there were only five including me. Unfortunately, I was by far the smallest.Technique today was a takedown, which Nick taught in three parts. They have a neck tie on you (grabbing behind your head with their hand, elbow into your chest). Grab the hand holding your head (on the actual hand rather than the wrist) with your opposite arm. Your same side comes underneath, then your twist your hand back to grab their bicep on the ins
30/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-04-30 16:55:00 Class #141Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 30/04/2008 - AdvancedTurned out that SENI was well stocked for helpers, so I wasn't really needed. I brought the food round and did an hour of table judging (i.e., flipping the points board), but aside from bringing along some of the tickets, that was it. Very much enjoyed even that small bit of helping, though, and definitely would like to do it again. Excellent way of getting an in depth view of competition, given that you're forced to concentrate as you're waiting to note down points.It was also really nice to chat to various people at RGA, as well as see a few other BJJers for the first time in a while (like Ben and Oli, who both used to train at RGA and are now at Farringdon, along with the guys from Belfast and Anne
01/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-05-01 16:54:00 Class #142Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 01/05/2008 - AdvancedThe more I read by Roy Dean, the more I'm impressed. I already like his videos and blog, and now I've been enjoying his free online book, An Uchideshi Experience. Anyone who has read Angry White Pyjamas) (my review of that here) will remember that an uchideshi is a live-in student. Dean's writing is a little later (1999) than Angry White Pyjamas, and also considerably more informed: unlike Robert Twigger, Dean was already an experienced martial artist. Even better, he had begun his training in BJJ, so brings a much more critical eye to traditional martial arts. He provides a balanced perspective on both their benefits and their flaws, with particular regard to aikido.As I've mentioned before in this b
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