MIDWEST FINISHERS
A few of us went out to 10th Planet Lombard this weekend to support Masha and Blake as they competed in Midwest Finishers. Masha entered a 105 lbs. bracket and Blake had a Super Fight. Unfortunately, both of them lost their matches. Competition is always a great reminder as to what we should be working on, where we can improve, and where we are doing well. We spend way more time on the mats training than we do on the competition mats competing, so we shouldn’t look at our competition results as the sole measure of progress. How you train is much more important than how you compete. However, competition is a great motivating force and impetus towards improvement. Regardless of whether one wins or loses a match, every match is filled with each competitor doing really good things, and also making big and small mistakes.
Both Masha and Blake did really well in many areas, despite the final outcome. Mostly I’m really proud of both of them for putting themselves out there against very tough, experienced, and game opponents. They say, “you either win or you learn.” Which isn’t true. You either win or you lose, and you should learn in either case. So congrats to Masha and Blake for getting after it and doing something to challenge themselves and push their Jiu-Jitsu!
GUEST INSTRUCTOR SERIES VOL. II
We’re very excited to have Matt Morin of Freeform Jiu-Jitsu teaching a Double Sleeve Guard Clinic on August 11th at 6:00 P.M., in lieu of the Fundamentals and Advanced class that evening. Matt was kind and gracious enough to offer to teach this clinic on a donation basis. All donations will go to the Dane County Humane Society (DCHS). This clinic is completely free to all Sanctuary and Freeform members, with a donation encouraged (you can donate as little as $5!) but not required. Non-members will be required to make a $25 minimum donation to the DCHS. Sanctuary will be matching up to $500 in donations.
I will be announcing this to the point of being annoying, but we would really like to pack the mats for these events and show some love to the instructors who are coming out to share their Jiu-Jitsu with us.
For this clinic, you will need to register beforehand here. Again, if you are a member, a donation is not required but registering for the clinic is … so sign up sooner rather than later! I really hope to see all of you there!
Fundamentals: this last week we finished our Half Guard curriculum by studying the Knee Cut Pass from the Hip Switch on Monday, before moving on to our Open Guard curriculum. As I explained in class on Wednesday, I will be peppering in the Standing curriculum while we are working on Open Guard. So on Wednesday we drilled sprawling from a Double Leg shot, taking the back, finishing an Arm-In Guillotine, and transitioning to the D’arce Choke. On Friday we moved on to our Open Guard curriculum proper, and studied the basic Torreando Pass as well as the Double Under Pass.
Advanced: in our Advanced Classes this week we worked on getting to the Waiter and Waiter X position, sweeping if our partner settles their weight, transitioning to X-Guard if they shift their weight to the side, and taking the back if the shift their weight overhead. We will be continuing our Waiter and Waiter X study into the next week as I think this is a very strong and important position in the modern game, both Gi and No Gi.
No Gi: this week in No Gi we went back to basics and studied both sweeps and passes from the Single Leg X (SLX) position. On Tuesday we drilled the Double Ankle Sweep from SLX and responding to our partners defense with a transition to X-Guard and sweeping them overhead. On Wednesday we went over a basic backstep or highstep pass and then drilled more complex passes in the falling Leg Drag pass and working a top bolo back take.
Believe it or not, this week we compared Jiu-Jitsu to vegetables. When you first learn a new concept or position, it may be so unfamiliar that you don’t take to it right away. Months or sometimes years down the road, something clicks and all of a sudden that position is an important part of your game. Exposure to different ideas, just like exposure to different foods, is important to our growth even when we don’t see immediate gains. And as our palette becomes more refined, our preferences change.
This week, we worked take downs and falls as well as controlling the legs from top open guard. We focused on distance, levels of control, and finding the space to move. Congratulations to Esmay for earning her next stripe!