WOMEN’S OPEN MAT
Every third Sunday of the month we host a Women’s Open Mat. Like all of our Open Mats, there is never a mat fee and all teams/affiliations are welcome to attend. These Open Mats are a great way to get in some hard rounds, meet new people, and network with students and instructors from other academies across the state.
Women make up a minority of students at just about every academy, so it’s important – and incredibly beneficial to your Jiu-Jitsu, especially if you’re a competitor – to train with other women as much as possible, and these Open Mats are a great opportunity to do so!
DRILL TO WIN / OPEN MAT
I touched on this a bit during class the last week, but I just wanted to remind everyone that all of our classes (except for Kids’ Class and Women’s Class, obviously) are open to all of our members. Drill to Win, Lunch Rush!, No Gi, Fundamentals, Advanced, and Open Mat: anyone can come to any of these classes regardless of rank or skill.
Our 6:30 A.M. class is called “Drill to Win” only because we spend more time doing positional drills than in any of our other classes. You don’t need to be advanced, athletic, or obsessed with drilling to come to this class. If you’re feeling like the evening classes are getting a bit crowded, you will find the morning Drill to Win classes very small in comparison! Also, it’s a great way to start your day!
As you may have noticed by now, we do a lot of positional rolling/sparring in our classes. There are a lot of reasons for this that I won’t go into right now (suffice to say that it’s better for your Jiu-Jitsu!). In any case, if you would like to get in more regular “from the knees” or “from the feet” rolling, you should attend our Advanced classes, or come to Open Mat. In Advanced class we do at least three regular rolling rounds at the end of class, and Open Mat is just that: open. A timer is running and you can do whatever you want during that time: drill, talk, roll, etc. You will get in a lot more regular rounds in these time slots!
NEW CURRICULUM FORMAT
Up to this point we have been learning the curriculum in a “blocked” format. What this means is that we would spend a certain amount of time on one particular position, and move to the next position only when we have completed all of the lessons on that given position. This is an effective way to quickly learn the various techniques and concepts associated with any given position. The problem is that the retention of the techniques – not to mention the conceptual synthesis between techniques and positions – isn’t as great as it would be if we were practicing and learning via a different method of curriculum organization: interleaving.
With interleaving, we will be cycling through positions daily, thus reducing the time between practicing any given position and simultaneously being exposed to the entirety of positions in a shorter period of time.
I will do my best to tie together techniques and positions that are more directly related so we can all make the conceptual connections – but due to the nature of the curriculum (unequal emphasis on some positions over others) this won’t be possible all of the time. However, I think this will be a much better format for both beginner and intermediate/advanced students. I’d love to hear your feedback going forward, as well!
Fundamentals: this last week in Fundamentals we studied sweeps. On Monday we drilled our X Guard sweeps: the Tripod and Taking the Back. Wednesday we studied the Lasso Guard and the basic Side Sweep as well as the Tripod option when our partners postures up and the Catapult Sweep when our partner steps back. On Friday Coach Ryan taught the Bus Driver Sweep from Spider Guard as well as the Triangle. Note how all of these sweeps rely on creating frames through points of control of our partner, and rotating that frame via hip shift to off-balance and ultimately sweep our partner.
Advanced: in Advanced class we drilled the Modified X Guard with a pant grip and inside high-elbow. I’ve been calling this guard the “Dalpra X” because it’s a very prominent guard at AOJ, and one that Tainan Dalpra has used successfully at the highest levels of the sport. From this Modified X we learned the Trebuchet Sweep, Triangle, Back Take, and Armlock. We will likely continue drilling this guard in the next week.
No Gi: in No Gi this week we studied the Half Butterfly position. From this position we briefly drilled the familiar Hook Sweep and then transitioned into Head & Arm Control and finally the Shoulder Crunch, taking a look at control, sweeping, and submission options. This is a very dominant position in the No Gi game so we will be spending more time on this guard in the following week as well.
This week in kids class, we worked on Open Guard concepts rather than focusing in on a particular technique. Understanding the concepts of Jiu-Jitsu is a great way to be able to innovate and build up your game. We explored points of contact and focused on the advantage that multiple points of contact give you with both passing or retaining guard. Coach Ryan taught us how to play Space Invaders, which showcased our warm-up movements, strategy, and maneuverability.
Thank you to our guest coaches this week – Chaney, Liz, and David. It speaks volumes about the kids’ attitudes that they welcome and take feedback from coaches who are less familiar to them. And a huge welcome to Miles who signed up this week!