Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Reached 150 flighthours, good/bad rolls and UFC in London

So, been about a month since I last updated the blog. I am still training consistently and with no injuries, which is awesome. I have had a really, really good period lately, where training has just been amazing. Every single roll had taken me straight into the zone.

That all changed monday. Maybe it was the heat and dehydration from training with the gi, maybe it was all the other guys who had a really good day, maybe it was... I don't know. It just didn't click for me, and I felt the same way at training today. My body felt tired, overtrained and my head has not been clear. During sparring, it felt like I was just waiting for my body to start pulling off the moves I am currently working on, but nothing happens. I realize, that this is a period I must fight through to come out stronger on the other side. I am trying to push myself to work hard even though I don't feel like it.

I filmed some of that training from this week. When I look through it, I think it looks better than I remember it. I felt terrible in most of these rolls, but I guess that must be just something inside my head. Here it is, maybe you can pick up a few things here or there:



By the way it struck me, that basically every video on my blog is no-gi. I actually do 50/50 gi/no-gi, so I thought it would be about time to have some gi-video on here as well :)

***

My current list of things to work is pretty simple. It consists of solid, A-game techniques, that I am trying to improve in different situations against different opponents:

- Setting up armbar from sidecontrol with over or underhook
- Taking the back from armbar
- Getting to arm across guard and sweep/armbar/take back
- Sweeping/taking the back with De La Riva guard
- Finishing from the back
- Footlocks
- Upside down guard as guard defense and triangle/omo plata setup

Last one is not really A-game, but pretty useful and fun still. As you can see on the list and in the video, I have a period where I work a lot on taking the back and finishing from there. Good, basic skill to work on, I think :)

***

Other than my sparring having a little down period, life is great. The summerweather here has really picked up and the sun is now up till around 10:30pm every night, which really fills me with energy. I am riding my newly imported German mountainbike to the gym and back daily, totaling about 75 enjoyable minutes a day.


Friday morning, me and 15 other guys from the gym are headed to London, to watch the UFC 85. Danish fighter Martin Kampmann is having his comeback, so we thought we would go over to give him some support. I have talked to a few BJJ gyms in London, where I intend to drop by and do some training during the trip. I will make sure to get some pictures and write about those experiences here in the blog :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Every single one of your posts (specially the ones with video) inspire me.

Thanks for posting :)

/Sværke

Unknown said...

I like that sweep you do about 2:50 into the video. Can you briefly explain that one to me.

I do a similar one that I learned off of Marcelo's sweep DVD from his 3rd set. Only I roll onto my back with his weight on top of me by using what looks to be the same grips and hooks as you do, only then I roll myself forward to land in knee-on-belly position. How are able to sweep him to the side like that?

Christian Graugart said...

Sure, I can post a video explaining it. It is very similar to how Marcelo does it :)

Unknown said...

Awesome, thanks.

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