Since the Summercamp and MMA match, I haven't been able to train since I got a severe case of bursitis in my right knee from bumping it on the mat. One of the most annoying injuries there are and it doesn't even feel like a real injury! :(
Anyways, have been rolling and lifting weights for three days in a row now and so far, the body feels pretty good. Still a long way to go to get in shape for the competitions of the fall and ultimately the Europeans in January, but I'll do my best.
Stumbled over this video of a roll from our Summercamp last month. Ellis is a talented, young guy whom I promoted to a well deserved blue belt. I am sure you won't disagree on that decision if you watch the video :)
Showing posts with label Flighthours project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flighthours project. Show all posts
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Visit from Chris Haueter
Chris Haueter has a special place in my Jiu Jitsu-heart, as he was the first person to ever "teach" me BJJ, when I bought his VHS tapes back in the late 90s and was blown away by this conceptual and positional approach to grappling, I had never seen before. His philosophies and view on training has influenced my own career and gym immensely, so it was a great experience for me to have him visit me last night for a small class and a nice, slow roll.
I visited Chris in California during my round the world trip and I will recommend anyone in that area to go visit his little backyard garage. You may also read more about him in my book :)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
385 flighthours
After a tough night of hard sparring the night before, I did a nice and light training yesterday.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
398 flighthours sparring video
Shot a video of some training from tuesday. Most of my sparring is "silent coaching", where I do something specific in order to help my training partner improve in an area of their game, that is lacking. I rarely just go for the kill myself, maybe a result of not having many guys to train with that are much better than me.
First round is with one of my young guys, who are competing in juvenile. I am taking a few of them to the European Open in a month, and is expecting them to do really well. Last year, we got a silver medal in that age division, so we are going for the gold this time :)
With the strong focus on wrestling, I have had on my kids team, they usually end up on top in the competitions. Therefore, I need them to train a lot of defense against the different guard attacks, they will be exposed to. So in the first round, you will see me do a lot of different attacks and positions, so he can practice keeping his base and defending, while setting up his passes.
Guy in second round has a killer underhook against deep halfguard, so I made sure to get caught in that to practice defending it and also let him get even better at it. Besides that, he just recently moved up to blue belt division and needs to work his "plan B", so I usually roll a little extra hard with him.
Third round is against a heavyweight guy, who has a really good guard. It is so difficult to pass, that he doesn't get to train his bottom game escapes so much. To make sure, he gets a chance to do that, I am more aggressive in passing his guard and putting some pressure on him from top.
First round is with one of my young guys, who are competing in juvenile. I am taking a few of them to the European Open in a month, and is expecting them to do really well. Last year, we got a silver medal in that age division, so we are going for the gold this time :)
With the strong focus on wrestling, I have had on my kids team, they usually end up on top in the competitions. Therefore, I need them to train a lot of defense against the different guard attacks, they will be exposed to. So in the first round, you will see me do a lot of different attacks and positions, so he can practice keeping his base and defending, while setting up his passes.
Guy in second round has a killer underhook against deep halfguard, so I made sure to get caught in that to practice defending it and also let him get even better at it. Besides that, he just recently moved up to blue belt division and needs to work his "plan B", so I usually roll a little extra hard with him.
Third round is against a heavyweight guy, who has a really good guard. It is so difficult to pass, that he doesn't get to train his bottom game escapes so much. To make sure, he gets a chance to do that, I am more aggressive in passing his guard and putting some pressure on him from top.
Monday, November 28, 2011
413 flighthours video, back getting better.
I filmed a bit more sparring last week, before I hurt my back. Instead of waiting for more footage to add, I thought I'd just throw this up on it's own. Going to take a little while before I can roll again, anyways.
Had a bad day of training when it was filmed. Felt a bit stressed out that day and couldn't really concentrate on the sparring. It was pretty good practice though, since my training partners were very good and tough, so I had to try and push myself in a situation, where my mental state was against me.
After having been in the bed all weekend with back pain, I feel considerably better now. I am actually able to stand up and walk, more than I could saturday. I bit more optimistic, but will probably be out of sparring for a while.
Had a bad day of training when it was filmed. Felt a bit stressed out that day and couldn't really concentrate on the sparring. It was pretty good practice though, since my training partners were very good and tough, so I had to try and push myself in a situation, where my mental state was against me.
After having been in the bed all weekend with back pain, I feel considerably better now. I am actually able to stand up and walk, more than I could saturday. I bit more optimistic, but will probably be out of sparring for a while.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Rolling with Marcelo Garcia, Drive In and Quico
When I said, that I hadn't made any sparring videos in a year, I was not telling the exact truth. During my trip, a few videos of me rolling was filmed. Some of them are on my globetrotter blog and the rest I've just put on YouTube so I can add them here.
With Marcelo Garcia in New York (May):
With Paulo Cesar (aka. "Drive In") and student in Rio de Janeiro (June):
With Quico in Bali (April):
With Marcelo Garcia in New York (May):
With Paulo Cesar (aka. "Drive In") and student in Rio de Janeiro (June):
With Quico in Bali (April):
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
417 flighthours - short rolling footage video
I have really been neglecting the 1000 flighthours project, not having posted a video of sparring footage since about a year ago. Well, I have been traveling for the most part of this year, but still been too lazy to film sparring. There has been lots of competition footage lately, but that is usually quite different from sparring, where there is more room to experiment and play different games with different opponents.
Now, I'll get back to that project. I think recording sparring sessions has been very valuable for my understanding of developing my jits game over the years. Every now and then, I'll click back in the flighthours archives here in the blog to find a detail on how I used to do a specific move or to check up on holes in my game, I might have forgotten to patch up.
Recorded a few rolls today and made this short video. I'll make more of them in the coming days and weeks, it will be my little project to document this stage of my Jiu Jitsu career.
If you have the patience to look all the way to the end (or just fast forward, but that would be cheating), you can enjoy a high pace round of me getting my ass kicked by Fernando Moya, a guy I trained with in Costa Rica who is visiting my gym for a few months (more on that in a soon-to-come blog post, so far you'll have to do with this video teaser :D).
Now, I'll get back to that project. I think recording sparring sessions has been very valuable for my understanding of developing my jits game over the years. Every now and then, I'll click back in the flighthours archives here in the blog to find a detail on how I used to do a specific move or to check up on holes in my game, I might have forgotten to patch up.
Recorded a few rolls today and made this short video. I'll make more of them in the coming days and weeks, it will be my little project to document this stage of my Jiu Jitsu career.
If you have the patience to look all the way to the end (or just fast forward, but that would be cheating), you can enjoy a high pace round of me getting my ass kicked by Fernando Moya, a guy I trained with in Costa Rica who is visiting my gym for a few months (more on that in a soon-to-come blog post, so far you'll have to do with this video teaser :D).
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
600 flighthours sparring video
It's been over a year since I last posted a sparring video for my 1000 Flighthours project that I started about three and a half years back. I still keep track of all my sparring hours, hoping to one day reach number 1000 for the project. For now I have reached the first 400 and I think my game have moved a lightyear from when I started. At the moment I train five days a week and I can really feel how I am improving. I wanna be as well prepared as possible for my training trip around the world in only three months from now.
As always, I have a list of what I am currently working on in sparring:
The deep butterfly halfguard is a game I have been working on for ages trying to develop and fine tune. I have taught it in my gym and both me and my training partners have used it successfully in sparring and competition enough now, that I think I am ready to make an instructional on it. No idea when it will be ready as always though ;)
Another thing I am working on on the side is trying to stucture the art of teaching people how to slowroll properly. We have all seen these really good black belts slowroll so nice and smooth, but how do people actually learn to do it. I have had a lot of succes teaching it in my class and it is not something I have ever seen anyone teach before, so I think it could make a pretty good instructional video here on the blog.
As always, I have a list of what I am currently working on in sparring:
- Deep butterfly halfguard
- Pressure passing the guard
- Wrestling as guard sweeps (another Martin Aedma inspiration)
- Loop choke from halfguard bottom (a la Oliver Geddes)
- Understanding gi chokes from the back
The deep butterfly halfguard is a game I have been working on for ages trying to develop and fine tune. I have taught it in my gym and both me and my training partners have used it successfully in sparring and competition enough now, that I think I am ready to make an instructional on it. No idea when it will be ready as always though ;)
Another thing I am working on on the side is trying to stucture the art of teaching people how to slowroll properly. We have all seen these really good black belts slowroll so nice and smooth, but how do people actually learn to do it. I have had a lot of succes teaching it in my class and it is not something I have ever seen anyone teach before, so I think it could make a pretty good instructional video here on the blog.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
729 Flighthours video
Alright, so I finally made a new sparring video for my flighthours project. Since I started, I have been sparring for a total of 271 hours. This time I have made sure, that the video contains both gi, no-gi and MMA sparring. I have had a tendency to put mostly no-gi video up for some reason.
I am sitting and looking back at older videos in the project, and I realize, that my game really hasn't changed that much strategically since I started over two years ago. I have heard many times, that purple belt is where you define your game and from there it is all finetuning and adjusting the rest of the way. I think that is true, since I basically do many of the same techniques that I did back then. I do however see, that my game has become much more tight and smooth and it is obvious, that my timing and setups has really improved. Especially my wrestling and takedowns has taken a big leap forward. I guess that is an area, where timing and explosiveness is also a much bigger factor than technical knowledge, compared to ground grappling where the techniques often can be performed slower and with fewer movements at a time.
Another thing that is very satisfying is, that when I look back at all my little lists of what techniques I have been working on implementing or improving over the last two years, all of them are now solid parts of my A-game. So making a decision to improve in certain areas, have definitely worked for me, and I have managed to succesfully incorporate new techniques and improve holes in my game with this method.
I have put some MMA sparring in the video this time too. I train a good amount of MMA with the guys every week, since we have some who are competing on a regular basis. As you might see on the video, my striking is not very impressive. I don't really have a lot of interest in striking training compared to grappling, but I wanna do it anyways for two main reasons:
My list of things I am currently working on in sparring is:
Escaping sidecontrol is probably THE biggest hole in my game at this time. I was talking to my friend Kári about it yesterday and he has a somewhat similar problem. I think it is a product of having good guard defense, combined with being in the top level of the group of guys I train with on a regular basis. I think maybe around 80% of my sparring time consists of attacking. When I am on bottom, it is mostly in the guard and people I train with normally rarely pass it. So no wonder my sidecontrol escapes sucks :D This was really obvious to me in Estonia and London where a few high level guys put me in a lot of trouble when passing my guard and closing me down in sidecontrol.
In order to improve them, I have set myself a goal to let people pass my guard in sparring at least 5 times every class, then try and escape sidecontrol. I'll see how that goes and then maybe raise the number later. I'll do it for three months, then evaluate if my sidecontrol escape game has improved.
(For some reason, my mount escapes are really good, don't ask me why?)
I have been thinking a lot about understanding how sweeps work on a conceptual level, and is really working hard on moving my opponents point of gravity above my own, which has fundamentally changed and improved the way I sweep from guard.
Fireman's carry takedown has completely taken over my thoughts for the last two months or so. It's like having a song in my brain I can't get rid of - I constantly think of the movement of that technique. What a fucking nerd I am LOL
When I was in Estonia, one of the instructors had some great details on the crosschoke from mount. I am going for it all the time in sparring, and the rate of success for my mountchokes has gone up A LOT with these details. Will keep trying it until I can choke anyone from mount, just like Roger LOL
I am sitting and looking back at older videos in the project, and I realize, that my game really hasn't changed that much strategically since I started over two years ago. I have heard many times, that purple belt is where you define your game and from there it is all finetuning and adjusting the rest of the way. I think that is true, since I basically do many of the same techniques that I did back then. I do however see, that my game has become much more tight and smooth and it is obvious, that my timing and setups has really improved. Especially my wrestling and takedowns has taken a big leap forward. I guess that is an area, where timing and explosiveness is also a much bigger factor than technical knowledge, compared to ground grappling where the techniques often can be performed slower and with fewer movements at a time.
Another thing that is very satisfying is, that when I look back at all my little lists of what techniques I have been working on implementing or improving over the last two years, all of them are now solid parts of my A-game. So making a decision to improve in certain areas, have definitely worked for me, and I have managed to succesfully incorporate new techniques and improve holes in my game with this method.
I have put some MMA sparring in the video this time too. I train a good amount of MMA with the guys every week, since we have some who are competing on a regular basis. As you might see on the video, my striking is not very impressive. I don't really have a lot of interest in striking training compared to grappling, but I wanna do it anyways for two main reasons:
- I want to be the best possible sparring partner for our guys who are competing in and training MMA.
- Grappling is my passion, and I wanna be as good at it as possible in all areas: Gi, no-gi, MMA and self defense (the latter of least interest). Trying to wrestle people who want to hit me in the face is a great way to push myself to make my grappling work in a very stressed environment. Especially comitting to takedowns is an area, that is really improving from practicing it with striking involved.
My list of things I am currently working on in sparring is:
- Escaping sidecontrol
- Sweeping by positioning opponents point of gravity over my own hip (X-guard, etc.)
- Takedowns, takedowns, takedowns (especially fireman's carry)
- Holding high mount and finishing with crosschoke
- Pressurepassing guard
Escaping sidecontrol is probably THE biggest hole in my game at this time. I was talking to my friend Kári about it yesterday and he has a somewhat similar problem. I think it is a product of having good guard defense, combined with being in the top level of the group of guys I train with on a regular basis. I think maybe around 80% of my sparring time consists of attacking. When I am on bottom, it is mostly in the guard and people I train with normally rarely pass it. So no wonder my sidecontrol escapes sucks :D This was really obvious to me in Estonia and London where a few high level guys put me in a lot of trouble when passing my guard and closing me down in sidecontrol.
In order to improve them, I have set myself a goal to let people pass my guard in sparring at least 5 times every class, then try and escape sidecontrol. I'll see how that goes and then maybe raise the number later. I'll do it for three months, then evaluate if my sidecontrol escape game has improved.
(For some reason, my mount escapes are really good, don't ask me why?)
I have been thinking a lot about understanding how sweeps work on a conceptual level, and is really working hard on moving my opponents point of gravity above my own, which has fundamentally changed and improved the way I sweep from guard.
Fireman's carry takedown has completely taken over my thoughts for the last two months or so. It's like having a song in my brain I can't get rid of - I constantly think of the movement of that technique. What a fucking nerd I am LOL
When I was in Estonia, one of the instructors had some great details on the crosschoke from mount. I am going for it all the time in sparring, and the rate of success for my mountchokes has gone up A LOT with these details. Will keep trying it until I can choke anyone from mount, just like Roger LOL
Thursday, January 8, 2009
795 flighthours
So I finally got past the first 200 hours of sparring for my flighthours project. I have been having a little problems with my right shoulder for the last month and a half or so, so I have not been able to lift any weights or do full intensity sparring. It is getting better now though, and I am slowly starting to pick up the pace in sparring again. I have shot some sparring video for the flighthours archive.
As always, I have a very specific list on what I am working on improving in sparring at the moment. I had a great period before the last competition, where I worked on my A-game, and after that I have felt more like playing around with a little more "advanced" techniques, which my sparring shows very clearly.
My focus have been on implementing technically difficult moves, just to challenge myself to raise the bar for what I can execute in full resistance sparring. Several of the moves have been inspired by Ryan Hall's game. The current list looks like this:
- Rolling backtake from sidecontrol
- Inverted guard as defense and offense
- "Double-jump" guardpasses (I will make a video on this shortly)
- Setting up x-guard and sweeping
- Fireman's carry takedown
- Basic mount attacks from Saulo's videos (gi)
I will have to wait a little longer to work on the fireman's carry since I can not yet do any wrestling due to my shoulder injury :,(
Other updates:
- I have just gotten off the phone with Caleb from the Fightworks Podcast for an interview for the podcast. I hope it turns out well :)
- We are working our asses off these days to get the new gym ready. I hope we can start training in the beginning of next week!
- Sunday, I am launching a new grappling tournament held in our gym with the exotic name "Shogun Invitational" :D The concept is to make a tournament that is easy to arrange and easy to participate in. The big tournaments are awesome, but for many people it can feel like too much work to prepare and participate in them. This is a once-a-month submission wrestling tournament where people only get one fight. They know their opponent on beforehand, so they can prepare for that one fight, and they don't have to wait around all day. Hope it will be a succes, even my BJJ kids are competing there so really looking forward to it!
- Next sunday, I am off to Thailand for 19 days with my girlfriend. I have looked at some different MMA camps down there, where we will definitely stop by for some grappling training. I will be sure to write some posts about my experiences there :)
As always, I have a very specific list on what I am working on improving in sparring at the moment. I had a great period before the last competition, where I worked on my A-game, and after that I have felt more like playing around with a little more "advanced" techniques, which my sparring shows very clearly.
My focus have been on implementing technically difficult moves, just to challenge myself to raise the bar for what I can execute in full resistance sparring. Several of the moves have been inspired by Ryan Hall's game. The current list looks like this:
- Rolling backtake from sidecontrol
- Inverted guard as defense and offense
- "Double-jump" guardpasses (I will make a video on this shortly)
- Setting up x-guard and sweeping
- Fireman's carry takedown
- Basic mount attacks from Saulo's videos (gi)
I will have to wait a little longer to work on the fireman's carry since I can not yet do any wrestling due to my shoulder injury :,(
Other updates:
- I have just gotten off the phone with Caleb from the Fightworks Podcast for an interview for the podcast. I hope it turns out well :)
- We are working our asses off these days to get the new gym ready. I hope we can start training in the beginning of next week!
- Sunday, I am launching a new grappling tournament held in our gym with the exotic name "Shogun Invitational" :D The concept is to make a tournament that is easy to arrange and easy to participate in. The big tournaments are awesome, but for many people it can feel like too much work to prepare and participate in them. This is a once-a-month submission wrestling tournament where people only get one fight. They know their opponent on beforehand, so they can prepare for that one fight, and they don't have to wait around all day. Hope it will be a succes, even my BJJ kids are competing there so really looking forward to it!
- Next sunday, I am off to Thailand for 19 days with my girlfriend. I have looked at some different MMA camps down there, where we will definitely stop by for some grappling training. I will be sure to write some posts about my experiences there :)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Reached 200 flighthours & 2008 recap.
So I finally made it to the first 200 flighthours out of the planned 1000. Damn it is gonna take a long time to get there! :D However, when I think about it, 200 full hours of sparring is quite a lot, and when I look back on the sparring videos I have uploaded here along the way, I see a very big improvement in my game during the period. Technique-wise, I haven't changed a lot. 80% of the moves I use are still the same, but what has really improved is my timing, setups and ability to "read" the game when I roll.
This is really one of the most fantastic things about Jiu Jitsu. I often talk to beginners who are frustrated about rolling because they feel "blind" to what is going on. They can't recognize positions, see the holes or predict what is going to happen. This is one thing, that I really feel has been my biggest improvement over the last year or so. The amount of information that is being processed in my head during sparring is growing bigger and bigger, and I can't stop being amazed about how the brain can analyze more and more details in such a complex thing as live wrestling. I enjoy every single minute of training Jiu Jitsu more than ever, and I am glad I have this beautiful sport in my life.
This year has been amazing trainingwise. I have improved a lot myself, but even more important is, that the team has really grown to a whole new level. I have so many skilled guys available to spar and train with, no matter if I wanna do BJJ, wrestling, MMA or Muay Thai. All the time, new talents are joining in, and I can't wait to guide them to many great experiences through combat sports.
I have high hopes for 2009. We are going to expand the gym with double matspace, boxing ring, cage and everything else we have been dreaming about. A lot of our guys are looking at competing. Some guys are going to fight for the first time, and some guys are planning on moving up to professional MMA, so I will be very busy coaching all of them together with the rest of the instructors. My BJJ kids are looking really promising as we have a lot of talent and enthusiasm on the team at the moment. I expect them to demolish any competition they might face by the end of this year. I better hurry up tapping them out before they grow to my own size in a few years! :)
As far as the blog goes, I have a lot of new videos coming up, both instructionals and sparring. I have had a minor shoulder injury for the last few weeks, so I have not been able to finish them, but they are on the drawing board and will be online soon, so check back often :)
Oh yes, and dont forget to vote for me in the Best BJJ Blog of 2008 competition!!
http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2008/12/21/bjj-blog-year-vote/
Poll closes at January 5th :)
This is really one of the most fantastic things about Jiu Jitsu. I often talk to beginners who are frustrated about rolling because they feel "blind" to what is going on. They can't recognize positions, see the holes or predict what is going to happen. This is one thing, that I really feel has been my biggest improvement over the last year or so. The amount of information that is being processed in my head during sparring is growing bigger and bigger, and I can't stop being amazed about how the brain can analyze more and more details in such a complex thing as live wrestling. I enjoy every single minute of training Jiu Jitsu more than ever, and I am glad I have this beautiful sport in my life.
This year has been amazing trainingwise. I have improved a lot myself, but even more important is, that the team has really grown to a whole new level. I have so many skilled guys available to spar and train with, no matter if I wanna do BJJ, wrestling, MMA or Muay Thai. All the time, new talents are joining in, and I can't wait to guide them to many great experiences through combat sports.
I have high hopes for 2009. We are going to expand the gym with double matspace, boxing ring, cage and everything else we have been dreaming about. A lot of our guys are looking at competing. Some guys are going to fight for the first time, and some guys are planning on moving up to professional MMA, so I will be very busy coaching all of them together with the rest of the instructors. My BJJ kids are looking really promising as we have a lot of talent and enthusiasm on the team at the moment. I expect them to demolish any competition they might face by the end of this year. I better hurry up tapping them out before they grow to my own size in a few years! :)
As far as the blog goes, I have a lot of new videos coming up, both instructionals and sparring. I have had a minor shoulder injury for the last few weeks, so I have not been able to finish them, but they are on the drawing board and will be online soon, so check back often :)
Oh yes, and dont forget to vote for me in the Best BJJ Blog of 2008 competition!!
http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2008/12/21/bjj-blog-year-vote/
Poll closes at January 5th :)
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 :)
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 :)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Fighting with injuries, 884 flighthours video
Ok so I am not dead, and I did not quit BJJ either :) Well in fact I have been out of training for a while, since I've been having a sh*tload of different injuries in this first part of the year. All minor, all super annoying and all on my left side. My hip injury is getting better and better, but I have just been out of sparring for 8 weeks with a neck injury from a scramble. Also my (left) shin and (left) wrist have been injured and my (left) ear has been extremely sore for some months.
I just hope that I can get over this period of injuries soon, since it is driving me crazy that I cannot spar with full intensity. I see light at the end of the tunnel though and I think everything will be good again very soon. I actually planned to do a little "come back" and fight in a grappling turnament saturday, but with all the injuries - combined with being sick for the last week or so - I had to forget all about that. Nothing to worry about though, as 16 other fighters from the team will fight and I will be able to dedicate a whole day to coach and help them through the day. Most of them are beginners and I am very excited to see them get a good experience and enjoy participating in their first turnament.
Speaking of the team, I just realized yesterday, that it has never been stronger. The quantity is one thing; our beginners class with much over 50 members have SO much potential and the advanced class is 20+ experienced, tough players on the mat every time. But the level of everyone has really risen lately, as we have been running everyone through a lot of basic technique drilling, repetition and isolation sparring. Last night was my first training where I was trying to jump in on the high intensity sparring since I got my neck injury eight weeks ago, and I was really surprised how much the guys in the class had progressed in that time period. Everyone was giving me a really tough time and I really had to be fully concentrated to not get tapped out right and left. It was a really cool experience and I can't wait to get up in gear and catch up with everybody. They are all peaking athletically at the moment, and I am crawling back from my injuries so my odds are really bad, but I feel more motivated than ever to get my mind and body back in shape.
Right now I just feel like I am a mad scientist (coach), who has created a monster (a team of supergrapplers) that is attacking me (tapping me out) and I am trying to invent something new quickly to defend myself LOL
On another note, I have reached the first 100 flighthours some time ago and is currently down to 884 hours. All the injuries has really slowed down my progression, but I am psyched to catch up with my earlier pace and currently I am getting a good amount of sparring hours every week. I have shot some new video of some sparring just like I did at 964 flighthours. I have definately improved my game a lot since then, but it is difficult to tell on the video as I am not really on my peak at the moment and the rolls I have filmed are a little slow compared to my normal pace. It does however give a good look of what I am working on at the moment, so for my own record it is a good video to look back on in some time. Also, the video is a showcase of some of the cool shorts I use for training.
Again, it is very long (about 40 minutes) and I would never expect any of you to watch it all, but maybe you can pick up a detail or two that can improve your own game. If there is anything in the video you would like me to explain, just let me know and I will make a post about it, maybe with a small videoclip :)
Here are some of the things I am currently working on in my game:
- Footlocks from all positions but especially guard bottom and omo plata
- Attacking far arm in sidecontrol using kimuragrip setup
- Countering backmount escapes
- Taking the back from armbar position
- Scramblepass
- Flipover guardpass using "doublejump"
- Armdrags in guard
- Marceloplata mountattack position
- X-guard sweeps as guard defense
- Triangle as a way of control from sidecontrol bottom and top
I will try to adress all of these here in the blog over the next period of time. Also I am currently writing a post on "A-game camping" that I hopefully can publish soon :)
Until then, I am working hard on my next event Adrenaline 2 that should be a huge show, really looking forward to it.
I just hope that I can get over this period of injuries soon, since it is driving me crazy that I cannot spar with full intensity. I see light at the end of the tunnel though and I think everything will be good again very soon. I actually planned to do a little "come back" and fight in a grappling turnament saturday, but with all the injuries - combined with being sick for the last week or so - I had to forget all about that. Nothing to worry about though, as 16 other fighters from the team will fight and I will be able to dedicate a whole day to coach and help them through the day. Most of them are beginners and I am very excited to see them get a good experience and enjoy participating in their first turnament.
Speaking of the team, I just realized yesterday, that it has never been stronger. The quantity is one thing; our beginners class with much over 50 members have SO much potential and the advanced class is 20+ experienced, tough players on the mat every time. But the level of everyone has really risen lately, as we have been running everyone through a lot of basic technique drilling, repetition and isolation sparring. Last night was my first training where I was trying to jump in on the high intensity sparring since I got my neck injury eight weeks ago, and I was really surprised how much the guys in the class had progressed in that time period. Everyone was giving me a really tough time and I really had to be fully concentrated to not get tapped out right and left. It was a really cool experience and I can't wait to get up in gear and catch up with everybody. They are all peaking athletically at the moment, and I am crawling back from my injuries so my odds are really bad, but I feel more motivated than ever to get my mind and body back in shape.
Right now I just feel like I am a mad scientist (coach), who has created a monster (a team of supergrapplers) that is attacking me (tapping me out) and I am trying to invent something new quickly to defend myself LOL
On another note, I have reached the first 100 flighthours some time ago and is currently down to 884 hours. All the injuries has really slowed down my progression, but I am psyched to catch up with my earlier pace and currently I am getting a good amount of sparring hours every week. I have shot some new video of some sparring just like I did at 964 flighthours. I have definately improved my game a lot since then, but it is difficult to tell on the video as I am not really on my peak at the moment and the rolls I have filmed are a little slow compared to my normal pace. It does however give a good look of what I am working on at the moment, so for my own record it is a good video to look back on in some time. Also, the video is a showcase of some of the cool shorts I use for training.
Again, it is very long (about 40 minutes) and I would never expect any of you to watch it all, but maybe you can pick up a detail or two that can improve your own game. If there is anything in the video you would like me to explain, just let me know and I will make a post about it, maybe with a small videoclip :)
Here are some of the things I am currently working on in my game:
- Footlocks from all positions but especially guard bottom and omo plata
- Attacking far arm in sidecontrol using kimuragrip setup
- Countering backmount escapes
- Taking the back from armbar position
- Scramblepass
- Flipover guardpass using "doublejump"
- Armdrags in guard
- Marceloplata mountattack position
- X-guard sweeps as guard defense
- Triangle as a way of control from sidecontrol bottom and top
I will try to adress all of these here in the blog over the next period of time. Also I am currently writing a post on "A-game camping" that I hopefully can publish soon :)
Until then, I am working hard on my next event Adrenaline 2 that should be a huge show, really looking forward to it.
Monday, July 30, 2007
First 50 flighthours done, 950 to go! :)
I have today reached the first 50 flighthour mark of my 1000 flighthour project. It has taken me five months to get here, which means that I get about 10 full hours of rolling time a month. I want that number to be a significantly higher in the future, but it is difficult to have time for it all :) With this pace I will be done with the project in in 100 months, which is equivalent to 8,33 years. I was hoping that it could be a little faster than that! LOL
Training is going really really great. I feel I am improving for every hour of training and I can definately see that I have improved in every area of my game over the last 50 flighthours. I have especially been working on my wrestling game of clinch and takedowns.
Lately I have gotten a big interest in the takedowns and setups from Freestyle Wrestling. Ken's classes started the interest and now I am reading books and watching instructionals to learn more. Wrestling is a complex game when you start to understand it, just as Jiu Jitsu is. That, combined with that we have no real tradition for Wrestling here in Scandinavia (Greco is a very small sport here and Freestyle virtually does not exist), makes it feel like I am exploring all new territory, which is super cool.
You often hear that a persons ability to fight on his feet are only as good as his ability to keep the fight on his feet. The same must be true the other way around. My ability to fight on the ground is only as good as my ability to take the fight to the ground.
I find that the big difference between Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu, is that you can never really rest when clinching. There are no positions, where you can just hold your opponent for a moment, whilst you take your time to breathe and relax. It is all about attacking and exploding all the time, which transcents really well with my little project of developing a more agressive game.
Today and yesterday, I have done around 2 hours of clinch and takedown sparring only and I am really starting to hit those moves again and again under full resistance. Awesome!
Here is a video that Ken have put together with some wrestling for zhoozhitzu (yes I know, I need to make my own LOL):
***
On another (BJJ-)note, I have a ton of material that I want to share on this blog, but my videocamera is no longer with me, which makes it a little difficult. I can use Ken's though, but that takes planning ;) But anyway, you can expect some new material from me here real soon, so keep checking back :)
Training is going really really great. I feel I am improving for every hour of training and I can definately see that I have improved in every area of my game over the last 50 flighthours. I have especially been working on my wrestling game of clinch and takedowns.
Lately I have gotten a big interest in the takedowns and setups from Freestyle Wrestling. Ken's classes started the interest and now I am reading books and watching instructionals to learn more. Wrestling is a complex game when you start to understand it, just as Jiu Jitsu is. That, combined with that we have no real tradition for Wrestling here in Scandinavia (Greco is a very small sport here and Freestyle virtually does not exist), makes it feel like I am exploring all new territory, which is super cool.
You often hear that a persons ability to fight on his feet are only as good as his ability to keep the fight on his feet. The same must be true the other way around. My ability to fight on the ground is only as good as my ability to take the fight to the ground.
I find that the big difference between Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu, is that you can never really rest when clinching. There are no positions, where you can just hold your opponent for a moment, whilst you take your time to breathe and relax. It is all about attacking and exploding all the time, which transcents really well with my little project of developing a more agressive game.
Today and yesterday, I have done around 2 hours of clinch and takedown sparring only and I am really starting to hit those moves again and again under full resistance. Awesome!
Here is a video that Ken have put together with some wrestling for zhoozhitzu (yes I know, I need to make my own LOL):
***
On another (BJJ-)note, I have a ton of material that I want to share on this blog, but my videocamera is no longer with me, which makes it a little difficult. I can use Ken's though, but that takes planning ;) But anyway, you can expect some new material from me here real soon, so keep checking back :)
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Rolling, rolling, rolling... now with video! :)
I just read Aesopian's latest post on his blog, How much do you really need, and found that I have come to the same point in my training at the moment.
I have really not been working on a lot of new stuff the last two months or so, but instead my focus has been on getting to roll as much as possible and refining / getting a deeper understanding of what I already know and do.
That is the main reason, why I have not posted much in here lately. I simply have not been working on coming up with a lot of new stuff to "show", but just putting my focus in getting as many flighthours as possible. And I have gotten quite a few.
Funny enough, all this rolling and investegating what I already know have led me to some pretty cool stuff, that I want to share here when I get the time to shoot some video of it. Here is what have been my focus lately when rolling:
I hope to cover all of these subjects here in the blog in the near future, but for now I really just want to roll, roll, roll and roll some more :)
So instead of posting some new fancy tutorial here, I have shot a little video of myself doing some light sparring in the gym. My training partners vary from white through purple belts and MMA fighters to kids, beginners and weightlifters. My MMA is getting pretty sloppy and I don't train it very often, but I did some sparring lately as some of the guys were fighting so I threw it in there on the video as well. It is pretty long (30+ minutes) and I don't expect you to watch it all, I really mostly put it up here so I can track my own progression in my game along the way :)
I will try to make many more of these videos as I slowly progress through project 1000 flighthours. 969 hours left!!
I have really not been working on a lot of new stuff the last two months or so, but instead my focus has been on getting to roll as much as possible and refining / getting a deeper understanding of what I already know and do.
That is the main reason, why I have not posted much in here lately. I simply have not been working on coming up with a lot of new stuff to "show", but just putting my focus in getting as many flighthours as possible. And I have gotten quite a few.
Funny enough, all this rolling and investegating what I already know have led me to some pretty cool stuff, that I want to share here when I get the time to shoot some video of it. Here is what have been my focus lately when rolling:
- Baseball choke, setups and variations
- Front flip for guardpass and takedowns
- Upper body weightplacement for faster and smoother leg movement
- D'arce choke from sidecontrol bottom
- Finishing the single / low single
- Headtriangle setup for stiffarm escape
- Flying triangle guardpass
I hope to cover all of these subjects here in the blog in the near future, but for now I really just want to roll, roll, roll and roll some more :)
So instead of posting some new fancy tutorial here, I have shot a little video of myself doing some light sparring in the gym. My training partners vary from white through purple belts and MMA fighters to kids, beginners and weightlifters. My MMA is getting pretty sloppy and I don't train it very often, but I did some sparring lately as some of the guys were fighting so I threw it in there on the video as well. It is pretty long (30+ minutes) and I don't expect you to watch it all, I really mostly put it up here so I can track my own progression in my game along the way :)
I will try to make many more of these videos as I slowly progress through project 1000 flighthours. 969 hours left!!
Monday, March 5, 2007
Project 1000 flighthours
I am getting really desperate to train now, I can do absolutely nothing with this stupid knee :( All I do is hang out in the gym and lift weights, which bores me like hell.
So I have been thinking about a little project for myself I want to launch, when my knee is good again... "Project 1000 flighthours". I want to roll for 1000 hours and see what happens. I have no idea how long it is gonna take, but I am willing to give it a try. A year? Two years? Ten years? I am in the gym every day anyway, so I can always ask my friends if they wanna come by and roll a little. I think it is gonna be an exciting project and a lot of hard work.
I will use this blog to keep track of the hours and then evaluate when I one day finish it. I am eager to see how far I can go in 1000 hours of rolling.
So I have been thinking about a little project for myself I want to launch, when my knee is good again... "Project 1000 flighthours". I want to roll for 1000 hours and see what happens. I have no idea how long it is gonna take, but I am willing to give it a try. A year? Two years? Ten years? I am in the gym every day anyway, so I can always ask my friends if they wanna come by and roll a little. I think it is gonna be an exciting project and a lot of hard work.
I will use this blog to keep track of the hours and then evaluate when I one day finish it. I am eager to see how far I can go in 1000 hours of rolling.
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