[FIGHT] Strapple: Lessons 1-5 [Part 3]
Tales from the Mat
I guess I like sparring. At my level I certainly don't finish a lot of people. I can avoid submissions against most white belts, including several with a lot more experience than me, although admittedly in a number of cases I have a size advantage and can just power out of bad situations. All the same, I don't really mind getting caught in an armbar or a triangle or a guillotine. Not that I like to lose, but I'd rather blue belts put some genuine effort into beating on me rather than just letting me pass the guard, for example. I guess I like sparring.
If memory serves me correctly, the first person I ever sparred at Strapple was Generic Dude (I don't know his name yet), he of the white-yet-brownish gi and matching belt with absolutely no trademarks on it. I noticed this guy previously when I sat in to watch a session two weeks earlier. He seemed to be one of those guys that crank maneuvers on too hard during technique practice and go a little too turbo during sparring. So I asked Generic Dude to spar, and he managed to force me to sit on my butt pretty quickly. From there I gripped both of his inside sleeves and kept him away by putting my feet on his inside elbows. Generic Dude tried to stand up and force his way out of my grips in order to pass, but I managed to hook my left leg around the back of his right leg, followed him up and yanked him down onto his back. I was working to pass Generic Dude's guard when he scrambled somehow to put his feet behind him and start standing up. As I got to my feet as well, I took the half guillotine that I saw (with his right arm in). I briefly considered Nogueira's Anaconda Choke which Phil taught me once, but I concluded that (i) it would look presumptuous of a first-timer to try it and (ii) I would probably get it wrong. Instead, I cranked on the headlock, I think to the point where I made some loud grunting noise. After a bit, Yonezawa-sensei came over and broke it up, saying that I wasn't going to get it. Damn.
Right after that I sparred Sato, a guy close to my weight if not a little bigger and, as it turns out, with two years of white belt experience. I don't remember this well since it was a blur of submission attempts by Sato from his guard and my free hand grabbing the wrist of the target arm every which way to prevent the armbar. In the last minute or so Sato finally got it on my right arm when he was upside down. I believe I could have taken a little more but, as a first-timer, decided to tap early.
I sparred Sato again this past Monday, with Hyodo acting graciously as my unsolicited chief second. I made the mistake of letting Sato get ahold of my right collar immediately, from which he could work for a twisted head crank, pull me in for a triangle, and readjust from the same triangle position into an armbar with my right arm going out the other way. I tapped twice in the first minute. Terrible. But from there things got better. I got more careful about keeping my right hand on Sato's belt or below as I passed behind his right leg, also making sure to get a grip on his left collar. Once I got to side control, Sato obviously started flapping around like a fish, but I was able to stay with him. I worked for a collar choke with my right hand deep in his right collar, four fingers in, and the left hand going over for the left collar, four fingers out. However, it took me too long, Sato shuffled a bit, and I had to start over. I wasn't able to secure a good attempt before the bell rang.
Osada and Nagataki, the Juniper engineer boys, almost always show up together with matching Adidas gi. I sparred Osada on my first night. He must have been tired because I mostly lowered my head and pushed him around until I ended up with his neck in an unobstructed full guillotine. I suppose I jumped to guard too quickly and his head popped out thanks at least in part to all the sweat on his hair. Then I got out of that predicament and ended up on his back with hooks in. I worked for the RNC which he fended off by holding onto my sleeves. I tried to switch to a collar choke, but the lesson, as always: I don't know what I'm doing. Time ran out.
I have sparred Nagataki twice, once with gi on and once without. He is a pretty tough cookie who is generally happy to pull me into his guard and go for a lot of submissions. From his guard, Nagataki has gone for a Kimura and a triangle choke, neither of which were close to being deeply sunk. He has put me in compromising positions twice, once with a roll away armbar on my right arm (Sakuraba versus Randleman, for example) and once with a RNC attempt, his back on the ground and hooks around my hips. I stayed patient and eventually got out on both occasions. In addition, Nagataki is pretty energetic at putting me back into at least his half guard when I try to pass. In our no-gi roll, it took me forever to figure out what to do to break the interlocking feet in his cross guard; I finally decided to just stand up while pushing his hips down. I need to figure out a way to submit this guy in the near future.
Hyodo is a very good guy, near my weight and a fluent speaker of English despite spending most of his youth abroad in the state of Georgia. When I first sparred Hyodo I tapped to a triangle. I kept leaving one arm ripe for the taking when passing behind one leg with the other arm, and I am still working my way out of that bad habit. I have been lucky enough to avoid getting submitted by him since, including at least one occasion when Hyodo was on my back working for a choke, and I invested a lot of strength in slipping him off my left shoulder and putting his back on the mat.
Some little guy in a blue Isami with a shaved head and six months of experience loves to get it on. We have sparred four times, and I have formed the opinion that he is out to prove to himself the technique-over-size sentiment born of UFC 1 and 2. In our first spar, I got to side control, locked his left arm in a Kimura and stepped over his head with my left foot. To this day I think he gave me a free pass there, but then again, he is small. Most recently, I muscled Little Blue onto the ground and eventually got past his guard. As usual, I was perplexed as to how to finish him and he regained a half guard. I still had my left foot caught in his half guard when I heard "30 seconds left!," thought to myself "Fuck it," and took his left arm for the armbar; he tapped. Perhaps Little Blue's best chance came when he asked me to spar 2 seconds after I got manhandled by Harada-sensei, then promptly stood up and caught me in a guillotine with his skinny blade-like wrists. It hurt for a while, but I relaxed, tucked just a little bit of my chin, then grabbed his legs (mostly my right hand on his upper right leg) and dumped him onto the ground, which loosened the guillotine.
Lastly, a 90 kg somewhat squishy dude showed up for his very first class this past Monday. When asked by Harada-sensei if he had done any combat sports, he said absolutely none. Didn't fool me. His ukemi rolls were too good. Sato sparred with him first and let the inexperienced first-timer progress to side control. 90 Kilo then took the mount and proceeded to put a sode-guruma on a very shocked Sato. Suddenly seeing his life and pride flashing before his eyes, Sato bridged for dear God to get out. I sparred with 90 Kilo at the end too. Before I knew what happened, he just pushed me down and walked over me into a mount, 198 squishy pounds on my chest. So of course, I bridged for dear God to get out. Soon enough I got him on the ground and passed one leg with my right leg trapped in his half guard, then I did a John Travolta thing and hopped and pivoted 180 degrees and back again. Time ran out with no finish.
And I'm not even going to talk about getting smashed by Harada-sensei and Masada-sensei yet.
I guess I like sparring. At my level I certainly don't finish a lot of people. I can avoid submissions against most white belts, including several with a lot more experience than me, although admittedly in a number of cases I have a size advantage and can just power out of bad situations. All the same, I don't really mind getting caught in an armbar or a triangle or a guillotine. Not that I like to lose, but I'd rather blue belts put some genuine effort into beating on me rather than just letting me pass the guard, for example. I guess I like sparring.
If memory serves me correctly, the first person I ever sparred at Strapple was Generic Dude (I don't know his name yet), he of the white-yet-brownish gi and matching belt with absolutely no trademarks on it. I noticed this guy previously when I sat in to watch a session two weeks earlier. He seemed to be one of those guys that crank maneuvers on too hard during technique practice and go a little too turbo during sparring. So I asked Generic Dude to spar, and he managed to force me to sit on my butt pretty quickly. From there I gripped both of his inside sleeves and kept him away by putting my feet on his inside elbows. Generic Dude tried to stand up and force his way out of my grips in order to pass, but I managed to hook my left leg around the back of his right leg, followed him up and yanked him down onto his back. I was working to pass Generic Dude's guard when he scrambled somehow to put his feet behind him and start standing up. As I got to my feet as well, I took the half guillotine that I saw (with his right arm in). I briefly considered Nogueira's Anaconda Choke which Phil taught me once, but I concluded that (i) it would look presumptuous of a first-timer to try it and (ii) I would probably get it wrong. Instead, I cranked on the headlock, I think to the point where I made some loud grunting noise. After a bit, Yonezawa-sensei came over and broke it up, saying that I wasn't going to get it. Damn.
Right after that I sparred Sato, a guy close to my weight if not a little bigger and, as it turns out, with two years of white belt experience. I don't remember this well since it was a blur of submission attempts by Sato from his guard and my free hand grabbing the wrist of the target arm every which way to prevent the armbar. In the last minute or so Sato finally got it on my right arm when he was upside down. I believe I could have taken a little more but, as a first-timer, decided to tap early.
I sparred Sato again this past Monday, with Hyodo acting graciously as my unsolicited chief second. I made the mistake of letting Sato get ahold of my right collar immediately, from which he could work for a twisted head crank, pull me in for a triangle, and readjust from the same triangle position into an armbar with my right arm going out the other way. I tapped twice in the first minute. Terrible. But from there things got better. I got more careful about keeping my right hand on Sato's belt or below as I passed behind his right leg, also making sure to get a grip on his left collar. Once I got to side control, Sato obviously started flapping around like a fish, but I was able to stay with him. I worked for a collar choke with my right hand deep in his right collar, four fingers in, and the left hand going over for the left collar, four fingers out. However, it took me too long, Sato shuffled a bit, and I had to start over. I wasn't able to secure a good attempt before the bell rang.
Osada and Nagataki, the Juniper engineer boys, almost always show up together with matching Adidas gi. I sparred Osada on my first night. He must have been tired because I mostly lowered my head and pushed him around until I ended up with his neck in an unobstructed full guillotine. I suppose I jumped to guard too quickly and his head popped out thanks at least in part to all the sweat on his hair. Then I got out of that predicament and ended up on his back with hooks in. I worked for the RNC which he fended off by holding onto my sleeves. I tried to switch to a collar choke, but the lesson, as always: I don't know what I'm doing. Time ran out.
I have sparred Nagataki twice, once with gi on and once without. He is a pretty tough cookie who is generally happy to pull me into his guard and go for a lot of submissions. From his guard, Nagataki has gone for a Kimura and a triangle choke, neither of which were close to being deeply sunk. He has put me in compromising positions twice, once with a roll away armbar on my right arm (Sakuraba versus Randleman, for example) and once with a RNC attempt, his back on the ground and hooks around my hips. I stayed patient and eventually got out on both occasions. In addition, Nagataki is pretty energetic at putting me back into at least his half guard when I try to pass. In our no-gi roll, it took me forever to figure out what to do to break the interlocking feet in his cross guard; I finally decided to just stand up while pushing his hips down. I need to figure out a way to submit this guy in the near future.
Hyodo is a very good guy, near my weight and a fluent speaker of English despite spending most of his youth abroad in the state of Georgia. When I first sparred Hyodo I tapped to a triangle. I kept leaving one arm ripe for the taking when passing behind one leg with the other arm, and I am still working my way out of that bad habit. I have been lucky enough to avoid getting submitted by him since, including at least one occasion when Hyodo was on my back working for a choke, and I invested a lot of strength in slipping him off my left shoulder and putting his back on the mat.
Some little guy in a blue Isami with a shaved head and six months of experience loves to get it on. We have sparred four times, and I have formed the opinion that he is out to prove to himself the technique-over-size sentiment born of UFC 1 and 2. In our first spar, I got to side control, locked his left arm in a Kimura and stepped over his head with my left foot. To this day I think he gave me a free pass there, but then again, he is small. Most recently, I muscled Little Blue onto the ground and eventually got past his guard. As usual, I was perplexed as to how to finish him and he regained a half guard. I still had my left foot caught in his half guard when I heard "30 seconds left!," thought to myself "Fuck it," and took his left arm for the armbar; he tapped. Perhaps Little Blue's best chance came when he asked me to spar 2 seconds after I got manhandled by Harada-sensei, then promptly stood up and caught me in a guillotine with his skinny blade-like wrists. It hurt for a while, but I relaxed, tucked just a little bit of my chin, then grabbed his legs (mostly my right hand on his upper right leg) and dumped him onto the ground, which loosened the guillotine.
Lastly, a 90 kg somewhat squishy dude showed up for his very first class this past Monday. When asked by Harada-sensei if he had done any combat sports, he said absolutely none. Didn't fool me. His ukemi rolls were too good. Sato sparred with him first and let the inexperienced first-timer progress to side control. 90 Kilo then took the mount and proceeded to put a sode-guruma on a very shocked Sato. Suddenly seeing his life and pride flashing before his eyes, Sato bridged for dear God to get out. I sparred with 90 Kilo at the end too. Before I knew what happened, he just pushed me down and walked over me into a mount, 198 squishy pounds on my chest. So of course, I bridged for dear God to get out. Soon enough I got him on the ground and passed one leg with my right leg trapped in his half guard, then I did a John Travolta thing and hopped and pivoted 180 degrees and back again. Time ran out with no finish.
And I'm not even going to talk about getting smashed by Harada-sensei and Masada-sensei yet.
posted by hamu86 at 6:55 PM
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