martial-arts

BJJ Updates – 3-7-2024

/ Matt Lutz

Chakara Status – Feelin’ Great

Once thing I noticed when I started BJJ: some people had tape all over their fingers. “What is the reason for this?” I wondered, “swelling?” “maybe because it looks cool?”. I had no idea.

Now, after weeks of practicing both lasso and spider guard, I’ve found out why: aggressive blistering! Time to start taping up my fingers, luckily I found a video made by Ronda Rousey detailing out the process. What a great resource the internet is.

Spider Guard Passes

We worked on spider guard passes today, going through three different options from standing:

  1. Grab the inside of your opponents pants at the ankles, choose a side, then step on the inside of their leg to break the guard and move into side control. This one worked fairly well for me. During drilling I found it helped to fake to one side, then switch to the other.
  2. Grab the inside of your opponents pants at the ankles, choose a side, then perform a knee slice. I could never get this to work.
  3. Grab the inside of your opponents pants at the ankles, choose a side, push your opponents legs to that side while taking a knee, then place your forehead on the ground while “stapling” your opponents shin to the ground with your shin. With your forehead still on the ground, vault over your opponents legs into side control. I tried this third one several times, and could never complete it, but it did confuse the hell out of my opponents.

Example of guard pass #1

For sweeping from Spider Guard, I had really good luck waiting until my opponent was close enough, then grabbing their ankles and pushing with my feet. Simple but effective.

Goals for next class:

  1. Attempt some triangles
  2. Don’t get arm barred

BJJ Updates – 3-5-2024

/ Matt Lutz

Chakra Status – Feelin’ Fine

Around seven months ago I started doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu at a studio in Baraboo, WI. My tennis team had just disbanded, so I decided now was the time to give it a shot. I’ve always had an interest in martial arts, having done karate as a kid, and boxing and kung-fu as an adult. It was time to give grappling a shot.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu was developed in the 1920s after Judo practitioner Mitsuyo Maeda brought the sport to Brazil. Slightly different from modern Olympic Judo which focuses on throws, Brazilian jiu-jitsu instead concentrates on the ground game of Judo. This includes sweeps, guards, pins, and, most interesting of all, submissions. This system was eventually made famous by Royce Gracie during the first “Ultimate Fighting Championship” tournament. Royce managed to use BJJ techniques to take down much larger and more aggressive opponents. As a result, BJJ is a staple of modern mix martial arts training.

During the first few months of BJJ, I mainly focused on stretching out my hip flexors and tried to avoid getting my head ripped off. This was a time of survival, it was difficult to focus on actual techniques (except for the San Paulo guard break, which rules). Now that I have a better understanding of the sport, I’m using this blog to write down the daily techniques so I can remember them better. This is mostly a personal activity, but if you get any kind of benefit or entertainment out of reading what I wrote, then that is an added plus.

Spider and Half Lasso Guard

Today we went over a spider guard and half lasso technique. Essentially you get your opponent in spider guard, but loop one foot around and rest your foot on your opponent’s bicep or elbow to achieve a half lasso.

From this you can use the half lasso foot as a “step” to bridge (much like a yoga bridge) up and hook your spider guard leg around your opponent’s head, setting up a nice triangle submission.

You can also hook your spider or lasso foot around for an easy omoplata submission.

Right now I mainly just stick in closed guard, try for a sweep to side control, then go for an easy kimura hold. My goal in the next few months is to utilize more lasso and spider guards to see what I can do with them.

That and keeping my body limber with regular yoga and jogging.

Wish me luck, thanks for reading!