Now that we are in Week 5 and my decision to continue with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training has been communicated, I have decided to mix up the layout of the White Collar Submission column. This column focuses on my development while training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu while working and being a full-time husband and father.
Week 5 consisted of a Saturday class with a different instructor and an entirely different, albeit extremely useful, format.
Our instructors wanted us to maintain the mindset that excelling in a few different methods of take-downs, submissions, sweeps, and counters was more valuable than barely knowing and understanding many different moves. With this in mind, we spent most of the morning refining multiple arm bar techniques, triangle chokes, and guard sweeps. As we paired up, we went over the simple submission techniques in slow motion just to make sure that we were all on the same page. It’s actually more difficult to set up an arm bar slowly than it is to just lock the arm from the full mount and spin off the chest while throwing your leg up and out. I wasn’t the only one who was being nice and we were all told to place all of our weight down even while we were working slowly. Luckily I was paired up with someone slightly bigger so I didn’t have to feel too badly afterwards. After we went through the arm bar, the triangle choke, and the sweeps in slow motion, we were moved onto the timed drills.
Timed submission drills are actually pretty tiring even when you are on the offensive. All the drills had to be committed cleanly and then repeated without releasing your opponent’s arm. While the arm bar, at least in our drill, was attempted from a dominant full mount position, the triangle choke was attempted while you trapped your opponent in your guard. The sweep forces you, in the defensive guard position, to use one arm to reach up and over their shoulder while restraining the opposite wrist and rolling into the dominant full mount position. This sweep can easily lead into the arm bar or many other submissions from the full mount. We had 30 seconds to attempt and complete as many submissions or sweeps while focusing on consistency and completion.
When it became time to roll, we started off competing for a dominant position for a timed minute and then started from whatever position we landed. This became a challenge for me as I spent a lot of time fighting off bigger and better opponents. I did, however, learn as I rolled with some guidance from the experienced wrestlers and grapplers. It was another day of a learning even though most of the learning was done while I was losing. I’m still making progress and enjoying the workout.
I’ll be back soon with another week of learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu firsthand. It really is a lot different in person than it is on television or the web. I don’t plan on giving up anytime soon though.
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