Intensity
I’ve been sitting on two posts for a couple days. Mostly I typed up brief technique descriptions after class and then crashed. Been tired this week, undoubtedly from not sleeping enough and eating way too much chocolate.
In Monday’s Foundations, we reviewed the guard pass we’ve been working for the past few weeks:
Guard pass to side control: After you break the guard, get knee over uke’s leg by hip. Slide your left arm under their head and pull shoulder down w/grip on collar, leaning into uke with your shoulder. Pull right foot back and out behind you, past left foot, to stabilize. Post right hand behind uke’s hip under glut as you switch your knees into side control.
Main class was pretty short. We did some takedowns.
Single-leg takedown 1: Parallel open stances. Left knee down, grab behind their left knee. Penetration step—your right leg is planted at a 90º angle, straight behind uke’s leg. Stand up, keeping your head inside uke’s hip, and pivot on your back foot toward your back to take down.
Single-leg takedown, now with more heel action: Same opening. Stand up, straight-backed. Cup under uke’s heel with your left hand; press on uke’s knee with your right elbow; crank and take down (no step needed).
We spent a lot of time on this one.
Counter to cross-choke: Purple belt Sean showed us this one. You’re in uke’s guard; he reaches up to cross-choke you. You grab uke’s collar, fingers inward, and pull out the slack on one lapel hard. Pull the other lapel across uke’s throat, and get that fist in their throat. Make sure your arm is straight. Stand up and lean all your weight on that arm.
Rolled with Blake first. Think he’d seen the guillotine choke I did on poor Susanna last week, because he made some comment about avoiding the guillotine. *facepalm* He set me up for an armbar but I couldn’t figure out how to do one on my own. He told me to grab it, hip out, get my leg up over uke’s back and lock the arm, but stay tight. He pulled out of it because I was too loose.
Rolled with blue belt Sean (Shawn?) next. Super nice guy. He showed me that if a guy tries to stand up in my guard to pick me up and slam me on the ground, I need to get up with him—do a sit-up and hopefully overbalance him, then take him to the ground; or, do a sit-up and jump out to standing position.
Probably biggest realization of today: I need to up my intensity, even in drills, and offer a bit of resistance after the first few reps. One of the guys made a few comments to that effect when we were working on the takedowns. My first reaction was to feel a little defensive—the partner I was working with at the time was a newbie and didn’t know to breakfall, so I’d been going easy on him. And when he was trying to work it on me, I didn’t offer any resistance, as he was still trying to work out the mechanics and wasn’t fully going for the throw.
Yet I can definitely see his point. We’d accomplish nothing in training if we didn’t offer realistic feedback to our partners. There has to be a balance between allowing time to learn the mechanics of the technique and then trying it with uke resisting.
Any thoughts on intensity, o wise and learned peanut gallery? 
on February 20, 2010 on 11:20 am
I think it’s a fine line betwen intensity and wasting lots of energy. Personally, I try to stay relaxed and technical as much as possible: I want to succeed through technique and timing, not superior stamina and/or strength: technique will always be there, whereas physical attributes are going to diminish as I get older.
This is something that came up on Leslie’s blog a while back. She has a great piece on exactly what you’re asking here, which got me thinking.
on February 20, 2010 on 2:32 pm
I’ve been told not to resist during drilling. That’s not to say we should flop around like dead fish. Stay tight and move correctly (i.e. break fall, bring your knee up to protect mount, etc.). But drilling is when you are first learning how a move works and “feeling it out”. You’ll have plenty of time to get resistance from a move when you try it during a grapple. At least, that’s my take.
on February 20, 2010 on 3:02 pm
Progressive resistance is the key. Good ol Matt Thornton’s ‘I’ method is relevant on this point, which he talks about here, along with ‘aliveness’.
If I understand him correctly, basically you start by introducing the technique, which is the compliant drilling stage.
You then isolate that technique, by testing it with progressive resistance, until eventually you’re trying it in sparring.
Finally, you integrate that technique into your game, and start using it regularly.
on February 20, 2010 on 7:20 pm
Progressive resistance—that’s good. Like Leslie said in the post Slidey linked, I don’t like the connotations of being “aggressive.” But I don’t want to be pegged as the chick who doesn’t offer her partner a realistic training experience.
on February 20, 2010 on 2:56 pm
On the intensity issue: as you learn your training partners you’ll learn that with some, the first 3 reps are no resistance, then the next 3 are 30%, and the last 3 are more like 75%. Whereas with someone newer or less experienced, you might knock out 12 reps with 0 resistance. When I pair up with someone much more experienced, I’ll ask them to up the resistance as soon as I get the fundamental movements down, so that I can anticipate what the correct reaction will be (presumably a higher belt knows the right counters, instead of just muscling against my movement.)
On the counter to the cross choke in guard: I think that is a major invitation for armbarrage. Ugh. Personally, in guard, I don’t worry about cross chokes as long as they only have one hand in my collar. One hand in, I duck my head under it, and that’s neutralized. Often I do a very low pass so they can’t get the second hand in. I would never ever straighten out my arm for them. But that’s just me and I’m maybe misreading what you meant
on February 20, 2010 on 7:24 pm
Nope, as far as I can tell you read perfectly.
I didn’t like that technique much because I’m guessing I could be swept before my counter worked. And now that you point it out I can definitely see the armbar. I’ll ask about it in class at some point; maybe I misunderstood some of the details.
on February 20, 2010 on 7:31 pm
Speaking of progressive resistance, I assume you’ve had a good look at Matt Thornton’s stuff? He’s the authority when it comes to that: very well thought out teaching and training methodologies on the topic. ‘Aliveness‘ is his big thing.
His student Cane Prevost is also excellent on theory, and a little more concise (e.g., this is his take on aliveness). Though as you know, I love a bit of verbosity. ;p
on February 20, 2010 on 9:01 pm
I read about aliveness on Bullshido originally, then checked out Matt Thornton’s blog and a few videos. I realized after being exposed to the concept that that was why I wasn’t happy at my JJJ school—not much aliveness, although they did use some progressive resistance.
Thanks for the link; I’ve been looking for a well-written piece on aliveness for a while.
on August 8, 2010 on 10:38 am
[...] new position before she set the choke. I remember gripping her collar in a vague approximation of a counter to cross-choke, thinking, “That choke’s really tight, but I don’t want to tap [...]