So a bit of background; I have always loved the martial arts, but it was not until very recently that I decided to learn self defense, mainly because there are some people I know that need it, but are not willing to invest money and/or time into it, so I have to do it for them and teach them in what limited time I have. I have been involved in some schoolyard scuffles since the age of 7, but that died down around high school, where there was only one serious altercation, and only one altercation after high school. Where I got knocked out.
I currently am a blue belt studying Jiu-Jitsu at the Gracie Headquarters in Torrance, California, and I am also a white belt (started like two months ago, but missed the last month due to intense fatigue and breathing issues) in Judo, with the Gardena Judo Club. I also have some experience learning some things from random people I've met, and I have read and practiced material from countless books, and am looking to apply it to my current training. The "styles" that I have studied informally (mainly by watching, reading, analyzing, talking to people who did, etc.) are Wing Chun, Boxing, Tai Chi, Hung Gar, Baguazhang, Shuai Jiao, Muay Thai, Pentjak Silat, Savate, Wrestling (if you count that), and numerous other ones that I can't name off the top of my head right now.
Now, I do not really believe in "style;" I believe that movement is movement, and that there are certain objectives that a body must achieve, and that is it. How you do that is unique to each individual, though there are certain templates that are useful, and certain rules and guidelines to adhere by, but at the end of the day, we cannot say that a certain movement belongs to a style. So I look at styles more like mentalities and training regiments than a way for a certain individual to fight. Instead of learning a style to be the style, I train it to see what it has to offer me, how it can develop my own "style," and use the free-sparring opportunities which are oh-so-priceless.
So I went to Jiu-Jitsu in the morning, and we did mainly North-South attacks as part of the Side Mount review focus we are on right now. Not going to go into that, that part is written down in my private journal.
I will, however, talk about the sparring, since many a lesson can be learned from that. The first person I went with was Chris. For some reason, whenever punches are introduced, the notion of "relaxation" immediately goes out the window for me. Normally, when at the bottom of the side mount, I'm 100% relaxed, patient, waiting for an opportunity to do an escape, and if that escape becomes too much effort, then I go back to safe hands. When there was punches, however, I was freaking out, and expending a lot more energy than I normally would have. So I guess I need to learn to recognize when I'm not getting the crap punched out of me and when I am haha. Guess that's what get-punched-in-the-face day is for.
I've been playing around with the idea of centerline control, always owning it, but I think today I took it a little too far, and I took some shots in the face. I am consistently owning the center; I was not hit with a single straight today. I was only hit by hooks, and uppercuts, and knees, and roundhouse kicks, and... ><. I still need to develop that part of the game, but a victory...the straight punch I now dominate! :D
On a different note, I am also a bit scared to actually hit my training buddies because I have no idea how hard I actually hit, and I don't want to accidentally knock someone out by using proper body mechanics. I keep pulling punches and I know it's a terrible habit, but I don't want to hurt anyone...so this is why solo training is important...? Lol...? (1) On the heavy bag, I can usually make that thing hit the wall, so I'm not too sure. I tag people for fun though, but I don't let my weight drop.
So back to sparring; then I went with Mike, that was a fun roll. Got some takedowns. 'Twas nice. I'm actually working on how my takedown game is going; the gist of my takedown game can be summed up in one sentence: move his center/center of gravity/dan tien/one point/whatever you want to call it past his feet and keep it there. This is a lot harder than it sounds though, and right now I'm developing each tool I'd need to use to get there. I am of the opinion that so long as I do a little bit of this each time, in a couple years I'll be able to improvise takedowns and make them work on average people. Maybe the top top people I'd need to play the technique game, but hopefully I can get the principles based approach to work on them too. (2)
Then I went with Mike. Boy was that a fun roll, but I need to be less hyper on the bottom. Congrats to him on his stripe btw. In the beginning I did the centerline wedge [very Wing Chun-esque] and smashed through his defenses, got the collar-elbow tie that I wanted, and immediately Osoto-gari'd him. That was fun. I also tried a Sumi Gaeshi on him, but because I didn't want to hurt his head, I didn't do it very violently, so he spun out of it. Maybe next time I need to really extend that leg, even if I am going slow on it. If I point my toe and extend my leg as far as I can (and maybe closer to his knee than his upper thigh), maybe he won't be able to slip out.
Then I went with the other Mike, and here's where all of the lessons are learned. So this is the bodybuilder brown belt guy who outweighed me by a lot and probably has experience in other striking arts. I went in there with the mindset to survive. I am surprisingly more comfortable with punches to the head now.
First lesson: BITE DOWN ON YOUR MOUTHPIECE! I ate a very light right hook that kind of injured my jaw (it's clicking right now) all because it was hanging loose. Come on, Ray.
Second: Wonderful, you controlled the centerline during that engagement. Now start watching his hubs! Wasn't that the second tenet that you were supposed to adhere to? Well, let's be less hard on myself. My focus was on the centerline. And I think I have that down by now, my hands rarely left except to cover something that was about to get hit, and even then I kept them relatively in the center. I guess now I can work on pre-empting.
Third: Control the tempo! You were doing a great job of circling, but because he outskilled you and was more fit/strong, you played timidly. You let him fill up the beats. You must fill up the beats with your moves! You hit pretty hard too, man. Come on. (See previous issues about that)
Fourth: He's probably just as scared of getting hit by you as you are of getting hit by him.
Fifth: You really need to work on your sport footwork. Your footwork is mainly street fight now, and while that's great for surviving large bursts of energy, you need to adjust to the weight-on-the-toes, more lively style of fighting for now. Until you are comfortable in the sea, then we will slowly start to work back to the heels and root.
Good things: Excellent grounding when you did use it, and good drop steps. Still playing around with the full-body motions, probably should have went for that more. (Will talk about this in another post)
Bad things: Too hyper, not watching what I should have been watching. And that early sprawl though LOL.
Fixes: Going to focus on watching the opponent's hubs for a while before I return to my own motions.
Then, at night, I went to the Judo Club, where I watched an in-house tournament, which was pretty funny. Then the training began.
So a few fixes on my throws:
Osoto Gari: Drop step more. Also, forearm flush to the opponent's chest. (Take out the slack!) You are doing a good job of completing the circle with the pivot around the transverse plane, but make sure you spin him along the frontal plane as well. That's the only big fix really. Also more weight drop on the actual throw.
O Goshi: Let go of the lapel grip when you go in for the throw LOL. Try to use your bodyweight backwards to initiate the motion as well, and use bound-spring to get the upward momentum? Will play around with that and see how it goes.
Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi: The key is in how fast you set your own body weight into motion. Which means...drop step! (Even though that's probably not how they want you to do it lol, but I will experiment) Also, turn the square! (3)
Tai Otoshi: MAJOR MAJOR fixes. Turn the square, and get the little pop at the end! Lift them straight up, make them down an arc over you, and then throw them down.
Harai Goshi: Yeah, I know we worked on a lot of throws today. But I had a lot of questions so...yeah. The key is your hip in their stomach. I will think about why. Perfect perpendicular angle. Load their weight onto your body, do the "karaoke step," and then sweep their outer thigh and throw. I will play around with what full body motion I need to set the bodyweight of a heavier opponent into motion.
Also, I randori'd with that older guy, but it was REALLY hard to get his bodyweight into motion. I successfully defended every throw he tried to do to me, and even reversed him on an Ouchi Gari attempt (LOL you should have seen his face it was hilarious), but by constantly being afraid, I did not get to try anything, and I did not get to try my full body motions to move him. So I need to not be so afraid of being thrown and accept that it will happen, and go play! Experiment! Also, I tried the same motions on Mike (the bodybuilder) but it didn't work because my grips sucked. I was able to set my bodyweight into motion 100% though.
That's it for now, but I will discuss more next time. ^^
(1) During my solo training, when I practice my strikes/deflections, I imagine my nightmare opponent, bigger, faster, stronger, superior physically to me in every way, trying to beat the crap out of me with 100% intent, and I respond with 100% intent. This, in my opinion, is the "missing part" of most people's kata or heavy bag sparring; this is why the skills don't transfer, in my opinion, because they don't think of the bag as an actual person. Well I'm sure there's someone that does, but from what I see of karate kata or Chinese Kung Fu forms, I don't see anyone doing it as though they were trying to survive a deadly encounter. In Lam Sai Wing's detailed breakdown of the Hung Gar forms, he clearly states that you must really imagine certain things, and I think that mental preparation is paramount. What good is practicing a motion if the most important part, i.e. the opponent, is missing? Shadowboxing is key. **The most difficult part, however, is to not know what your imaginary opponent is about to do, which can get really tricky...
(2) I am of the belief that most styles teach you 50,000 techniques so that you can pick up the general ideas behind them...but what if you don't...? Why not learn the principles straight up and see technique as examples to ultimately develop the intuition? This way you can cater a technique to any circumstance, or make one up. However, I am nowhere near that good yet.
(3) It is safe to imagine the opponent as 100% a being that is in their center of gravity...except with dudes, for some reason, that point seems to be higher. The judo grips, however, seem to have such insane leverage that I can, using my full body power (incorporate spin wheel/draw bow! :D) twist and turn the "square" (shoulder-shoulder-hip-hip, that square) in whatever direction the throw dictates! This is why my Tai Otoshi sucked before - I wasn't steering his center using my grips! Though this does not diverge from my objective of "move his center past his feet," this gives me a great tool to do it! How about, for Judo practice, "use your grips to steer his center past his feet?" Because hand on leg attacks are not allowed, I guess this is a good opportunity to focus on this specific part of the takedown game.
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