Gracie Barra, Austin, Texas, March 2017

And yet another I wrote up back in March but didn't post. Weird.

Like I said, got to go down to Austin, Texas for a minute. But I also had my first BJJ tournament coming up on April 2, Jiu Jitsu By The Bay, so I had to keep the training up. Luckily, there's some great BJJ down in Austin, and I was lucky enough to get over to Gracie Barra in North Austin. 

Opinions are everywhere about BJJ schools and styles. Gracie Barra has a reputation for being a bit more sport oriented, which was fine by me, what with my tourney coming up. They have a nice large open space, with a bunch of colored belts who were very inviting and supportive. They were gracious enough to let me train there the week I was in Austin. I trained with Anthony Leon, who's identified on their website as a Purple Belt, but who had a Brown Belt while training. I might could be wrong about that. Either way, he's a beast, but very humble. 

We went over this North-South (69) double bicep slicer/compression lock, that I really can't even explain let alone find a video to describe it. Point is, it's a cool space with some very friendly people. 

BJJ Diary - 16, Albuquerque, NM

Was down in the New Mexico last week and I got to train at the Albuquerque Gracie Barra location. I think this makes it four Gracie Barra locations I've trained at: Austin, Texas; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Flagstaff, Arizona; and now Albuquerque, New Mexico. Overall, I like the Gracie Barra schools.  A few of them throw too many techniques at us at one time, but the day I trained in ABQ we went over a single move with some variations. 

Don Ortega (3rd Degree Black Belt) taught class and went over pulling someone into the X-Guard. Lucio says that there is four kinds of take downs: Arm Takedowns, Leg Takedowns, Hip Toss (think judo throws), and Sacrifices. Sacrifices are called such because for a moment, you have to do just that, sacrifice position to take your opponent down. Pulling Guard or pulling into X-Guard, that's a sacrifice move. The problem with Sacrifice moves is that if your opponent knows/reads you're going pull a Sacrifice, s/he can counter. But then everything can be countered. Except for the Crane Technique. The cool thing about Sacrifices is that if you do them right and quick you can generate a lot of momentum and thus take them down even if they do see it coming. It's a risky move, but one of my favorite takedowns is a sacrifice, and I'm pretty successful with it. I don't do it as much anymore, you know, cause you have to push yourself to learn new things, but also because it just leaves me with my opponent in my Full Guard. I'd much rather be in Side Control or Back Mount. So, the cool thing about this X-Guard Sacrifice is that there'd both a Sweep to a Pass to Knee-On-Belly or Side Control, or a little toss right into Side Control. It's a nifty little move, but there's some foot work involved, so have to go over it a bunch to get it down such that I don't even have to think about it. 

This video is pretty close to what we went over. Don's was a little more tricky and then after this there's a sweep or a toss, but this is pretty much how it starts.