Back in January I blogged about my 2016 Jiu jitsu goals. One of my goals was to check in more often. Due to a hectic work schedule I was not able to train a ton during the past few months but I did get some training and made some progress towards my goals while also setting another short term goal for the upcoming months.

#1 Master the Kimura

On April 10th I had the privilege of teaching a Kimura seminar at 10th Planet Van Nuys. During the seminar I shared what I had been working on for the past few months. During the seminar I focused on teaching how to control the Kimura, how to attack the Kimura from side control, the rolling kimura from 1/2 guard, the Kimura Trap, and how to link the Kimura to my head and arm series.

A majority of the feedback was super positive and since the seminar a few people have hit me up about taking private lessons to learn more. I am already working on an outline for a follow up seminar. I had a lot of fun hyping this seminar and created a few goofy flyers.  My personal favorite was the Brock Lesnar flyer.

#2 Become a Destroyer of Guards

These past few months I spent a lot of time looking at passing the open guard. Passing the open guard can be frustrating…especially against smaller and faster partners. While I haven’t really learned any techniques for passing, I did start to play with different guard passing concepts. I’m still working on learning these concepts so I can’t really go into detail right now, but one concept that has worked well is shifting my weight as I pass. I want to continue to explore this concept further for the next few months.

# 2.a Start Using Leg Locks Again

In the beginning of 2016 I knew I needed to make a change. I found myself only going for leg locks and not really trying to expand my game. In the past I have talked about the importance of subtraction innovation and how I took away my leg lock game in order to develop other aspects of my game. This upcoming month we will be focusing on leg locks during Coach Alder’s class. This seems like a good time to brush the dust off my old game and go back to using leg locks. For the next 1-2 months I am going to focus on using my leg lock game to not only attack but also to transition.

#3 I Want to Write at Least Three More Blog Posts Before My Next Check In

This one is pretty self explanatory. Before my next check in October I want to write at least three more blog posts. I’m not sure yet what I’ll write about but by setting the goal here I feel like I have to follow through with it!