John Zapala it is very versatile with so much you can do. I think with so many wrestlers crossing over now, the popularity is faded a bit since they typically do not like being on their back. If like me you never wrestled, it's just fine.

I think anything closed guard. I used to get a lot of very big partners when I started so this just became a good offensive and defensive position to avoid being smashed. 

If you haven’t made an advanced gi during our spider guard block this is the week for you!

We are go to do a review of some of the techniques we’ve been working on. Catch yourself up before next week when we start some spider guard variations. 

I agree 100% with Gary Pond. Also because I'm not sure if other things in life would have gotten in the way. I think while I would have love to have started sooner, I did at the right time in life.

Advance gi will continue our work with spider guard. We looked at attacking from a sweep, but now will will break down some more traditional attacks.

Gi advanced will actually be taking a 2nd look at some spider guard passes. How do we tie these to attacks? Good question!

We will learn from the attacks of the previous week to see where there are holes, points of connection and a different way to break those spider grips. 

We've been building a system from the bottom using the common spider/scissor sweep, lets learn how to attack that sweep this week and score a pass 🕷️

I always get the "o how long have you been doing and when is your next belt" I also always hear how everyone seems to have a cousin or brother who did jiu jitsu, got a black belt and stopped. Seems like the blue belt blues come around at black belt too.

I also still have to explain what jiu jitsu is and that we aren't training with the kids.

Gary Pond we all know the answers to your first and last response....

This week in advanced gi we will build a nice little system off of a defended spider guard sweep.  We’ll get a triangle, arm bar, and omoplata. 

This one will provide some new options. Need someone to look up for inspiration? These were all inspired by Marcos Tinoco. 

I feel like this Russ person is getting a bad reputation for no reason. I've got nothing but GREAT things to say about him 😀

I would say just keep going even if you can only get there 1 day some weeks. Even if you go a different day or have to do no gi when you normally do gi classes, keep going. Too often I hear people get discouraged because they can't get to the gym 4 days a week they want to or maybe their normal 2 is cut down. Schedules change and life will happen if you train long enough. Some weeks you'll get an extra day and it balances out in the end. 

This is SUPER hard to hear early on when you first fall in love with it, but the longer you go, the more you realize how true this becomes.