May 30th Gi Class

Another good class and I was really feeling it last night afterward.

Jerad taught class, I think there were 8 or 9 of us.  We did some armbar drills from the guard and mount and a chain of submissions from a failed armbar from guard that went into triangle, omma plata (sp?) and another armbar on the opposite side (my favorite).  I like that we rotate with each technique and get to work with several different people.  Will was especially helpful with omma plata.

My core strength has really been tested these last several classes.  There's been a lot of being smashed and trying to buck and shrimp.  David especially drilled me on this last night and I learned a very good lesson.  Apparently I was taking in deep breaths and tightening up before I would attempt to buck and shrimp.  Letting him know that I was going to try it each time and he would be able to stop me easily.  I was also not moving away enough like I should have been and pretty much just staying in the same place while he smashed me.  Once he pointed that out, I was a lot better at getting out of side mount but I was already tired.  I'll be working to perfect this the next several classes.  I've also noticed that when I get side mount on someone they are usually very quick to put distance between us and turn on their side.  Almost like I have to chase them to keep side mount.  Hopefully I'm starting to understand how they do that.

I also rolled with Aaron who is a 2nd degree Judo black belt.  He is great to work with standing up and he showed me some Judo techniques after he used them to throw me to the ground repeatedly.  I feel this is a real strength of our Jiu-Jitsu school.  So many people flock in from other martial arts that you get exposed to wrestling, Judo, Karate, now Hapkido, and probably other martial arts.