Monday, February 13, 2012

February 12th - No Gi (New Guy Day)

Conan taught a class on various chokes from side control and turtle yesterday. We worked on the paper cutter from side control, with today being the first time I figured it out. Two major things I was doing wrong was clasping my hands upside down and then feeding my arm under their neck too far. Once I got that, it came a lot easier. We then transitioned into the darce from there which is a pretty common technique that I use. Finally we attempted to do the Peruvian necktie from the turtle position which ended up not working out so well. Instead of getting the choke we ended up always taking the person's back, which is fine but not what we were going for. Conan seemed a little flustered and asked if I ran into this while teaching, to which the answer was in the affirmative. There have been several times that I've tried to explain something while teaching Hapkido and for whatever reason it's just not working out the way it should. I eventually worked it out a little bit and then when Mike showed up he showed me a few other pointers to get it to work.

There ended up being 4 new guys in the class, I think 2 of them on their first day of class. How refreshing, some people that I can teach and also easily tap out. Unfortunately it's too easy. I wonder if the likes of Jerad, David, and Ken thought this about me when I first started? Although I did have some concept of what the positions were and where I wanted to be, I know I've also come a long way. During open mat I worked with a couple of new guys and tried to coach them through stuff while we rolled. Some were more difficult than others to work with. Conan saw I was doing this I think and had me switch out a couple of times with the other new guys.

After we bowed out I rolled with Mike. Another epic roll. He started out really fast and I had to struggle to keep up and keep him from passing my guard. There was a point where I had him in a reverse armbar that was really tight but he didn't tap. I had a pretty good scissor sweep as well. Once I was on top I was able to dominate but it was still a lot of work to keep him down. I had him in the north-south for a while but he snuck a hand in. Finally I got him in a darce choke. Mike always says he likes to roll with me because I don't use my strength as much as other guys my size. From my training in Hapkido I realized that technique is most important and that I'd rather win with good technique than not. Or, maybe I'm just not that strong.

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