September 24th - Gi (Counter the Counters)

Last night, Conan made a rare appearance to a Monday night class.  Before class Mike, Fuji and I were discussing some youtube videos we had seen and practiced an oma plata counter-counter that we had seen.  It was similar to what Conan has us do by grabbing the far side arm.

Due to this, Conan focused the class on oma plata specifically grabbing the far arm.  Oma plata especially lends itself to counters and then counters to the counters.  So we worked on countering by trying to get under the body and then countered that.  Then countering by stacking up and moving to side control.  There were some parts where you had the top of someones foot against your cheek that were not comfortable at all.

During open mat I started out with Mike.  We had a good back and forth and he ended up dominating me for the most part.  He had me in mount for a good portion of the match and I worked hard to prevent him from doing the cross choke that he showed me a couple weeks ago.  He did a good job of keeping his feet locked under my butt.  I was able to escape but it wasn't long before he was dominating me again.  We went off the mat with him on top in side control.  We went to center back up but Conan asked if I would roll and Mike and I didn't continue.

Conan whooped me thoroughly.  He let me start on top trying to pass and I screwed up it fairly quickly.  I didn't do much good after that he passed my guard and took my back.  He then sat me up and put me in a neck crank.  I thought I had a window to escape but it didn't work.

I rolled with Ken a couple of times after that and I wasn't really feeling it.  I tried some of my wristlocks and things when I had closed guard for a while but it wasn't really working.  Ken has a similar tactic from standing as Mike as they both stand-up when I'm on my butt and work their way around me.  I'll have to figure out a better way to defend this.  Ken got me in an armlock that turned into a wristlock.  After our roll we discussed some transitions that might work well after trying a wristlock, more research is needed.