October 8th - Gi

Jerad lead class last night focusing on the darce choke.  It was a great class but like most choking classes was really rough on my neck and throat.  It was a decent size class of 10 and I was glad to be on the novice site of the circle so I could work with all of the advanced people.  We started with the armdrag to trip takedown that we practiced on Sunday.  We also did a pretty good warmup with a lot of abs, arms, and then the neck exercises.

We started working the darce from turtle position and I had a real tough time locking up the choke.  Once I was able to roll them to their back is when I could really lock it up.  Usually I feel pretty good about this choke but I was having a few problems yesterday.  Once we moved to side control it was much easier for me to reach.  We also did a guillotine if they defended the darce.  One thing I learned from this is that to finish an arm in guillotine you are supposed to crunch instead of arch your back.  The final technique that we worked on was a setup from mount.  Where as someone tries to hip escape we move to sidemount and do the darce from there.

We trained from mount and switched top and bottom doing 2 minute rounds.  I trained with Adam for the first set.  I did okay escaping, I think side control is his preferred position to mount.  I was happy to be able to escape once.  When I was on top I came close to an armbar with him but he was able to roll over and stack me.  I went with the visitor Adam next and had a really hard time with him.  He kept a pretty strong mount and locked his ankles together underneath me.  I was pretty relaxed the whole time and kept trying to work technique eventually I got out and he was huffing and puffing.  When I was on top he was using a lot of strength again and pushing his arm straight out trying to bench press me, I went for armbars a couple of times but he was able to roll out of them to both.  The third time he tried it I took his back instead of going for the armbar.  He had to quit after that due to being out of breath.  I spoke with Jerad when we broke for a water break and he said I should have used the cross-face more in order to setup the armbar.

I didn't feel so well during open mat.  Ken had his way with me and caught me in a couple things that he normally doesn't.  I was in kind of a weird mood and didn't feel up to the level that I usually fight him at.  He made me tap with from my back with kind of an armbar but I really felt it in my shoulder.

I then took a break and felt a little better rolling with Jerad.  I've found that I need to change my game with him because he prevents me from getting half guard and I end up getting a lot of quarter guard while he's standing, which makes it easy for him to pass.  He got my back and we both fought for and against the bow and arrow choke.  It was only a matter of time before he sunk it in.  It came on fast and it was a little scary because I almost didn't feel like I had time to tap.