December 13th 2013 - Gi (Throat Punch)

Theme & Techniques: Takedown fit-ins, Mount Hip Escape, Drill Comp Stuff

I was still a little sore from yesterday and from the weights lifted on Wednesday.  I forgot to mention that Bauer hooked me up with a basic routine to help me get started with lifting.  My goals are to improve my back and knee strength and just generally improve BJJ.  He's having me do some body weight squats, dead lifts, bent over rows, as well as pull-ups and push-ups.  I've only done it once so far but I liked it, hopefully a good addition to my current workout schedule.  I'm taking special care to make sure I'm improving myself instead of raising the chance for injury.


The mount escape was going fine until Brian accidentally elbowed me in the throat as he was practicing the escape.  It didn't hurt as bad as it could of, but it came out of nowhere and surprised me.  We continued and I didn't think much more about it.

Brian reacted a little differently than I'm used to with the omoplata from cross guard.  It made it difficult to do the omoplata but the pendulum sweep was right there.  There were a couple of times I was able to transition to the right thing to do when he reacted differently whether it be finishing the sub, or him rolling over into side mount, or having to straighten out and do the sweep.  I was trying some of the different things Adam was doing with the over/under pass but Greg convinced me to keep doing it the way I have been.

Rolling: Slow and Free Rolling

We did some slow rolling, which was new to Brian but he got along fine.  We may have been a little stiff and had too many pauses between our turns. 

After class I rolled with Greg and had a great time.  He obviously kicked my ass but I did some pretty good things.  Deep half guard presented itself a couple of times and I kept myself out of submissions a few times.  It ended with a kimura that he set up from north/south.  One of the most noticeable problems I have with his style is the way he uses his feet and shins to prevent me from regaining half guard.

On the way to work I kept thinking that my throat was hurting.  I was trying to figure out if I was getting sick, but then I recalled the elbow to the throat that Brian delivered earlier.