Thursday, January 2, 2014

January 2nd 2014 - No Gi (New Year, New Challenges)

Theme & Techniques: Butterfly guard passing and the Conan sweep

The first official classes of the year were tonight.  The beginner class was huge and I saw a couple new people trying out Jiu-Jitsu for the first time.  The advanced class was not nearly as big but we put in good work nonetheless.  Mike and I did some rolling

I worked with Adam for this portion of the class.  We went over the hand stand pass and then a sprawling pass.  We dealt with the sprawling pass from the other side for the remainder of the technique portion of class.  The Conan sweep amounts to a hook sweep with the other leg.  We moved on from there mostly focused on what to do if you got or didn't get the underhook.  The most prevalent thing that I picked up on was when applying the straight arm lock to take up the space first and move back into the armbar instead of going straight for it.

Rolling: Free Rolling (4 x 6 min rounds)

Everyone in class got to roll 1 round together.  I kept Adam from submitting me, not from a lack of him trying.  I felt like I maintained guard a little longer than usual but he ended up attacking from side control like usual.  Mike gave me a clinic on foot locks.  I felt like I was doing better against his guard passing attempts, we had a few good scrambles but it seemed like as soon as I forgot about leg locks he slap one on.  Will and I also had a good battle.  I had set up a farside armbar only to have it foiled by him timing a back roll as soon as I went for it.  We ended up in guard before the time ran out.  Conan used my weakness against me and submitted me with a couple americanas and a kimura.  He did allow me to mess around from side control for a little while but it didn't amount to anything.  It was a great way to start out the new year.  

I asked Mike to go over the foot lock and one legged-x guards.  I feel like it's something I should be familiar with as it's used on me a lot.  It should be pretty simple to pick up, front shrimping is a big part of it and I already feel pretty competent with that.  He also paid me some compliments on my pressure lately which was cool.  I think I can contribute to my knee flexibility returning. 

I signed up for the Circle of Iron tournament on the 18th. I'm cutting soda and fast food out of my diet until the tournament and I'm motivated to hit the gym more often.  This will be the first tournament since my injury and my number one goal is to stay healthy and injury free.  Greg reinstated the tournament class for the next couple weeks.  Next task is to formulate my game plan.  But now it's time to get some sleep for 6 AM gi class in the morning.

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