January 7th 2014 - Gi Noon & Evening (Ladies' Day)

Noon
Theme & Techniques: O-Soto-Gari, Side control basic escape and americana

My co-worker Bhuvana attended class again today and Sam also joined us.  Greg took us through one of his classes structured for beginners.  However, I did get challenged with the side control escape.  Once I get my shin across the opponents belt it's not as easy for me to rotate to the other side and put my foot to the floor.  After watching Greg do it a few more times I figured out my main problem was not putting my other leg on their back, this seemed to make a difference.  I also think I was mixing it up with a different escape.

Rolling: Side Control Position (2 min rnds)

Greg had them take turns trying to hold me down.  I think this was great because I felt them improve their position and pressure during this short amount of time.  It still wasn't too difficult for me to escape but that's because I know more tricks than they do.  Greg and I went after that and there was no escaping his side control, the one time I got quarter guard he turned it into a back take which was a wow moment.  He later demonstrated on me how to maintain side control for Bhuvana and Sam and it seemed like he turned it up a notch to make sure I didn't escape.  It was fun but clued me in on how little I know.

Evening
Theme & Techniques: Knee on Belly Maintain position, farside armbar, kimura

I ended up being one of two blue belts tonight; Tuesday evening is usually a pretty stacked class.  Sara, who I haven't seen since the seminar, was the other blue and apparently she's back to stay.

I worked with Jorge for the majority of the class.  From the look of things this was several of the student's first time, which was cool to see people playing with it and learning new things.  The most important thing I learned today was when doing the farside armbar, Greg likes to put his elbow on the opponents wrist to keep them from wiggling out of it.  Something I never thought about.

Rolling: Knee on Belly position (2 min rnds), Free Rolling with calisthenics in between (5 min rnds)

I partnered up for the knee on belly exercise with Jorge, Brian, and Sara.  I kept the top position pretty well with everyone and was able to escape mostly to butterfly.  I think I had the hardest time with Sara, because she's so small and I didn't want to crush her with my knee. 

The tournament people (me, Jorge, and Brian) had to do some extra work with each roll.  20 burpees, 20 pushups, and 30 squats.  Burpees suck, and doing them first makes the other exercises suck that much more.  However, I went up against the other two people that did them as well so everything was equal.  I was able to pass their guard and then work from side control.  On my second roll with Brian, he pulled off a pretty good guard pass and put me into back mount.  I was unable to escape before time ran out.  He had tried the bow and arrow choke but with the underhook arm instead.  Which Greg went over the proper bow and arrow after class and I had Brian practice it with me a couple of times.