March 25th 2014 - Gi Noon & Evening (On Fire?)

Noon
Theme & Techniques: Scarf Hold Escape, Roll Over from Turtle to Side or Back Mount

Worked with Bhuvana today and after a little pep-talk I got her to complete the scarf hold defense.  It was using a frame and then hipping out to throwing a leg over the head to sweep them in a pendulum motion and then finish with an armbar.  I think she was hesitant at first because it seems like it requires a lot of flexibility but it has more to do with hip position.  She did the turtle techniques very well following.

Rolling: Turtle position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling

I got to work with Robert today.  He's been out since he broke his hand.  I've always admired his positive attitude and the way he's always smiling. 

I rolled with Ben a few times after class.  He's very strong and has some good pressure which I found out later was due to rugby and football.  I went over some guard passing basics using pants grips since it seemed like he was much more focused on trying to grab my sleeves.  It seems like I've gone over this with a few new people lately, I may have to look back at my blog to see when I started using pant grips to pass guard, because I know it was a turning point?  

Evening
Theme & Techniques: Scarf Hold Escape, Lap Belt Turnover from Turtle to Side or Back Mount

I worked with Ray on this portion.  Luckily he didn't put me in his real scarf hold, because of his Judo it is virtually impossible to get out of.  Greg changed the name of the "Judo Turnover" to something like "Lap Belt Turnover" on the blue belt requirements sheet.  Which I like better because it's more descriptive.  I did have to ask Ray to take it easy on the turnover part because every time he yanked me I could feel it in my spine.     
   
Rolling: Turtle position Up/Down/Out, Guard Gauntlet (2 min rnds)

Greg split us up into a big guy group and a small guy group with the cut off being 185 or something like that.  The smaller guys seemed happy to have enough wee people to segregate themselves from us. I felt pretty good about my performance.  There were only a few times that I was put into side control or where my partner recaptured guard.  At one point Ray made the comment that I was "on fire!"  I was able to use the Lap Belt Turnover to back mount a few times but would have some trouble getting both my hooks in.  From the bottom I usually ended up in half guard.

We remained in our size groups during the guard gauntlet.  I was assigned closed guard.  I think the person that gave me the most problems was Wes.  He's doing pretty well at opening my guard and keeping me down.  I feel like my last line of defense is starting to be figured out as well.  Often I'll catch someone's ankle as they try to pass knee over and then get the underhook.  From there I can sweep or get to turtle, but now people are fighting my underhook a lot better.  I may need to work on preventing this position sooner because without the underhook it's nothing.