June 14th 2014 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids' Class

I don't have any complaints about my boys this morning, both of them performed well and the class went by quickly. They did sumo foot tag for the first game.  This game seems to naturally encourage some wrestling techniques.  The kids were doing sitouts and sprawls to keep the other kids from grabbing their feet.  I saw some pretty good things from everyone.  The technique of the week was scissor sweep.  Jace asked Greg to demonstrate it slower and he did a slow motion instructional that the kids enjoyed.  We finished the day with a big group blob tag.

I spoke to Jerad later during open mat and mentioned that one thing that I've seen improvement in from the boys is that they are handling losing a lot better.  They still have their bad days but they handle losses in sumo and foot tag a lot better. 

Open Mat

Jerad: This was probably the most enjoyable roll in recent memory.  There was a lot of back and forth and the action was pretty continuous.  He was the more dominant one for the majority of our rolls and had me in trouble a couple of times that I had to grit out.  I defended from side mount, mount, back mount with some bow and arrow attempts, a arm triangle, etc.  Most notably he was blowing right through my half and de la riva guards repeatedly.  He eventually caught me with an armbar in our first roll and I was able to pull off a north south choke in our second roll.

Conan: I tried to keep a positive attitude with Conan.  There are certain people like him that I expect to lose to so I start out with a defeated attitude.  So I turned my guard passing level up to 11 and through everything I could at his guard.  Still had a hard time though, he is so tricky with his butterfly hook at any time.  There was one point where he was setting up an omoplata using an overhook and I was able to get my shin against his butt and pull my arm out.  He also complimented me later on my bridging but said I needed to follow them up more since I am putting the other person off balance.  Something to think about. 

Fuji: I was able to pass Fuji's dangerous guard but he quickly rolled me over using my momentum once I reached side control.  While it ended as usual with a brabo choke, I feel a lot better about my defense today.  I even thwarted his first attempt by going to north/south, but there was not getting out of his side control.  Mike told me later that I should really be attempting the tripod escape more, so I will take it into consideration.

Brandon: This was the first time that I've rolled with him although I've seen him in the school once or twice.  He is a little imposing as he's larger and stronger than me, but not too experienced in BJJ yet.  We rolled several times and I had to work around his strength a little bit and was able to implement most of my game.  At the end he asked me to show him some guard passing and I thought the bullfighter would probably be the easiest to teach quickly.  

Jordan: I was pleasantly surprised with how hard of a time Jordan gave me today.  Most notably we had a really intricate grip fighting battle.  I would say this is something that he's recently improved because I don't remember him frustrating me with grip fighting this much in the past.  He was able to pass my guard and then I spent a lot of time in his side control and north/south position.  He was trying to setup the north/south choke a few times but I defended it.  Eventually I made my way back to guard and I think I may have made him think that I was dead set on going for the omoplata that I was able to setup an armbar from guard that I normally don't find as high percentage.  After rolling I showed him my follow up with grabbing the chin and working towards a guillotine if they turn their head in defense of the north/south choke.