June 24th 2014 - Gi (History Repeats)

Theme & Techniques: Hip Throw, Cross Collar Choke from Guard, Armbar from Guard

Greg is being pretty strict with his curriculum schedule and I really like this idea.  I wish I had thought of this when I was teaching Hapkido.  This week's technique list is the same as it was on the week of January 21st which would make me assume that next week we will work on standing headlock defense and guard break to single under pass.

I partnered up with Fuji for the throw and Tim joined us for the other techniques.  We mostly coached Tim through both of the techniques with phrases like: "Keep your wrists straight and pull yourself to them," "Get a deeper grip," "Don't cross your feet for the armbar," "Keep your knees tighter against their shoulder." etc.  Hopefully we didn't nag too much and he got something out of partnering with us. 

Rolling: King of the Mat from Closed Guard, Free Rolling (Post Class)

I'm liking that we are able to do more king of the mat and up/down/out during the beginner classes.  A little more competition and a lot more chances to work with everyone.  That said I had a little bit of a mediocre day with having my guard passed a few times that I thought shouldn't have and then being swept once or twice. 

Mike (lawyer) and I had a few good matches.  He was able to smash my guard the first time with a good smash pass.  He is pretty good at making distance and sprawling out strong.  The second time I was able to do the stiff arm defense as he attempted to pass my guard and then barrel roll when he attempted to step over my head.  I think I may have to level up my intensity when rolling with him in the future. 

I had a few good rolls with Fuji and Will as well.  Fuji is forever frustrating with his spider guard and lasso and I have to really hunker down and keep my distance or else I get swept.  Will has a pretty strong closed guard and is pretty good and positioning arms and elbows to create avenues to the armbar and triangle.  Mostly I found myself pressing my elbows close to his ribs so my arm didn't get pulled across and waited for him to open his guard up.

Robert and I had a good match to finish the exercise out.  I did the standing guard break and was able to open his guard and back out a bit, I ended up moving to half guard.  From there I crossfaced and wove my other arm to grab his bottom leg.  We fought a while from there but eventually he was able to stand up.  I had a hold of a single leg but he was pushing down on my head.  I thought I could move to take the back but he was able to push me to guard when I attempted it.  Greg said I should have just stood up instead, so it's something to think about. 

I rolled with Tim after class and tried to work the 2 on 1.  He was able to stand up and pull away enough to neutralize it.  Somehow I was able to sweep him though and worked from half and quarter guard for a while until I acquired a gift wrap and took his back.  He did a great job preventing my RNC however Fuji pointed out that he verbally tapped several times while I was trying to get my forearm under his jaw.  I ended up switching to a bow and arrow.