June 3rd 2014 - Gi

Theme & Techniques: Shoulder Pressure Guillotine Defense from Guard, Ezekiel Choke from Mount & Top Half Guard

Smaller class than usual with only 4 of us: Bhuvana, Tim, Ben, and myself.  I worked with Ben for this portion of class, and our throats were sore by the end of the class. 

A couple things became apparent concerning the ezekiel choke.  One was Greg kept telling me to keep my head down.  It has to be deceptive so your opponent doesn't see what's coming.  Also I think I've been too nice or wanted the choke to be too perfect, but really it should be a nasty choke.  For some reason I had a hard time also going for deep cross faces because and Greg showed me that I needed to twist more.  When working on it from half guard I had a tough time ignoring my habits of what I usually do from this position.  I guess it's pretty engrained for me to do the switch hip and go for a kimura or push their knee down.  Maybe the ezekiel will be a good addition to my game though.

Rolling: Mount Position (2 x 2 min), Half Guard Position (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min & Post Class)

The ezekiel was a lot harder to get during rolling since everyone was expecting it.  I still went for it and was able to get it once maybe from half guard.  I attempted a shoalin sweep a couple times and was able to complete 1 of them.  The only reason I didn't finish the other one I think was because I didn't explode enough into the back roll. 

Greg threw out a challenge when I started rolling with Ben saying that he wanted to see some deep half guard.  So I pulled half guard and tried to work my way there.  Once I got there he was already on his butt to I automatically went to the sweep, but his other leg did get in the way a little bit.  I eventually worked my way around it but I must be doing something wrong, but I don't think that other leg should be an obsacle.  

I rolled with Tim after class and tried a few things I've been working on lately.  The 2 on 1 to arm drag, the loop choke and the ezekiel.  We had another good discussion about progress and what not afterwards.  I thanked him for always sticking around to roll with me.  I appreciate the extra rolling.