August 16th 2014 - Kids, Competition, Open Mat

Kids' Class

Jace had a little trouble focusing today and wanted to annoy his brother through the beginning of class.  Jayden was pretty good about ignoring him while trying to complete all of the exercises.  Jayden and I have a little deal that if he behaves and tries hard for 6 Jiu-Jitsu classes in a row, he can get a mod for Minecraft (computer game).  Class 2 of 6 down.  He even counted the reps during falls which he hasn't been doing. 

They both did well in flag tag as usual.  These games are teaching them some good grappling basics that will help later.  They worked on a wrist grab release as the technique of the day, maybe it had something to do with flag tag?

Competition Class
Focus: 2 on 1 to back take, Smash & X Pass, Deep Half Sweep 
Partner: Henry

I took a couple videos of my drilling to see what these new techniques look like.  2 on 1 seems to be coming along.  I think during rolling I need to trust it more once I get the grip and elbow control, because I'm still hesitant about opening my guard and moving to butterfly.  I originally was only working on the smash pass, but the x-pass has become instant A game material.  I need to get a little lower and more pressure with the smash pass, makes sense that smash is in the name.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Henry, Tye, Gina, Ross, Austin,

It was an odd day of not many people showing up to open mat.  Nevertheless I still got some good rolls in.  2 rolls with Henry one in the gi and other no-gi.  We had quite a battle and I thought I had him a couple of different times but eventually he outpaced me.  My laziness or being tired was a major factor in him tapping me out.  There were definitely times where I sat to my butt instead of pushing forward and fighting for top position like I should of.  Henry finished me with a nasty cross choke that smashed my nose pretty good, in no-gi I don't remember, may have been armbar or guillotine.

Tye surprised me today.  Started off playing a lazy guard and let him pass and he went to mount fairly quickly.  Big mistake as he got in both grapevines and made me very uncomfortable.  I was a little concerned about hurting my knees and played it pretty safe until I was eventually able to get a leg free.  Once I got on top he also did a great job from guard and attempted some triangles and a cross choke.  I eventually turned the tide and got to a dominant position. After the roll was over I told Tye that I would have to start respecting him more during rolling, I do not want to be mounted by him again.

In my other rolls I was able to use some deep half guard, X-pass, the rolling back take and the cross collar drag.  I used a couple north/south chokes which Nic took notice of and asked me about.  It's part of my A game for sure and I feel like I can set it up with little difficulty.  Part of that may be because not to many of my teammates use it often.  However, I have shown multiple people how to defend it so my avenue to it may eventually disappear.  I coached Austin on some armbar defense and Ross on some technical mount defense.