October 5th 2014 - Weekly Review

It was a good week of Jiu-Jitsu but crappy at work.  After I get done writing this I'm planning on working a few hours before hitting the rack for the third night in a row.  So apologies if this seems rushed.

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Guillotine defense against wall, Basic guard break,  Double Under Pass

Just did my thing in beginner class.  I feel pretty confident in my guard break at this point and while double unders isn't one of my main passes I am able to finish it more often than not if it comes up.  Mostly I coached my partners on how to get the opponent up on their hips and make sure they keep their elbows tight during the pass.

I had an enlightening discussion with Greg about grip fighting.  Mostly centered around when to abandon your grip attempts and try to break your opponents.  One thing that I've been dealing with lately from Mike and Jerad is a collar grip from open guard.  They're trying to get a collar drag and back take and I'm unsure if I should be fighting the grip or working my pass.  It's a work in progress but I have a better understanding than previously.

Advanced: Bottom Turtle Seat Belt Escape

The technique was when you are on bottom turtle and your opponent has a seat belt grip.  We would step behind their near ankle and collect it up while getting the basic grip to defend the choke.  Then we would roll over and end up in a weird half guard.  From their break the grips and work into side control.  It was a good technique, but I'm actually on the hunt for top turtle techniques as I'm continually getting beaten there by certain people...that will remain nameless...um...Henry.

After a brief drilling session, we did a lot of rolling.  Starting from King of the Mat turtle.  I didn't like the sound of that at first, but it turned out to be pretty fun and move a long fairly quickly as you're either regaining guard or you're put into side control or back mount.  I had a pretty good night during this part, however Henry trounced me pretty good in the competition style rolls to follow.  Partly from me gassing and him out wrestling me. 

Open Mat

I did some teaching at open mat yesterday.  Just gave some pointers on what I saw others needed to work on or if they asked about anything specific.  I went into the session wanting to work on Deep Half guard and I got there a few times and also drilled the waiter sweep with the help of Greg and Jordan.

I was also reminded of how much I need to improve by Jerad and Adam.  I felt crushed both spiritually and physically after a 10 minute roll with Adam.  I defended so many submission attempts and suffered many a crossface while trying to at least regain guard.  I think Jerad sensed I was tired and took it easy on me, but still kicked my butt.  Jerad and I also discussed grip fighting a bit after rolling.

Esteemed Colleagues and Honorable Mentions

Adam: He is a huge asset to our school, in that he brings a high level of wrestling and strength that we have to deal with.  I can say that I'm a lot tougher after rolling with him over the years, especially mentally.  I remember wanting to tap to pressure and almost begging him to submit me just to finish the roll.  Now I use him as a resource for anything wrestling, most recently he's been showing me the butcher from side control over and over again and it's pissing me off.