December 14th 2014 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: More Deep Half, Over/Under Pass

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Head Lock Defense w/ Tani Otoshi, Kneeling Guard Break, Single Under Pass

With these particular techniques I'm working on speed and minor details.  My guard break is pretty solid once I get the first hand position on the chest.  For the single under pass I focused on weight distribution and made sure my head never went too high.  I also did some experimenting with immediately going into the Rickson Choke off of the single under pass since the hand is already in the correct position on the collar.  While I didn't have too much of a problem with the throw, during the last couple of reps I discovered I should have been doing more of a circular stepping.

Rolling was great on both days with some guard positional and some free rolling.  Still the classes are too short and I'm glad Ross, Harvey, and Brian (Backdraft) were all willing to roll with me after class.  I attempted the Sao Paulo pass a couple of times that Conan had shown the week before.  I did get stuck in the bottom of half guard a few times which slowed my momentum.  I'm thinking I need to readjust how I frame and maintain space from the half guard.  I often give up too much ground and then have to fight to regain it.

Advanced: Drilling: Deep Half Waiter, X-Pass, Baseball Bat Choke, Sacrifice Shoulder Throw

It was a relatively small class Wednesday night so Greg had us drill techniques of our choosing instead of the normal way.  We did 4 minutes each with a guard technique, guard pass, a submission, and a take down.

I did deep half to waiter with Adam as my partner and even though we were just drilling, his weight and solidness were still something I had to deal with.  The techniques still went well I just need to focus on using my free leg to help pendulum a little more.

My legs were killing me for the x-pass.  My posture felt a bit off and Greg and I both agreed that I was leaning forward too much.  It killed my thighs by the end with all of the squatting and back kicking I had to do.  The posture thing is something I'll have to pay attention to, but I think it also has to do with looking at my grips which I'll have to get over.

The main focus for the baseball bat choke was to get my hands as close together as possible and I think I got some good reps doing that.  My problem may be that I usually just settle with getting my thumb in their collar near the back somewhere before going north/south but touching my hands together made a huge difference during drilling.

Conan complimented me on my sacrifice throw.  It's one that I hit from time to time but I can also put myself in a nasty position if it fails.  The major thing I focused on was being tight on the shoulder before dropping and then paying attention to hip connection.  If I leave too much space or if they are able to sprawl the hips away I'll end up in the bottom of side control and that is no good.  The hip connection thing was a pretty big realization that I'll explore further. 

We finished the class with some great rolling with Adam, Gina, and Greg.  Adam twice which turned out to be very tough, but I think I'm learning how to deal with his butcher technique.


Open Mat

Had a lot of fun in open mat.  Got to roll with Mike (tumbleweed) after he's been out with some injuries.  We had an awesome roll and I really felt confident in my guard in the beginning.  I passed his guard once and worked for a north/south choke for a while but didn't complete it.  I went for the baseball bat but had a hard time getting around his arms and constantly defending his legs from inverted guard.  He eventually got back on top and we ended up in a kimura position.  I was defending well but I decided to tap because he had me.  This paragraph doesn't really do the roll justice, there was a lot of movement and a lot of technical stuff.

I don't remember much about rolling with Conan, so I'll put the same thing that I put for every Conan roll lately.  I did pretty well in the beginning but I eventually fucked up and got put into side control.  Conan grinded me out and took away my limbs one at a time until he got a submission.  I might as well save that to my template.  He was complementary at the end and said that I did well.

Jerad and I had another epic couple of rolls.  He also complimented me after rolling even though he pretty much dominated.  Our first match he caught me with a crucifix after I fought hard for some type of takedown.  I thought I was doing well until my arm got locked between his legs and he went over my back.  I said some thing like "Stupid!" and Mike chimed in that he has some videos of me saying funny shit while rolling.  I am known for shouting "Nooooo!" or "Fuuuuck!" when I get caught with something that I see in advance but can't seem to stop.  It's never in anger but more pissed at myself.  The other two rolls there were a lot of back and forth and a lot of half and quarter guard.  There was one point where we were scrambling and he stood up, I had a sleeve grip and was able to sweep him with and omoplata, that felt great.  He submitted me with a mounted triangle the last time.