December 7th 2014 - Weekly Review

I didn't post last week because I was very busy with work and only ended up attending 2 classes anyway because it was Thanksgiving week and I didn't feel there was much to report.  We did go over farside armbar and Scissor Sweep in the beginner class and reviewed a few of the gi chokes from the seminar.  

Focus of the Week: Baseball Bat choke, Deep Half Guard, Over/Under Pass, Nothing New 

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: O-Goshi, Guard Techniques - Cross Collar Choke, Armbar

Cross collar choke is among the triangle in techniques that I rarely attempt.  I do the technique fine during drilling, but never feel like I can get my hands in the right place during rolling.  Armbar from guard felt great and I did attempt a few during rolling this week.

Conan showed up to Friday morning class and we ended up having a great roll.  He sat and I started from the knees.  He let me get pant grips and I stood and bobbed weaved to complete the toreando pass.  I made sure to prevent any type of butterfly hook as he can work magic with them.  I did it!  I made it to side control.  I went to knee on belly and started attacking the baseball bat choke.  He used his shins effectively to almost regain half guard a few times, I went to north/south choke but he turned his head.  I went back to side control and knee on belly.

Finally I made a mistake or he caught up to my movement and timing and was able to secure an arm under my knee on belly shin and grab the back of my gi.  He then reversed me and during that process I said something to the effect of, "this shouldn't be happening" or "how could this happen!"  I defended from side control for the rest of the five minutes.  Thinking about it now though I might have won if that was a tournament match because he wouldn't have gotten any points for that reversal.  It's a stupid rule.  He showed me the reversal after class, but I may have him show me again next time I see him.

Conan showed a closed guard pass after class that I'm still not sure about the name of.  From within the closed guard you take an underhook and then walk to the opposite side smashing their leg and then unhooking their ankles to escape guard.  I think Will was working on it for a while.


Advanced: Distant Belt Grab Pass - To North/South, w/Foot on Hip, Start of Lasso

I liked these techniques when we did them in the seminar but I realized that I don't run into this situation during rolling too often.  I'm hardly ever standing without any grips already.  I had some great rolling during up/down/out.  We did sitting guard against standing opponent and dealing with this situation has come a long way for me.  I primarily have Mike and Jerad to thank the most for that.  I rolled with quite a few people and I'm so happy with being able to attend this class for the material and my fellow blue belts that kick my ass.    


Open Mat

I only rolled with 4 people this past open mat.  I used to average 6 or more.  Of course they were quality rolls including Jerad and Greg so I'm not complaining but there were a few times that I was sitting wanting to roll and no one was available. 

Brain AF did a pretty good job of defending, I can see some improvement and he's getting dangerous with his inverting, going to turtle, and backtakes, however weak at north/south choke defense.  Bhuvana asked to work on some guard passes.  I showed her the knee over pass and the one that Conan shared the day before.  I rolled with Jerad the most and we went back and forth quite a bit.  Greg did some pretty cool backtake setups and just shut me down in general.