February 8th 2015 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: No Mind

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Half Guard Pass, Turtle Escape - Granby Roll
Partnered and Rolled With: Josh (New), Jeff, Zack, Anthony, Conan, Bhuvana, Greg

I had a little trouble with this half guard pass on Tuesday.  During drilling it was fine but during rolling I didn't feel like my foot could get on their thigh to push down for the initial knee slide.  Friday I did feel better about it and figured out my major problem was keeping good pressure on their thigh and moving my hips way to the side.  Previously I thought we were doing more of the tripod pass during this week of the curriculum but Greg seems to favor this one.

Zack manufactured a friendly rivalry between us during the teaching portion of Friday's class.  He made a comment while Greg was teaching the granby that I was getting the better of him while rolling from the turtle and asked some specific questions on how to make the roll work.  I was a little flattered but played it off by saying that it helps that I knew the technique he was going to try.  He also requested that Greg put me with him during the turtle portion again.

Greg is preparing for Pan Ams and asked Zack and I to shark tank him.  We did 4 x 6 minute rounds alternating with little rest in between for Greg.  I decided to take a really aggressive mindset and throw caution to the wind and just attack at a fast pace.  I feel this did a couple things for me.  First I turned my brain off and didn't over think things.  I just kept trying to move and insist on whatever I wanted.  Next I went for things that I don't normally go for like ankle locks.  I don't know how much Greg got out of it but I got a lot and I hope we do it more often in the coming weeks.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Jeff, Mike (Tumbleweed), Brian (AF), Bhuvana

Had some good rolls on Saturday and I felt faster than usual.  I think the tournament prep for Greg helped me loosen up quite a bit and not think as much.

Fuji: He wanted to resume his pure side control defense that we did a while back.  Which was great for me as well but I felt a little guilty for all of the smashing that I did on him.  No fuck that, he's smashed me more than I could return the favor in the past.  I focused on my knee on belly and kept constant movement and tried to stay ahead of him.  I feel pretty good about the improvements that I made from previously. 

Jeff: I worked with him on some half guard knee shield stuff that we talked about on Friday and he seemed to take to it pretty well.  The shaolin sweep is still something I'm trying to perfect but I showed him what I knew of it.  Then just using the knee shield to kick and get the underhook was good info to share too.  We may have only rolled once but I stayed pretty light with him and after passing with a over/under he kept trying to push my head into the inverted triangle but I wouldn't allow it.  We went over setting up the kimura after that from side mount and some guard stuff too like omoplata.

Brian: He asked me if I used any tricks to remember things for my blog.  I said no it just got easier over time and I would make mental notes in class about the things that I was going to write about.  He's thinking about writing his own blog or a training log.  Our first roll went pretty quickly and I caught him with an wristlock after an omoplata sweep.  Then he jumped around me and on my back and almost got me with a bow and arrow.  I grabbed my own gi and held it away from my neck and weathered the storm.  I told him after the roll that he should have went for the armbar because my arm was in the right position but he had tunnel vision for the choke.  After getting out of the choke I recovered deep half and swept to side control.  I worked my way to north/south choke but he had a hand in.  I started to work back to side control when he made a huge attempt to escape and brought his hand out.  I went right back into the north/south and finished it.   

Mike: We did some barato plata work but I didn't feel great about it.  I'll have to review some more info.  However, I felt great going up against Mike rolling-wise and I attribute this to the rolls with Greg this week too.  He was attempting to pass standing and I was all over his legs and went to deep half.  I was able to get a double unders pass and went right into side control.  From there I worked for the kimura but settled on the armbar.  John made a comment that he'd never seen Mike submitted before and was surprised that it happened.  Mike said something like he's never seen him go against someone better before to which I said thank you!  In our second roll I started dominating as well.  I prevented some ankle locks and worked my way to a north/south choke but Mike timed his escape well.  He submitted me with something but I don't recall what.

Bhuvana: I attempted an omoplata on her first off and she defended it well with posture.  I went for a triangle instead and she kind of pulled me into mount to escape it.  Somehow I made my way to her back and she panicked a little bit and looked like she was preparing to tap.  I talked her through the escape and tried to calm her down a bit.  I then had her work to submit me with an americana from mount.  We went over the back mount escape and found some solace in realizing that she wanted to escape toward the underhook side.

Esteemed Collegues and Honorable Mentions:

A few of our guys competed last week in Circle of Iron and all placed.  Mike took 2 silvers, Jerad took silver and bronze, and Brian took silver.  Great job guys, way to represent!  There would have probably been more hardware but there was a pretty bad snow storm.

Ray returned for a few classes this week and his ankle seems to be treating him well so far.  It was awesome to see him back and hopefully he returns to full strength soon.

Henry had an exciting grappling match Saturday night in Missouri.  Henry dominates the match but it must have been submission only because they call it a draw: Grappling Match