March 15th 2015 - Weekly Review

I was rolling with Ben at our usual pace and flowed into a scissor sweep.  Unfortunately he planted his hand in a way that put some weird torque on his elbow and he felt a lot of popping.  When he went over and shouted, I thought the worst.  I was expecting to see a bone sticking out of his arm but after a trip to the hospital I was later informed that nothing was broken and he was given some meds and told to keep an eye on it.

Hopefully this doesn't affect his job too much and he can return to the mats soon.  I keep replaying in my head if there was a way that I could have prevented this, it happened too fast.  I know it was an accident but I still feel like shit. 

Focus of the Week: Bottom - Deep Half Top - Spiral Armbar

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Koshi Guruma, Side Control Tripod Escape, Kimura from Side Control
Partnered and Rolled With: Josh (New), Mike (Lawyer), Robert, Jordan, Conan

On Tuesday, Greg asked me to work with new guy Josh because he has confidence that I will help teach him all the stuff and Greg didn't have to check up on us as much.  Great compliment!  Had to go over some basic throw stuff like keeping the feet closer together and sticking the hip out and securing the head and finally how to fall.  He made the connection between the side fall that we do in the beginning in class and why we do the legs the way we do.

I had a little love hate relationship with the tripod escape this week.  One thing that helped was Greg pointing out that after getting the underhook we want to move down so our head doesn't fun into their knee.  I think this is the biggest problem I've had in the past with this technique.  I feel like I'm too flat and don't bring my butt up high and end up with my shoulder on the floor like it's supposed to be.  By Friday I felt a lot better about the position.

Got my butt kicked by Robert on Tuesday and Conan on Friday.  I didn't sleep well this week and I felt slow and tired.  Working with Robert made me want to improve my wrestling.  I'm constantly losing from the headlock and turtle position because I'm not confident in fighting from there.  I can go to deep half but maybe now it's time to improve the direct approach.  I showed Conan the spiral armbar that I've been working on and he liked it enough that he wanted to teach it for Sunday no-gi.

I had a nice conversation with Greg after Tuesday class.  Yes I had a shitty day but it didn't bother me that much.  I really think my outlook has changed for the better since I dealt with some ego issues a few months ago.  My ego is healthier and I'm not going to get upset about gym losses but I can still analyze them and figure out what I need to improve on.

I also brought up getting stuck in quarter guard and getting overwhelmed recently through the conversation I came to the realization that I need to limit the times when I think I can rest.  Just getting to half or quarter guard is not good enough for me to think I'm safe and take a breather.  I need to be going right into the next thing to sweep or progress to a better position.  Thinking about it, there is some type of mental reset that I do when I get to quarter guard when I think okay now I can start doing these steps.  That either needs to happen quicker or not happen at all and I just need to keep going.  This is definitely something I'm going to be focusing on and monitoring for the next couple of weeks. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Darijo, Fuji, Jerad, Bauer, Ben, Ross, Bhuvana

For the hour between the kids class and open mat I stayed around and drilled some stuff with Greg and Jerad.  With Jerad I drilled the spiral armbar and felt pretty good about it.  Greg drilled the wrecking ball spider guard pass that he saw from a Keenan video.  I learned some details and practiced it a few times myself but didn't really like stepping on my opponent's leg.  Jerad had a variation that he also liked and practiced.  We also worked on another guard pass that was like a crescent kick to leg drag.  It was really cool and I can see myself using it.  However, I think I was a little overzealous while learning something knew because Greg had to tell me to relax a couple times.

Darijo: My main goal of the day was to get to deep half and play with the position.  He didn't really let me do that.  I did make to deep half once and was able to sweep.  One thing that helped was focusing on posture with my head.  I need to push the back of my head against my opponent's thigh, and that will give me the best mobility and strength under their base.

Fuji: Fuji let me take top position to start both of our rolls.  So I passed his guard by using a modified over under.  I got right into the farside armbar setup position and took my time completing the setup.  He said something like, it's there, go for it.  Eventually I was able to get his arm free.  The second time we rolled he turned it up a notch.  I passed his guard again but I had to deal with his turtle.  I was able to turn him over into back mount and started working for a bow & arrow, but he was eventually able to work his way out of it and move into my guard.  He's really good at smashing my omoplata I might have to stop trying that on him.  He got his brabo grip and that was all she wrote after the pressuring and smashing.

Jerad: I had some success early on.  After being swept, I pulled him into closed guard.  I started working for the omoplata and had his arm isolated into my hip.  Once I freed my other leg and went for the full technique he really postured up and I went right into the back roll.  I kind of ended up in a mount but he had a frame that kept me from getting full mount.  I think I should have windshield wipered and moved to side control but it didn't occur to me.  He recovered all the way to butterfly guard and swept.  From there he dominated and eventually submitted me with something.

I mentioned that I felt like I was on a bit of a plateau or a slump.  I've been getting my guard passed more often lately and my usual stuff isn't working as well.  He assured me that I was still difficult to roll with and said that maybe it was time for a different focus.  I've been working on deep half for quite a while now, mostly because I had the DVDs at my disposal.  Maybe a little break from the position will give me some perspective when I return to it at a later date.  I think I may look into sitting guard or butterfly. 

Bauer: We didn't roll because he wanted to drill the scissor sweep.  I gave him a few pointers and did some reps for myself.  I like to think of it like a judo throw and really get them to load up before kicking them over.  Eventually we moved into the cross choke and he was pulling his elbows out and once that was fixed he was doing fine.  We combined the 2 techniques together and repped them for a while.  Finally I asked him to help me with deep half and give me a little resistance.  It turned out to be a good workout and I had some trouble but some of it worked out.  I really need to focus on my grips next for the back take type stuff. 


Ross: I was still a little shocked from Ben so I was extra careful with Ross.  I don't remember much of what I did, except a north/south choke that he defended at first and then when I regrouped and went back to it, it was even tighter.  He asked me if I had any tips for him and we talked about recovering half guard from quarter.

Bhuvana: She wanted to work on mount and side mount escapes and I was happy to oblige.  After some rolling I eventually ended up in the mount and setup the spiral armbar.  I went for it but she was able to get up and stack, that shouldn't have happened, I wonder what I did wrong.  After that she drilled the elbow escape and I gave her some pointers on how to get the elbow in and then use it like a crowbar or the jaws of life.