April 21st 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Kesa Getami Over Head Reversal, Ezekiel from Mount & Top Half Guard
Partner: Zack, Harvey

Good day at training.  Relatively small class for a Tuesday but a good group all the same.  I found the Kesa escape to be easier than previously.  I was caught once letting my bridge back down before fully rolling over but did it correctly the times following. 

Ezekiel is one of those techniques that I struggle with but I have success with from time to time.  Usually my problems stem from which part of their neck do I need to jam my fist into.  There are some different schools of thought on that for sure.  One key thing to remember doing this choke from the half guard is that I don't want to bring my free knee off the floor.

Rolling: Up/Down/Out Mount & Half Gaurd
Rolled With: Robert, Zack, Anthony, Harvey

With only five of us there was only ever one person resting at a time and sometimes you didn't get any rest.  I got a few ezekiels today from both mount and half guard and set them up just like we practiced.  My bottom mount defense felt really strong and I was able to pull everyone into half guard if memory serves.

I had a couple notable battles with Robert and Zack.  It was very difficult to pin Robert and get him into side control.  Every time I thought I was passed his guard he'd stay on his side and keep me at a distance.  If I tried to hop to the other side he would get up to turtle and then win the wrestling match from there.  One cool thing with Robert was that I got him to say "dammit" once when I made it to deep half guard.  Zack and I had a few scrambles that could have gone either way.  He's making me better at watching for collar chokes.  My deep half guard really came in handy today, but I also made a couple mistakes and got into no-mans-land where I had my opponent's hips on top of me but no good control over their legs or torso.  Just have to keep experimenting and learning.

Office Hours Partner: Robert

We rolled for 2 5 minute rounds.  Started from standing and he was able to take me down twice but I ended up in half guard both times.  One time I did a yank on his collar which brought him right into a single leg.  He stayed on top for a majority of the rounds but I also had a few sweeps including a gordo sweep that flowed really nicely.  He kept me out of good top positions but neither of us had any meaningful submission attempts.