July 31st 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: O-Goshi, Back Mount Wing Choke & Bow and Arrow
Partner: Zack

Conan had us focus more on the kuzushi when doing the throw.  I still don't feel like I'm able to make it work that well.  Like I always say, I do the throws well but it's setting them up that doesn't seem to come together.  Nothing new to say about the chokes.

Rolling: Back Mount (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min)
Rolled With: Zack, Dave, Ross

Zack kicked my butt from the back.  I tried my normal escape stuff and even felt like I was getting him off of my collar but he would find a way to turn it into a tight choke.  This was making me a little perturbed, but I'm glad that another hole in my game has been exposed.  I didn't do much better on his back and I never really feel good about starting this way.

Dave had very strong back control.  I had heard people say that he was very strong but never really felt it until today.  He just kind of latched onto my back and I had to work really hard to move.  Once I did escape the back but he ended up with side control.  Dave is definitely getting better.

Ross gave me a tough roll and jumped on me right away.  He was trying pretty hard to get the darce but I was able to get a 2 on 1 position out of it and went to take his back.  He allowed the sweep to prevent that and I stood and went right into an x-pass and then knee on belly.  Conan said something like "Hey Ross, you know Josh just did a 7 point move on you."  There was another point when I was attempting lasso to turtle to omoplata.  But he grabbed my free leg to prevent me from going to turtle.  Conan went over dealing with the lasso a little after our roll.

Office Hours Partner: Zack, Greg

We went over defending the bow and arrow a little bit that he caught me with during rolling.  When getting my hips down to the side to escape I was going over his forearm which made the choke better for him. 


I went over a spider guard pass with Conan and Greg.  It seemed to be pretty cool when I saw it in the video below but Greg was concerned about freeing the outside arm.  It's pretty unconventional, hopefully I can make it work.