October 10th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Paint Brush, Double Leg Trip
Rolling/Game: Side Control, Stand up Sparring

Kids have been doing well lately. Jayden has been timid to count during warmups.  Greg has been trying to work with him on that. He also has not been doing well with front rolls which he was previously good at, but everything else is fine.

They had a little trouble with the double leg trip. They would shoot fine but then fall backwards when trying to step up.

Sparring was good, they are picking up the importance of position. It's been a while since they've done some standup.  The main thing that they need to focus on is grip fighting.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Josh M, Austin, Henry, Chris, Ben, Moe, Jerad
Game Plan: Attempt Ankle Locks

Had a great day at open mat after missing it for 2 weeks.

Josh and I drilled the twist sweep for a little while. I still don't feel comfortable with it but got something out of the training.  We rolled later on and I could see some improvement from our previous rolls and wasn't able to freely push him around.

Austin's skills have also increased. I attempted the ankle lock a few times but he foiled me with the defenses that we worked on.  I may have reaped the knee a couple times on accident.

Henry and I had an epic battle. I had to dig deep a couple times to talk myself out of giving up and taking the easy way out.  A couple of common things came up. He's one of a few that can stand up in my half guard. Also there were a couple times when I came up into the dog fight position but didn't feel adequate to out wrestle him from there. The main thing I did well was to prevent his collar choke attacks as soon as possible to not allow them to get too far.

With Chris I was pretty laid back.  He walked right into my closed guard and did a decent job of keeping forward pressure. Eventually I swept with a flower sweep he gassed out soon after that.  We discussed what he wanted to do in the guard and how he was wasting energy.

Moe gave me a hard time while attempting to pass my open guard. It made for quite a technical battle with grips and shins.  Once I swept and got on top I worked for a guillotine.

Ben and I did no gi and apparently he hasn't had much experience with it. After rolling a few times we went over some passing possibilities without using the gi pants.

Saved the best roll for last with Jerad. We had some back and forth where both of us controlled the fight for a while. Once he got to mount though I wasn't able to escape and he finished me with an armbar. He gave me a few compliments saying that he's noticed improvement lately. The extra work I've been doing has been paying off!