December 22nd 2015 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Arm Drag to Single Leg, Knee on Belly North South Choke setup, Follow-up with no arm darce or guillotine
Students: Harvey, Ben, Dwight

Coming into class today I had a few ideas for what to teach.  I had 3 things in mind depending on who was going to be there: Deep Half Guard, Omoplata, and North South Choke.  I think NS was probably the best choice as just setting up Deep Half can be a lot of information, much less sweeping, but still I may do it next week.  Some tips on the techniques:

• Posture and head position is very important during the single leg.  After armdragging, I like to keep my head really close into their armpit and Dwight made the comment that I liked to listen to their heart.  Don't lean over.
• The most important parts of getting the north south choke are getting their hands out of the way and keeping their head straight up.  
• When they turn into you I switch to a grip on their chin and move to a modified knee on belly ready to go to mount.  From there I base with my head and make some space to connect my hands for the guillotine choke.

Rolling: Side Control (4 x 3 min), Free Rolling (5 min)
Rolled With: Harvey, Ben, Dwight

With both Harvey and Ben they got stuck on the bottom of side control and I planted my hand by their hip and then switched sides.  It came up later when Harvey asked why it was happening.  I showed them the offense first with how I was blocking their hips and putting some shoulder pressure down as I scrambled to the other side. 

Dwight and I had a good roll.  He's visiting for the holidays and we talked about his training schedule in Sacramento.  I can tell that he's a lot better than the last time we rolled.  I wasn't able to submit him.  We had quite a few position changes and it was a fun roll!

Office Hours Partner: Harvey

After class I showed them that they should not be laying on their side without their feet engaged into the ground.  I remember Mike A. telling me over and over that I was hanging out on my side too much in side control and he would always be switching sides on me when I was on the bottom.  It took a while to sink in or to understand what I was doing wrong.  I had in my head that I need to be on my side to escape, but if I don't have my feet engaged with the floor I'm a dead fish.