January 21st 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Double Leg, Americana from Mount, Bread Cutter
Students: Robert, Bhuvana, Ben, Byrav, Harvey, Megan

Greg had to run some errands so I was able to teach again today.  I had them do some partner warm-ups with leg lifts, Standing Guard Break motion, and Armbar from Guard drill.  Some of the movements were a little difficult for the new people but I think they still got a good warm-up.

Technique portion of the class went pretty well.  I emphasized a lot of the things that I mentioned in yesterday's post.  I think most were helped during the bread cutter choke by the shoulder moving down on their ribs to help get the back of their collar grab. 

I recently filled out a worksheet that I got from https://www.grapplersguide.com/free/Build_Game_Plan.pdf. I think it's a pretty good mental exercise to help you get an idea of where you may have some deficiencies in your overall game.  Like if you can't think of anything to put in your bottom half guard box, it may be in your interest to research the position a bit and find something that reliably works for you.

Here's mine:

Rolling: Mount Position (2 x 2 min), Side Mount (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling (2 x 4 min)
Rolled With: Robert, Ben

There were even partners for the first couple rounds so I wasn't able to jump in, but I felt like I got in some good coaching practice with Megan and Byrav.

Ben made me work quite a bit to get a sub.  He was defending everything that I was throwing at him much better than previously. 

When I rolled with Robert I tried to be a little less passive and try to get on top more.  At one point I was able to stand for single leg but as I was trying to force him down he shucked me past him and I had to work from the bottom of turtle.  We talked about the headlock position for a bit after class and he mentioned that when he's on the bottom he focuses on hand fighting and then turning the corner to go for a single to a double.  

Office Hours Partner: Harvey

Harvey mentioned that on Tuesday he was blanking with what to do from top half guard.  So I showed him the passes that I like to do with hip switch, tripod, and leg weave.