January 28th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Side Control Tripod Escape, Kimura from Side Control
Partner: Byrav, Bhuvana

One thing that Greg emphasized today was straightening the arms to finish the kimura where we hold it close to out chest when doing it in guard.  I've had this discussion with Mike before too about how to use the kimura and I don't feel like I've got it totally figured out yet but I am aware of it and it's something that I'm working on.  Just know there is more to a kimura than grabbing their wrist and then grabbing your own wrist with the other hand and cranking it.

A couple of tips from the techniques today:

• Koshi Guruma: make your legs stable by angling your knees out at 45 degrees and keep them bent.  I aim to get my hips below their belt knot to get under their center.
• Tripod Escape: Going off of yesterday I found that telling people to change the angle of the tripod made this way more doable.  
• Kimura: Controlling their head with your legs is pretty important.  At first I was just putting my knees around their head but getting their head trapped between my calf and thigh goes a long way to help break any defense that they try.

Rolling: Side Control (4 x 2 min), Guard King of the Mat
Rolled With: Byrav, Bhuvana, Jordan, Tim, Harvey

With Byrav I gave him some openings and coaxed him into doing the techniques that we practiced with a little more resistance.  I think this helped him with the techniques that we worked on a little bit.  I say coax because it seemed like he expected me to just destroy him quickly and not give him a chance.

Tim is a new student that I met at the no gi class last Friday.  He did pretty well for being new and made me thing he'd had some type of training.  He knew how to put some pressure down and stay out of trouble for the most part.  I think I'll check in with him in a couple weeks and see how quickly he picks stuff up.

Office Hours Partner: Robert

Robert asked about a top half guard technique to take the back.  We ended up working on some other back takes from quarter guard and turtle with Greg showing a few things.  I showed him what I like to do from top half guard to pass such as hip switching, cross facing, and using the leg weave.