January 2nd 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Gordo Sweep
Rolling/Game: Half Guard

Jace and Jayden had a good day. They had a little trouble with doing piggyback rides to each other during the warmup. The gordo sweep was also difficult and made them want to quit. We had a talk on the car ride home about how it was okay if they messed up techniques, all I want them to do is try.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Chris, Fuji, Andy, Adam, Andrew
Game Plan: Kimura Hunting

Great way to start out the new year!

Chris: He requested another mount defense session and I was happy to oblige. He's definitely getting something out of this because it's become more difficult to submit him, he's keeping his arms in and using his legs more effectively. Today I focused on trying to move to high mount and then showing him how to shoulder walk and keep me lower. He still has to put in more time of course but I think it's been fruitful.

I had him attack my mount a couple times to get a feel for what I do and we rolled as well.  He may think about focusing on top mount next, just kidding.

Fuji: I have 2 goals when rolling with Fuji, if I start on top, stay on top. If I end up on bottom maintain guard at all costs.  I didn't accomplish either goal and ended up in side control.  I had my moments of attempting omoplata and getting stacked and defended for a while in the bottom of turtle.  Once he passed to side control I was stuck.

Andy: I find myself being cautious of allowing him to get any type of collar grips. I'm having flashbacks of rolling with Zac. I kept pretty good top control although he defended pretty well.

Adam: He and his brother were up visiting and it's good to roll with them as they're big guys that know how to move and make pressure.  I started off well with attacking a lot but he seemed to be able to defend with very slight movements. I had him in a N/S choke for quite a while but couldn't seal the deal. He then gave me a few pointers on how he likes to finish the choke. One being using a guillotine grip instead of the s-grip that I like to use.  It lifts my wrist and their head up which really helps. Interestingly I was able to catch him with it on our second roll.

On our first roll I'm embarrassed to say that I gassed out. Maybe from all of the submission attempts.  Probably the most taxing was the fight that I had to finish an omoplata. He was also able to stack me and make me pretty uncomfortable while trying to step over.

Another interesting thing was he had a pretty smooth side control escape kind of like the elbow push but it was in my armpit.  Kind of like a Turkish standup, I'll probably ask him about it next time I see him.

Andrew: I also had an omoplata battle with him and had to work hard against him stacking.  So 3 bigger guys gave me trouble with a move that I thought I had pretty well figured out.  Something else to add to the pile of things to work on.

After we rolled we worked a bit on the judo turnover as he was attacking my neck from the top of turtle for a while.

After class we talked a bit about when to exert energy. I was reminded of Conan telling me that it's better to use more energy to maintain guard rather than wait and use energy to escape side control. Greg said that Tinguinha would get on him about this in the past. This is a mindset that I'm ready to adopt.