January 8th 2016 - Gi All Levels (Zac is Back)

Theme & Techniques: O-Goshi, Wing Choke, Bow and Arrow
Partner: Josh

It was Zac's first day back after an injury induced hiatus.  It's good to have him back and he doesn't seem to have missed a step.  I was beginning to worry that he wasn't going to come back.

After doing some normal fit-ins, Conan had us do some 3 step walking backward kasushi which I enjoyed.  I'm still trying to perfect the lifting and timing getting the hips under but I'm feeling better about it.

My throat was bothering me a bit during the chokes.  I felt like I was gagging a little too easily, maybe it's from working on them for the past three days and being the demonstrator each time.  It's not that Greg or Conan are choking me hard or anything but I end up being stuck in a light choking position for a longer period of time as the person teaching explains all of the details.  I know, "assistant instructor" problems.

Rolling: Back Mount (4 x 4 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Josh, Zac, Anthony

Had to work hard to defend my back against Josh and Zac.  They both did a good job of getting the collar grip, although not deep, I didn't like it.  When I was attacking I felt like I did a good job with positioning, I did go for head and arm choke a couple times but wasn't able to get my arm in the correct place. 

Free rolling with Anthony I went over my basics of guard passing with him, since he started to grab my collar instead of my legs.  I worked a bit to try to setup the lasso guard to omoplata that I've been working on.  I also attempted the step over choke a few times that I saw a video about recently.  This is a fairly basic choke that I'm surprised I haven't heard of before. 

Office Hours Partner: Zac, Conan

I showed Conan the step over choke and we talked about how we would defend it and how best to set it up.  I may mess around with it a little bit more as I can see some contingencies and some setups that work with some of the other stuff that I do.

We said that we were going to go light since it was Zac's first time back. Easier said than done I guess as things often escalated.  Zac got me a couple times with attempting the armdrag from bottom half guard.  I'm not sure what I'm doing to allow this to happen, but I've got to make a change with where I place my arm to prevent this.  I got a lot of work with my over/under pass. 

I was able to hit a waiter sweep and did it without hesitation.  In the recent pass I have been taking my time with getting to deep half, then reassessing and deciding to go for the homer simpson, the double unders, or the waiter.  Lately I've been trying to off balance them more and go right into 1 of the 3 sweeps without a pause.  It prevents them from settling in as much.