April 5th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Upa Escape from Mount, Americana from Mount
Partner: Bob, Ben, Justin

Got there a little late today due to work being crazy right now.  Hopefully I'll be able to sneak away and train tomorrow.

Greg showed the upa escape 2 different ways as he usually does.  The first with the arm around the neck so they kind of trap it for you and the second using a bridge to make them put their hand on the floor in order to suck their arm in to trap it.

I started off training with Bob and Ben until Justin showed up.  I think he had only been to one class previously so Greg had me catch him up with the techniques.  He was a little tight and muscly at first, but started to relax as we drilled the techniques.  

One thing that he asked that stuck with me after I showed him the upa was, "does it work?" I responded with something like "yes but it takes some practice." The question took me off guard because I don't think about if things work anymore that Greg has us do in class. Maybe I'll consider if it should be a part of my game and if it will work well for me but never if something would work or not in general. Mostly because of the nature of Jiu-Jitsu that we prove stuff works through rolling.

Rolling: Mount (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (5 min)
Rolled With: Justin, Bob, Mike

So naturally I had to prove that the upa escape works during positional sparring. He wasn't the easiest to bump over though as he has some wrestling experience, but I was able to roll him over a few times and regain guard the other times.  When I was on top I eventually helped him complete the upa with some resistance.

Bob was interesting to roll with because of his Judo background he feels much more comfortable in side control so he tried to transition there a few times. When I was on top I went over some things that I look for when on top like getting a high mount and trying to isolate arms.

Office Hours Partner: Mike

Mike seemed to let me get away with more than usual today due to some nagging injuries.  We went back and forth a few times and at one point he caught me with a heel hook and I heard Greg yell at me from across the room, "Josh, why aren't you doing anything?" He was right, I had stopped defending and was just waiting to tap. I think there is still some fear in me concerning ankle locks that I won't always fight them because I'm worried about getting hurt before I'm able to tap.  However later on I was able to roll and kick out of one.

Mike also brought up jumping on a guillotine to pass the guard in no gi which I think is a pretty good concept that I haven't heard of, but pretty close to the diving kimura.