April 8th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: O-Goshi, Closed Guard Cross Choke & Armbar
Partner: Craig

Another week of the same techniques taught by 3 different people, each with their own variations.  At this point in my development I'm liking this, because I get some insight into the train of thought of my colleges and why they like to do things a certain way.  I'm not sure if it would be frustrating if I were still learning the basics of the techniques.

Rolling: Takedown Sparring, Guard Position, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Craig, Josh J, Jesus

I was surprised when Conan announced that we were going to do some stand-up takedown sparring.  I felt pretty good about some of my attempts and defenses.  I tried to keep moving and attempt to off balance my partner.  A lot of my takedowns were not pretty but I'm happy that I did more than stiff arm.  I hit a few valley drops and some drop seio nage.  What I'm most happy about is that I hit my best attempt at a double leg.  I changed levels well and my penetration step was right on, however my partner pushed my head to the side as I was going for it which turned it more into a blast double with my forehead in the middle of his chest.

During rolling I attempted to do the cross choke and armbar from guard as often as I could.  Otherwise I was resorting back to 2 on 1 and cross guard.  It seemed like everyone was wore out from the stand-up sparring and I tried to match intensity with my partner.  From the top I wanted the tozi pass really bad and attempted it when I could.  Having a lot of failure with that technique but just needing to reset not being put into trouble.  I'd really like to figure this out because I think it's a good option to have in my back pocket when I can't break the guard the conventional way.

Office Hours Partner: Josh

I passed Josh's guard a couple times using the over/under pass, so I showed him how to defend it.  We rolled a couple more times and talked about some other specific things from the roll.  He's becoming quite fun and challenging to roll with and I like to see his growth and feel somewhat liked I've helped with that.