April 9th 2016 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Knee Over Pass
Rolling/Game: Guard, Free Rolling, Sharks & Octopuses

My boys had a good day today.  Conan led the warm-up and did a few extra partner exercises with dragging your partner across the floor and wheel barrows.

By the end of training the technique everyone was doing the guard pass well.  When my kids first started with it they were a little mean about putting their knee on the thigh.  Not really on purpose, at least I hope not, but they just didn't understand the staple and where their weight should go. They worked with different partners which helped keep them in line.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Craig, Will, Robert, Derek W, Josh J, Jerad
Game Plan: Bottom Turtle

Craig: Between the kids' class and open mat we worked through the 2nd half of the blue belt curriculum.  He was familiar with most of it and I just needed to give him a few small sometimes medium sized critiques.  As an instructor now It'd give me a sense of accomplishment to see the people that I help out, get their blue belts.  We had a few good rolls before I requested to work on bottom turtle.  I mostly wanted to attempt sit outs and I did but still don't feel confident with the technique. 

Will: He came out pretty strong in our roll with some spider guard and eventually swept me.  I played some cross guard and eventually completed a sweep when he raised his leg.  I'm glad to see Will back on the regular.

Robert: I finally completed a waiter sweep.  I feel like I get to deep half so often with Robert but never complete any sweep especially this one, and this time it clicked.  Otherwise I feel a little weak against him most of the time.  He's definitely more aggressive and makes me work hard for everything I get.

Derek: He has done some improving since we last rolled.  His defenses and his composure were a lot better and he was making a lot fewer mistakes.  I did pass his guard a few times with over/under pass so I showed him how to do the pass and how to defend it.  Derek seemed to take to it pretty well.

Josh: I called out Josh from across the room since we had talked about working on cross guard yesterday.  I think I helped fix a couple things that I usually help people with in this position.  Think of cross guard as another guard position, go 90 degrees twice, don't push them away so much and use the underhooked leg to help pull you into position.  We had a few good rolls after that.

Jerad: At the end of the roll he told me that I made him work hard for the submission that he caught me with.  So there's that.  I had him on the ropes a bit in the beginning as I was able to pass guard and get to a north/south choke.  But, he rolled me over with a trap that he showed me after we rolled which was some great information.

I feel like I'm in kind of a cycle with him.  I try the things I'm good at and he shuts them down, so I learn something new and it works a few times but he eventually shuts it down again.  So back to the drawing board.