December 29th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Seio Nage, Double Ankle Sweep, Butterfly Hook Sweep
Students: Daniel, Ben, Bob, Frank, Jess

Had Bob teach a version of seoi nage where we took a lowered collar grip and squared way down. I am feeling pretty good about my kazushi. Working with Bob on the details is paying off.

Some tips on the hook sweep:

• It's important to control both your posture and theirs
• Use the underhook to lift their shoulder 
• Use your overhook to pull down their other shoulder
• Fall directly to the side not back.

Rolling: Closed Guard, Butterfly Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Daniel, Frank, Bob

Went for the butterfly sweep from the bottom every chance I got. During free rolling, I mostly started on the bottom, but attacked for a sweep and tried to push the pace.

Office Hours Partner: Daniel

Worked with him on butterfly sweep mostly the things mentioned above. He helped me with making my crucifix from turtle better. I've gotten there regularly lately but they've been able to escape by stepping over my legs.  Once I trap their arm I need to move my hips toward their head instead of hips.

December 28th 2016 - Gi Advanced

Theme & Techniques: Straight Ankle Lock Series to Leg Drag
Partner: Clint

Mike showed a sequence of the basic straight ankle lock to switching their leg to the top side.  Then if we couldn't get the tap there move to a leg drag position.  This showed another use of the butterfly guard walk motion.  Leg drag is still something I need to put some time into as I know it works on me, I just haven't found entries that work for me yet.

Rolling: KOTM Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Mike, Clint, Patty, John, David, Henry

Class kicked my ass tonight.  It's been a while since I attended an advanced class and I'm not used to all of the talent.  I'm going to have to go a little harder when I roll in the all level day classes to challenge my cardio and get back my edge.  Not to say that I did poorly in class, I think I rolled pretty well, but I did gas toward the end.

Grip fighting was probably the most noticeable difficulty and my fingers are feeling it.  So I will be focusing on that a little more, getting the grips that I want and going for it.  I also found myself in de la riva a few times and I might need to narrow down a few go to techniques from there because I feel like I pause when I get to the position.

December 27th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Knee Bar Setup from Half Guard & Defense
Partner: Henry

Mike disiminated some good information today on the knee bar.  Some details that I liked were:

• Grab the heel as soon as possible and put it by your head
• Once in the seated position, you can go in any direction 
• If it goes south maintain the seated position and look for a crossface and start passing guard.

Rolling: Knee Bar Sitting position, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Henry, Jess, Andy

Starting from the position was tough. I ran into some trouble attacking a few times as I didn't feel confident in inverting. Defending went pretty well, I'm doing better at keeping my feet out of danger.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

We rolled a lot since I'm on vacation today.  We ended up in a lot of different situations, he had my back for a while at one point. He mentioned to someone else that he has yet to submit me. I thought he had, but it may not be too much longer before he does.

We did some deep half entries, the waiter sweep, and some rolling back takes. A lot of the practice was about shucking and getting under the opponent.  I think he was picking it up at the end.

December 23rd 2016 - Gi All Levels (Comfort Zone)

Theme & Techniques: Kneeling Guard Break, Double Under Pass
Partner: Jess, Matt (New)

Mostly helped Jess and Matt on some minor details of the techniques.  Mostly hand position and posture. Matt is a friend of Jess and used to coach wrestling.

Rolling: Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Jess, Craig, Ryal, Matt

Felt good about my rolling today. Did a lot of hand fighting and pushed the pace to make up for yesterday. I helped Matt with some basics while we rolled.

Thoughts: Comfort Zone

I had a thought on the drive home about progress and getting over plateaus.  What I've noticed during my journey from blue to purple (hopefully) is that I'll get to a comfort zone with my game and feel like I'm stagnating, then I'll find something to work on that is outside of my comfort zone. I'll research, drill, and troubleshoot the subject until I feel like I'm safe in my comfort zone again. Then I'll feel like I'm not learning anything new and search for the next thing.

Most of this year was about being more assertive and imposing my will.  I've just started familiarizing myself with leg locks and related positions.  Another aspect that has presented itself that I've seen others like Jerad doing is stringing techniques together.  Often when I sweep or pass guard there will be a pause as I collect myself and decide what to do next.  Occasionally though everything will come together and I'll escape, sweep, pass the guard, and attack a submission without a break in the action. Improving this will be my goal for this year.

December 22nd 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Defense against Wall, Kneeling Guard Break, Double Under Pass
Partner: Jess

Tips on techniques of the week:

• Guillotine Defense: Once you've regained your posture, keep it. Don't let your posture lapse and allow them to drag you back down.
• Kneeling Guard Break: One thing that Mike pointed out that I've noticed others doing is focusing more on the elbow between the legs rather than the hand on the hip to keep them down.
• Double Under Pass: Mike and I discussed coming forward to stack, where I've been advocating pulling them back exclusively.  We talked about keeping low as you come in which I'll have to play around with.

Rolling: Guard
Rolled With: Jess, Ben, Bob

I was a little too lazy today. Not that I went easy on anyone but I wasn't pushing the pace or imposing my will.  Ben was able to keep me from opening his guard with good hand fighting. Bob was able to get to double unders and pass right at the buzzer.

Office Hours Partner: Bob, Tom

After class the topic of hook kicks came up and everyone, including me, were showing off their kicks.  My flexibility felt pretty good for not kicking for a while.

Bob helped me with some more details on tia toshi. Mostly around keeping my posture and bending my knees more.

Tom and I rolled and I spent a good portion of the roll on his back as he defended. I felt like I had the most control with my bottom hook in and then crossing my other foot between his legs. He's really good at defending the back.

December 21st 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Deep Half: Entering from Mount, Side Control, Half Guard; Homer Sweep, Shin Sweep, Kick Sweep to Double Unders
Students: Morgan, Andy, Justin

Small class today and the regular material for the week was pretty basic with kneeling guard break and double under pass which I knew both Morgan and Andy were familiar with.  I've been working with Morgan a little bit on deep half so he requested to work on that some more.  I'm feeling like I'm developing a seminar type format for this position as I've taught it occasionally.  I'm figuring out the best progression which starts with escaping mount to deep half, I think this is a pretty direct approach to getting to the position.  Then I'll introduce the Homer Simpson sweep and the students will attempt that through the other entries. 

From there I go to side control and finally half guard.  I usually teach to get an underhook with the knee shield before going to the position but there are several ways to get the underhook.  Finally I add in some additional sweeps using the lapel and the butterfly hook.  I hardly ever make it to the waiter sweep and may make that and back takes a part of the advanced seminar.

Rolling: Deep Half Lab, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Everyone

Had everyone go a little lighter on the deep half 2 minute rounds.  The person on top went easy on the entry then raised the intensity once they got to deep half to try to prevent being swept.  I think this was a good way to get them to work with the position.  We finished with a few free rolls and I worked my way to deep half a few times just to challenge myself and prove that it worked. 

December 20th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Closed Guard: Double Under Guard Pass, Hip Bump Sweep, Kimura
Partner: Bhuvana

Small class for a Tuesday.  We had Caleb returning from last week and he brought in his friend Mike who has some wrestling experience.  Greg showed the guard break that I usually go for if I can't open someone's guard in no gi.  Make enough space to fit both hands through to break the guard.  The bottom guard stuff wasn't much different than the gi class.  The biggest piece of advice I can give anyone on the hip bump/kimura is work on sitting up and putting your hand where your shoulder was for stability.  This is something you can work on by yourself and the faster you can get at getting that post the better.

Rolling: Closed Guard Up/Down/Out
Rolled With: John, Mike (Visitor), Caleb, Bhuvana

Some good rolls.  John was able to sweep me today so I will have to prevent that from happening again.  Mike was pretty strong and was good at pressure, but I don't think he understands how to pass the guard yet.  There were a couple of times that both Caleb and Mike got to double unders but I was able to widen out my knees enough to prevent the class.  I also ended up in some triangle situations but had a hard time completing them and moved on to something else.  Talked to Greg about it afterward, his advice was to grab my ankle and then push myself away with my foot on their hip.  I was doing that but I was trying to push them back instead of myself.

* Added later: Forgot that I got a bloody nose while rolling with Mike. Wasn't a big deal but it wouldn't stop bleeding. We also did some stand-up. He took me down the first 2 times but I was able to turn them into better positions for me. The last roll I went for an arm drag and turned into a drop shoulder throw. I guess it made Greg message Bob since he missed it.

Office Hours Partner: John

John helped me drill some 50/50 stuff from Ryan Hall's DVD.  We did a defensive drill where they attack straight ankle lock, heel hook, or Texas clover leaf (which we kept calling different names like Texas Flywheel, Texas Chainsaw, Texas Sharpshooter, etc).  We would then defend with the appropriate responses of RNC grip, pushing the bicep with the foot and triangling or crossing our feet.

We rolled a few times after that, and we had some back and forth.  He had my back for a while and was able to trap my arm with his leg.  I was impressed by how he set this up and we practiced it a few times after rolling.  I was able to setup my Shelving NS choke setup, some day I may have an instructional DVD on it.

December 17th 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Henry, Mike, Patty, Craig, Nick, Mo
Game Plan: Deep Half and Z-Guard

It's been blizarding the last couple of days, but we still had a good group for open mat. Mostly because the tournament was cancelled that a few were planning to attend.

Henry: Great challenging roll like usual. We both had our moments of telling the other no when we went for one of our signature moves, like when he sees me setting up deep half or when he tried to guillotine me.  I made a terrible mistake when I was in side control and he made a kimura grip. I thought I could take his back from there but I was wrong and ignored Mike telling me to step over his head.

Mike: We went over the kimura defense and I realized I should have known better. I had a really good moment where I felt like things came together. I escaped to deep half, waiter swept, passed and moved right to NS choke, but his neck always seems too small for me to finish here.  He was able to catch me with a wrist lock.

Patty: He seems to be becoming a regular open mat partner.  There is a lot of back and forth between us and he's competent at defending my deep half. We ended up stalemated and quit rolling out of exhaustion.

Craig: We talked a bit about dealing with low posture in the guard.  We had a good roll, I've been trying to work on escaping side control as quickly as I can when I get there and was able to attempt a couple times here.  One thing that he's good at that most aren't is stiff arming to avoid be passed.

Nick: Started out getting caught in his rubber guard with my arm locked in but I kept his foot between my legs. I got out somehow, I was able to get to a top position for a while and attack a bit.  He eventually choked me from side control using his gi.

Mo: I played some Z guard with him and used it to help sweep. He had a few tricks up his sleeve too as he almost took my back. We discussed some of the lapel stuff after and Mike gave some advice with dealing with the crossface.

Thoughts:

I left open mat not feeling great about my progress. I don't know why though, I rolled relatively well.  I wonder if the feeling will ever go away that I'm not as good as I should be?  Probably not.

December 16th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Side Control: Tripod Escape, Kimura
Partner: Jess, Jesus

Another week of getting the beginner techniques taught by 3 different instructors.  The details were not too different between them though.  One thing that Conan emphasized during the kimura was to put armbar pressure to get the arm off of your shoulder by using the forearm and shoulder to straighten it.  We also discussed kizushi and I'm feeling like my Judo is getting better with the help of Judo Bob and trying to work on off balancing whenever I can.

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Jesus, Jess

I feel like I should have been more insistent on escaping side control today.  I kind of protected myself until I saw my chance to escape, I feel like I need to jump on the escape faster at this point.  One of the good things about Jess is that he likes to go to turtle and I've gotten a lot of practice lately floating and staying in a dominant position and attacking the back.  I am working on moving to the finish after that though.   

December 15th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Side Control: Tripod Escape, Kimura
Partner: Bob, Ben

Greg had Bob teach the throw of the week and I think he "threw" everyone for a loop.  The footwork especially was challenging for some.  Bob teaches to step to the top of the triangle with their feet making the other two angles of the triangle.  From there we meet them half way and pull them forward into us before bending our knees to get under them as we reach around their head and throw. 

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Bob, Jordan, Ben, Jess

Bob did a good job keeping me down in side control, 2 minutes wasn't enough for me to escape this time.  I melted my way into NS choke when it was my turn to be on top.  With Jordan and Ben I felt like I used a little more wrestling after getting the underhook from bottom side to come up on a single leg.  Feeling a little more confident with that.  Ben was fighting hard for grips and I felt like I had to turn up the intensity a bit to match him.  Jess was dog tired when he got to me.  I decided to start from the bottom and work on my escapes to hopefully catch a breather.

Office Hours Partner: Jess, Morgan

Jess had asked me about situp guard yesterday so I showed him a few things that I knew with the single leg and shin on shin to single leg-x.  I meant to show him the lapel stuff from Faria but we got off on a tangent about grip fighting and starting a roll in general.

Morgan asked for some help on SQL (database language) for his new job.  My SQL-Jitsu is strong since I work with it every day at work.  It is tough walking into an unfamiliar database though and trying to learn the schema.

December 14th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Side Control: Tripod Escape, Kimura
Partner: Jess, Tom

Some tips on the techniques of the week:

• Koshi Guruma: Don't grab the shoulder, squeeze their neck.
• Tripod Escape: Once you get the underhook try to bump yourself down so your head won't run into their knee when you bridge and tripod.  This has helped me the most when trying to complete this technique.  
• Kimura: You can't do this setup unless their hand is on your neck and you need to trap it there.  A couple of times during rolling people attempted this on me and when my hand wasn't there they weren't able to lockup the kimura.

Rolling: Side Mount
Rolled With: Jerad, Tom, John

Did well escaping side control.  I avoided getting submitted during this portion today but was unable to get out of Jerad's dominant positions. I went to deep half a few times or used an underhook to escape to turtle.

From the top I setup NS Choke and baseball bat choke.  Jerad again did a good job regaining guard.

Office Hours Partner: John, Morgan, Jerad

I confused John a little bit with my z-guard where I wrapped his lapel around his leg in a half guard.  I've been picking up a few things from the Bernardo Faria DVD that I recently purchased so look forward to more of that. 

Tried some different things when rolling with Jerad. Instead of going to half guard like I normally do I played some de la Riva and general open guard. It resulted in a sweep and I was on top for a while and passed his guard but I couldn't make anything happen submission-wise.

December 13th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Mount: Armbar with Breaking grip options
Partner: Bhuvana

Mike taught setting up the armbar by going off of their reaction to an americana attempt from mount.  We went to technical mount while maintaining a grip on their wrist until we could step over the head.  From there we dealt with them clasping their hands and the bicep grab defense.

One of the biggest things that I worked with Bhuvana on was to sit first instead of falling back too soon and creating momentum for them to get up and stack.

Rolling: Mount
Rolled With: Daniel

The best thing that happened in the roll from the top was my reaction to his bridge where I transitioned right into shin across neck armbar (I've got to figure out a better name for this). From the bottom I escaped to deep half a few times.

Office Hours Partner: Mike

Had some high intensity rolls with Mike, which is what I needed. We finished with some takedown sparring. A couple of good details came out of this.  With the arm in guillotine I was trying to pull up uniformly on his neck and arm, he made one adjustment of keeping my choking hand higher and using the elbow and it made a huge difference.  The other was a single leg defense with a kimura to kind of a butterfly sweep or Judo throw.

December 10th 2016 - Open Mat & Mike's MMA Fight

Open Mat
Rolled With: Bruce, Nick, Ben L, Dave, Greg, Patty, Bhuvana
Game Plan: Bottom - Deep Half Waiter, Top - Over/Under Pass, NS Choke

Bruce: I watched him whoop up on Henry before we rolled so I knew this visitor had some skills.  Apparently he is an instructor from from Sioux Falls who was here to support one of his fighters. I've also seen him on Reddit and he was part of the Fight works podcast and he told me about training with some notable people.

Had a short feel out period and ended up in half guard trying to pass. He swept me and I spent the majority of the roll on the bottom of half.  He was able to apply an enormous amount of pressure with his head on my chest and made it difficult to move. The best thing I did was a waiter sweep from deep half but was unable to hold him down after that.  He eventually took my back and caught me with an RNC.

Nick: There were a few moments of hope that I was going to catch Nick in the beginning of the roll.  I was able to pass his guard for a second and attempt a few attacks. He came back though and eventually setup the truck and worked his way into the twister. He gave me some tips on getting out of the truck position with trying to turn away and get the underhook in the process.

Ben: I felt like he did a lot better than the last time we rolled, his guard retention especially.  I gave him some pointers on defending against the NS choke.

Dave: He says that he's going to start training on Wednesday mornings in the near future.  We rolled a few times and then I gave him a crash course in over/under pass.

Greg: Both a physically and mentally exhausting couple of rolls. There are more things I need to worry about as he can attack me from anywhere and he's doing things that no one else is doing. He is catching me a lot with a half guard back step to leg lock position.

Patty: We had a good roll and he did a few movements that I'm not used to. It's always great to have a skilled visitor come in and we can assimilate a bit of their style. Unfortunately in our second roll he was in the process of taking my back when I bridged and I heard a bone crunching sound. The back of my head was under his jaw and made him chip his teeth a bit. He seemed to be okay and not in any pain.

Bhuvana: I gave her some pointers on Over/Under Pass along with Derek M.  We also covered loop choke and I think something else that I forgot.

Mike's MMA Debut:

Some great fights last night. We had a whole section of tables for LBJJC. At one point I looked back to see our large group wearing our school shirts and had the strange thought that I was a member of a cult. I mean if anything it's a good cult.

The first fight was with Lucas, a guy that came and trained with us a few months ago. He had lost his previous fights and wanted to improve his Jiu-Jitsu. He ended up taking his opponent's back and finishing with an RNC!

Mike walked out to Bruno Mars which my wife appreciated, especially when his opponent came out to the unoriginal "Let the bodies hit the floor" Greg and Nick were in his corner.

I was on the edge of my seat. It's so different watching a fight that involves someone that you know and helped prepare for the fight. My heart was up in my throat as I watched unable to help in any way.

This is all from memory so I may have some of the details off.  Mike came out with a vicious leg kick and his opponent kept his distance. Mike threw a few more kicks until they closed the distance. Mike took his back on top and punching. He was losing the back a little and transitioned into a triangle. He took a few shots while locking it up but kept from getting picked up or slammed. Close to the end if the round he turned it into an armbar that was super tight and got the tap. Our section exploded and I could relax again. Mike had won his first fight!

There were some pretty good fights the rest of the night most of them finishing. Mike got submission of the night. It was great meeting some wives and training partners that I don't see as often. There was some backseat fight analysis going on but at least we're more educated about the fight game then the people yelling "rip his head off!"

Link to fight

December 9th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Double Leg, Mount Americana, Side Control Bread Cutter
Partner: Craig, Jess

Light class as I expected with the cold weather.  Unfortunately Jess had to sit early because he tweaked his back. 

We had a bit of a discussion about the bread cutter and Conan showed it one way and I showed it another. The major difference had to do with how deep of a grip that you take. Both work and can cause a tap so no worries just 2 different ways to do something.

Rolling: Free Rolling
Rolled With: Craig, Conan

Had some good rolls with Craig and he's continuing to show improvement with his passing and guard retention.  On our last roll I played a little more defensively from the bottom and had a few points where I was able to recover from being in trouble but maybe wasn't the best technique at times like holding on to a straight leg butterfly hook for too long.

Conan and I have tough battles which often go his way.  He has a way of getting on top and stripping away my defenses and making pressure along the way. It makes it important for me to get the upper hand early. I'm finding this to be a forced change to my game with trying to deal with him and Jerad.

Thoughts: 

I felt a little more bold trying to pass Conan's guard and threw some torreando and x-passes in there.  Mostly because I've been drilling x-pass lately.  I felt like they were almost there but I still wasn't passing his guard.  So what's missing?  The techniques are sound and high percentage.  From my understanding I'm doing the passes correctly, but I obviously could be doing something better.  It very well could be details I'm overlooking or that I could be doing it faster or that I need to set it up differently.  It all amounts to drilling more and not settling for lazy subpar techniques.  It's part of the rabbit hole of BJJ being a lifelong pursuit.

December 8th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Double Leg, Mount Americana, Side Control Bread Cutter
Partner: Jess

Light class today, must have been too cold for some people. Tips for this week's techniques:

• Double Leg: After you have turned the corner I've been given the advice to try to look behind their back.
• Americana: I like to use my head on the back of my hand to keep their arm pinned while I setup my grips.
• Bread Cutter: Make sure you grab the collar with your hand under the collar, don't settle for the shoulder.

Rolling: Mount, Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Jess, Daniel, Tom

Jess was able to bridge out of my mount the first roll so I took him more seriously after that. I think I missed an opportunity for the shin armbar.

I've noticed Daniel improving in his half guard. I'm having a hard time passing it at times.

I tried the moves of the day a few times but was only able to use them to setup other things.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

Tom has been doing great with his defense. We discussed this with Jerad yesterday as I remember going through a phase like this where I could give people a hard time submitting me but I also wasn't actively escaping at the same time. It's cool to see relative milestones in others.

We discussed the spiral armbar position from half guard and a couple of possibilities from there. Greg also showed me how to complete a bow and arrow when they've grabbed their collar above my grip. I needed to grab their hand with my free hand to change my grip to even higher than theirs.

December 7th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Grip Fighting: Standing, Guard, Back Mount
Partner: Jordan, Tom

It's great that we've had more than a couple people in Wednesday morning class lately.  I was starting to question if the class would stick around with the attendance being so low. 

Since everyone was pretty experienced Jerad taught a class on grip breaks that he got some good feedback on before. It's one of those parts of BJJ that took a while to realize how important it is.

Rolling: Free Rolling
Rolled With: Jerad, Jordan, Morgan

Had to do some maneuvering a few times to get past Morgan's guard.  Close to the end of the round, I looked up and saw 20 seconds left and told him that he was down on points and needed a guard pass.

Office Hours Partner: Tom, Jerad

Rolled With Tom and he did a decent job from top half guard. It slowed me down quite a bit. We discussed inverted triangle and avoiding it.

I can't seem to get the upper hand on Jerad or if I do it's not for long.  I did feel like I frustrated him at times with some of my lapel guard attempts.  I have to come up with a different mindset when I roll with him and look for securing the little victories especially hand and grip fighting right from the start.  As I was getting changed I heard Jerad giving Tom advice on how to beat my half guard.  I told them to stop it.

December 6th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Shawn William's Guard: Armbar, Omoplata
Partner: Jess, Ben

Good training session on SW guard.  I have yet to do this position effectively in rolling and I'm not sure why.  Might be because I'm usually not in closed guard that often in no gi.  It was nice to work on an omoplata technique during regular class as that doesn't happen often.  We had a little trouble at first getting our legs in the right position to complete the armbar but it had to do with straightening our bottom leg to get their elbow to raise and then move the hips around to get the leg around the head. 

Rolling: Closed Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Jess, Mike

Had 2 rolls with Jess and did my best to take it to him.  I think I'm going to start using him to improve my wrestling, aggression, and pressure game.  He gives pretty good resistance and I do well playing guard with him, but I think it would be good for me to play more toward his strength to learn from it.

Mike is fight ready and we had a lot of scrambly type stuff with some light punching mixed in.  He was especially hard to hang on to today.

Office Hours Partner: John

Great roll with John and he gave me more trouble today than he has in the past.  There was a point when he was attempting to escape my side control and Mike kept telling me to heel hook him, but I didn't know what to do.  He showed us the setup from the basic side control recover.  I really need to get better at my leg locks.  Mike showed us After rolling I showed him some of my north/south choke specifics and he seemed to like it.

December 3rd 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Daniel, Greg, Will, Craig, Frank
Game Plan: Bottom - Loop Choke, Top - Spiral Armbar, Armbar with Shin across neck

Daniel: I suggested he drill Japanese necktie as an alternative to arm in guillotine from top half guard that he was having trouble with.  I drilled going to armbar from mount as they bridge to shin on neck.  I'm finding myself in this situation a lot lately and would like to defend it better.  We rolled a few times that.

Greg: We worked on a side control escape sequence that he got off of a video.  It's similar to escaping a kesa getami by swinging your legs, you then push on their armpit and eventually recover to a dog collar like grip and finally, butterfly.

Will: During our first roll, I ended up catching him in an inverted triangle that took a long time to finish. Afterward, we looked at my calf which had his ear imprinted on it.  We had another tough roll after that.

Craig: He's getting better at both maintaining and passing guard.  I realized this because I got a little frustration trying to pass his guard and maintain mine at other times.

Frank: We rolled no gi for a while and then discussed avoiding guard passes and some tips to maintain butterfly guard.

December 2nd 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Armbar from Mount variations
Partner: Craig

Conan had us do a few setups for the armbar to isolate the arm and go to s-mount, then to recover if they get their elbow free, then we worked on breaking the grips and preventing other defenses.  I tried my best not to put all of my weight on Craig's chest for the whole drilling portion, because S-mount can be brutal.

Rolling: Mount, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Craig, Jesus, Jess

Felt good about my attacks.  I got to play around with the armbar where they bridge and push with a straight arm.  Its not quite belly down armbar but kind of a hip switch with the shin across their neck to a kimura grip.  I'm feeling better about going to this position and not as worried about kicking people in the head as I do it.

December 1st 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing Headlock Escape to Hammerlock, Mount: Armbar, Elbow Escape
Partner: Bhuvana, Byrav

Got in late again today, hopefully this work stuff will get back to normal soon.  I missed working on the headlock escape and warm-up.  Well, I didn't actually miss them, I just wasn't there to do them.  Not much to say about drilling techniques.  Greg showed a few grip breaks for when they clasp their hands for the armbar.

Rolling: Mount, Free Rolling


Felt good about all of my rolling today.  Went to deep half waiter a few times while escaping mount.  I'm feeling pretty good about the changes I've made to the technique recently.  I feel like Jess is getting better all of the time and can be difficult to deal with.  He doesn't threaten to submit me at the moment but he is explosive enough at times to get out of positions, I'll have to keep an eye on him.  Another technique that has been pretty solid for me lately is the Japanese necktie, it's a lot easier for my short arms than the darce especially if I'm already in half guard.

Office Hours Partner: Frank

I rolled a few times with Frank and then gave him some tips on the leg drag pass position as he almost had me there but didn't staple my leg and I was able worm my way back to a guard.