March 14th 2017 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Week #6 RNC Defense with O-soto gari, Back Mount: Escape, RNC
Partner: Jeff, Giovanni

Small class tonight, what happened?  I want to get some sleep so I'll make this short.

Tips on techniques of the week:

• O-soto gari: Take them down
• Back Mount Escape: Get out of back mount
• RNC: Choke them

Rolling: Back Mount, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Everyone

Had some good rolls. Both Jeff and Giovanni are strong and have decent body control. I helped them both a bit with back mount related stuff and some guard passing for the gi.

Mike and I had a couple of good battles from the back. He had a nice toe hold attempt that he turned into a knee bar when I defended it.

March 3rd 2017 - MMA

Theme & Techniques: Shawn Williams' Guard
Partner: Clint

Nick is out of town for his participation in the first Combat Jiu-Jitsu competition for EBI. Awesome to have someone representing us in the debut!

We still got some work done. Mike taught the basics of SW Guard pretty much the same as he has in the no gi class but with the added dynamic of MMA gloves and avoiding punches.  The grips were definitely different. From there we transitioned to armbar, triangle, and omoplata.

Sparring: Guard Position, Stand-up
Rolled With: Clint, Cody, Henry, Mike, Jerad

Had to dig deep today during sparring, we didn't take many breaks and we all rolled with each other.

I had the most trouble with Henry, he seemed to slip right through my guard and when I attempted to snatch up a kimura he reversed it into an armbar.

I did have some success with the omoplata sweep a few times but also messed it up by going for a toe hold. I'm still having a hard time with disengaging and attempting to stand up, I have to remember that it's a desired option.

From the feet my main goal was to keep my hands up and not give away how tired I was. I used Nick's advice from a few weeks ago that you have to conserve energy and be defensive until you catch your breath.  Otherwise I had a few good kicks and felt better about my movement.

February 28th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Back Mount: Chair Sit, RNC
Partner: Frank

Good info on the chair sit position and transitioning to the back.  It's such an important movement that I use anytime to get to the back or regain control as someone is escaping.  We did the standard arm trap by controlling the underhooked hand and pushing the other hand into a leg trap.  Apparently on my left side I wasn't lining up the elbow properly or getting the choke deep enough.  Made some small adjustments and will watch that side in the future. 

Rolling: Backmount Up/Down/Out
Rolled With: Mike, Daniel, Ben, Frank

Our first round we started from the harness grip with the goal of getting to the back.  Great exercise and I feel like I excel there from offensively and defensively.  Offensively I find a tight harness in combination with my butterfly hooks to be very important.  Defensively I try to bridge into my opponent and get my back flat to the mat and get off to the side.  During that process I monitor my arm to watch for the head and arm choke and I start looking for half guard. 

During the up/down/out portion Mike and I had some tough exchanges.  There was a point when he had my arm trapped in his legs and he started to work on my other arm.  I saw a chance to escape and stack but an armbar came on fast and I had to yell "tap!".  I hate it when that happens as I want to avoid injury at all costs and sometimes things change in a split second.  Everything is fine though.  Later on there was a point when I was on his back and was able to get the cross wrist grab and went right for the RNC.  We fought grips for a while and I almost swallowed some of his hair but eventually I got the choke locked in.  For a while I was over his face and he said he likes to bring the choke down to the chest when that happens to kind of lock their jaw in there. 

There was another situation where he was escaping and I started with an arm triangle and somehow transitioned to a guillotine from half guard.  I fell to my side which felt like the right thing to do but it helped him escape. 

Office Hours Partner: Mike

Mike and I discussed the guillotine from top half after class and he gave me some ideas for how to finish it.  I should be using it to pass more rather than fall to the bottom.  Also when he put on the marcelotine as a demonstration I was miserable. 

We had some good rolls after class with a lot of transitions and him coming out on top.  His positions were solid and he kept himself just out of reach of where I feel my strengths are.  It was a good reminder that I still have a lot to learn.  We had a few leg lock entanglements are more attacking for the back. 

After rolling I asked to drill some crucifix and I felt pretty good about my transitions from armbar to choke.  He seems to favor the choke where I have been focusing on the armbar.  He gave me a tip on controlling the far arm at the hand more and also using my knee more to separate the arm from under them to help get the position.  I think my leg control over the arm is coming along very well. 

We discussed our individual improvement over the last year with our additional training per week.  

February 14th 2017 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Collar Tie Snap Down: Front Headlock to Turtle, Guillotine, Jump to Guillotine
Partner: Josh J

Just me and Josh today and Mike had a tough time giving us coaching advice while we were rolling.  "Josh get an underhook" or "Josh, don't let him do that" usually I assumed that he was talking to Johnson. 

We worked mostly from standing with the snapdown.  I felt like I was doing pretty well while drilling the move.  We controlled the chin and the bicep and tried to snap them into the headlock position.  Once we started sparring from that position it seemed pretty easy for both of us to strip the chin grip off.  Sparring from the position was good for me and we had some good back and forth scrambles.  I'm shit at no gi takedowns and mostly jumped on guillotines when they presented themselves.  I think I just need to put myself out there a little more and try and fail and single and double legs, I just always feel like I'm too far away when I attempt them.

Josh wondered how we were good at remembering and recalling what occurred during rolls.  In the process of writing this blog I've gotten very good at making mental notes while rolling to talk about later in the blog.  Sometimes I struggle and can't even remember everyone that I rolled with during open mat.  I definitely remember my failures more than my successes unless it's something that I'm working on to improve specifically. 

January 3rd 2017 - No Gi All Levels & Review of 2016

2016 Quick Review

I trained by far more classes last year than any previous year.  A lot of that has to do with being able to attend multiple day classes a week and it was common that I trained 6 days a week.  My growth feels pretty steady and I don't feel like I spend too much time on a plateau.  I had a lot of fun teaching and watching people use techniques and positions that I showed them.

2016 Improvements:

• I got in a lot more no gi training this year since we started the noon Tuesday class last November.  Here is where I've dipped my toes (ha ha) into leg lock positions and submissions mostly with the help of Mike but also because I've felt like his dummy for him to practice on.
• I had a huge push to get better at dealing with athletic people.  I've improved my attacking, aggression, wrestling, and ultimately my attitude when rolling.  
• With the inclusion of Judo Bob earlier in the year, I've also come a long way with Judo throws and have narrowed down my focus to Tai Toshi, Drop Seio Nage, and foot sweeps which I'll continue to work on. 
• I've continued to improve my "A" game with cross guard, omoplatas, deep half, over/under pass, north/south chokes

Looking ahead to 2017

• Continue with leg lock stuff
• Improve my back control and finishing
• Feel comfortable with the Judo throws that I outlined above
• Flowing during transitions from sweeps and guard passes

Theme & Techniques: Tripod Escape from Side Control
Partner: Bob

Got some good drilling in and got some good resistance from Bob.  We got off on tangents a few times but it was better than just being a push over.  The most important detail that I worked on today was during the pass and moving to smash pass/dope mount.  I didn't totally get it figured out, but could feel what Mike was doing when demonstrating it on me.  The twist of their spine is important.

Rolling: Free Rolling
Rolled With: Bob, Mike (Visitor), Justin

I took the attitude of attacking from butterfly guard, but it didn't work as well as expected.

Nonetheless, I performed fine and eventually ended up in good positions.  Bob and Justin both presented similar challenges with their strong base and their ability to put pressure effectively.

Mike was pretty good at keeping posture and had some strong positional work.  Never know what to expect with a visitor especially since I didn't know what belt he was or how long he trained.  I had a good deep half waiter sweep but in the transition from sweep to pass he got his knee free, will need to figure out how to prevent this.

Office Hours Partner: Justin, Mike A

Mike and I discussed butterfly in no gi and how my approach to butterfly was crap. I should just hand fight with good posture and be patient like MG.  So I'll work on that.

I attempted to apply the butterfly stuff with Justin as we rolled and it took some mental effort to avoid bad habits.

Rolled with Mike and he mostly whooped me, but I'm happy with an exchange that we had with 50/50.  We were there for quite a while as I attacked heel hooks and toe holds. I applied a lot of what I've picked up from the 50/50 DVD like "rule of thumb" and pushing the free leg away. He also commented that my choices for when to attack and defend were feeling more natural.

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 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 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.

October 18th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Half guard hip switch pass & back take
Partner: Henry

Mike had us work on one of my favorite pass positions from half guard. One detail that he emphasized was to get behind their triceps with your triceps. It wasn't something that I considered that important as I'm attacking the kimura if their arm is in or trying to pass to mount if their arm is out. Getting behind the tricep helps prevent them framing and is more desirable. Henry and I went off in tangents a few times with rolling back takes and other setups.

Rolling: Half Guard
Rolled With: Henry, Tom, Jesus

Had some good rolls. Henry did well with his inversions from the bottom and guillotine attempts from the top.

With both Jesus and Tom I was able to get to deep half from the bottom as they left too much space with their knee.  I also helped Tom isolate an arm and crossface to get mount.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

We rolled a few times and he shut down my NS choke. When I commented about not getting what I wanted he said something like, "I'm still on the bottom defending." We worked on the hip switch a bit more along with getting and underhook and coming up to the dog fight position.

August 2nd 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Neon Belly Escape to Dog Fight, Smash Pass
Partner: Tom

We did a knee on belly escape where you place your near hand on their knee and move yourself away.  As the knee falls to the floor we shot for an underhook and came up to an elbow looking to get to the dog fight position.  From there we went for the far leg for the double leg to get to smash position followed by windshield wiper or a transition into mount. 

Rolling: KOB, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Tom, Tim, Frank, Mike

Some interesting things happened with knee on belly.  I was able to setup the north south choke quite a few times as people tend to focus more on the knee.  Tim did a pretty good job of going for a single leg and we ended up in kind of a scrambly position where I was trying to get to the other side while he hung on to my leg.  Both times ended up okay for me but I would have liked to find a way to avoid it completely.

Mike and I had a tough roll and because he's preparing for MMA there were a few times he would mimic punching when he was in a good position for it.  Didn't mind and I think it's a good idea for him to be looking for that.  Had some good leg lock exchanges.  I need to put some more time into figuring out leg lock positions in the near future.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

Had a good roll that ended with a Japanese necktie.  So we worked on that for a while with Mike's help.  I'm really liking this technique and I can see replacing the darce with it especially if I don't feel like I can get to my bicep.

I'm honored to announce a meme featuring this blog posted by Henry on Facebook!

July 26th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Side Control Side Switch to the Back, Neon Belly Side Switching
Partner: Kit

Mike was showing the techniques from today to someone (maybe Bhuvana) last week, so I think he got the idea to teach it today.  It was a great thing to work on as I would like to get better at this.  The first couple times I had some trouble blocking the underhook but Mike gave some tips on blocking it.  I still need to work on keeping lower and ensuring I get behind their shoulder.  Kit did very well for his second class but I think he has trained in the past. 

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Kit, Bob, Justin

As I rolled with Kit he kept telling me I was very strong.  I tried to assure him that I was being pretty relaxed and trying to be as technical as possible.  It's been a while since anyone has said that too me and I wasn't sure how I should take it.  He had some skill and knew the objective of the exercise so I didn't feel like I could use kid gloves on him either. 

Bob did a good job from the top and bottom.  He pointed out that his habit of giving up his back was bad and I should punish him for it.  I wasn't sure if he meant the punishment should go beyond just taking his back since we would normally just stop there.  He was hard to hold down while on the bottom of side control which is something I need to get better at dealing with in no gi so it was good practice for me.

Office Hours Partner: Justin

Rolled with Justin at the end of class and a few times after class.  A few things came up that I gave him pointers on like jumping cross body to defend a guillotine, and head placement when attempting singles and doubles to avoid the guillotine.  I give him props for making me work in no gi.  He has a wrestling background and has pretty good movement so I had to deal with that and I want to get better at my own wrestling. 

July 19th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Back Control: Regaining Position from Escape Attempt, Transitioning to Kimura Grip; Straight Ankle Lock
Partner: Jesus

Mike taught a good class today on a topic that everyone that wants to attack the back should know (so everyone).  He covered a lot of stuff about the harness grip that I've been passing on lately as well like the importance of using the elbows and the chin on the shoulder.  I really liked the details that he put in when transitioning to the kimura.  How to control someone with a kimura grip is something I'm still trying to figure out as I still lose it in a few situations.  The major take away from the ankle lock setup is that I can bring my foot a little more across their hip than I thought.

Rolling: Free Rolling, Guard KOTM
Rolled With: Nick, Ben, Jesus, Tom, Tim

Did some good things in rolling today after writing yesterdays sob story of a post.  The ups and downs are a real thing in this sport and it's good to be reminded of that once in a while.  I had some great feedback from friends on Facebook that appreciated the post.  The thought that upper belts have bad days too was refreshing to some.

I've been working on incorporating arm drags in my no gi game a little more lately.  It seems my no gi guard game currently consists of butterfly guard to either hook sweep, single leg-x, kimura, guillotine, arm drag or fall into half guard (okay that seems like a lot).  I played some deep half as well today and need to work on tightening up my no gi deep half as it's feeling a little loosy-goosy. 

Office Hours Partner: Ben, Mike, Tom

Went over my ideas on cross guard in no gi with Ben. Mike also showed us some side to side transitions from side control.

July 12th 2016 - No Gi All Levels (Bachelor Week 2016 Part 2)

I will be training as much as I can for another full week due to my wife and kids going out of town to see my in-laws.  Before anyone asks, everything is fine, they're just bored at home while school is out and I'm at work all day.  So cheap vacation to grandpas mixes things up a bit.  So I'll get in some more training and fix some things around the house and also try to get in some video game playing time. 

Theme & Techniques: Half Butterfly Kimura
Partner: Bhuvana

Great info put forth by Mike today.  Kimura from half guard is something that I play around with occasionally, so it's good to get some extra details.  Bhuvana was pretty excited that the techniques look more difficult than they are during instruction, especially the back take magic trick. 

Rolling: Half Butterfly KOTM
Rolled With: Jordan, Daniel, Tom, Jesus, Mike, Justin

Had some good tough rolls, but it was half guard so I did my best to maintain my crown at all costs.  I'm really feeling good about the limp arm from dog fight since Mike showed it last week I've found a couple of uses for it where I would normally try a roll back sweep but instead I'm attacking the back so I'll keep that in my hip pocket. 

Office Hours Partner: Mike

We discussed a few of those Cyborg techniques and half guard in general and had a good conversation about teaching.  Well gotta run so I can get something to eat before the next class.

July 5th 2016 - No Gi

Theme & Techniques: Half Guard Torque Position: Dog Fight Takedown, Sweep, Limp Arm to Back Control
Partner: Ben, Tom

Gained some great details from today's class.  I've known for a while that I'm a little lazy with my no gi underhook from half guard.  In gi I feel like I get away with it because I usually grab the belt, but no gi I really need to get a hold of the far hip bone.  The other detail during the sweep was that I'm better off going under their leg instead of trying to control the knee like I do in the gi so some good stuff today. 

Rolling: KOTM Half Guard
Rolled With: Mike A, Tom, Ben, Harvey, Dave

Had success with half guard and pulled off the torque sweep or came up with it.  Didn't find a time to attempt the limp arm.  I played a lot of different things in half guard and felt good about my breadth of diversity in my techniques. 

Mike and I had a good roll with a lot of transitions.  Primarily I went to deep half and some other positions.  I ended up in kind of a leg drag position after going for single leg x and we talked about that after and that I should have looked for full x guard before he came down to his knee. 

Office Hours Partner: Mike, Harvey, Tom

We talked some more half guard after class and discussed some passing options and defenses.  Smash pass probably took up the significant portion of time. 

June 28th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: X-Guard: Butterfly Sweep to X, Ankle Grab Sweep, Technical Stand-up sweep
Partner: Tom

Building on last week's class of single leg x and a little full x, Mike taught the basic entry from a failed butterfly sweep.  I think the big thing for Tom was getting him to focus more on getting his upper body into position during the transition rather than worrying about getting the legs right from the start.  I think quite a few people had some trouble with the stand-up sweep so I would suggest practicing it when they have a knee down to get used to coming up.

Rolling: Up/Down/Out X-Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Mike, Jordan, Bhuvana, Byrav, Bob, Tim, Tom

X-Guard is very difficult to pass and starting from the position proved very difficult for the top person.  Sometimes I could untangle the feet but a few times I was only able to pass after they swept and were trying to come up.  From the bottom, I felt pretty good about my control and was able to transition to other guards if things got dicey.  There were a few issues with trying to control sweaty wrists when trying to do the low ankle sweep. 

Office Hours Partner: Mike

We discussed a torque sweep variation with some inversion that resembles a wrestling switch ending up in a nasty leg drag torque position.  Have to look at it more but we were liking it.  We rolled a couple times and I'm still falling for leg lock stuff.  I tried to be a little more patient and realized that is how I'm getting caught by him most of the time.  We also had a pretty cool scramble where I caught a guillotine and swept.  I felt like my angle was bad on the choke and I was losing it but the idea of switching to a no arm darce felt like a natural transition and it worked very well.

June 21st 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Single Leg X, Entry from Butterfly Half, Double ankle sweep, Transition to X-Guard
Partner: Justin

Mike taught the entry from butterfly half guard, which is a position I'll find myself in with bigger guys.  From there we were only reacting to if they were putting forward pressure which usually is what happens otherwise we would go for an underhook and work regular half guard.  With the forward pressure we would rock them forward and then push to the side to put the free leg into the single leg x position. 

Justin took right too this and I told him that it was probably something he should work on and experiment with because it works well with his body type.

Rolling: KOTM: Single Leg X
Rolled With: Ian, Ben, Justin, Mike, Sam, Jordan, Dave

Had some success with sweeping with the basic single leg x sweep, I did have to resort to full x a few times and got passed by Mike once or twice.  Ben gave me some trouble with finishing the sweep, I think I just needed to pull my leg out that was on the hip and come up, because I was kind of stuck on my side.  I tried to coach people into using their hips more.  To sweep from single leg x in my opinion requires a lot of lifting and engaging of the hips.

Office Hours Partner: Dave, Mike

Dave did rather well during our roll.  His base was very good and prevented a few things that I wanted.  There was a point when he didn't fight from a dog fight position and kind of fell over, and Mike and I showed him how to put a little extra pressure with the wizzer. 

Mike and I had a couple great rolls that made me sore and late to get back to work.  Tough battles as usual and thought provoking.  I'm working hard to try new things when we end up in the same positions over and over.  Had some leg lock exchanges that I'm feeling better about defending and still realizing that I've got a lot to learn. 

We went over waiter sweep after rolling and how he often goes right to heel hook or knee bar during the sweep.  We determined that I need to put my foot more up into the armpit to prevent that as I setup the sweep.  This is the great part of having good teammates, he didn't have to help me figure out a way to defend something that he always does to me but he did it to help me progress and ultimately himself if I am able to figure this out he'll have to find a new answer.

June 7th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Shawn Williams' Guard: Position, Armbar, Omoplata
Partner: Bhuvana

Mike had a little different setup for SW guard than Greg has been teaching and I kind of like it.  He said that in no gi if their hand is on the ground then he's going for the SW guard.  The toughest part for me is figuring out how to move my hips while having my arm under my leg.  Because if I try to use the leg to push with it affects my grip on their neck.  I'll have to work with it more to figure the position out. 

It seemed like everyone had a bit of a problem with the armbar which I think had mostly to do with hip movement. Omoplata was fun as usual.  The coolest part was some of the alternate finishes that Greg went over with putting the triangled leg in the armpit or under the leg were very doable.

Rolling: SW Guard
Rolled With: Morgan, Robert

We started in the SW guard which gave the guard person a leg up so to speak.  It was a good idea because I could see most of us preventing even getting to the guard and no one actually getting practice with it.  Had a tough time with Robert.  Every time I was close to sweeping him or whatever wrestling would happen and he would take the top position.  I really need to work on my wrestling and no gi.

Office Hours Partner: Mike

We rolled a bit but I felt a step behind.  Probably having to do with the tough week that I just completed.  I did some good things and prevented quite a few leg locks but mostly I was defending the whole time and then tapping.  I just need to recover a bit but good rolling nonetheless. 

May 25th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Defense Takedown, Half Guard Underhook: Back Take, Reguard
Partner: Chris

Half guard is completely it's own animal.  It is pretty difficult to liken it to any other position besides maybe open guard because there are so many variations.  Basic half guard can have different foot positions with which foot you hook their leg and different hand positions with how you make your frame or how you grab.  Then there is deep half, butterfly half, hip switch half, knee shield, and others plus variations on those others.  

Some tips on the techniques of the week:

• Standing Guillotine: Once you get to the ground switching the grip from their back to their shoulder to get a deep crossface is important.
• HG Back Take: Opening up their knee after getting under their arm works wonders while getting the harness grip
• HG Reguard: I have a lot of success with this after trying to sweep them quite often.  After they wizzer I'll try to turn them onto their butt which usually lifts their weight enough to bring my leg into butterfly position sometimes I'll get a butterfly sweep but if they come back I'll get full guard at least.

Rolling: Half Guard
Rolled With: Chris, Drew, Tom

Felt good with my half guard as usual and did what I could to help the other guys with their framing and going for underhooks.  I went to deep half a couple times and hit a waiter sweep one of the times so pretty happy about that. 

When free rolling with Chris I was setting up a spiral armbar from side control.  As I stepped over and planted my hand he tried to knock my base out by kicking my arm, but it locked it out a little bit and was pretty jarring which made me actually put more pressure on the spiral armbar than I had anticipated.  So we both kind of went "awe fuck" at the same time.  My elbow seems fine now but I was a little worried about it at first.  Chris had an existing collar bone injury that I hope this didn't make worse. 

Office Hours Partner: Chris, Mike, Tom

We went over some ezekiel stuff with Chris.  I showed the technique from quarter guard as my preferred option but Mike argued that mount was the better place to learn the technique first.  Which I think we were both correct.  Probably better to just worry about the choke at first from a safe position like mount before having to deal with setting it up from a less stable position, but the choke seems to be more high percentage in the transition than from a static mount.

On that topic, Mike showed me an option to setup the spiral armbar from the top of quarter guard that I am interested in playing around with.  You couldn't finish the armbar from there very well without freeing the leg but that wasn't too difficult.  Then Tom practiced a few spider guard sweeps before calling it a day.

May 24th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Side Control to Mount Transition, Arm Triangle, Transition to Back Mount
Partner: Frank

My back was super tight going into class today, like I had a huge knot in the middle and couldn't do anything about it.  Some time with the roller helped but then Mike had us do some partner carries up and down the floor.  They were piggy back, fire fighter, double leg, and the worst the bride carry.  I was worried that this would fuck up my back for sure but I was fine.  Then we did 3 sets of 50 triangles with other exercises in between and Fuji wasn't even in attendance.  I think all of that actually helped my back relax because I feel good now.

The transition from side to mount that Mike taught is something I use often.  Getting my hips turned away and controlling their top knee to step over works very well.  From mount we worked on getting a deep cross face and then walking their arm up to get the arm triangle.  The detail that helped me improve this the most was that Mike had us stretch our legs out like grape vining while walking the arm up.  Then if they were to bridge away, letting them move a bit and transitioning to the back.

Rolling: Bottom Mount KOTM, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Robert, Mike, Tom, Frank, Harvey, Ben

The person on the bottom of mount was the king today which makes it interesting.  I was able to maintain the crown for quite a while being dethroned by Mike and I wasn't able to dethrone Robert but had great matches with both of them.  Most of the time I was able to escape to deep half by catching the foot.  Where I went wrong with both Robert and Mike was when I attempted the mounted triangle they were able to create a frame.  So I'll have to think of better ways to set that up.

Robert and I did a free roll and it was a pretty good match.  By this time it was super slippery and we both had some troubles with slipping.  He stayed on top mostly and we both had some good attempts at guillotines and did some half guard and butterfly work.

Office Hours Partner: Tom

We rolled and he did a good job of keeping me from submitting him with my normal stuff.  I think his defenses have improved a lot lately.  I kept trying to setup spiral armbar but I'm still having a problem with getting their arm into position and keeping it there with my step up.