November 29th - Gi (Wanting More)

Got to class a little late yesterday.  It didn't seem like I missed too much, everyone was already in groups working on knee on belly.  We worked on staying low and keeping pressure and sliding the knee up there deceptively.  Generally I like to push off my opponent and kind of hop up to knee on belly so I had to stop and think about doing it this way. 

We progressed to taking mount and preventing our leg from getting trapped in the process.  From there we stayed low in mount and grapevined the legs worked into 2 different submissions.  The first one was the basic americana which I'm always trying to improve my head pressure to get the technique.  The last submissions was the arm triangle choke which I've always had problems with.  Once I think I've figured it out, I find someone that will foil it easily.  I can never get the pressure on the shoulder right or I'm not low enough or my hips aren't correct, or Jerad just rolls me over.  I was partnered with Greg this time and he gave me some key points to make it tighter from the mount before stepping over to side mount. 

During open mat I surprised attacked Sara and we had a good couple of roles.  She is so tiny compared to me and I try to be considerate of that but also try not pander to her.  So my usual approach with someone much smaller is to take the bottom position and work technically from my back (except for Mike he always makes me try to pass his guard).  She is fairly difficult to keep in guard and was good at knee sliding to pass and staying mobile.  It seemed like her goal was to gi choke me because I felt like I was defending high collar grabs and a couple bow and arrow attempts.  I did a submission combination of cross guard to omma plata to triangle and then had to use a wristlock because I felt her weaseling out of my triangle.  She wasn't a huge fan of the wristlock.  Our second match was similar.  I try to sweep and work from the bottom and she attempted to pass my guard.  Conan shouted that there was 30 seconds left so I decided to put a little pressure on and put her into side mount.  Time ended without a victor.

As we got dressed and started to leave the dojo, I realized that I wanted more.  I was nowhere near being satisfied with Jiu-Jitsu for the day.  Too bad the kids' Judo class starts so soon after our class.  Makes me want to use the time in class more wisely and maybe push myself a little harder to do more reps.  Can't wait until open mat after work today.