August 8th 2015 - Kids & Open Mat

Kids Class
Technique: Half Guard Recover Full Guard, Passing Half Guard  

Rolling/Game: Half Guard Position, Free Rolling

Kids were good this whole week.  Jayden is still a little slow on the warm-ups and has to be told to hurry back in line often, but he seems to be trying more.  I'm hoping that they can keep coming at least 2 times a week once school starts.  During drilling they both did well with the techniques minus forgetting to switch feet every now and again.  Jayden had a success today during rolling with his brother.  He showed that he really wanted it from the top position and passed his guard using the technique from the drilling portion of class.  Jace is my little back taker, he seems to be able to find back mount quite a bit while rolling. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Darijo, Alejandro, Fuji, Will, Mike (New)
Game Plan: Bottom - Deep Half Waiter Sweep Top - Ezekiel


Jerad: Had several tough rolls with him.  I actually reached deep half on him and swept, that was a first.  But, he prevented my over/under pass sufficiently.  Eventually he was on top again and I felt like he was forcing me to think more than I'm used to while rolling.  He caught me with a cross collar choke, mostly because I didn't think he could finish it.  During another roll I spent some time on top.  I attacked as much as I could attempting NS choke, guillotine, and kimura but I was never able to finish.  Eventually he reversed me and eventually worked to a submission. 

Darijo: He has gotten better since last time we rolled and did a few things that were tough to deal with.  He was pretty good at defending my deep half, I went for waiter but he went forward too much so I had to come out the back.  I should have probably went for the x-guard. 

Alejandro: I'll call it a good day since I made it to deep half on him, where I usually can't manage to get to any type of meaningful guard.  I almost defended an armbar as well using the RNC hand position defense, I came up on it but he eventually pried it free.  Other than that he destroyed me. 

Fuji: In the beginning I felt pretty good about retaining guard.  I eventually messed up and he passed and I spent the rest of our roll on the bottom of side control.  The rolls following he had me attack from back mount and side control.  I did a good job of controlling him and floating when I needed to.  Eventually he always escaped though.  It's always a little frustrating to roll with him, but I know it's good for me.

Will: This was probably the most methodical roll I've ever had with anyone.  He started on top and we ended up in half guard.  He slowed the pace way down and did his best to prevent me from moving as he attempted to progress his position.  I ended up in butterfly and full guard off and on with him still keeping good top pressure.  Eventually I got a sweep and came on top, I surprised him with an ezekiel choke soon after.  I watched some youtube videos on the technique recently and saw that many would drive their hand to the other side of their neck before putting pressure with the choke.  I tried this probably 4 times today and was very successful.

Mike: He's still pretty new so I did my best to challenge myself with some different sweeps and passes.  After a few rolls I gave him some pointers on starting from bottom and top and protecting himself from side control.  He wanted to roll a few times more and thanked me for my advice.