October 6th 2016 - Gi All Levels (Ray's Return?)

Theme & Techniques: Head Lock escape to valley drop, Back Mount: Basic Escape, RNC
Partner: Sara

Ray walked into class today after a long time (years?) of not training.  He taped his ankle like it was in a cast and spoke about expecting to be humbled upon his return.  I hope his fears about not being as good as when he left don't keep him away since most of us consider him family. 

Tips on Techniques of the week:

• Valley Drop: I find this to be one of the more fun self defense techniques because you really get to whip your opponent around.  Sara did a great job with it against me.  Make sure you pull on their far arm as you step in a circular motion.
• Escaping back mount: Fighting to get your head on the side that you want to escape to is the #1 priority, followed by getting your shoulders to the floor.
• RNC: I feel more confident in my gi chokes than this one in the gi, but would like to get better at it.  The more I work on trapping my opponent's arm the better I feel about the choke.

Rolling: Back Mount, Half Guard
Rolled With: Bhuvana, Ray, Sara, Ben, Tim, Justin

Had some good rolls today.  Didn't hit any RNCs but did escape with deep half and saw some others do it too.  It's a very valid back mount go to escape.  Then when we did some half guard I saw some more deep half. 

Rolling with Ray was an experience as always.  He complimented me saying that I'm a lot better than I was.  He did try the ankle lock from inside my back mount that I was a worried about but was able to find the angle to avoid having to tap this time.  He was able to escape to deep half as I was with him.  I was torn about being concerned about hurting him but also wanted to give him a good roll.  Hopefully we'll see him again on the mats soon.

Office Hours Partner: Tim

Was happy that Tim stayed after today to roll a few times, even though I forgot that I had to get back to work for a meeting.  I showed him some deep half entry stuff as he was getting caught in half guard with a cross face when he went for it.  We also discussed some passing basics about grip fighting etc.  

October 1st 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Josh J, Kevin, Craig, Mo, Jerad

Josh: He told me after we rolled that he was concerned about my arm drags today since I caught him a few times yesterday. It worked as I didn't see an opportunity to attempt one.

Kevin: Rolled gi this time and I felt a little better about my performance with him but he's still a beast.  We had a lot of positional changes and there were a few situations that he got out of in ways I'm not used to, so that is something that rolling with him will help me with.

Craig: We rolled a few times and I think I ignored that he asked me to try to flow more before we started rolling.  He was doing a good job of defending my over/under. In our second roll I eased up a bit and he ended up passing my guard and put me in an anaconda type of choke. It was close but i think my wide shoulders and being calm helped me escape.

Mo: Played a bit of lapel guard (video below) with Mo and he seemed interested.  It worked pretty well and I could tell he was hesitant to get caught in any traps.  I don't go as far as Keenan does in the video but it works for the omoplata or getting to bikini guard.

Jerad: Had a super tough roll as usual. Somehow I ended up on top and got to attack for a bit.  At one point I was doing an over/under pass and instead of grabbing his belt or the skirt of his gi I grabbed his pants and pulled them half way down his ass.  I spent most of the rest of the roll in the bottom of mount trying to escape. I told him he's responsible for making my mount escapes better.

September 30th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Mount Escapes
Partner: Josh J

Conan went over some different mount escapes which broke the monotony of the techniques of the week. We did some extra hip escapes and bridging to coincide with the techniques he went over.  We went over pushing on the hip and using the thigh to push the foot into being trapped.  I do the second one to get to deep half often, I don't do the first one that much as I'm not that confident in it.

Rolling: Mount
Rolled With: Josh, Jesus

Gave both Josh and Jesus pointers on mount top and bottom.  From the bottom my advice is to not reach for anything, protect yourself, if you're going to grab an arm hold it to your body, and be prepared to attempt 3 different escapes in a row.  From top I'm always attacking, trying to isolate an arm, move up, and float.

Office Hours Partner: Jesus, Josh

Went over loop choke with Jesus as well as some guillotine defense fundamentals.  We rolled a few times and I helped him through a couple of armbar setups.

Rolled With Josh a few times and felt like arm drags were the right thing to do. Kind of strange since my normal arm drag is from 2 on 1.

September 29th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Double Leg, Mount: Upa Escape, Cross Collar Choke
Partner: Justin

It's a little difficult to double leg Justin as he is shorter than me but also stays pretty low to the ground with the stance that he takes.

Rolling: Mount, 8 Minute Defense Drill
Rolled With: Justin

Bhuvana and Byrav were also in class but had to leave after the first round of rolling. So we introduced Justin to the 8 minute drill. 2 minutes each on the bottom of mount, back mount, side control, and turtle then switching to the offense for the other 8 minutes.

He seemed a little concerned with his progress. I told him to read the beginning of my blog and see how I felt starting out.

September 28th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Mount: Upa Escape, Cross Collar Choke
Partner: Tim, Chris

Small class today but Jerad shared a lot of good information on the cross collar choke.  We did it both the standard way with both palms up and then the way Jerad likes to do it with both palms down and thumb inside the collar.  I've had some success with this with this version in the last several months where I've only completed the standard version maybe once or twice in live rolling.

The best detail that he covered was that when he begins the choke after establishing his grips he keeps his arms straight and leans forward.  I thought I was supposed to bend my elbows and crunch in but this is more like the baseball bat from knee on belly.

Rolling: Mount, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Tim, Jerad, Chris

Generally I'm feeling really good lately with my mount top and bottom.  I've mentioned this before but I think it's been developing for the better part of a year.  I think I still get more submissions from side control.  Back mount is something I want to start focusing on soon, as in getting to the back and finishing from there. 

Jerad and I had some good tough rolls.  I tried my best to avoid his mount and we went back and forth from a quarter guard to half to mount several times and then had my back for a while.  I feel better about my performance with him, at least I am attempting different things and not falling into the same repetition of movements like I felt before.

Went over some passing with Tim.  Talked a lot about grips and grip fighting and what to do at the start of a roll.  Also talked a little no gi passing and what I like to do without any pant grips. 

September 27th 2016 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Crucifix: Entry from Turtle, RNC
Partner: Jesus

Great class today on the subject of crucifix which I'm always interested in learning more about.  I wonder if it would be a more popular position if it scored points in tournaments? 

Greg had us get to the position by getting a harness grip and then using the near knee (rather than the one that would be used as a hook in back mount) to pry their elbow from their body.  From there the other foot slides along your knee to drag their arm into the crucifix.  Greg wanted us to stay on top from here and setup the RNC.  I thought we were going to try to roll them over.  The RNC is very strong here and I'm liking it a lot.

Rolling: Turtle, Up/Down/Out Closed Guard
Rolled With: Jesus, John, Tim, Mike A

Greg had us start from turtle with a harness and then turtle with the knee isolating the arm.  It was very difficult being on the bottom, but I think it's the best way to give the person on top a chance to attempt what we worked on.  I escaped to guard a few times, got caught in back mount a few times.  From the top I wasn't able to catch anyone in the crucifix/RNC, everyone did a good job of monitoring their elbows and they were most likely expecting it. 

Had some good battles from guard and some close calls.  Mike and I had an entertaining match that went back and forth with guillotine attempts to butterfly sweeps to leg lock battles to finally me sitting on my butt and it being considered a sweep for him. 

Office Hours Partner: Mike

We rolled a couple times after and had a great time.  I was close to a knee bar at one point before he triangled his legs.  Afterward he showed me that I should go for the heel rather than messing with the bend of his knee, it makes total sense and I hope I can change that habit in the future.  I also attempted a heel hook from top half guard setup that I'm liking a lot.  Haven't been able to finish it yet but it seems close to something that I can use.  We also discussed kimura from bottom half guard which is still a work in progress for me.  I'll get to the position but often get stacked or get it reversed on me. 

September 24th 2016 - Open Mat

Open Mat
Rolled With: Clint, Nick, Kevin, Frank, Bhuvana, Tom
Game Plan: Half Guard

It was a good day on the mats. I had quite a few tough rolls.

I told Clint that he had gotten a lot better since rolling with him 2 weeks ago. He was defending my NS Choke well and defending better in general.

Rolled with Kevin for the first time and it's been a long time since I have felt so outclassed athletically.  I did some good things (waiter sweep, back take) but had a hard time maintaining good positions that I ended up in. Makes me want to work on no gi and wrestling more.

Felt like I rolled well against Nick and was effective with my over/under. I got the impression a couple times that somehow he was making me make mistakes somehow. Difficult to explain but there were a couple of techniques that I'm good at that I didn't do quite as technically due to slight adjustments on his part.

Drilled cross guard with Tom giving him a crash course on it. He took to it pretty well, I may have talked him into making it his guard.

Frank and I rolled a few times and then worked on knee on belly and NS choke defenses.

I worked on quite a few things with Bhuvana and rolled a few times. She's at the point where she's overwhelmed with potential plethora of techniques that she could work on. We did loop choke, NS Choke, and talked a lot about getting a good underhook.