Today was my first class after a week in Sicily. The kids were at my mom's place for the week, so it was just Mrs Chops and I, visiting some friends. It was heaven, I tell you. Drank some wine, ate some pasta, saw some sights, etc.
I arrived a few minutes into warm ups, which kind of sucked. I *need* the warm ups, since I'm so out of shape. The instructor paired me up with the big shaved head guy, who got promoted to blue belt while I was on vacation. We then worked on spinning out with an arm bar. Basically, you attempt an armbar from guard (we'll assume you're going after the right arm here). The opponent tries to stack you, so you roll up on your right shoulder and reach your right arm back between the two of you and hook it on his right knee. Now you basically do a lateral shoulder roll while bring the opponent over you with your legs. You end up with him face down and you on your left side, facing towards his feet. This is definitely going to need a video to explain.
We then did a "what happens next" variation, for after you successfully spin out. Let's say your opponent tries to scramble over your head to twist his arm free. Before he steps around your head, you can grab his right ankle, and pull it sideways, keeping his knee on the ground. This will make him want to move. When he does, you roll onto your back, and he falls onto his, into classic armbar position. This is similar to the finish Stephan Kesting shows in the video above.
Last variation was if he tries to scramble the other way, toward your feet. This one was my favorite. Basically, you keep ahold of the arm (always, don't let that sucker go) and roll belly down (counter clockwise on your head-to-toe axis), then continue on to your back. During all this, you should manage to get your left foot hooked under his left armpit. It will kind of look like he's in your guard and in a decent position, but he's not. Put your right foot on the ground and push off, rolling him off of you with your left foot (still hooked under his armpit). He'll land on his back, again in perfect armbar position.
The last thing we did wasn't really variation of the above moves, but still working from an armbar from guard attempt. If he tries to stack you, you can move yourself out to the side. Still assuming that you're attacking the right arm, you basically stretch yourself out under him, which will slide you on your shoulder to your left. At this point, you can go belly down, but for our partner's safety, we went on our sides and finished the armbar from there.
After all that, it was time to roll. I got paired up with the shaved head guy again, and I thought I did pretty well. I managed to not get swept too much. When it came time to switch, I sat out since we had an odd number of guys. Then it was open mat, where I rolled with shaved head guy again. I focused on defense, and going slow while trying to think my way out of bad positions. As always, I spent a lot of time inside the guard. I don't think I ever successfully broke my way out of it. When he started playing open guard, though, I did pass to half guard a couple times. At one point, I even passed from half guard to mount, although I'm sure this is just a blue belt going easy on me to let me work, which I greatly appreciate. While I had mount, I went for a collar choke, which was terrible since I've never been taught that technique. After we were done rolling, he was kind enough to give me some pointers. I tried to sink the choke from way too low in mount, it turns out. I need to work on getting higher, on the rare occasions that I get there.
Once the rolling was done, we sat around and chatted a bit. Turns out he's got a wrestling background too. It also turns out that most blue belts can tell I used to wrestle without me having to say a word. He complimented my base and said I had a good top game. I think he meant "good top game for a guy who's been coming to class for two weeks". Like all the other students there, he gave me some pointers and some ideas of things to watch for. Everybody there has been very open and friendly with me, which I really like in a school.
And in non-BJJ related news, I've been getting the itch for some Kali lately. Tonight I worked with my training sword for about 30 minutes, and I'm trying to talk my karate sensei into doing some Kali with me on the weekend. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment