Low turnout for class, and everyone who was there was a white belt. It gave us a great opportunity to go back and break down some basic guard passing. The warmup was light–the only downside to a seminar-type class. Even the things we did didn’t help me to get much of a lather going because I was paired with Ana-conda. So things like KoB weren’t that strenuous since I had to be mindful of my weight and where I placed it. Still, a good exercise for me in becoming aware of my weight and balance.

Full Guard Pass:

  • Fists in lower ribs (my preference) and elbows in thighs
  • Base out and place other leg into center of enemy’s butt
  • Posture up (always) and maintain hand contact
  • Turn based out hip, and sprawl out if necessary to break closed guard
  • Keep pressure with elbow, trap with knee, slide through

Standing Full Guard Pass:

  • Thumbs in armpit and push back, lower into guard
  • Posture up and stand (ankles are now out of reach)
  • Down to one knee for passing headquarters
  • Passing headquarter option (smash) or double under legs and dump

Also learned a Kimura from side control:

  • Trap body side arm with leg
  • Windshield wiper to kesa gatame
  • C-cup shoulder and roll them toward you to their side
  • Step over head and establish kimura grip
  • Out-Up-Over to finish
  • If they defend by grabbing belt and you can’t break, open up pants and grip 4 fingers in, palm up to trap arm
    • Congratulate them on their excellent defense by keeping that arm for the rest of your life
    • Thumb-in to opposite collar, elbow to the ground for choke

Rolled two 6:00 rounds with Ed. I’ve noticed that when I roll with Norm he tends to always start on his butt, pulling me into his guard and setting up a sweep, then working his inevitable submission from the top. I decided to play that for these rolls since the duration was longer and I’d have more time to work on some other stuff. So glad I did this–started down and got sweeps in both times. First one was scissor-ish, and the second was the reverse de la riva sweep we learned a couple of weeks ago. So fun to deliberately apply something we learned in class and see it work! Went through a bunch of positions during this roll and was surprised at how much energy I was able to conserve. Low heart rate and easy breathing.

Next was 6:00 with Coach Frank. He not only beats me, he forces me to lose at his pace.Fast. He attacks from so many places and transitions between attacks so quickly. It’s like riding The Zipper without being strapped in and trying to maintain a vertical stance the entire time. He got me with two arm bars and a kimura.

6:00 with Dr. Dan. I tried to work guard and sweep with him as well and ended up spending a lot of time on bottom. Survived mount and got to his full guard where I was able to work on what we drilled earlier. I’d wager his ribs are sore this morning, but I could not get out. He has really long legs, and I couldn’t break him using the basic method. When the hip twist didn’t break I sprawled for a second, but I felt him going to sweep because my balance was off, so I ditched that idea. Something I need to work on. Standing was not an option–his arms are long too, and I couldn’t get my ankles out of his reach. He did a great job of controlling my posture too.

Went another 6:00 with Ed and was on bottom a lot more. He’s been catching the americana on me, so I worked on escaping that. Got out of one, got caught in another. Still plenty of opportunity for improvement! My biggest memory from this roll was thinking, “Ok, you’re stuck, and this sucks. But you can breathe, right? So just breathe. Breathe. You’re breathing, right? Now, keep doing that and try to find a way out.”

I got out.