Tag: kimura

Knee On Belly Flow – BJJ Training 6.29.2017

June 30, 2017 / Scott / 0 Comments

For the last few training sessions we’ve been working on options from side control that are all based on knee on belly.

Gable grip and shoulder pressure from side control
Shallow thumb-in collar grip on head side hand
Leg side hand finds belt know
Elbows tight!
Knuckle push up to KOB, pull in, posture up, hips forward
Wait for hand reaction and shoot leg side hand through the loop, bringing them tight to your chest
Step over with head-side leg and talk on the phone with their wrist
“I Dream Of Jeanie” downbar, americana, kimura, unorthodox kimura or…
If they sit up, rotate hips out to go for omoplata
If they roll from there, cross legged arm bar option
- If they hitch hiker out, back to the omoplata
If they posture up
- figure four the legs and loop hand under leg for grip on cuff
- straighten legs and lift the looped hand
- step over head and release cuff for an S-mount

Yeah…a whole lot of stuff there, but it’s fun just to flow through it all. Crazy how many submission options you see during this flow that I didn’t even list here. Like, if you don’t get the hips out to go for the firs omoplata, there are arm bars, kimuras, and scissor chokes from that weird position we’ve worked on in the past.

Last night I was very out of gas for rolling. I basically just survived and tried to not get submitted. Didn’t get submitted, but got crushed by pretty much everyone.

And I didn’t ask permission to use the Neon Belly image, but hopefully a link is good too.

Failed Kimura Options — BJJ Training

April 28, 2017 / Scott / 0 Comments

I’ve somehow fallen out of logging every single training session, which is bad because I can’t even remember all the things I’ve forgotten that we’ve been working on. There was a focus on half guard for a couple of weeks, and I found some stuff there that I’m using in live rolls a lot. But I’m only using 20% of the stuff we learned. Limited by age and natural athleticism, I’ve been latching onto the stuff I know will work for me and running with it. Still, it’s good to be exposed to stuff other people may try to do.

This week we were heavy on the white belt attendance on both Tuesday and Thursday, so it was a good week to go back and review some stuff, which I love!

First of all, setting up the kimura from side control.

Move cross face to push face back with elbow
Pull them to their side and elevate arm to sneak other arm in
Get kimura grip
Windshield wipe leg and move to seated
Pressure on triceps/elbow
Motorcycle grips, pull out, posture up, hide wrist behind
Finish

If grip can’t be broken, trap the hand and go to collar choke (thumb in). Tuck elbow to hip and put weight down.

Or step over and release the wrist. Roll to the released arm, figure four and twist for the bicep cutter.

Or go straight to scissor choke.

Rolls have been going great. That is all.

Four Step Progression From Side Control — BJJ Training 3.28.2016

March 30, 2017 / Scott / 0 Comments

I actually have been training a lot more than you’d think by following my blog, but there have been some interruptions due to to moving and a persistent shoulder injury. Only 10.5 hours of BJJ training in the last three weeks though. I heard the guys on the BJJ Brick podcast mention a good idea–a pain journal. I may try keeping up with the little annoying things that hurt here and tag them up so I can try to figure out what is causing something and know to avoid it. I have no idea where this shoulder thing came from, but it was pretty much immobile for a couple of days. I just woke up one morning and it was stuck.

Anyway, for this session we reviewed some very basic stuff in a series of submissions and answers to the defenses. Some people may get bored learning something they already know in class, but I really love going over the basics and picking up the details that I missed the first time around or having the chance to ask a question about something I’m having trouble finishing. The Americana is a great example–I got some key points that I missed out on the first time around when I was just focused on what an Americana is.

And even though I feel like I have pretty good side control for my skill level and size, picking up some finer points never hurts. Those details come in handy when trying to keep a big guy under control.

Side Control

Pull up near side arm by the triceps, elbow tight
Slide knee under that shoulder and arm under head
Elbow to knee. Gable grip with the underhook from opposite. Hand under the head goes on top.

Americana

Side control pressure to cause reaction of reach across the face
C-cup grip between bicep and shoulder, or post their arm to the ground with the head (my preference)
Under head arm comes out and push face back with elbow
C-cup grip at wrist. Two fingers on each side of the bend
Grip forearm
Reverse motorcycle the wrist grip first to create the angle and prevent defense
Reverse motorcycle forearm hand to elevate elbow
Paint the floor

Downbar From Failed Americana

Loosen grip on wrist if needed to allow some extension
Clamp back down when arm is out
Slide forearm grip arm back to elbow
Push wrist out, reverse motorcycle grip
Reverse motorcycle grip elbow arm to elevate

Kimura From Failed Downbar

Pull toward you to move them to their side, elbow tight
Pin near side arm with leg and windshield wiper to switch to the other leg
Step over head
Establish kimura grip, assuming the defense will be a grip on their belt or lapel
Pull hand away against the fingers–towards the front of their body
Pull arm up so they can’t establish another grip
Pull arm back and to opposite shoulder

Choke From Unbreakable Kimura Defense

Open the pants and reach in to trap the defending hand. There–you can have it there forever
Thumb in lapel grip
Step other foot over head and drop shoulders behind their shoulders. We want them on their side until we establish choke, but not pushing them to their bellies either
Pull lapel over and place knife of forearm on opposite carotid.
Elbow to the ground

See, I’m already forgetting some of the details of the last couple because I seldom progress that far successfully.

Rolled with Brad (quickly becoming one of my favorite people to roll with), Dr. Dan, Ed, and Dave. I love how easily Dave can take me down. He just stands up and whips out some judo on me that works even though I’m on my knees alread–crazy. Got closer than I’ve ever been with a bow and arrow on ol’ Tuesday.

Pain Journal: right shoulder still sticky. Left thumb weak from two year old rugby smash–can feel this when reaching into lapels for grips.

[image credit]

Plumb Wore Out

January 19, 2017 / Scott / 0 Comments

BJJ Training Log 1.18.2017

Yesterday was the worst training session I’ve ever had. I’ve had a couple that weren’t great because I was on the verge of illness or tired from a really hard couple of days leading up to it, but this was just a bad day. It didn’t help that I was having trouble getting stretched out from last week (5 training sessions). I’d been having trouble getting around on Saturday and Sunday. My lower back felt like I’d played rugby for a complete week before. My attempts to stretch it out were pretty weak; I had trouble even getting to a position that would allow me to stretch.

I went on a really slow and easy run on Tuesday to try and get my blood moving and get loosened up a little, but the foam roller probably did more to help than anything. At least I was walking pretty normal by Wednesday morning.

The problem with the Wednesday class is that we don’t do any kind of structured warm up. It’s get there whenever you want and stretch on your own, then straight to technique. I can’t really get there too early because of work, and with the limited time I had I just couldn’t get loose. By the time technique started I wasn’t even mentally there yet. My back was so stiff I was having trouble getting my legs into the positions to even work the technique, which sucks, because we learned some good stuff.

Finishing a defended Kimura

Shrimp knee out and foot on hip
Shin under arm where kimura is being defended
Slide hand in and roll hips back.
Another option is to get a cuff grip to break the hold on the leg, then swim under with the other arm
Take the back or do the thumb in choke

It’s almost as if I didn’t learn the technique at all. Just felt like crap. Only rolled one round, which was a disaster for me, and drove home with a towel on my head. I started thinking about this in the perspective of a tough running week or a week of rugby after a tournament.

Sometimes you just need an easier lighter week to recover from a couple of hard weeks, and that’s probably where I am for this week.

I’m glad I’ve kept a blog for so long. I was able to go back and read some thoughts about times when I’ve bonked runs (and finished them) or just had an inexplicably bad day and then PR’d a distance I wasn’t even training for on the next day. I know it’s not apples to apples, and I know I’m so knew to BJJ that I’m probably too ignorant to understand whether or not it applies at all, but at least there was some piece of mind to be gained in knowing that I’ve gone through something similar before.

Some days just suck. You can definitely do stuff to make things suck more. But sometimes it just sucks and you don’t know why. This is the first day like that I’ve had in BJJ.

It puts my mind at ease a little to know that this happens sometimes in other sports too with no real explanation.

So I got the crap beat out of me. Nothing new there actually, just a different person doing it. Ed tapped me out twice in 5 minutes. Silver lining is that I defended the arm bar by lazily using the least amount of energy possible. “What’s the easiest way out of this?” I had to evaluate the situation and find the easy escape.

For the rest of the roll, I just survived as long as I could.

At lunch today I went to the gym to get some time in the whirlpool and stretching in the sauna to get my back as loose as I can.

Choking A Good Friend

January 13, 2017 / Scott / 0 Comments

Circles, up and downs, single drills with sit-through (all three steps) and neck rolls. We partnered up and did KoB rotations, then straight to technique.

Technique was passing a review of Wednesday’s lunch class from headquarters:

Same side grip on lapel/knee
Knee to sturnim
Slice
Swap lapel grip
Knee grip moves to wrist, pull up and slide through

and

Same side grip lapel/knee
Knee to sturnim
Swap grips grips
Hip bump to move leg and side control

Roll with Shawn–he swept me a bunch of times and got really close on a choke. Ended with him having my back, I went to attack arm bar, which is something Ed does with me a lot. It’s not really something you are likely to finish, but it does make the other guy forget about the choke and defend his arm.

Roll with Jonathan, worked on retaining guard. Went to mount almost back. No submission either way.

Roll with Dr. Dan–worked on retaining open guard, got him to full guard and attempted arm bars, kimuras, sweeps, but nothing happening. He is tough to move once he’s locked down a position.

Roll with Matt–new guy, and really fun to roll with. Got closer to a Bow and Arrow than I’ve been with anyone else.

Again with Shawn–hand up the gi choke and got an arm bar.

I like choking my friends.

Last Roll of 2016

January 1, 2017 / Scott / 0 Comments

Ended up with 132 hours of BJJ training in 2016, which is infinitely more than I trained the year before–hoping for at least 300 hours in 2017.

Pretty good turnout for open mat. I rolled several rounds with Ana, being super gentle. She wasn’t going to roll at all, just a week out from the broken nose, but decided she’d roll if we were extra careful. I’m getting better at going technique-only. I’m trying to be aware of when I’m using excessive strength to avoid submissions. For example, she went for a kimura, and my first thought was “Pshaw–you can’t get that on me!” But the next thought was, “What if I only weighed 115 pounds–would she get it then? What if she weighed 190?”

So, yeah–tap.

Ended up getting in a bunch of rounds with Norm, Joe, Ed, and Justice. At least two 5 minute rounds with each of them. All rounds went about as expected.

I think the most productive rounds were with Ana though. We really need to get some mats at home so we can do a ton of easy flow rounds at home whenever we like. These rounds are probably better for me than they are for her. I’m much more of a plodding and deliberate grinder, and she’s all over the place. “Slowing down” for her is a little faster than I’m used to, but taking the strength out of it allows me to look at where I am and try to figure out a technical play without having to worry about being muscled into a submission. Hopefully what I’ll get out of this is the ability to analyze a situation faster and jump to a technique.

Lots of Black Belts

December 28, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Lots of visitors from Ireland, Texas, and Tampa tonight. Two black belts, one brown belt, two purple belts, and two blue belts.

A normal warmup, and we were then treated to three techniques by the three black belts!

Frank’s Technique — review of the knuckle pushup KoB, shoot hand through (PALM UP), step over head (PULLING IN NECK AND PUSHING OUT STERNUM) to the Down Bar (I DREAM OF GENIE), americana, kimura, roll to the scissor choke.

Andy’s Technique – Kimura and Armbar from guard

Over/Under on opponent’s shoulders with controlled posture
Trap the arm on the “under” side straight
Push knees out (keeping guard closed) to straighten the arm
Grip the triceps with opposite hand to lock in kimura
Roll bicep towards ceiling to go for americana

Key concepts–keep trapped arm elbow tight. Keep guard closed and high. For americana, push knees out the door. Helps to bring elbow inside the head.

Christine Technique – Side control arm bars

Instead of cross-face, get into a smother.
Inch knee under the arm you have
Post hands on mat next to shoulder and hip
Hope to a KoB, shooting the arm up and grabbing it
Throw leg over the head, ok to keep other leg inside ribs

For Spinning Arm Bar

Smother hard and wait for them to give the arm
Depending on which side of your head they shoot it, trap with your gi
Pull them up and step over head, using other arm as a brake
or if other direction post hand to hip, click into north south,
Position lower foot, then step over, again using the other arm as a brake.

Sixteen people in the gym, so no chance to roll every round. Still, got four 4-minute rounds in.

My first was against one of the visiting black belts. 260+ lbs of Irish squash. He’d gone two consecutive rounds before me and seemed content to smash the crap out of me from several different positions. I considered it a “win” when I could breath. He started on his back, just giving me side control. I regret that I didn’t try to lay into him harder with the shoulder now, but at the time I was completely confused. “Is this some sort of trick?” Nah…he just wanted to lie down. He tapped me with his legs without even moving.

Next up for me was two rounds with Jonathan. Much more scrambly than usual. I did get a chance to trap the arm using the technique Christine showed us. I wasn’t able to finish all the way to the spinning arm bar, but I took what she said during the demonstration to heart–“even if you can’t get the technique all the way to finish, you still have the arm, so don’t let go of it.” Ended up getting an americana, then played the remainder of that roll and the next round from guard.

Last roll was with visiting Irish blue belt. He was young and maybe 15-20 pounds lighter than me. Really fun. I fought off a triangle pretty early, and later a sitting triangle and an arm bar. So yeah–no attacking, but I feel like I may be getting better at defending. I went for his back once and got one hook in, but he ended up tapping me with a kimura.

Open Mat Thoughts from December 3

December 5, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Did some stretching and a few movement drills Ana and I found on Ginastica Natural‘s Instagram feed. Need to do these every day, especially stuff that works on my hips.

Ed showed up and we started what ended up being a 31 minute submission-only match. I had his back for a big chunk of time, and the thought crossed my mind as my arms fatigued in failed RNC attempts that I was leaving myself open to an arm attack later. I wasn’t going to have anything left to fight it off. Of course, that made me double-down on the RNC finish because I didn’t want to see what would happen once I lost position.

Turns out, I lost position and had to tap to the kimura. Self-fulfilling prophecy? I was able to escape a couple of them using the technique Gerry helped us with last week though.

Went on a roll with Frank and got dominated, of course. At one point I grabbed his leg and he stood up, so I jumped up too and attempted a single leg. Failed. I then realized that standing and wrestling was not where I wanted to be with him. How to get back to the ground and maintain guard? I knew he would really be wanting to double leg me or throw me, and I wasn’t looking to let either of those things happen. Yeah, the landing would hurt, but even worse would be the position I’d be in afterwards.

He ended up tapping me a kimura (surprise!). The actual surprise was that he got it from the bottom of side control. Wh-wh-what?!?! Man I was beat.

Ed and I took a little break and strategized on how we should be doing these open mats. We both really like the submission-only marathons we’ve been doing, but in a real fight or in a tournament there are some bad things that doing this format all the time encourages.

For me, the good thing about going without a time limit is that I feel like I can try anything during the roll. For instance, I feel perfectly comfortable going for a new arm bar setup that we learned, even though I know that he knows it too and will defend it. I probably won’t get it, and I’ll probably end up in a bad position because of it, but that’s ok. It gives me a chance to work on the bad position and spend a lot of time getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, defending, and escaping. Once I regain dominance, I can take a chance and work something else.

The bad part of these rolls is that there’s no sense of urgency. You can actually rest in the middle of them. I caught myself doing this a couple of times when I had him in half guard. I didn’t have to deal with pressure or many threats, and I use it to recover, build up energy, and then try to escape. I also tend to start on the bottom for these rolls and ease my way in to them. I don’t mind being on bottom knowing I have infinite time to work, and I use it as a warm up instead of attacking from the bell. Not that any of this is really bad, and not that we want to never go long again, but it isn’t conducive to all situations.

So we decided to do a couple of five minute rounds to get some urgency into the fight. I think I did a little better in this format. So close on a triangle once, but this dude is just crazy tough. He ain’t tapping to anything that isn’t 100% sunk. The big difference I’ve noticed with using defined, short rounds is that I am much less likely to give up top position, and I fight really hard to get it back when I’m on bottom. I’m more comfortable on top in the gym, and that’s definitely where I would want to be in a real situation.

Jiu Jitsu Time With Gerry

November 28, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

We had a chance to train for an hour or so with Gerry over the weekend. He’s a big purple belt, and it was so good to see some different views on things, get some different ideas, and some personal attention to questions and problems. Not going to lie…it will be fun to take some of this stuff back to the gym and try it out on some unsuspecting opponents. Of course, can’t wait to share what I learned as well.

I’m probably only remembering about half of what we went over, but here are some of the hightlights.

Cross choke angle scoot for better tightness

Deep grip to start (same)
Cock hips away from grip
Thumb in opposite collar
Move hips back
Pull down, elbows up

Arm bar trickery with collar grip for rotation

Pistol grip on gi at elbow
Cross collar grip with other hand to control posture
Pull and pull to rotate around and get leg up
Finish

Clock choke against opponent from turtle

Thumb in across collar
Elbow up
Slide through
Circle

Triangle defense (last resort)

Drop to knees
Ball up
Move leg over head

Mount escape

Grab gi at foot
Straighten leg
Pick up foot and put them into quarter guard
Push knee to half guard

Kimura defense (instead of hiding arm)

Hand on opponent’s elbow to push
Roll toward’s trapped arm and shrimp

Roll from half guard to create scramble, take back. Like this…

No Gi Grappling 11.5.2016

November 5, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

A really fun day today–I felt like I had something of a breakthrough. I saw a whole bunch of stuff happening, attempted a whole bunch of stuff, and finished with a submission I’ve never attempted in a live roll.

Of course, it was with Ed. And of course, it was another ultra-long marathon of a roll. We went for about 45 minutes straight today. Again, theme of the week, I was focusing on executing sweeps, but did notice that was a little more difficult without the gi. I got a couple of scissor sweeps in and attempted a few more, but by then he’d caught on and was defending.

Spent a good deal of time in mount, moving from grapevining to high mount, and had a few of decent attempts from that position–arm bars, bicep crusher, seated triangle, multiple Ezekiel chokes. I had his back for a good spell and actually got the RNC sunk. SUNK!!! I was taking my time making sure I had it set up right when I felt his chin tuck. Need to tighten that up.

From guard I worked on two triangle and a kimura. I actually went into the kimura thinking, “If I don’t get this, I’ll at least get the kimura sweep.” When it came time for the sweep, I couldn’t remember the first step (reviewed it after the roll).

I also tried to focus on pressure. Not just pushing-my-weight pressure, but keeping the pressure on in situations when I was threatening and Ed was able to escape. I tried to make sure I didn’t give him an opportunity to recover when he escaped–trying to control posture at all times and immediate try another sweep.

I’m not going to get any more of my favorite mount escapes on him, that’s for sure. But I did get to try out the oopa mount escape we’ve worked on. Nailed it!

Anyway, ended up getting a d’arce choke at the end. I actually had an opportunity to get one earlier, but I had the wrong arm in. The next time around I saw the situation coming and got set up for it.

White Belt Party! BJJ Training 11.3.2016

November 4, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

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.

Foot Lock Defense – BJJ Training Log 10.18.2016

October 20, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Had a meeting run over at work, so I missed the warmup–a day after Coach Frank posted a meme about people who’s best move is escaping warmups. 🙂

I did make it in time for some RDLR single leg drills. Better, but still not very coordinated.

Technique–the objective is to keep the enemy from rocking backwards

Grab same side lapel and pull towards you while…
Kicking the locked foot through the grip
Use hand on the side with the foot on hip to remove the foot from the hip
Scoot out, then sit on that foot
Sit up to mount/KoB, depending on which shoulder/elbow enemy was using to trap the foot

Rolling:

We went five 5-minute rounds. First up for me was Dan the Man. I really like rolling with Dan–his style is the most contradictory to mine, at least if you discount brown belts and up. He’s tall and lanky (~150 lbs), and really technical. I try to be as technical as possible when rolling with him instead of relying on weight and power. Hopefully this will help me to learn his game better. We started with me (again) just trying to pass guard. I made it to side control and immediately moved to KoB, but without all the weight. I have limited attacks anyway, and without weight I can’t even start to set those up, so I focused on trying to travel. The result was me turtled up with Dan attacking. At one point he removed my lapel from my belt, so I was really on the lookout for a choke coming, but he didn’t do anything with it. He rode me for a long time and ended up attempting a bow and arrow, which I was able to defend.

Next up was Ana-conda. Another lighter and more technical opponent. Let her work some, and I did the KoB rotation successfully. Here I definitely focused on changing positions as much as possible–again, it’s still hard for me to attack without throwing weight on other people. Her mount is getting really good. Without muscle, I have a tough time escaping it. She actually inspired me to try some stuff she was doing later with Ed. These rolls are good for me because they force me to rely on technique only.

From here out, it was going against guys who have a more similar style to mine.

Good Ol’ Ed was my third round. I spent a lot of time with him in my full guard and attempted a cross-collar choke (now I know why it failed) and a triangle. This time, I was able to prevent him from passing to side control because I bailed on the triangle early and instead tried to get him in the RLDR position so I could go for the sweep. He recognized it and I wasn’t able to set up. But I realized that I was 75% there already, and even if I couldn’t get him to his back, I could still force a scramble for position. I’d have the advantage since I’d know when it was coming. It worked, and I was able to work towards a kimura before we ran out of time.

Roll 4 was Norm. From the get-go, I could see the triangle coming. It was like I was getting sucked into a black hole in slow motion. Tried and tried to avoid it, then defended early. He still got it. Norm. We restarted and he worked me through a few positions. Ended up trying a choke with me on bottom. I was able to bridge up and defend, but it was crazy uncomfortable. I think he cracked my neck about 5 different ways, which actually felt pretty good!

One more round with Ed. This time we went without Gi on the top. Changes the equation quite a bit, especially because I spent a lot of time in this roll with his back. Wished we’d had the gi so I could shoot for the bow and arrow since I’ve been having trouble with the rear naked choke. Oddly, the RNC was much more available all of a sudden. I almost finished it. Almost. This time I gave up on it before I got too tired and moved to mount and practiced grapevining him to flatten him out ala Ana-conda. This was a really good roll for me, but I felt bad for him. He’s got some nasty cauliflower ear going and I could tell he was favoring that the whole time–one reason the rear naked choke was so open for me.

No Gi Grappling – 10.9.2016

October 10, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

We missed a couple of days training, so Coach Frank had an impromptu open mat at the gym on Sunday night to give us a chance to work out and get going again.

Holy Toldedo.

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Ended up in a 56 minute submission-only/I quite/Ironman match with Ed. To be fair, it started off almost as a flow roll, and about 20 minutes into it I was surprised at how relaxing it was, even though the pace had picked up considerably. By the end, it was tooth and nail.

I wouldn’t begin to know how to score it–back and forth the whole time, with multiple submission attempts both ways. Off the top of my head I know I went for one guillotine, one Ezekiel, one kimura, one Americana, 3 triangles, and a barrage of rear naked chokes. Couldn’t finish any of them.

I ended up getting him with an “I-don’t-know-what-to-call-it” with his head locked between my legs figure 4’d and pressing towards an arm bar at the same time.

Then we both lie still in pools of our own sweat and had a good cry.