805BJJ Class 51: mount escapes, rolling

Feeling fragile and apprehensive, I came into the studio a little early. Christian was sitting at the desk and reminded me about the women’s self defense seminar on Sunday. TJ was teaching Krav and they were doing light sparring with a 2-on-1 component. Very entertaining. I had planned on doing some warm ups on my own, but this was too interesting to look away from. Dave, Andrew, and Josh were putting on a show. During this, Christian came over and explained his lesson plan ideas to Greggo. Eventually, the Krav class lined up and bowed out, and we hurried onto the mat and lined up.

Our warm up was technical upa mount escapes followed by sloppy guard passes to mount. It was a good warm up, and gave me some excellent practice at an escape that I’ve done successfully in the past but not slowly or technically.

The next drill was guard recovery from mount. Getting the mount low over the hips, framing with the elbow, getting your legs inside the feet of the mounter so they can’t hook on, and either get a butterfly hook or an outside hook to recover guard. It was complicated and ugly, and both Christian and Greggo struggled to articulate how they decided when to switch from one mount escape technique to the other.

Then we rolled. Every roll was to start from the mount.

I started with Victor, and I did well. We both survived. He’s getting better. I could still tap him though.

Next I rolled with newly minted blue belt Dave. He started on top and I managed to sweep him, pass his guard, and mount him. I think. All I remember from that roll was attacking him with arm bars, Americanas, etc. The gi grip was the trigger for the upa sweep in the drills, so I only threatened that grip to open other things. I stayed on top for the rest of the roll, and Dave complimented me on my top control.

Next I rolled with Andrew, and that was hard. He got me in kesa gatame and crushed my ribs until I tapped from his pressure. Ouch! But I seem to be okay afterward. Other than that, I held my own against him. He had good defense once I was mounted, and I got too attached to the grip so he upa’d me just like I wouldn’t let Dave do. D’oh!

After that I rolled with TJ. He’s got a very good guard, especially against a tired old man like me. Unfortunately for him, he got a cramp and had to abandon the roll just as he was about to lock in an arm bar. I didn’t feel I did very good against him, as he was able to break me down in his guard pretty reliably.

The last roll, I again was paired up with Victor. He started on top, I recovered guard and got him in an arm bar. Then he started on bottom and I got him in an Americana and an arm bar and a gi choke. We were both so tired.

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