Mizblog

Coming back from a week and a half off felt pretty good. Warm ups were so easy that I barely broke a sweat. Just slow motion guard passing. Once all the slowpokes from Krav suited up (TJ and Aaron) we bowed in and got right into closed guard pass defenses stemming from the elbow seam grip.

If your opponent is in your closed guard and they move their knees to start to open your guard, that’s when you get your chance to sweep them. Pull their elbow down toward the ground and pinch them with your knees to scissor them over toward your elbow-grip hand. Once you’ve got them going over, separate your feet to continue the scissor and end up in mount.

If your opponent bases up on one foot (away from the elbow) you can (again) pull them down with the elbow grip while turning to underhook their posted leg, pulling them down onto your hamstring. You can then pendulum them over and mount them.

If your opponent stands up and lifts your hips up, you can lower yourself and then sharply pull them down with your closed guard legs and the elbow grip to break their posture. Then you can overhook their foot (away from your elbow grip) and lever them down as you come on top.

After we drilled those things (I didn’t get a chance to drill the knee pass scissor) we rolled, starting from guard. I started with Aaron, who had a hurt neck and was going 50%. I refrained from grabbing his neck. Easy roll. Focused on technique and base rather than winning, and it set the tone for the whole day.

Then I rolled with TJ, who had a tweaked back. He passed my guard and tried to get me in a crucifix, but I kept getting my arm out. He thought I’d seen the technique before but I just knew my arm was in peril and brought it back to safety.

I rolled with Rick next, and was immediately uncomfortable in his butterfly guard. I again took a measured approach, and only got tapped out 2 or 3 times.

Then I rolled with Greggo, and he walked me through an arm bar.

Next was Dave, who I was able to almost finish with an arm bar (he escaped), and again almost finish at the end with a collar choke. He coached me on the finish but we ran out of time.

At the end I rolled with Ryan, and though I went easy on him, I was able to dismantle him. He was so dead tired, and had no technique, so he was basically a talking grappling dummy.

I got out of the class feeling pretty good, with no serious injuries.