Mizblog

I got to class very early, like 25 minutes early. Krav Maga day class was doing round kicks. I changed and took over room 2 to warm up and practice my rolls. Got kicked out 5 minutes before BJJ class. Felt I got better.

Greggo started the warm up because Mark was going to be 5 minutes late. We did a long warm up, including lots of running and lots of rolling. Near the end of it, Mark tells Greggo “Teach them upa.” so he did.

The big new upa tip I learned today was to shrimp a little to pull your head away from the shoulder you’re rolling over, because it facilitates the roll. When you come up, stay tight and control the arms, otherwise you could get punched or (more likely in a BJJ setting) arm barred. We also practiced it from when the top person has a collar grip already, which stays dangerous the whole time you’re rolling them.

Just like that, we were ready to roll. I started rolling with Matt, and he’s gotten a lot better. I was able to do better under his half guard, including a successful sweep. I found I’d forgotten how to take the back reliably from top turtle, and forgot how to choke from there too. Got to brush up on that!

Next I rolled with Phil. He kept trying to get a baseball bat choke from bottom side control, and it really limited my options on top. That’s something I need to research, for sure.

After that I tried to roll with Andrew, but he was snapped up by Christian, so instead I rolled with Cowboy Josh. I was able to get on top of him and stay there the whole round, but he kept trying to gi choke me from kesa gatame bottom. He didn’t, but I had to stay heavy on him, and it really saved his hand from the arm bars and Americana attacks I usually go for from there.

Next round I tried again to roll with Andrew, but coach Greggo snapped me up instead. He wanted me to start in mount, and he fed me a collar grip. I stayed on top, locked in a choke, lost position, and ended up trying to choke him while I was standing and gripping his neck/collar between my legs and behind my back. Before I got dumped on my face, I let go. “Position before submission.” I sighed. He told me that I should have sat down on him to keep the pressure and finish the choke. Next round started with me mounted again. He tried upa and I switched to S-mount. He shrimped out and stood up, so I tried de la Riva guard. He coached me on how to tip him over with it. I got side control and locked up a kimura, which he fought for a bit before finally tapping. We restarted neutral, and he was entangling my legs when the round ended.

After that I took a round off and rested. The following round I again went with Matt, and we had another good roll.

Last round was with Dave, who was exhausted after rolling with all 3 black belts, and only having 1.5 hours of sleep last night. I was able to pretty much dominate him – he didn’t have energy to fight. I was able to mount, stuff the upa, and sink a collar choke for the tap. Poor Dave. He’s really good, he just ran out of gas today. At one point, he tore the 805BJJ patch off the back of my gi. Gotta get that fixed!