Mizblog

I came in a half hour early to warm up. TJ said I looked slim, but it was just the rash guard holding everything in.

I went in the room and warmed up slow. I also practiced some break-fall rolls in my rash guard, until TJ and his Krav Maga class took it into the back room. Cosmo and I swept the big mat with damp brooms, then lined up, bowed in with coach Greggo, and did our standard warm up.

Then we circled up and got into no-gi side control bottom escapes. The first was against the over-under position. Frame and push them toward your hips, then you can shrimp out and bring your knee in to recover guard. If they go under-over, you can again frame them and push them down toward your hips, then hook your leg over their head to push them down and get back to guard. From kesa gatame, you can push them down against your upraised knee, then when you remove it and hip out, their back support goes away and you can get up on kesa gatame!

Then we learned how to control the back with over-under control, tucking the head to the under side.

Then we rolled. I started with Daniel, who has a very crafty guard. Working without the gi is tricky. Next was Rick, who pressured me and submitted me eventually a couple times. Then Greggo, whose knee went out once before submitting me. Then TJ, who submitted me but said I get harder to roll with every time. Then Cosmo, who got on top of me and smashed me for the entire time. Then Daniel again, and we spent a good amount of time cuddling in guard. Then Greggo again, who just about broke me in half and then choked me out.

By the end, we had left lakes of sweat on the mat (usually the gi’s soak up a lot of it, I guess) and we were pretty tired. I know I was!