Mizblog

Tuesday morning on the mat, 10 bodies, 3 of them black belts in BJJ, 3 of them Krav Maga instructors, 6 of them cops. I was the only body who was none of the above.

We had a couple raw noobs from the police, so I was not the lowest on the line for a change. Still, I was the oldest and weakest, for sure.

We warmed up with a 10 minute flow roll. I paired up with TJ and we did okay once we got used to it.

Greggo taught us the upa with the 2-hands-on-1-sleeve grip approach to securing an arm (good for when they base way above your head) then hold it to your chest with your opposite side hand, reach up and grab the back of their gi with the near side hand, look in the direction of that hand and roll them over. They can’t base out that way because you’ve held them down and blocked their arm on that side. We also learned how to do it with the overhook to the elbow to trap the arm, then small hooking the free arm, or shooting a tight and momentum-generating underhook under the free arm to get them over.

Once you reverse position, you come up into guard. Keep your head low, block their arms, and quickly posture up.

Next we learned how to break the guard open. Bottom knuckles dig into the sternum and the hip to hold their upper body to the mat, then slide your hip-hand-side knee back and scoot the other one into their tailbone. Blade your body so your side breaks their ankles apart. From there, bring your tailbone knee up and connect it to your kickstand elbow. This is home base. If they try to push your blocking leg, you can staple it down and pass. If they push you toward the down knee side, you can step back over their leg and pass.

Then we rolled. I started with TJ. He guillotined me out of turtle. Next I rolled with Coach Mark, who let me work and I got him into my guard and we basically rested the round there. Next was Andrew, who spine cranked me. Then Brandon, who Americana’d me, elbowed me in the eye, and basically wrecked me. Last roll was with Randall, one of the brand new students. I started in his guard, passed, mounted, and let him do the upa on me. After that I just tried to keep my guard closed. He tried Americana from inside my guard, and I threatened his back, so he let go. Eventually he spazzed out and broke my guard open, so we ended the roll with him in my open guard.