Mizblog

We had all 3 black belt instructors on the mat today for this Thursday morning class.

We started with the usual running around and then shrimping and tumbling. Then we got right into guard passing drills. I failed a bunch of times. Then half guard, where I had some good scrambles but still failed. Then it went to side control, and again I failed a bunch of times. I also strained a muscle that went from my head all the way down my neck and through the left side of my back. Ouch!

Then we got into the lesson, in which Mark went back to the basics of side control – controlling the hips with far elbow and lower knee, and pressing in with the cross face. He then showed us how to sit into a modified kesa gatame, but instead of holding the head we’d be holding the hips with our far elbow and our own hip. From there, we can pin down the near hand and staple it with our top leg, then we can quickly windshield wiper switch which leg pins so that we can move higher on the body. From there, you can use both your arms to work on their far arm. You can do Americana, straight arm bar, spinning arm bar, or kimura.

After all that, we rolled a few 4 minute rounds. I started with Andrew, and I was doing well on top until I tried to get fancy and he got on top of me, took my back, and choked me out.

Next was Cowboy, who reverse triangled me when I couldn’t pull my neck up because of the strained muscle. He also got me with some leg attack that I didn’t know how to defend.

Next was Mark. I started on top of him in side control, went to north-south, and got into the north-south choke, cinching it up until he had to burst to his knees and lift me off the mat to get out of it. I then grabbed his arm in a kimura grip but he turtled and I couldn’t get the arm out. I rolled under but it didn’t help and it felt like he was going to arm bar me so I let go and separated. He said I had good pressure on the north-south, and parted with “Wonder who taught you that.”

Next I rolled with Greggo. We started with me in his guard, and he took a few tries to break me down and eventually choke me out. Next run I went through some slow, weird positions and ended up with him in my guard, me holding him via an overhook to the opposite side lapel. He encouraged me to do the choke, which I remembered from last week, and it worked! Greggo was also proud of me!

Next I rolled with a new student named Ryan, and I had him show me all the things he’d learned that day.

Last I rolled with Jeremy. I was reminding him to breathe, and he ended up choking me out. I told him I should have tapped earlier but my ego was telling me I could fight my way out of it, even though my neck was hurt. Stupid ego. So while I was lecturing him, I was making my own mistake. Haha! Anyway, next go I got him in an arm bar and he tapped early as I was fighting off his hands. Smart move.

I limped out of the place. Might take me a few days to recover from this one.