Mizblog

Mark taught today’s class. I came in feeling sore and brittle, but I’ve been out a bit and need to get back into regular training while I can.

Mark taught us how to attack takedowns from the knees. Using head pressure to offbalance our opponent, we moved close to get an over/under body lock with an S-grip behind their back. Step in with the underhook hand side’s foot, snug their hips to line up with yours, and twist them down on the trapped arm side (overhook side).

You can also do an osoto gari from the knees by stepping across their body and twisting them over your leg.

If you can’t step across, you can instead reach it under to block the leg as you twist them down.

If they get you in a body lock, you can always switch to the elbow grip on your overhand side, bringing your other arm around to clothesline their head and take them down. Violence helps the move but not the training partner, as with most of Mark’s techniques. It’s kind of surprising that guy still has students, now that I reflect on it.

If they get you in a body lock with their head down, you can whizzer the arm on the opposite side of where their head is, and turn your body away (toward the whizzer), stepping out on that side to twisting them down.

Rolling sucked. I started with Chris, going 50%, and that was all good. Then I went with Dave, and once he escaped my kesa gatame and got on top of me, I was scrambling to survive. Next was Cosmo, who got on top and smashed me into the mat for the entire time, almost tapping me with neck strain. Then Sergio tapped me a couple times, then TJ did the same. I did manage to entertain TJ with my omoplata escape, where I got under his hips and rolled him to the other side of me. Anyway, after that was Jeremy, who had some serious issues with his base in side control top. He noted after the round that his white belt tricks just weren’t working on me today. That’s when I realized I was the junior blue belt, and every roll was with someone better than me (except Jeremy, who got his first white belt stripe at the end of class!)