Mizblog

Christian’s Tuesday morning BJJ class started for me in the small room, flow rolling with Chris. He taught me that defending the guard pass will involve me curling up pretty tightly (more tightly than I was used to). After that, I tried sweeping the mat when the Krav class took over the small room, but I only made it halfway across before I had to put the broom away and line up.

Greggo started us on the warm up while Christian changed into his gi and talked to Darla about Krav. Then we went over passing half guard. Avoiding the lockdown starts with hiding your foot if you’re on top of half guard. Turn the foot out and away from the bottom guy’s feet. Cross face to turn their head away, and apply some chest pressure to flatten them. Without moving your upper body, put your forward knee into the hip while sitting down sideways and sliding your lower foot to the butt, your lower shin vertical now. This makes it difficult for the bottom guy to hold your leg with his. Grip his shoulder with your cross face arm, and grip the inside of his far knee with your other arm to force his legs open. Whip your leg out and swing it way back to establish your base, then drive it forward and into his hip to secure your side control.

Sometimes though, you find you’re unable to separate the legs. In those cases, you release your cross face and move the elbow to the far side of the head, under the shoulder. Use your lower hand to pull that far arm’s wrist out and down, low enough that your other arm can grip it in a kimura grip. This is a solid threat and a skilled practitioner will recognize it and release the half guard to defend it. As soon as you feel that release, you can pull your leg out and secure side control. Otherwise, continue and finish the kimura submission by pulling the elbow up while inching the hand toward the shoulder.

Rolling started with Chris. We had fun. He messed up in the half guard and let me mount him, but he reversed pretty well. At the end, he got me in an arm bar, but it was a competitive roll.

I rolled with visitor Amos next. He was a twitchy little white belt, and he submitted me twice with gi chokes, but I did manage to reverse him several times. I never seriously threatened him.

I rolled with black belt Eric, and he went through everything really slowly and methodically. I was able to recognize a lot of what he was doing, but I was unable to stop him. It was brilliant. I felt like I was improving in my pattern recognition, even if I didn’t have the vocabulary to participate in the dialog fully.

I rolled with Yas, and he’s so passive and soft. I had to coach him to keep me from getting on top if he could. I put some pressure on him so he’d understand why.

There was another roll too, but I forgot who it was or what we did.

I got through without injury and feeling like I’ve improved!