Mizblog

I got to class late because of lingering issues following a server Ubuntu LTS upgrade that went pear shaped last night and into this morning, plus insufficient sleep from being woken up to try to help a bratty daughter who didn’t want help but instead wanted someone to do her homework for her. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up when the girls left, got coffee, burrowed back into work, and didn’t finish until 10:40am.

Got on the mat while Dave was warming up the class. We did shrimping and tumbling and fall breaks until coach Mark stopped us and told us that our fall breaks sucked, and that we should practice them right from the beginning so we don’t get addicted to bad technique. I was guilty of the following sins: crossing my feet on the fall break stand up, coming up to my elbow on the fall break, not cupping my hand when slapping the mat, and slapping the mat too far away from my body to be effective. I have to work on all of those bad habits. Oh, and not rounding my body and rolling a little to dissipate energy when I land. That too. Especially on the side fall break, which I barely learned in Krav Maga for my orange belt test.

Then we did some broken down practice drills solo before going back to trying the shoulder roll fall break again. I found it very awkward to get back to my feet without crossing them, so I guess I just need more momentum.

Anyway, that took a half hour, and then we were on to side control and far arm isolation. Use your underhook arm to make a shelf under their shoulder. Use your other hand to backhand windshield wiper their far hand and staple it onto the mat. Then turn that hand over to a monkey C grip as your underhook turns over and hooks your own wrist under your opponent’s arm, and then pull the elbow down toward the hip and lift.

For side control, it’s all about controlling the hips and maintaining an over/under of some sort. I learned two new grips. One was pants grip at the butt cheek, and the other was between-the-legs pants grip. Both of them, you grip the fabric and pin it to the mat. I also learned how to control the hips in reverse kesa.

Then we rolled. I got regular top-ups from the Goo tube I brought, so I was ready to roll. I started with Greggo and he gently dominated me for the first 4.5 minutes before tapping me with a fist in my jaw. Very excellent hip control from top side control on his part. No more letting me have dominant grips to start off. I’m moving up!

I next rolled with Cowboy. I again got him in the bow and arrow choke, and coach Mark thought I was closer to finishing than I was, so he urged me to just keep cranking on it. My grip gave out after a couple minutes and Cowboy escaped.

Then I rolled with Cosmo. I frustrated him a lot in my closed guard, but he did eventually break it and I tried to turtle and go for a single leg on him. I don’t know why I try to do that to him, because it never ever works.

Then I went with Ryan, who I took down from the knees and tapped with an arm bar. As we restarted, he expressed frustration at being taken down so much, and he swore I wouldn’t take him down again. 3 seconds later, I had taken him down again, and he was laughing. I can relate. I used to get taken down regularly too. Now I’m doing my share of the takedowns.

After that was Phil. He let me get top side control and then tried to lock up a baseball bat choke. Instead of mounting him, though, I rotated to north-south and un-twisted his grips for him. When he tried to switch them up, I secured one of his arms for an arm bar, and applied consistent pressure to try to get him to let it go and give me his arm. He eventually did, but as I was trying to lock up the arm bar he went belly down, so I followed, and he did a sky cartwheel to escape and end up on top of side control. Wow.