Mizblog

First class as a blue belt! I went in early to try to replace my size A-2 blue belt with a more size-appropriate A-4. Coach Greggo obliged, and I belted up and got ready for action.

We had a long, slow warm up before getting into the action. First, we got tight on a single leg, with a gable grip or a grip/hook combo. Just lean that leg to the outside to plant them on the side of their butt. You also plant your head on the mat next to their hip, and heist your hips over to the other side. When you land, you roll your hips up toward their midsection while maintaining a hold on their leg. You then grab the back of the pants and hold them down to the mat while you switch your hips down and then switch your arms to a standard cross face grip as you work your way up their body.

The next technique was taking them down the other way with a double leg takedown. You gable grip their single leg and pull it into your chest, then let go with one leg and reach across to the far leg. Press their midsection with the side of your head, tipping them over the far leg that you’re blocking. Once they’re down, you get a grip on their hips, facing away from their head, by doing basically a hip heist with your shoulders. From there, you can switch your hands and work your way up their body.

Next technique was a defense to these leg grab takedowns. You get butt control as you drive a mean cross face across their eyes and nose, then sprawl out on them to break their grip before solidifying your top position.

From there, we went to the clock choke. Far hand feeds the far side lapel to the close hand across the neck, then takes a grip on the near side lapel. Walk forward around their head with your hips turned skyward to tighten the choke. You can also reach under to pull the far hand, collapse them onto their far shoulder, and do a one-handed clock choke by sitting forward and walking around their head.

Then we rolled. I started with Andrew, who just got done running a desert marathon in Nevada. He got me down, I got guard, he passed and set up kesa gatame. Greggo was yelling “Oh no, look out!” but I reached across Andrew’s back to grip his belt, then hipped into him to align our bodies before pulling him over me and getting out on the other side for side control top. Greggo yelled “Wow, where’d you learn that move?” but I couldn’t answer. Andrew turtled and attacked me with the move of the day, and got me down before I could sprawl. I slipped out the side and he turtled again. This time I tried to take his back, and that’s how we ended.

My next roll was with Matt. I got him in my guard and sat up to hip bump sweep him. He recovered guard. I passed. I did the shoulder heist move too, to the delight of coach Mark. Ended on top.

Next round I sat out.

Next I rolled with Ed, and I mainly coached him on breaking base. Greggo counter-coached him to recover guard. I like my way better. I was giving him sweep opportunities but Greggo told him to shrimp out and recover guard.

After that I rolled with Daniel. I got on top of him and was attacking. Low mount Ezekiel choke attempt got stuck on his chin, but he was in some trouble. He had good defense and my offense is not that sharp, so no submissions.

Next I rolled with Skyler in the back corner. We were both sore so we took it easy on each other.

After that it was 320 sit-ups and bow out.