Mizblog

I did not want to train today. Twice, I decided that I would just stay home, but after each time I’d look at my pile of gear and look at the clock and decide that I still had time and I could make it and that it’s the days that you don’t feel like it that you should really make it a point to force yourself to go. So I went.

Got to class and met Jeremy, who’s also a parent of a kid student, and it was his first day ever in BJJ. He didn’t train with us at all, but instead got a private lesson with Christian to get him oriented.

Meanwhile, we did a quick warm up and got right into rolling. Had a 10 minute warm up roll with Greggo, and he must have watched my roll last Tuesday with Ronnie because he walked me through taking the back from someone trying to Americana me from inside my guard. You hold them down with your outside arm across their back, as you sweep their far leg out from under them and dump them on their face. Your head is the last thing out (aside from your Americana’d arm, which will no longer be in danger) and you can move that across their neck or use it to occupy their hands as the other arm comes around across the neck. Good stuff! Anyway, that was slow and flowy. After that we ramped it up.

I rolled with Matt and was able to roll him off me while he was in my half guard. Competitive roll.

Andrew came late and Mark paired him up with me to do a warm up roll because, as Mark said “You’re the coolest head in the gym” which I interpreted to Andrew as “I’m least advanced in the competitive curriculum.” We had a nice flow roll, and Andrew gave me feedback about sometimes you can’t lace the legs on the guard pass, so just wrap around both, hop next to the knees and bring the grip around the thighs as you plaster the hips down, then move up to the torso.

After that I rolled with Mark, who let me work but he put me in some very threatening situations to see if I’d recognize them. I always feel like such a dunce when I sit there stupidly in a choke setup and don’t even know what to do.

Then I rolled with Cowboy. He started the roll by undoing his gi top, so I pulled it over his head like a cloak and pinned it there as I sat into his guard. It was fun. At the end, he advised me to move my whole body to get leverage in prying arms away from my opponent’s body.

I sat the next round out, and talked with Mark. He told me to check out Jocko podcast 119.

Then I rolled with Mark, starting from the feet. He dumped me gently and I put him in my guard. He passed and got on me, and I had trouble getting out again.

I rolled with Matt. This time I got stuck on bottom half.

I rolled with Andrew. Passed his guard and got on top of him. He gave me a tip to finish the Americana, which was similar to Cowboy’s tip – use your forehead and drive your body across to separate the arm from the body.