Class 14...

An enforced one-week lay-off due to work and other commitments so the prospect of a Monday class followed by another class later in the week has me ready and raring.

A quick warm-up of jogging, falling, press-ups and stomach crunches and my enthusiasm, somewhat surprisingly, remained undimmed.

We were then straight into a sweep from the back to take a standing opponent onto his back with you ending up knee on belly. From a seated open guard, this involved placing the feet on the standing man's hips and holding his gi sleeves with a pistol grip and bringing your elbows to the floor to break his posture, then placing the left foot in the elbow of his arm and stretching him out to start off-balancing him. There was then a 90 degree spin and your right hand grabbed his gi pants leg as you swept and rolled him over and he ended up on his back and you ended up on top. There are details missing here but I'll find them out and include them at a later date.

It was then onto an exercise where one player had to retain the sleeve grips on his opponent and sweep him while the other player had to break the sleeve grips and stack his opponent. This was quite good fun... until I got stacked very quickly and heard several things go pop in my neck. Fortunately it was nothing too serious.

In sparring I again did OK. I got paired with my judo friend who's very strong and knows how to base out and spread his weight. He got the better of me today but I again had success with bridging and rolling. I also ended up in guard a few times and am no longer feeling quite so inept in this position.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Grips are important; I need to learn more about grips and gripping strategies.

Class 13...

I arrived expecting 30 minutes of yoga before facing an hour of grappling. Sadly the yoga teacher did not arrive so we had 30 minutes of gruelling exercise drills instead.

After this we did a basic guard pass from a standing position then turned this into a part-sparring drill before moving onto sparring proper.

The guard pass essentially involves controlling your opponent' legs then knees and pushing them to one side so you can eventually get knee on belly or pass into side control. The technical bits of this, however, include keeping your feet far enough back so your opponent can't pull you into his guard and also ensuring your knee and elbow touch so he can't drive his knee through and recover half guard. You also have to remember to posture up so your opponent can't grab your lapel or head to control your posture.

It's tricky stuff for a beginner but it's also the sort of basic stuff I need to get down. This will, however, take time.

In sparring I'm either getting tapped quickly or holding my own once I solidify my base and cage the opponent's hips. I also ended up with a few people in my guard and did OK. But I also know I don't have the mat time to really know what I'm doing there yet. I did jump on an armbar opportunity today, though, and had some success with bridging and rolling, too.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Legs back and posture up is basic position when attempting to pass an opponent's open guard from standing; elbow and knee must form a unit when attempting to pass an open guard or the opponent will quickly recover his own half or full guard.

Class 12...

It’s a Thursday so instead of the gentler climes of the yoga warm-up on Wednesday there was a grueling physical workout of countless press-ups, leg triangle drills, neck exercises and leg raises.

On the plus side my press-ups are no longer the dire excuses they were. They’re still not great but there is definite progress there…

Onto the class proper we opened up with some Achilles locks and entries into these from standing or in your opponent’s closed guard. I’ve done these locks before in the other martial art I study so I was OK with the hand position and angle of the wrist bone but using my gi to secure the grip by grabbing the inside of my collar was something new.

In sparring I got tapped all over the place by two senior white belts although I managed to hang on in there when the going got tough for two lengthy spells.

I managed a few bridge and roll escapes against senior white belts and also improvised by grapping several opponents’ gis at the back of the neck to roll or pull them off-balance. I don’t know whether this is a good tactic or not but it caught a few people by surprise so I may continue to utilise it until I’m told otherwise.

I also managed to tap one of my fellow white belts using a kimura. He rapidly got his own back with an armbar, though. I was more pleased that I managed to keep him pinned for quite a while as he’s much bigger and stronger so either he was knackered or I’m learning to spread and base myself a little better. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Hopefully…

LESSON FROM TODAY: Achilles locks can be used to attack an open guard; keep weight driving through opponent to keep him pinned; use gi grab at back of neck to move opponent.