Class 41...

Today we were spared the usual gruelling warm-up of neck exercises and press-ups to work on some takedown drills.

We started facing the opponent with one of his hands gripping your gi collar. Using two hands you break the grip, then push the opponent's hand towards his groin as you drop down a level with your head on his stomach. Both your hands grasp the backs of his knees and, keeping good posture, you drive forward as you pull his legs towards to send him flying on his back. You then switch over and practice on the other side. 

You then grab the opponent's left-side gi collar with your right hand and drop down onto the opposite side with your left arm grabbing his right leg around the knee. Keeping good posture you then drive to the right as you lift his leg to send him flying on his side. You then switch over and practice on the other side. 

This four-move drill helps practice the double-leg takedown and the single-leg takedown on each side and, although I wasn't particularly fluid at it, I can absolutely see its practical application. 

We then moved onto another drill where we drilled the set-up and the footwork for a judo throw called Ippon Seoi Nage, which is essentially a hip throw where you use the opponent's arm for leverage. This involved stepping in and out of 50 set-ups one after the other. It was tiring but it was also very good.

We then went on to work on re-establishing guard from full mount by hip escaping on one side then fishing for the opponent's foot and pushing down on his knee to establish half-guard before hip escaping the other side and achieving closed guard. This was quite a technical process involving several individual steps but again it's such a vital technique that I need to spend some real time on it.

As an aide memoir the steps from being fully mounted were:

1) Frame hands and push down on opponent's right knee.

2) Hip escape onto left hip and keep pushing knee down. 

3) Using right leg, fish the opponent's foot and drag it backwards.

4) Push down on knee until your left knee has passed it ad you can establish half-guard. 

5) Hip escape out onto right hip. 

6) Frame hands and push opponent's other knee down until his knee has passed your leg. 

7) Bring leg round and establish closed guard.

We also worked on bridging and rolling the opponent and I was OK at this. 

In sparring I got caught in a kimura by a blue belt but I managed to hold my own against him for the rest of the time. I was then paired with a smaller but very energetic white belt for a 10-minute round and we grappled to a draw. I then sparred with another much bigger white belt and managed to move from being fully mounted to turtle to throwing him and getting him to side mount.

I'm ever so slowly forming an idea of what to do in certain positions. I'm under no illusion, however, that I'm anywhere near really getting anywhere. A good class, though.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Drill the hip escape and takedowns.

Class 40...

After a break of four weeks owing to other commitments and a two-week holiday, it was back into a mixed class today.

The warm-up was tough and I struggled a little but I put that down to general fatigue and me needing to get my body back up to speed.

I started waking up in the technique section, however, as we started doing armbar, sweep and hip escape drills. I'm very aware that these are the type of beginner techniques I need to work on and it was a nice welcome back after a one-month lay-off.

The armbar drill was essentially about setting the armbar up using one hand under the opponent's leg to hip escape onto one then swapping over sides and repeating the movement on the other side. I wasn't too slick at this but it's fine as I was sort of feeling my way back.

The sweep drill was essentially a scissor sweep with the opponent's base arm (left in this case) trapped with your right and you confirming a collar grip on the same side collar you are sweeping towards with your left hand. You then move you left leg under the opponent's armpit and across his chest then chop away with you flat leg while toppling the opponent as you drag them towards you. You then end up in full mount. We went backwards and forwards with this for a while.

We then ran a hip escape drill from the mount position. This entailed the person on the bottom framing his hands to push the opponent's right leg back. Using this space you then hip escape onto your left hip while using your right leg to fish for the opponent's foot and catch it. You then pull back his leg using the foot hook and use your framed hand to push his right knee back so you get your left leg out and secure half guard. You then hip escape onto your right hip and push the opponent's left knee back so you can thread your right leg through and recover guard. Then sweep...

This is such bread and butter stuff but it's so vital I drill particularly the last technique over and over again.

In sparring I was paired with white belts and, apart from falling for a rookie guillotine choke early on, I held my own against one very technical player and one smaller but incredibly explosive player. I even escaped one big white belt when he had me in trouble on the bottom and I reversed the position into side mount thanks to adapting a nifty overhead throw before I ran out of time.

But it was a good class and great to be back.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Drill the hip escape and the sweep.