Classes 86 & 87…

I double-banked two classes in one session today. I knew this would be hard on my body, but I figured if I’m going to do this and fulfill my ambition to compete next year, then a bit of altitude training in terms of body fatigue was no bad thing. And fatiguing it bloody well was…

The first was a beginners class in which we focused on securing a choke from the side with the opponent turtled and the aggressor in side control. This went something like this:

i) Reach over the shoulder of the opponent with your furthest hand and loosen his collar, then thread the nearest hand over his shoulder and underneath his neck, confirming the collar grip with your thumb deep into his collar at his carotid and four fingers outside.

ii) With your non-choking hand, grip his hand nearest you and stuff it between his legs.

iii) Kick your nearest-to-opponent leg out, then walk you other leg out and move your other leg out next. This tightens the choke until the opponent taps.

The defence from this sees the opponent bring his hands up to his neck to prevent the opponent confirming the choke grip.

The counter to this sees you turn 90 degrees from your opponent into a sort of side control and swim your hand near his head underneath to grab his furthest knee and your hand furthest away over to control his foot. With active toes you then drive into him, keeping control of the knee and the foot until you have secured your own knee closest to his hip to prevent him recovering guard. Then drive into him and pancake him out.

The second class was mainly sparring with good white belts or coloured belts.

We did start off with one warm-up drill for passing half-guard. In this, the trapped man:

i) Stood on the trapped leg.

ii) Stood on the non-trapped leg.

iii) Slid the trapped leg through onto the floor

iv) Turned the trapped leg 90 degrees so it is free.

v) Drive into the opponent.

It was then all sparring. I did OK against the other white belts and defended OK, then survived against a very tired blue belt. I also got to spar with a purple belt, who was astonishingly fluid. I lost count of the number of times he passed me or could have tapped me in a five-minute round.

But two classes, one after the other, is a sort of victory. And the plan is this is how I now train at BJJ at least once a week. It’s a plan, Stan.

Things to remember: Choke from side, defending the choke, the drill for escaping half-guard.