First up, a beginners class all about escaping the legs of the opponent.
The key to this was to maintain close space and use your hands to grab the knees of the opponent and drive them down so you can leap over them and get to mount.
Then it was a 90-minute dinner-time class and this was rough on my body after not going to one for quite a while.
We started with the usual exercises and physical workout, before moving onto a series of exercises about passing your opponent's control position and defending his attacks and establishing your own attacks after breaking his control position. It obviously depended whether you were on top or on bottom.
We did this exercise from a variety of positions: sitting up with one man taking your back using seatbelt control; from side control with one man underneath; or from turtle with one man in turtle and the other man attacking.
I did OK with most of my fellow white belts, but my pairing with two blue belts saw me pretty comprehensively outgunned. They just moved much more explosively and if I escaped one attack they always had another lined up.
On the plus side, I did defend myself OK at times but the blue belts were all over me. They were simply just that much better. I did, however, start to grasp that I need to escape bad positions in stages and remove a hook at a time and gradually secure a better position rather than go all-out and leave myself vulnerable. A good class.
Things to remember: Own the space and don't leave gaps; when stripping hooks, do it in stages
