Class 114...

Tonight was an intermediate class and there were lots of good bits to remember. I particularly liked the functional warm-up drilling at the start, which included armbar, kimura and triangle drills. 

We then moved into technique drills with a few set-ups from guard for the leg triangle. Two of the key points of these drills were to climb with your hips to secure the triangle leg position before clamping down, and also to use one of your legs as an arm to move one of the arms out of the way. The drills went something like this, although the exact details are a little foggy: 

i) You are on your back and the opponent is in your guard with his hands on your belt to pin your hips; take wrist control on one side with collar control on the same side; escape your hips and use the bottom leg to move his near arm out of the way; clamp your leg across his back; secure the lock with the other leg.

We also did some work on a reverse compression wrist lock by forming a figure 4 with your hands. 

We then went onto sparring and I did OK against two fellow white belts, one of who was much bigger and stronger than me. I was still relying on strength for some of my sparring, though, and I need to rely more on doing the correct things, such as hip escaping and re-establishing guard if I'm in trouble. 

Things to remember: Climb the hips to secure the triangle; use your legs like arms; focus on basic technique and hip escaping.