My first private class for a few months and a quick review
of the techniques we’ve covered so far.
The mechanics of the trio of armbar, leg triangle and
omoplata are mechanically ok. The key improvements to make were:
Armbar: angle off more when turning and securing arm before
attacking with hips.
Triangle: angle off more when turning using foot on hip and
under hook to secure arm before attacking with hips.
Omoplata: Edge hips out once you have moved to secure back of
opponent. This creates space to collapse opponent.
My palm up, palm down choke was decent today, and my teacher
advised me to use that to attack because it offers other possibilities when the
opponent defends.
I also got a great tip on the sleeve choke, which involves
punching the hand grabbing the gi collar the knuckle side to get the opponent
to react and move the other way. This creates the space to loop the arm over,
before dropping back to the ‘punching’ side to tighten the choke.
We then did some work on escapes from side control, which is
an area I need to work on. The tips here were:
Guard recovery: hip escape instead of bridging. It’s a
smaller movement and it means less potential damage to your hips. Once you’ve
hip escaped and inserted the knee, stay on your side and monkey grip the arm of
the opponent that will attack for head control, then hip escape out and
establish full guard.
Come to knees: Fight for the underhook and don’t have a gap
between getting you knees then driving forward.
Spinout escape: Use this when the opponent is blocking your
hips to prevent guard recovery. Trap his hand with your nearest hand, then
elevate the legs and swing in and away from the opponent to create momentum.
The drive and spin away, and look to recover guard or half guard as soon as
possible.
Things to remember: Work on the side control escapes; use
the choke position to create other options.
