Class 312...

Today was my second open mat no gi class and I felt a little bit more up to speed. The pace seemed a little less daunting and I was better at keeping my hooks active when people were trying to pass my guard.

I'd also worked on a couple of triangle defences, which sort of worked. The first was a stack and spin defence, which involved posturing up and putting my trapped arm on the opposite side of my opponent's head, then putting my knee in and spinning to mangle his posture and break his legs apart. The other involve getting control of a wrist and placing a foot in the armpit, then stretching out to break the leg lock.

I also tried a triangle from a bad hip bump sweep. This involved attacking from guard for a hip bump sweep without securing the arm, allowing the opponent to defend his base with that arm, then keeping the pressure on his arm and bringing the leg through for a leg triangle.

It was a decent class and I felt I had some success in least holding position in my overlook closed guard. My attempts at butterfly guard are still pretty poor, though, and there's still plenty of work to do before I even reach a basic level of competence at no-gi.

Things to remember: Work on butterfly, defending leg locks and triangle defence. 

Classes 310 & 311...

Today saw a new start at a new gym after leaving work in London last year. It's also a chance to change a few things up, so I'm doing just that. I'm aware I don't hit enough armbars, omoplatas or triangles, I want to work on my speed and stamina, and I want to be less reliant on gi grips. So I've decided to try no-gi for a while.

I also want to get some competency at this as I'm terrible at it.

Class one was an open mat and a chance to roll with everyone and get a feel for the place. The gym I've joined has a lot of footlock specialists, so I got footlocked lots, particularly as I have no gi to grab hold of to keep in close proximity to my opponent and defend myself.

I also fell victim to a couple of d'arce chokes, too.

Attacking from guard was also tough as there is less friction with no gi, so it was tough to clamp down on people, control them and hold them before working for a position.

There is so much to learn for even basic competency at this.

Next up was a beginners class, which led into an advanced class, and the format was pretty much the same structure as a gi class, with running around, roll falls, shrimps, press-ups, etc.

We then did some drilling of armbars and the hip bump sweep, plus a a granby roll from turtle into guard or triangle. I've never really got the latter before so learning this was a win! We then did a spinning armbar drill from a weak kimura attack and some single x guard stuff, leading to a sweep.

The advanced class was all straight rounds rolling and I got murdered and tapped to more leg locks, chokes, back attacks and triangles. It's all very fast and dynamic, with constant movement and attack.

I am awful at this. But I always am when I start anything new. I'll do some research and get a handle on grips and handles, then work out frames and escapes. It will get worse before it gets better.

Things to remember: everything must be active; use granby roll to escape and attack from position and submissions.