Class 340...

A class on defending the neck from being rear mounted. This began with a quick summary of the three choke attacks that the man attacking the back has from seat belt position. These are: 

Chokes from Back Control Seatbelt: opponent strips top hand and choking hand moves through to clasp shoulder of opponent and choke for the tap; the opponent uses his hand that is trapped by your other hand to pull the arm away to ease the choke, which frees up your other hand to gable grip your choking hand and clamp the choke tighter; you then have the option to slide your free hand in and lock up a rear naked choke. 

We also did a bit of positional work on attacking for the choke. The key take-home points from this were: 

i) Move into body triangle from hooks if possible and keep body triangle on side that is not titled towards floor. 
ii) When attacking for choke, best position to kill opponent's defensive option is to move him onto his side and create a line that goes floor, choking arm (ie. not under armpit arm on seatbelt), head off opponent, your head.

We then worked on some defences for the man being attacked. The two main ones went something like this: 

Arm removal defence from RNC: create a frame where one arm pulls the choking arm down and the other arm pushes the choking arm away; push the whole frame froward and place it at the other side of your head so the choke is longer a threat; then kick the free-side hook out and bum scoot over the leg of the opponent; then switch hips to turn in and move in either side mount or half guard. 

Slink down defence from RNC: When opponent switches choking arms, create a defensive frame with your hands, push off his hands and slink down; remove the hook on one side and then put one elbow to the floor on the opposite side; and switch hips and come up into double unders pass. 

Sparring was OK. I am still carrying a rib injury so I was in defensive mode for sparring rounds. My defence feels sort of OK, but I am aware I am competing against folk who are much younger and folk who also fight MMA, which emphasises the speed and skill gap. 

But I am now training more consistently at grappling than I have ever done and I feel like I am getting some things right again. My hooks are definitely more active from my favoured starting position of butterfly guard. I now need to work on arm drags and sweeps from that position.  

A good class and my stamina feels OK. 

Things to remember: three-part choke attack and the primacy of the back in no-gi; arm removal defence for when rear mounted.