Classes 336-337...

A no-gi class, quickly followed by a gi class. Here's what we did: 

The no-gi class kicked off with us working on single-leg takedowns and defending single leg takedowns. The drill went something like this: 

Single leg takedown drill: cross shoulder touch the opponent to ensure range; squat down in fighting stance with left leg forward; drop onto front knee and drive forward to secure hands overhooking nearest leg and cupping furthest leg behind knee, back leg braces to ensure opponent cannot drive you back; shoot through and drive forward for double; bring back leg through 90 degrees to secure leg for single leg; pick up single leg and trap it between your own legs; use head pressure to turn the corner to take opponent down. 

I need to massively improve this area so I need to remember: touch, squat, shoot dropping onto front knee and secure hands into position, then side step and trap opponent's leg between your legs.

We also then did some work on escaping from under a mounted opponent. This went like this:

We then worked on a three choke sequence from back mount:

Seatbelt grips and hooks in on a back-mounted opponent: opponent strips top hand, bottom hand secures choke position by grabbing shoulder of opponent, choke; gable grip own hand and neck choke; slide hand in for rear naked choke.

No gi sparring was fine. I feel more with it at the moment, but lots of other people are just younger, faster and stronger, so I'm not worrying if I can't keep up with them. I also got some advice on the Williams guard and the overhook guard I am trying to use, which was to clamp down with the near side leg to make it easier to attack for omaplatas and armbars.

The gi class felt like massively hard work. But it was still good. We mainly worked on positions from guard where the man who has guard uses a standing foot position to launch attacks. The sequence went something like this:

Sweep from guard with opponent standing on one leg: Secure sleeve control on both sleeves, opponent goes to stand on one leg; underhook the leg but keep sleeve control; open legs and sort of scissor to sweep to off-balance opponent and drive using the underhooked leg and the sleeve control to come into mount.

Sweep from guard with opponent standing on one leg: undertook leg and set up same sweep, but use off-balancing to attack for armbar; if opponent defends by pulling the arm out, attack for the omoplata; if that fails, let the opponent come up and attack for the triangle; if opponent hides arm in triangle, hook legs over and attack for an armbar.

Sparring was OK and I hit a triangle against a very strong white belt. I am starting to attack for more triangles and this is good. I then held my own against two decent white belts. I keep forgetting to attack for omoplatas when I have guard.

Foot fish escape: You are under opponent in full mount; use frame to create space and go onto side as though you are escaping to your back; push knee of opponent down and use outside leg to fish for foot of opponent; secure half guard, roll back onto back, secure underhook on same side as half guard and attack with back climb, secure second hook and establish seat belt. 

Sitting behind opponent with seatbelt grip; hand under the armpit stays on top of hand under the armpit; opponent strips top hand and bottom hand secures choke position by grabbing shoulder of opponent to choke; then gable grip choking hand and neck choke; then slide hand in for rear naked choke.

The drill to chain this sequence is: sweep, upa, armbar, omoplata, triangle, then teepee if arm comes out to defend triangle. The latter involves crossing you feet behind the opponent and connecting your hands behind your knees, then squeezing.

Things to remember: Mount escape, three choke sequence, undertook leg attacks. Persevere with Williams guard and work out to make it flow from overhook and butterfly guard.