Class 74…

A beginners class taught by the MMA pro at the gym, who’s a purple belt, very dynamic and makes everything look pretty effortless.

He also kept to the theme of the past few weeks with the armbar, omoplata and triangle drill.

Beforehand, though, we did a series of basic exercises designed to improve passing the opponent’s guard. These involved the opponent with his back on the floor and his knees up and you grabbing his gi at the knees to pin his legs and moving to the side, then returning to the centre and moving to the other side. There were a few variation on this, with placing one hand on the floor, then diving over one of the opponent’s flat legs while diving under his raised leg. It sounds simple but it was pretty tough work.

The bulk of the class, however, was spent drilling the trinity of armbar, opponent escapes by pulling his arm out, omoplata on the other arm, opponent postures up, rise hips and chop leg down for leg triangle choke.

I could quite happily spend a lot of time doing this. It’s strong basics I need and these are pretty basic and pretty necessary.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Same as before: practise basic drills and ensure you keep good grips.