Class 164...

My third class of the week and I made it through a gruelling warm-up, then it was straight into sparring... and twang! Something turned in my back as a much heavier purple belt flattened me out and drove their weight through me. 

Fortunately, it's an old injury so I wasn't too worried. I'll be off training for about a week. But it's a salient reminder not to overdo anything. I'm 46 and I need to pace myself occasionally, especially if things are also hectic in other areas of my life.

Class 163...

Another early-morning session, featuring a back climb and a sweep from the bottom in half guard from the previous class. There was an initial variation I missed on this, which went something like this:

i) Opponent's right leg is trapped in your half guard; you have a high half-guard control, which means your left leg is under the armpit of the opponent and your left arm is on the inside of your left leg; use your leg to push the opponent off; as he pressures back down, secure the left underhook and shrimp down so your head is on the belly of the opponent and you are propped up on your right elbow; from here, reach round and attack the back. 

I was paired with a very helpful purple belt who showed me some gripping sequences to turn the back take options into a choke. The key seemed to be either establishing a collar grip or moving into the rear naked choke. 

I again did OK in sparring and I felt quite mobile against three fellow white belts. I also defended quite well and locked in a few submissions, including a kimura and the knuckle variation of an Ezekiel choke. 

I struggled to pass one of my fellow white belt's open guards, though. I need to look at some guard passing strategies again. 

Things to remember: Keep using the Ezekiel choke; do some research into guard breaking, then guard passing.

Class 162...

An early-morning session, featuring a back climb and a sweep from the bottom in half guard. These went something like this: 

i) Opponent's right leg is trapped in your half guard; secure sleeve control of opponent's right hand with either two against one or your right arm only; yank the opponent's right arm across your body and under his; then shrimp out and grab the opponent's left lat; take the back.

ii) Opponent's right leg is trapped in your half guard; secure sleeve control of opponent's right hand with either two against one or your right arm only; yank the opponent's right arm across your body and under his; opponent defends by grabbing your leg; push the opponent away and use his momentum as he comes back to sweep him over. 

I did OK in sparring and I felt quite mobile against three fellow white belts. I also defended quite well and locked in a few submissions. A good class.

Things to remember: Keep working from guard with the arm across the throat and the wrist control. It's starting to pay dividends.

Class 161...

An open-mat session and some flow rolling with a smaller but very skilled and fast white belt, then some no-gi rolling with a bigger and more skilled white belt. 

This was a nice session and, even though it wasn't hugely competitive, I still landed some decent positions and got some decent submission attempts in, too. 

It was also very tiring, though. It seem 90 minutes straight rolling is very fatiguing. 

Things to remember: Persevere with the chokes from guard. You're having success with these.

Private Class No.6...

Another private class and some work on the armbar, omaplata and triangle.

We then did some work on the following chokes:
Palm up, palm down choke
Palm up, palm up choke up
Loop choke (push away, up on hip and resting on elbow, momentum back in allows you to catch head and put arm in)

We also did some work on the cross collar grip and stuffing the opponent's hand, and using this to set up the kimura and the cross collar choke, followed by the Ezekiel choke from mount and side control. 

These lessons are invaluable and I'm starting to get more comfortable with chokes.

Things to remember: The Ezekiel choke is a great option from pretty much anywhere.

Class 160...

Today, an early morning class and with three positions from the closed guard. They went something like this:

i) Arm drag and back take: Opponent is in your closed guard; reach both hands to get wrist control on opponent’s right hand with fingers gripping sleeve; bridge up and collapse his posture with your legs as you bridge down and push his arm across his body to your right to expose a shoulder; keep the right wrist control in place and shrimp out as your left arm swims over his back and grabs under armpit; pull yourself round and attack the back as you secure hooks. 

ii) Arm drag and straight armbar: Opponent is in your closed guard; reach both hands to get wrist control on opponent’s right hand with fingers gripping sleeve; bridge up and collapse his posture with your legs as you bridge down and push his arm across his body to your right to expose a shoulder; the opponent uses his free hand to press up; hip escape back and catch his pressing-up arm by sending your right arm underneath and clamp down with his hand at your neck; bring your knees up and clamp them together for a straight arm bar.

iii) Arm drag and sweep: Opponent is in your closed guard; reach both hands to get wrist control on opponent’s right hand with fingers gripping sleeve; bridge up and collapse his posture with your legs as you bridge down and push his arm across his body to your right to expose a shoulder; the opponent uses his free hand to press up; keep his right hand in wrist control and stuffed across his body with your left hand; hip escape back and with your right hand, grab his leg; then kick through his shoulder with your right leg and come up to sweep him.

I'm also starting to experiment with the entry footwork for leg locks from standing against a seated opponent. 

Things to remember: Arm drag and back take.

Competition No.3...

Today was the yearly club tournament and I once again competed at middle-weight. 

Sadly, I missed the weight by about 1.5kg, but I was still allowed to compete as it's quite a relaxed affair. In any other event, though, this would be an instant disqualification. So the first lesson of the day: I need to manage my weight loss better. 

So, for the remaining three events I'll be doing this year, I've now given myself a five-week schedule to diet and drop any additional pounds (and it's pounds because I still work in metric).

Onto the fight itself, and I lost quite heavily on points. On the plus side, I defended well and didn't get submitted, and I even managed to get back to half-guard, and full guard at one point.

My opponent got side control then full mount and I was defending pretty much for all that time. I had a couple of very small chances, one a throw from standing and another an attack from full guard, but I was just too exhausted. My opponent was also a decent wrestler who knew how to use his weight. 

But I was never really in it and I wasn't aggressive enough. I should probably have exerted myself more to escape bad positions earlier in the fight and tried to tire him, but I never felt I had a decent opening. 

However, another event done and more things to work on. And, last year at this point, I didn't even last a full round. 

Things to remember: Be more aggressive. Don't rely on countering all the time. 

Classes 158 & 159...

Two early morning classes, both focusing on control positions and submissions from Side control. 

The techniques went something like this: 
Secure opponent's gi at back of neck with right hand; left elbow blocks opponent's hip movement; step over opponent's neck with right leg; choke between right hand and leg to submit.

Shoulder pressure using arm under neck and driving weight into opponent; opponent gets underhook; arm under neck swims out and traps opponent's arm at his side; switch base and go to straight arm lock.

Variation: If opponent defends by grabbing belt, then use own arm to lift his belt and lock opponent's arm in place; free hand goes deep in collar and under neck to choke; if that fails, roll opponent onto side and bring knee between own arms and on back of opponent's neck; drive in with knee and sag back with arms.

In sparring, I did OK in both sessions. I'm starting to feel more up to speed again. 

Things to remember: Shoulder pressure!

Class 157...

An early-morning class and some work on sweeps using the omaplata. There three variations went something like this: 

i) Opponent in your closed guard; right hand grabs opponent's left sleeve and left hand grabs opponent's right led on gi; open the guard and stuff the arm so the elbow can't base out; bridge and kick through with the left leg to sweep the opponent over; opponent bases with his left arm; bridge up again and drive forward to sweep him so you come on top in mount. 

ii) Opponent in your closed guard; right hand grabs opponent's left sleeve and left hand grabs opponent's right led on gi; open the guard and stuff the arm so the elbow can't base out; bridge and kick through with the left leg to sweep the opponent over; opponent bases with his left arm; sweep leg under and onto shoulder for arm bar. 

iii) Opponent in your closed guard; right hand grabs opponent's left sleeve and left hand grabs opponent's right led on gi; open the guard and stuff the arm so the elbow can't base out; bridge and kick through with the left leg to sweep the opponent over; opponent bases with his left arm; right arm swims under opponent's leg as he comes back into position; sit up and secure same side arm; then drive forward to secure side control. 

We then went onto sparring and I did OK with my fellow white belts. I'm starting to use the guard position a lot more and launch attacks from it and I threatened a few kimuras and cross collar chokes. I'm also using the hand in collar and wrist control position and finding that really helpful. I even early caught a couple of Ezekiels today. 

Things to remember: The omaplata sweep and its variations; persevere with the guard as it's starting to pay dividends.