I showed up a little early since the Judo class I was going to visit got cancelled, did some agility drills and vacuumed the mats to get random crud from the TKD classes off of them. Kris showed up a little early and we did some warm up rolling. He's still got the bad habit of trying to replace technique with speed/strength which is hurting his progress. He has a lot of potential, but his mindset is holding him back right now.
Ian ran through the basic warmup, then we drilled some armbars and omoplatas from guard. Casey showed up right as we were finishing that up and we went to work on techniques from side control.
Technique today was to have your normal side control, with one arm under the head and the other under the far shoulder, grab some gi on that far arm and lift as you switch your arm that is under the head to be under the shoulder. You should be nice and deep so your opponents weight is actually coming down on your forearm. Next move your other arm to block the opponents hip and step over the head. At the same time you want to pressure into them to drive their shoulder up off of the ground. If they are light enough or you are strong enough you can lift up on them to pull them up onto their side. Next you get the figure four grip on their arm, and now you put your knee in their ribs, sit on them, squeeze your knees, and sit back for an armbar.
The next option was the same, but their armbar defense looks to be too solid, so instead of attempting the armbar you go to the Kimura by putting your knee on their bottom bicep and popping the arm free by pulling up sharply.
Last option was if they are hiding their bottom arm as well, you scoot forward until your knees are pinching them at the midback and chest and then you keep the arm, drop to the side, cross your ankles and use a scissor on their neck. This was stupidly effective and I vowed that if anyone tapped me with a head scissors I would switch to Aikido and Catch Wrestling.
Drilling was with Coe, Casey, and Ian starting in Side Control. I was able to reguard against Casey the first time via some insane agility that ended us in some weird mutual headstand position before I was able to pop back to guard. Coe crushified me for a while but I can't remember whether time ran out on the drilling or he caught me with something.
Rolling was with the same group. Casey let me get past his guard a couple of times with minimal resistance and I worked to maintain my position on top and set up attacks. Being able to stay on top of Casey for ANY length of time gives me a lot of confidence in my top game now.
Starting on top of Coe I can maintain top position as long as I don't get over zealous with submission hunting. I was able to counter his escape attempts most of the time without tiring myself out. On the bottom with Coe it's like having a truck parked on me though. If he gets past my legs/knees it's just horrible. I spend 90% of my effort just trying not to tap to the pressure while I defend his sub attempts. He usually gets me eventually.
Ian I can hold down and hunt subs on from the top, and I can still trick him from the bottom most of the time and catch a sub or two. I managed to finish with the alternate grip collar choke and an armbar this time, but he damn near got me with that headscissors move we learned in class. If his legs had been adjusted slightly I would have had to tap to it, as it was I was able to relieve the pressure and work to escape until time ran out.
Working with the heavier guys is a blast, but it's a TON of work. I've learned that I REALLY don't like being on the bottom in Gi against anyone more than 30lbs heavier than I am that is also the same skill level. In No-Gi I don't mind as much because there's so much less friction that I can still maneuver, but in Gi the friction lock that their weight causes more than counters the benefit of being able to slow them down with gi grips. I definitely prefer to work from the top in Gi where I can still be mobile.
Yikes, I thought your title meant you'd broken a rib.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually a near thing. I have two previously broken ribs on my right side which are seriously aching today from the pressure that a 215ish lb purple belt and a 215ish lb black belt can put on from side control. Definitely a little hitch in the breathing. But not broken.
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