Warmed up by having a classmate show me how to reverse shrimp. I had it there for a couple seconds. Lost it again when we did the ground class warmups…there’s a brown belt there who hadn’t seen it before coming to this school either and was just as lost, so I don’t feel all that bad!

Takedown class:

Warmups – stay in wrestling stance, move around. Alternated sprawls and shoots on command. If you didn’t come back to wrestling stance it was pushups time! Thighs burned out pretty quick from the shoots – I think some higher volume squats and lunges might be in order, as the running I’ve done all spring and summer didn’t carry over.

Techniques – snapdown series to double leg with trip, then come to side control, just like last Tuesday.

Russian tie – entry similar to arm drag – cross grip sleeve, step to t position. Bring free arm under his grabbed limb and monkey grip wrist. Bend and place upper arm and shoulder against the back of his upper arm and bend him.

Next, Russian tie to ouchi gari. You can hit it from the side of the trapped arm and drive through. Bring the weight to the leg nearest the trapped arm by stepping forward. Place the foot nearest the leg between the feet and drop to one knee. Swivel the leg in to trap the foot, then lean and drive to into opponent. Keep the arm trapped, put weight on the bottom’s torso and swivel to side control while keeping weight on toes as you spin into place. An option presented was to shoot the arm closest to the hips through and cup the neck, palm up, then thread the arm that was still gripping the sleeve in for a darce choke. Squeeze the elbows to finish. This is the exact same technique sequence.

We did a throw from the Russian tie as well. Get the tie, move the hand nearest his shoulder to your opposite shoulder to lock his upper arm in place, move opponent forward, then reverse your motion, spinning to face the opposite way he is, throw his arm behind you as you drop into a sidefall. Roll to side control. This is almost the same technique, but I’m seeing some slight variation on them bending the arm and them placing it on the chest as opposed to pushing it through and behind.

For our last technique, we covered the Russian tie to the fireman’s carry. It went down just like this. If you move the opponent forward and/or put downward pressure on his arm he’ll often take a compensating step forward. If it’s done with the leg opposite the side you’re on that’s an open door to the fireman’s carry.

Ground class: Standard warmups, was taken aside and shown the correct technical standup – apparently people were omitting the kick/push/jam part of the pendulum action, and I followed along with the crowd. Reverse shrimping was a fail as well – I had the motion down for a minute or so before the takedown class, but couldn’t get my groove on during warmups.

Techniques – Crossmount into kimura submission. Start in side control. Press opponent’s far side wrist into his pelvis by grabbing his wrist and placing weight on it. Base with other hand. Shoot to the I position and begin to wriggle basing hand under the far arm. Lift chest quickly and shoot hand in to monkey grip your own wrist. Secure the hand position – both hands cupping solidly. Wriggle back to cross position. “Vibrate” opponent’s far arm off his body and onto the mat. Take up slack of his far arm until it is toward his shoulder. Crank the arm into kimura by leaning slightly back – rolling weight toward his hips can allow him to sit up and escape. This probably won’t work as flexibility will allow him to endure this limited range of motion, so switch legs and step over head, then reapply kimura. I’m thus far unable to find video of this exact sequence, but here, at least is a clip that incorporates some of it. He steps directly over the head without a leg switch – this is possible, but flexibility might be an issue.

The next technique was a setup for the previous technique. Take side control. Slip hand that’s around head into collar, behind neck, thumb in. Jump to pseudo knee on belly. Plant kneecap on center of sternum and pull up collar. Grab pants with other hand if that’s not enough. Extreme discomfort will make bottom man push knee of sternum. Point toes of the leg straight out behind and allow push to shove knee off belly and arm to move across belly. Collapse down into sidemount and seize the wrist. Continue as above.

We also worked some of last week’s material – Americana, the choke from sidemount moving to north south, and then the head and arm triangle.

Rolls – Can’t pass guard. Get stuck in mount and can’t make the mount escape work, hit kesagetame and got rolled, caught under side control. This quote of Ferdinand Foch seems relevant: ” My centre is giving way, my right is retreating. Situation excellent, I am attacking.”

Got collar choked a few times, can’t break grips, and seem to be keeping my elbows too open, particularly against open guard players – when I’m in closed guard people often comment on my defense. That seems to fall apart against the open guard guys – probably due to trying to mount an offense and not really knowing how.

Hit half guard a few times on the 3rd roll and wasn’t able to take the back or sweep – just continually threaten. At least there’s that!