Late for class – had to drop the better half of the Obsession Engine off to deliver a presentation.

Takedown class – Russian ties continues – this time beginning from a double grip with one hand on the wrist and the other clamping the upper arm near the shoulder instead of the hands figure 4-ing the arm like last time. Largely a review of Tuesday’s material – drop to knee, windshield wiper opponent’s near leg and press in to drop him, pin arm to mat and maneuver for side control and darce choke; fireman’s carry, drop to knee and opponent pushes trapped leg back, leaving opening for an ankle pick. I asked about the validity of a waki gatame takedown from the standing position but instructor didn’t think it was viable – if the opponent posts it leaves the back vulnerable. I see his point. Looks like it might be viable from kneeling positions, but there might be too much opportunity to weasel out from standing.

Ground class – After usual warmups, including me doing the technical standup the correct way and still not being able to do a reverse shrimp to save my life, we moved into Takedown-a-palooza – about 5 or maybe 10 minutes of “hit any takedown you want” as a partner drill. The fireman’s carry off a Russian tie, bodylock and dump, and osoto gari worked like a charm. I forgot to try uchi mata, brainfarted the lateral drop so didn’t attempt it, and couldn’t make the lapel drag throw work well. I think that throw is always going to be tricky unless if the opponent posts his far hand – if he collapses to his elbow he’ll be a beat behind.

Techniques – Omoplata from guard. Foot opposite the side your going to move to goes to the hip to help turn the body. Grab a pantleg and flatten out opponent to avoid counters and escapes. Roll up into a “cheerleader sit” position and grab opposite side, seatbelt the shoulder, or grab the head for leverage and rock forward to crank the shoulder. This video is pretty cool as it shows how important making space is to getting the lock on.

Omoplata from mount. Opponent reaches up – in this case we hugged the top man around the midsection. Pick an arm and overhook it, pulling it up and posting the same side leg. The opposite hand presses his face away while pulling. We worked a number of techniques from this series as well.

3 rolls…might go for 2, then skip one to rest, then 1 more next time just to start bumping my cardiac training up. It seems like 4 (5?) 5 minute rolls with a minute in between is the norm. I might as well stay and watch the rolls, too, instead of cutting out early. I might just learn something!

1st roll – a purple belt. Pretty cool guy that I partnered with through the technique portion. A comment was made that when I keep my elbows in when my opponent was going for spider guard that he couldn’t get some of the techniques he wanted off. I think the folks I know in law enforcement might call that a “clue”! Got guillotined when I attempted a single against a knee on belly…I think I used the wrong technique again. Let’s have a look at what I was trying to do again.

2nd roll with a white belt had a large portion devoted to me defending from a kimura attempt. The guy wasn’t strong, skillful, or large enough so I was able to brute force my way and stalemate most of his attempts. Not exactly a showcase of skill on my part, but it did make for a pretty good workout.

3rd roll – another purple belt. This guy pulled the “rope him up with his gi” stuff and probably hit an Americana on me about 73 times in 5 minutes. That seems to happen a lot more when I’m trying to pass an open guard player – I start to open up trying to pass the guard and get sucked right into a trap.

I’m still not having a lot of luck, so let’s review again:

Grip fighting – this one’s from White Belt BJJ and the instructor, Chewie, is putting out good info here.

Kesting, as usual – 4 tips to pass any guard

Some good gripfighting stuff from Kesting

Saulo Ribeiro – Guard Passing

Ryan Hall looks to have a LOT of good material.

Ryan Hall on Guard Passing.

Another basic guard passing vid with several techniques.

Mount escapes – this is similar to the escape I learned but looks like it can be applied when the mount is higher up – I’m having trouble hooking the leg at times. I think part of the problem is me not keeping one elbow down and the mounted opponent creeping too high up on my torso. This is almost the same escape I learned in class. We were told to keep one elbow on the mat to block the knee but at least one hand up to block collar access, though. I see that she mentions that the foot is “light” probably because of a hip buck. I often try this when someone’s sitting in good posture and it doesn’t work so well.

Here are some more mount escape basics. They haven’t worked well for me in the past but that’s at least partially because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.