Takedown class – pummeling warmup, pummeling drill for underhooks, pummeling for underhooks then takedown to mount. Next was our intro to Osoto Gari both stationary and with a skipping entry. We worked grapevining the leg and stepping through the opponent as well as the kick out that’s commonly shown in judo instructionals. We drilled the skip in by chasing our partner as he backpeddled. A counter to Osoto was keeping the near side leg out of reach, so Uchi Mata was demonstrated as a counter to that counter. If uchi gets countered, seoi nage was offered as still being possible.

Here’s a cool page with some Osoto Gari variations. I’m liking the look of this entry for it as well: Yamashita demonstrating o uchi gari/o soto gari. This one’s pretty trippy, too. Trippy! Get it? Oh, well.

Now that I think about it, I’ve seen uchi mata from a whizzer before when I took a Greco lesson from Paul Sharp of MDOC. This particular clip from the University of Judo demonstrates it. There are a lot of cool tricks to pull with the whizzer, and that Rob Koll video I linked to looks like solid gold material.

We wrapped up with some pummeling and grip fighting.

Ground class: After the basic warmups, we worked a flow series. Start in guard, open legs and move to open guard, feet on hips with sleeve grips, kick leg sweep like in the last few classes followed by rolling the top man to our shins then rolling to knee and belly. Take side control and be sure to isolate the far side arm, as we’re going to mount. Cut the knee and shin across the belly and pull the knee up toward to clear the foot from entanglement, then sink hooks on the legs.

The bottom man then works mount defense: cross one arm across the top man’s waist to keep him from moving his mount higher on the torso. keep the other arm bent, elbow against the top man’s knee. Drop the leg opposite of the crossing arm flat on the ground and draw the other up to the buttocks. Turn to a 45 toward the side of the leg that is down. Snake the foot of the bent leg over the top man’s ankle and wheedle it over your downed leg then lock it down. Slide the formerly trapped leg out from under the top man’s hooked leg, lock your half guard down, and roll him over.

You’re now on bottom in half guard, so snake the closest arm across the back and grab the belt, attempting to take the back. It actually goes a lot like this video from Emily Kwok and Stephan Kesting, but we left one hand up near the collar to defend while keeping the elbow tight pressed against the Top man’s knee close to the floor. Top man overhooks the reaching arm to defend against the back attack, so bottom grabs his far leg and drives forward, taking him down and seizing side control. Here’s Stephan Kesting again, showing the sweep after the arm gets overhooked. Bottom man now recomposes guard. Drill begins anew.

Spider guard – Start in closed guard. Open as with the last few drills – both sleeves gripped, plant one leg on the floor and keep top man controlled with other leg behind back. Hip escape and bring leg from floor to 45 degree across torso for control and pull with grips on sleeves while pushing with knee. Bring foot from behind and place on hip. Windshield wiper legs open and keep outward leg pressure on arms as well as pulling with grips and pushing with feet. Roll one grip over like throttling a motorcycle. Kick the same leg skyward and punch the hand while rolling to the opposite hip, then slip foot back and place on bicep. Push leg out while pulling and keep on the opposite hip, then bring the elbow inside the leg and pull with both grip and instep. Transfer other foot to other bicep. Push and pull with opposing pressure to keep opponent stretched. Take one foot off his bicep and place on his same side hip. Push the other high, bringing his base up, then using the arm that’s on the same side of the foot that’s on his hip, pull that arm up while pressing his knee out (I’ve heard some people call this, “the gas pedal.”). Roll him to the compromised side and take mount.

This video is similar. I’ll keep looking for one closer to what we practiced. What is nice is that he emphasizes compromising balance with the hip movement, as well as foot placement on the bicep – mine was often too close to the shoulder. Without lifting him up and pulling, that knee doesn’t want to move.

Rolling – 4 rolls, all against white belts. Worked defense. Kept getting caught in side control & kesa getame and didn’t have good answers, so that’s homework I need to work on. I managed to catch someone in kesa getame but got rolled – still more homework. Speaking of homework, here are some cool drills for Spider Guard work. This seems pretty relevant, too. I think I’ll be giving Stephan Kesting some of my money in the near future.

More Stephan Kesting, since I got stuck in rear mount:

Rear Mount Escape
Since I keep getting flattened in side control, I think I’ll give this a shot. Side control escape.
Here’s Kurt Osiander with some good tips. “Boom! You fucked up a long time ago!” He’s right!

I’ve seen some of Henry Akin’s stuff before. I think I need to watch more of it. He’s explaining things well and I see how I’m making the mistakes he’s talking about. Escape from tight side control.

Kesa Getame stuff:

Kurt Osiander’s version: “I may be tired, and pinned, and trapped.” Sounds like my typical rolling experience! I tried the bridge and roll without success last class, though. Hmmm.

Here’s Kesting’s and Ritchie Yip’s version. The pin looks closer to what I was stuck under in class than what was going on in the Osiander clip.

Here’s a mount escape from Kurt Osiander that looks fun. I’ll see if I can give it a shot. And a high mount escape because, well, I screw up a lot.

And knee on belly defense because, yet again, I screw up a lot.