BJJ Class 128
School (MBA) started this week and I have a feeling it’s going to be a busy term. Fortunately, I don’t have to buy any overpriced textbooks, so my unemployed wallet is happy. And my two classes are on just one night, so I can still train at least twice a week should employment come my way. Ok, on to the jits. It was a long session of an afternoon class for me. After the hour and a half of class I stayed an extra 45 minutes rolling and getting pointers.
Warm-ups were self warm-ups, then we jumped straight to techniques. Techniques were moves from the clamp, which is a guard variation that’s somewhat similar to the rubber guard, only you’re to the side of your opponent and on your side (on one hip). It’s halfway to an omoplata, so the first submission from there was an omoplata variation where you post on your head and go on your knees. Should your opponent roll out of it, your legs should follow him and you can get a reverse omoplata. If your opponent slips his wrist out from under your armpit, go for the armbar.
Next was a triangle. Stretch out the clamp, free your leg, cinch the triangle and complete the choke. Then armbar from the clamp. Isolate arm and wedge wrist on neck, squeeze elbow, and twist for tap. I know that none of that made sense to just about everybody but myself, but I need to make notes in case I forget some stuff when making my snowboard instructor pictures. If I forget to take those pix, then even my notes won’t make sense to me! lol
After that, we were briefly shown that you can get the clamp from other positions, not just guard. Half-guard and bottom side-control are two other good places to get it from.
Over an hour of rolling followed. Everyone I rolled with was blue or purple, including two beginner blue belts like myself and Big Blue V. I realized while rolling that I haven’t had a submission since I was promoted. And that’s mostly cause everyone I’ve rolled with since (it’s been a month) has been blue belts and up, including the other blues that were promoted with me. No one to practice stuff on…
With so much rolling, it’s difficult to remember every single thing, but I’ll give it a try…
What I did right:
- Defended a lot of submissions, although I still got caught in a bunch of them.
- I remembered some mistakes made with some people in previous classes and avoided doing them again
- I passed Big Blue V’s guard and was able to actually maintain side control on him for a long time, which actually ran out
- Defended my back well, IMO
- I rolled much better against some people versus when I rolled with them before
- I got a lucky wrist lock submission when I was trying to pass half-guard. It was all luck, so I can’t really claim it
- I managed to quickly drill that shoulder plant pass I’ve been wanting to
What I did wrong:
- A lot, most of them unknowingly
- I only got to go for the shoulder plant pass once, and I was quickly butterfly swept – definitely need to drill it more and learn when to use and not use it. It’s definitely a technique I could add to my game – heck, I feel like I’ve been whining about it for weeks now. sorry
- Trying to regain guard or half-guard from bottom of side-control is difficult against higher belts but I kept trying – need to work on other ways to escape the bottom of side-control
- Guard still sucks against Big Blue V, as it does against most of the higher belts. And just several weeks ago I thought I had a good guard – but I guess that was just against white belts
- I keep getting caught in clock-chokes when I’m under side-control. I might be able to make space in front of my neck and defend for a while, but I almost always end up tapping to them
After all the rolling I did an extended roll with a purple belt and walked away with some great tips for side-control, top and bottom.
Alrighty then, I think Hotjobs is on my schedule next…
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