Went to class early to see if anyone would show up to play. I did some conditioning for about half an hour. 25,20,15,10,5,5,10,15,20,20 of Squats, Pushups, Crunches, and dumbbell rows (Each arm) with a 20lb weight. Took a brief rest after the ladder down and another after the ladder back up. Could have done more of everything except the pushups. Arms were completely on strike.
Had a warmup roll with one of our Ammy fighters, Brian, his standup is awesome, but his ground game has been highly reliant on his athleticism until the last few months. He's finally starting to settle down an start working the technique, though he still tends to fall back on just being in better shape than everyone else sometimes. We rolled for a while and I caught an elbow to the trachea. Didn't stop the roll, but it got uncomfortable later. Not videos this time around because class was so small, had no one to run the camera.
Talked to Casey about getting a beginners class going and he agreed to it, so long as he didn't have to come do anything. I'm going to talk to Coe and Darnell, the two purple belts, about working up a schedule and a curriculum for it.
Technique was a counter to the far side underhook escape from side control. Bottom guy gets the underhook, turns in and pushes you off. You backstep for stability and then step over into technical mount with the overhook. Next you work your foot on the overhook side up to your opponents head and then squeeze your knees towards each other (EVen though one of your knees is still on the ground, yes) resulting in an omoplata like shoulder lock.
Next technique was the same setup, but you feed your leg across for the Gogoplata. Final technique was same setup but you feed the leg across and sit back for a wicked armbar.
After that some specific sparring from side control. I got to move over to the Gigantor side of the room to even things up. Rolled with GiantNewWhiteBelt guy who I discovered is named Brent, Darnell, Brian and Casey. Played as defensively as I ever play which means looking for sweeps and subs while not completely ignoring the fact that I'm about to get tooled. Darnell shut me down completely today and even Got me with an ezekiel while I had an overhook and he was in my full guard. Sneaky.
Casey dominated me in hilarious fashion as usual. The best part about that is the split second between me making the key mistake and him putting on the sub. It's just a huge "OHSHITISHOULDN'THAVEDONETHAT" moment and it's always from something seemingly innocuous.
Brian I was able to sweep a few times early on, and generally handle just fine, but once I started to slow down it was all over. The guy does NOT get tired.
Sparring was with Brian, Darnell, and then one of the guys my size, Kris. More of the same with Brian, while I Was fresh I could handle him, but as soon as I started to get tired it was everything I could do not to get mauled.
Darnell continued to shut me down.
Kris I was able to sweep a bunch, throw around, an generally handle the way I handle all of the whitebelts my size. At one point he went for an ankle lock of some kind, so I defended and slapped a toe hold on him. Apparently I tweaked it a little hard for his taste, but he's fine. I don't go for leg locks on white belts unless they start in it first, but I probably need to start working that toe hold on the higher belts a little more....
By the time I got home from class lifting the gallon of milk to pour me a glass felt like the heaviest thing in the universe. That's how I know it was an good day.
