Saturday class

Only four of us on the mat today, me being the most senior. I took the warm up. And a warm up we needed, it had been rather a chilly morning...

Two of the three guys there are very new, one of them only having his second class. I worked with him for the whole of the class, except when I was the demo dummy for Sensei.

We did the lap drill (side control to mount to side control, go around the top via north south to side control, etc). A simple drill it is, but it includes some fundamental moves.

Then we looked at how use shoulder pressure to smear the bottom person's forearms away from his chest, with a view of being able to attack it. This also helped the new guys be more aware of how to use their weight while on top. Another alternative is to get under the elbow while going from side control to north south.

We looked at scenario where the bottom person in mount grabs around the middle of the top person. And how we can profit by going to side control to break the grip and trap the arm across their neck. That led onto the head arm choke. We drilled that a few times. I was also shown an alternative to breaking the grip. Say the guy on the bottom is very strong and I can't break his hands apart. In that case, when I'm already in side control, I bring my top leg up and step over his head. That breaks his grip and turns him on his side. From there I can step over to get sidemount. My options are an attack on his top arm, especially if I trapped it around his neck. Otherwise, I can sneak my hand in his top lapel, let go of his arm, and then quickly pass the lapel to my other hand. As his arm comes up, there is a lapel half nelson choke. Neat.

Didn't do any wrestling, but I really didn't mind. Helping a new guy through some techniques is another way to deepen my understanding of them. Not just having to explain how to do a technique, but to explain it from different angles, and to troubleshoot if they have questions or problems. This makes me analyze how I do things and in turn raises questions I need to resolve.

What I find quite difficult is to keep my instructions simple and concise. It's hard to teach something I'm passionate about :-) . I have a tendency to go into too much detail, show them all the ins and outs. The problem is that all that information may be too much, there is only so much most of us can absorb at any time. I'm afraid I'm not a very good teacher. Something else to learn!