I ended up only training three times last week. The knee took it well. But on Saturday, I couldn't make it anyway. I had to stay home because the horse-dentist came. He did six of our horses. Nice guy, and finally a guy who knows what he's doing. A real horseman (they are getting rarer these days, I swear!).
Anyway, it was probably be good to take it steady last week. This week, I've been training every day. The easy week has given my body a chance to recover a bit. Yes, I think I had been overdoing it recently... Sigh. So the question is whether the knee was a result of overtraining or unrelated. Anyway, it made me ease off a bit and I feel better for it all around. And finally by tonight, I didn't even think about the knee.
It's been an interesting week. On Monday, we did cutting armbars. I think I might have finally understood what makes them work. So far, I can only say I've got close. But now I know why I couldn't finish them off, and I think they'll make a handy addition to my arsenal. We looked at cutting armbars from guard and from side control. Whichever starting position, the key to it is to pin his upper arm against me, get a gable grip and slide that along until I get to the sweet spot near his elbow. Ideally, I will rotate his arm while I do that, just with the pressure of my gable grip. And if all goes well, his lower arm and hand will be lined up perfectly between my neck and shoulder. But the main part is the starting pressure. At the end of drilling and experimenting with it, I really could feel that pressure.
Tuesday night was no-gi. First time back since "the knee", so I was hoping to get a training partner with a degree of ahem... sense. I got lucky. Small class, uneven numbers, so I scored John as the drilling partner. We did a little bit of warming up getting x-guard. Then we drilled an open guard pass to knee on belly. As he hips out and rolls towards me to escape the knee, I step over his head and spin my legs back to get behind him. I need to get an underhook on his top arm from the rear. Then I sit up, rock back and take his back. The latter part is exactly how Ryan Hall describes a version of a back take. So it was great to be able to rep that out a few times.
We finished that class with about 20 minutes of rolling. I stayed with John. I was still very mindful of my knee (and so was he), so it was pretty light. But still, it was interesting stuff (most of which finished with my "destruction"). But the good part was that my hips were working and I managed some good escapes. Even got positions to launch a some submissions. I didn't stay for extra open mat, but it was a really good night.
John also showed me how to finish a weird upside down triangle, which I sometimes get, but could never finish. I tried to pull it on him, but failed yet again. Now that I know the finish, I think I might be doing some good with it. I catch people from bottom side control with this :-)
Yesterday's lunchtime class was very small: just myself. So Sensei Glenn decided that I should be his guinea pig for some new stuff he's been working on. And the other half of the class was mine. My choice was to work on the armbar from hell. I have been getting the high guard, with one knee over my opponent's shoulder, quite regularly. From there, I hunt for that armbar. But something was missing and I couldn't figure it out, so I've been going for a sweep, or a cutting armbar instead. Or sometimes I let them push their shoulder through, but keep their arm across, and then take the back.
However, after seeing what I've been doing, Glenn made a couple of suggestions. One was to square my hips back up. Hard to explain, but I know how it should feel. That gives me a much better angle for the armbar. Second suggestion was to have a much better grip on the arm. Even hold it with both my hands instead of using my left hand to push on his head to get my leg over. After some back and forth, and my usual non-faith in my own abilities and him giving me a bollocking for not even trying, I got the hang of it. And he was right, I do not need to let go of the arm, all I need is correct hip alignment and the will to do it. He let me drill it then, against increasing resistance. And at long last, it looks like I've nailed that technique..
He then reminded me how close to that are the related triangle and omoplata, depending on how one of my "victims" reacts. :-) Hehe.
We rolled for a bit after that. I got figure foured a few times. No surprise there, it's his favourite technique. But I defended a couple of those and somewhere along the lines, I threatened one of his arms, another time I regained guard and started going for the high guard. And as he said after: he didn't want to be there, that's now dangerous territory. He gave me some other valuable feedback. So all in all, a great session.
Showing posts with label armbars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label armbars. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
to Geelong in style
On Tuesday, I went to Geelong with Warrick. He decided to take his Trans Am for a spin :-) Ha, that rides a bit different to the cars I'm used to (both the Landcruiser and the Starlet!!).
We did the advanced class taught by John Will. Theme of the night were armbar escapes, both the running one and another which is good when the opponent does not have the leg across the belly. We did drills using both escapes. We looked at attacking the trapped arm with an omoplata if our opponent does the running escape.
We had a good amount of rolling. The advantage (for me) in going against higher belts is that they have a tendency to play more open guard, instead of smash and crush and smother... This gives me opportunities and I find I can work both my escapes and my top game and attacks. It's much more fun! I threatened both blue and purple belts with all sorts of things. Of course I didn't get all those things :-) But I got some. And I got caught in loads of things. The most memorable being three twisters by two different guys. A purple belt sprung the first one on me. Having never had it done to me, it was a surprise. Mind, I knew what it was when I was.. well... twisted.
Second time though I saw it coming, but not early enough. And by the time I realised, it was too late. Then, several rolls later, I was lucky to be paired with a black belt. We went here and there and then he starts the set up from half guard. I was wiser to it by this stage, but no matter where I went, and although I half escaped a couple of times, eventually he got me. I need to learn from this, one of my defensive positions gives an opening to lock my legs in. And I am fond of half guard bottom, which is another dangerous place to hang out.
After that, we stayed on for the intermediate class. The Bear had a car breakdown and couldn't make it, so a purple belt took the class. We started off with rolling with the fresh white belts. It is nice to see a young woman in this class. She is lighter than everyone but she has the best attitude and seems scared of nobody. And believe me, there are some big fellas i this class! I had a couple of rolls with her but mainly I helped her with things and played very lightly. I had mixed success with the guys. It's hard(er) when I'm already a bit tired and they come in fresh. After all, they are stronger at the best of times :-)
The class was about two guard passes, one standing one from closed guard and another from open (hooks in guard). We drilled those a fair bit which was great. They were very different passes, and I had a few problems getting my hips low enough to control his leg on the open guard pass. But eventually, I figured it out. It is exactly the thing I need to work on.
Then we played the pit game, with four in the pit whose guard had to be passed. They could choose open or closed guard. As with the rolling, I had mixed success. I got swept a few times, but when my turn came in, I also swept some people. Ditto with the passing. But by this stage of the class, I really was quite tired.
And then, right at the end, we had to do 20/10 tabata intervals with burpees, pushups, situps, lunges. Oh oh. Not fun, I must admit. It was only six minutes all up, but it sure felt longer than that!
And then we went home. By the time Warrick dropped me off, I really, really had trouble getting my aching and stiff body out of that infernal deep Trans Am seat. Oh man!
We did the advanced class taught by John Will. Theme of the night were armbar escapes, both the running one and another which is good when the opponent does not have the leg across the belly. We did drills using both escapes. We looked at attacking the trapped arm with an omoplata if our opponent does the running escape.
We had a good amount of rolling. The advantage (for me) in going against higher belts is that they have a tendency to play more open guard, instead of smash and crush and smother... This gives me opportunities and I find I can work both my escapes and my top game and attacks. It's much more fun! I threatened both blue and purple belts with all sorts of things. Of course I didn't get all those things :-) But I got some. And I got caught in loads of things. The most memorable being three twisters by two different guys. A purple belt sprung the first one on me. Having never had it done to me, it was a surprise. Mind, I knew what it was when I was.. well... twisted.
Second time though I saw it coming, but not early enough. And by the time I realised, it was too late. Then, several rolls later, I was lucky to be paired with a black belt. We went here and there and then he starts the set up from half guard. I was wiser to it by this stage, but no matter where I went, and although I half escaped a couple of times, eventually he got me. I need to learn from this, one of my defensive positions gives an opening to lock my legs in. And I am fond of half guard bottom, which is another dangerous place to hang out.
After that, we stayed on for the intermediate class. The Bear had a car breakdown and couldn't make it, so a purple belt took the class. We started off with rolling with the fresh white belts. It is nice to see a young woman in this class. She is lighter than everyone but she has the best attitude and seems scared of nobody. And believe me, there are some big fellas i this class! I had a couple of rolls with her but mainly I helped her with things and played very lightly. I had mixed success with the guys. It's hard(er) when I'm already a bit tired and they come in fresh. After all, they are stronger at the best of times :-)
The class was about two guard passes, one standing one from closed guard and another from open (hooks in guard). We drilled those a fair bit which was great. They were very different passes, and I had a few problems getting my hips low enough to control his leg on the open guard pass. But eventually, I figured it out. It is exactly the thing I need to work on.
Then we played the pit game, with four in the pit whose guard had to be passed. They could choose open or closed guard. As with the rolling, I had mixed success. I got swept a few times, but when my turn came in, I also swept some people. Ditto with the passing. But by this stage of the class, I really was quite tired.
And then, right at the end, we had to do 20/10 tabata intervals with burpees, pushups, situps, lunges. Oh oh. Not fun, I must admit. It was only six minutes all up, but it sure felt longer than that!
And then we went home. By the time Warrick dropped me off, I really, really had trouble getting my aching and stiff body out of that infernal deep Trans Am seat. Oh man!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
the obligatory "what I did last week" post
Yes, it's overdue again. Was hoping to write something on the weekend. But I was away all day Sunday due to a trip to the far west of Victoria to pick up some horses. Nine hours in the car, one and a half catching, loading and looking at some other horses. A long day. No motivation to sit in front of computers afterwards...
So, back to last week, which was another marathon event with seven training sessions over six days.
Monday night's focus was on transitions. Part of the time I worked with blue belts, part of the time with brand new guys. So that included some time teaching a couple of them one of the basic drills.
Tuesday night I went to Geelong with one of the guys for another advanced class at John Will's Blackbelt Studios. We started with an interesting new (to me) warmup with partners consisting of 30 second intervals of activity broken up by a few seconds to change position. The activities were figure four (kimura) from guard, armbars from mount, armbar from guard, a sqat to lunge position with one hand on the floor, then jump up to both feet and straighten before coming down on the other knee and hand. The last activity was an awkward stand up in guard, sprawl, back to knees, stand again routine. Then it was the other partner's turn. We sure were warm at the end of it...
During the class we worked on guillotine chokes and the arm in variety. We drilled that from sprawl when the bottom person is turtled. First the no arm version, then the arm in version and finally how to change grips from one to the other. We also went over the guillotine defence (go to side opposite where the head is trapped, reach over the shoulder and behind the neck and drive shoulder into the throat), so that it was obvious why it's necessary to get one leg over our partner's back when we do the choke. It clarified the whole issue of which way the choked person should go and therefore which the choking person should prevent him from going. Cleared up a bunch of vague ideas in my head, and I found I could pull these chokes off well during drills. Definitily will add to my toolbox!
Rest of the class was rolling. Aside from a kick to my head from a petite blond lady (who profusely apologised), it went quite well. I managed to move around and go for subs, even if I didn't finish many. Some rolls were timed, and for some of the time we would go fast and hunt for new positions and then have a thirty second period to stall and hold position. That in itself was interesting and changed the way we rolled. I was pretty much manhandled by a purple belt during one of these rolls, but it was all good :-)
I stayed for the intermediate class after. Which means the 3-4 stripe white belts warmed up with any coloured belts who chose to stay. So I got a few more rolls in. As before, I felt good. Some of theses guys are very good and they are fun to roll with. I also had a roll with the brown belt instructor, who used to teach at our school. He destroyed me first roll and toyed while he set me up for a knee bar. But second roll didn't use all of his 100+kg weight and I managed some good escapes, attempted to theaten his limbs and had a ball.
The class concentrated on triangles. I was paired up with a sizeable white belt who was excellent to work with. We drilled a fair bit, concentrating on details, such as turning out the leg that's hooked over our ankle. Then we did some more rolling and then a movement/sensitivity drill working around triangles. We triangled our partner who would defend by coming around and trying to stack. With an arm on his hip and an arm on his shoulder, we hip out to escape, but then slide a knee under his armpit and the other shin under his neck. The knee squeeze traps his arm. To defend, he will straighten up, which allows us to swing the bottom leg over his back and set up a triangle on the other side. All we need to do is change our angle to him. And then we go round again.
One last lot of rolls saw me paired up with a 140kg bloke. Oh boy... I would have liked to have gone to his back, but his wingspan and his vice grips prevented that. Made the mistake of attempting closed guard but with all of his weight coming over, I soon saw the folly of that. So feet on hips, and get distance. For the first time ever, I saw the need and a value in spiderguard :-) So that's where I went, and back to feet on hips for a few times, until I saw a chance to go for a triangle. But yeah, it was an attempt only, no way did I look better than a necklace on him, when he postured up :-)) But it was fun. AND I didn't get squashed before time was up. I view that as a victory :-))
Wednesday's midday class was mainly about knee ride. I now know that I have to pour the pressure on. I can't hope to hold a semblance of a knee ride unless I pull up and stick that knee in. Doesn't stop me from feeling like an AH while I do it though. I worked with one of the big blue belts, who made me feel for his sternum and lower ribs and wouldn't let me rest until it was ugly for him.. Thank you :-) We also played with... wait for it... spider guard. Yeah! I'm really starting to see the value of open guard types with the bigger guys. And I'm starting to get the hang of going from one to the other and back to closed. It's liberating and it's expanding my game.
Wednesday evening was mostly rolling for all but the really new guys. Didn't do anything fantastic, mainly defended. Mind, I did wear one of the guys out ;-) But aside from getting someone's back once, and sinking one guillotine choke on someone else, I was mostly on the bottom. Hey ho, more chance to practice escapes!!
Thursdays's open mat was not huge. I really only rolled with white belts, including some fairly new ones. My goal was solely to get them to relax and roll. My constant: slow down! breathe! relax! stop, think! probably got on their nerves. But lo and behold, I managed to not only get them to slow down, but use less muscle. There were several rolls where we really just flowed through positions, they didn't go rigid when I swept them, and they didn't go rigid when they swept me. And in every case, little lights went on, they admitted they "saw" sweeps and submissions. And they felt they could keep going without gassing. So I hope that they will remember some of it and use it :-)
Friday's session saw three purple belts on the mat, a couple of blues and only a few whites. For our small school, that's unusual. It was great. We worked on guillotines and a variation of the grip which allows it to work even if we do it from guard bottom and our opponent passes our legs (to the correct escape side). The rest of the class was rolling which was totally enjoyable. I was accused of being aggressive (in a positive sense) and on the hunt for stuff. I thought that was a bit of an overstatement. But I really had fun!
Saturday was armbars and triangles. And the variation of armbar I've named "armbar from hell" because it's slow and methodical and really hard to escape (except if I do it, because I STILL can't get it 100% right).
So, back to last week, which was another marathon event with seven training sessions over six days.
Monday night's focus was on transitions. Part of the time I worked with blue belts, part of the time with brand new guys. So that included some time teaching a couple of them one of the basic drills.
Tuesday night I went to Geelong with one of the guys for another advanced class at John Will's Blackbelt Studios. We started with an interesting new (to me) warmup with partners consisting of 30 second intervals of activity broken up by a few seconds to change position. The activities were figure four (kimura) from guard, armbars from mount, armbar from guard, a sqat to lunge position with one hand on the floor, then jump up to both feet and straighten before coming down on the other knee and hand. The last activity was an awkward stand up in guard, sprawl, back to knees, stand again routine. Then it was the other partner's turn. We sure were warm at the end of it...
During the class we worked on guillotine chokes and the arm in variety. We drilled that from sprawl when the bottom person is turtled. First the no arm version, then the arm in version and finally how to change grips from one to the other. We also went over the guillotine defence (go to side opposite where the head is trapped, reach over the shoulder and behind the neck and drive shoulder into the throat), so that it was obvious why it's necessary to get one leg over our partner's back when we do the choke. It clarified the whole issue of which way the choked person should go and therefore which the choking person should prevent him from going. Cleared up a bunch of vague ideas in my head, and I found I could pull these chokes off well during drills. Definitily will add to my toolbox!
Rest of the class was rolling. Aside from a kick to my head from a petite blond lady (who profusely apologised), it went quite well. I managed to move around and go for subs, even if I didn't finish many. Some rolls were timed, and for some of the time we would go fast and hunt for new positions and then have a thirty second period to stall and hold position. That in itself was interesting and changed the way we rolled. I was pretty much manhandled by a purple belt during one of these rolls, but it was all good :-)
I stayed for the intermediate class after. Which means the 3-4 stripe white belts warmed up with any coloured belts who chose to stay. So I got a few more rolls in. As before, I felt good. Some of theses guys are very good and they are fun to roll with. I also had a roll with the brown belt instructor, who used to teach at our school. He destroyed me first roll and toyed while he set me up for a knee bar. But second roll didn't use all of his 100+kg weight and I managed some good escapes, attempted to theaten his limbs and had a ball.
The class concentrated on triangles. I was paired up with a sizeable white belt who was excellent to work with. We drilled a fair bit, concentrating on details, such as turning out the leg that's hooked over our ankle. Then we did some more rolling and then a movement/sensitivity drill working around triangles. We triangled our partner who would defend by coming around and trying to stack. With an arm on his hip and an arm on his shoulder, we hip out to escape, but then slide a knee under his armpit and the other shin under his neck. The knee squeeze traps his arm. To defend, he will straighten up, which allows us to swing the bottom leg over his back and set up a triangle on the other side. All we need to do is change our angle to him. And then we go round again.
One last lot of rolls saw me paired up with a 140kg bloke. Oh boy... I would have liked to have gone to his back, but his wingspan and his vice grips prevented that. Made the mistake of attempting closed guard but with all of his weight coming over, I soon saw the folly of that. So feet on hips, and get distance. For the first time ever, I saw the need and a value in spiderguard :-) So that's where I went, and back to feet on hips for a few times, until I saw a chance to go for a triangle. But yeah, it was an attempt only, no way did I look better than a necklace on him, when he postured up :-)) But it was fun. AND I didn't get squashed before time was up. I view that as a victory :-))
Wednesday's midday class was mainly about knee ride. I now know that I have to pour the pressure on. I can't hope to hold a semblance of a knee ride unless I pull up and stick that knee in. Doesn't stop me from feeling like an AH while I do it though. I worked with one of the big blue belts, who made me feel for his sternum and lower ribs and wouldn't let me rest until it was ugly for him.. Thank you :-) We also played with... wait for it... spider guard. Yeah! I'm really starting to see the value of open guard types with the bigger guys. And I'm starting to get the hang of going from one to the other and back to closed. It's liberating and it's expanding my game.
Wednesday evening was mostly rolling for all but the really new guys. Didn't do anything fantastic, mainly defended. Mind, I did wear one of the guys out ;-) But aside from getting someone's back once, and sinking one guillotine choke on someone else, I was mostly on the bottom. Hey ho, more chance to practice escapes!!
Thursdays's open mat was not huge. I really only rolled with white belts, including some fairly new ones. My goal was solely to get them to relax and roll. My constant: slow down! breathe! relax! stop, think! probably got on their nerves. But lo and behold, I managed to not only get them to slow down, but use less muscle. There were several rolls where we really just flowed through positions, they didn't go rigid when I swept them, and they didn't go rigid when they swept me. And in every case, little lights went on, they admitted they "saw" sweeps and submissions. And they felt they could keep going without gassing. So I hope that they will remember some of it and use it :-)
Friday's session saw three purple belts on the mat, a couple of blues and only a few whites. For our small school, that's unusual. It was great. We worked on guillotines and a variation of the grip which allows it to work even if we do it from guard bottom and our opponent passes our legs (to the correct escape side). The rest of the class was rolling which was totally enjoyable. I was accused of being aggressive (in a positive sense) and on the hunt for stuff. I thought that was a bit of an overstatement. But I really had fun!
Saturday was armbars and triangles. And the variation of armbar I've named "armbar from hell" because it's slow and methodical and really hard to escape (except if I do it, because I STILL can't get it 100% right).
Sunday, June 20, 2010
the rest of the week
Friday evening was another smallish class. Aside from one brand new guy, we were all four stripes plus, so for a change, I was very much on the left side of the line up.
We revised the heart attack sweep from open (hooks in) guard. I worked with one of the bigger guys. That ensured I did it right, for otherwise... he no move! Done right, it feels very easy :-)
Then we worked on a sequence. Again, starting in open guard. We get double underhooks and stretch him out. Then we go for a cutting armbar by grabbing over his left shoulder with a gable grib and wriggling upwards. His reaction will be to turn his hand and retract his arm, which brings his elbow down our centreline. At this time, we cup this left elbow with our left hand, hip out to the right and get his left elbow to the floor on our left side. The we reach over the top with our right arm and grab his chin. Really, we want a gable grip on his chin, but we may need to lift/move our hip to get the left arm free to do so. We need to pin him down on us tightly and then hip out two or three times to the left until we feel that he is "over the hill". From here, it's easy to sweep him over to our right and move to side control.
Landing there, we go straight to a gable grip around the bottom of his neck and under his left arm and pin him to us. From here, there are a couple of options to go to armbar. We experimented with this a bit, and depending on body size and the size of the guy on the bottom, it might be easier to step over his middle with our left foot while controlling the head with our elbow (and then step over the head) or possibly to step with the the foot over the head first and the leave the left foot against his side.
We also discovered that if you can snare his left lapel with your right hand, you can pull him over with that instead of by his chin. That's nearly a choke in itself, but as he's swept over, he's in a perfect position for a lapel half nelson choke.
After class, some free wrestling. I watched the new guy spazz on one of the blue belts. Scary.
Then I was lucky enough to be able to spend a fair bit of time with one of the blue belts. He gave me some openings, so I worked on my attacks. Managed some nice transitions and actually felt semi-competent :-). I always can think of an attack now. But chokes seem to come the easiest. I should be working on armbars, but I guess if I attack with chokes, that opens up elbows and that might lead to armbars.
A little later one, that exact point was proven. He was hunting for armbars, and as I'm getting pretty good at defending and protecting my elbows (beware his underhooks!), he then went for chokes. Although I knew I would expose my elbows, I still had to defend the chokes. So I was armbarred :-)
But that really helped make stuff sink in.
The Saturday midday class consisted of myself and three fairly new guys. I took the warm up.
With a grading coming up in a few weeks, they needed to work on their four basic drills. I was the grappling dummy for demonstration purposes. Then, in turns, I ended up working with each of the guys. Oh, they tried so hard to do it right, and they use so much strength. Well, less than two years ago, I was just as tense, and it is good to be reminded sometimes. I did my best to help them get good base, correct positioning and transitions. And I reminded them to breathe, smile and relax :-).
Every time I see something "basic" demonstrated, I see some little thing I've missed before (or which I've forgotten about). Today, it was another simple little thing: someone has mount on me and I want to bridge and roll. I want to catch their right arm to remove their chance of posting. The most effective way to catch it is to get an overhook and trap their elbow. To get space to move my left arm up and over their arm, I move my head across towards my right (towards their left arm). That small movement really makes it easier to move my left arm.
I also use running through the basic drills as an opportunity to polish my moves and to really work on good hip movement. There was a time when I was disappointed if I had to do basic drills instead of being allowed to wrestle. But I have realised there is much below the surface. There is so much room for improvement in the moves that make up those drills. So I apply myself fully and instead of resenting the drills, I welcome the chance to improve my technique.
We revised the heart attack sweep from open (hooks in) guard. I worked with one of the bigger guys. That ensured I did it right, for otherwise... he no move! Done right, it feels very easy :-)
Then we worked on a sequence. Again, starting in open guard. We get double underhooks and stretch him out. Then we go for a cutting armbar by grabbing over his left shoulder with a gable grib and wriggling upwards. His reaction will be to turn his hand and retract his arm, which brings his elbow down our centreline. At this time, we cup this left elbow with our left hand, hip out to the right and get his left elbow to the floor on our left side. The we reach over the top with our right arm and grab his chin. Really, we want a gable grip on his chin, but we may need to lift/move our hip to get the left arm free to do so. We need to pin him down on us tightly and then hip out two or three times to the left until we feel that he is "over the hill". From here, it's easy to sweep him over to our right and move to side control.
Landing there, we go straight to a gable grip around the bottom of his neck and under his left arm and pin him to us. From here, there are a couple of options to go to armbar. We experimented with this a bit, and depending on body size and the size of the guy on the bottom, it might be easier to step over his middle with our left foot while controlling the head with our elbow (and then step over the head) or possibly to step with the the foot over the head first and the leave the left foot against his side.
We also discovered that if you can snare his left lapel with your right hand, you can pull him over with that instead of by his chin. That's nearly a choke in itself, but as he's swept over, he's in a perfect position for a lapel half nelson choke.
After class, some free wrestling. I watched the new guy spazz on one of the blue belts. Scary.
Then I was lucky enough to be able to spend a fair bit of time with one of the blue belts. He gave me some openings, so I worked on my attacks. Managed some nice transitions and actually felt semi-competent :-). I always can think of an attack now. But chokes seem to come the easiest. I should be working on armbars, but I guess if I attack with chokes, that opens up elbows and that might lead to armbars.
A little later one, that exact point was proven. He was hunting for armbars, and as I'm getting pretty good at defending and protecting my elbows (beware his underhooks!), he then went for chokes. Although I knew I would expose my elbows, I still had to defend the chokes. So I was armbarred :-)
But that really helped make stuff sink in.
The Saturday midday class consisted of myself and three fairly new guys. I took the warm up.
With a grading coming up in a few weeks, they needed to work on their four basic drills. I was the grappling dummy for demonstration purposes. Then, in turns, I ended up working with each of the guys. Oh, they tried so hard to do it right, and they use so much strength. Well, less than two years ago, I was just as tense, and it is good to be reminded sometimes. I did my best to help them get good base, correct positioning and transitions. And I reminded them to breathe, smile and relax :-).
Every time I see something "basic" demonstrated, I see some little thing I've missed before (or which I've forgotten about). Today, it was another simple little thing: someone has mount on me and I want to bridge and roll. I want to catch their right arm to remove their chance of posting. The most effective way to catch it is to get an overhook and trap their elbow. To get space to move my left arm up and over their arm, I move my head across towards my right (towards their left arm). That small movement really makes it easier to move my left arm.
I also use running through the basic drills as an opportunity to polish my moves and to really work on good hip movement. There was a time when I was disappointed if I had to do basic drills instead of being allowed to wrestle. But I have realised there is much below the surface. There is so much room for improvement in the moves that make up those drills. So I apply myself fully and instead of resenting the drills, I welcome the chance to improve my technique.
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