Larptastic

Did 15 min of jump rope and then worked the bags for a while. I'm really trying to work on my distance, since I still seem to be crowding. After a few rounds, I paired up with a classmate and we did some mitt drills.

Hook
* Should come from side of head, not out and around
* Power should come from hips - lots of rotation

Did some light rolling, then drilled guard passing. I'm still having a lot of trouble getting out of people's guards, and one thing I noticed today is that my base has been wrong and I haven't been holding down their hips correctly.

Breaking Guard
* Hands should be at the top of their hip bone, not down where it meets the legs

Combat Base
* One leg on knee and ball of foot
* Other leg - knee up on flat foot

Gym has been closed for several weeks, so we reviewed techniques.

Mount Escape
* Bump & shrimp, catch foot, shrimp out and back in to half-butterfly

Side Escapes
* Forearm on throat (hand on their shoulder), other forearm on hips, bump and make space at their hip with elbow, shrimp in to half butterfly
* Underhook their armpit, bump and come out the back

North-South Escapes
* Bump and spin
* Bump to side, hook inside of knee with bottom arm and outside with top arm, pull leg across body while driving with head into their hip

Guard Passing
* I need to work on my base, particularly as I'm breaking the legs apart
* I should be diagonal to them, not straight in
* Break legs by sliding torso sideways into ankles

Drilled guard sweeps:

1 - Kimura-fake hip bump
2 - Knee on chest
3 - Butterfly

Partnered up with someone and did pad work, drilling a circuit of elbows, kicks and knees. We kept going till I almost couldn't lift my legs. Was a pretty good workout.

Got to class a bit late, so just partnered up and did mitt work on various combos.

Drilled some guard passing and shrimping, and had a classmate show me some work from the back.

Armbar from Back
* Need to be sitting up
* While fighting for choke, get underhook on arm
* Release hook on other side, pivot and pull into an armbar

We reviewed many of the techniques we've learned so far, concentrating on escapes, sweeps and positioning.

We learned how to do a basic armbar from mount, which strangely enough I've never learned before (though I was able to pull it off one time on a newbie).

Armbar from Mount
* Start by going for an Americana
* If they fight it by pulling in the elbow, go with the motion and wrap their arm across their neck
* Get arm behind their neck to grab their wrist and hold their arm in position
* Take other arm and loop it through the crook of their elbow
* Release arm under their neck and bring foot across their head, up against their ear/jaw
* Pivot and fall back
* Foot by head should be pushing out
* Foot by side should be pulling in

After drilling, we did some free rolling and I was feeling pretty good. I rolled with one of the more experienced students that usually dominates me and I was able to surprise her with a guard pass into side control, kept her in side and finally moved to her back right as the timer ran out. What seemed to make a big difference was closing my eyes. Because my eyes were closed, I was able to concentrate more on feeling her body and I was able to tell when she was going to try an escape. I also kept the pressure on her by making her repeatedly defend Americanas.