Thursday, November 20, 2008

Gracie class 11/20, morning

After class I sparred with Nick, Kirk, and a new guy named Trevor. Nick owned me as usual. Kirk, likewise, but I expect it because he's a 4 stripe blue. It was at least fun because I used Coach's shoulder-to-shin takedown and it worked-- but I needed to be faster in trapping his legs and passing. Trevor is a new-to-us whitebelt from Orlando and we had a nice match. First time, he totally took me down, got mount way high, and I was screwed. Ended up subbing me by hell choke, which I defended for a while, but I was completely unable to get out of the mount, so it was just a matter of time. Second time, he still took me down, but I ended up escaping mount, got half guard, then guard when time was called.

Then I worked with Eric, I think, a big purple with a tat of bloody barbed wire around his collarbones. Worked on sweeps-- particularly butterfly and halfguard. Either way, you want to focus on trapping the postable arm, grabbing deep under it and locking it to your body, sitting up tightly underneath them, and rolling over one shoulder as a unit while kicking up with the hook.

Getting the hook in from half guard isn't hard now-- he taught me some tricks. Scoot your hips out 2" to the side of the leg you've trapped and no matter how high up he rides his leg, you can get the hook in. If he's holding your hips, push him up with your arm in his throat, scoot your body straight up towards his head, and then scoot hips out.

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