Class on 01/26/2010

I went to class Tuesday night and it was No-Gi. Had a good time with it. We reviewed the open guard pass to knee-on-belly, which is a fairly simple technique.

We then built on the knee-on-belly to do a pretty nifty armbar from knee-on-belly if they go to defend by turning to their side and pushing your knee, which is a natural response. The video below gives a nice summary of the technique.



After that, we did a funky little move from side control to mount. It was a very awkward technique for me at first. It felt like what I would imagine break-dancing would be like. Having never break-danced, I wouldn't know for sure, but that is what I imagine. Anyway. We drilled that move and then added a nifty little transition to a triangle choke from there. The whole sequence is shown in the video below.



Really good stuff.
Then, rolled with a guy named Jose' and held my own. He pulled guard at the beginning and I made a pretty agressive move to try to pass, which I think surprised him a bit. He then swept me over and got mount. I did a knee-to-elbow move and slipped into half-guard. Tried to make a move around to take his back, which he blocked. He ended up taking my back. I used Saulo Ribeiro's techniques again, "scooping" down and using the handfighting to block his attempts at a choke until I could turn in on him and get back into his guard. It ended up in a mexican standoff and the timer went off.

I then rolled with Richard (instructor that night) and got my head handed to me, but he is a purple belt, so I was not surprised. Then I rolled with his son Mitchell and got my head handed to me again. He is very quick and very strong, but at 17, I guess, we all were. Good times.