Ola!
Some big career changes have been keeping me from my blog. The changes were good. It’s just that there were a lot of them so I have focus my attention on managing those changes versus anything else.
Anyway, I had a great class on Saturday. The focus of the class was on knee-on-belly techniques. I ended up paired with a 375-lb white belt (who just joined the school), which was good. I know that sounds weird, but if the idea that BJJ is supposed to work regardless of size I welcome working with different body types. I think it’s a really good way of perfecting your techniques.
We worked on jumping up to knee-on-belly from side mount and applying a collar choke and slipping to an arm bar should the guy on bottom attempt to defend it. The transition is quite simple and speaks to the beauty of BJJ.
The way it works is you let the guy push your knee of his belly. You grap the wrist of the pushing hand and slide around to the opposite side and sink in the arm bar. Very effective, especially if you get the timing right.
Our instructor wasn’t really happy with us by the end of class because a lot of guys struggled with it. I think it stems from the idea that you have to fully commit to knee-on-belly. You have to take your foot off the mat so that all your weight is on your opponent.
Then, you have to master the transitions. You can’t be clumsy when you transition from a choke attempt to an arm bar. I’ve worked on these techniques for a while and still struggle with it so I can understand his disappointment.
He said that he would take a week and work on nothing but these techniques for a while so that we get better at them. I agree with that strategy and look forward to when he starts this.
Open mat was great. I rolled with BB Micky and I think we had the best roll we’ve ever had. Lots of back and forth. He would get to mount, I would bump and escape, I would pass his guard, get to mount, then he would bump and escape. It was great. I love that kind of stuff because it really makes you focus and you end up thinking about what you’re going to do 2 moves down the line. I eventually tapped him with a key lock from side mount, which is awesome because it’s one of my favorite moves. .
Time ran out and I then paired up with BB Steve. We also had a lot of back and forth, but it was mostly me defending his attacks. We ended up going the entire round without him tapping me, which is VERY rare. Usually he taps me a bunch of times before the round ends. Then, I paired up with WB Rusalon. He’s a young, Russian guy. He’s cool and really strong. Still relies on white belt strength to get things done. I mostly controlled him, but the time ended before I could get anything. I think if I had a longer round I would have tapped him.
On Tuesday, I was able to attend the afternoon class where we worked on closing the distance between you and an attacker and taking him down to where you land in S-mount. From there you work in an arm bar. I apparently did this really well because I got a lot of compliments on my smoothness. Thank you Grappling Dummy!
Then, we worked on back mount attacks and escapes like a collar choke and an arm bar. Very good stuff. Definitely needed to work on that since we haven’t worked on those techniques in a while. Then, we did the open mat where I tapped WB Gene, surived a BB’s attack and then paired up with PB Nick. He’s a beast. He’s a cop and is built like a linebacker. I actually did well for me given that he only tapped me twice in 5 whereas the norm is usually 20 times.
I really feel that I’ve progressed greatly in these past few weeks, which feels great. I won’t be attending class until this Saturday so we’ll see if I can keep it up. Wish me luck.
Chau e bom dia!
