Gimme yo back!

Still high turnout at the gym, not as high as yesterday, but still!

I felt elated last night because for the first time I pulled off a move we trained in sparring, immediately after we trained it! Am I finally leaving the realms of spaz? Probably not!

We warmed up with take-downs and trained more back moves, chokes to be specific.

The central task was to get their hands out of the way.

The move I pulled off was grabbing their lapel, scooting out from behind them, leg over their mid section, grabbing their knee and pulling like a bow with your elbow tucked down.

Basically two moves:
When you're on the back and trying to trap their arm. Putting your arm over theirs, you go for the lapel choke.

Putting your arm under theirs, you pull it back, trap it in your lat and preform an armbar.

Also an escape from the lapel choke is to put your head through the hole their arm created, but you'll likely get arm barred.

From the behind

Some of the class went to a seminar this weekend. The gym had an interesting, driven yet jovial attitude today. People were excited to learn.

Warmup:
Arm Bar from guard,
 Triangle from guard,

Class:
 Moving to rear:
- arm across, step up from their shoulder which is reaching across
- grab arm or far side (reach across opponent)
 - push onto their back and latch the inside foot inside their legs (hook)
 - Hook the other leg and roll back OR
 - Arm Across, step up, but follow your hand up.

OR
 -When you go to push onto their back, hook your knee over their back and do a motion similar to standing in base which puts your weight on them so you can pivot (roll) over their back and get your hooks in.

Cross Belt:
- Under arm holds on top so that when they pull it off it gets a choke in.
- The deeper the better. I can grab my elbows!
- Lower hand over upper hand.

 On the back:
 - you can really stick to someone's back if you'd like.

 Rear Naked Choke:
 - Keep your head close
 - Get your arm under their chin - push their shoulder so it goes into your elbow
- the hand of that elbow goes around their shoulder
- your other hand slides in, back of your hand on the back of their head
 - Those fingers 'pop up' and then clamp down on your bicep
- deep breaths

OR if they chin down in the previous step,
- get the choke but don't choke.. use the pressure to pull their chin up,
- slip your other hand under their neck

 If you can't get a full rear-naked,
 - get your arm across their neck without being able to push their shoulder
 - Your hand near their ear, grab it with your other hand
 - second hand elbow goes down on their back
 - apply pressure to legs (stand on them)
- pull like you're pulling off a barbie's-head.

Time.. for T position

We do a lot of T-position.

I'd wonder why but then I realize that even after all that t-position work when we're working on take downs we simply yank each other around like angry rag dolls, while our gym leader looks on shaking his head in disapproval.

I've gotten pretty good at DRILLING t-position. My hips are like.. well, they're hips but dang they're going right where they need to! (It's early, my writing skills are ungood!). Move them PAST the oponent when trying to hip toss. Feel like this went from confusing to 'look what i can do!'.

Last night I rolled with a new gym person who was a bit older than me. In retrospect I feel bad for rolling so hard, I was just trying to apply like force but I ended up elbowing him and grabbing his head unnecessarily- I hope I didn't discourage or cause him much damage.

Edit: Math on attendance:
Prior, 6 months, or 36 days attended @ 2hr = 72 Hours
Now, 7 months, or 120 days @ 1.5 hour = 180 Hours
== 252 hours


Prior was 2 times a week Now is 4 times a week on average with 6 times a week average (monthly) when I first started.