BJJ, 9-11-13

After our warm up we drilled a few techniques from a Thai clinch. The first was just a way to practice controlling our opponent's head, while keeping our body's relatively safe from his attacks. Things for me to remember: pinch his head/neck with my arms. Put a hand on the crown of his head to keep it under control and deny him the ability to raise it. Keep my chest to his head if possible (keeping me higher than him), and keep my legs far enough back to avoid getting taken down. Step back (tsugiashi) to keep him fighting for balance. Emphasize the body drop during the step by putting weight on his head.

Next we worked on pushing his head out to the side on a recovery step to set him up for a knee and/or elbow to the face. Obviously an MMA or combative application.

We also worked on "shucking" him down to the ground and sprawling over his turtled position. Then we worked on keeping pressure on him while doing a "knee tap" turnover. That was kind of confusing for me. Need more work with it.

Lastly we worked on a counter to being in someone's clinch. It turned out to be a lot like some aikido self defense stuff (in aikido it's from a grab, then you turn his arm over into wakegatame), but we played it as a disengaging/escaping technique. They had no idea how close they were to a maiotoshi. Although the goal wasn't to throw the guy away, but to get out of his clinch and establish a more dominant position.

Instead of rolling tonight we played a game: 2-3 guys would start on the floor, and the rest of us lined up against the wall. Each of us on the wall would take turns going to an available guy on the floor and get in his guard. Bottom guy's goal was to sweep top guy. Top guy's goal was to pass bottom guy's guard. whoever accomplished their goal first stayed on the mat while the loser got back in line. It kept things moving nicely, and allowed us to play positions without being concerned about submissions.

I did ok, I suppose, but I never won. I came close once, almost passing a blue belt's guard. I do remember that I tended to keep getting caught in half guard when I'd try to pass, then get stuck. To the video library!