Still, on the up side it really made me appreciate when Ian's Thursday night class came around. Reasonably good numbers turned out at the class with a couple of old faces coming back and a new guy too. Good stuff.
Ian started us off with a double leg shoot takedown. The usual drive in left knee first, arms reach around legs with your head out to the right and push your head to the left to 'turn the corner' taking the opponent down to the floor with you jumping straight to side control. Nice and easy for the first one.
The next technique me and Marcus affectionate named the 'Mutha Fucker Choke'. The opponent has just tried to shoot in for the double but you've managed to sprawl to defend it. From there you reach under the guys arm on the right (his left) and take a fingers in grip on his collar. With your other hand you take a thumb in grip at the back of his neck. To finish you just need to bring the left arm over his head to the right (his left) side and try to push the your elbow toward your other wrist. This will tighten off the choke. You can finish this technique from the side or pull the guy into your guard for more control.
Next up was the Sprawl to Anaconda Roll. Once again you've sprawled against the takedown. This time you pass your arm through the gap between his head and shoulder (obviously using the arm on the side where his head is sticking out) and under his opposite side arm to grab the back of his arm and pull it in.You now bring your other arm down on the outside until you can post your underarm hand into the crook of the outside arm. Now, using the outer arm to clamp inward, you knock the opponent's arm in to avoid any basing and roll yourself and your opponent over to that side and then curl in toward him to finish the choke.
Moving to a different tact Ian changed to the Overhook Guard. First up was a cross choke. The opponent is in your guard postured up with his hands posting up on your waist/lower abdomen. Grab the opponent's cuff of his right wrist with your left hand using a pocket style grip (turn the cuff inside out on itself). With you reaching under his wrist you pull up with both hands whilst drawing up with your knees to break his posture down and stretch the arm out long in front of you.Switching grips to use the right hand to keep his arm stretched in place you bring your left arm inside then wrap it over the top of the outstretched arm and then back under to grab at the opponent's opposite collar. You can then let go with the right hand and tighten up the Overhook Guard position. To finish off the cross collar choke you just grab his right shoulder with your right hand and drive your elbow towards the wrist of your other hand for the choke.
The second submission from Overhook Guard was the Rickson Armbar. If you try to go for the gi choke but the opponent postures himself up slightly and drops his head down to the side and uses his free arm he can block out the choke. From here you open your guard and escape your hips out to the side, then put your far side foot on the nearside hip of your opponent and use the knee of that leg to press against the back of your overhooking arm putting immense pressure on the opponents trapped arm at the elbow. I've always loved this technique even though I haven't hit it a lot in free rolling. I think I'm going to try and incorporate the overhook guard and some of it's techniques into my game a bit more. I'll add it to an aim sheet.
That's the end of another uneventful week of Bjj in my life. Fortunately I know (because I've already lived it) that next week picks up a bit. ¬m/
